Give me your heart, give me your soul, give me your heart

In case this post and the one below it don't make it obvious, I was checking in on the Romanian charts today. It's something I don't do nearly as often as I should. Romania's music charts don't feel full of hits to me like, say, the Swedish charts do, but the prevalence of generally good even if not mega-international-success-in-waiting house-meets-chill dance-pop (not bouncy cheery Europop like Danny's "Tokyo" or swooshy '80s dance pop like Velvet or Star Pilots) means that those charts are generally easy and pleasant to listen to. At times, they run the risk of just washing over you, but it's a nice sort of wave even then.

Starting with something from nearby country Moldova, we've got the latest project of former O-Zone member Radu: he's co-created DJ Layla featuring Alissa's new song "Single Lady." This isn't catchy fun dance-pop in the vein of former bandmate Dan's "Crazy Loop," being much more that typical Romanian gentle house-influenced style, and so isn't as straight-up pop-style catchy, but it's a good listen if you enjoy this sort of music...and I do.



I used to be able to count on Akcent (minus one member at this point) for at least one brilliant (and brilliantly ridiculous) song per album. Songs like "Kylie" and "King Of Disco" made them the closest I was going to get to a spiritual successor to O-Zone, and the slightly more "Romanian" sounding "Jokero" was great as well. I feel as if they've been unable to deliver that one killer single recently, though. "That's My Name" is fine, but it lacks the impact of their earlier hits, which had poppier hooks--it's that "washes over you" side of things.



With Akcent not delivering in quite the same way, Crush & Alexandra Ungureanu have a chance to challenge for favorite Romania act going if they play their cards right. Their latest single is "2Nite We'll Rise," taken from their second album, which takes its title from their brilliant 2007 single "Hello" (which I'm still upset I didn't find out about until too late to make my 2007 singles countdown). Their style is still generally that gentle house-influenced one, but when they're at their best, the beats are often a bit stronger, the hooks better, and the tone more intriguing.



Swiss-Romanian singer Keo is more on the pop (maybe light pop-rock) side of things than he is electronica, but even with his new single "Falling High" that side of Romania's music scene can be seen.



Inna has a new-ish (few months old) single called "Love" out, but her single from late last year, "Hot," is still much better and, since I never wrote about it here, here it is instead. It's got that typical Romanian commercial radio dance sound, but the hook is memorable and it becomes hypnotizing if you hear it enough times.