If you know Swedish artist Maria Marcus, it's probably for her lovely melodic pop songs like "Music Is" and "Why (You Confuse My Mind)" or perhaps her duet with Brinck, Denmark's representative to this year's Eurovision. Who knew that lurking underneath that (very good) singer-songwriter-style exterior was someone equally capable of producing biting dance-pop? I certainly wouldn't have guessed it.Sadly, it seems as if Maria has for the moment set aside her own recording career in favor of writing and producing for other artists. If we're looking for the silver lining, though, it's that demos like "Alone With The Music" and "Everytime" (which aren't new) are pretty great, especially for demos. As far as I can tell, Maria sings both (though I'm not entirely positive about "Alone With The Music"), though I presume the ultimate plan is for them to go to another artist. "Alone With The Music" doesn't put quite as much weight in its chorus vocal melody as, say, past work from Maria like "Music Is," but it helps make up for it that with its heavy electronic pulses and the riffs that crop up. The verses also wisely have a more distinctive melody and, though keeping the genre of the chorus, take a few steps back so that chorus still has something to build up to . The end result may be slightly style over substance and I'll freely admit to having a predisposition towards anything with this sort of electro-dance-pop production, but it's still more than solid work from Maria.
"Everytime" is slightly less hard in its sound, but it's just about as catchy.
Some of Maria's work that doesn't feature her singing is just as good. She's apparently one of the main songwriters working with Freja, an act Don't Stop The Pop, always ahead of the curve, wrote about a year ago. "Baby Run Run" (which I'm guessing is co-written by Maria, but I'm not certain of that) is also good, albeit on the demo-y side in some ways; it's kind of like the beat of Katy Perry's "Hot 'n Cold" (though not that great, but little is) but with a smoother, more traditional pop-rock vocal part in the chorus. "Give It Up," which I'm not sure who sings, is more pop than "Everytime" or "Alone With The Music" but might have the best melody out of all this songs.
In case you missed Maria's earlier work, here's the beautiful pop song "Music Is," which I think should appeal to those beyond the hardcore fans of über-poppy Swedish music.
You can't buy any of the songs I've posted, but you can purchase Maria's single "Music Is" here (digital).
Next up: maybe a conglomeration post.
