Got me like nobody

I don't usually spend much time on mash-ups--rarely for me do they exceed the pleasure of listening to the original songs. Sometimes, though, even if they can't do that, they succeed in reawakening your love for the originals and cluing you in to aspects you never fully paid attention to before.



(Thanks to Alex for the tip!)

Just when I thought I was losing interest in "Poker Face," here comes DJ King Rollo with a mash-up of Charlotte Perrelli's "Hero" and Lady GaGa's "Poker Face," re-entitled "Hero Face." Taking the instrumental from "Hero" and the vocals from "Poker Face," the end result is a-mah-mah-mazing. It's really well done and, if nothing else, should increase your appreciation for just how killer (and beautiful) Fredrik Kempe and Bobby Ljunggren's writing and Bassflow's production are, as well as maybe get you thinking that the toplines Lady GaGa co-writes could work outside the RedOne context. Though I'm sure she'll never go in this direction, "Hero"'s combination of this style of electronic beats, longing strings, and piano all creating a poppy song is something that has a substance to it that I don't think even I--who loves "Hero"--fully appreciated until hearing this mash-up. As much as "Hero" got written off as a cheap Europop rip-off of "Cara Mia" in some quarters (not here!), if anything, this mash-up proves to me just how international in quality the work that went into it is.

In short: probably the best song I've heard this week (edit: though the chorus of Girls Aloud's "It's Your Dynamite" is really good).

#23 Charlotte Perrelli, "Hero"

This is a story
Of love and compassion
Only heroes can tell

Whenever this song is playing, it's the best song in the world. Unfortunately, it can't be playing all the time, and I'm just a little hesitant to press play sometimes--blame the fact that it go so much play from me this year (which should hardly be something a song is penalized for, but I've yet to figure out a way beyond my excitement about a song to measure where it belongs here)--which makes me feel like I can't honestly put it at the top of this list. Almost a year on, though, "Hero" remains exhilarating. It does bear resemblance to "Cara Mia," another Fredrik Kempe-penned Melodifestival song, but there's something even more triumphant about "Hero," something that all these months on gets me all worked up about the middle 8 and the twirling camera, three part point, and key change--oh, that key change, and oh, can Charlotte sing--that accompanied it. Charlotte made being iconic look easy. I'm not sure if I had a better music-related experience this year than being surrounded by a bunch of people jumping around and going crazy while Charlotte performed this song at the Globe during the Melodifestival final. Being surrounded by people whose passion for music you love equals yours, especially when it's a type of pop we never get here in the U.S.: priceless. There may be a Melodifestival song and a Eurovision song ahead of it in this countdown, but "Hero" deserved to win both contests.

Find it on: Hero

Turning fighters into lovers

(Elements of this post have been sitting as a draft for quite some time, so not all of these links are to incredibly recent posts; that just means that they've stood the test of time, though.)

A few songs I was introduced by blogworld that I think are worth your time:

Poptastic posted "Watch This Space," a song from (the Paul-promoted British High-School-Musical-as-TV-series) Britannia High (watch the scene from the show below). It's a great pure pop song with a dance beat underneath the chorus.



PopJustice featured a clip of a song from Alesha's new album, "Let's Get Excited." It's more up-tempo than most of the sampler. Have I said on here that "Colours Of The Rainbow," the track her website is giving away, is enjoyable, too? It is.

#1 Hits From Another Planet wrote about Norwegian project Karatkorn's "The Distance In A Romance," which is lush dance/electro-pop--absolutely gorgeous. Kind of Kylie-esque, but that beautiful spacey side of Kylie, not the full-on disco rush, though it's not a slow song.

MuuMuse introduced me to the latest music from Blake Lewis--he features on a Darude cover of "I Ran" by Flock of Seagulls. Take it for what it is, an opportunity to hear Blake's vocals on something--don't go in expecting something like his debut album.

Fizzy Pop raved about the debut single from British duo Same Difference (and put it in proper pop history context), and with good reason--"We R One" is pure "pure pop" heaven, key change and all. A must-listen, definitely.

Don't Stop The Pop introduced me to Swedish singer Neo, whose song "Flower Power Supergirl"--poppy, uptempo, camp, catchy (not enough men making music like this)--is one I'm eagerly looking forward to being able to buy--album out this week! The same post also included a mention of Rosanna and her excellent song "Gameboy," with a promise to write more about it in the future.

On the non-introducing songs but still excellent front...

Adem wrote a fantastic review of Girls Aloud's "Out Of Control." I'll probably never get around to properly writing up my thoughts on even one of the songs off of it, but "The Loving Kind" and "Miss You Bow Wow" are my favorites at the moment.

Fabtastic Music made me wish Charlotte Perrelli would get to do a tour like a big US or UK act would.

Olga Loves Yuri took us on a tour of Norway with Annie.

XO's Middle Eight gives us more information about Take That's upcoming album, one which I'm very excited for (and I still love the video, cheese and all).

I adore D'luv's personal post about Pet Shop Boys.

Pop Music Notes is such a welcome part of the pop blog scene--you'll read about artists there that aren't really being covered elsewhere (as well as some who are). John's also being making me really jealous by writing about all the concerts he's been to recently.

Gosh, you start on this and you just keep thinking of a million things you want to link to...best to continue later, though, or else no one will bother with any of this.