Romance is the real art

This is one of those posts where you all just have to let me indulge myself--this song absolutely won't be for everyone, but I love it.



Back when Christian Walz posted his new album, The Corner, on MySpace, I wrote that I couldn't wait to hear the strings in "Loveshift" in high quality. The good news is that they--and the musical backing of the song--are exactly what I was hoping they would be. The bad news is that I still hate the opening two lines of the first verse. Still, I've gotten over them enough to appreciate the song as a whole.

"Loveshift" is, in its own way, cheesy as all get-out, but it's not cheesy in a '90's pop sort of way--it's that relentlessly upbeat string section and the deeper '70's style mid-tempo beat underneath that do it, that and the little xylophone part periodically perched on top. It reminds me so much of something, but I can't quite place what. I do always end up wanting to sing the chorus to "Love Train" every time we move towards the chorus, but I don't think the instrumentals match up totally, to the extent as they would with whatever song it's reminding me of. I'm absolutely convinced that if you listened to an instrumental version of this, you'd be convinced you were listening to some long-lost song from decades ago--the '70's, probably (this is where my lack of music history knowledge hurts me). Like "What's Your Name," though, and in fact probably even more so, it avoids the novelty record category by being just so darn good. One more note: I love that this song sounds fully, properly produced, as opposed to going the deliberately lo-fi route.

To buy Christian Walz's third album, The Corner, go here (physical) or here (digital).

Next up: maybe that British pop-rock.

A rainy day reality

In news that I realize no one but me may care about, Christian Walz's MySpace is streaming his new album, The Corner. It comes out physically this Wednesday.

(Until about 2/3 into the album, I thought the upbeat '60's/'70's style [NOT of the Winehouse type] of "What's Your Name" was going to be a one-off. I need to hear the strings on "Loveshift" in high quality A.S.A.P., by the way. And the second track made me think he was going...actually, I have no idea what to categorize it is. Good, though.)

Where in heaven have you been all my life?

Do you know who's back?

Christian Walz! Of the BRILLIANT "Wonderchild."



His new single is "What's Your Name?" and you can listen to it here. I'm not madly in love with it yet, but one and a half listens is way to early to judge a song and I'm still glad to have him back (and I could see myself being won over by its sweetness with time). "What's Your Name?" is kind of a little more twee indie-pop sounding than "Wonderchild," but then, something that bouncy, upbeat, and full-sounding was kind of always an anomaly for him. It does have a kind of clever conceit of cycling through some of the cheesiest pickup lines you can imagine ("I'm no Flintstone/But I'll make your bed rock"). Sound-wise, it's very much a trip back in time, too--'60's, I'd guess, though maybe that AM pop-rock from the '70's, too? I'm so out of my league, trying to know anything about music beyond the past few years. The era you'd expect to hear the line "What's your sign?" in.

Oh, and do you know who else is coming back, though admittedly not quite yet? Danny--as a solo artist (thanks to Bas for the tip)! Listen to a brief message from him as well as part of the eventual new single, "Radio," below. I'm breathing a sigh of relief that we're getting a return from Dance Danny. Please let the song be good. It's written and produced by 2N Productions (much of Kate Ryan's best stuff and Danny's song "Only Wanna Be With You," one of my favorite tracks from his debut album). Now, when is it coming out and when are we getting the album?