Brick by brick

Did you know that the maker of one of the most undeservedly overlooked albums of the past five years has a new EP out?

No, probably not. American singer Ferras's minimally promoted new EP is a "live in a studio setting" thing, which means it doesn't have all the fantastic "The Remedy (You And I)"-style production from the Matrix and Gary Clark that I loved on much of Aliens & Rainbows, his 2008 debut album. It's just Ferras singing and playing the piano.

Ferras's songwriting skills have never really been doubt and his songs have withstood the stripped treatment before. Aliens & Rainbow's final track, the beautiful ballad "Take My Lips," stood out as not just an album highlight but one of the best "why aren't teenagers everywhere falling in love with and to this song?" tracks to be released recently, even though it was another live-sounding, piano accompaniment-only recording. Still, it was an open question how that style would hold up over five songs that average a length of six and a half minutes each--that sounds like a recipe for a mess of acoustic, indulgent musical noodling.

There's bad news and good news on that front. These are not condensed songs, more diary entries set to piano, but the bones are strong. If Ferras felt like turning these into "proper pop songs," it could probably be done pretty easily. It is possible to make a structured, traditional if unconventional song with pop appeal that exceeds six minutes in length. Meat Loaf's "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)," Darren Hayes's "Casey," Styx's "Come Sail Away," Girls Aloud's "Untouchable"--it's not a huge list and it's more a case of "exception that proves the rule," but it could go on. Ferras, however, doesn't really even try to do that here, just unhurriedly explores his way up and down the piano while singing a topline that, though including some great lyrics and delivered beautifully, generally is devoid of hooks, or at least presented in a way to minimize them.

The result is works that are beautiful and poignant and probably important for a growing artist to experiment with, but that in their current incarnation feel more appropriate for some dramatic contemporary dance (see montage below) than at home on my hit heavy playlists. I appreciate them, but I also appreciate the fact that this is an "interim" release, a side project, and not his next proper album.



The song out of these five that comes closest to being catchy is probably "Gypsy Girl," mainly due to its plinky piano background giving the vocal melody room to breathe, though it's also probably not the biggest "achievement" here. "Wall Around My Heart" is the nominal single and, in a different, more accessible life, you could see why, though the same could also be said for "Phantom Song" or "Marshmallow Spaceship."

As it stands, if you're new to Ferras, this isn't the place to begin. The songs on Aliens & Rainbows are a near-perfect melding of diary page-style musings with mainstream-mysterious electronic production and catchy pop melodies.* However, I can never fault an artist for being generous enough to give us something in between albums and, though I can't unequivocally recommend this EP to others, I'm glad I purchased it.

Ferras's EP Interim is available on iTunes internationally here. If you missed out on his debut album, though, I highly recommend it; Aliens & Rainbows can be purchased here (physical) or on iTunes internationally here.

As with any Ferras post, I have to thank Robbie for introducing me to Aliens & Rainbows.

*Though I must admit I've long had a question about his decision to adopt certain points of view in the lyrics. Still, pressured or not, it's the narrator's prerogative, I guess.

Try to find some more stars

While I'm engaging in pointless ways to evaluate an album, the tracklist for the Alesha album, The Alesha Show, looks pretty great. Special shout-out to track 12.

1.) Welcome To The Alesha Show
2.) Let's Get Excited
3.) Breathe Slow
4.) Cinderella Shoe
5.) The Boy Does Nothing
6.) Chasing Ghosts
7.) Play Me
8.) Hand It Over
9.) Do You Know The Way It Feels
10.) Can I Begin
11.) Italians Do It Better
12.) Ooh Baby I Like It Like That
13.) Don't Ever Let Me Go
14.) I'm Thru
15.) Mystery (hidden track)

I hope the cover is as awesome as it should be.

In other news, why on Earth did no one tell me Martin Stenmarck had recorded a new English language song? Granted, it's for charity--the Scandic Sustainability Fund, run by this hotel chain--but still, any Martin at all is always more than welcome. It's called "A Million Candles Burning" and you can stream it here or buy it from Swedish iTunes (if you're from Sweden) here (possibly the best thing about this whole project is that whoever came up with the remix name decided to call it the "Sustainable Mix." Brilliant). It's at #2 in the Swedish singles chart, but that means absolutely nothing in terms of how popular the song actually is. Maybe of more meaning is its entry into Sverige Topp 40 (which mixes albums and singles, so I really don't what it actually means either), which combines sales and TV and radio play, at #17.

I know I'll probably never get around to actually writing about it like I should, but the new Sugababes album is great. Really, it is. And I've still not written about the fantastic Ladyhawke album yet, have I? Needs to be done. Albums that I found (to steal a phrase) worthy were pretty scarce in the first half of the year, but that's been changing over the past few months luckily. So far, I think I'd put Ladyhawke, Sugababes, Kate Ryan, probably Will Young on the list, though there are a couple of albums I've only just bought/got that I'll need to properly listen to a few more times before I make a judgment call (and I may be forgetting something).

My favorite album of the year so far, though? It's never been challenged since March. I've never done a proper write-up of it and I don't think I could even come close to doing it justice if I tried, but that may not stop me from trying at some point in the next few months, if I can ever figure out how to put into words my adoration of it, how exciting I find it. It's an album I'll recommend to anyone and everyone (recommendation was in fact how I first listened to it), but, oddly enough, it's not an album I can ever envision myself listening to with someone else unless it was in the most intimate of circumstances.

What is it?



In other news, Darin and David Jassy wrote American boy band (and My Fizzy Pop post subjects) V Factory's new single "Love Struck." Listen to it here. I could be completely wrong on this, but doesn't it even sound like you can hear Darin on the backing vocals sometimes? Speaking of Darin, you can also watch a video (in Swedish) of the making of the video for "Breathing Your Love" here.

According to an interview, he's got a record contract in France now.