So put your feet up and enjoy the ride

...and the award for this year's Elin Lanto, the dance-pop princess who treats us to a fantastic single in the first few months of the year, one other single midway through the year, and then pushes back that promised album to who knows when after the singles don't explode, goes to...Gathania.

Gathania's "Get It Out" was probably the 2009 single that most consistently got spins throughout the year from me; for my money, it's the best September song since "Cry For You," even if September didn't release it (the men who make Petra's music are also the men behind Gathania, though), mainly thanks to that house piano hook. "Blame It On You," which impressed someone somewhere enough to originally be lined up for a UK release before being canceled via indefinite postponement, came with a video that proved Gathania could give some of the best popstar face I'd seen coming from a new act this year; girl knows how to flirt with a video camera. Despite being dance hits, though, neither of those singles had real crossover success, which has meant we've been waiting for an album that was finished by April for two-thirds of a year.



"Spinning," Gathania's third single in her native Sweden (and embedded above as a radio rip), marks another solid single from the Von der Burg pop factory, the people who have also given us all September's songs, Danny's "Tokyo," and Alcazar's "This Is The World We Live In" and "Physical." It's catchy, classy dance-pop with a quickfire chorus that, even if it doesn't quite seem to have as strong a vocal melody as "Blame It On You," is full of the little electronic hooks you'd expect from this composers--in other words, a song that all lovers of the VDB sound and Swedish pop in general will take to their hearts, that clubbers will happily dance to, and that will probably once again fail to take off in Sweden. I hope I'm proven wrong, and hope even more so that we finally get to hear that album, but just in case I'm not, let's all legally download the single when it comes out this December, OK?

I don't know the exact date of release, but Gathania's single should be released at some point this month, at which point you can purchase it here (digital).

An unfamiliar face and the grass looks greener to you

Video check in!

Gathania's "Blame It On You," which I wrote about back when it was named "Blackout," is set for a UK release on June 15. The accompanying video has just come out. It's still the song, from the Von Der Burg Productions team behind September, which is the real joy, but how amazing does Gathania look in that leather outfit with her hair up in the laser scenes? I don't want to read too much into the video, which is basically just pop froth, but it is nice to see the whole "gorgeous girls flashing some skin" angle actually being ultimately used in a semi-empowering way--not, as I said, that this is some big statement that would hold up to academic dissection, but it's just a nice little change from what I was expecting.



I love the Catchy Tunes label--not all their releases do as well as they should, but I'm so grateful somewhere exists that enables great Swedish dance-pop to have a home. Despite probably all logic (well, it might do well in Eastern Europe), they've apparently still got some hope in Marie Serneholt's "Disconnect Me" (which I still think is better than most people think it is), revealing a video for the song. Sure, you won't be mistaking it for a big budget American or British video any time soon, but I'm mainly grateful that someone is trying to breathe some life into the song at all. Incidentally, the single cover for "Disconnect Me" is still surely one of the best of the year so far. Marie is and has the potential to be such a great popstar; I really hope she finds some success, be it with this song or one in the (preferably near-ish) future.



Everywhere else on the Internet has already written about VV Brown's strummy summery pop "Shark In The Water," so all I really have to say is this: yes, it's great. Out on June 8 in the UK, according to Popjustice.



Speaking of Popjustice, their line "That was simultaneously the most gay and the most straight thing we've ever seen" is exactly what I thought when I saw the UK version of the video for one of my favorite singles of last year, the '80's-sounding dance-pop song "In The Heat Of The Night" by Star Pilots.

You think our time apart is the problem, and I like you when you're not around

(Please do not post this song link elsewhere.)

A BIG thank you to every one who stuck around through my year end countdown. As a gift of gratitude, I'd like to offer up a brand new song straight out of the von der Burg studios. "Get It Out" is the debut single of the former Swedish Idol contestant Gathania who caught our ears with "Blackout" late last year (which isn't yet released). I quibbled with Alex last year when he asked why September-like songs were being given to artists other than September, who hasn't released brand new material since 2007 (which isn't that long ago, it's September, so I'm always wanting new material from her), mainly because Elin Lanto's "Discotheque" isn't from the people who always do September's music and she doesn't have the same management team as Petra, but "Get It Out" is from those same writers...and boy, is it September-like (second album September, I'd say). It doesn't have Petra's lovely voice on it, but given its music, it's easy to imagine her singing it.

Still, I guess if Petra is understandably distracted with promoting the reworked version of "Can't Get Over" in the UK (she's just filmed a music video for it), we wouldn't be getting new music from her for a little while, so another artist under the von der Burg wing--especially since Danny has moved on (you can imagine his voice on this, too, come to think of it)--is something I'll welcome; I've yet to feel like their output is suffering by spreading it around to some different artists. It's certainly not suffering on "Get It Out," which is, to be honest, fantastic and, at least a few listens in, addictive. Effortlessly catchy dance-pop but with that sophisticated Von der Burg edge--there's something almost haunting about the riff of the chorus and the song even flirts with the piano house style--it makes for what's got to be one of the year's best debut singles. When I heard that "Blackout" wasn't actually her first single, I was a little bit confused, but hearing "Get It Out," I think it makes perfect sense.

(Brief lyrical aside: in a song about finally arguing and both partners finally saying what's on their minds, "just let me fill your heart up with sorrow/'cause it's better than a rotten lie" is stuck in my mind.)

To buy "Get It Out," go here (physical); you should be able to buy it digitally within a few days here.

In other news, did anyone else not realize until now that apparently the West End Girls have a new single titled "A Little Black Dress" (which I think is a Pet Shop Boys track technically not released but available "out there" and done for that musical thing? Feel free to correct me or provide more information) coming out February 11?

Next up: more Swedish pop, either from another young woman or from a male songwriter.

You're moving ahead so fast tomorrow's yesterday

One of the most reliable sources of quality music from Sweden is Von der Burg productions, the team behind September as well as the creators of countless other brilliant songs (including, probably most relevantly for today's post, the songs that launched Danny's career). It's no surprise, then, that I've been very excited about the debut single from former Idol contestant Gathania. While we wait for September to finally give us some new material, Gathania, via the Von der Burg team, has delivered her first single (for a short time only, as usual), a catchy dance-pop song that starts off as a piano ballad but then smoothly progresses into more dance territory while still keeping its lovely melodicness. Sung to a cheating (ex-)partner as Gathania vows that "now I'm gonna make you cry," the song, even in its more uptempo moments, stays away from overpowering hard dance beats, keeping those beats backgrounded to a certain degree (except in moments of vocal pause) and instead using them to simply keep the song interesting and moving forward (as well as to allow us all to dance). It's as good as we'd expect from this team, though where it'll ultimately rank in terms of their back catalogue is too early to determine; let's hope it's a sign of good things to come from the album, whenever it's available, though.

I have absolutely no idea when this song is going to be made commercially available (it will be, though), but until then, you can visit Gathania's management page.

Next up: maybe that British pop-rock.

You're gonna see me again

There's a good chance some of you out there remember the amazing pop blog Catchy Tunes of Sweden. Sadly, it closed up a few years ago, but...

Alexander (one-half of the CTOS team) has opened a new blog! S.O.S. Revival is dedicated to the best of Swedish pop from the '80's, '90's, and '00's. This is pretty much the best blog news I can imagine at the moment, so add it to your bookmarks and leave lots of comments so he'll keep going. My addiction to Swedish pop would never have reached the full-blown level it's at now without CTOS and I'm almost positive that most readers of this blog will end up loving S.O.S. Revival.

(As a P.S., that quotation giving the post its title? It comes from the altered version of "Cry For You" playing on Jonas von der Burg's MySpace. And while you're there, listen to the clip of [former Idol contestant] Gathania's "Blackout," which starts out kind of ballad-y and with piano but ultimately reveals itself as the quality Swedish dance-pop we expect from him.)