With even the alphabet she only sings the crooked letters

What have I been playing over the last few months (a.k.a. trying to do some degree of catching up) that I haven't mentioned here yet?

David Guetta feat. Akon, "Sexy Bitch": "When Love Takes Over" is great. "Sexy Bitch" is even better. Speaks straight to the hips better than any song this year so far.

Pitbull, "Hotel Room Service": Pitbull should be mad at Guetta for taking that title from "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)," but he's probably too busy celebrating making a song as great (albeit filthy) as this one. American (in the broadest sense of the word) rap sampling O-Zone one minute, Eiffel 65 the next, and now Nightcrawlers? Who'd have guessed?

Three 6 Mafia feat. Kalenna and Pitbull, "Shake My": speaking of urban club-rap, "Shake My" is a killer. Kalenna and Pitbull's parts may both outshine the main act's--especially that of Kalenna, whose choruses here get me just as excited as Keri Hilson's contribution in "The Way I Are"--but when they make up the majority of the song and are this good, that barely matters. Darkchild is on a roll at the moment.

Mini Viva, "Bedroom Viber": I've been in love with the demo clip on the Xenomania-produced duo's MySpace for months; finally getting the full track, free and legally no less, couldn't have been a more welcome surprise. I like "Left My Heart In Tokyo," but it's songs like this one that have me hoping Xenomania have a new act to channel capable of making songs with the fun and excitement of earlier to mid-period Girls Aloud.

Taio Cruz, "Break Your Heart": my favorite Taio single yet sounds like all the best elements of his earlier element in one song. Catchy as anything.

Fibes, Oh Fibes feat. Kim Wilde, "Run To You": a recent addition to the list, courtesy of Don't Stop The Pop, "Run To You" is '80's in a gentle pop-rock way that sounds refreshingly different from most current '80s-influenced songs. It plus "Love Child" mean that the Swedish group's third album, 1987, released September 2, can't get here soon enough.

Example, "Watch The Sun Come Up": transporting pop-rap positioning itself as a brief glimpse into the sentimental underbelly of a narrator prone to posturing. The Fred Falke mix is DIVINE.

Lorentz & M.Sakarias, "Baby!": older, but I haven't mentioned it yet here, despite loving it. Über-cute, shiny production from FutureCut on this Swedish language rap song has made it one of the songs I easily return to when I can't quite choose what to play.

Jordin Sparks, "S.O.S. (Let The Music Play)": the second single from a good album which I haven't given full attention to recently--but this song, along with the much-anticipated "Walking On Snow," have no problem winning my attention.

Bananarama, "Love Comes": the British duo delivers with their latest single, electro-disco full of sounds that slice through the air. Another album I can't wait to hear.

The Sound Of Arrows, "Into The Clouds": cosmic Swedish pop. Am I allowed to use the word "transporting" twice in one post?

Filthy Dukes feat. Tommy Sparks, "Messages": did this actually end up being a single? If not, it should have been--this #1 Hits-featured single has the spiky electro influences you might expect from the Filthy Dukes, but it's got pop crossover written all over it via that chorus. And the verses. And those breakdown bleeps.

Jessie James, "Bullet": country-tinged pop that is so much more fun than the song it was replaced by as the second single.

Visitor, "Los Feeling": gorgeous, full of synth washes, beeps, and pumps, but with energy to it--a pulse.

Boys Like Girls, "Love Drunk": the American pop-rock group finally delivers on a level hinted at by "The Great Escape" but one which I never really expected them to reach. It's the single I wanted the All-American Rejects to release.

Written about before but also featuring heavily were the Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling," Gathania's "Get It Out," Kate Ryan's "Your Eyes," Booty Luv's "Say It," Cobra Starship feat. Leighton Meester's "Good Girls Go Bad,"and, to a lesser extent, Anders Fernette/Johansson's "Hungry Eyes" (and probably some others).

Maybe worthy of a quick mention, though the jury's still out on some of them:
Chipmunk's "Oopsie Daisy" (who is that female vocalist?)
Heidi Montag's "Body Language" (she finally gets around to releasing her best song)
Natalie Imbruglia, "Want" (it never climaxes for me, so I'm not fully onboard yet)
Alexandra feat. Flo Rida, "Bad Boys" (pop fun)
Anna Abreu, "Music Everywhere" (good pop chorus that's better than anything she's done since "Ivory Tower," but still not as fully excellent as I want this Finnish Idol contestant's material to be)
Linda Teodosiu, "Reprogram My Heart"
Alphabeat, "The Spell"
Rob Thomas, "Give Me The Meltdown" (my favorite song from him since "Lonely No More" and "This Is How A Heart Breaks," it's catchy pop-rock that should be his next single)
Mika, "We Are Golden" (worried about this new album, which I don't want to be considering how much I loved his first, but there's a great chorus to this lead single)
Blake Lewis, "Sad Song" (I always think it's good but haven't played it much so far--bad sign?)
Backstreet Boys, "Straight Through My Heart" (more generic and less exciting than I'd hoped, but I nearly swerved into another lane while stopping someone from changing the station when it came on the radio. ACTUAL AMERICAN RADIO playing the latest Backstreet Boys single. Probably a one-off, but still.)
Colbie Caillat, "Fallin' For You" (oh no. "Bubbly" was one of those songs I complained about and avoided at all costs, but I really like this sweet singer-songwritery song)
Trey Songz, "I Need A Girl" (months old, but this sweet R&B-pop song has won me over)
Shakira, "She Wolf" (I don't love it like I want to yet, but I'm excited for the album)
Jade Ewen, "Punching Out"
Leona Lewis, "Strangers"
Sugababes, "Get Sexy"

There are some other recent singles--the new ones from Swedish artists like Martin Stenmarck, Nanne, Sandra Dahlberg, Andreas Johnson, Rongedal, and the like--that I can't really judge yet.

Tonight's the night--let's live it up

The two songs that I've been bouncing around to all day:

The Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feelin'."



I have a love-hate relationship with BEP singles; thankfully, after the "hate" of "Boom Boom Pow," the "love" of "I Got A Feeling" has arrived. Produced by dance music creator David Guetta, the song has feel good going out anthem written all over it. I spent a while thinking the "fill up my cup/Mazal tov" lines were my favorite part, but no--there are too many great parts to really have one favorite.

Ryan Tedder's "Battlefield."



Much--generally positive--has already been written about Jordin Sparks's version of this song, the lead single for her second album. It's songwriter Ryan Tedder's version of the song that I'm preferring at the moment, though; blame my unintended preference for male voices if you will, but this is the version of the song that really makes me say "amazing."

Guess you better go and get your armor

There's been a lot of buzz, and often deservedly so, around some up-and-coming British female pop artists. There are, though, some new female American singers who have songs that have caught my ear lately. They don't share much in common beyond the fact that they're women, American, and making pop, but I've been meaning to write about the songs for long enough that I'll take any sort of gathering principle, flimsy as it may be, as the basis for a post.

I've mentioned Kimberly Cole's "Superstar (Smash It)" before. Featured in the TV show Dollhouse (though there with an actress pretending to sing it and Kimberly appearing as a backing singer), the song is vaguely Britney-esque--maybe just to say that it's up-tempo pop created electronically with some nice deep pulses and floatier effects on top of those melding with a catchy if sometimes very processed vocal part.



If "Superstar (Smash It)" is in some distant way a bit like a Britney song or two, Kristinia DeBarge's "Goodbye," based on a sample of Steam's "Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)" (a song your average American will know quite well from sporting events), shares a similar proximity to some of the things Rihanna has done. It feels like it has slightly less edge than Rihanna's work--even, say, "S.O.S.," which is maybe its closest cousin--though part of that may be a function of Kristinia's voice being much more "average" in its tone than Rihanna's, but it sounds great playing on American radios and is very much a welcomed force there.



The niche Kaci Battaglia seems to be trying to carve out for herself is one a bit akin to the one Willa Ford chased in the Britney, Christina, and Mandy battle of the late '90s, though Kaci's "Crazy Possessive" isn't in that Cheiron-mimicking style. It, too, is one of the songs you could maybe push into that "S.O.S."/"Womanizer" style (which there really needs to be a better name for) and even uses Britney's line "I got your crazy," though Kaci positions herself as the supposedly more aggressive, less clean-cut option in comparison to "Goodbye." The thing is, though, that I actually think the censored version is a lot catchier than the original version (which I could have sworn I heard at some point but now can't find to confirm that fact). Anyway, "Crazy Possessive" is totally ridiculous (and totally different from her earlier material), but I've also had way too much fun listening to it recently.



Out of all these songs, though, Brooke Hogan's (yes, the daughter of Hulk Hogan and she of one previous album) "Rough Me Up" (featuring Flo Rida) is the closest to "Womanizer." It could even be by the same producers--I've yet to read anything about who created it. I'm not sure if the American public can ever be sold on the idea of Brooke as a popstar, but from the sound of it in the below video clip, I'll be buying the song the day it comes out--I love it and it's the sort of music that would make me welcome having her around the fringes of the music scene.



Jessica Jarrell is, at fourteen, the youngest of these singers, but her "Armaggedon," featuring a welcome mix of piano and strings in addition to the usual electronic production, is great. It's the least "club song" sounding out of all these tracks, though it's got some speed to it--it's just mixed that speed with some ballad elements. I wasn't too sure about some of the vocal processing in the chorus the first time around, but I've since grown to accept it.



Cheating a bit to include a singer who's already fairly if not unshakably established, we've got Jordin Sparks and her new Ryan Tedder-penned "Battlefield." Yes, it sounds like Ryan Tedder--think Leona Lewis's "Bleeding Love," Beyoncé's "Halo"--but there are enough tweaks to the formula (including making the song more mid-tempo than we're used to from Tedder) and the parts of the song (including the key line of the middle 8, "Better go and get your armor") add up to something good enough on its own that I've been playing it off and on today. I've been pretty excited for Jordin's new album and "Battlefield" does nothing to change that.

Turn and walk away tonight

Songwriter update (because yes, I am a total songwriter nerd-in-training):

Jessie J (pictured), the British singer that Worrapolava has championed, was signed a few months ago. That's not news. What is news is that she's had Dr. Luke and Claude Kelly (working together, Kelly Clarkson's "My Life Would Suck Without You," Britney's "Circus") writing for her.

Claude Kelly (in addition to the songs mentioned above, Leona Lewis's "Forgive Me," Lemar's "If She Knew," Linda Teodosiu's "Love Sux") has also been working with Jordin Sparks, who, in addition to working with Lucas Secon (the Pussycat Dolls' "Hush Hush," Sarah Connor's "Under My Skin," Martin's "Show The World") on that song I posted about earlier this year, has apparently gotten at least one song from Ryan Tedder (Leona Lewis's "Bleeding Love," Timbaland feat. OneRepublic's "Apologize") too: Popjustice revealed last week that the lead single for her second album is a Tedder-penned song called "Battlefied." Check out PJ's post for details.

Moving back to Claude Kelly for a moment, as I mentioned earlier, he's also done several songs with the Backstreet Boys recently. A video of him talking about them was posted, but it's since been set to private. In it, though, he mentions "Bye Bye Love" (an up-tempo club-friendly song which features the line "I think I want to stay single, so bye bye love," as revealed earlier), "Don't Try This At Home" (which they sang a cappella at a sound check; it's a "heartbreak record"), and "What I Know Now" (he calls it a "pop urban hybrid;" listen to a non-BSB featuring demo here). He's also working with Wynter Gordon and, somewhat surprisingly, American Idol's Jason Castro.

Ryan Laubscher, the main man behind Alex Roots, has clips of demos for several artists on his official site (click on "Music"). The most noteworthy ones in terms of artist names that I hadn't previously heard elsewhere are Amy Pearson's "Contagious," the title track from her second album (it's more upbeat and electro/dance than I was expecting); Tina Barrett's (formerly of S Club 7) "I'll Be Your Woman;" Alex Roots's "Prisoner" (which sounds like it could potentially be epic in its final form), and Christophe Willem's "Si je tombais" (there's a Pixie song, too, but the full version of that has been on his MySpace, and I think it might just be a demo available for purchase).

Fred Ball of Pleasure (see: his work with Bertine Zetlitz, his producer project Pleasure's "Out Of Love") has done "forthcoming" work with Sophie Ellis-Bextor (that he'd co-written a song with Ina Wroldsen, lately of work with the Saturdays, called "Synchronized" was already known, so this could be referring just to that or to more), Little Boots (not sure whether it's songs we've already heard or not), and Paloma Faith (whose name is popping up all over the place).

Speaking of Ina Wroldsen (as mentioned above, she was the glue that held the Saturdays together in terms of songwriting), I only just found out that she co-wrote the song Lucas Secon (who also co-wrote it) has had listed as Pixie Lott's second single for ages, before we even found out what the first single was, "Gravity." Her recent work also includes a song for Lindsay Lohan called "Stuck" (though given the limbo that project's in, I wouldn't hold your breath to hear it), songs for Leona Lewis called "Thank You Thank You" and "Your Heart," a song for Kat De Luna called "Break Me," and a song for Hayden Panettiere called "Top Up."

Xenomania (Girls Aloud) are keeping busy, with news coming out over the past month that they'll be working with Leona Lewis, and Shayne Ward, both of whom are British X Factor winners.

The most recent X Factor winner, Alexandra Burke (pictured), appears to be working with some big names for her debut album: RedOne (Darin's "Step Up," Lady GaGa's "Just Dance") Stargate (Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable," Rihanna's "Don't Stop The Music"), Brian Kennedy (Rihanna's "Disturbia," Chris Brown's "Forever") Timbaland (Nelly Furtado's "Maneater," Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack;" possibly just met, but maybe worked with), the Freemasons (remixes of Beyoncé songs, Kylie Minogue's "The One"), Claude Kelly, Savan Kotecha (Britney Spears's "If U Seek Amy," Shayne Ward's "No U Hang Up"), Soulshock & Karlin (Alesha Dixon's "Breath Slow"), and probably some people I've left out. In other words: big budget, brand name songwriters--taking Alexandra to major international success is obviously what her management is aiming for.

Do you remember the brilliant Dolly Rockers' song "How Did I End Up With You?" I posted a week ago? Popjustice wrote about it shortly after (and posted a clip of the studio version) and revealed (well, clued me in) that the songwriter behind it and the majority of the project is Ray Hedges.

On the subject of girl bands promoted on PopJustice, Girls Can't Catch's debut single "Keep Your Head Up" is written and produced by Chris Braide (the Saturdays' "Chasing Lights," D-Side's "Invisible"). The live version has shown the song so have a lot of potential, but the clips of the studio version we've heard so far are lacking punch; they sound like demos. Hopefully there's still time to improve the production on them.

I'm sure I forgot something I meant to mention, but that'll do for now.

You think I'm payin' the price but it's not costin' me

Random bits of music news:

Alcazar's new album, Disco Defenders, is tentatively scheduled for a March 11 release date (stolen from PopJustice).

The Backstreet Boys apparently have a Max Martin-written song called "Bigger" on their new album (which they hope to release this summer) *gets hopes up again only to see them crushed* (stolen from Cheiron Songwriters).



Danish songwriter Lucas Secon--of Martin's "Show The World," Sarah Connor's "Under My Skin," the Pussycat Dolls' "I Hate This Part," and much more--wrote on his MySpace a while ago that he'd be contributing to Jordin Sparks's new album. Jordin played clips of several songs that might end up on her new album on the radio recently and among them was an unmastered version of one of Lucas's songs, "Walking On Snow." From the sounds of the clip, I'm chomping at the bit to have the full song; like "No Air," it manages the remarkable feat of sounding refreshingly fresh while also making total sense in the current commercial music environment, though its pretty poppy electronic-pop-meets-pop-rock sound isn't musically related to "No Air."

Have you listened to Erik Hassle's new album yet? If not, what are you waiting for?

#82 Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown, "No Air"

Got me out here in the water so deep
Tell me how you gon be without me
If you ain't here, I just can't breathe
It's no air, no air

Overdone epic pop-R&B balladry becomes the greatest thing in the world for the length of the second single from American Idol winner Jordin Sparks's debut album. I've gone on the record with liking Chris Brown many times before, so it made me all the happier that he was half of this fantastic song and I very much wanted Idol to prove that it can still produce winners relevant to the modern commercial music scene, but even beyond that they match the song well vocally and even just with their youth. They lend their voices to a song that avoids the typical power ballad route and instead steps lightly and gorgeously from cloud to cloud. "No Air" acknowledged and worked with the sound of contemporary charts, but it was an incredible breath of, well, fresh air for American music.

Find it on: Jordin Sparks