Summer turns to snow

Several albums I'm looking forward to but aren't release for a while are available for preorder, two Swedish (well, one technically American, but Swedish in many of its aspects) and one French.

First, Erik Hassle's Hassle was supposed to be released March 25. Then the release date was pushed back to April 29. Just today I found out that now it's apparently June 10 (preorder it here). Despite having the album for months, I'm still going slightly crazy to have a physical copy in my hands, but I suppose the fact that Erik still hasn't had a proper breakthrough in Sweden yet--he's been floating around the edges of consciousness for a year now without fully breaking through--means that the decision to delay release makes sense. The tracklisting is the same as the one we all know by now, so I won't bother reprinting it here (though check it out here if you're not familiar with it).

Swingfly's similarly long awaited debut album (technically even longer than Erik's or Velvet's since the lead single came out in January 2006, though the "awaited" period can't rival Velvet's for me) is still set to come out on the second date Erik's album was set to be released, April 29 (preorder it here). Titled God Bless The IRS, it features singles "Something's Got Me Started," "Save The Trees," "Winner," "Singing That Melody," and "Touch And Go" and production work from Andreas Kleerup, the Åhlund brothers, RamPac, and Thomas Rusiak. I've yet to see an official tracklisting for it, but from what we've heard so far the album from the voice of Teddybears' "Hey Boy" is shaping up to be great. Watch the video for "Touch And Go," which I still love and think everyone in the world should, too (just as I still love "Singing That Melody"), below.



Christophe Willem's second album, Caféine, is still set for a May 25 release date (preorder it here). He lists the "collaborators" as "Kylie Minogue, Guy Chambers, Zazie, Jean-Pierre Pilot, Jennifer Ayache [of] Superbus, Corinne Bailey Rae, Skye, Alexandre Azzaria, [and] Jamie Hartman [of] Ben's Brother" The tracklisting has been released, too, though it doesn't include the one song we haven't heard that I was expecting to be on it, "L'or est tombe du ciel" (which I think is the French version of Britney's "State Of Grace")--maybe it's been renamed? Audio for electro-rock lead single "Berlin," which I wrote about a few weeks ago, is embedded below, followed by said tracklist.



1.) Ouverture
2.) L’homme en noir
3.) Sensitized (Duet with Kylie Minogue)
4.) Berlin
5.) La demande
6.) Entre nous et le sol
7.) Plus que tout
8.) Coffee
9.) Fragile
10.) Trash (Duet with Skye)
11.) Tu te fous de nous
12.) Heartbox
13.) Yaourt et lavabo
14.) Si je tombais (Acoustic)

Caféine Bonus Deluxe Edition :
1.) Holé Holé (Original Version of "L’Homme en noir")
2.) Berlin (Alternative Version)
3.) La Demande (Remix)
4.) Si je tombais
5.) Walk away (Duet with Skye)

You might be able to listen to clips of the songs here, though I'm not able to.

Multiple versions of the album are available for purchase, as you can tell from the above: a regular CD version, a deluxe CD version, and mp3s of all the songs on the deluxe version (I think--I don't speak French, so please correct me if that's wrong!). If you preorder Caféine, you'll get the English version of "Berlin" on the day of the album's release. You also can sign up for free for access to some sort of "backstage" area of the website.

Christophe is offering "Trash" as a free download if you subscribe to his newsletter. If you want to get a feel for what you'd be subscribing for, there's a clip here. "Trash" is much more electro than "Berlin," complete with verses that have a vaguely Prince-y feel to their synths. It's album track type material, but it does continue to show how interesting Christophe can be. It and "Berlin" have been all well and good, but if I'm being a worrywart, I do hope when the album comes around I'm not just left saying "interesting."

And two wrongs don't make a right but two rights, they can't go wrong

I wasn't kidding about writing about Swingfly's new single, "Touch And Go," until everyone realizes how fantastic it is.



If you like pop, how can you not like that bliss-inducing female-sung chorus? If you like rock, how can you not like the instrumental backing with its bouncing percussion beat and tambourine (well, granted, you can't hear it as well in the low quality video audio)? If you like rap, how can you not find Swingfly a great narrator? Those three genres meshed together and enhanced with, once again, a fantastic sense of melody--it sounds cheesy to say and a song this fun may not necessarily be seeking this label, but there's something just a little magic about "Touch And Go." It would be a perfect end of summer song (the pop-rock part of the song sounds tailor-made for the waning days of summer), but spring will do nicely as well.

She said I changed, I'm acting like a popstar

I know no one who reads this blog (well, besides Yuri, and I love you for that, Yuri!) enjoyed Swedish-based American rapper Swingfly's (the voice on Teddybears' "Hey Boy" and the introductory track on Robyn's self-titled album) "Singing That Melody" as much as I did, but I've been dying for more music from him since that single was released.

His new single, "Touch And Go," is on Swedish radios now, though, and I LOVE it. The pop-rock backing, interwoven with electronic decorations, still sounds like it's being played by an amazing group just having a great time. The female-sung chorus is pure pop bliss. It sparkles. Yes, Swingfly spends a lot of the song referencing "Singing That Melody" and the song has some similarities with that previous single, but only in a way that adds up to a cohesive album. Plus, with a chorus like that, the song stands up on its own.

Stream it here (click the green button if it doesn't automatically start playing for you once you click that link). If you're ignoring him just because he's a rapper, you're really missing out--I can't push this guy and this project enough. The sheer musicality of "Touch And Go," as well "Singing That Melody," should be enough to win it respect, but it's a lot more fun than terms like "musicality" make it sound.

In fact, I'm going to keep writing about Swingfly no matter what--well, as long as the quality of his material stays as high as it is so far. If I tell you that his album, due out in early March, features work from the Åhlund brothers (so yes, that would include Klas), Andreas Kleerup, and Thomas Rusiak, would that get your interest? His earlier singles may have passed me by, but Swingfly and RamPac hit it out of the park with "Singing That Melody." If it and "Touch And Go" are anything to go by, that upcoming album could be one of the best of the year.

I can't find a date of release for "Touch And Go" (it's only listed as "coming" everywhere I could find it), but you can count on me buying it the moment I can.

#37 Swingfly, "Singing That Melody"

I'm singing that melody
The phone gave to me
When I rang your number

I don't know that I can get across why I love this song any better than I did in my original post about it, so here's some copy and paste action. First, though, there's fantastic news: "Singing That Melody" seems to be getting a UK release. Here's hoping it does well!

One of the best rap songs of last year, Adam Tensta's "My Cool," came from Sweden, and from the looks of it, that's going to happen again this year as well. My guess would be that, if you're familiar with American-born but Swedish-based Swingfly, it's from Teddybears' "Hey Boy" (he's the vocalist) or from his brief appearance on Robyn's Robyn album (he's in "Curriculum Vitae," the introductory track). If his latest single is anything to go by, though, he deserves far more attention in his own right; I'm very excited to hear what his upcoming album sounds like.

I know I just referred to Swingfly as a rapper--and that's how he refers to himself, and what he is--but "Singing That Melody" isn't really rap as we know it; even setting aside the chorus for a moment, the rapping in the verses is still both more melodic and more like regular talking than in most rap songs we get in the U.S. Or maybe it's just that the musical backing he and co-writers RamPac have created for the song is made of such different sounds than are usually used in rap songs, with a backbeat that mixes electronic noises and those you might expect to come from a great (pop-) rock band just having fun and playing a fairly light-on-its-feet (if not fully light in soul) mid-tempo piece. And getting back to that chorus: it's fantastic radio-friendly stuff, with the "gimmick"--the song takes its title from the melody a phone number makes when dialed--actually being not gimmicky at all, instead just being a great complement to a chorus of the sort that you could walk around singing all day. Swingfly gives off this cool vibe, but the lyrics even get pretty cute at points: "my heart will never pause/I'm using metaphors" may come after a line about trying to make the relationship last for at "least a few years" (as opposed to the "forever" he later cops to) but still comes off as sincerely sweet. Completely deservingly, the song recently began to take off in Sweden, and I can only hope that it continues to do better and better since it couldn't be more apt that "melody" is in the title: the awareness of how important a great pop melody is is what makes this song so great.

Find it on: Singing That Melody (Single)