Musically I am a very open minded person, I like most genres of music and language isn't a problem for me so I tend to listen to a lot of music and discover new artists all the time which I love to do. Now so far this year I have listened to lots of new music and have gained new musical obsessions and overplayed songs so much that I've begun to dislike them and now I think it’s time I shared the love. Firstly I want to mention Danish singer Medina, I first heard her single “You and I” last year when it was originally released here in the UK. I was lying on the sofa, more than likely hung over, flicking through the musical profferings of The Box and the other 80 or so music channels that come with Sky stumbling across “You and I” and I quite liked it but I didn’t really pay much attention to it, probably due to my hung over state. Earlier this year I was taking a look at the Danish Charts website because as a part of my “New Artist Discovery” mission, I like to see what is being listened to in other countries and such, anyway on said website I noticed a song called “Kun For Mig” (Just For Me) by Medina which had been in the Danish charts for a total of 52 weeks so naturally having forgotten all about “You and I” I investigated this track and stumbled across it’s English counterpart. Having looked at the video for this English version on YouTube, I noticed the Dash Berlin remix of it which is quite possibly THE best remix of any song ever, I decided right there and then, subconsciously, that I was going to become obsessed with this song and play it over and over again.
This leads me nicely onto the man himself, Jeff X. Sutorious a.k.a Dash Berlin. After the superb remix of “You and I” I started to take an interest in other music from Mr. Berlin and downloaded his debut album “The New Daylight” which is full of amazing dance music especially the likes of “Janeiro” and “Never Cry Again” both of which have phenomenal remixes on their single EP’s and I do like a good remix. Next up I want to mention a contestant from the Greek version of The X Factor, Ivi Adamou. I didn’t watch the Greek X Factor so I wasn’t really aware of Ivi but her debut single “A*G*A*P*I” (LOVE) was released soon after she was eliminated from the show and an English version called “Crashing Down”, I’m not a fan of either really as her vocals seem a little ‘shouty’ in both so I just let them pass without a flicker of interest. At the start of summer this year I noticed a new song by Ivi, “Sose Me” (Save Me) was a featured video on YouTube, as I mentioned before, Language is no barrier for me when it comes to music and I really like the Greek language and Greek music to start off with, so I had a listen of it and again just to make sure and I really liked it, it’s got such an international sound to it, sort of like a Beyoncé song but not generic and shit and I’m presuming there’ll be an English version considering the title is followed by an English title “Lights On”, here’s hoping.
Up next is Darin. I’ve been a fan of Darin since 2006 and have collected the majority of his released work. This year saw the release of his new album “Lovekiller”, his first release with his new record label; this also marked a new musical style for him and also the first album of his career on which he hasn’t worked with RedOne. Now Darin’s last album “Flashback” was one of the best albums this decade for me and his best album to date, this may be down to his work with David Jassey, who is a very creative and talented songwriter and producer but seeing as Jassey is serving 15 years for murder that has kind of put a stop to any further collaborations, for the near future at least. So anyway, this new album is mainly produced by Tony Nilsson who seems to be a musical god in Sweden but I’m not convinced. This seems to be Darin’s weakest album, it’s great, I do admit it but it’s a bit of a step down from his previous offering although it seems to be selling better. My opinions of Nilsson aside, this album has produced my new favourite Darin song, “Only You Can Save Me”, this song was performed live at Earth Hour months ago and sounded good but the album version is so much better.
Also this year another of my favourite artists, Greek singer Elena Paparizou, released her 5th studio album “Giro Apo T’oneiro” (Around The Dream), this was a sort of semi change of style for her, she was moving towards the rock sound with her previous album “Vrisko To Logo Na Zo” (I Find The Reason To Live) but this time she seems to have rid herself of most of her old cheesy pop sounding songs like “My Number One” which I really don’t like. On the album is a mixture of pop/rock songs with the emphasis being on the rock genre, it’s not my favourite of her albums but it has given me a song to play obsessively over and over. “Oneiro” (Dream) is an up tempo number with an electro rock sound, the music was written by Hawksley Workman who has an interesting edge on his music and titled on the CD it’s displayed as “Oneiro (Chemical)” thus getting my hopes up for an English version by Elena but this bracketed section only serves to point out that the song is in fact a cover version of a song called “Chemical” by Hawksley Workman himself which is equally as good and to be honest, slightly better musically.
High on my iTunes 25 Most Played Songs list for the past few weeks has been a nice intercontinental (that’s probably not the right word to use but I’m not really bothered) number, a French/Greek duet “Toi + Moi (Esi + Ego)” (You +Me (You + I)) by French growler Grégoire and Belgian/Greek singer Katerine Avgoustakis. I also like “All Time Low” by The Wanted, which really annoys me because I don’t want to like it but I do. Finally a quick mention of a song I heard for the first time, no pun intended, yesterday. “For The First Time” is the first single from The Script’s new album “Science & Faith”, it’s a nice acoustic like ballad and I really really like it, it sounds so different to the songs from their first album, mainly because all the songs sounded the same on their debut effort.
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