I'll always remember our summer in Hawaii...

RedOne's Swedish protege Mohombi seems to be getting a lot of big names appearing on his records recently, one would begin to think that the proudcer is trying to engineer him into a superstar! Debut single Dirty Ride was cheeky but fun and catchy, and less enjoyable collaborations with the likes of Nelly and Akon have followed in quick succession. But Coconut Tree just screams 'summer smash' and features none other than Pussycat Dolls' and now solo star (although that's debatable I guess) Nicole Scherzinger.

The song won me over on first listen from Nicole's spoken intro and outro 'I'll always remember our summer in Hawaii, aloha nui loa' but Mohombi's input is no less enjoyable as he provides an infectious chorus and 'ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh's. With typical RedOne beats and synths meeting a sort of dancehall bassline, this could have either come out in 2003, alongside Lumidee, Sean Paul and Wayne Wonder or let's be honest here - 1997. It sounds like the spiritual successor to Mr President's Coco Jamboo and that's before we even consider how similar the spoken intro sounds to the 'I had a dream last night' intro to Stay by Sash! Nonetheless though, it doesn't take itself too seriously, but it would be nice if this wound up as his biggest hit to date.

A note to new acts and music promoters

Doing this blog last year, I was blessed with the amount of tracks that came my way to review and cast a critical eye over. It reached a fairly large audience, mostly pop fans like myself, so if you've got anything you'd like to feature on this blog that you think I (and the typical reader) might like, please get in touch and I'll have a listen. I won't always necessarily feature it as I don't know that I'll be able to give a particularly objective review if you send me screamo or heavy metal (!) but I'll always consider it. And until then, why not enjoy my favourite song of 2011 so far, a dubstep classic in the making, Me & You by Nero!!! If all dubstep is this enjoyable then it may be one of my favourite 'sounds' since the nu-soul boom of 2008!

It's been a while...but it was worth the wait!

So, after taking a 4 month hiatus, Pop Love Dance is back in business and raring to go for 2011, and with a lot to look forward to judging by rumblings of the first couple of weeks. And what better way to start than with my slightly late, but promised top 100 songsand top 20 albums of 2010!!! Et voila;

Songs














1. Lena Meyer-Landrut - Satellite
2. Kylie Minogue - All The Lovers
3. Take That - The Flood
4. Stromae - Alors On Danse
5. Roll Deep - Green Light
6. Salem Al Fakir - Keep On Walking
7. Rihanna feat Drake - What's My Name
8. Tove Styrke - White Light Moment
9. Kylie Minogue - Get Outta My Way
10. Leddra Chapman - Story
11. Boyzone - Gave It All Away
12. Le Kid - We Should Go Home Together
13. Staygold feat Spank Rock, Lady Tigra and Damien Adore - Backseat
14. Timoteij - Kom
15. Sheelah - Psycho
16. Alicia Keys - Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart
17. Cheryl Cole - Promise This
18. Roll Deep - Good Times
19. The Saturdays - Higher
20. Shakira feat Freshlyground - Waka Waka (This Time For Africa)
21. Caro Emerald - A Night Like This
22. A1 - Don’t Wanna Lose You Again
23. Marina & The Diamonds - Hollywood
24. Katy Perry feat Snoop Dogg - California Gurls
25. Shackles - Breaking the Silence
26. Bruno Mars - Just The Way You Are
27. Zowie - Broken Machine
28. Niamh Kavanagh - It’s For You
29. Robbie Williams & Gary Barlow - Shame
30. Edward Maya feat Vika Jigulina - Stereo Love
31. Robyn - Dancing On My Own
32. The Saturdays - Missing You
33. Anna Bergendahl - This Is My Life
34. Yolanda Be Cool & D Cup - We No Speak Americano
35. Tom Dice - Me & My Guitar
36. Hera Björk - Je Ne Sais Quoi
37. Nadine Coyle - Insatiable
38. The Band Perry - If I Die Young
39. The Naked & Famous - Young Blood
40. Nicole Scherzinger – Poison
41. Erik Hassle – Hurtful
42. Take That – Eight Letters
43. Robyn – In My Eyes
44. Cee Lo Green – Fuck You
45. Safura – Drip Drop
46. Leddra Chapman – Summer Song
47. Elsiane – Vaporous
48. Lady GaGa – Bad Romance
49. Elin Lanto – Funeral
50. Ellie Goulding – Your Song
51. Cheryl Cole – 3 Words
52. Lady GaGa – Alejandro
53. Alexis Jordan – Happiness
54. Sugarland – Stuck Like Glue
55. Lena Meyer-Landrut feat Ellie Goulding – Not Following
56. Jenny Berggren – Here I Am
57. Sky Ferreira – One
58. Alphabeat – DJ
59. Kylie Minogue – Better Than Today
60. Diana Vickers – Notice
61. Rihanna – Only Girl (In The World)
62. Pepper & Piano – You Took My Heart
63. Katie Melua – The Flood
64. Timbaland feat Katy Perry – If We Ever Meet Again
65. Cheryl Cole – Parachute
66. K'Naan – Wavin' Flag
67. Katy Perry – Firework
68. Glee Cast – Don't Stop Believin'
69. Richard Vission and Static Revenger feat Luciana – I Like That
70. Jason DeRulo – What If
71. Jenny Berggren – Gotta Go
72. Alcazar – Headlines
73. Boyzone – Love Is A Hurricane
74. Jessy Matador – Allez! Ola! Ole!
75. Agnes & Bjorn – When You Tell The World You're Mine
76. The Pipettes – So I'll Say Goodbye
77. Didrik Solli–Tangen – My Heart Is Yours
78. Leddra Chapman – Fooling Myself
79. The Saturdays – Ego
80. Petter feat Veronica Maggio – Langesen
81. Rumer – Slow
82. Girls Can't Catch – Echo
83. CC & Lee – Better Best Forgotten
84. Tone Damli feat Vinni – Stuck In My Head
85. Diana Vickers – Once
86. Agnes – Secret Love
87. Nina Lassander – Cider Hill
88. Robyn – Time Machine
89. JLS – Eyes Wide Shut
90. Fallen Millie – Want To Be (Under Your Christmas Tree)
91. B.o.B. Feat Hayley Williams - Airplanes
92. Alexandra Burke feat Pitbull – All Night Long
93. Venke Knutson – Jealous 'Cause I Love You
94. Take That – SOS
95. Eliza Doolittle – Pack Up
96. Rihanna – California King Bed
97. David Guetta feat Rihanna – Who's That Chick
98. Ellie Goulding – Little Dreams
99. Rihanna feat Eminem – Love The Way You Lie
100. Monrose – Breathe You In

Albums

1. Kylie Minogue - Aphrodite
2. Leddra Chapman - Telling Tales
3. Lady GaGa - The Fame Monster
4. Robyn - Body Talk
5. Take That – Progress
6. Rihanna - Loud
7. Boyzone - Brother
8. Lena Meyer-Landrut - My Cassette Player
9. The Saturdays - Headlines
10. Ellie Goulding - Bright Lights
11. Diana Vickers - Songs From The Tainted Cherry Tree
12. Elin Lanto - Love Made Me Do It
13. Katy Perry - Teenage Dream
14. Alicia Keys - The Element Of Freedom
15. Anna Bergendahl - Yours Sincerely
16. Tone Damli - Cocool
17. Hurts - Happiness
18. Shakira - Sale El Sol
19. Marina & The Diamonds – The Family Jewels
20. Cheryl Cole – Messy Little Raindrops

What did we learn in 2010;

> Eurovision wasn't as good as usual except for Queen Lena, cheers all round for Germany and we will welcome her back with open arms in May when she represents her country once again. Will she become the Roger Federer of Eurovision?

> Reformed Take That 1.0 are just as good as Take That 2.0 as the big mature pop anthems, but even better at doing things that are a bit different (see Progress).

> Kylie Minogue is most definitely back on form after a couple of questionable album campaigns. Now the very different campaign begins to persuade Radio 1 to stop snubbing her!

> Roll Deep punched way above their weight in terms of making joyous club anthems. The Avenue showed potential in 2005, but two UK #1's!?!

> Rihanna truly does get better and better with each release. Imagine how good she'll be when she's 30!

> In a year of mild disappointments for the genre, Leddra Chapman proved that the singer/songwriter genre is still thriving with an excellently produced confident yet gorgeous debut album. Why she's not massive yet is a mystery to all.

> Ellie Goulding was the latest in a growing list of acts to prove that album re-releases aren't always entirely pointless, by saving some of her best material for Bright Lights!

And onto 2011 we go...

GA solo battle: Cheryl vs. Nadine

So, having lived with the two songs for a couple of weeks, I feel that I can comment on this. Cheryl Cole's new single Promise This, leading her second album Messy Little Raindrops premiered a few days after the long awaited debut solo single from Girls Aloud bandmate Nadine Coyle, aka 'the voice of Girls Aloud'. Being something of a GA loon (I own all 21 singles, albums, DVD's etc... and bought the box set too) I was very excited to hear both of these. Promise This by Cheryl is pretty far removed from the three singles from her debut album. An electro pop stormer in a Saturdays vein, it has a catchy hook, a brilliant piano backing and some brilliant lyrics and chants in French. Definitely a winner and the video is very good too. That's four out of four Cheryl singles that I loved then. I can't decide which is the best out of this, 3 Words and Fight For This Love.



Over to Nadine then and her debut solo single Insatiable. Sadly not a Darren Hayes cover, this is a song that I loved from the very first play. A brassy strong intro, some have called it 'dated' but I really wouldn't say that personally. It sounds fresh purely because Nadine hasn't gone down the now tired RedOne soundalike route. An individual song, which suits her distinctive voice down to a tee, with a great chorus. At this moment in time I very slightly prefer Nadine's song but both are fantastic - I do miss Girls Aloud though, rather hugely. This time two years ago I was obsessed with The Promise and I have to admit to not liking either of these two solo singles quite that much. With Nicola, Sarah and Kimberley, they were part of something very special indeed, and I do hope that they fulfill their promise to get back together at some point. Tangled Up and Out Of Control were effortlessly good - critically acclaimed, solid and excellent pop music. Chart predictions for the two songs? Cheryl's is obviously a #1 - she could basically release anything as a lead and take it to the top at the moment. Nadine's not as famous these days and might have to settle for top three at best - assuming that radio get on board, which hopefully they will!!!

The curse of the Euro hit in the UK...

What is it with nearly every huge European hit this year stalling between 21-40 in the UK charts this year? Sure they usually hang around for a while but I can't fathom why the UK is the only country where a lot of songs completely fail to properly catch on, when the rest of the continent are absolutely loving them. Aside from Yolanda Be Cool, who are Australian anyway, just with a typical Eurohit sound and legacy, only really Inna and Edward Maya have done brilliantly well in the UK charts this year, though the latter's Stereo Love only spent a month in the top twenty before spending an eternity in the bottom half of the chart where it remains even now. But what of Stromae's Alors On Danse (#27), Lena's Satellite (#30), Shakira's Waka Waka (This Time For Africa) (#21), Keri Hilson's I Like (#34) and Hurts' Wonderful Life (#21). The latter are even from the UK! Granted they've scored themselves a top five debut album here but the song has absolutely blown up in the rest of Europe, yet their home country can't even put it top twenty!!!



It's been a strange year chartwise in the UK. Most of the biggest sellers have failed to top the charts - in fact it looks as if Eminem and Rihanna's #2 hit Love The Way You Lie will be topping the year to date chart soon!!! A lot of No.1 singles have been flash in the pan year 2000 type in one week and out of the top five the next (or at least down to the bottom of the top five). But the real confusion, for me, lies in this strange quirk of having all of the biggest European hits of the year doing so badly here. All I can chalk it up to is that they are not getting enough support here for whatever reason. Maybe the radio and TV bosses deem these songs to be less relevant to the UK than the rest of Europe. Maybe the UK follows and copies the US music scene more closely than anyone else.



Alors On Danse and Wonderful Life managed to get onto the Radio 1 playlist, somewhat surprisingly for the former, but it's received little support from elsewhere and hence isn't likely to go much higher than it already has. Waka Waka, I Like and Satellite meanwhile, all huge No.1 hits in Europe's other biggest market, Germany, haven't received any Radio 1 support whatsoever, let alone commercial radio support. It's sad to see that we seem completely out of touch with the rest of Europe with our charts, but hopefully these songs will go down as classic singles regardless of their peak - they all certainly deserve to. Whilst the UK enjoy disposable cod-reggae/carnival songs from X Factor alumni at the top of our charts, at least the rest of Europe are enjoying quality, decent music which is the real sound of 2010!!!

Grange Hill Can't Handle Me

Anyone remember the 1990s theme tune to UK high school based drama Grange Hill? The simple but memorable piano melody, composed by Peter Moss, was one of my favourite theme tunes of the era. Anyway, listening to Flo Rida's Club Can't Handle Me recently, I suddenly realised that the Grange Hill music would fit perfectly beneath Flo Rida's song. Kudos to remixer Doberman for coming up with a great remix of the original theme that laid a perfect soundbed for the mashup, seeing as the original was far too short. I had a bit of a play about with the two songs on Audacity and the concept seemed to work, but my mashup skills weren't quite up to scratch. So I sent the idea and a demo of my basic mix to friend and mashup king Hitstastic to work his magic and voila, see what you think of his final version 'Grange Hill Can't Handle Me' by LB9 vs. Hitstastic;



Club Can't Handle Me is a great song but really incredibly generic and way too similar to I Gotta Feeling in places, production wise. If this was the radio mix, I know I would have bought it on single! But maybe I'm biased as it was my idea! Here's to rap stars in the future sampling British TV theme tunes for real, next stop Eminem vs. Birds of a Feather!

A personal journey through music

I've been thinking recently about the ways in which I love and have loved music. It's ironic that I love it so much now as an adult, as I really didn't start appreciating music until 1998, when I was 11! Before that I liked a few odd songs, but never bought any music or went out of my way to listen to it. But now a lot of my favourites are 90s songs that I enjoyed at the time but have rediscovered in the noughties, having bought various compilations and learnt more about the history of the industry. The Corrs' sophomore album Talk On Corners changed my views on music albums wise, when I received it along with my first stereo in 1998, and Cher's seminal anthem Believe was the first single/song that I truly loved and became obsessed with, so all hail the vocoder!!! From circa October 1998 onwards I'd listen to the chart every week to hear the latest songs. I suppose my music phases can be briefly grouped as the following;

1987-1998 - I didn't really listen to/enjoy an awful lot of music aside for a few songs and never listened to any album until 1998. I was always extremely cultural aware though, for somebody who didn't actually listen to much music. I could tell you the full names of every Spice Girl, and probably even every member of Solid Harmoine! I read the magazines and stored all of the information but didn't listen to the music - it was a very strange relationship to the industry.

1999-2002 - From here on in I primarily listened to and loved chart dance, thanks to ATB's 9PM (Till I Come) and Alice Deejay's Better Off Alone at first, although I did like pop - very little from any other genres though. I first watched the Eurovision Song Contest in 1999 and recall liking Charlotte Nilsson, Selma, Evelin Samuel and Precious (which I bought on single on its release week, not realising that it was anything to do with ESC - obsessive in waiting!). The 2000 contest I only liked Alsou and Ines so basically wrote off my Eurovision love as a passing fad. But then 2001 had about 10 songs I loved and this was when the real obsession kicked in. My favourite song of all time also surfaced during this period - the Rob Searle trance remix of N-Trance's Set You Free. Defines perfection. If I could only listen to one song for the rest of my life, it would have to be this.



2003 - This was a big transition year for me, and my least favourite year of the 00's for many reasons (personal as well as musical - finishing school and doing exams, starting college, getting a job - I found it all very stressful). There was NO good dance about all year which devestated me, so I had to turn my attentions elsewhere. Delta Goodrem turned me fully on to pop music at this point. I loved Born To Try instantly but wasn't a real convert until I bought the Innocent Eyes album in the summer. From that point onwards I stopped being so all over the place with my tastes and pop was at the forefront now.

2004-2005 - I went through a piano singer/songwriter phase - Sarah McLachlan/Missy Higgins/Lucie Silvas etc... - all spawned from my love of Delta. I Still loved pure pop and dance started to seep back into my tastes too. I finally started to like male artists after six years of only caring for females, with very very few exceptions (Tanel Padar & Dave Benton, Eiffel 65, Wheatus, ATB - that's about it!). It was the summer domination of James Blunt and Daniel Powter (who I LOVED) which got me into males finally, bizarrely. I also finally loved a rap song for the first time - The Avenue by Roll Deep! And Kelly Clarkson and The Veronicas kick started a love affair with pop-rock too.

2006-2007 - This was when I really started to branch out with my musical tastes. I finally opened up to stuff from any and every genre, besides still loving pop and dance. Notably, after always hating it, Carrie Underwood turned me on to the occasional delights of country music! Males started to rule my tastes at various times, females at others. Two thoroughly good years for music across the spectrum - 2006 had Voodoo Child, Hips Don't Lie and Rock Steady, 2007 had With Every Hearbeat, Rule The World, Love Song and Believe Again all surface within mere weeks of each other (ok Robyn was slightly earlier!). I started going to gigs a lot during these years too, although I had been to a few in 2004-2005, but I was at uni in these two years and it was very much routine for me (and surely most students!?!) by now.

2008-present - nowadays I'm open to just about anything, and will give anything a chance. Inide, rock, dance (I enjoy all sub genres of it basically too), any type of pop, country, really coming around to love rap and R&B nowadays too. I just listen to a lot more variety, more foreign music, far less UK chart music than ever before. My tastes have certainly developed over the years - I love things now that I never would have loved when I was much more narrow minded and dance obsessed ten years ago. But my heart does remain with pop and dance primarily. And it will take somebody truly special indeed to ever penetrate my three favourite artists ever - Delta Goodrem, The Corrs and Shakira - nobody holds a light to these three for me. Other artists I've gone on and off but whenever I think I might be getting bored of one of these, they pull something truly sensational out of the bag (Believe Again, the entire Borrowed Heaven album, and She Wolf/Waka Waka respectively). I mustn't underestimate the contribution of the following so far unmentioned acts on my life in terms of my musical 'journey' though: Girls Aloud, Kylie Minogue, Take That, Lady GaGa, Colbie Caillat, KT Tunstall, Kelly Llorenna, Atomic Kitten, Christina Aguilera, Natasha Bedingfield, Mariah Carey and Vanessa Amorosi - all incredibly instrumental in shaping my tastes and indeed soundtracking my life so far.