Umlauts:

I'm sorry! I've been awfully crap not updating in two weeks. I choose to blame exhaustion, a sense of laziness due to having no necessary work, a bit of annoyance that a lot of what I had been sampling had been crap (SHAME ON YOU, POLAND. Ten ballads in one radio top 10 = UNACCEPTABLE), and the fact that I was going to send out the Russian Top 10 for appraisal but I couldn't find two of the songs. Also, I've been watching far too much tennis and doing other writing for various other things, some of it distinctly non-musical.

I have been massively excited about the Alexis Strum album sampler though. Considering she just let Rachel Stevens have Nothing Good About This Goodbye, you'd assume that she's packing some good stuff away for herself, and she is.

The single Bad Haircut, now I've heard it in full at a decent quality is a gem, but I think I am even more enamoured of the second track - Heart And Mind. It sounds to me like a smarter version of Girls Aloud's I Say A Prayer For You, except with this squelching, funky farting synth bass all over the shop that just sounds amazing. Oh and there's a stately, gorgeous ballad on the sampler as well that is also wonderful.

Also, just because I couldn't get all the Russian Top 10, doesn't mean you don't get to hear the best of it. This was my favourite song off it, Gde-to Leto by the amusingly-named Friske Zhanna. Or is it Zhanna Friske? I can't remember, honestly. A fine piece of unchallenging Europop. Just this once, eh?

posted by Edward O @ 1:49 AM