Popsessed!

What the Telephone video should have been...

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:08:35 -0500

Much better.

This is shaping up to be a very good year.

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:02:00 -0500

And there it is: yet another album to add to our list of highly anticipated 2010 releases:
Lucky Soul are back with a new single and their second album will be released later this year.

To those of you who’ve never heard of this British band:
They make rather cute and extremely catchy ’50s influenced pop music, think ‘The Pipettes meets The Cardigans in their early days’.

Their new single White Russian Doll isn’t a major departure in sound from their debut: it’s catchy, it’s sweet, and it’s everything that made us fall in love with them first time around.
As is the video:

If you liked what you heard make sure to also check out their old single Lips Are Unhappy, which might have even been a little better than their new one, and visit their website for more info on them!

White Russian Doll is now available on Itunes and other online retailers.

Classics Battle #1

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 08:01:48 -0500

You might have noticed our daily classics have become anything but daily lately.
Apart from the fact it was actually pretty hard to think of a random classic every single day, this also has to do with our ’00s flashbacks: there doesn’t seem too much of a point to just posting links to old songs, when we’re already listing 1000 of our favourite oldies anyway.

So a new year, a new approach: from now on we’ll pick two classics each week, and it’s up to you to decide which one will become our Weekly Classic.

Kicking it off this week are two songs full of praise:

Which song do you prefer?(polls)

Got two songs you’d like to see battle next week? Let us now!

Mission accomplished.

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 16:13:00 -0500

Gabriella Cilmi’s back. And if there’s any justice she’s back bigtime.
While we were anticipating the returns of Britney, Christina Aguilera & Lucky Soul later this year, we hardly paid notice to the Sweet About Me girl.. until we saw the video for her new single.

We might be wrong, but isn’t january usually the least exciting month of the year in pop?
If that’s true, with Ke$ha’s album and this amazing song and video the bar has been raised to epic heights for 2010, and we dare anyone to beat this:

We love every single second of it. The song’s huge, sexed up Gaby makes for a proper pop princess, there’s so much going on in the video, and every single bit of it scream effort and budget.

If this doesn’t end up top 20 in our annual top 100 next year, 2010 will have been an extraordinary year in pop indeed.

After all this time...

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 10:15:58 -0500

She’s been around since 2002, we’ve known her since 2004, and this february, after years of success in Germany, Holland, Austria, Switzerland and her homecountry Norway, the 23-year old Maria Mena is finally gonna give it a shot in the UK.

In order to conquer yet another country, her 2008 single All This Time has gotten a little makeover, turning a beautiful inspiring ballad into a still beautiful, but slightly more uptempo, poprock song.

At the age of 23, Maria has released 4 albums & 13 singles, the majority of them written by herself. And the girl knows how to write great songs! Of course it’s all a matter of taste, cause she doesn’t make all out poptunes, but if you like pretty ‘small’ songs with some very strong pure lyrics, we strongly suggest you to also check out some of previous singles:

Just Hold Me
You’re The Only One
Miss You Love

All This Time will get a UK release on february 8th, 2010.

Sweet 700*

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 08:57:00 -0500

*This number is an estimation, we didn’t really count them.

We might have gotten a bit ahead of ourselves announcing we’d have the full video today, but here’s a big part of ‘Babes 4.0 first proper video.

We like the backgrounds, we love the clones and we really like Jade in it (discussions aside if we consider her a Sugababe), its only too bad the use of greenscreen is really obvious (and far from flawless) and the shots in the hangar look a bit empty (someone add some Heartbreak Make Me A Dancer stripes please!!).

Here you go, as soon as the real thing’s there we’ll let you know!

We wonder how Amelle would have reacted if the hangar opened and there would have been 700 raging Keishas in front of her instead?

Let the 'Beat control your body

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:36:00 -0500

The ’90s are back.
After Aqua’s return to planet pop in 2009, 2010 is promising us comebacks from Whigfield, Ace Of Base, The Vengaboys ánd the 2 members of 2 Unlimited, who aren’t allowed to call themselves 2 Unlimited anymore. (in case you haven’t heard it yet, this is their, not very convincing comeback single)

While all of the original ’90s acts seem to have updated their sound to something more ’10s in hopes of being successful again, surprisingly Alphabeat have decided to go back to a sound that’s pretty much typically ’90s for their latest album, The Spell.

And yes, their new single & video Hole In My Heart is even more 90s-tastic than The Spell was (though there’s more than a hint of the ’80s as well).

There’s a lot of Anders in this song and video, which is sort of a good thing (he’s rather cute) but at the same time a bit too much, because there’s always something rather weird about the way that guy moves and looks. Yes, we get it, Stine flying through his body might have something to do with it, but we take it she hasn’t been doing that in their past 6 videos as well.

While the shot above is rivalling Timbaland in the battle of ‘popstars pulling cringeworthy faces in music videos’, the next pic is making us wonder how small that brain has to be to have so much space around it? Sadness indeed.

We still love them though. Heatwave next please.

We need a resolution!

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:28:10 -0500

We’re a little late, but first of all, happy 2010 to everyone who didn’t get our new years tweet!

Not unlike many others we have a few resolutions for this year, our main one being to make Popsessed.com even more enjoyable for you all.
We’ve been around for three months now, and we’re starting to get a clearer idea on what does and doesn’t work, so we’ve already made quite a few plans on how we’re going to change the site this year to make it even better. But before we start shaking things up, we’d like your opinion on how you like your pop blogs.

Below is a 20 question survey that should take only a few minutes to fill in. You don’t have to be a (frequent) visitor of Popsessed to answer most questions. Just let us now what you’re ideal pop blog looks like, and we’ll try our best to become that blog for you!

That’s it!
Thanks a lot, and we hope you’ll enjoy our site even more in 2010!

Where do we go from here?

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:31:00 -0500

It’s up to you!
We’ve (almost) finished our Year 2000-special, and plan on continuing with the other 9 years (meanwhile there’ll be normal updates as well). We originally planned on going through them year by year, but since the end of 2009 is getting very near it might make sense to first focus on the past year, before continuing with the pop history of this decade.
Then again, we might be more able to properly judge this year’s material when it’s sinked in a bit, and it’s not like there aren’t enough ‘end of the year’-lists around right now..

So we figured we’d just ask our readers what they prefer!
It’s all up to you to decide what will be the main theme of our posts for the next few weeks…

2000: The Singles List

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:50:34 -0500

And the first song of the year from this decade is….

Samantha Mumba - Gotta Tell You
Released: 2 June 2000 > Uk Peak Position: #2

Why did it win?
- As you’ve read before we’re suckers for songs with an ‘if only you knew how much I love you’ theme, and this is definitely one of the best in it’s genre.
- It’s one of the strongest debut singles in pop.
- It’s not only got a killer chorus, but some killer verses and a great middle-eight as well.
- The video is pretty great as well. We’d love to have made our own version of it as a tribute, but we’d probably end up eating through a straw if we did.
- Had Britney released this it would have been a worldwide #1.
- We’re glad she didn’t cause if anything makes this song stand out it’s Miss Mumba’s vocals.
- It still sounds as great and fresh as it did back then after almost 10 years.
- We could talk for hours about it’s greatness, but the only way to see what we mean is to just play the song.. so hit that button and enjoy!!

Here’s our full Top 100 of 2000:

1. Samantha Mumba - Gotta Tell You
2. Cleopatra - Come And Get Me
3. Steps - Summer Of Love
4. Sonique - Sky
5. Britney Spears - Oops!… I Did It Again
6. *NSync - I’ll Never Stop
7. Leann Rimes - Can’t Fight The Moonlight
8. A*Teens - Upside Down
9. Steps - Stomp
10. Scooch - More Than I Needed To Know

11. The Backstreet Boys - The Call
12. The Corrs - Breathless
13. Sugababes - Overload
14. Backstreet Boys - Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonely
15. Kylie Minogue - On A Night Like This
16. Destiny’s Child - Say My Name
17. Ricky Martin - She Bangs
18. Scooch - The Best Is Yet To Come
19. Anastacia - I’m Outta Love
20. Christina Aguilera - Come On Over (All I Want Is You)

21. Britney Spears - Stronger
22. Jennifer Lopez - Let’s Get Loud
23. Precious - Rewind
24. Steps - Deeper Shade Of Blue
25. Jessica Simpson - I Think I’m In Love With You
26. Kylie Minogue - Spinning Around
27. Bon Jovi - It’s My Life
28. Jessica Folker - To Be Able To Love
29. Lolly - Per Sempre Amore (Forever In Love)
30. En Vogue - Riddle

31. Melanie C - I Turn To You
32. Aqua - Around The World
33. Backstreet Boys - The One
34. Lara Fabian - I Will Love Again
35. Pink - Most Girls
36. Kosheen - Catch
37. All Saints - Pure Shores
38. Billie Piper - Something Deep Inside
39. Britney Spears - Lucky
40. Blink 182 - All The Small Things

41. Destiny’s Child - Independent Women
42. Mya - Case Of The Ex
43. Pink - There You Go
44. Jessica Simpson - I Wanna Love You Forever
45. Melanie C - Never Be The Same Again
46. Destiny’s Child - Jumpin’ Jumpin’
47. *NSync - It’s Gonna Be Me
48. Savage Garden - Affirmation
49. Sonique - It Feels So Good
50. Mary Mary - Shackles (Praise You)

51. Geri Halliwell- Bag It Up
52. Robbie Williams & Kylie Minogue - Kids
53. S Club 7 - Reach
54. Moonbaby - Here We Go
55. All Saints - Black Coffee
56. Kandi - Don’t Think I’m Not
57. Lucy Pearl - Don’t Mess With My Man
58. Spice Girls - Let Love Lead The Way
59. Dilana Smith - Do You Now
60. Anouk - The Dark

61. Texas - When We Are Together
62. Toni Braxton - He Wasn’t Man Enough
63. Shania Twain - I’m Holding On To Love
64. Backstreet Boys - Shape Of My Heart
65. Madasun - Don’t You Worry
66. Aqua - Cartoon Heroes
67. Janet Jackson - Doesn’t Really Matter
68. The Tamperer ft. Maya - Hammer To The Heart
69. Billie Piper - Day & Night
70. M2M - Don’t Say You Love Me

71. Spice Girls - Holler
72. FTD - Follow That Dream
73. Honeyz - Won’t Take It Lying Down
74. S Club 7 - Natural
75. Enrique Iglesias - Be With You
76. M2M - The Day You Went Away
77. M2M - Mirror Mirror
78. Aaliyah - Try Again
79. No Doubt - Ex-Girlfriend
80. No Doubt - Bathwater

81. Wow! - The Night Before You Came
82. Kosheen - Hide U
83. Blaque - I Do
84. Scooch - For Sure
85. Linda - No Goodbyes
86. *NSync - Bye Bye Bye
87. Aqua - Bumble Bees
88. Moloko - The Time Is Now
89. Spiller - Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)
90. ATC - Around The World (La La La La La)

91. Five - Don’t Wanna Let You Go
92. Robbie Williams - Rock DJ
93. Madonna - Music
94. Milk Inc. - Walk On Water
95. Kelis - Caught Out There
96. Super Sister - Coffee
97. French Affair - My Heart Goes Boom
98. Dee - All The Way Up
99. Shania Twain - Don’t Be Stupid
100. Honeyz - Not Even Gonna Trip

We’ve also created a special archive where all our Remembering The 00’s-posts will be collected!

And now we’ve finished this countdown we’re really curious where you agreed and disagreed on our list, and what are your favourite songs from 2000!

2000: The Singles List (#2)

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:51:00 -0500

Cleopatra - Come And Get Me
Released: July 3, 2000
UK Peak position: #29

Why did it make the Top 10?
This is pop gold. From the piano intro through a bunch of verses and choruses, that keep building up, all the way to the piano outro, everything’s in the right place. Lyrically this is basically Push The Button 2000. The lyrics ooze confidence (‘you want me, so let’s not play hide and seek’), but the heartfelt way it’s sung reveals the real sentiment of the song is pure desperation. These girls are getting tired of playing ‘hard to get’ and still not getting the guy. Vocally the girls are pretty much on top of the game on this one as well, and if we disregard the video Come And Get Me has aged incredibly well. It truly hurts and confuses us this was their lowest charting single.

Do we like the group as much as the song?
Cleopatra were good fun at the time, but no.. We don’t think they’re even half as good as this song suggests. Not many groups are though.

Is it their best song?
Only by a mile.

Is it one of the decade’s finest moments?
Hell yeah! You’ll definitely be seeing this one back in our ’00s Top 100.

2000: The Singles List (#3)

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:28:00 -0500

Steps - Summer Of Love
Released: July 3, 2000
UK Peak position: #5

Why did it make the Top 10?
Considering they’ve got two songs in this years Top 10 we can’t really deny that our love for Steps might have something to do with Summer Of Love getting to number 3. But it’s not just a case of ‘hey, we like this band, let’s put them in there’, cause attentive readers might have noticed that the other half of this double A-side (When I Said Goodbye) didn’t even make the final top 100. We sincerely like this song, a lot. We usually prefer songs with lyrics about love/heartbreak or any sort of emotion, even when they are happy danceable songs. Somehow songs about ‘having a good time’ hardly do it for us. Summer Of Love’s one of the few exceptions: it might be because there’s still a tiny bit of sadness in the melody. In the end it’s just another irresistible popsong with an equally irresistible colourful video and a pretty epic chorus.

Do we like the artist as much as the song?
By now I guess you all know how much we love Steps, and since we consider this one of their better singles I guess you could say we love it equally.

Is it their best song?
Nope, we think they had two greatest moments, one in the ‘90’s, and one coming to you really soon in another list.

Is it one of the decade’s finest moments?
We would love to scream ‘yes!’, but it’s really just a very fine popsong, not a masterpiece. We do think it’s one of the best songs any of the cheesy popgroups from the early ’00s have come up with though.

2000: The Singles List (#4)

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 06:56:00 -0500

Sonique - Sky
Released: September 12, 2000
UK Peak position: #2

Why did it make the Top 10?
It’s not often a new artist comes out of nowhere with a number 1-smash, and follows it up with a second single that’s just as good. In this case we think it was even better than her biggest hit It Feels So Good. Sky is a danceable lovesong ánd a loveable dancesong. It’s production sounded unlike anything we’d heard before at the time (well maybe a bit like her own debut), and it still sounds very fresh and original today. Over the past few weeks we’ve noticed it can be pretty hard to put into words why a song is so brilliant, and we struggle once again, but this song really is a piece of pop art.

Do we like the artist as much as the song?
Yes. We like Sonique a lot. She seems like a lovely lady, strong and likeable at the same time, and genuinely into the music she makes.

Is it her best song?
Yes, by a mile. We love her style, she’s done lots of great songs, but this is just one of a kind.

Is it one of the decade’s finest moments?
Yes again! People will probably remember her more for It Feels So Good but Sky is not only the best thing she has recorded, but also one of the greatest pieces of pop of the past decade.

2000: The Singles List (#5)

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 07:03:00 -0500

Britney Spears - Oops!… I Did It Again
Released: May 1, 2000
UK Peak position: #1

Why did it make the Top 10?
Back in 2000 almost every artist and producer was ripping off the sound of Baby One More Time, but noone did it better than Britney herself. The genius lies in the fact that, even though it sounds very much like Baby… part 2, the sentiment of the lyrics is quite the opposite. Where we heard heartbroken Britney in Baby One More Time, in this song Britney ís the heartbreaker (a very kniving bitchy one at that!). Also, no matter how alike the two songs are, noone will hear the opening-notes of Oops.. thinking ‘hey, it’s Baby One More Time. Someone did a very good job of taking a success formula and somehow creating a just as defining classic out of it.

Do we like the artist as much as the song?
We’re no huge Britney fans in the sense that we love every thing she touches and are madly in love with the woman, but we do love a lót of her songs.. and we guess that’s enough to say: yes, we do like Britney as much as this song.

Is it her best song?
Nope. That would still be the original Baby One More Time, and there’s a handful of tracks we like more than Oops. It is one of her best singles though.

Is it one of the decade’s finest moments?
If Baby never happened it definitely would have been. Since that’s not the case it does lose some points for originality, but it’s still one of Britney’s biggest hits, and Britney’s one of the biggest popstars of the decade, so if we’d do a list of ’00s essentials, Oops would definitely be included!

2000: The Singles List (#6)

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:12:00 -0500

*NSync - I’ll Never Stop
Released: June 26, 2000
UK Peak position: #13

Why did it make the Top 10?
This is a rather random inclusion. If we look at the best written or produced Max Martin/boyband-single of 2000 Backstreet Boys’ The Call and Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonely are actually a lot better. But formulaic as it might be, there’s something about I’ll Never Stop that keeps us coming back to it, even after ten years. The theme of the lyrics might help a bit.. blame it on our sucky lovelife, but we really love desperate ‘please love me’-kind of songs.

Do we like the artist as much as the song?
Definitely not. Which makes it even more surprising we like this song so much. They had a few nice singles (only their uptempos really), but none of the members ever felt extremely attractive, talented or interesting to us. Not even Justin.

Is it their best song?
It is the one we like the best, but 2001’s Pop is definitely more of a creative peak for them.

Is it one of the decade’s finest moments?
Like a lot of 2000’s songs this song’s sound is more defining of pop in the 90’s than the ’00s, and as we said before it’s not the most original or clever piece of songwriting either. So no, we love this song to bits, and it might even make our decade top 100, but it’s not one of the most brilliant songs from the noughties.

2000: The Singles List (#7)

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:06:00 -0500

Leann Rimes - Can’t Fight The Moonlight
Released: November 13, 2000
UK Peak position: #1

Why did it make the Top 10?
You can try to resist… No point, cause this song’s rather irresistable.
Diane Warren penned quite a few classic ballads, but this song proved she can do more uptempo-songs just as well. From the opening-notes to the little keychange and adlibs in the end, every bit is in the right place on this song. We can’t put our finger on what exactly makes this song so brilliant.. we guess it’s just a really well-written song, and there’s something very timeless about the tune ánd the production.. In a way it sounds like it could have been recorded in the early 90’s, but at the same time it doesn’t sound very aged at all. And then there’s the lovers-lyrics that will appeal to anyone who ever spotted someone they liked. Classic.

Do we like the artist as much as the song?
Nope. Before Can’t Fight.. we didn’t care about Leann at all, and after it we still didn’t really. We’ve never wished someone else had recorded the song, but had it been the case we’d probably have liked it just as much.

Is it her best song?
Yes. Although she had a few very good singles after it (we’re pretty sure at least two more will show up in charts for other years), if we had to pick one single to represent Leann’s carreer, this would be it.

Is it one of the decade’s finest moments?
Yes, the song’s a proper classic. If we’d ask 100 people to name the most memorable songs of this decade it probably wouldn’t get a mention, but we’re pretty sure if we reminded the same 100 people of the song a lot of them would go “o yes, that was a great song!”. And it really was.

2000: The Singles List (#8)

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 07:17:00 -0500

A*Teens - Upside Down
Released: December 4, 2000
UK Peak position: #10

Why did it make the Top 10?
Upside Down was the band’s first original single, and it wasn’t a step back from the quality of their previous singles, which is quite an accomplishment considering all their previous material had been ABBA-songs. The song’s extremely catchy, has a keychange, a good slowed down middle-eight, and basically all you could wish for in a popsong, and it still sounds a bit like ABBA without being a case of “OMG, they’re still ripping of ABBA!!”.

Do we like the band as much as the song?
We definitely love this song more than we’ve ever loved the A*Teens. They’ve done quite a few great songs, but even after their ABBA-era they did a few too many cheesy covers, and none of the members ever really appealed to us. (Though Marie Serneholt was pretty good solo, but we’ll get back to that in our 2006-list!)

Is it their best song?
It’s definitely up there, but they did have a pretty great single in 2001 as well, and then there’s the one albumtrack that might come even Closer To Perfection.

Is it one of the decade’s finest moments?
In the bubblegum teenpop-genre (that’s more ’90s than ’00s) we think this has been one of this decade’s finest moments, but it hardly had the success or impact to consider it a proper ’00s classic.

2000: The Singles List (#9)

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 07:13:00 -0500

Steps - Stomp
Released: October 16, 2000
UK Peak position: #1

Why did it make the Top 10?
We love Steps, we love strings in popmusic. This song featured both.

Do we like the band as much as the song?
No, we liked Steps way more than this song. Despite being one of their two number 1-singles in the UK Stomp is hardly the best thing they’ve released. But even when they weren’t on top of their game Steps were pretty good at delivering perfect poptunes, and this one’s no exception.

Is it one of the decade’s finest moments?
If we had to represent the ’00s with a list of our favourite tunes Steps would be in there, but Stomp probably wouldn’t because they’ve done better songs. Even though it was a number one for them we doubt this is one of the songs they will be most remembered for either.
Still it’s a pretty fine tune and definitely one of our favourite singles from 2000 though.

Meet Melanie Fiona

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 08:09:27 -0500

Her album’s been out for 6 months now, but since she isn’t exactly setting the charts on fire we have a feeling there’s quite a lot of people out there who could love Melanie Fiona, but don’t yet because they don’t even know she exists.

In short, she’s yet another girl releasing a ’00s soul-influenced album, not completely unlike VV Brown, MPHO and Duffy. Her album The Bridge is more traditional soul than VV’s and MPHO’s offerings, but still undeniably pop with some very strong tunes. Out of the ones we mentioned we believe Melanie has got the strongest album, so it’s a bit of a shame she’s the least succesful and least known girl out of the bunch.

New single Monday Morning was our instant favourite on the album, and somehow got her her first number 1 in Switzerland. Quite random, but very deserving.
Now if only the rest of the world would follow…

A preview of the full album can be found here.

2000: The Singles List (#10)

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:39:00 -0500

Scooch - More Than I Needed To Know
Released: January 17, 2000
UK Peak position: #5

Why did it make the Top 10?
We’re suckers for the ‘upbeat song with sad lyrics’-Abba-formula. And even though More Than I Needed To Know is no One For Sorrow it did a great job of capturing everything we like about this sort of song. It’s happy, it’s sad, it’s extremely catchy, it was one of our most played singles in 2000, and even though it’s clearly showing it’s age we still love it.

Do we like the band as much as the song?
Nope. We never really cared about Scooch, and looking at their videos makes us cringe. And it’s not just because they’re very early ’00s and cheesy, cause we still love Steps’ videos. It doesn’t take away the fact we really liked their album, but if this song had actually been recorded by a band we liked it might have even made this year’s top 5.

Is it their best song?
Yes. With only one album of material that’s no huge accomplishment, but this is definitely the song that got us into them, and the standout on their album Four Sure.

Is it one of the decade’s finest moments?
No, we have to be honest here: even though we love the song to bits, it’s hardly a genius piece of songwriting or something we’d play to someone next decade to convince them how great pop was back in the ’00s. It’s here because it’s catchy as hell, but let’s not pretend it’s more than that.