It’s summer and the best voices soar on a clear sunny day…
BETTY WHO “Somebody Loves You”
Australia has given us another divine new voice in the form of singer Betty Who, who dropped her EP The Distance amid oodles of praise. Add my endorsement – “Somebody Loves You” is a sparkling single that could weave its spell in the same way that Katy Perry’s best singles can overtake you. And while this single just glows, the EP, which is free for the downloading right here, shows much depth that will make her a keeper in the pop world.
SAM DICKINSON “How It Used To Be”
Sam Dickinson is a new British blue-eyed soul singer based out of Newcastle. Stop. “New British blue-eyed soul singer” is almost always a good sign for me with music, but even with that positive heads up, young Sam has a unique, powerhouse voice that will blow the roof off your local club. Take heavy doses of 80’s Simply Red and Style Council via contemporary dance tunes and add significant inspiration from the Atlantic/Stax era of the late 60’s, and you will hear where Sam Dickinson is coming from in “How It Used To Be”, from his forthcoming album The Stories That Occurred, which is due in two weeks. I will have the scoop on that album for you closer to that time.
LAWSON “Missing”
Just in advance of yesterday’s official UK and Australian release of “Brokenhearted” (featuring B.o.B.) (which I wrote about right here), promising UK quartet Lawson treated us to an acoustic performance of Everything But The Girl’s classic 1995 hit “Missing”. This is particularly impressive because the original version of “Missing”, from EBTG’s Amplified Heart album, was acoustic. But all eyes and ears are on singer Andy Brown, who embodies this cover with passion and desperation, very unlike the original. I hope they perform it in concert when I see them again in late August. In fact, the boys can take it as an official request – pretty please 🙂
SIMON CURTIS “Meteor”
Lately, one of our favourite American wunderkinds of this decade, Simon Curtis, has been chatting on Twitter about how one of his songs called “Meteor” was excerpted in a new TV show called “Twisted”. Yesterday, he let on that the song was available on the Internet to hear, for those that could find it! Always up to a challenge, I have indeed located this frenzied bit of arpeggio-laden Swedish-influenced pop, which according to the Soundcloud link was discreetly posted about 10 months ago. Even if it may not receive official release, it’s certainly way beyond a lot of the fluffy Europop that will grace your ears this summer. A very shiny sign of good things to come from Simon’s work-in-progress.
BAC2SSENTIAL featuring CHARLY MAE “Waiting For You”
Though I’m still digging her anthemic “Girls Go Hard”, UK singer Charly Mae has lent her big, big voice for the first time to a deep house club banger courtesy of Bac2ssential called “Waiting For You”. It’s got that familiar, infectious house bounce that is slayed by Charly Mae’s engaging vocal. Dance club DJ’s shouldn’t overlook this one.
MY FAVOURITES OF THE FIRST HALF OF 2013
Songs (in alphabetical order)
BEGGING Anton Ewald
BLUE ELECTRIC ROSES Travis Garland
CAPTAIN FrankMusik
THE CITY River Tiber
CLARITY Zedd featuring Foxes
GET LUCKY Daft Punk featuring Nile Rodgers & Pharrell Williams
LEARN TO LOVE AGAIN Lawson
LIFTED Kwik Fiks & Bongiovanni
MAP FrankMusik
MY GIRL Willy Moon
1998 Matthew Koma
OUTTA MY MIND Matt Blue
PARACHUTE Matthew Koma
PLAY THE GIRL Tao Hypah
SAIL INTO THE SUN Gentlemen Hall
SOMEBODY TO LOVE ME Eli Escobar featuring Nomi Ruiz
VOCAL Pet Shop Boys
A WORLD APART Davis Redfield
YEAH YEAH Willy Moon
YOUR TOUCH Blake Lewis
Albums (alphabetical by performer)
MATT DUSK My Funny Valentine: The Chet Baker Songbook
FRANKMUSIK Between
TRAVIS GARLAND Fashionably Late II (EP)
MATTHEW KOMA Parachute (EP)
MIGUEL Kaleidoscope Dream
WILLY MOON Here’s Willy Moon
JARELL PERRY Simple Things (EP)
THE PRESETS Pacifica
RIVER TIBER Synapses
KIM SMITH Nova
ANDY SUZUKI & THE METHOD Born Out Of Mischief
BILLCSMUSIC BLOG 