Europop Vs Alan
(This is a CD-R I made for Alan’s birthday, but I haven’t been able to give it to him yet. Thankyou to the several websites some tracks were plundered from – you know who you are.)
ANNIE – “Heartbeat”: best track by Norwegian ILM darling. Chorus like a sunrise in your head.
TROLL – “Jimmy Dean”: energetic Scando-stomper about a boy next door who looks like Jimmy Dean. Key line: “If I could wear his pants”
DR ALBAN – “Sing Hallelujah”: pancontinental hit by ice-cool dentist and NYLPM favourite Alban. Gospel and house piano, yum yum.
MELODIE MC – “Give It Up (Denniz Pop Mix)”: Very fast Swedish rapper, soaring chorus, backing vocals which sound like Borat’s “wawoweewo” excited noise.
SALMA AND SABINA – “Pehli Pehli Preet”: Tangentially Euro but so lovely it had to go on, this is ABBA in Hindi. Also: wow!.
LEILA K – “Check The Dan”: Leila’s deliciously gruff voice, a digi-ragga-house groove, a nonsense title, if this doesn’t get you going what will?
BEGINNER – “Gustav Gans”: German pop-hop, wonderful shoulder-shrugging sunny day music.
ALCAZAR – “Physical”: who doesn’t love Alcazar? “Never needed real emotion” – bonus track from new issue of recent album, bit of a grower.
THE KNIFE – “Heartbeats (Rex The Dog Mix)”: another big ILM favourite, like a lost ZTT track rediscovered and rebooted.
E-TYPE – “Here I Go Again”: what would a Europop CD be without a massive eurodisco cover version, this time of Whitesnake. All buttons pushed. (may not be by E-Type)
REDNEX – “Spirit Of The Hawk”: Native American trance-pop epic, a sidestep into kitsch I admit.
CORTEZ – “What U Get Is What U C”: very nasal non-rap with big chorus. Big on the Mediterranean dancefloors.
ALCAZAR – “Seasons In The Sun”: needs no introduction. Oddly restrained.
DR ALBAN – “Let The Beat Go On”: has that strange urgency so much Europop shares, as if the night might end any minute.
THE PARADE – “Terrorise The Dancefloor”: no little Englander I! Britain is part of Europe, we just don’t often do its pop very well. This band were on the same label as the Stone Roses, remarkably! Should have been an ENORMOUS hit.
MYLENE FARMER – “Libertine”: maybe the best thing on this CD, magnificent defiant smouldering diva-pop in the language of love. If TaTu ever reform…
B-BOYS – “Shake Da Body (Rich Girl)” – reggaeton-sounding thing with a ragga sample and a posh singer – hip-grabbing stuff.
BECOME ONE – “Bop Til You Drop”: as straightforward and guileless as the title suggests.
HITCH-HIKE – “Travel Girl”: outrageous talkover bubblegum house.
VANILLA NINJA – “Club Kung Fu”: kind of like a bubblerock version of Daphne And Celeste’s Japanese one, this is what Josie And The Pussycats thought they sounded like.