Wednesday 30 March 2016

Tunes I'm currently loving // 2016 // Volume 3

1. Poli Genova - If Love Was A Crime 
2. All Saints - One Strike 
3. Frans - If I Were Sorry 
4. SaRaha - Kizunguzungu 
5. Ira Losco - Walk On Water 
6. Great Good Fine Ok - Already Love 
7. Frances - Don't Worry About Me 
8. All Saints - One Woman Man 
9. Joe & Jake - You're Not Alone 
10. Sia feat Sean Paul - Cheap Thrills 
11. Martin Garrix feat John & Michel - Now That I've Found You 
12. Mike Posner - I Took A Pill In Ibiza (SeeB Remix) 
13. Kaliopi - Dona 
14. Blonde & Craig David - Nothing Like This 
15. Amaryllis - Kick The Habit 
16. Amir - Jai Cherché 
17. Tinie Tempah feat Zara Larsson - Girls Like 
18. Birdy - Beautiful Lies 
19. Elliphant feat Skrillex - Spoon Me 
20. Agnete - Icebreaker

Bulgaria are not exactly well known for incredible Eurovision entries, their best for me being 2007's Water by Elitsa & Stoyan. However, that track is rather blown out of the water by 2011 entrant Poli Genova's second contest outing. If Love Was A Crime is a great contemporary piano and sax-based pop track that sounds like a lost Scandipop classic, yet with an added sprinkling of the Bulgarian language in the chorus. Fantastic and my favourite entry of this year as it currently stands.


Also representing Eurovision in this top 20 are Sweden's Melodifestivalen winner, the divisive If I Were Sorry by Frans - a Swedish take on the acoustic pop sound currently popular thanks to the likes of Justin Bieber and Shawn Mendes. He's amongst the favourites to win and the track has already charted in a few countries. It's love/hate, but I'm leaning towards the former, it's an earworm. Meanwhile, Malta's fantastic Ira Losco finally returns after 14 years with the Sigma/Rudimental-esque Walk On Water, the UK have for once got a decent entry of our own in Joe & Jake's One Direction-esque You're Not Alone and Macedonia have delivered their best entry in years in the form of the dramatic Dona by returning Kaliopi.


France have got a brilliant entry this year courtesy of Amir with Jai Cherché while Norway have caused a stir by delivering a 2-in-1 sort of song, where brilliant verses and an anthemic chorus collide, despite not really suiting each other. Neverthless, the end result of Agnete's Icebreaker is enjoyable. Onto the songs that were in the running but didn't make it to the contest, unknown SaRaha delivered a Melodifestivalen highlight in the joyous tribal pop form of Kizunguzungu while Belgium threw away something really rather interesting in Kick The Habit by Amaryllis.


Outside of Eurovision, the fantastic British/Canadian girl group All Saints have launched another stellar comeback, with two great tracks already; One Strike and One Woman Army. Classy as hell, it's the classic All Saints sound of the Saints and Sinners mould but brought bang up to date in a subtle way. American duo Great Good Fine Ok's Already Love meanwhile sounds like a lost Blue classic from 2002, if they'd recorded electronic music at the time, right from the intro through to the Lee Ryan-esque falsetto in the catchy chorus. Rising young talent Frances has released some great tracks already but she's unleashed her best yet with Don't Worry About Me, which sounds like an instant classic of a piano ballad, really stunning


Otherwise unmentioned are Sia's smash hit Cheap Thrills, the single version of which features an effective refrain from Sean Paul, Mike Posner's infectious current UK No.1 I Took A Pill In Ibiza (SeeB Remix), Blonde and Craig David's throwback collaboration Nothing Like This, sounding like another lost classic from 2000, and Tinie Tempah's collaboration with Swedish starlet Zara Larsson, Girls Like. Meanwhile, Birdy has delivered a rather brilliant third album in Beautiful Lies and the title track is indeed beautiful. Swedish singer Elliphant's Spoon Me is both effortlessly cool and catchy, thanks in no small part to production touches from Skrillex. And sounding straight out of early 2014, I still love Martin Garrix and John Martin and hence their collaboration with Michel, Now That I've Found You, is very much up my street.