#xenomania

[vincentspork]

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Written by Miranda Cooper/Brian Higgins/Matt Gray Produced, arranged and mixed by Brian Higgins and Matt Gray for Xenomania music, 2000

[moonsandmelodies]

Heart Beat Rock: Dance-Pop Divas of the 2000's

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Track listing

caught in the middle + ace reject - SUGABABES / get over you - SOPHIE ELLIS-BEXTOR / nic o mnie nie wiecie + leniviec - RENI JUSIS / maybe - EMMA BUNTON / betcha neva - CHERIE / can't speak french + it's magic - GIRLS ALOUD / good boys - BLONDIE / wild - NAMIE AMURO / ride a white horse - GOLDFRAPP / look on the floor (hypnotic tango) - BANANARAMA / heart beat rock - KYLIE / romeo - BASEMENT JAXX / cry for you - SEPTEMBER / experimenting with rugs + left too late - FLORRIE / off and on + let me know - ROISIN MURPHY / funny how - RACHEL STEVENS / do you believe me now? + come and get it - DANNII MINOGUE / will you remember me tomorrow? - MARGARET BERGER / serious - GWEN STEFANI / girl like you - BERTINE ZETLITZ / say it right - NELLY FURTADO / love don't live here - LADYHAWKE

Can’t get enough of this stuff? I have an entire RYM list about it too..

More mixes and pop/electronic music at my Wordpress

[xeno-fluff]

Releasing my first EP in a long time! I really hope you enjoy it, and it would mean a lot to me to hear how it makes you feel.

[groovesnjams]

GROOVES n jams S.O.T.Y. 2021

|||||||||||||||||||| HONORABLE |||||||||||||||||||| mention |||||||||||||||||||||

“Hours” by Florrie

DV:

The best of the nine(!) standalone singles that Florrie’s released since 2019, “Hours” is a song about growth and acceptance and the realization that our past relationships are part of us for better and worse. Which is all very nice, almost to a fault, especially when paired with the kind of smooth 80s-revival production that Xenomania perfected more than a decade ago, including on Florrie’s own songs. “Hours” is catchy! But who is it for, and why? I’m putting Florrie in the “honorable mention” slot here because I’ve enjoyed everything she released this year; I’m also doing it because I want to express how strange it is to hear one of the Next Big Things(TM) of 2010 still going in this direction. “Hours” translates a complicated concept into a three minute bop, but it’d be stronger if it was stranger: if it dug deeper in the bridge, if Florrie pushed her vocal beyond the functional, if the production took even the slightest of chances. As Florrie passes a decade as a solo artist it’s both fascinating and confusing to think through who she’s releasing merely good songs for. Maybe it’s just for herself - that’s fair enough, but she was putting out “experiments” years ago that sounded much more interesting than this, so it’s bizarre that she’s triangulated to a simpler, more mainstream approach. And alternately, none of these songs seem like they’re designed to actually be hits in the landscape of 2021: their production is firmly, generically “80s revival” when the Now Sound has moved on; their promo pushes are afterthoughts. “Hours” is fun and notable and on this list, but it’s here because every decision that went into its creation inexorably emphasizes how much more Florrie is capable of.

[getthrawnin]

Aliit Vucon'ocir - The Decadent Chiss

Aliit Vucon’ocir – The Decadent Chiss

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[thesinglesjukebox]

UNPERFECT - GOTS TO GIVE THE GIRL [6.64] Presumably they'll have a webpage at some point that isn't that of this Italian band...

Katherine St Asaph: Unperfect is a new Xenomania girl group, or as the Fader puts it, "the British pop equivalent of a new royal baby." At least it would have been in 2009. What 2019 will make of it, I don't know, though it's a bad omen that a whole damn Mutya Keisha Siobhan album went up online last month to silence, as did other singles by their girl-band peers. It's also a bad omen, but shouldn't be, that "Gots to Give the Girl" isn't a banger but a languid outing like "Overload" or "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)", full of sprawling solos, little vocalises, and an actual bridge. The singers' verses don't vary melodically but do build on one another -- note how Siobhan's "when she says jump" morphs into Chloe's "you ask how high" -- and the resulting lyric is slyly, more uncompromisingly independent than the blaring likes of "Bo$$." [9]

Josh Love: Listening to tons of wannabe chart-toppers with hooks and choruses that are precisely spring-loaded for maximum attention-grabbing impact gives me great appreciation for any pop tune that takes such a distinctly indirect approach. "Gots to Give the Girl" is refreshingly moody and unhurried, organically flowing from a coffeehouse '90s Martina Topley-Bird vibe into something a little more conventionally R&B (nodding to how conversant Unperfect antecedents like Girls Aloud and Sugababes were with that genre) and then tossing a sinuous guitar solo into the mix for good measure. [7]

Pedro João Santos: Sugababes' debut One Touch never fails to amaze me at how sobering and antithetical it is compared to their (some brilliant, some passable) remaining discs. I wouldn't be shocked to see its cover sleeve hanging on the walls of the studio where Unperfect recorded this--or attic, judging from the deliberately lo-fi feel, which carries on to the sweetly awkward, unintentionally hilarious video. It's earnest, sobered-up and self-conscious, but unfortunately for these new girls, their vocals really don't gel, like they were joined together in Audacity. Not every girl group can arrive as neat and tight as the Sugas, but they have time. (Also, another reminiscence of MKS is very "thanks, but painful.") [6]

Thomas Inskeep: "All Saints on a handful of Xanax" isn't what I expected from Xenomania's latest discoveries. Or what I wanted. [2]

Alfred Soto: The pseudo-musty mix given the rhythm section is a mid-'00s affectation, and the Bee Gees falsetto calls needless attention to itself. A lot of care went into creating a song this annoying. [4]

Iris Xie: The falsetto that comes in is infectious and provides some acidic sweetness and contrast to the woozy guitar and casual vocals. The best part about this song is how it constantly rolls forward, from an "ooh ooh" that makes you do a little shoulder dance and head sway, to a guitar solo that adds some bright texture. I also appreciate the lower, smooth tones of the singers -- they sound at ease and comfortable in their own bodies and attitudes. This is music for a post-brunch stroll amongst the Mission District murals, then hopping over to Dolores Park to chill out on the lawn and watch the sways and rhythms of folks relaxing, all the while eating strawberry balsamic vinegar ice cream sandwiches. [8]

Iain Mew: A slow-mo skeleton of a banger, with sonic elaboration mercilessly removed to 1) imagine anything you like in its place 2) notice all the structural elaboration more easily. I prefer not having to do so much of the work, but at least what is there is interestingly unpredictable. When this train comes I don't know the destination. [5]

Will Adams: I've got to give it up for the confidence in having a girl group's opening statement be this reserved, at least on the surface. "Gots to Give the Girl" is challenging in the best way, setting off pop fans' alarm bells and subverting expectations -- where's the chorus? The arrangement stays the same throughout! It just trails off into nothing at the end! -- in a way that beguiles the listener, proving there's power in subtlety. [7]

Ian Mathers: I hate to be a sucker for Xenomania, but the only mark against this for me is that the closed loop(s) of the production feel so perfectly, hypnotically stripped back and yet complete (and all four singers sound so great over it) that when they start changing it up at about 2:30 I was the slightest bit disappointed. This is also why the instrumental outro, which could easily not have worked, is just fine with me. Even with a mark this high, I suspect I might be underrating this song. [9]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: A song that makes you hate the world because a debut girl group single that's as understated as this could never find major success. I love how the vocals are mixed, how carefree they sound. "Gots to Give the Girl" is so unconcerned with making a major statement that it makes me care all the more for its existence. [7]

Danilo Bortoli: Glenn McDonald ran his The War Against Silence column for several years. It started out as a sort of consumer guide, but slowly became a collection of essays intertwining music and life, in which the former was contextualized by the latter, then a place where life was a mere excuse for music, as it should be. In my favorite piece, he likens pop music to some sort of Cartesian plane: there are different axes for different qualities, but perfection resides over at a corner "where songs sparkle conspiratorially like diamonds tossed on the bubbles of champagne at the first perfect picnic after the thaw, where voices are silk and silver and magnesium flares, where guitars are the sound of angels' wings strumming the bars of the mortal cage." That is not my definition of "perfect pop™" though, which shows how pernicious and individualistic the concept can be. Mine is synonymous with Xenomania: exuberant and almost ridiculously nonsensical bubblegum pop. But it is also classicist (Girls Aloud were closer to the Supremes than the Sugababes were to All Saints), which is to say that the usual Xenomania style of production and craft looked forward to the future as much as it looked behind at the past. ("No Good Advice" and "The Loving Kind" act as proof.) So it's weird to listen to unperfect's "Gots to Give the Girl" and perceive the nostalgia in a sound that was already nostalgic. The single is glossy and calculated as can be, but still contradicts what you'd expect from a girl group in 2019. Just as indie was trying to create its own variation of popstars back in the beginning of the decade, pop was busy adapting and branching out. And branching out now, for Xenomania, means saluting an era that then seemed innovative and now strikes as minimalistic. Perfect pop might not always be that fixed point on that Cartesian plane. It's cyclical. And this time around, perfection might reside in recontextualizing the epitome of yesteryears in more palatable ways, making you long for something you had never heard before. [9]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]

[listentothecountdown-blog]

2611. Pet Shop Boys - ‘Did You See Me Coming?’ (2009)

I’m not superstitious, or really religious Just “to thyself be true” But now I think I’m starting to believe in fate Because it delivered you

from the album Yes

At first, I was puzzled by the decision to lift ‘Did You See Me Coming?’ as the second single from Yes - Pet Shop Boys had just achieved about as big of a hit as you could expect from them in 2009 (top 20) with ‘Love Etc.’, and had performed a hits-heavy medley at the BRITs which included both that song and fellow Yes track ‘All Over The World’, so surely the latter was the obvious follow-up choice? In the decade (!) that has passed, however, I’m happy to say I was wrong, and while ‘All Over The World’ remains an anthemic crowd-pleaser, the less conspicuous ‘Did You See Me Coming?’ is the better song.

In its original form, ‘Did You See Me Coming?’ is a bouncy, guitar-driven love story with a strong, catchy melody and a lyrical mix of PSB-isms and classic romance, the kind of ultra-pop statement they had been avoiding for almost the entire previous decade, instead occupying themselves with more downtempo guitar-based work (Release) or tough, spooky electronica (Fundamental). A lot of Yes was in a similar vein thanks to its producers, Xenomania, who had spent the past few years ruling British pop with Girls Aloud and Sugababes, but for those who missed the darker, harder side of PSB, the B-sides and remixes of ‘Did You See Me Coming?’ offered much to enjoy.

Every night is Friday night Welcome to my life

To talk about ‘Did You See Me Coming?’ is really to talk about two songs - the album version, a lyrical meet-cute with a sing-a-long chorus, and the “PSB Possibly More Mix”, a remix helmed by the Boys themselves that heads into much seedier territory: the world of personal ads and online dating. The nearly nine-minute mix, driven by a thumping beat and electro riff, has very little in common with the LP version of ‘Did You See Me Coming?’, though it does still include many of its best moments. As the instrumental swirls into a frenzy, Neil recites snippets of hypothetical advertisements (“Varied interests/Sincere guy/Time wasters/Need not apply”) highlighting the use of strange, specific language in this often depressing world of hopeful romantics. It’s a genius spin on the original, and it was a great bonus for fans, who received two wildly different interpretations of the same theme.

As if that wasn’t enough, the release of ‘Did You See Me Coming?’ also included not one, not two, but three top-tier B-sides. ‘The Former Enfant Terrible’, my favourite of the three, is the story of an anti-establishment hero of yesteryear who finds that his music and image have become exactly what he rallied against in his younger days, while ‘Up And Down’ was a slightly menacing but infectious track that received a great Tom Stephan remix (with an ‘Opportunities’ sample). The third B-side, ‘After The Event’, about the over-the-top public grief that comes after a beloved celebrity dies, always sticks in my mind, not just because it’s a slightly creepy depiction of a society gone slightly mad, but because I first heard it on June 26, 2009 - the day that the ‘Did You See Me Coming?’ singles arrived on my doorstep from Amazon, and the date (in Australia) that Michael Jackson died.

The level of effort that was put into this single release - the original, the remixes, the three B-sides, the remixes of the B-sides, the audio of the BRITs medley, a remix of an album track, two CDs, three digital bundles - makes it a contender for the most jam-packed moment of fan-service in pop history, and it stands as a tribute to the concept of the “single” itself, which had already changed considerably by mid-2009. I was so thrilled, at the time, to get such a wealth of material, that ‘Did You See Me Coming?’ itself almost got lost in the shuffle (indeed, it’s almost been pushed out of focus in this very post), but once the dust had settled, it has revealed itself as one of my favourite 21st century PSB tracks - in any form, it still feels fresh and vibrant, just like the story of new love it so skilfully brings to life.

‘Did You See Me Coming?’ music video:

Chart peak: UK #21

Written by Richard Eric, 9/1/19

[zeballos-monsters]

Drawing Alien: Internecivus Raptus - H.R.Giger Alien, 1979.