Everywhere I go, I pray for universal love.

Before we get too far here, I know.

Bring up Aqua, and it's either love or hate for Barbie Girl. 

So let's be crystal clear again, I'm a big fan. While there's plenty of good melodic angst out there, music can, and should be, just plain fun sometimes! 

These Scandinavian popsters ran with the crazy well before we had the Haus of Gaga. Almost anything off their two albums from the late 1990s and early 2000s will make me smile when it pops up on a playlist, and the neon videos are a hoot! All of this should come as no surprise, since I've said all this before.

It's not just the crazy that endeared me, though. For every song about plastic dolls, candy or cartoon heroes, there were also a few killer less-sugary tracks to balance the palate.

With the band back together more permanently it seems, and about to release a third new album, they have a new single out, and Playmate to Jesus, is a pleasant surprise more along the lines of Turn Back Time, We Belong to the Sea or the more-recent My Mamma Said than to anything technicolor.

Playmate to Jesus

But yeah, it's still Aqua and it does head into the planets, so not too serious either!

Their new album Megalomania is out October 3. I can't find a U.S. date is confirmed, but I already have my signed copy preordered straight from Denmark!

Don’t mind me, if we need no I.D.

If you've stuck around here this long, you already know about Frankmusik. And it's fitting that he was one of the last posts on here before I, um, got distracted?

Since The Fear Inside, he has been ramping up his second album, which finally drops later this month.

The album's title track, Do It In The AM, has worn down the gears of my old iPod this summer -- always making me bob the ol' head a bit. It's a great collaboration with Far East Movement.

Now he's back with something completely different, with another fellow Cherrytree label-mate. Can you just feel the corporate synergy thumping on this album? No matter, Collette Carr does just fine by me on the track.

A little mellower, with a strange Grease-Is-The-Word vibe in the video, No I.D. is clearly a more mainstream attempt to get Vincent Frank front-and-center here in America.

If these two singles are a sign of what's to come, I can't wait for the album! Even better, the release date coincides with his Denver show, opening for Erasure at The Ogden Theater. I'll be there!

No I.D.


Do It In The A.M.

Wet Paint.

Let's just call it unsure as to whether things will ever still run as usual over here at RandomTope, but the place begged for a new paint job.

So here it is. Enjoy!

We'll just have to wait and see what -- if anything more -- shows up around here!

Thanks for checking by!

-Tope

Breaking the chain, because love isn't meant to complain.

I have a hit or miss relationship with Canadian electrofunkers Chromeo.

Throw in a dash of Elly Jackson (of La Roux fame) and suddenly I tilt back in their favor again.

Of course, they didn't bother to splice her into the old video of the song they had her join in on, but this Hot Mess is a much improved endeavor regardless.

It's a shame the online stores only have the old Elly-free version, so far.

No time for cameras, we’ll use our eyes instead!

I guess it's hard to top stripping naked in Times Square, so why not beat the crap out of each other?

So it is with Matt & Kim and their video for Cameras, even if it does veer into sort of creepy domestic band violence territory

The video's fine, but if you haven't seen these two in person, you're really missing out on one of the highest energy live sets out there! You'll get your chance again in May when they drag out their keyboards and drums again for their Sidewalks tour.

Love it!

I'm a bad girl. Oh! Oh! (Woop!)

How about some still-percolating Robyn from last year to kick off some new music for 2011.

This is the new clip for her collaboration with Savage Skulls and Douster that came out last year. It certainly looks like the full court Robyn press continues! It'll help when her next official Body Talk single hits as well.

Bad Gal

Now someone explain to me why she hasn't exploded here yet?

And you sway in the moon, the way you did when you were younger.

Duran Duran just keep on ticking, and it's usually in an interesting direction. While their 80s classics are still the high point in their career to me, I have really enjoyed their more recent forays back into the pop universe.

Both 2004's Astronaut, and to a slightly lesser extent 2007's Red Carpet Massacre, were relevant albums from a band some have confined to the dustbin of "when MTV still played music."

So it's with a raised eyebrow to see them pairing with Mark Ronson on their latest album, All You Need is Now. If there's anything I've learned over the past few years, when you have a band or singer you already like, and you mix them with a little Ronson it's usually well worth a listen.

The album's title track took a few plays for me to get the hang of it, and the video below helps a lot. It's a driving little return from an 80s band thats survived, and I'm really liking it!



Apparently the world agrees. The album's rocketing to number one on itunes charts worldwide.

Brand new year, coming up ahead...

With a little help from The Killers, wishing everyone the happiest of holidays, whatever you celebrate!

Boots

Fear inside of me, oh, fear inside of me!

Back in 2009, I was pretty infatuated with Frankmusik, a British newcomer who knew his way around a good beat.

Well Vincent Frank is back, and I'm liking what I'm hearing for round two.

The Fear Inside is a great tease for what's to come, I'm hoping in 2011...

I, I, I, Went to Tokyo!

Since we're on a Tokyo kick right now, and it's a fitting bookend to 2010, here's the other Tokyo song by Telekinesis that's been on iPod repeat ever since we got back from Japan...

Why don't we go to Tokyo?

A Spanish group, singing in English about taking a trip to Tokyo?

That's about all I really know about The Pinker Tones, and their new single Tokyo.

While I've never heard of them, they've been around for a while, so it sounds like I have some catching up to do.

In the meantime, enjoy their super-clever, catchy Japanese paper-riff.

I'm your prostitute, you gon' get some.

I liked Lykke Li's debut album well enough, but the more I listened to it, I found it a little twee for my taste. Let's call it a little too sweet-tart upon repeat spins.

Well, she's back, and surprisingly has some real swagger along with some tribal beats. The Swedish singer toughens up a bit with her bold new single Get Some, and I like it!

Her new album, Wounded Rhymes, drops next year. Suddenly, I'm piqued.

Rolling in the deep, tears are gonna fall.

When Britain's soulful Adele first made it across the Atlantic a few years back it was easy to lose her in the shadow of the Amy Winehouse's invasion of the airwaves.

I found it hard not to compare the two singers, and frankly, for me, Amy Winehouse could do no wrong in that period before she spiralled into tabloid crack-whore infamy.

So it's refreshing to be caught off guard now by Rolling in the Deep, Adele's sorrowful yet thumping lead single off her new album, 21. A little melancholy suits her, along with a gorgeous video that proves you don't necessarily need pyrotechnics, when you got the pipes to sell the song all on its own.

Awesome.

Amy who?

2010 in Film, Condensed

The year in cinema. Quickly.

I see my demons and I just can't hide.

So yesterday, I came across a nifty little video by British electronic outfit Fenech-Soler, a group I'd never really heard about before.

But seeing as my musical tastes are rarely more than a few degrees separated, it should come as no surprise that I may not know the group, but I do know the voice.

So don't be surprised if while listening to Demons, you are reminded of Groove Armada's killer track from earlier this year, Paper Airplanes.

It's the same lead singer.

Enjoy!

Fenech-Soler, welcome to my radar.