And the statue for narrowly missing out on a scandalous red carpet wardrobe malfunction goes to Katy Perry! The purple-haired “Part Of Me” songstress was at the Hollywood & Highland complex last night for the ASCAP Pop Music Awards, which honor songwriters and publishers each year, when her dress strap began to fall off her shoulder. Thankfully she avoided an embarrassing slip, and so we should probably just get to the real news (oh, that) — the big winners at the event.

Katy Perry: Hottest Photos

15 Photos »

Bruno Mars had the honor of being awarded ASCAP’s Song Of The Year, for his lovey-dovey pop jam “Just The Way You Are”. Meanwhile, like last year, Max Martin was named Songwriter Of The Year, for penning hits for Ke$ha, Britney Spears and Katy Perry.

Carly Simon nabbed ASCAP’s Founders Award, while Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor was honored with the organization’s Golden Note Award.

“That compliment means a lot to me [because] songwriting is a thing that I feel like I’m just getting started,” Reznor told The Hollywood Reporter. “I’m really starting to get the hang of it but every day is a new lesson. I’m a student here and to receive this kind of acknowledgment, it feels nice.”

Aside for his work with Nine Inch Nails, 46-year-old Reznor nabbed both a Golden Globe and an Oscar in 2011 for composing the score to The Social Network with Atticus Ross. They were both nominated for a Golden Globe once again this year for their musical contribution to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

In 2010, Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream — an unashamedly-bubblegum album executive-produced by pop maestros Dr. Luke and Max Martin — scored the California gurl an Album Of The Year Grammy nomination, not to mention nods for Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (for the LP’s title song). And this year, pop veteran Britney Spears and her latest album Femme Fatale — another hit-laden bubblegum offering (though not nearly as hit-laden as Perry’s) helmed by Luke and Martin — got zero Grammy love when nominees were announced last night. But Brit was hardly the only one snubbed this year by the National Academy Of Recording Arts And Sciences!

A rundown of those overlooked for this year’s Grammy nominations:

* Britney Spears. She had a #1 album that yielded a trio of hits. So what gives? Well, for one, Britney isn’t exactly known for wading into that whole “singing live” pool. Katy Perry is hardly a legendary vocalist, but, despite the sometimes mixed results, she does actually perform live during her shows and appearances. That goes a long way toward establishing credibility. Likewise, Spears doesn’t really play the game much anymore, as far as giving interviews, doing the talk show rounds, etc. Just an observation.

* Kanye West. Okay, we’re not going to cry too much for Kanye. He did, after all, score the most nominations (seven). That said, it’s curious that My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy — an album that landed on dozens of Best Of The Year lists in December 2010 — was overlooked for Album Of The Year. And yet, somehow, Rihanna’s Loud gets a nod in that category? We’ll point out once again — RiRi plays the game (often in skimpy clothing). As for West? He occasionally plays it, but sometimes it’s with what’s perceived to be a bad attitude.

* Taylor Swift. No Album Of The Year kudos for best seller Speak Now, either. Hey, Kanye and Taylor — great opportunity to go have a drink together!

* Miguel. We’ll let his post-nominations tweet do the talking here: “I’m Fucking Pissed Yo. I don’t think I’m Gods gift to music but I know the Album or at LEAST Sure Thing should have been Nominated.” Oh, well — at least now the thrill of performing at our South By Southwest Pray For Pop Party earlier this year will remain the highlight of Miguel’s year.

* Beyonce. Bey’s already got 16 Grammys cluttering up her and Jay-Z’s mantle at home. And, yes, she does stand to add two more to the collection this year. Still, Best Long Form Video (for I Am… World Tour) and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (for “Party” with Andre 3000) are hardly the sexiest nominations to land, are they? Guess, to borrow from Beyonce’s past, the writing is on the wall: 4 really didn’t produce a single breakout hit.

* Dr. Luke & Max Martin. They shared the ASCAP Songwriter Of The Year award this year, and deservedly so — between the two of them, they wrote and/or produced undeniable hits like the following: Katy Perry’s “E.T.” and “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)”, Britney Spears’ “Hold It Against Me”, “Till The World Ends” and “I Wanna Go”, Jessie J’s “Price Tag”, Ke$ha’s “We R Who We R” and “Blow” and Pink’s “F***in’ Perfect”. But no Producer Of The Year (Non Classical) nomination? Is pop still considered to be such a dirty word, NARAS?

* Christina Perri. We had this Pennsylvania singer-songwriter down for getting a few nominations (including Best New Artist) when we whipped up our predictions this week. But alas, she got nothing, despite “Jar Of Hearts” being inescapable this year. She can at least take consolation in the fact that, for someone who’s only just starting out, she’s off to a great start. We’ve got a feeling bigger things are still to come for Perri.

Who else were you surprised to see overlooked when it came to this year’s Grammy nominations? Let us know in the comments below, or by hitting us up on Facebook and Twitter!

Can’t get enough Grammy Awards news? Follow @idolator on Twitter for the latest Grammys updates, predictions and photos. Plus watch along with us as we live-tweet the show starting at 5 p.m. EST on Sunday, Feb. 12!

It’s about to get more difficult to keep both hands above the blanket when the light’s out, folks. Britney Spears must have seen our poll asking Idolator readers which Femme Fatale track should be her next single, because the sleepy starlet has wisely chosen to heed our advice. Team Britney has confirmed that “I Wanna Go” will indeed be released next, with the video set to shoot later this month. So while Brit-Brit preps her her summer tour with Nicki Minaj, we’ll all be rocking out to one of the formerly-wedded pop diva’s best songs ever. Shame on us. Read more below.

How will “I Wanna Go” fare in the charts? It’s a Femme Fatale standout, produced by svengali Max Martin and written by Savan Kotecha (who’s penned Glee‘s “Loser Like Me”) is even more of a straight-up dance song than previous singles “Hold It Against Me” and “Till The World Ends,” but with its insanely catchy whistle-hook and Britney’s irresistible naughty sex-kitten vocal delivery, we’d be surprised if she didn’t have another Top 10 hit on her hands (below the blanket or otherwise).

Do you think fans will wanna go too?

The season finale of Glee is bound to bring up mixed emotions: on the one hand, it’s sure to be awesome. On the other, no more new Glee until fall! (Well, besides a North American tour and 3-D movie, that is.) Of course, the Rebecca Black-loving high school musical is primed to go out with a bang as greedy Gleek Ryan Seacrest has unveiled the tune New Directions will use to bring down the house at Nationals in the May 24 finale — and as promised, it’s another original song, co-written by the award-winning Max Martin. Head below to hear the cast “Light Up The World” — and, as a bonus, do Adele again with “Rolling In The Deep” from tonight’s episode.

“You and me, turn it up ten thousand watts / Tell me why we gotta stop?” the kids sing in this upbeat, “Firework”-esque anthem about shining brightly. We can only imagine that when New Directions unleash this on New York City in the finale, Nationals won’t know what hit them. With a jam like this, how could they not win?

Like non-cover “Loser Like Me,” “Light Up The World” is a collaboration between Martin and songwriter Savan Kotecha — and of course, will be appearing on Volume 6 of Glee: The Music.

And now for the latest in Glee-on-Adele, as Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff take on the oft-covered “Rolling In The Deep”:

Geez! Planet Pit, go-to Cuban-American rapper Pitbull’s sixth album, has more featured pop stars than a David Guetta album. In fact, even David Guetta gets a production credit on the record! Planet Pit is due out on June 21. Head below to see who all is doing what on Mr. Worldwide’s latest.

We already know that Chris Brown appears on the Planet Pit jam “International Love.” Also stopping by for vocal enlightening are T-Pain, Sean Paul, Kelly Rowland (“Castles In The Sand”), Marc Anthony (“Rain Over Me”), Ne-Yo, Afrojack and Nayer (current chart hit “Give Me Everything”).

Production chores were handled by Guetta, RedOne, Afrojack, Polow Da Don and DJ Frank E (you’ll recall he produced Enrique Iglesias’ “Tonight (I’m Lovin’ You)”), as well as Benny Blanco and ASCAP Songwriters Of The Year Max Martin and Dr. Luke, who all twiddled the knobs on one track called “Come & Go.”

As for the kitchen sink, well, that went flying straight down the stairs after it was thrown in the mix.

[Via PRNewswire]

It seems that Glee‘s use of original songs wasn’t just a onetime thing for its March episode, uh, “Original Song.” Savan Kotecha, who co-wrote the Max Martin-produced “Loser Like Me” (a #6 Billboard Hot 100 hit) for said March episode, noted in a recent interview that there’s more new material to come in the show’s Season 2 finale.

“We’ve actually done another song for the season finale,” Kotecha told Digital Spy. “It’s not been confirmed, but it’s for Glee.”

Savan once again worked with ASCAP Songwriter Of The Year Max Martin on the yet-to-be revealed track. “It was fun because I’m the only one out of me, Max and [co-producer] Shellback who watched Glee,” he said when asked about “Loser Like Me” and its success. “I was a Gleek in high school – I was in the choir – so I love that show.”

Columbia/Epic chairman Rob Stringer says, “There will definitely be new songs going forward, although not every week. We will spread the net as wide as we can as we go on to find people who are suitable to write songs for certain characters.”

So who exactly is Savan Kotecha, some Gleeks may be wondering. You might not know him by name just yet, but surely you’ll know a few of the jams he’s had a hand in writing:

Carrie Underwood – “Inside Your Heaven”

Usher – “DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love”

Britney Spears – “If You Seek Amy”

Adam Lambert – “If I Had You”

Are you looking forward to more original tunes on Glee, or do you like it better when the cast performs familiar music you can already sing along to?

The American Society Of Composers, Authors and Publishers were on our wavelength, as they honored Max Martin and Dr. Luke — two hit makers from our 8 Producers Who Made 2010 Go Pop list — with joint Songwriters Of The Year plaques at last night’s 28th annual ASCAP Pop Music Awards. When cameras started flashing, they were flanked by glam attendees Adam Lambert and Ke$ha, artists Martin and Luke scored hits with last year.

The Midas-touch pair picked up the joint award for collaborating on Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite” and Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” and “California Gurls” singles. Max also won for his work on Lambert’s “Whataya Want From Me” and Usher’s “DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love.”

Dr. Luke’s production on Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok” and Miley Cyrus’ “Party In The U.S.A.” also factored into his win.

Other ASCAP awards were handed out to Train frontman Pat Monahan (Song Of The Year, “Hey, Soul Sister”), Rod Stewart (Founders Award), Band Of Horses (Vanguard Award) and Randy Backhman (Global Impact Award).

Some of the tunes singled out as Most-Performed Songs: Kelly Clarkson’s “Already Gone,” Owl City’s “Fireflies,” Rihanna’s “Only Girl (In The World),” Mike Posner’s “Cooler Than Me,” Flo Rida and David Guetta’s “Club Can’t Handle Me” and Bruno Mars’ “Just The Way You Are.” (See full list here.)

Do you have a favorite Max Martin and/or Dr. Luke song from last year? Let us know what it is!

Can Glee generate their own hits without relying on previously written, beloved pop songs? Well, being that this is same juggernaut that managed to best Elvis and The Beatles on the charts, we’re going to bet yes regardless of what their original songs even sound like. Thankfully, they’re not terrible, and one of them is even pretty great. (A gold star for Glee!)

Jump below to listen to the balled “Get It Right”, and the Max Martin-produced “Loser Like Me”, which fits in nicely with Pink’s “Raise Your Glass”, Ke$ha’s “We R Who We R” and all the other alleged “It Gets Better”-type pop songs that celebrate waving your freak flag high in the air.

The songs premiered this morning on Ryan Seacrest’s radio show.

Glee Cast – “Loser Like Me”

“You may think that I’m a zero, but hey everyone you wanna be probably started off like me,” sings Lea. “You may say that I’m a freak show / But hey just give it just a little time, bet you’re gonna change your mind.”

“Just go ahead and hate on me and run your mouth so everyone can hear / Hit me with the words you got and knock me down, baby I don’t care…. You wanna be a loser like me.”

We can imagine Avril Lavigne singing this. Or maybe even Pink. (Makes perfect sense, as Martin has worked with both those artists several times.) Although this song is credited to the whole cast, all we can hear is Lea.

Lea Michele – “Get It Right”

“What have I done? Wish I could run from this ship going under / Just trying to help, heard everyone else, now I feel the weight of the world is on my shoulders,” sings Lea on this piano ballad, which sounds like it could actually live on country radio. “What can you do when your good is not good enough?… How many times does it take to get it right?”

This one, compared to the instantly catchy “Loser Like Me”, is a bit more underwhelming, though Lea kills it.

Both songs will be featured on the March 15 episode, and will also be available on Glee: The Music, Volume 5, out March 8.

On last week’s episode of Glee, Rachel Berry suggested that New Directions begin writing and performing original material. Well, it certainly won’t be long before we get to hear some non-covers performed by the cast: according to press release, “Get It Right” will be a ballad sung by Lea Michele, and “Loser Like Me”, produced by Britney, Katy & Pink’s right-hand man Max Martin, will be sung by all the show choir kids. Both tunes will be featured on Glee: The Music, Volume 5, out March 8. We’re assuming fans of Sixpence None The Richer (as well as the band itself) will be disappointed that their song “Loser Like Me” will not be Glee-ified after all. [Billboard]

Given that Britney Spears’ newly-released “Hold It Against Me” video depicts the Femme Fatale singer as a celebrity who is forever surrounded by the media, the snippet of her new song “I Wanna Go” that producer Dr. Luke tweeted out last night takes on eerie significance. Listen below.

“Release, release, control of me, I wanna go all the way,” a heavily-Auto-Tuned Brit chirps over a chugging bed of dance-pop bass. Luke tweeted that the song was produced by Max Martin and Shellback, who previously paired up to twiddle the knobs on Spears’ “3″ and “If U Seek Amy.”

Hmmm. Britney as a caged pop bird?

This short clip of “I Wanna Go” follows the one for “Inside Out” that Dr. Luke posted over the weekend.

It’s a long way to March 29, the day Femme Fatale is released. Guess we can expect plenty of abbreviated soundbites of Britney tunes till then (a la the 14 sometimes-frustrating teasers leading up to the “Hold It Against Me” video premiere)? At the very least it would be nice to get another full single ahead of that date.

And, P.S.: is Britney ever going to do an interview to promote her new music?

Now that all four minutes and 24 seconds of the “Hold It Against Me” video have premiered in all their continuous glory, we can rest easy without being teased by Britney Spears, right? Not so fast. Just a couple days after the excruciating wait for Britney’s latest video finally ended, producer Dr. Luke (who also had his paws all over “Hold It Against Me”) has released a snippet of Brit’s pre-hyped next single “Inside Out” that is barely any longer than those teasers. Head below to hear a clip of the next Britney-Dr. Luke-Max Martin collaboration — but don’t say we didn’t warn you that it’s a short one.

From what little we can hear, the Femme Fatale track certainly has potential. In fact, it reminds us most of the dubstep bridge in “Hold It Against Me,” so at least we can expect some cohesion on the album? (We’re using a question mark because the rather absurd practice of giving us sonic snippets that don’t even clock in at a full 15 seconds makes it difficult to judge.) Given the rather ho-hum reactions to the “Hold It Against Me” video after so much build-up, you’d think maybe this team would have learned its lesson about using teases to build hype? Then again, it certainly did the trick in generating buzz, and certainly anticipation for this next single will be huge, too.

“Come on / Can’t you give me something to remember?” Brit sings in “Inside Out.” Funny — we were just about to request the same thing…

While Max Martin and Dr. Luke oversaw Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream, the pop maestros only actually produced five of the album’s 12 tracks. Likewise, the pair are overseeing Britney Spears’ forthcoming seventh studio LP—a project that very few concrete details have emerged about. But now, thanks to tweets from Dr. Luke and Spears’ manager, we at least know the dream team behind “Hold It Against Me” are also working the boards for the follow-up single.

“britney’s 2nd single gonna be fire!!!!!! watch out!!!!!!” Dr. Luke tweeted on Sunday. This prompted Britney’s manager Adam Leber to reply, “Never thought you and #MaxMartin would beat HIAM but I think the impossible has been achieved. Get ready world…..”

Last night, Leber was at it again, stoking excitement amongst fans of the photogenic singer. “Amazing day in the studio today,” he wrote on Twitter. “You guys should be very excited. This album is going to be incredible. Dare I say the best yet?”

Billboard reported yesterday that Spears’ current single “Hold It Against Me,” which was released last week, is expected to top the upcoming Hot 100 chart. This would give the singer a total of four #1 singles in the U.S., following “…Baby One More Time,” “Womanizer” and “3.”

Do you think “Hold It Against Me” will go down in pop history as one of Britney’s greatest jams?

[Via PressParty]

Hit singles don’t just happen when Justin Bieber steps up to the mic and opens his 16-year-old yap to sing. Often it takes just as much blood, sweat and tears (not to mention a little magical fairy dust) from the producers behind the boards to give a pop song that extra shine. We rounded up the eight musical wizards—including Dr. Luke, photographed here for a Billboard cover story earlier this year—who we feel made 2010 a very listenable 12 months on Planet Pop. Check them out below.

ALEX DA KID
Eminem’s Recovery was the best-selling album of 2010, and a lot of that had to do with the hit single “Love The Way You Lie.” The drama-filled Alex Da Kid-produced track was not only the third most-downloaded iTunes song this year, it was also the best-selling single in the UK. “I knew that if it got the right attention—which an Eminem single pretty much does—I thought people would really embrace it,” Alex told us about the Grammy-nominated smash.

THE-DREAM & TRICKY STEWART
Sure, these guys were behind Ciara’s too-hot-for-BET R&B hit “Ride.” But let’s face it—when it came to 2010, one song from this producing pair stood out from all the rest: “Baby.” Justin Bieber’s My World 2.0 single cemented the young crooner’s status as a teen force to be reckoned with, and helped him snag a MTV VMA and four American Music Awards. Up next for the Bieb: the Grammys, where he’s up for Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Album. Up next for Dream and Tricky: probably another zeitgeist-like hit that will flow nicely with “Umbrella”, “Single Ladies” and, of course, “Baby.”

DR. LUKE
Midas-touch songwriter/producer Lukasz Gottwald had a stellar year in the charts thanks to hits done both with Max Martin (Katy Perry’s “California Gurls” and “Teenage Dream”, Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite”) and without (Ke$ha’s “Your Love Is My Drug” and “We R Who We R”, B.o.B’s “Magic”). Along with Martin he co-executive produced Katy Perry’s #1 album Teenage Dream—a chore the pair have now taken on for Britney Spears’ forthcoming 2011 LP.

MAX MARTIN
Though he frequently collaborates with Dr. Luke these days, Swedish maestro Max Martin is also an able producer on his own—or with his other right hand man Shellback. In fact, Max and Shellback were responsible for Adam Lambert’s summer single “If I Had You”, Pink’s third #1 hit “Raise Your Glass” (as well as her Greatest Hits…So Far!!! track “Fuckin’ Perfect”) and Usher’s Top 10 smash “DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love.” Martin also reached the top of the Hot 100 this year with Katy Perry’s “California Gurls” and “Teenage Dream.”

STUART PRICE
Madonna pretty much put this London-based tunesmith on the mainstream production map when she promoted him from musical tour director to producer for her 2005 Confessions On A Dance Floor album. And this year alone Price either produced, co-produced or executive produced the following: Scissor Sisters’ Night Work, Kylie Minogue’s Aphrodite, Brandon Flowers’ Flamingo, Take That’s Progress. He also lent his skills to nearly half of the tracks on Duffy’s recently-released sophomore LP Endlessly.

STARGATE
Strangely, Mikkel Storleer Eriksen and Tor Erik Hermansen (aka Norwegian production team Stargate) had a rare misfire this year with Ne-Yo’s “Beautiful Monster.” But their handful of Hot 100 chart-toppers—Katy Perry’s “Firework”, Rihanna’s “Rude Boy”, “What’s My Name” and Grammy-nominated “Only Girl (In The World)”—more than made up for it. They also scored a sizable hit overseas with Alexis Jordan’s “Happiness.”

While Justin Bieber has teamed up with other underage sensation, Willow Smith, Miranda Cosgrove will be hitting the road with 13-year old wunderkind Greyson Chance on a 21-city tour across North America. (Teen power — and fanbases — unite!) They’re calling it the Dancing Crazy tour, named after Miranda’s bouncy new track. It’s produced by the almighty Max Martin, and written by Martin, Shellback, and Avril Lavigne (who also co-wrote the song “Daydream” on Cosgrove’s debut LP, Sparks Fly). Can the iCarly actress let loose? Give “Dancing Crazy” a listen below.

Miranda Cosgrove - Dancing Crazy

Poppy! Fun! Kinda 80s Bananarama-ish! The “You! Me! In the spotlight!” bit in particular sounds like “Girlfriend”-esque Avril, not to mention the low-key guitar on the bridge.

We’re guessing this tune didn’t make the cut of Lavigne’s upcoming album Goodbye Lullaby and Miranda snatched up her scraps. Still, even as leftovers, it’s a pretty tasty track and much like she did with Ke$ha’s “Disgusting“, Miranda can pull it off. For a song called “Dancing Crazy”, though, a bit more musical lunacy — or maybe one extra beat speeding it along — would have been nice to elevate it to something resembling insanity.

Check out when Miranda and Greyson will be dancing relatively crazy through your town here.

With a wink to her ’90s hits “Do You Know (What It Takes)” and “Show Me Love,” magnetic performer Robyn has paired up once again with one of her very first producers, Max Martin, on aptly-titled upcoming Body Talk track “Time Machine.” And—thank the music gods—the result is every bit the wave of all-out pop bliss you’d expect to be pummeled with from such a reunion. Hop in your DeLorean and listen below!

“I remember the words, how I said them so they would hurt / But then I regret my actions,” Robyn laments on the giddy, pulsing dance-pop tornado that is “Time Machine.”

Robyn - Time Machine

Robyn spoke recently to the Miami New Times blog about teaming up with Martin again, over 14 years after they first hunkered down in the studio together:

“Me and Martin stayed friends of the years. I’ve been thinking about working with him again. We’ve been talking about it for the last five years. We hadn’t really found the right song. But now it just clicked and it felt like a really good time to do something with Martin again. The success we had together in the mid-’90s was not only my first success but one of Martin’s first bigger hits in America. I love the fact that I’m getting to work with one of the biggest producers in the world. Also, it’s maybe showing people I’m not afraid of my past. For me, making a beautiful song is what I’m obsessed with. And ‘Time Machine,’ which is the song I recorded with Martin, is amazing and I’m really happy that we were able to put it on the album.”

As for finding the right song for the two Swedes to tackle, we have to agree that “Time Machine” is just that. (After all, can you picture her belting out “3″, “DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love” or perhaps “So What”?)

Just one request, though, Max and Robyn—don’t make us hold our breath for over a decade again for further collaborations. Especially since you’re already off to such a grand start this second time around.

Body Talk is out November 22.

Actress and sometimes-singer Brittany Murphy died this morning after suffering cardiac arrest in her Los Angeles home. According to TMZ, Murphy’s husband Simon Monjack called 911 around 8 a.m., after her mother discovered her lying unconscious in the shower. She was rushed to Cedars-Sinai hospital, where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

Murphy was best known for starring in films such as Clueless, 8 Mile and Girl, Interrupted, but she was also an aspiring singer. Murphy kept a MySpace Music page (last login: June 10), and generated buzz last year when she revealed that she’d been working on her debut album with the help of Max Martin, Timbaland and Paul Oakenfold. (She provided plenty of steam for Oakenfold’s pop-electro hit “Faster Kill Pussycat,” from 2006′s A Lively Mind).

Though Murphy’s MySpace post indicated that the album was planned for late 2008, it obviously didn’t come to pass, and we are left wondering what became of her tracks. DJ Chris Cox, who also reportedly worked on her album, didn’t offer any details in tweetng his condolences.

Who’s to say what might have been? She had shown off  her vocal chops singing Carly Simon’s “Nobody Does It Better” in romantic comedy Little Black Book, and recorded a cover of Queen’s “Somebody to Love” and Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Boogie Wonderland” for the Happy Feet soundtrack.

So far there are no official reports suggesting what caused the 32-year old’s heart to stop.

Backtracking is our recurring look back at the pop music that shaped our lives. Friends may come and go, but we’ll be spinning our favorite albums forever.

Ah, Ace Of Base. Only in the reactionary, post-grunge 1990s could Americans have briefly embraced such a pop phenomenon. Something about the reggae-inflected synth hooks and icy detachment of the Swedish quartet—siblings Jonas, Jenny and Malin “Linn” Berggren, and their pal Ulf “Buddha” Ekberg—had us going bonkers for The Sign (or Happy Nation, as it was titled outside the U.S.).

And yet, when AOB’s sophomore album The Bridge was released in 1995, we tossed these supposed heirs to the ABBA throne out in the cold—despite The Bridge being a set of pop jams far superior to their first offering.

Yes, opening track “Beautiful Life” managed to dent the Top 20 of Billboard‘s Hot 100 and has remained an enduring ’90s Euro-cheese anthem. But after that, the band’s wheel of fortune pretty much came to a grinding halt.

In 1994, The Sign racked up sales of seven million copies thanks to global hits like the title track, “All That She Wants” and “Don’t Turn Around.” And there was clearly a lot of cash on hand when it came time for Ace Of Base to craft their second album—the original CD for The Bridge boasts a 24-page color booklet containing photos, lyrics and personal anecdotes written in 90% grammatically-correct English!

Below are a few key points about the album itself and the fine folks who put it together.

The Max Factor: Pop scientists should note that this was the first album producer Max Martin had a hand in. The LP’s three official singles, as well as album track “Blooming 18,” were all recorded with Martin and his studio mentor Denniz PoP behind the boards. Three years later a little song Max wrote called “…Baby One More Time” would top the charts in every country it was released in, and his “Midas touch” reputation would be solidified.

Slow Jams: If anything, The Bridge should be noted for the maturity of the lyrical content—which all four members took part in writing—compared to Ace Of Base’s debut. Nearly half of the record is ballads, a factor that might have come off like a party foul in the Eurodance-happy climate of the mid-’90s. That said, hindsight is 20/20, and tracks like “Angel Eyes” and “Ravine”—allegedly about singer Jenny Berrgren’s knife attack in her own home by a female fan—hold their own against the more uptempo material on The Bridge.

Key Tracks: “Beautiful Life” is undeniable. (“Take a walk in the park when you feel down/There’s so many things there that’s gonna lift you up.” Hey, it’s that easy!) And bouncy tunes like “Lucky Love” and “Never Gonna Say I’m Sorry” are nestled nicely alongside the already-mentioned ballads “Ravine” and “Angel Eyes.” The aptly-titled “Strange Ways” and “Blooming 18″ are also hidden gems on the album. Sure, there’s no immediately-catchy “Don’t Turn Around” to be found here, but the material on The Bridge sounds far less dated when it pops up on shuffle than most anything on The Sign.

Wait, “Blooming 18″ Kinda Sounds Like…: Lady Gaga’s “Alejandro,” off The Fame Monster. Call us nutty, but when playing them each side by side, we’re thinking this is a mashup waiting to happen.

More Base For Your Buck: The Bridge is currently available at iTunes for $7.99, with European album track “You And I” intact, as well as the original version of “Lucky Love.” (Here in the States, The Bridge initially only contained the acoustic version of “Lucky Love,” which was released as the follow-up single to “Beautiful Life.”)

So Where Are They Now?: Ace Of Base went on to release two more albums after The Bridge. A dormant period followed 2002 LP Da Capo, but the band reunited in 2007 for a series of European concerts (albeit as a trio, with original member Linn having departed). Both a new greatest hits package and album of remixes were issued in 2008, while the band’s official site stated they were at work on a new album. But in 2009, the band’s site was yanked offline. What appeared to be the final blow to any chance of an Ace of Base revival came on November 30, 2009, when Jenny Berggren posted the following via Twitter:

“We didn’t get a record out as three. My hopes are that we can work together in the future, when I have prooven myself as a soloartist… Meanwhile the boys in the band are doing their musical thing, as I do mine. We wich eachother the best of luck and work for the future.”

Hey, hell’s gotta freeze over at some point, right? Until then, why not party like it’s 1995 and take a journey across The Bridge?

“Technology sucks! (Sucks!) I wish I could change all your numbers, put your phone underwater,” belts big-voiced Allison Iraheta in her Gary Glitter/”Rock and Roll parts 1 & 2″-leaning Just Like You album track, “Robot Love.” That one’s sandwiched between two glossed-up Max Martin numbers, the single “Friday I’ll Be Over U” and the very MM-style ballad “Just Like You.”

But, as is often the case, it’s the best track that gets relegated to the end of the album—the Kevin Rudolf co-penned “Beat Me Up” (catch it below at 5:32 in).

You sort of wanna love this album, Allison being the underdog, the Idol kid with the raspy-but-golden pipes, etc. But nothing really stands up to “Beat Me Up.” Not even the surprisingly disappointing Greg Wells (Mika, Katy Perry) and Pink tune, “No One Else,” which comes just before it.

Ah, Allison. Maybe it’s a grower. Here’s the tracklisting for Just Like You, which is out December 1:

1. “Friday I’ll Be Over U”

2. “Robot Love”

3. “Just Like You”

4. “Don’t Waste The Pretty”

5. “Scars”

6. “Pieces”

7. “D Is For Dangerous”

8. “Holiday”

9. “Still Breathing”

10. “Trouble Is”

11. “No One Else”

12. “Beat Me Up”

13. “You Don’t Know Me”

“Bigger” is the first collaboration between the turn-of-the-millennium boy band and the man who co-wrote “I Want It That Way” for them since 2005, and it’s pretty awesome in an effervescent way; it opens with some delicate acoustic-strumming, then opens up into a chorus that floats along on a string of rapidfire “la la la la la”-ing. And there’s a guitar solo! I wonder when we can declare those officially “back”? Uh, no pun intended. Clip after the jump.





Hey, come to think of it, this reminds me of that Justin Timberlake song that came out earlier this year that also uses the word “Bigger” in its title! Also, every time I see Brian Littrell now, I think “the swine flu.” Aw, poor guy.


Backstreet Boys – Bigger [YouTube]
Backstreet Boys [Official site]

American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert is apparently recording with “I Want It That Way” / “…Baby One More Time” / “Since U Been Gone” mastermind Max Martin today. Yay! Yay? [Twitter]