We just don’t like ‘The One And Only’ by Chesney Hawkes. Its become synonymous with ‘ironic’ television and radio countdowns of ‘one hit wonders’, ‘guilty pleasures’, ‘bad songs it’s ok to like’ etc etc. It also reminds us of 2am in the students union, when the DJ gives up on playing good music and starts playing the likes of this to get everyone on the dancefloor, arms spread, beer spilling everywhere, and mouthing the words in straight abandon. Cringeworthy. HOWEVER, some gents from Sweden have taken it on and made it listenable!!!
When we say ‘some gents’, we mean Star Pilots – one of our favourite new acts to come out of Scandinavia this year. Over the summer, they reached number two in the Swedish singles chart with their debut single ‘In The Heat Of The Night’. It’s an amazingly catchy dance track made to sound like eighties rock, and is a cross between Armand Deluxe, Sunblock, and ‘Take My Body Close’ by the lovely Velvet. It’s already been licensed for a few UK dance compilations as well, and there’s a chance it may be released as a single over here in the near future. You can listen to both ‘In The Heat Of The Night’ and ‘The One And Only’ at their website and myspace; www.starpilots.se and http://www.myspace.com/starpilotsband
They make the kind of music that got very big in the UK after fellow Swede Eric Prydz had a monster hit with ‘Call On Me’ in late 2004. All of a sudden, the charts were flooded with faceless dance acts with their remixes of eighties rock songs. As music styles usually do when they’ve been done to death, it became deeply unfashionable by the end of 2006. But as we all know – unfashionable music is the best sort, and always the most fun. So we automatically love Star Pilots for delivering fully charged doses of guitarhero dance after a two year drought of the stuff. And we especially love them because they do it so well. And we’re sure you’ll agree after you listen to their music at the links above.
And just in case you were in any doubt over their credentials, the two men behind Star Pilots; Johan Fjellström & Joakim Udd, have worked on some of the best musical output of the following acts – West End Girls, Markoolio, Victoria Silvstedt, A*Teens, E-Type, Helena Paparizou, Lutricia McNeal, Miio, Camilla Brinck, Bosson, Basic Element, and B3. AND, on top of all that, they were responsible for one of the greatest and most underrated Melodifestivalen songs ever – ‘La Musica’ by Verona!!!
