PLAYING CATCH UP: The Autumn 2012 Edition

Can you believe it's almost October? Those of you who speak to me on Twitter or have read my blog around previous Octobers might already be aware that October is the general equivalent to Hell Month for me at the Day Job, so be wary of sparse updates. Rather than ramble on for too long, let's smash together a heck of a whole lot of what's been interesting me musically these days.

- In KPOP land (post coming shortly), there is no shortage of new goodies to groove to by some fierce females, but have no fear -- the boy bands are returning. In a possible repeat (read: obvious repeat) of 2011's glorious "Keep Your Head Down (Why)", TVXQ! (in Yunho & Changmin) will be returning to the Korean scene with a brand new single called "Catch Me" next week and there are rumours swirling of a World Tour to go with it. Whether or not this "World Tour" will actually stop at the rest of the world beyond Asia, we'll have to wait and see -- but fingers crossed, right?

- Super Junior M, the Mandarin-singing sub-unit of Super Junior proper (read: the one SuJu event that openly involves Henry & ZhouMi, and also the sub-unit that really encouraged me to like Super Junior in the first place) will be returning to the Chinese music market "soon". No word just yet on whether it will be a single or a full EP, but I'm hoping for the latter. Fresh tunes from by two main biases in KPOP? Happy Holiday Season, Mel -- indeed.

- P!NK recently dropped her sixth album, The Truth About Love, and in true P!NK fashion, it's pretty damn lovely. While I can sort of give or take the first single -- "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)" -- the album is full of unexpected collaborations (Eminem, Lily Allen Rose Cooper, and Nate Ruess, better known as the lead singer of fun.) and overall some great tunage. However, my favorite of the set is the opener in the anthematic "Are We All We Are".

- Christina Aguilera has dropped the first single, "Your Body", from her upcoming fifth studio album (if you don't count Mi Reflejo and My Kind of Christmas, which I don't persay). The album is set to be titled Lotus, and rather than going the way of her past two albums (Back to Basics and Bionic), this one will not be considered much of a "conceptual" album, but more of a diary, a la Stripped. It's even set to contain the 2012 equivilant of a "Fighter" type song. Much of the production is set to be provided by the godly Max Martin -- including the dancey "Your Body" (more on that in a sec). Let's all keep our fingers crossed for when Lotus drops this November.

- Speaking of Xtina, she has officially announced this will be her last season of The Voice, at least for awhile, as she will be pulling a Jennifer Lopez and leaving the show to refocus on her career. However, this season's The Voice has already made good with a surprise appearance by none other than my favorite member of Dream Street, Chris Trousdale. Unfortunately for Chris, none of the judges picked him when he sang a bit of The Wanted's "Glad You Came". Watching his bit on the show, I find it quite heartwrenching to see the sad side of life after boy band success (he currently works at a sushi restaurant). You can watch the performance audition here. While the audience seemed to be with it, the judges ultimately decided he was too much of a dancer rather than a singer (he even did the moonwalk, even though the judges didn't see it). As for life after "The Voice", Chris has stated he will be continuing to work toward his dream. You can follow him on Twitter via @OfficialCRT.

- On a more positive note, another boy band alum seems to be having a bit more success. Travis Garland, formerly of the boy band NLT, has dropped another totally ace, chilled out cover on his YouTube channel -- this time of Taylor Swift's recent hit "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together". The cover was premiered on Ryan Secrest's blog and can be downloaded for free here. According to Ryan Seacrest, a new EP of original tunes from Travis is set to be coming "soon".

- It might be unfair to label Carly Rae Jepsen -- (yes, the "Call Me Maybe" girl) -- as a one hit wonder just yet. She finally released her debut American album this past week and it is suprisingly jam packed with sparkling pop ditties. While admittedly, I didn't find too much of it particularly hooky and memorable within its first few listens -- with the exception of the stunning Dallas Austin-co-written/produced "Tiny Little Bows", if only for the Sam Cooke sample -- I was really pleasantly satisifed with the album. Even the handful of tracks co-written by Redfoo of the now "defunct" LMFAO (did you hear about their "break up"?) were quite listenable and not at all club thumpy and strange the way I pictured them to be when I first heard of their collaborations in the studio. Perhaps the Berry Gordy blood does run pretty thick within him, eh? All in all -- don't sleep on Kiss, it's a pretty great pop album.

- And finally, did you see "Gangnam Style" on SNL? It's basically the epitome of my worlds colliding. All they needed was to throw in a random boy band from the 90's, a cutaway of a member of Girls Aloud and Jared Padalecki from "Supernatural" dancing along in the background and it would be a video version of my audiography. No joke.