Basshunter 'Angel In the Night'

Chart Peak: 14

YouTube

Arguably the biggest dance star of 2008, Basshunter returned to the scene with another floorfiller 'Angel In The Night'... It followed his earlier smash hits 'All I Ever Wanted' and 'Now You're Gone' into the UK chart in September 2008.

It's fair to say I think that Basshunter's star burned brightly but briefly. An impressive five Top 40 singles in 2008 were accompanied by a Number One album, but success has been more limited in subsequent years. 'Angel In The Night', apparently a reworking of an earlier track, was the third of the five hits and puts the emphasis on his singing ability. That's a pity because, even heavily autotuned, he doesn't seem to have any. It seems like he was more interested in having an excuse to make a video sequel than in the song itself, which is pure filler.

Also appearing on: Now 69, 70
Available on: Now You're Gone [Deluxe Edition]

Basshunter 'Now You're Gone'

Chart Peak: 1 (5 weeks)

YouTube

Sometimes co-credited to DJ Mental Theo's Bazzheadz, for it was he who sped up an instrumental version of Basshunter's Northern European hit 'Boten Anna and gave it an English lyric. Unlike the rather quirky Swedish original (and indeed the German version, which I can sort of understand) which both describe a online chat bot who turns out to be a real person, this version is in more typical boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl territory.

This is a record which seems determined to set two sides of my nature against each other: the curmudgeon who wants to lay into an easy target and the contrarian who wants to talk up a record that people seemingly love to hate. Well, in the end that annoying little "Ready for take-off!" sample (in English in all three versions) seems to clinch it for the curmudgeon, but I'd have to make an effort to hate this.

Also appearing on: Now 70, 71
Available on: Now You're Gone - The Album