Lily Allen is a master (or is that mistress) in the art of misdirection – while we’re all scratching our heads at her new country-music inspired song, Not Fair, Lily is singing sweetly about “spending ages giving head” which conveniently rhymes with “lying in the wet patch on the bed”.
While those lyrics put her in the running for “Perfect Woman” material, the hoedown video weirds me out completely. I think they almost did a little too good a job of transforming Lily into a country star from yesteryear, didn’t they?
Lovegame is another triumphant electro-pop gem from Lady GaGa. I’m slightly baffled as to where the ‘cherry cherry boom boom’ song went – didn’t we see a video for that a while back?
Anyway, apparently the video for Lovegame is causing palpitations among the guardians of public decency that are the censorship bodies. Well, GaGa has stepped things up a notch – she’s gone from ‘I’ll get him hard, show him what I’ve got’ in Poker Face to essentially wanting to ride his disco stick. Well, it’d be a shame to waste it, wouldn’t it?
In fairness, sometimes I think Lady GaGa boils down to essentially blonde hair and prominent lycra gusset. Which is what Madonna was a few years ago. I’m not sure the look works for either – GaGa has a shop mannequin look that’s sometimes hard to find sexy.
Music blog regulars will know that the Pussycat Dolls have thoroughly redeemed themselves with the (deluxe) Doll Domination album. Jai Ho conveniently repackages the end song from Slumdog Millionaire, giving Miss Scherzinger lead vocals and a background role for the composer, A R Rahman.
Jai Ho alternates between dramatic ethnic verses and uplifting pop choruses. Sure, they go a little overboard with the autotune sometimes (autotune is the modern equivalent of helium, isn’t it?).
My inclination is to crown this the best single the Pussycat Dolls have ever released, actually. The music is amazing. There are overtones of Beyonce and Shakira on Beautiful Liar, but ten times better. The video features the girls looking stunning and doing a fun Bollywood style dance routine. Don’t they look like they’re all having great fun?
I’m betting you’re either a supporter of Blindfold, or you’ve never heard of them. I fall into the latter category, so here’s a quick background: Blindfold are an Icelandic four-piece who create some very interesting atmospheric music.
Sad Face, their single which is released at the end of the month, is the first time I’ve ever heard their music. Things do not start well: the song begins according to the dreary singer/songwriter textbook. A minor-key acoustic guitar and some maudlin lyrics over the top.
Following up her hot debut single, Lady Gaga gives us Poker Face. If the song’s lyrics weren’t so damned smutty, I’d be rolling jokes about ‘poke her face’ right now. But she’s taken all the fun out of mocking the title. Damn you, Gaga!
A bit like Just Dance, this one took a little while to grow on me. The gurgling synth sounds are fast becoming a Lady Gaga trademark along with an addiction to lycra that would make Madonna blush.
Scoring the Comic Relief single this year is a major coup for The Saturdays. Their choice of Depeche Mode’s Just Can’t Get Enough particularly inspired, reminiscent of when Girls Aloud recycled Jump for the Love Actually soundtrack.
The Sun lauded this for being the sexiest video yet for The Saturdays, but as a red-blooded expert on all things sexy, I disagree. It’s about as sexy as Christina Aguilera back in that Lady Marmalade video – i.e. not at all. Gawd, give me Dawn French dressed up as Mel B any day!
Seems Justin Timberlake doesn’t release anything by himself these days, he’s just happy to meander onto any given rap track and sing a few lines. No real hard work to be done, the audience is happy, and everybody goes home satisfied.
Except T.I. – he’s headed for prison in a few weeks, isn’t he?
Now that the door has closed for the High School Musical stars, they’ve got to go out into the real world and make a living. I’ve already spied cool-haired Corbin Bleu in a pop video. I’ll have to dig that one out for you.
But let’s focus on little Miss Hudgens for a moment. Without a doubt the cutest member of the HSM gang, I’ve always hoped that she’d do well when her role in the movies ended. The temptation to release a by-the-book tune must have been really strong, but Sneakernight is something else.
If you were expecting more novelty pop goodness from Alesha Dixon, a la Boy Does Nothing, then think again. Dixon’s follow-up single, Breathe Slow is a fairly slow, standard R&B number.
I’m only slightly disappointed though, because the hook in the chorus is a good one. I’d just hoped that Alesha would come out with something a bit more daring, cutting edge. Especially if the rumours of her wanting to break America are true – she’s entering a saturated market if this song is anything to go by.
Funny thing about Miley’s latest video, Fly On The Wall (aside from it not being an AC/DC cover) is that it takes the paparazzi to book for following her around. And by extension, probably any Miley Cyrus fan who ever wanted to know more about her. Slight slap in the face for the fans, Miley?
It starts of with a Thriller-style morphing of Miley’s date into a camera-toting, crazed pap who chases her into a car park. Whereupon more paps arrive and an elaborate dance sequence eventually takes place.
