OneRepublic – “Secrets” Worldwide Music Video
Published May 20th 2010
Filed under Videos
OneRepublic are finally releasing second single, Secrets, from their sophomore album, Waking Up, worldwide. Secrets was originally released last year as the lead single from the album in Germany, to coincide with the release of Zweiohrküken, a German movie which features Secrets on its original sound track. The worldwide release of the single has since been delayed a number of times.
The original music video, showed clips from the movie in between scenes of OneRepublic performing the song. The 2010 worldwide treatment of the video, keeps the original performance scenes but adds scenes of lead vocalist Ryan Tedder at a restaurant, sitting behind a girl who was seemingly stood-up. Other new scenes show Ryan encounter the girl in the street without any recognition of her. When the girl revisits the restaurant, she sees the person who stood her up while Ryan sings the lyrics of Secrets in her ear.
Secrets has no tentative release date worldwide but will be added to US radio on June 1st.
Natasha Bedingfield – “Touch”
Published May 19th 2010
Filed under Reviews
Natasha Bedingfield’s new single Touch was thrown onto the US iTunes Store yesterday with no announcement of a new album campaign starting so soon. Touch, written by Natasha herself, Steve Kipner and Julian Bunetta, sees Natasha trying out a new sound unlike anything she has done before. It also doesn’t sound like it’s ripping off anything around at the moment. It’s very fresh, uptempo, feel-good, dance-pop.
As a lead single, Touch could be a slight risk. While it shows a clear progression in Natasha’s sound and builds on previous songs such as The One That Got Away and Not Givin’ Up, Touch isn’t a sure-fire hit. A guaranteed hit is something Natasha probably needs, especially in the UK since her previous effort, N.B., flopped but regardless she returned with something surprisingly original, interesting and a bit daring.
Touch opens with a hypnotic, synth-building verse featuring some of Natasha’s best signature storytelling lyrics which made songs such as These Words, Unwritten, We’re All Mad and Backyard so interesting and unique. The story in Touch is told quite cleverly, with the second verse explaining what led to the coffee-spilling incident which happens in the first verse. A lyric in the second verse which demonstrates Natasha’s clever storytelling is:
It seems that spilling coffee was no accident at all
After each verse, the song erupts into a melodic, dance-driven, feel-good chorus which instantly creates the atmosphere of a summer night’s party. If handled correctly, Touch could be a huge summer hit with such a chorus.
Overall, Touch is quite an impressive lead single for Natasha and hopefully it will aid her return to success in the UK after a disappointing sophomore stint.
[audio:touch.mp3]Touch, taken from the Natasha’s third studio album (second in the UK) and follow-up to 2008’s Pocketful of Sunshine (2007’s N.B. in the UK), has yet to be added to radio or scheduled for release internationally. The upcoming, yet to be titled album also has no tentative released date.
Maroon 5 – New Single & Album News
Published May 17th 2010
Filed under News
Maroon 5 are set to release their third studio album, Hands All Over, as announced via their Twitter last week. The album, which is rumoured to be their last, is produced solely by Robert ‘Mutt’ Lange. The band also shot the music video for the lead single Misery over the weekend.
Lead vocalist Adam Levine wrote about shooting the video on his Twitter account:
Lots of stunts…I die like ten times In this video! It’s by far the most ambitious and action packed one yet!
Adam also descibed Misery as:
…the most Maroon 5-sounding song on the album.
It was announced that the new album, Hands All Over, will include the following eleven tracks as well as four others:
Misery
How
Never Gonna Leave
Wasted Years
Last Chance
Don’t Know Much About That
Out of Goodbyes
I Can’t Lie
Give a Little More
Stutter
Hands All Over
The release of Misery on June 28th will be followed by the new album, Hands All Over, on September 20th.
Kylie Minogue – “All The Lovers”
Published May 15th 2010
Filed under Reviews
I was reluctant to write about Kylie Minogue’s new single All The Lovers from her forthcoming album Aphrodite when it premiered yesterday as the song didn’t grab me as fast as a lead single should. After a lot of listening, the song has started to grow on me and I’ve made up my mind about it.
All The Lovers is a mid-tempo, electro-pop ballad and very coherent to Kylie’s sound. While the melody and production are both very good, All The Lovers just doesn’t sound like a lead single. Nice is the only way to describe the song. It sounds more like a third or fourth single from an album campaign because it’s not all the things a lead single should be. It’s not instantly grabbing, it’s not pushing any boundaries and it doesn’t get stuck in your head. Having listened to the song multiple times, if I was asked how the song goes, I would have no idea how to sing it.
The song sounds like it could have been released anywhere between 2005 and now. It’s not a fresh sound but it’s more powerful than most mid-tempo ballads. I wouldn’t describe All The Lovers as anthemic, but it does sound very strong and melancholic. The production, by Kish Mauve, is very polished but it’s almost more crucial to the song than the melody or the vocal.
Lyrically, All The Lovers is nothing new. The most interesting piece of writing is probably in the chorus where Kylie metaphorically talks about her ex-lovers as if they’ve passed away. Elsewhere in the song, she generically talks about dancing and being with the person she loves.
For the middle-eight, the track gets completely stripped back to just Kylie’s vocal and a piano before launching back into quite a hypnotic instrumental, the only experimental and refreshing part of the song, before reaching the final chorus.
All The Lovers is a nice song but that’s about all there is to it. It would make a very strong album track but as a lead single, it doesn’t make much sense. It should have been left to become one of those songs like Speakerphone, a standout album track which the fans can appreciate but nothing more.
Kylie releases All The Lovers on June 28th followed by her eleventh studio album Aphrodite on July 2nd.
Ke$ha – “Your Love Is My Drug” Video Premiere
Published May 13th 2010
Filed under Videos
Ke$ha’s video for Your Love Is My Drug, the third single from her debut album Animal, premiered today. As a single, Your Love Is My Drug was a smart choice since it’s very similar to her debut TiK ToK, and it’s a sure fire hit for the summer. The video isn’t a typical Ke$ha video since she’s not drunk and she actually looks clean for once.
Your Love Is My Drug is set in the desert in which Ke$ha’s walks around singing, becomes a tiger, rides an elephant and tries to sail a boat on the sand before the video turns into a cartoon, presumably symbolising that her love for her boyfriend in the video is like a drug hallucination.
For the middle-eight of the song, the video shows Ke$ha in the dark with UV paint all over her body similar to her performance of Your Love Is My Drug on Saturday Night Live. The use of UV paint seems to be done quite a lot lately and can be seen in recent videos such as Alphabeat’s DJ, Black Eyed Peas’ I Gotta Feeling and more.
The talking part at the end of the song, which could have been a disaster in the video, was carried out surprisingly well. While the video is decent overall, it could have been better had the cartoon scenes been omitted.
Your Love Is My Drug is released June 6th through RCA Records.