All That Junk – 10/5
Published May 10th 2010
Filed under News
Maroon 5 have announced the release of their third studio album Hands All Over and a tour in support of the album. (Twitter Link)
Diana Vickers celebrated debuting at number one on the UK album charts with a cake. (Twitter Link)
Avril Lavigne finally got herself a Twitter account, even if it is hard to believe that it’s really her or that she’s 25 years old from her Tweets. (Twitter Link)
Jade Ewen thought she was driving on a motorway today but it was in fact a dual-carriageway. (Twitter Link)
Alexandra Burke’s third single from her debut album has reached number one on the Irish iTunes. (Twitter Link)
Katy Perry – “California Gurls”
Published May 09th 2010
Filed under Reviews
Katy Perry’s lead single California Gurls from her upcoming second album premiered this week via her official website with the statement “Summer starts now!”. California Gurls, produced by Dr. Luke, features rapper Snoop Dogg and sounds like a summer anthem which could rival the success of Katy’s 2008 huge hit I Kissed A Girl.
The problem with California Gurls as a lead single and also a comeback single is that the chorus has no stand out lyric to catch onto. Having listened to the song quite a number of times, it’s hard to remember any of the lyrics from the chorus. The only thing that keeps me returning for another listen is the addictive melody present throughout the track.
The production on the track sounds a bit raw and unfinished. On first listen, it sounded like it was an unfinished demo. The vocals are swallowed by the music for most of the song and it’s hard to understand why it was intentionally produced that way. California Gurls also sounds very similar to Dr. Luke’s recent hit with Ke$ha, TiK ToK, to the extent where the chorus of each song could be interchanged between their respective tracks and fit perfectly with the only alteration being the pitch.
Regardless, California Gurls is a strong enough lead single to become a hit despite its similarities to TiK ToK and it’s a solid effort from Katy showing some progression from the sound of her debut album One of The Boys. Even Snoop Dogg’s rap doesn’t sound out of place or forced although the misspelling of “girls” in the title could have been avoided but it’s hardly surprising as it seems to be a Dr. Luke reoccurring trend.
You can listen to California Gurls on Katy Perry’s official website now.
Alphabeat – “DJ” Video
Published April 29th 2010
Filed under Videos
The video for Alphabeat’s third single DJ, now extended to DJ (I Could Be Dancing), from their sophomore album The Beat Is… premiered this week. It’s one of Alphabeat’s better videos and hopefully with the newly mixed version of the track, it will give Alphabeat a deserved hit from this record.
The members of Alphabeat are stood on spinning vinyl for most of the video, keeping the retro image the band have similar to the cassette tapes used in their video for Boyfriend. The Hawaiian scenes on the spinning vinyl makes it look like Fascination want to push DJ to become a summer hit. For quite a cheap video, it’s very eye-grabbing with the colours and the UV scenes are really well done but not overused.
DJ is released through Fascination Records on May 31st.
Robyn – Body Talk Pt. 1
Published April 11th 2010
Filed under Reviews
Robyn’s been working on the follow up to her 2005 self-titled album for a while but for some reason it wasn’t an album I was eagerly awaiting. So it wasn’t a surprise that I didn’t notice when Robyn uploaded a new album track, Fembot from her upcoming album Body Talk Pt. 1, to her official site a few weeks ago.
Fembot surprised me on first listen since I didn’t think much of her recent collaborations such as Christian Falk’s Dream On and Röyksopp’s The Girl And The Robot. Fembot sounds like a coherent progression from the sound of Robyn’s previous album, building on the style of tracks such as the updated international versions of Bum Like You and Robotboy. You can take a listen to Fembot below:
[audio:fembot.mp3]The album artwork for Body Talk Pt. 1, the first of two or possibly three albums which Robyn plans to release this year, also looks really impressive with some interesting song titles.
1. Don’t Fucking Tell Me What To Do
2. Fembot
3. Dancing On My Own
4. Cry When You Get Older
5. Dance Hall Queen
6. None of Dem (Featuring Röyksopp)
7. Hang With Me (Acoustic)
8. Jag Vet En Dejlig Rosa
Body Talk Pt. 1 will be released through Robyn’s label Konichiwa Records on June 14th following the lead single Dancing On My Own on June 7th.
Cheryl Sings “Live” Again
Published March 29th 2010
Filed under News
While I like Cheryl Cole and overlooked the fact that she mimes her way through most performances because of the demanding, energetic routines which put on a good show, it’s no excuse for any singer to mime while standing still.
Cheryl “performed” Fight For This Love on French radio on a show similar to Radio One’s Live Lounge in the UK, standing still behind a mic stand, mouthing the lyrics to a pre-recorded vocal of Fight For This Love out of sync. What’s worse is there was no need for her to mime since there was no dance routine involved and she proved that she’s more than capable of doing a decent live performance as she did last week with her current UK single Parachute and a cover of Owl City’s Fireflies on Radio One’s Live Lounge in the UK. Fight For This Love is not a vocally demanding song and a singer should be able to breeze through it with no problems.
On top of that, the pre-recorded vocal which Cheryl mimed to while rooted to the spot, was the exact same pre-recorded, purposely flawed vocal that she used for her performances of Fight For This Love at The Brits and the Danish version of The X Factor. The least she could do is record a new vocal for each performance to make it sound somewhat convincing.
At this rate, when Cheryl returns to the UK, she’ll be marched straight into the studio to lay down purposely flawed, pre-recorded vocals for the entire setlist as supporting act for The Black Eyed Peas European tour this summer.