Cheryl Cole – “Promise This” Single Premiere
Published September 14th 2010
Filed under Reviews
Cheryl Cole’s lead single, Promise This, from her upcoming sophomore album, premiered today on Chris Moyles’ BBC Radio 1 show. After the huge success of Fight For This Love, Cheryl returns with another Wayne Wilkins track, this time specially penned for Cheryl.
Promise This is very different to anything on her debut album, 3 Words. It’s more dance-pop and less r’n’b-lite. The only previous work by Cheryl that it could be compared to is the b-side, Boys, which shares similar production styles. It doesn’t sound much like anything else around right now but it sounds very fresh, yet current.
The track samples the well known French song Alouette. Cheryl metaphorically sings about plucking and spreading wings which is then used as a hook during the intro, post-chorus and outro of the song, but in French.
Alouette-ette-ette, alouette-ette-ette, alouette-ette-ette, déployer les ailes
Alouette-ette-ette, alouette-ette-ette, alouette-ette-ette, plumerai les ailes
Melodically, Cheryl’s vocal in the verses has a similarity to the verses of Rain On Me from her debut. The chorus is quite short like Fight For This Love’s chorus, but similarly the repetitive, French, post-chorus is the biggest hook in the song. Promise This, again will be a huge club hit for Cheryl as it’s quite uptempo, clocking in at 150bpm, faster than Fight For This Love’s 120bpm.
Promise This will be released on October 25th, following an X Factor performance and followed by her sophomore album, Messy Little Raindrops, on November 1st, through Fascination Records.
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.
Diana Vickers – “Once” Video Premiere
Published March 05th 2010
Filed under Videos
The video for Diana Vickers’ debut single Once premiered today. It’s not at all like what we would have expected it to look like. It’s a studio video as opposed to an outdoors one which would have been expected and more suiting. Although it looks quite cheap, it gets better as it goes along and the editing is really well done and sticks to the pace of the music. However, it doesn’t have any reflection on the lyrics of the song.
Each scene has a different costume change. The swing scene echoes her performance of Smile on The X Factor. The scene where Diana is singing into the microphone with her band is a little Blondie-esque. She also manages to get the infamous “claw” hand movement into the video. Diana looks her best in the scene with the mirror, the scene with the bed, the scene on the rug and the scene on the bathroom floor which all show a much more grown up Diana to the one we saw on The X Factor.
Once has been uploaded to YouTube which you can view below:
Once will be released on April 19th followed by the debut album Songs From The Tainted Cherry Tree which has been pushed back to May 3rd.
Diana Vickers Album Sampler Review
Published February 21st 2010
Filed under Reviews
Diana Vickers’ debut album has been much anticipated since she finished The X Factor in 4th place in 2008. This week her album tracklist was released via her official website along with the album title Songs From The Tainted Cherry Tree. Today the album sampler for Songs From The Tainted Cherry Tree leaked onto the internet two months in advance of the scheduled release date.
The sampler includes the following five tracks:
01. Once – The Cathy Dennis and Eg White penned debut single which puts everything people loved about Diana on The X Factor into its 3 minutes, 12 seconds while also defining her sound as a artist. While Once is a debut single, Diana’s unique quirky vocal makes her recognisable and it seems like you are listening to an established artist rather than a new one.
02. Remake Me And You – A Diana co-write with Brit Award winner Ellie Goulding and Guy Sigsworth which sounds a bit Alphabeat-esque. It’s very repetitive and doesn’t seem to reach where it’s trying to go but instead sounds like it’s going around in circles.
03. The Boy Who Murdered Love – Another Diana co-write with Chris Braide. The verses sound like a good Gwen Stefani ballad while the chorus escalates into another one-word repeating spree similar to Once but with a darker, melancholic melody.
04. My Hip – A Harmony Boucher and Tobias Karlsson track. After a few listens, My Hip is definitely the weakest song on the sampler but it’s still listenable. It just seems to plod along with nothing really interesting about it. The production is nice but the song lacks a stronger melody.
05. Put It Back Together Again – A Nerina Pallot track and the best song on the sampler. It’s very melancholic and atmospheric. It’s by far Diana’s best vocal to date. It builds like a big Snow Patrol ballad. The only thing to fault with this track is the mouthful in the chorus when Diana tries to squeeze “put it back together again” into such a small time frame.
Overall, the album is shaping up to be quite a strong debut and possibly the best debut to come from an ex-X Factor contestant yet. It proves that spending time to develop a sound instead of rush-releasing an album off the back of The X Factor pays off as Diana is demonstrating with this album.
Songs From The Tainted Cherry Tree is set for release on April 26th through RCA Records.
Diana Vickers – “Once” Debut Single
Published January 15th 2010
Filed under News
Diana Vickers is finally releasing her long awaited debut single this April, the Cathy Dennis and Eg White penned track Once. Diana was my favourite to win The X Factor 2008 where she placed 4th and we’ve been waiting for her debut ever since. Popjustice chose Once as today’s Song of The Day posted alongside a short clip of the track.
Once has the same sound as Jumping Into Rivers which leaked last year but sounds more like a debut single than …Rivers. Diana’s distinctive vocals take the track from being average to very good. Had another artist been singing on the track, it could have sounded a little boring. It’s very instant and even after your first listen, you’ll never forget it.
[audio:once.mp3]Once will be released on April 19th through RCA Records.