Rated: Sia Aka God - Sings Diamonds

My favourite, adorable, wonderful, talented and just fucking incredibly perfect singer Sia has performed  Rihanna's 'Diamonds' live. Good for her because it's her song. Good for her because, where Rihanna's is a 5/5, this is a 10/5. Popjustice drew my attention to this fantastic moment this evening and I thank him/her/them from the bottom of my Sia soaked heart. Let's hope she does just as PJ says she should do and release her own original versions of all the amazing songs she's written/contributed to for the likes of Ri and the unstoppable crap music machine that is Flo Rida.

Click through on the link below for a lovely song from Sia's amazing album We Are Born.

Rated: Ke$ha - Die Young

It's been a while since we heard from the 'not so great a singer - every inch a great popstar' KE-dollarsign-HA. Her debut album Animal sold over 3 million copies, pretty impressive for a 25 year old who can't hold a note. It's not vocal talent that garnered favour for this crazy wench though, it's her wacky persona and tanks of charisma. With hair that looks like it hasn't been washed in weeks, a dirty snarl and a string of ridiculously catchy hit songs she's the ideal pop character in an age where perfection is so heavily sought. 

New single 'Die Young', from upcoming second album Warrior, opens a bit like a Flo Rida track with a heavily produced guitar riff and a playground chant of 'let's make the most of the night like we're going to die young'. It soon bursts into a hyper, electropop dance anthem with more hooks than a Fisherman's tackle box. This is probably her best song to date (almost tying 'Tik Tok' and 'Blow'), and is definitely one of my favourite songs of 2012. It's a fun way to close of the music year.

5/5

Rated: Kelly Clarkson - Catch My Breath

With the release of her first greatest hits compilation hurtling towards us it seemed only fitting for Kelly Clarkson to release a new song to sate her pop hungry fans. With 20million+ albums sold she's had a pretty impressive run of damn strong hits and songs that deserved to be hits but didn't quite make the impact expected ('Dark Side' had number one written all over it). 

Like Christina Aguilera's Stripped is her unbeatable album, Breakaway is Kelly's. This was an album without filler, without cheese and gimmick; just pure pop perfection. New single 'Catch My Breath' is worthy of such a title. Another self empowerment, think positive, pop power anthem with awesome vocals and simple production. It's typically Kelly, but typically and predictably great.

4/5

Rated Xfactor USA: So much better than Tulisa

I'm infatuated with Xfactor USA at the moment. It trumps out shoddy original version completely, from quantity to quality. The production values are triple that of ours, the contestants more likeable and miles more interesting, and most importantly the talent is fucking off the scale. Where we have Rylan, they have Vino Alan; where we have Tulisa, they have Britney Spears. It's an incontestable point I'm making, so don't even waste your energy trying to do so. Just bathe in the amazingness that is the show and witness some singers, who are far better than they have any right to be, kill it every week! 

To celebrate how my love, I've decided to showcase my top 5 contestants. There's no reason why you should appreciate this, other than it's a bloody great use of my spare time. Enjoy!

5 - Beatrice Miller

This girl is 13 years old and features in the show's 'Teens' category, mentored by Britney Spears. She's vocally talented far beyond her years, but dresses like a total fanny. Someone sack the stylist, no actually someone club them over the head and drop them off a bridge because no one should dress like a punky scarecrow. That fail aside, Beatrice has a stunning, smokey quality to her voice like no other person in the competition. Nice girl too.

Rated Unapologetic: Apology somewhat needed

'I do my own thang, phresh of the runway' bites Riri on the opener to her seventh studio album Unapologetic. It's fierce, a bit indecipherable but full of the bad girl attitude she's developed rapidly over the past two years/albums. Many think she's in overkill at the moment and needs to take a serious hiatus to give everyone else a break. Others are delighted that she keeps popping out albums like a toaster hooked on pop tarts. I fall in with the latter category, or so I thought I did until I heard Unapologetic.

For a major Rihanna fan such as moi, one who has been hard for her music ever since the wonderful Rated R graced airwaves, Unapologetic is a disappointing, somewhat annoying collection of songs. The opener is quite cool, but when the haunting dark beats of 'Numb' (feat Eminem) kick in the album is thrown off track. Repeatedly stating 'I'm going numb' for what seems like an eternity I just pray for the song to come to a swift end. Then we're presented with the duff 'Pour It Up', a song that irritates with its horrendous lyrics and arrangement. The negatives keep coming with 'Get It Over With' and the poppy snorefest duet with ex/not ex lover Chris Brown 'Nobody's Business'. You're right it is nobody's business and also, no one fucking cares.

The album avoids a 1/5 rating because of some moments of brilliance. Lead single 'Diamonds' is a triumph of a song, perhaps a career best. Rihanna's vocals are on point, the production is gorgeous and the lyrics are strong. Chase & Status number 'Jump' is another top track, with its electronic dub step onslaught an absolute joy to absorb. 

The poor songs noted earlier don't showcase any vocal talent. Songs like 'What Now', 'Stay' and 'Love Without Tragedy/Mother Mary' show off the vocals that have grown over the past 3 albums. The first track is an infectious, mid tempo anthem that would fit perfectly onto Loud. The third is an interesting track and is perhaps one of the album's most powerful performances. 'No Love Allowed' sees Rihanna embrace her Bajan accent just like she did on the brilliant 'Man Down' a couple of year ago and is just as loveable. Album closer 'Lost in Paradise' is average dub step pop, but certainly maintains the relief the latter part of the album injects into the sore spot left by the jagged/unpleasant earlier segment.

Unapologetic is not an improvement on Talk That Talk, which albeit wasn't a perfect album, and it certainly doesn't serve as a worthy successor to Loud or Rated R. It does show that Rihanna, even now in a state of over exposure, still holds the iron fist as the most powerful pop singer in the world. Her last three albums have given fans different music, new experimentations and in some cases a new Rihanna to play with. However, Unapologetic doesn't manage to remain cohesive and has too many mishaps littered throughout its track list to hit the top end of the review scale. There are, as previously said, moments of brilliance here. Songs that remind you of why you fell in love with dirty Ri in the first place. Right, now it's time for your holiday love!

Download: Diamonds/Jump/No Love Allowed/What Now

2.5/5

Rated: Move over Coca Cola truck; hello Mariah

It's long been the sign of the festive season's rebirth but then Coke was thrashed aside by the awesome pop power of Mariah Carey's 'All I Want For Christmas Is You', which has appeared in the iTunes chart and it's not even the beginning of December! Take a look for yourself:


It's Christmas!

Rated: Lana Del Rey - Paradise

Lana Del Rey is one of those artists who comes along once in a lifetime. Sure she might not belt them out like Whitney, drag her ass along the floor like Beyonce, or shave her head like Britney. What she does bring to the pop round table is hypnotic lyrical genius and a delightful old school voice. I'm not a fan of album repackages and I never will be. Unfortunately that's what Lana's gone and done, darnit! Thankfully, I've channeled her telepathically and she decided to release Paradise as an EP. 

The lead single from Paradise is 'Ride', one of 2012's most stunning songs, with one of 2012's most mesmerising music videos. 'American' is an incredible track about love and lust, written in Del Rey poetic fashion and on every listen I am transported to an open top car on the American West Coast. 'Body Electric' is a familiar and addictive song from Lana's live sets and 'Cola' shocks on first play as she sings 'My pussy tastes like pepsi-cola...' laid over a beautiful violin and guitar riff arrangement. 'Blue Velvet' opens like a sister of 'Born to Die' with climaxing violins, before Lana's iconic voice floats into ear shot. 

Paradise is a strong EP, however it would have benefited from some new flavours. Born to Die, as amazing as it was/is, wouldn't have been such a success without the likes of 'National Anthem' and 'Diet Mountain Dew' to mix up the tempo. Paradise, maintains a slow pace, with the exception of 'Ride', which at the very start doesn't break things up very well. Overall however, this serves as a lovely addition to the great moments of her debut.

3/5

Rated: Christina Aguilera - Lotus

It's been over two years since Christina Aguilera stepped into her Bionic heels and received a swift pummelling from critics and long time fans for her change of direction and 'copy cat' Lady GaGa sound. As disappointing as Bionic was/is, mainly because it's not cohesive as an album, it did have some pretty cool sounding songs on it, 'Elastic Love' and 'You Lost Me' for example. Still, it was an album that thrust Christina into pop obscurity, but thanks to an annoyingly addictive duet with Maroon 5 on 'Moves Like Jagger' she regained a lot of her fan's support. 

Now she's back, with an album she promised would be closer to the style of her mega hit Stripped, an album so popconic it should have its own spot in the hall of fame for awesomeness. Lotus is far more cohesive than its predecessor and it's not ballad heavy, which is a relief following the brilliance of lead single 'Your Body'. 

'Your Body' was a great way to kick things off, but this album has far more impressive songs just screaming for single release. 'Army Of Me', coined as Fighter 2.0 by the lady herself, is a heady electronic dance infused self empowerment anthem and it's just begging for a heavy club edit. 'Red Hot Kinda Love' is a catchy track, in the same vein as her Peaches collab in the past. It's not the strongest song, but it's so infectious it's hard not to toot toot along to the poppy production. Things get really good with 'Let There Be Love', an immense dance floor anthem waiting to happen and perhaps the album's best uptempo track.

There are no poor moments on Lotus, a feat that artists everywhere dream of achieving. There are, however, some slightly weaker songs. 'Cease Fire' is strong, but the lyrical repetitions do tire, making it a grower. 'Around the World' is more instantly addictive, but it still isn't as brilliant as some of the other songs on the album. 'Circles' is unexpected, and hard to pin down, and kind of annoying.

Christina didn't wait over two years to come back alone, oh no. 'Make the World Move' is the first of two duets and it is bloody epic. Sapping some of the retro influences that made Back to Basics such a success, this is a funky retro soul track and the combination of Christina and Cee Lo Green is so good it's just got to happen again. Blake Shelton pops in to sing on 'Just a Fool', an epic country/rock inspired ballad that shows just why Christina continues to be one of pop's most impressive vocalists. 

The ballads aren't kept just for duets, there's some solo action too. 'Blank Page' is a gorgeous piano led ballad, cowritten by Australian lyrical mastermind Sia Furler who penned some of Bionic's best moments. Christina's vocals are stratospherically powerful and emotive and the song itself is one of her finest career milestones to date. 'Best of Me' continues her trend for great slow songs. 

Lotus is more brilliant than anyone could have anticipated. The skeptic in me thought it could be disastrous, but only because I wanted so badly for it to be good. Thankfully I am left satisfied and eager to listen again. With some of her decade long career's strongest, most impressive moments, this is an album deserving of respect and success. To answer the question on all fan lips: Yes it is better than Stripped.

4/5

Download: Army of Me/Let There be Love/Blank Page

Rated: Little Mix - DNA

They hit number one with their debut single 'Wings' a few months back. It was way better than anyone expected it to be, especially after their shoddy to mediocre cover of 'Cannonball' following their Xfactor triumph in 2011. 

New single 'DNA' is a very special pop moment, with lots of intense beat pounding and impressive vocals from all the wee Mixes. It outshines their debut, shows off their pop versatility and cements them as one of the UKs finest girl bands for years. In light of Girls Aloud's anti climactic comeback single and the Sugababes m.i.a behaviour/dubious future, this is quite exciting.

5/5