Rated: Lady GaGa 'Applause' Music Video

Lady Gaga has always been in the business of weird music video concepts. The weirder they got the more we loved them. I'd say 'Applause' has grown on me considerably in the past few days, but I'm sticking to my 4/5 rating (haters gon' hate). The video however, makes it all the more enjoyable. It's not as self indulgent as a lot of her past videos, which were/are still marvellous to behold. It's fun, sexy (who doesn't love a hand shaped bra cup) and best of all it has Lady Gaga as a Swan... 

Rated: MKS 'Flatline' Music Video

So the MKS 'Flatline' video dropped at midnight last night/this morning. It's not quite what I expected but on repeated viewings it goes from underwhelming to charming. This doesn't take away the fact that 'Flatline' is one of the strongest songs to be released in 2013. Enjoy.

The marching band bit is pretty fun.

Further note: 

So I've been listening to this song a lot... 103 times to be precise... which doesn't include the 6 times I've watched the video today. I am amazing. I've always had an intense love of music videos and for me, the music video can make or break the song. I envisaged something much more powerful/dramatic for 'Flatline' and here's what that vision was/is:

The girls are in a house, each sitting at different points of the room - Siobhan slumped on one couch next to an unconscious drunk (hot) male - Mutya lying on the floor with another (hot) male, his sleeping head resting on her leg - Keisha (I love you) sitting upright looking out over the room from a window seat (her hot male is behind her feet, eyes shut lying across the base of the seat). 

The camera flits between each of their amazing solo sections - it's all very dramatic and just really lovely to watch tbh. I have this image of Mutya dragging herself through the hall, leaving a black smear on the wall as she rubs along it during her solo (obv blood but kids might watch - so symbolic I'm killing myself here). 

Blah blah blah - it progresses to the immense finale, all their blokes are still asleep/unconscious/dead or whatever, who cares? Siobhan does her 'Oh Jimmy' section and her hands rest on the window at the front of the house, which starts to form a web of cracks from where her hands are (I want to make this video NOW). When Mutya does her 'Don't wanna be in love' bit (so good) and the final chorus kicks in, the house starts shattering, cracking, getting properly fucked up. Keisha does her big vocal bits, like she does and will do forevermore, and the house pretty much explodes and they all sit in the grass facing each other, holding hands while embers rain down around them (they might be naked at this point - I haven't decided yet but I think it would be pretty impactful).

Obviously, my actual vision is far more detailed than this and probably even better/more expensive.

Rated: Naughty Boy - Hotel Cabana - Album Preview

Check out the embedded preview of Naughty Boy's debut album below. It sounds way better than I imagined it would. Lots of Emeli Sande on there, some Bastille, Ed Sheeran, Tinie Tempah and god damn Gabrielle! 

Rated: Naughty Boy Featuring Emeli Sande - Lifted

If you attended your gran's 70th birthday celebrations last year it is almost a certainty that Emeli Sandé performed. I'm right... right? The performer of almost any televised event in 2012 is back after a relatively lengthy 6 monthish hiatus, at least by her standards. She's come back with her pal Naughty Boy, with whom she sang on the stunning 'Wonder' last year. It's one of those songs that makes you feel lucky it popped up on shuffle, lucky to have it in your life. Just me then?

So what's the new collaboration like then? 'Lifted' is an exciting track, harking back to Emeli's own debut single 'Heaven', a glorious song that should have gotten far more attention than it did. It's packed with trip-hop bells & beats, laid under Emeli's incredible vocal arrangement. The opening quivering violins are beautiful and the songs build up is subtle but ultimately explosive. If this pair did an entire album together it would more than likely be perfect.

5/5

Rated: Katy Perry VS Lady Gaga - Roar VS Applause

They're both back. They both have impressive back catalogues of pop-amazingness. It's hard to decide who you prefer because they're both incredibly influential 21st Century pop artists. One sings a bit better than the other, but then the other did wear a whipped cream jizzing bra. The choice is nigh on impossible. Let's make the call based on their new singles? Fuck yes!

Katy Perry - Roar

'Roar' follows an album packed with more pop perfection than it had the right to. Katy's vocal's are strong throughout, bursting with conviction. It sounds a bit like 'Hard Knock Life' when it bleeps into ear shot, then the chorus blasts into a pop/rock mid tempo stadium shaker. The 'you're gonna hear me roar-oh-oh-oh-oooohoooh' is so catchy it sticks in your head even when you're sitting on the toilet... true story. This is a melodious pop masterpiece and let us not overlook the input of pop Sith Lord (he must be evil to be so powerful) Max Martin. Long may he live.

5/5

Lady Gaga - Applause

'Applause' opens with shaky David Bowie imitation vocals and a Tetris on acid electronic arrangement. The chorus is the song's strong point; it's typical Gaga, big, ballsy and camp. Her vocals are solid and at points the production is exhilarating, particularly when the chorus erupts like a pop volcano. This was designed for a gay club dance floor, much like the majority of her upbeat roster. After cancelling some of her world tour due to a hip injury, this will certainly have her fans back in their bath tubs, pouring breakfast cereal all over themselves in Gaga fuelled euphoria. Even if you don't like her, no one can deny how fucking brilliant/essential her pop-artistry is.

4/5

Katy just wins this battle. However, overall both of them are so brilliant it would be callous to choose one over the other. 

SOZ I CHOOSE KATY!

Rated: VV Brown - The Apple

VV Brown is one of those 'should have been big' artists. She bubbled under the surface of the pop soup for a long time but never quite popped her head through. A song like 'Shark In the Water' certainly should have cracked the top 5. Alas, who am I to judge the music buying habits of the British public (WTF ARE YOU SPENDING YOUR 99p ON?!).

Her new single, 'The Apple' is completely unexpectedly incredible. It's a dark electro pop number, with thick thumping synths beating throughout and a haunting vocal arrangement. This is a vast step forward for VV, let's just hope it gains her some more fans.

4/5

Rated: Jessie J - It's My Party

Jessie J will never be everyone's cup of tea. She's a bit like the liquorice tea of the pop world, personality wise. However, that being said all the same bitches love her songs even if they don't/won't admit it. There is no denying this girl got some big vocal chords in the womb and there's certainly no doubting she's one of the UK's most interesting and successful pop acts in years.

'Wild' was a double collaboration pop behemoth that stayed fresh even after 50+ plays. In short, it was fucking killer. Now, she's releasing 'It's My Party', a catchy as hell pop track backed by poppy guitar riffs and lots of wooooaaahhhooo-ing throughout. It's typical Jessie J, which means it's typically fun, frivolous pop tartery.

I like this.

4/5

Rated: Mutya Keisha Siobhan do Scala; are still very good.

Yes, another MKS post. Yes, this blogger is obsessed. Yes, I wish I was batting for Keisha Buchanan's team because she's banging. Yes, the original Sugababe's trio performed a full live show for the first time in over a decade and yes, they were very bloody good.

I wasn't there, so my "very bloody good" is based solely on Youtube clips, the witness accounts of others across the internet and through extreme personal bias. Mutya Keisha Siobhan kicked things off with their debut single 'Overload', a song that's still too cool for its own good. They continued rolling their fans down the grand hill of nostalgia with should have been a mega hit 'Run For Cover' and an incredible performance of 'Stronger'. You can't even hear Siobhan's rendition of the Heidi Range vocal properly because the crowd morph into a pack of wild bitches on heat. 

Enough of the oldies, we want to hear some new music. One of the standouts from the set is 'I'm Alright', a Sia Furler co-pen with the group. It's a mid-tempo piece of balladry with a catchy as hell chorus and lots of lovely MKS harmonising. Keisha's vocals are strong, Siobhan's packed with emotion, but it's Mutya's middle section that stands out. 'No Regrets' is another new track, similarly to 'I'm Alright', it's mid-tempo and about love. Keisha opens it with a stunningly performed verse and Mutya kills the second verse with her smooth soulful rasp. Another new, killer track is 'Lay Down In Swimming Pools', a spin on a Kendrick Lamar song. It oozes cool more so than any of the other new tracks, perhaps more than any of the Sugababe's back catalogue. 

They close the show with new single 'Flatline'. This is my song of the moment, that's no secret. It's creeping up to the higher reaches of my top songs of 2013 draft right now. The performance is solid; amazing vocals, blends, energy thumping through the crowd (if I'd been there I'd probably have stomped a trench into the floor).

Having Mutya Keisha & Siobhan back together is more significant than a lot of people realise. It's not just three women singing some songs and selling some records, it's much more than that. All three of them are skilled songwriters and two in particular (M & K) are responsible for some of the UK's most successful and most critically acclaimed pop songs, making them important contributors to British pop as a whole. If the Scala gig in London serves as a taste of what to expect from the quality of their second album together, we're about to be presented with a very exciting and important moment in UK pop music.