Alert > Demi Lovato > Cool for the Summer

Can we all just stop what we're doing and look at this?

Here are five things we can gather from this artwork for Demi Lovato's new single 'Cool for the Summer' which, by the way, debuts next week (!):

1. Demi's going down a sex to sell records route. It was bound to happen sooner or later. 

2. The song will, more than likely, be very good, fun and summery (hazardous guessing).

3. It will get a remix with Nicki Minaj.

4. It will precede an album of other very good pop songs.

5. The video will feature Demi covering herself in factor 50, the advocate for skincare that she is. 

Watch this space. I'll be reporting back with a review of 'Cool for the Summer' next week on July 1.

New Song > Lianne La Havas > What You Don't Do

Another song has dropped from Lianne La Havas' upcoming second album Blood, which is out July 31. It's called 'What You Don't Do' and it's just as likeable and infectious as its predecessor 'Unstoppable', except this time it has a little bounce in its step. You can get this song automatically when pre-ordering Blood. Pre-order here.

New Song > Janet Jackson > No Sleeep

Seven years it's bloody been, yes seven since Janet Jackson sister-of-Michael released an album. Her last opus Discipline wasn't her best and really, none of her material has been particularly ground breaking since The Velvet Rope and some of All For You. With the announcement of her 11th album Unbreakable, due this Autumn and a supporting world tour I'm surprised I am still alive to post this. 

The first single to drop from Unbreakable is 'No Sleeep', a lovely R&B slow jam with smooth production and a solid middle-eight courtesy of longtime producers Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis who have produced 9 of Janet's #1 singles. It's a little reserved for a first single but it echoes the likes of 'That's the Way Love Goes' on Janet and some of the softer tracks on The Velvet Rope with its seductive delivery. This new album is really important to maintain her status as a relevant pop act, and with Madonna floundering around in desperation to fit in with a younger generation of stars there's a spot in the market for a legend to rise again. 

Flashback > Mutya Keisha Siobhan > Flatline

It's been almost two year since this came out. Can we all just take a moment to remember how excited we were to hear the preview on Soundcloud? I'm taking my moment now... 

Album Track > Mutya Keisha Siobhan > Back In The Day

This little blighter dropped onto Youtube back in February and I did not know anything about it until recently. Mutya, we exchanged glances and a wave at your gig in 2013, I expect to be kept informed of these major events. Anyway, it's time to forgive and forget. Rumors have been flying all over the place since MKS / The Original Sugababes made a comeback in 2013 with the ridiculously high quality 'Flatline', a song that criminally staggered to number 50 in the charts but should have spend a year at number one. That's life. Since then it's all been quiet but some people say they're holding off the release of their complete 'debut' album until Amelle, Jade and Heidi give up and head down to the job centre so that MKS can ditch the shit name and take back what's rightfully theirs.

The album track that's come to light is 'Back In The Day', a stunning ballad not far from the style of their original debut album One Touch, with a simple arrangement and those staple harmonies that other groups wish they could master. Siobhan's voice stands out and it really gets you excited to hear the bound-to-be-fantastic album that's just crying out for a release. 

New Single > Sinead Harnett > She Ain't Me

I'm a little ashamed of myself for not spotting the talents of London singer/songwriter Sinead Harnett sooner. She's been knocking around since 2013, releasing her own cuts like the gorgeous 'Got Me' and 'No Other Way', as well as making an appearance on Disclosure's Settle on the understated 'Boiling' and Rudimental's Home on the escalating 'Hide'.  She's been penned as the 'experimental Adele', but honestly I don't hear much vocal similarity and let's leave Adele as Adele. I hear echoes of Jessie Ware, the stripped and throbbing R&B inspired beats merged with a James Blake esque electronic experimentalism. 

Her voice hums with raw emotion and this is conveyed perfectly on new single 'She Ain't Me'. You'd  be forgiven for presuming this would be a run of the mill R&B assault on the upper echelons of the charts, but actually its reserved production and haunting vocal echo make this one of the most exciting tracks I've heard in 2015. I can only imagine when an album does surface that it will be glorious.

New Single > Joss Stone > The Answer

I've always had a soft spot Joss Stone, even when people turned their back on her for 'that' American accent I kept on listening to her sultry smoky tones and soul vibes. It seems people are easily pissed off because she's more talented than the majority of drivel that finds its way onto the airwaves today. Her new single 'The Answer', lifted from her upcoming album Water For Your Soul combines her trademark soul with Brazilian baião, a welcome accompaniment to her expertly executed vocal flutters, cracks and roars.

The organic authenticity of Stone's last original album LP1 continues here, vocal tinkering nowhere to be heard and I don't think I detected one synth amongst the live sounding arrangement. The song takes a couple of plays to get into, but once you've soaked it up it's an infectious summer number with a gorgeous crescendo of fiddles and a gospel choir.

'The Answer' is out now and you can hear it here.

Water For Your Soul is out on 17 July.

New(ish) Single > Florrie > Too Young To Remember

Florrie (known on her Passport as Florence Arnold) is a brilliant pop star in the making, but already a great pop star in her own right. With an armory of brilliant pop songs and an obvious knack for writing, producing and singing words it's criminal she hasn't cracked the top ten yet. Then again, as long as the music's great what does a chart placing matter eh? 

Her latest single Too Young To Remember dropped from the musical womb a couple of months back and I missed it in my blogging hiatus. It has something to do with H&M and an ad campaign I'm sure. What a catchy number to miss, what a fool I was/am. It's a step back to her pure pop ways, away from the loosely structured electro-synth-artsy brilliant EP Sirens in 2014. It's playful, has a killer hook and it's one of those pop songs that slaps a smile right on your miserable f*cking face. It's also got a doo doo doo bit in it. What's not to love?

New Single > Lianne La Havas > Unstoppable

The new single from London born singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/all round amazing music person Lianne La Havas is called Unstoppable and it is gorgeous. It's a step away from the folk-soul chants of her debut album Is Your Love Big Enough? but retains the same vocal smoothness that glittered throughout the opus. It's an instant charmer, gorgeous emotive vocal meandering atop a slow throbbing bass line and a seductive vintage soul arrangement. Unstoppable is the first single to be lifted from her upcoming sophomore album Blood which, if this is anything to go by, will be amazing. 

Unstoppable is available to savour here.

Blood will be released in the UK on 31 July.

5 / 5

New Single > Leona Lewis > Fire Under My Feet

Leona's last foray into the charts was her brilliant, underrated festive album Christmas, With Love which spawned number three future Christmas staple One More Sleep. Her third album Glassheart was a bit of a flop in the UK, not that it was bad, it just wasn't very Leona and the step toward a more electronic heavy sound smothered her already faint personality. So what do you do when Simon Cowell is extinguishing your creativity, a flare no one knew you had? You sack him. Leona moved from Syco to Island, a much better record label and the results are very impressive.

Her new single, the first to be lifted from her upcoming fifth studio effort I Am is called Fire Under My Feet and it is the Leona song we've been waiting for. She wrote it herself with the help of Toby Gad (mastermind behind Beyoncé's If I Were a Boy) and it's so Ella Henderson that Ryan Tedder must be twiddling knobs somewhere in the mix! From the acapella opening to the anthemic chorus and thumping folksy pop beat that carries you to the vocally explosive climax, this song should put Leona back on top.

5 / 5