Saturday night's alright

This is the video for The Saturdays' new single Missing You. A couple of things leap out at us, notably, that The Sats are surely liable for some pretty hefty fines after organising a rave in what appears to be an area of outstanding natural beauty.

Also, I know that when I'm down about something, schlepping down to the beach with four friends and putting on a choreographed dance routine just perks me right up.

It's a bit hard to know what The Saturdays can do to get back on track after the Wordshaker fiasco. This latest offering is a little bit more understated than Forever Is Over which is certainly welcome. And, really, it's only the repeating "I miss missing you" autotuning which grates. The chorus in particularly has a great energy to it.

But, if we're being honest, it's not a patch on Up which is surely the main thing you wanted to know, isn't it?

It's not exactly "Stole" is it?

Poor, poor, Kelly Rowland, while fellow Destiny's Child alumna Beyonce has had an astonishingly successful solo career which has seen her set the cultural and musical mood (c.f. Crazy In Love, Single Ladies), Kelly has failed to make the same commercial and critical impact and at times has stuggled to even hold on to a record deal. Yet over the past year, Kelly has been able to hold on to musical relevance thanks to a lucrative collaboration with David Guetta. Whilst When Love Takes Over gave Kelly her second UK number 1 outside of Destiny's Child (although, if we're honest, we'd just prefer to forget about Dilemma. On the face of it, all looks fairly rosy, and perhaps this explains why Kelly's hooked up again with Guetta again on new single Commander.



We're distinctly in two minds about this offering. On the one hand, it's exceptionally catchy, and the video makes use of the often-underrated "let's have a dance-off with myself" trope. Commander is a well-pitched club anthem which frankly looks set to snag the pink pound and could thus be a real contender for a top 5 placing now that all of this ludicrous jingoism looks set to disappear from the charts.

On the other hand, it's hard to reconcile this outing with the promise which Kelly's early solo career showed. It's almost at this stage that she requires someone like Guetta or the Freemasons on hand to work with the raw materials and produce something chart-worthy. Longer term, this has to be a fairly risky strategy. Fairly or unfairly, Rowland's work will always be held up in comparison and competition with Beyonce's, and Rowland has never shown that spark or zeitgeist-seizing sensibility which has kicked her output into the stratosphere. Yes, Commander is a very good single but it's somewhat disheartening that Rowland has to share the credit with someone like Guetta in order to have a hit on her hands. It sort of reminds us of the good old days when people like Kelly Llorenna would stick their head above the parapet and have the odd top ten hit, but ultimately would be overshadowed by their association with dance outfits/producers which really provided the caffeine injection behind their vocal abilities. Everyone remembers N Trance. How many people remember Kelly Llorenna?

Perhaps this is an unfair comparison, and really, at the end of the day all that counts is that Kelly (Rowland, that is) will have a top ten hit on her hands and everyone will congratulate themselves on a job well done. Perhaps we're trying to find a story here where there is none.

But nonetheless, we're left with a prevailing lack of enthusiasm about Kelly Rowland's chances in the months and years to come. Just as Daylight faded away to nothing after Work brought her back into the spotlight, we can't help feeling that Commander will give Kelly a brief bit of attention, but ultimately isn't the foundation stone for a chart career which definitively proves that more than one Destiny's Child alumnus can stand on their own two feet and be a viable solo artist.

It's a shame, don't get us wrong. But, sadly, it's just a fact that some people are pretty much destined to be superstars, where others are fated to live from record deal to record deal to retain their prominence. We sincerely hope that Commander at least does the trick on this front for Kelly.

Batman and Robyn

It's taken us around two weeks to recover from that Diana Vickers review. But thankfully we've been jerked back into reality, and it's all thanks to not having any more bloody exams to do the travesty that is the chart position of Robyn's new single this Sunday. Dancing On My Own. Here's the video; it's got a very half-finished feel to it. Almost as if they stopped building the set half-way through but Robyn was just like "screw it, the quality of my emoting is such that no one will really notice anyway."



The song itself is absolutely spectacular, and taps in perfectly to this "sad disco" malarkey (c.f. Scissor Sisters Fire With Fire; Lady Gaga Alejandro) which really is invigorating pop music this Summer. And, where, I hear you cry is this masterpiece of modern pop music and (if we're being honest) the natural lyrical progression from The Smiths' How Soon Is Now? going to chart if the Friday midweeks are to be believed?

Number 7.

:'(

But it's OK, because thankfully James Corden and Dizzy Rascal are here to massacre Tears For Fears in the name of cheering on the English Football team.

Thank God, we were worried that pop music had just curled into a corner and died for a second.

As we've said before, if All The Lovers can't make number 1 this Summer, then everyone might as well pack up and go home.

More Tea, Vickers?

We're becoming a little worried now. Diana Vickers is about to launch her second single on the world, The Boy Who Murdered Love



It's bloody brilliant.

Yes, this brings the number of Diana Vickers songs which we don't dislike at all up to a grand total of 2. This already beats her total of likeable performances on The X Factor and thus far represents a 100% hit rate. Plus, they've kitted that video set out with some brilliant furniture (we particularly like the mirror above the fireplace).

Yes, Boy Who Murdered Love is essentially once with the tiniest bit of modulation on the vocals and the lyrics, but if it's formulaic, it's winningly formulaic. Diana's people are doing the important job of selecting songs which work with Vickers' divisive voice and in the process are creating some interesting pop music with a sound which is more grown up than most "Factor" alumni could ever dream of. It's certainly a whole world away from this fiasco:



And with that admission we're off to lie in a darkened room and listen to Once.

The "All The Lovers" video

It's all a little bit too subtle, isn't it?

In all seriousness, if this doesn't become Kylie's 8th number 1, then there's just no point anymore.

Or something like that.