Coming back from the dead with a chucked-together top 15 of 2011

It's alive. Well. Sort of. Whilst we largely gave up on this blog-about-pop-music lark earlier in the year, we also felt it wouldn't be right to let the site die with some spur-of-the-moment thoughts about the Born This Way campaign. Especially when we've since almost completely changed our opinions on the tracks in question since then. But never mind all that, let's see how we get on with evaluating pop music in 2011 and see how we get on, shall we?

All in all, it's fair to say it has been a mixed bag of a year. On the one hand, narrowing down a top 15 tracks has been an almost excruciatingly difficult task. On the other hand it's been made considerably easier by dismissing inexorable shit such as this, this and this. Needless to say that LMFAO haven't been on The Pop Web's Christms card list this year (not that we can ever be arsed to write them). All in all, our final fifteen list has had to exclude some tracks/performances which we definitely felt were on the right side of "very good" this year. As a result, we'd like to declare that the following songs are "highly commended" in our esteemed/barely regarded opinion:

Nicki Minaj - Superbass; Mischa B - Would I Lie To You?; Rihanna feat. Drake - What's My Name?; Bruno Mars - Grenade; Emeli Sande - Heaven; Professor Green feat. Emeli Sande - Read All About It; Kelly Clarkson - Mr Know It All; Katy Perry - E.T.; Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks

Well done, everyone.

But enough of the very-good-but-not-quite-good-enough. What about the top 15 precisely nobody has been waiting for? Here it is:

15. Little Mix - You Got The Love
*Annual token X Factor performance alert*
Little Mix well and truly bucked the X Factor trend this year. Starting out as a thrown-together and distinctly ropey ragtag band with a rubbish name, they metamorphosed into an actually-decent group and went on to win the whole thing. The turning point in our mind was the moment where Little Mix Jade said outside their private gig thing "It all looks very posh in there... I think we'll fit right in." in a Geordie accent so heartwarming it made us homesick for a whole week. This performance was in no way their best vocally, but in terms of setting out a mission statement for what this band could be in the future, it was perfect. Filling a stage with enough dancers you could stage a perfectly choreographed military coup is always a good sign in our book. Add to that the motorbikes and the flags (God we want one of those flags), and it was a recipe for a great performance which set out the post-X Factor Little Mix stall very nicely. Syco: do not fuck this one up. We expect a follow-up single by April at the very latest.

14. Leona Lewis/Avicii - Collide
It's a real shame that this single appears to mark the point in Leona Lewis' career where "sale fail" has started to set in. Despite extensive promotion that largely got overshadowed by a row over the Avicii sample underpinning the track, Collide only reached number 4 and spent a mere 5 weeks in the top 40. Which is a shame, because in our opinion it's bloody good. We've pointed out before how the live Leona experience indicated that things wouldn't be too much of a musical disaster if she went the up-tempo route. At least from a commercial point of view, this appears to be a misjudgement. Syco were so worried about this single's performance that they've delayed the Glassheart album and had her chuck out a not-exactly-brilliant EP of rousing covers of Hurt and Iris (because we all know how well that went for Ronan Keating). It's a shame because Collide represents a promising change in direction for Leona. Her voice still sounds amazing (no qualms there) and the Avicii backing track complements her vocal brilliantly. What would be really sad in the aftermath of all of this is for Syco to return to the tried, tested and tired "covering ballads" route rather than press on with a quite exciting reinvention. This track proves that Leona, with her beautiful, astonishing voice, really can sing anything.

13. Coldplay - Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall
COME BACK! We haven't lost out minds. As a general rule our pathological abhorrence of Chris Martin continues unabated. But even we couldn't deny that this opening single from Xylo Myloto is an excellent achievement from a band who have for the past decade and a bit have bored us to tears. Turning their hand to a more dance-orientated track, Martin and co. created a genuinely interesting single which still contains their trademark arena-rock sound but experiments with new instrumentation to draw in a new audience. The guitars take on a peculiarly Celtic vibe over the top of a driving and energetic drumbeat with Martin's characteristic wailing over the top. And it works. It really does. Now if you'll excuse us we're going to retreat into premature middle age weeping over Radio 2 and consoling ourselves with pictures of the fit bassist Guy Berryman.

12. Nicole Scherzinger - Don't Hold Your Breath
We enthused about Nicole's follow up to Poison earlier in the year, but that was before she took on a new career of making pre-pubescent girls cry in front of an audience of millions. But sometimes, pop music is good enough to make you forget about all that and certain tracks still manage to stand the test of time despite the various infractions of their performers. Don't Hold Your Breath is one of those songs. A not-exactly-original lyric about refusing to go back to a rubbish ex is offset by a feisty vocal delivery, and some excellent production. This was a well-deserved number 1 for Nicole.

11. Vanbot - Lost Without You
Another track which we rhapsodised about earlier in the year. Vanbot (a.k.a. Ester Ideskog) burst to our attention with this devastatingly sad ode to that pervasive melancholia which surrounds after a break up. With lyrics tenderly exploring that sense of lost confidence ("I thought I had it under control") and that desperate attempt to keep calm and carry on ("I close my eyes and maybe wounds would heal"), Lost Without You became the perfect soundtrack to our late-Spring/early-Summer, especially in the absence of a new Robyn album. We expect even bigger and better things from Vanbot in 2012.

10. Kelly Clarkson - What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger)
There is truly nobody on the planet better than Kelly Clarkson at delivering a fist-pumping pop-rock hyphen-friendly single. 8 years after Miss Independent, Kelly demonstrated this year that she still had the knack for delivering a feisty shout-along smash. It's perhaps not a surprise that this guitar-driven rockout works so well given it was co-written by Jörgen Elofsson: a man responsible for a few hits you might have heard of. Coming off the back of the quite-good Mr Know It All this has helped Kelly show that in the arse-end of 2011, despite all the rumoured record company fallouts, Kelly still has the ability to pull a great pop song out of the bag when needs must.

9. Britney Spears - Till The World Ends
You're Britney Spears. At one point you were undoubtedly the biggest pop stars on the planet. After a couple of years of questionable personal-life decisions, a bit of a breakdown and some lukewarm commercial reception, what do you do to prove that you still have something to offer now that you're not. that. innocent anymore? Why, you start listening to a shit-load of dubstep, of course. Till The World Ends brought Britney right back to basics after the slightly more experimental Hold It Against Me. Unleashing her trademark purring vocal over an infectious, juddering backing track and pairing it all up with a video which finally showed her choreography coming together after several years in the doldrums, Till The World Ends was the dancefloor-friendly return to form that all of her fans could get behind. It also spawned this quite good mashup with Adele's Rolling In the Deep. So that's two for the price of one. Very good.

8. Lady Gaga - The Edge of Glory
You know, readers, this was one choice we had to really really agonise over. Without a doubt, Born This Way has been a major talking point of our year. All of the tracks on it have ebbed and flowed in terms of the frequency of their iTunes rotation. One day we like Judas best. One day we like Yoü and I best. At the moment, we're quite liking Marry The Night. Whilst it would be a downright lie to say that it was the best album of the year (the quality in parts is distinctly patchy - we're looking at you Americano) it would be ridiculous for us to fail to include one of its tracks on this list. In the end, we've plumped for Edge of Glory (we should state now that we're just ignoring the abominable video that accompanied it - seriously, that thing is awful).

Why? Because for us it's the track that sort of ties the whole thing together in a funny sort of way. As a not-quite-a-ballad-but-getting-there, it shows that Gaga doesn't have to throw a million and one production techniques at the wall to make something stick. As a lyric, it's reflections on hedonism and mortality ("it isn't hell if everybody knows my name tonight") are in equal parts touching and inspiring. It also has a saxophone solo from the recently deceased Clarence Clemons. While we probably have a more personal connection to Yoü and I, Edge of Glory was probably Born This Way's most successful creative achievement. Now Gaga, please, for the love of God. Do the album's tour and take a holiday. There are flashes of genius on this album, but we genuinely worry that they were largely eclipsed by a frenetic creative fatigue which prevented this from becoming the classic it could so easily have been.

7. Example - Changed The Way You Kissed Me
Back in March, we christened this track "the anti-Kickstarts" and also claimed that it would be kind of a big deal. We'd just like to take this opportunity to reflect modestly on how we were absolutely right. Three months later it had spent two weeks at number 1. And deservedly so. The excellent production, coupled with the sinister lyric about the slow death of a relationship blended perfectly with a surprisingly good vocal from Example. The track dripped with venom but didn't lose its commercial, dance sensibilities. It was a winning formula, which we were right about all along. Did we mention that?

6. The Wanted - Glad You Came
You know sometimes when a boy band decide they're going to record a song that is basically designed to drip with sex appeal and it doesn't work at all. And then sometimes it definitely does? This belongs in the latter category. A track which proceeds from the vas deferens more than it does from the heart, The Wanted's musical evocation of a boozy weekend in Magaluf is carried off with some addictively charismatic vocals and one hell of a opening hook. Yes, it's basically what the writers of Zoo magazine would have come up with if given access to a mixing desk and a notepaper to jot some lyrics down (with the exception of the actually quite poetic "The sun goes down/the stars go out" bit), but it's an undeniably catchy and attitude-filled track. Plus, when you're more than a little bit hammered in a club and it comes on, you get the feeling that you could pull anyone with ease. Yes, even him/her. The fit one. By the bar.

We should at this point state that we were in no way influenced by those bits in the video where they took their shirts off. We are serious music critics. Serious.

5. Neon Hitch - Get Over U
We don't actually know how to begin explaining how much we love this track. It's so hard to pin down. It's not just the beautiful lyrics. It's not just the excellent production job. It's not just the heartbreaking vocal which Neon brings to the track. Get Over U is just the perfect example of all the different constituent parts of a song coming together and creating something brilliant. An accomplished video meant that this should have been the start of an extremely successful 2011. And, of course, there's time yet. And even if that's not quite how it pans out, we'll just be happy to have been left with this heartbreaking, nigh-on-perfect pop song.

4. The Saturdays - All Fired Up
Let it be known. 2011 is the year that The Saturdays arrived. Of course since Up they've been on our peripheral vision, and in retrospect it was an absolute crime that we didn't include Higher on our top 15 last year. But once they teamed up with Xenomania (the production team behind this minor Cher hit and pretty much every good Girls Aloud song) it was impossible to overlook them any longer. All Fired Up is a relentless club smash, with an utterly infectious bassline and seductive vocals from the Sats. The hook "blow my mind, DJ, blow my mind" has been in our heads for pretty-much 4 solid months. That this only made it to number 3 on the UK charts is one of our top pop injustices of the year (don't worry, there's more to come on that score).

3. Rihanna feat. Calvin Harris
Speaking of a club smash. Given that Rihanna has released 6 albums in five years, toured them extensively and appeared relentlessly on collaborations, we'd have forgiven her for taking the rest of the year off, crawling into bed and refusing to come out until she was good and ready. Instead, she decided to release this 100% amazing track accompanied by Calvin Harris. Something about the euphoric crescendo on the bridge and Rihanna's beautiful vocal combines to give this track an amazing energy (Copywrite: all of this year's X Factor judges). The result is a track so infectious that it demands attention and is guaranteed to create a standing-room-only club situation. Yet underpinning the dance sensibilities of We Found Love are flashes of lyrical brilliance. From the opening "Yellow diamonds in the light" to the brilliantly touching "turn away cause I need you more" everything about this track contains a sense of euphoria and intoxication which makes it so damned irresistable.

2. Nicola Roberts - Beat Of My Drum
Having sat by and watch the rest of her Girls Aloud bandmates try their hands more-or-less successfully at media and solo careers during their so-called hiatus, 2011 saw Nicola Roberts throw her hat into the ring. Drawing upon a reservoir of personal experience and (sadly) abuse received during her time in the spotlight, the result was the stunning album Cinderella's Eyes. This, the lead single from the album, was a feat of genius in itself. Getting on board producer Diplo to create a chaotic backing track, Nicola's understated vocal on the verses gives way to expressive yearning tones on the bridge before bursting into the defiant and infectious "L-O-V-E, dance to the beat of my drum" of the chorus. The result is, in our opinion, a more likeable and successful track than this year's other big Diplo production: Beyonce's Run The World (Girls). Yes readers, your eyes don't deceive you. We've just ranked Nicola Roberts higher than Beyonce.

But all that high praise can't correct this year's biggest pop injustice in our eyes. Beat Of My Drum reached no higher than 28 on the singles chart, and the excellent album it was taken from only reached number 17. What the hell, British record-buying public? What the hell?

1. Adele - Rolling In The Deep

"There's a fire starting in my heart..."

There is absolutely zero critical kudos to be gained by stating that 2011 was the year of Adele. It's fucking obvious. The album 21 has to date sold more than 13 million copies so far. It remained number one for 18 weeks (over a third of the year). The single Someone Like You has been by far the biggest selling single of the year, largely off the back of a single Brits performance. Yet for our money, it is the album's lead single, Rolling In The Deep which is most deserving of the title of "our favourite song of the year". 

From the moment that the Eye Of The Tiger-esque bass kicks in and Adele's snarling vocal kicks in, everything about this track screams "hit". The vocals have a real blues sensibility, with the backing vocalists giving a really haunting feel to the track in the middle-eight with their ethereal "You're gonna wish you - never had met me", all the while being propelled along by a relentless pulsating backing track. And yet, throughout, Adele's heartbreaking vocal shines through. Oscillating from the defiant "Finally, I can see you crystal clear/ Go ahead and sell you out and I'll lay your shit bare" to the mournful "we could have had it all", Adele belts out these lyrics and her belief in them shines through. The chorus of the track ranks up there with one of the most anthemic of all time. Not least because it is clear from her tortured vocal that she means every single word.

In our opinion, great emotional pop music can make you dance or cry. Truly amazing music can make you do both at the same time. Through this year, we've done our share of both, and Rolling In The Deep has been a constant refrain through it. It will continue to be so for some time to come.

So these last three Lady Gaga tracks...

 
To say Project: Born This Way has gathered steam ahead of the album's release on May 23rd is a huge understatement. Before the album has even been released, we've already heard four songs from Lady Gaga's third album in two and a half years. So moving past our thoughts on the title track, how do we rate Born This Way so far?

Judas

Ladies and gentlemen, it doesn't really get much better than this (apart from Bad Romance, obv). If ever there was a track to answer back to concerns about the album's lead single sounding a little too similar to the output of the previous generation's iconic pop star par excellance, this is it. Gaga delivers one of her most compelling vocals on the verses, before piling into a chorus which, to our mind, creates an amazing triptych with Bad Romance and Poker Face.

It's the video, however, that's the most gratifying part of the Judas campaign. Compared to the ludicrous bombast of the Born This Way video (a song which cried out for a down-to-earth feel-good disco style video) Judas actually sees Gaga having some bloody fun again in a video. At first we were surprised there wasn't a whole lot more sacrilege on offer (lest we forget, Alejandro had Gaga dressed as a nun being set upon by a gaggle of semi-naked men). But then, we were just relieved that the temptation to drape the whole thing in 50 minutes of religious symbolism didn't take over, and the drive to deliver a fun promo video that complimented a great, interesting track won the day.

The Edge Of Glory

To move from the frenetic energy of Born This Way and Judas to the comparatively sedate The Edge of Glory was, in our opinion, an absolute masterstroke. A touching dance-oriented track with a soft rock vocal immediately, Edge of Glory is the perfect reminder that when she chooses to, Gaga can strip away the aesthetics and deliver a reflective and poignant pop song which resonates just as deeply as her more attention-grabbing up-tempo repertoire. To put it another way "It isn't hell if everybody knows my name tonight" is probably one of our favourite Gaga lyrics to date.

Initially, we were a little concerned that the track put us immediately in mind of Cher's Song For The Lonely. But then we stopped and thought "you know what, we can't think of a more fitting thing for Gaga to do on her third album than to reference the members of the pop aristocracy who have paved the way for her. Well done everyone." 

Hair

And this is the point we have to get a bit cynical *puts on critical face*. In one sense, we can completely see how Hair kind of wraps up some of the themes (both lyrically and musically) being expressed on the three tracks that have preceded it. And believe us, no-one appreciates an artistically contigious set of single releases as much as we do. The only problem is, Hair doesn't quite work as well as the other three tracks does it? There's something about the understated backing track, and the somewhat crammed-in-there vocals which screams "album track". 

In itself, that's no bad thing. Let's face it, no-one is expecting Born This Way to yield 14 singles, do they (although how fucking amazing would that be)? It just wouldn't be the final taste we left in "the market's" mouth before we chucked the album out there. But we suppose there's a reason why we're not heading up the marketing team at Interscope Records (although how fucking amazing would that be?)

The Verdict

It's probably safe to say that Gaga can expect her bank balance to rise by £10 at the very least on May 23rd. Have one on us, why don't you?

Charlie Atlantic returns

In a bit of a Pop Web exclusive, we are thrilled to announce that one of our favourite unsigned singer-songwriters Charlie Atlantic is launching a solo career. Following on from his impressive career as the frontman of Oxford-based band Inlight, Charlie is looking to recapture the buzz that surrounded his vocal and songwriting talents with The Lost Generation EP which will be released in August (further details and preview snippets can be found at his website www.charlieatlantic.com).

First impressions of the tracks we've heard thus far indicate that Charlie is going down a moodier and more atmospheric path than he traversed in his Inlight tenure. The tracks on the EP are largely piano, rather than guitar led and lyrically, Charlie very much plays up the despair in one of the lead tracks Paranoid with anguished cries of "Nobody tells me what's going wrong/ What do they have to lose?" permeating the haunting track Colours. For new listeners, this may all seem a little daunting and oppressive; those of us aware of Charlie's wider range of work, however, will be pleased to see him settling on a sound and exploring a mood in one coherent piece. A little light against the shade is the country-tinged Why Oh Why? which bubbles along beautifully and neatly counterbalances the sombre tone of the rest of the EP.

One of the key tracks underpinning this EP campaign is the sublime Dido and Aeneas. Referencing classical mythology and weaving it into an accessible and emotional ballad is no easy feat, but Charlie's deft musicianship and raw vocal reels the listener in and results in a beautiful and reflective piece. 

Underpinning Charlie's motivations behind this EP, is a considerable dissatisfaction with the present state of pop music, expressed in an open letter on his website. Some of Charlie's points hit a real nerve (pop's current infatuation with "the club" or "the floor", for example - although we'd also like to point out that for every "Club Can't Handle Me" there's a "Telephone"). As the campaign for the EP continues to roll out, however, we'd like to see Charlie highlight some of the positive contributions he can make to the field. Being the talented songwriter that he is, we have no doubt that his aim of recapturing music for the "poets" over and against "the programmers" is one well within his reach.

Van Go Lion again

Continuing the "Van" theme pervading the blog over the past two days, we're thrilled to feature the new track by Van Go Lion, the electro-pop duo from Oregon who we were banging on about a few months ago. Body Moves which is due to be released in the US on Ninthwave Records, marks a bit of an evolution from the previous tracks we've highlighted. Have a listen below:

As we have mentioned once or twice in our previous article on the group, we are utterly enamoured with Amy's voice and it's a bit frustrating that it isn't until the last minute of the song that she's allowed to really let loose. But, thankfully, prior to that point, there's plenty to keep the ear interested. We're particularly detecting the influence of Kleerup in the backing track with the twinkling synthy keyboard line. There's also a Calvin Harris-esque shimmer in the bridge between the first chorus and the second verse. The chorus itself has some interesting hooks, particularly in the brilliant line "Love is a dancefloor: take a stand". All in all, offers a cool and shimmering start to the Van Go Lion commercial campaign.

We still have our eyes on this group, and we hope you will too. What we would particularly like is to hear a track where the two go all out both on the vocals and the backing track. Amy and Josh clearly have a great ear for understated, mood-driven electropop which is fast becoming their signature sound. It would be fantastic if they could transfer that to something more dancefloor friendly. That's nitpicking on our part though. For the time being it's great just to sit back and enjoy an act brimming with potential, growing in confidence with every track released.

Vanbot in the Sunshine

Over this extremely sunny weekend, we encountered a new artist who kindly provided the soundtrack to two blissful days of sunbathing and alcohol.

That artist is called Vanbot, the alter ego of Stockholm-based vocalist Ester Ideskog. Her eponymous debut album will be available here in the UK and across Europe on April 15th on iTunes and the like (other music download services are, of course, available). And if her latest single Lost Without You is anything to go by, it's set to contain some of the most exciting and heart-felt electro pop since Robyn's Body Talk series. You can have a listen (and indeed download the track for free) from the player below:

  Lost Without You by Vanbot

As you will probably hear, the Stockholm-forged beats and Vanbot's voice immediately invite comparisons with Robyn. The track certainly sits very nicely alongside something like Dancing On My Own which, frankly, is excellent company to be keeping.

If diversity is a concern for you, though, then you may like to take a quick gander at Vanbot's debut single, Make Me Break Me, which is also available for download ahead of the album's release.

  Make Me, Break Me by Vanbot 

We'd like you to pay particular attention to the intro, which sounds a little bit like a head-on collision between Cascada's Evacuate The Dancefloor and Pet Shop Boys' Always On My Mind before breaking into something which is at the same time punchy and melancholic. This is a very good thing.

The reason all of this works so well (particularly when accompanied by an unseasonably hot weekend) is that it provides the perfect soundtrack to those summer moments when you find yourself introspectively staring into the middle distance, allowing the world to pass by around you for those few short moments before you get yanked back into reality. Those moments where you tune out of the conversation or gaze out of the car window and wonder and question whether everything really is alright with the world; whether life is really turning out the way it should be...

Oh, you don't have a soundtrack for those moments?

What the hell is wrong with you?

So... erm.... yes. Vanbot. Very good. Buy the album.

The Retro-tastic Robin Sparkles

Over the past few weeks here at The Pop Web we've become absolutely obsessed with emerging young artist Robin Sparkles. After having carved out a cult following in her native Canada, Sparkles is attempting to crack the lucrative US market with her unique brand of retro-pop.

Front and centre in the Sparkles back catalogue is the infectious Let's Go To The Mall. Look past the somewhat trite, bubblegum lyrics ("Everybody come and play/ Throw every last care away") and the nationalistic jingoism and Sparkles has actually managed to effortlessly recapture the spirit and energy which pervaded (for example) Madonna's eponymous debut album.

Madge's influences on this track are, to the trained ear, self-evident. The chorus in particular calls to mind Holiday whilst the track as a whole would sit quite comfortably alongside tracks like Borderline or Lucky Star. So far so good, but you may well be wondering why we'd need someone like Sparkles dredging up memories of the Queen of Pop, when her back catalogue more than speaks for itself.

Enter Sparkles' follow-up effort, Sandcastles In The Sand, quickly helps dispel any doubts about Sparkle's versatility and also testifies to her burgeoning popularity across the pond. Recruiting Dawson's Creek star James Van der Beek and veteran Canadian actor Alan Thicke for the video, Sparkles' sophomore effort brings to mind the seminal Circle In The Sand video by Pop Web favourite Belinda Carlisle.

Vocally, Sparkles is on top form, particularly in the middle eight when she mournfully laments "Life is crazy/nobody gets me/castles wash away". Clearly underpinning the veneer of 80s nostalgia, Sparkles possesses an admirable ability to connect with the song's emotion with her vocal delivery. "Sandcastles" acts as a refreshing complement to Let's Go To The Mall, by showing off her impressive vocal range, whilst also refusing to shy away from the retro styling which has so effectively captivated the music-buying public in Canada. 

To be sure, there is a lot to work on here. We'd very much like Sparkles move out of her comfort zone and see her take on songs which have a little more emotional maturity to them rather than pandering to trite teenage clichés. But what these initial tracks show us is that Sparkles is loaded with potential, and if her recent relocation to New York City is handled correctly, Dominant Records could well be responsible for launching pop's next great superstar. And that's not something we say lightly.

A Perfect Example

Regular readers of The Pop Web will know that we declared that Kickstarts by Example was the 4th best song of last year. What made that track so amenable to our tastes was the combination of the amazing production, the utterly addictive backing track and the sensitive and perfectly-observed cyclicality of a relationship going stale.

We are thrilled to report that Example's latest offering pretty much captures that winning formula, bottles it, and then uses it as a marinade for the first single for upcoming album Playing In The Shadows. It's called Changed The Way You Kiss Me and sounds a little bit like this

Structurally, the track owes much to Kickstarts. But as you can hear, the dark, synthesised backing track creates a much moodier atmosphere than on its spiritual predecessor. In many ways, we'd quite like to see "Changed" as the "anti-Kickstarts" (i.e. where everything turned out to be alright again in Kickstarts, everything goes to shit in "Changed" - in a narrative rather than a musical sense, obviously). That feeling is compounded by the foreboding lyrics "But now I want off this ride/ Cos you're scaring me/ And I don't like where we're going". Playing expertly with the instrumentation to build the tension in the track, Changed The Way You Kiss Me encapsulates beautifully that sense of dread creeping up on you when a relationship slowly morphs from something into amazing into something a little bit awful.

What really works in this track, though, is when Example allows the strength of his vocal shine through. Does he have a technically perfect voice? No. But that really isn't the point. The final chorus where he decries "Our love feels wrong, please wind it back/ Our love feels wrong, can't hide the cracks." has a genuine sense of despair behind it and gives the song a real authenticity and a menace. As the amazing blog Electroqueer points out this track is both "real and relevant". It also reinforces our conviction that lyrically, Example's music has an extremely acute observational quality which makes it so relatable and enjoyable. We can't wait to see what else Playing In The Shadows may have in store.

Natalia Kills (and Poirot investigates)

If you're already fairly tuned in to the Internet's various "buzz" channels for new music, you may have heard the name Natalia Kills being bandied about here and there. And with some good reason. Natalia is the product of the amazing Cherrytree Records who are directly responsible for launching the career of a certain Lady Gaga whilst also having on their books artists such as La Roux, Ellie Goulding and Keane. Heavyweight stuff, but what about the content?

Well, funny you should ask, because Natalia is about to hit the promo trail hard ahead of the UK release for her debut single Mirrors, the video for which you can check out below.

The comparisons with Lady Gaga here are fairly self-evident. Setting aside the fact that vocally, we're clearly heading for similar territory as Just Dance, you've got the apparently-obligatory stylized presentation complete with masks, axes and, for extra subtlety, plenty of mirrors. The track itself is respectably catchy, with "And the mirror's going to fall tonight" constituting a fairly meaty hook. The backing track in particular calls to mind what might happen if Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) had an unfortunate accident with Kelly Clarkson's guitarist. Which is to say it's catchy, but let's stop trying to pretend someone wasn't flicking through their old Eurythmics albums and thought "wouldn't it be great if we could slap this on a pop song in 2011?". In any event, Mirrors is a decent enough debut which sets out Natalia's stall nicely, even if it doesn't quite set the old pulse a-racing.

The other tracks made available by the kind people at Cherrytree are delivered in much the same vein. Zombie is a similarly and dark and brooding affair which is fairly unrelenting in its sinister recapitulation of the "my boyfriend's a monster but I'm not exactly turned off by that idea so let's see where it goes" trope. Activate My Heart sees Natalia channel her inner Robyn and basically delivers Fembot in so far as it's playing on the whole "I've turned into a robot as a result of heartbreak" but, typically, in a downbeat fashion. In fact, that pretty much sums up the Natalia Kills experience so far: downbeat. There's very little levity on offer here to try and cheer the listener up a bit. In our experience this can go one of two ways. Either it will really help Natalia carve out a niche as the "dark" Gaga, or it will cause her listening base to become thoroughly depressed and abandon her for something a bit less heavy. It's a fairly risky strategy, and one which esteemed critic Popjustice has already begun to notice some flaws in.

In conclusion, our advice would be as follows. Enjoy Mirrors, it's alright and as debuts go does the job fairly well and definitely borrows from the right bits of pop's murky history. As for the post-Mirrors landscape, in the immortal words of Karen Walker from Will and Grace, we'd advice grabbing a bottle, hunkering down and praying for daylight.

From Pink To Green Day

One is a solo artist whose UK chart career now spans almost 11 years, and now has a greatest hits album to celebrate the fact. The other are a band who have sold over 65 million albums worldwide and have their own broadway musical. But aside from a penchant for spiky hair and names destined for novelty versions of the Dulux Colour Chart, what exactly to P!nk and Green Day have in common? Ever the pop sleuths, we set out to find out.

First of all, cast your minds back to June 2001, when P!nk was still largely known as an RnB vocalist on the cusp of metamorphosing into the pop-punk stylings which she would go on to champion for the rest of her career. It was this Summer that, as part of the hype of the Baz Lurhman-directed mega-hit Moulin Rouge!, that P!nk was enlisted to collaborate that would not only bring together some of RnB's hottest vocal talents, but would give her her first UK Number 1 hit single. That single, of course was Lady Marmalade, and as well as constituting an unreconstructed diva-off, it effortlessly and sassily updated the blueprint set down by LaBelle in 1975

In addition to Christina Aguilera, Lil Kim and Missy Elliot (who, if we're all honest, only showed up to collect a few quid to introduce the video and then buggered right off), the track also featured Mya who had been undergoing her own career renaissance in 2001. Whilst also having a huge solo number 3 hit with the frankly-brilliant Case Of The Ex, Mya was also known for providing the vocal flourish behind this collaborative smash in 1998.

Pras Michel, also known as probably the sanest person ever to emerge from The Fugees, had his biggest "solo" hit with this genius reworking of the Dolly Parton/Kenny Rogers classic Islands In The Stream (which, lest we forget, was written by THE BEE GEES!). Far more successful, of course, was his tenure in The Fugees alongside Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean. Prior to attempting to become president of Haiti (despite not having actually lived there all that much prior to standing for election) Wyclef had carved out a respectable reputation as a producer and a solo artist clocking up such hits as Perfect Gentleman (about the life and times of a man who meets a stripper who is trying to pay her way through College), Gone Till November and this little gem with Claudette Ortiz of the short-lived City High: Two Wrongs. All this is grist to the mill, however, in light of our ultimate destination. So we want to pinpoint one particular stop on The Pop Web's Wyclef Jean Nostalgia Trip. That stop would be 911, Wyclef's duet with the RnB icon Mary J Blige.

Wyclef Jean & Mary J Blige - 911 by paleopale

Mary J Blige's own career has seen a bit of a mixed bag in terms of chart viablity and, indeed, quality. Despite undoubted highlights like Family Affair and No More Drama you've got the little-bit-dismal Just Fine. Blige's duet with U2, a cover of the band's seminal classic One we would argue falls somewhere in the middle (even if it is one of The Pop Web's guilty pleasures), even though it probably doesn't cater to hardcore U2 fans' tastes. 

U2, conveniently enough, provide the final stepping stone on our way across the babbling fjord that is pop. Back in 2006, the world was collectively recoiling in horror in the wake of the humanitarian disaster that befel New Orleans in the aftermath of the devastating Hurricane Katrina. One of the most prevalent opinions that could be made out on the political stage at the time was of the disbelief that then-president George W. Bush wasn't doing nearly enough to help New Orleans' citizens to recover from the disaster. Enter U2, who teamed up with (you've guessed it) Green Day to record The Saints Are Coming, the video for which posed the question: what would have happened if the US Armed Forces had had their attentions redirected from Afghanistan and Iraq towards helping Louisianna recover from the hurricane's effects? 

 
U2 - The Saints Are Coming by UniversalMusicUK

Powerful stuff, but, being the merciless scavengers we are, for our purposes it simply provides one more connection in the incestuous world that is dear old pop.

So there we have it, from P!nk to Punk Green Day. That wasn't so hard now, was it. And coincidentally, we're now in the mood for a trip to homebase to freshen up these walls a bit. We're thinking Banana Dream should be just the trick...

P!nk - Mya - Pras Michel - Wyclef Jean - Mary J. Blige - U2 - Green Day

Quatres points, peut-être?

So, on Friday night, on The Graham Norton Show, Blue unveiled their stab at this year's Eurovision Song Contest and performed I Can live.

As an immediate reaction, we'd like to point out that Lee's falsetto has absolutely no impact whatsoever when it's literally used from the very first line of the bloody song. Also, whilst we'd love to have full faith in Blue's ability to pull this off live, there's a real possibility of some Jemini-style hilarity on the night.

But let's brush past all of that and try and look at the song on its own merit. Well... it's fair to say that this isn't breaking any new ground. The backing track at the start appears to have been lifted from t.A.t.U's All The Things She Said. The dance routine appears to consist entirely of the band moving only the left side of their bodies, which might not be enough to set the Eurovision stage "on fire". And at no point in the whole thing does Lee feel the need to shut up. That by itself is probably the most irritating part.

And yet... the whole this isn't exactly terrible. Blue aren't exactly reshaping the contours of popular music, admittedly, but if this is the start of a renaissance for the band, then they could do worse than putting something out which is unmistakably a "Blue" song, which this is. Vocally, the whole thing really benefits from Simon's deeper tones to give it a bit of meat - paarticularly in the chorus. And the chorus is, as it goes, fairly catchy. 

But anyone expecting this to be the saviour of British Eurovision hopes is probably going to be disappointed. It's pleasant enough, and it's certainly better than some of the monstrosities we've put forward in previous years (c.f. Dubovie, J., That Sounds Good To Me - which we may have deemed an absolute shower of crap once or twice), but there doesn't seem to be an awful lot here which is going to compel viewers across Europe to pick up their phones and vote. Our prediction? It'll do OK, pick up some decent points (we actually think it'll do alright in the notoriously difficult-to-crack Eastern bloc, for instance) and ultimately stagger in respectively mid-table. I'm thinking somewhere around 10th, perhaps, if stars align on the night.

Provided Lee doesn't fuck it all up. Because let's face it, if he does, he's on every bloody line.

Robyn: Live at the Roundhouse

All due apologies for the lack of "witty" title.

Last night, we traipsed down from Oxford to the Roundhouse in Camden to see perennial Pop Web favourite Robyn perform live. Let it be known from the outset that whilst we will certainly try to deliver the jounralistic objectivity loyal readers have come to occasionally see expect from this reputable blog, we were so bloody excited about the whole thing that she could have stepped on stage and read the local Chinese takeaway menu and we'd have loved it. Such excitement, we hope, will also explain the fact that we forgot to bring a camera and thus have no photos of the event which was (in hindsight) a bit of an error.

Let's get the tedious negatives out of the way first. The set was fairly short. The whole concert lasted just less than an hour, and appeared to be suffering from some delays in the earlygoing. The reasons for this became clear when Robyn eventually took to the stage and addressed the crowd. Robyn has been suffering from a throat infection, which in fact has caused her to cancel tonight's gig in Bristol. Given these caveats, what Robyn actually delivered in the hour she was on stage was nothing short of amazing.

From beginning to end there was no wasted motion, and track after track was delivered with staggering energy. There wasn't a single point that we could discern that the crowd's energy level dropped, which is absolutely a testament to Robyn's ability to engage an audience. For someone who is clearly a bit under the weather (to say the least) the Swedish dynamo was constantly leaping around the stage, dancing every bit as frenetically as she does in the video for Dancing On My Own. It was certainly an 'A' for effort from us.

The setlist delivered hit after hit, but nostalgia was noticeably lacking. Starting things off with Time Machine was an inspired choice as it got the by-now restless crowd firmly on side with one of Body Talk's more undersung anthems. Vocally, this was a polished performance (again, amazing given her current bout of illness), but frankly, the singing along of the crowd on Dancing On My Own (be warned, that video contains liberal use of strobe lighting) and Cobrastyle meant that Robyn could have sang every single note off key and it wouldn't have mattered. Dancing On My Own was given a very early airing, which initially had us worried that after her biggest recent hit, the energy levels would drop. Those fears were utterly unfounded, as We Dance To The Beat/Don't Fucking Tell Me What To Do built on "Dancing's" momentum and actually made us appreciate two of the more experimental (read, skippable) tracks on Body Talk. We could enthuse at length about the many other phenomenal performances Robyn delivered, including Love Kills, and Stars 4-Ever which were two of the more impressive sleeper hits of the night. Instead, what we'd like to focus on are the three tracks which, to be quite honest, if we died tonight we'd be glad we lived to hear live.

Firstly, Indestructible. (Apologies for the slightly fluctuating sound quality on this video)

Particular highlights here included a man standing behind us bellowing this song with such gusto that it almost made us want to turn around, hug him, and tell him that everything was going to be all right. Also, the mini-breakdown after the "four to the floor" bit where everyone did the right thing and clapped along. Well done Camden.

Secondly, The Girl and the Robot

Of all of the songs in the Robyn corpus, this is the one that can, at any given moment, dissolve us into floods of tears and force us to atonally warble along. Seeing it live magnified that feeling tenfold. Absolutely beautiful performance of a beautiful song.

And finally, With Every Heartbeat. With one performance, Robyn absolutely cemented her reputation as the queen of disco-fuelled heartbreak (yes, that well known monarchy). The noise from the crowd when those first beats kicked in was frankly astonishing, and the feverish refrain of "And. It. Hurts. With. Every. Heartbeat" as the concert drew to a close was (not to be too gushy about this) inspiring. An amazing conclusion to a phenomenal concert which sent the room's two key demographics (i.e. Scandinavians and gays, or, as we loudly termed them on the tube going home, "Scandigayvians"...) hope both happy and heartbroken.

With all that said, there were some unfortunate omissions from the evening. Hang With Me was conspicuous by its absence as was None of Dem similarly, Cobrastyle and With Every Heartbeat Aside, there was no room for going over old glory in this concert. This was all about Body Talk, and as such Be Mine! and Who's That Girl? were somewhat missed, to say nothing of Show Me Love or Keep This Fire Burning. This was not a greatest hits concert, but it was also far from self-indulgent. Robyn had the crowd singing along to every single word, and she showcased Body Talk beautifully, remaining accessible for new fans whilst indulging the rabid fanbase she had attracted to the show. 

All it remains is for us to do is to count down the seconds until Robyn is back in the UK, in rude health. Because, frankly, if we can be left this buzzing with excitement 24 hours after a concert in which she wasn't at 100%, we can't wait to see what she'd deliver when she's back on top form.

Baby I Was Born This Way (Express Yourself)

The debut of the new Lady Gaga single Born This Way marks the culmination of one of the most hyped releases in recent memory. There's no video up yet (understandably, it's only just premiered on US Radio) but you can listen to it here, for the time being.

But enough of all that. What's it actually like?

First of all, take this:



Then add a bit of this:



And that's pretty much Born This Way.

Is it a good song? Yes. The lyrics in particular are unbelievably catchy and we can just imagine ourselves repeating "I'm on the right track, baby I was born this way" for about 80% of the rest of the day. The only problem we have is that at the moment, Born This Way doesn't have quite the initial impact that it does if it wasn't so reminiscent of what had gone before. Obviously a little bit of incessent radio play will soon sort that out, but for now it feels like "Gaga does Madonna" instead of "Gaga does a third album".

The good news is that Gaga has impeccabe taste in what she chooses to pay homage to. Born This Way is in every way as catchy and joyful as its source material. And there's something quite refreshing, amidst all of this impossible hype, to hear a record that's purely disco, rather than an 8 minute long operatic masterclass in which Gaga performs an aria all in the name of equal rights. Gaga has oriented Born This Way firmly to the dancefloor and does a fantastic job of it. This is a catchy, addictive record which will have people falling over themselves to dance to it (possibly literally).

When the initial excitement and "spot the similarities" competition dies down, we're confident that Born This Way will sit comfortably alongside Alejandro, Dance in the Dark and Paparazzi in the Gaga canon. It certainly whets the apppetite for when the album Born This Way makes its way out into the world.

Hitch Your Caravan

Recently, we've become increasingly obsessed with a new single by a "new" artist by the name of Neon Hitch. That's not some kind of "let's throw this out to a random word generator and see what we come up with" kind of name. It's her actual name. So things are off to a good start there.

Neon has actually been hanging around the pop scene for a little while, and has had her fingers in the co-writing pies of such artists as... well... 3OH!3 and... erm... Ke$ha. But before you go screaming off to the nearest pop Anderson shelter, give the video below a play. It just happens to be her first proper video for a song called Get Over U



We certainly wouldn't be the first to sum this all up by saying that if you liked Robyn's Hang With Me or Dancing On My Own you're probably going to love this. Lyrically, it errs towards the latter, but in general aura and production it gravitates towards the former. And yet, despite that hastily-thrown-together frame of reference, it's important to underscore the fact that Get Over U offers something different and interesting on its own terms.

Lyrically, Get Over U is pretty heartbreaking. For instance, "and I couldn't see all your flaws through all your charms/and you cannot see all my scars your love has caused" is a signpost that this isn't exactly veering into happily-ever-after territory. Yet the track is nonetheless driven by a persistent optimism which seems to be conveyed through the juddering backing track and the insistent drumbeat. The result is a song which not only reels you in effortlessly, but also sticks with you. Days after first hearing it, the fact that it had firmly settled in our subconscious was confirmed by the way in which the completely unbidden humming out loud of the chorus drew some truly strange looks in the queue at Tesco (other good supermarkets are, of course, available).

This is a track which well and truly gets under one's skin and as such is the perfect introduction to an artist, who, if the initial buzz is to be believed, is going to go on to truly great things in 2011. Which in turn makes the final scene in the video all the more captivating. We very much doubt that a submersion into a rose-water abyss is going to be a fitting metaphor for this talented popstar's career.

Don't Go Blue and Pass Out

Nicole Scherzinger is back with a new single. Cast your mind back three years when that news heralded the arrival of the distinctly underwhelming Baby Love (feat. Will.I.Am) and it probably wouldn't even register on your "important pop news radar". Following as it does on the heels of the little-bit-brilliant Poison, however, and it becomes something to get at least mildly excited about.

Don't Hold Your Breath started out as a track recorded by Keri Hilson (her of the The Way I Are) fame, but the track didn't make it on to her No Boys Allowed album. If you're interested, though, this is what her version sounded like. The raw materials are certainly there, but frankly there's far too much Timbaland and auto-tune and not enough proper pop-ballad warbling. So far, so run of the mill.

Enter Nicole and RedOne to rescue the whole thing from cutting-floor obscurity. In lieu of an official video (seriously, please can someone get on with that) here's an audio rip from youtube which you can expect to be pulled as soon as the song gets popular enough. Such is life.



Let's set aside for a moment that Nicole brings a pop/RnB vocal which is on the right side of "on the money", would you just LISTEN TO THAT PRODUCTION? The "swoosh" heading into the chorus and the catchiest hook since the DNA of the common cold virus, turns what in Hilson/Timbaland hands was a bit of a pedestrian album track into an excellent follow-up single.

All in all, we can't help but being reminded not only of Nicole's disaster of a first attempt at a solo career, but also the trend towards the end of the Pussycat Dolls to bill them as "featuring Nicole Scherzinger". At the time, it was difficult to understand exactly what the "powers that be" were trying to achieve. On the one hand you had a wildly successful and fairly edgy girl band with a lead singer who had a pleasant voice and could, to say the least, dance a bit. On the other, it was difficult to see what there was that was particularly marketable about Nicole as a solo artist. Sure, cameos on tracks like Scream were pleasant enough, but her vocals aren't that strong, and what she makes up for in looks, she does lack a bit in charisma.

Yet creative decisions like Poison and now, Don't Hold Your Breath just go to show what you can do with the right production team and a decent A&R team. So much so that we've gone from being completely apathetic about the prospect of a Nicole Scherzinger solo album, to actually desperately wanting to get our hands on a copy.

Which, at the end of the day, is Music marketing 101 really.

In May, we can all Breathe Easy

We've just woken up to the exciting news that a re-formed Blue will be representing the United Kingdom at this year's Eurovision Song Contest.

This is excellent news for two reasons. Firstly, it ensures that we have an act representing us which carries some name value in Europe (well, Western Europe at least - their biggest Europe-wide hit was Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word). Secondly, it by-passes the usual "Your Country Needs You" gubbins where the whole thing is handed over to "the public" and we end up with songs like this having the hopes of the UK pinned upon it.

There are a couple of things we'd like Blue to bear in mind vis a vis their entry I Can.

1. We'd like everyone involved to realise that if this project isn't anything other than a flagrant early-2000s throwback, then the whole thing is doomed to failure. Now isn't the time to be breaking out the extensive auto-tune, calling up Tinie Tempah for a rap or to suddenly reveal any long-time felt Dubstep influences
2. If there's a choice to be had between full on Power Ballad or up-tempo optimistic pop, then opt for the latter. Malta and any number of Eastern European nations will have the emotive, arm-waving power ballad market sewn up and no amount of warbling from Lee or Antony Costa giving it 100% on the backing vocals is going to be able to save us there.
3. If Blue simply must go the Power Ballad route, then it needs to be at least 85% as brilliant as this.

Anything less will be viewed as a disappointment and Lee, Anthony, Simon and Duncan may never be allowed to cross back into the border again.

These caveats aside, there is an awful lot of potentially aamazing pop that can come out of all this. I mean, just imagine if you turn on your TV set on at about 8:00pm on the 14th May to hear Blue belting out the 2011-equivalent of One Love...



Or If You Come Back...



Or All Rise...



Or Fly By II



Actually. No. Not Fly By II. That simply won't do. But everything else? That would be amazing.

In short, we recommend that if Blue fail to place in at least the top 5 of this year's competition then either a) we secede from the Eurovision Union or b) we permanently exile Messers Costa, Ryan and James. Simon Webbe, of course, has permanent diplomatic immunity by virtue of the bizarrely-brilliant 2005 top 5 hit No Worries. But the others will be in big trouble.

Don't Hold It Against Us

So, a mere four days ago, we promised that Britney Spears' new single Hold It Against Me would be premiering in a matter of days. True to form, the track leaked earlier today. Chances are by the time you read this, the "powers that be" at RCA will have pulled all trace of these radio rips from youtube but we've had a go at embedding a working video below. You're welcome.



A few things to note in the light of the concerns we raised in our "artwork" article.

There is, what we would describe as a below-average amount of heavy breathing on the track. This is partly compensated by Britney's pronunciation of the word "hazy" as "hayzay".

There is still the possibility that we may get a video which is more Toxic than Gimme More. The jury is still out as to whether we have a song which has a similar allignment.

Hold It Against Me manages at the same time to be a significant change of direction for Britney (returning to her dance-ish roots via some dubstep influences) whilst also maintaining a very definite Britney sound. The choruses are fairly anthemic stuff, particularly as they build towards the final chorus in which the beats and the production is allowed to let itself go completely for maximum "hands-in-the-air" effect.

Yet the brilliant climax of the song has to be counterbalanced by the rest of the track which unfortunately has too much "stop and start" to properly get going. Dropping out the beats on the first two choruses highlight the dramatic effect of the final chorus, but it also disrupts the momentum of the track in the early parts. Furthermore, the abstract dubstep middle eights (yes, middle eights in the plural) are, in a way, admirably "out there", but they aren't going to be everyone's taste.

With a few listens the track has undoubtedly grown on us. It's different enough from the direction of Circus to mark a new stage in Spears' career, and it's a great credit to Britney that despite the tried and tested production formula behind the song (yes, folks, we're looking at another Max "Baby One More Time" Martin and Dr. "Teenage Dream" Luke creation) she has definitely incorporated a new sound into her arsenal. At the same time, we were really hoping that we'd see the return of a Britney Spears song which gives you a licence to dance and sing along like a lunatic for the full 3:41 seconds. Instead, it feels like what we get is one amazing chorus, and about 40 seconds of classic Britney-induced euphoria, before the track gets pulled out from under our feet.

The First Dance

You may have noticed that the BBC's annual Sound Of [Insert Year Here] poll has wrapped up today with the revelation that BRIT's Critics Choice award winner Jessie J has been pegged as music's hottest prospect for the year ahead.

At number 5 on the list, however, is he artist which we are most excited about heading into 2011. Clare Maguire has been kicking around the Internet since her career got started properly with the release of Ain't Nobody towards the end of last year. The video for that is below:



Clare's voice calls to mind all kinds of comparisons (e.g. Sinead O' Connor, Annie Lennox, Delores O'Riordan from The Cranberries) and the video, with its epic setting with Clare alone in a windswept desert wearing what appears to be a parachute behind her suggested that we were in for an album campaign that went for the pensive, introspective and reflective side of the pop scale. In other words, to extend the comparison above further, we were looking at much more at Why? than we were at Walking On Broken Glass.

Enter The Last Dance, which is the single which Clare is releasing to capitalise on all "The Sound Of..." buzz. Written to try and help herself come to terms with the death of Michael Jackson, "Last Dance" blends an extremely tender lyric with a powerful vocal which, given the right remixing treatment, will be extremely dancefloor friendly. In the absence of an official video, here is a live performance of the track:



Clare's voice blends an infectious and touching Celtic lilt with a genuine power which allows her to drive amazing choruses like that featured on Last Dance home. Clearly, the wider record industry and critical arena is predicting brilliant things for this woman and we at The Pop Web are inclined to agree. While Jessie J is probably going to conquer the nation's dancefloors, we think that Clare Maguire is the artist whose album is going to be flying off the shelves. Not least because the first two singles definitely point towards something we like to call "The Dido Effect", whereby an artist attracts a not immediately identifiable buzz around them and suddenly their album becomes the record to soundtrack the nation's dinner parties.

The difference between Maguire and Dido, in this regard, is that The Last Dance and Ain't Nobody also showcase a voice and a talent with considerable diversity and, we hope, forms an important part of the nation's "Sound" well beyond 2011.

Art[work] attack

Exhibit A

Here we have the proposed cover art for Born This Way, aka the upcoming Lady Gaga Album, due to be released on May 23rd 2011 with the single of the same name due to be released on February 13th 20100:

As a bit of a side note we ought to mention that at the Monster's Ball concert last month, we heard Gaga perform You and I which is a track from the album. It managed to be both amazing and not unlike what would happen if Bon Jovi discovered their country side. We were going to write about it but then we fell ill and the moment sort of passed. It's quality and commitment like that which we like to think you've come to expect of The Pop Web over the years.

Exhibit B

This is the cover art just tweeted by Britney Spears for her new single Hold It Against Me. It's due to receive it's premiere in the US any time over the next couple of days.

A demo of Hold It Against Me leaked earlier today. If you want to hear what the song sounds like when it's not sung by Britney (with thanks to MuuMuse), then you can find it here.

Obviously we await with baited breath the actual version, but what we will say is that this better have about 50% more heavy breathing throughout and probably warrants a video which is considerably more Toxic than Gimme More.

If these caveats are borne in mind, it's safe to say that you can go ahead and cancel any plans you might have had to listen to any other pop music until around mid-March.

Ruth Lorenzo: Power Ballad Messiah

We may have, on one or two occasions (OK, specifically one) have demonstrated our enthusiasm for X Factor alumnus Ruth Lorenzo who is finally getting on with the process of releasing some new material. In the continuing run-up to the release of her album The Raspberry Pattern (the website could do with a bit of an update, if we're being picky), a new track entitled Burn has made its way onto youtube. In the absence of a proper video, we've posted it below, or if that doesn't work, there's a direct link here:

In case you are in any doubt whatsoever, this is a proper power ballad. Gear changes, guitar-driven bridges, and proper belting-it-out choruses. Amazing.

To this end, Burn is the perfect continuation of the foundation laid down by the first sneak peak from the album Eternity (which you can still download for free at The Raspberry Pattern website - see link above). Showcasing the rockier edge which is likely to be an integral part of the Lorenzo product, Burn falls well within Ruth's comfort zone. It's true to say that the song isn't necessarily groundbreaking, or re-inventing the power ballad/soft rock wheel. But in a music market which, frankly, hasn't seen a properly amazing rock tinged power ballad in an age, Burn's unashamed genre-hugging approach is actually a welcome reminder that the classic rock love song didn't die out with Aerosmith's I Don't Want To Miss A Thing. And we can all be grateful for that.

Burn therefore completely does its job of getting us even more excited for the general release of an album which we have been waiting over two years for. If the two tracks we've heard so far are any indication of the style and the quality that The Raspberry Pattern is going to offer, then it's safe to say that the space between the greatest hits of Heart and Meat Loaf is about to get a big "reserved" sticker put on it.

And that's not something we say lightly.

Shall we do a "top 15 of 2010"? Go on, then.

Oh look, it's a new year. That must mean it's time for everyone to desperately look back at the twelve months prior to midnight on the 31st December 2010 and try and work out what went right in the world of popular music. And present it in list form.

You'll be thrilled to know, readers, that here at The Pop Web we are nothing if not staunch defenders of tradition. So, without further ado, here are our top 15 musical highlights of 2010 presented here in a very particular order (contra D. O'Leary).

15. Matt Cardle - When We Collide (video)
OK, OK, we'll admit, this is here mainly so we can gloat about the fact that we got it absolutely right when it came to who was going to win the X Factor this year. (If everyone could just forget about the bit where we put the words "Belle Amie" next to "One to Watch" that would be brilliant). The undisputed pop music guru Popjustice has, perhaps justifiably, railed against Matt's insistence on using the word "credible" to describe both this debut single and the likely direction of his future career. Nonetheless, this was undoubtedly the best X Factor winners' single since Hallelujah and provided somewhat of a musical highlight in a dismal arse-end-of-the-pop-year.

14. Cee Lo Green - Fuck/Forget You (video)
To be honest, betting on C-Lo Green becoming a force to be reckoned with in pop wasn't exactly running high at the beginning of 2010. But, by mid-summer, Cee Lo managed to give his career a kick up the arse with this gimmicky-yet-utterly-infectious comeback track. Is it about as subtle as a brick to the forehead? Yes. Is it possibly one of the catchiest and likable songs to be released this year? Also, yes. Well done, Cee Lo.

13. Diana Vickers - My Wicked Heart (video)
This is the first song on our countdown to be filed under "should have done better". D Vix had already had a fairly stellar year after hitting the top spot with her debut single and debut album. But, for our money, it's My Wicked Heart that best demonstrated Vickers' potential. A track which reminded everyone of just about every song on the planet (including Under The Bridge and Creep) and yet still managing to sound unmistakably like a Diana Vicker song, this track had us immediately rescinding some of the more scathing criticisms we levied at her during her X Factor tenure. Sadly, not even a fairly amazing X Factor performance could offset the song's dismal support from radio and the song ended up landing at a disappointing number 13. So as a tribute to that chart position, we've put her in the same place.

12. Cher Lloyd - Just Be Good To Me (video)
And here's where it gets controversial. Cher Lloyd was undoubtedly one of the most divisive acts on the X Factor this year (Katie Waissel doesn't count. Nobody liked her. Not even us by the end) and, whilst we loved her for the most part, we could accept that her performances were inconsistent at best. She didn't have the best vocals, nor was she the best rapper to have ever graced a stage. Nonetheless, there was something extremely exciting about a performer like Cher on a show like the X Factor. This performance, her first of the live shows, was bursting with attitude and, in and of itself, showed that whatever happened on the show, the X Factor wouldn't be the last the UK would be hearing from Cher Lloyd. It also helped, that even on this first performance, she showed she had more stage presence than the other 15 (?!) acts put together. Except Diva Fever. And Wagner.

11. B.o.B. featuring Hayley Williams - Airplanes (video)
Sometimes, in pop commentary, it's possible to be too squeamish. And it's squeamishness that sees Airplanes to the number 11 spot on the top 15 songs of 2010 (in our humble opinion). If we're honest, this slot really belongs to Eminem and Rihanna for Love The Way You Lie. But, in all good conscience, we don't feel it's fair to reward Eminem for contributing by far the least memorable part of that song (you know, the three verses where he demonstrates that he hasn't moved on in the slightest from 2010 and just resorts to being pointlessly offensive to propel himself back to some kind of relevance). So here we are with B.o.B. and the lead singer of Paramore who produced just as memorable a duet with about 300% less needless controversy. Airplanes, let's not put too fine a point on it, is an excellent song which has even survived relentless overplaying on the part of the nation's radio stations. We docked it a good few places on the basis of the writer's inability to spell aeroplanes correctly, however.

10. Gorillaz featuring Bobby Womack & Mos Def - Stylo (video)
The second track to be placed in the "should have done better" file this year. Stylo deserved to be the track that catapulted the Gorillaz to the very forefront of the music-buying public's consciousness. Dark and brooding, Stylo took the magic elements which made Dare such a huge hit half a decade earlier and then threw in a vocal by Bobby Womack which actually caused him (along with diabetes) to collapse in the studio. That, pop fans, is dedication. If this track passed you by this year, then you definitely owe it to yourself to go back and give it a listen.

9. Lady Gaga & Beyonce - Telephone (video)
everyone's airwaves for the next three months. Nor should it aspire simply to score a number 1 single and perhaps prolong an album's commercial viability. It should aspire to set the tone, and ignite a new cultural discourse. Let's be clear, nothing about Telephone as a song achieves this. But the video, with its reinvention of squeaky-clean Beyonce as an accomplice in a serial killing and *that* prison scene made pop a talking point, and an important subject of wider cultural and critical debate. Telephone, taken as a holistic creative endeavour, carried on the stellar work of Bad Romance and put pop right back at the centre of the cultural agenda. And while it won't, in all likelihood, have the enduring legacy of Thriller or Like A Prayer, it was still one of the most important pop music moments of 2010.

8. Joe McElderry - Ambitions (video)
Say what you want about Joe McElderry's future prospects as a marketable pop star in 2011 and beyond, but you can't say the little guy (and the wider SyCo machine, obviously) didn't give the whole "pop star" thing a good try. Ambitions was always a risky choice for a first single and the number 6 placing of this song demonstrates that what works in Norway, doesn't always work in Britain. It was, however, an exceptionally brave release upon which to build Joe's fledgling solo career and even if Ambitions is the last single Joe gets into the top 20 (or, even the top 40) it will stand as a risk worth taking. We sincerely hope that whatever may happen to Joe over the coming months (i.e. whether or not he gets dropped from SyCo) that he can take comfort that he got to release a genuinely brilliant pop song, which, if the stars had aligned just a little differently, would have laid the foundations for an extremely promising career.

7. Katy Perry - Teenage Dream (video)
Ah, Katy Perry, how do we detest thee? Let us count the ways... Don't get us wrong, next to Ke$ha, Katy is undoubtedly scores a nomination for our "most irritating popstar" award. But, we have to hand it to her, Teenage Dream is an amazing track which perfectly captures that late-summer/early September "let's hang on to Summer for grim death" fever which sweeps the charts as soon as the nights look like they might even threaten to "draw in". Max Martin and Dr Luke once again worked their magic and proved that they have the Midas Touch when it comes to writing amazing pop songs for occasionally-somewhat-grating American female vocalists. Further counting in Teenage Dream's favour is the spellbinding version recorded by Darren Criss from the upcoming (at least in the UK) series of Glee.

6. Hurts - Wonderful Life (video)
In our mind, 2010 will go down as the year when pop realised that, at its best, it could be deep and meaningful and still be absolutely amazing. Hurts are no small part of that realization. Wonderful Life tells the story of a man about to commit suicide on the Severn Bridge before meeting a woman called Susie who he falls in love with. The dark themes of the song are beautifully reflected in the shimmeringly bleak backing track and mournful backing vocals. The result is a song which, depending on your mood, will have you jumping up and down in joy or crying into the nearest cushion. The track and the band captured the attention of the pop intelligentsia this year, with Kylie Minogue delivering a fantastic version of the song in the Live Lounge.

5. Kylie Minogue - All The Lovers (video)
And speaking of Kylie, All The Lovers provided the biggest chart outrage of the year here at The Pop Web when it narrowly missed out on becoming Minogue's 8th UK number 1 single. A euphoric return to form the track saw Kylie deliver the kind of out-and-out disco classic that she has become synonymous with. A tender lyric which builds and builds into the most beautiful, swirling middle eight, All The Lovers will hopefully go down as one of the all-time great Kylie singles, thanks in no small part to the genius production job by Stuart Price.

4. Example - Kickstarts (video)
The winner of the Popjustice Twenty Quid Music Prize Example provided an unlikely summer highlight in pop which further articulated the Hot Chip principle of "the joy of repetition". Supported by a relentless backing track which, as the video demonstrates, immediately gets toes tapping, the cyclical lyrics build into an insightful and brilliantly-observed lament about "things going stale" in a relationship. It's simply a brilliant, brilliant pop song and therefore Example is well-deserving of the monetary incentive which Popjustice sent his way to create more songs like it.

3. Rihanna - Only Girl (In The World) (video)
After the, let's be honest, hopelessly mediocre Rated R album, the pressure was on Rihanna to create the kind of ballsy pop which made Umbrella and pretty-much everything else on Good Girl Gone Bad a permanent fixture on radio playlists the world over. Talk about putting fears to rest. Only Girl was an irresistible return to form for Ms. Fenty and helped her recapture the crown of most dancefloor-friendly popstar. With a chorus which practically demands you to jump up and down with at least one fist in the air, Only Girl is, not to put too fine a point on it, an absolute smash. It also encapsulates that snarling independence which Rihanna puts across so well without descending into self-involved melodrama (see Russian Roulette).


2. Robyn - Dancing On My Own (video)
We want to preface this with an admission. Despite the fact that this is undoubtedly one of the most amazing songs of the year, we simply aren't capable of singing this track's praises better than Peter Robinson did in this Guardian article. Suffice to say, however, that Dancing On My Own proved what everyone in their right mind knew already: Robyn is one of the most talented and emotionally sophisticated popstars of the past decade. Dancing On My Own is a tribute to each and every one of those shit nights when you've ended up staggering home from a club on your own, with the love of your life dancing obliviously with their own partner. It's the type of lyric which, in any other hands, would descend into cliche. In Robyn's hands, however, it turns into a melancholic masterpiece which forces the listener both to dance and to make tears roll down their cheeks. Dancing On My Own is an absolute masterpiece and will set the bar for many years to come for pop songs and artists who want to plumb emotional, as well as hedonistic, depths with their music.

1. Take That - The Flood (video)

 "Standing, on the edge of forever/ At the start of whatever/ Shouting 'love' at the world..."

Thus begins the most important musical moment in pop of the past twelve months. Take That finally reuniting as a five-piece was huge news in itself. Almost too huge. How would the reinclusion of Robbie Williams, the man with the biggest ego in pop music, affect the most amazing comeback story in recent pop music memory? The re-completed Take That, which had been doing amazingly well under the leadership of Gary Barlow, and to a lesser extent Mark Owen, now had to find a place for the man whose solo career outshone them all until it was derailed by self-indulgent creative decisions and an increasingly slack grip on the cultural zeitgeist. 

Barlow and co responded (with the held of Stuart Price, once again) with the epic The Flood. What made this song truly special wasn't just the lyrics which appeared to advance the notion that the Take That re-reunion was an event of cosmic, nay, apocalyptic importance. It wasn't just the sound of all five members delivering an absolutely amazing vocal. It was the fact that this track simply wouldn't have worked in any other hands, or indeed at any other time. It was a track which in its own right carries such gravitas that it would have sounded pompous and over-egged were it not the soundtrack for a story which, a mere three years ago, looked impossible to realize.

The Flood is a song which satisfies all viewpoints. On its own it is a brilliant track with lyrical ideas well and truly above its station. Seen as a continuation of Take That's comeback story it demonstrates Barlow's continually growing confidence as a songwriter and further showcases the amazing chemistry which Gary, Mark, Jason and Howard have when recording and performing together which isn't overshadowed by Williams' return to the band. It even satisfies the slightly snarky criticisms levelled by people like us here at The Pop Web which posit that Robbie Williams is at his best when he is reigned in by the more talented people that surround him. The Flood was absolutely the perfect platform from which to allay everyone's fears about the return of the five-membered Take That.

But most importantly, it is an absolutely phenomenal pop song and that is why we have declared The Flood to be the best song of 2010. No mean feat in what has been a spellbinding year of music.