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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Van Go Lion, and other likely stories

We always like hearing about new music here at The Pop Web and we've been fortunate enough recently to have been given access to a plethora of new bands and acts to tickle our fancy in recent weeks. Sadly, as perhaps befits our... ahem... frenetic updating record it's taken us a little while to get round to putting some words down on the page. However, you'll be thrilled to know that we are now in a position to tell you all about Van Go Lion.

First thing's first, that's a very definite tick in the bonkers name column.

Crucially, however, VGL are also known as Amy Paige and Josh Loerzel from Portland Oregon. The now ubiquitous Pop Web wikipedia check reveals that they therefore hail from the same locale as the Dandy Warhols and The Kingsmiths, famous for writing Louie, Louie. So it's encouraging to know we're already off to a good start.

The main things you need to know about Van Go Lion are:

1) Amy has an amazing voice which is in fact one of the most prodigiously perfect pop voices we've heard.

2) Amy has an amazing voice.

3) Josh enjoys wearing sunglasses indoors and has a particular knack for creating very atmospheric electro- pop.

4) Did we mention Amy has an amazing voice?

Let's illustrate all this with an example. The Ache is a track off their eponymous EP (out now, readers, etc.).

On the one hand, what you've got here is a brilliant vocal, and a cleverly understated backing track with enough bells and whistles to keep you hooked. The lyrics oscillate between the sublime (e.g. "I know that I will change, stay a perfect portrait lost in stages of the strange") to the faintly bizarre (e.g. "a pocketful of candy" with a suitably crescendo-ing emphasis on "candy"). It's by no means a perfect pop song, but it's a good measure of the potential that Josh and Amy have.

That potential is more fully explored in the bloody brilliant Glow 

Amy's voice is allowed to absolutely shine here on a heartbreaking sad-disco which presses all of our buttons perfectly. It's a perfect showcase for what Van Go Lion bring to the table, in our opinion, which is well-crafted electro-pop with an emotional resonance which doesn't often spring to mind when you're confronted with anyone from the genre not called Robyn. 

It's very clear that there's still a long way to go from Van Go Lion - some of the other tracks we've heard have demonstrated a bit of a worrying tendency to go a bit mad with the mixing desk, which in our opinion can detract, rather than complement the effectiveness of the vocal and the songwriting. But, despite that, we definitely feel that there's a band here with a lot of upside who, with more experience and exposure, may well develop into a real act to watch in the future. We certainly wish them well, and sincerely hope they get over to the UK sooner, rather than later so we can see how their live act measures up to the recording.

 

As we mentioned, their EP is out on iTunes at the moment (you can also visit their site www.vangolion.com to have a listen).

"Not Myself Tonight" is NOT "Dirrty"

Christina Aguilera has unveiled her new single, called "Not Myself Tonight" which you can listen to here (perhaps at some point the record company will deign to permit video embedding and, you know, diffuse the PROMOTIONAL video across the fragmented media consumed by its contemporary target audience...)

A few preliminary observations:

Firstly, Xtina could do with tipping her hat to Timbaland for inspiring the beats which underpin the song. Observant listeners will note they're almost exactly the same as in SexyBack.

Secondly, it doesn't have the immediacy (or the daring attitude) of something like Dirrty. It takes a few listens but there is undoubtedly some great stuff here (especially the "Tonight I'm not the same girl" shouty refrain). It has to be said, though, that if this is the start of a campaign which seeks to reinvent Christina, it doesn't quite do the job given that it seems to borrow production tricks which worked two years ago but which have become a little de rigeur now. On the other hand, it's a song which has just inspired a pop music blog do use the term de rigeur so perhaps, at least on this level, it's done something right.

Thirdly, this is a perfectly competent release to kick off the Bionic album campaign. But, if we were in Christina's camp, we would be just a little bit wary about hearing the word "competent" ascribed to this comeback single. The female solo pop market is currently about as crowded than it was back in the good old early 00s Christina/Britney wars. Britney's a good few months away from putting anything out which at least avoids those anachronistic comparisons to be wheeled out but now Christina is going up against the likes of Lady Gaga and, we absolutely regret to add, Katie Perry. Obviously the former provides more of an interesting creative foil, but nonetheless, the market for Christina Aguilera's brand of pop is there, but it's fairly fragmented.

Don't get us wrong, "Not Myself Tonight" can be fairly sure of a top ten placing come release day, but having put the Britney war behind her, Christina now finds herself competing with some pretty formidable new kids on the block. When seen against the backdrop of "Telephone", for example, "Not Myself Tonight" really can't afford to be looking dated and merely "competent". Not if it wants to cement Christina as one of the female pop stars occupying the throne which Lady Gaga and Katie Perry are pretending to.

On the other hand, if her team have learned from her past success, and the current success of Lady Gaga, then they'll know that a cracking video could help paper over some of these cracks... We wait in hope.

Dear the Music Industry

We here at the pop web don't often foray into the world of the "unsigned". Truth be told, we're a rather lazy, doughy lot, and much prefer our music to come to us through the traditional media of itunes or spotify, rather than getting up off our behinds and stumbling along to a "venue" and inevitably get too drunk off the watered down Carling to remember anything of note. There are a couple of acts at the moment,however, who have or will definitely buck that trend.

1. Inlight

Inlight are an Oxford-based band who we've seen perform live on a number of occasions. The experience is a perfect mix of well-crafted pop-rock songs and audience interraction featuring lines like "this is for anyone who's ever had a broken heart... or leg". They've got a pretty impressive repertoire of songs with particular highlights including Icarus (which we sincerely hope will help to buck the UK pop bias against winged creatures one day) and the actually beautiful Dido and Aeneas. If a song title which referencis the Aeneid isn't enough to whet your apppetite then, ladies and gentlemen, please feel free to bear witness to Space.



Two initial comments. Firstly, the video and audio quality of this performance really doesn't do justice to the song. We *highly* recommend that you try and pick up the recorded version from their website (inlightband.com). Secondly, if you do so, you'll hopefully come to the same conclusion that we have: this song really bloody well had better be this decade's "Mr. Brightside". There are a number of structural features to the song which lend themselves to this interpretation. Firstly, the chorus begins with an epic "YOU" which is really just crying out to be bellowed atonally by a dancefloor full of sweaty people who've had a few mojitos too many. Secondly, we've already come up with a few signature moves to the guitar and drum line, so if someone doesn't go ahead and sign these guys, they'll be DESTINED to go unnoticed. Great power; great responsibility.

In all seriousness, however, there's very little not to like about this band. Firstly, they are big twitter users, with the lead singer Charlie Atlantic frequently sending out tweets which are hilarious (personal favourites include this and this). Secondly, over the advent period, THEY ACTUALLY DID AN ADVENT CALENDAR which was, by all accounts, brilliant and very much helped to "set the mood" and which you can still have a look at on their youtube channel. Thirdly, and this really is the crucial thing, they produce music which would sit quite nicely alongside the radio "playlists" of the GCap network or whatever the hell it is that Radio 1 pay Fearne Cotton to bang about all day. In these cash-strapped times for the music industry, surely snapping up a band like this would mean one is "on to a winner"?

Also, Mike who is the band's guitarist, once said in our hearing "even my shadow looks fit." Rock and roll.

2. Simon Curtis

The great thing about the internet is that as you're dicking around avoiding all the other things you probably should be doing, you stumble across hidden gems which really help brighten the day.

Or, more accurately, you check popjustice and encounter some fairly good music.

Enter Simon Curtis.

First thing's first, yes, we're fully aware that the whole "boy made not created" thing has a very real danger of becoming something which is a fair few shades less brilliant than Ziggy Stardust (c.f. Prince's whole "symbol" thing and Brandy's "Bran'Nu").

But stick with it. You can download his whole album for free from the website and it's very well worth doing so. His voice definitely has a late 90s boyband quality to it which is layered over the top of some fairly interesting electronic backing tracks. The whole thing works fairly well. And particular highlights thus far include the tracks "Diablo" which features the line "Here's the thing, yeah, we started out friends, but this is not a Kelly Clarkson song and this is not how it ends" and "Fell In Love w/an Android" which features the repeated line "hate to say it but I'd rather f*ck a robot". That probably says it all.

In terms of "commerciability" it's at first sight a little difficult to see where Simon Curtis into the contemporary pop landscape. We will say that it's a damn site better than "If We Ever Meet Again" if that counts for anything. Equally, however, we can see Simon's pop-friendly vocals masking some very interesting and edgy lyrical and musical presentation (in other words, Fearne Cotton probably wouldn't be "mad" about it). We'd like to think, however, in this post-JLS world that we've gone past radio's chronic fear of boybands that aren't Take That or Boyzone and we could find a place for a new artist, who, with perhaps a little bit of polishing, could turn out to be very, very good. If he makes it over to the UK, we'll certainly endeavour to "check him out". We hope you all will do the same.