"Oh, we're halfway there"

To commemorate The Pop Web's migration to its brand new domain (bookmark www.thepopweb.co.uk) we invited our twitter followers to suggest the first "Web-surfing" challenge in our new home. Mikeinlight didn't disappoint when he suggested this:

Bon Jovi to Sigur Ros. Good luck.

Well, Mike, we're pleased to announce that we've gone and cracked it. In spectacular fashion if we do say so ourself.

                                   
                        







Ch-ch-check it out after the jump.

Scissor Sisters, JLS and a couple of other glaring errors

Remember our effusive and searching preview of what The Scissor Sisters album might have in store for us over the summer? Well, the Sisters have lifted the lid on the first single from that campaign, "Fire With Fire". In the absence of a proper video, here's a one nabbed off the Chris Moyles' Breakfast show a recording of it courtesy of the good folks who populate youtube:



We have tried so, so hard to like this song. And, lest we be misunderstood, let us stipulate that we do not dislike "Fire With Fire". In the same way that we didn't dislike "Just Might Tell You Tonight" from Ta-Dah. In fact, lyrically, Fire With Fire picks up that incredible ability of The Scissor Sisters to write heartbreaking and emotionally resonant lyrics in amongst all of the seedy darkness which pervades their work. Lines like "love was just something you found to add to your collection" are definitely on the amazing side of things. But, ultimately, this song does not scream "comeback" or, indeed, hint towards the darker and more underground sound that Jake Shears alluded to when interviewed by Popjustice. In the same way that "Invisible Light" is definitely an album track, despite its obvious amazing qualities, so too "Fire With Fire" should occupy that point on the album where everything becomes a little more introspective. For our money, the only way we can see this catching on is if it really catches the imagination of the festival crowd who use the whole thing as a "singalong album". Otherwise, there's a real danger of this single just being a little too soft an option and thus killing the momentum of the album campaign before it's even got going. As huge Scissor Sisters fans, we sincerely hope that Jake, Ana, Del and Baby Daddy know what they're doing.

Moving on to a slightly different end of the pop spectrum, JLS' new single is seventeen shades of awful, and not just because it references The Sound of Music with the subtlety of a brick with "THIS IS A REFERENCE TO THE SOUND OF MUSIC" scrawled all over it. "The Club Is Alive" sounds a little something like this:



It's all a little bit "Blue" isn't it really? And given they're already confirmed to be reforming, there's probably no need for JLS to be raining on their parade. The problem with this song is that it takes anything which might have been catchy or engaging, and ruins it amongst some ludicrous production. The vocals are fairly typical JLS fare, and the "you could be the DJ, I could be the dancefloor" bit is alright. But it's almost like the record company dragged them in and said "Well, boys, you know how Beat Again, Everybody in Love and One Shot were fairly pleasant efforts which resonated well with our key demographics? Well we need to put something out there which proves beyond a doubt that you've all still got Y chromosomes. So you're all going to warble on about screwing someone in a club. Is that OK?" And they all nodded and lived happily ever after.

As an aside, we also can't abide Julie Andrews. Indeed, in our dim and distant past, we set up a facebook group expressing our dislike for Ms. Andrews. Four years on, and the hate mail still comes flooding in. Good times.

And on one final point, they're re-jigged and thrown a video together for Josh Dubovie's Eurovision entry "That Sounds Good To Me" (the only place where you can see the video is the BBC's website). It was very kind of Pete Waterman to delve into his bag of tricks and throw some outdated production at this godawful effort but it's plain to see that there are some turds you simply can't polish. It still sounds bloody awful.

And that's your lot. Except to say that we've been extremely remiss in stating that it's not all bad news for pop music. Alphabeat's new single "DJ (I Could Be Dancing)" is actually brilliant.



Thank God for that. It's out on 31st May and it would be just swell if y'all could download it and prove that pop hasn't quite eaten itself just yet.

Chartramble - Sunday 9th May

This week's top ten:

1. (1) Roll Deep: 'Good Times'
2. (2) Usher ft. will.i.am: 'OMG'
3. (3) Plan B: 'She Said'
4. (-) Pendulum: 'Watercolour'
5. (-) Aggro Santos ft. Kimberly Wyatt: 'Candy'
6. (10) Taio Cruz ft. Ke$ha: 'Dirty Picture'
7. (5) Chipmunk ft. Esmée Denters: 'Until You Were Gone'
8. (4) Diana Vickers: 'Once'
9. (8) Timbaland ft. Justin Timberlake: 'Carry Out'
10. (9) Kelis: 'Acapella'

Reactions and this week's new releases are to be found, as ever, after the jump

Chartramble - Sunday 2nd May

Le top ten.

1. (-) Roll Deep: 'Good Times'
2. (2) Usher ft. will.i.am: 'OMG'
3. (4) Plan B: 'She Said'
4. (1) Diana Vickers: 'Once'
5. (3) Chipmunk ft. Esmée Denters: 'Until You Were Gone'
6. (6) Professor Green ft. Ed Drewett: 'I Need You Tonight'
7. (5) Scouting For Girls: 'This Ain't A Love Song'
8. (8) Timbaland ft. Justin Timberlake: 'Carry Out'
9. (7) Kelis: 'Acapella'
10. (12) Taio Cruz ft. Ke$ha: 'Dirty Picture'

"Jump" for reactions and this week's new releases

Spot the Difference #3: It's not exactly "Hallelujah"

Alexandra Burke has just released the official video for her fourth single "All Night Long"



There are points in the video when the whole thing could be replaced with a pulsating screengrab saying "I'M AN X FACTOR WINNER BUT THIS IS NOT A BALLAD" (the bit with the duct tape over the nipples comes to mind, and the very presence of Pitbull). Before we go all critical, let us stress, we do like the video and song for a number of reasons:

1. There's a bit where everyone at this impromptu party breaks out into an amazingly choreographed dance routine and there's a part of us that would love that to happen everytime we play "Fight For This Love" in the living room.

2. Someone wields a phone which has been monographed "AB" with some diamante. Diamantically, if you will. We want to think this is a neologism (as well as a design trend) which could catch on, so we're immediately heading off to void the warranty on the iPhone.

3. It's easy to forget behind everything that's going on is that this is a cracking song which will hopefully hit a nerve with the record buying public in a way which the equally-if-not-more cracking Broken Heels didn't. Alex's voice is tonally very rich which is what lifts this from being a Cascada album track to a genuinely brilliant "should-be-top-ten-if-there's-any-justice" Summer tune. It's certainly got the prerequisite catchiness covered with the "all night, all night, all night, all night" hook.

The problem may lie, in the fact that Alexandra just hasn't managed to carve out a unique selling point at this stage. "Bad Boys" did the job of being the prerequisite "this is done by an X Factor winner?!" release, but Alexandra still hasn't managed to escape that tag in the same way that Leona managed to. SyCo are trying their hardest to chuck every rapper/producer/urban darling at her in order to differentiate her from anything that the X Factor has put out before but it just isn't sticking. And there's a note of desperation in the air that on this front; SyCo are beginning to lose their way. For instance, where have you seen sunglasses like these before?

If your answer is "the Telephone video" you'd probably be on to something. In fact, the whole video has a certain whiff of "Just Dance" about it, doesn't it?

We need to be clear about one thing. Alexandra Burke is not Lady Gaga. And this is a good thing, the two are completely different artists who, if we're honest, are actually working in completely different spheres if you set aside the fact that they both produce pop music. I can see what Alexandra and her team are trying to do with this video, but they're not going to create that USP around her if they're piggybacking off the imagery, symbology and style of other artists. All it's going to do is feed into that pernicious sentiment that if you "graduate" from the X Factor, all you'll be able to do is piggyback off other people's ideas and talents. As Diana Vickers in particular has proven, that really doesn't need to be the case.

MIA - Born Free

This is the new MIA video for latest single "Born Free". If you're of a sensitive disposition we'd advise not pressing 'play' (expect nudity, violence and some downright uncomfortable vistas).



Let's just get one thing straight. The song is brilliant, and a perfect reinvention for MIA after she sprang to prominence thanks to her inclusion on the Slumdog Millionaire track. This serves as a fairly jarring reminder that MIA's music can be extremely edgy. The dark and brooding beats complement the menacing delivery of the lyrics brilliantly. The video is extremely controversial and it makes for uncomfortable, threatening viewing. But there isn't the sense that this is a "controversy for controversy's" sake type of video. Rather, it's a clever artistic decision to provide a visual manifestation of the darkness which pervades this song. And, crucially, it's a very clever way of ensuring that any new audiences MIA might have picked up on the back of Slumdog know exactly what they're getting themselves in to.

Chartramble - Sunday 25th April

Here's the top ten:

1. (-) Diana Vickers: 'Once'
2. (1) Usher ft. will.i.am: 'OMG'
3. (-) Chipmunk ft. Esmée Denters: 'Until You Were Gone'
4. (4) Plan B: 'She Said'
5. (2) Scouting For Girls: 'This Ain't A Love Song'
6. (3) Professor Green ft. Ed Drewett: 'I Need You Tonight'
7. (5) Kelis: 'Acapella'
8. (8) Timbaland ft. Justin Timberlake: 'Carry Out'
9. (-) Tina Turner: 'The Best'
10. (7) Selena Gomez & The Scene: 'Naturally'

Some reactions and a look ahead to this week's new releases are to be found after the jump...