Taub Judah Entertainment Palace

True fact: This song made Fearne Cotton cry. Out of her EYES, dammit!

It all happened on the Sky 1 sort-of-like-the-X-Factor-but-the-judges-are-all-off-Later-With-Jools musical talent show Must Be The Music. You all know the setup by now. Three judges, a big audition arena show, a presenter backstage talking to the acts before they go on. Two girls walk up to Fearne, who is basically the ‘Dermot’ in this situation. One is called Katie Pepper and the other is called Emma, she plays the piano, hence the name. They are from Manchester and they are excited and nervous.

Emma reveals she has had some troubles in her life, and that making music with Katie has helped her pull herself together. They then take to the stage. Then The Magic happens:

Instead of performing an off-key version of an Alicia Keys song, or even a bland re-write of an even blander recent pop ballad, Emma strikes up some dour chords, and then Katie opens her mouth and sings up a great big bruise. A massive black-eye of a song. An ‘Everybody Hurts’ where literally everybody hurts.

(Can’t show you the video. Ad cooties.)

I don’t mean it’s painful to listen to, not in the sense that they’re doing anything musically wrong, at any rate. It’s just…blimey that’s an unsettling noise to hear coming out of a televised human face, isn’t it? Katie’s voice is closer to that of Antony (of …and the Johnsons fame) than, say, Leona Lewis, and although the song they’re playing is a little clunky and unvarnished (by the standards of yer slick Top 40 acts), it’s clearly a thing of substance, especially when sung like that.

Outside of the viciously-pigeonholed TV context, it would probably make less of an impact, a slightly wonky song, earnestly sung, by a lady with a boyishly deep, but operatically huge voice. But stick it in the middle of a silly old TV talent show and WHOAH!

The looks of shock and delight on everyone’s faces are perhaps similar to those you would see if you organised an imaginary dinner party, where you and your friends have dressed up smart, and gathered around an immaculately-laid table, only to spend the entire evening pretending to enjoy a sumptuous feast (more ghost beef, vicar?), with all the not-really-there trimmings…and then a latecomer arrives with real home-made trifle.

It might not be the finest trifle money can buy: some of the jelly hasn’t set properly and the custard is a little runny, and there are peanuts and raisins sprinkled all over the top, as a radical garnish. But you can’t deny that it is actual food.

Download: Out now

www.facebook.com/pepperandpianoofficial

(Fraser McAlpine)

View full post on BBC – Chart blog

Picture the scene: There’s a heated discussion taking place in the middle of a record company board room. Execs are hotly debating the release date of a new single, so that it can gain maximum exposure, reach as many ears as is humanly possibly and therefore drive people to the shops – real or virtual – in order to spend, spend, and once again spend.

The song plays quietly in the background, although it clearly has not been made with quiet play in mind, which is proving to be a distraction. It is a boisterous, Caribbean-flavoured thing, boasting a childishly simple, sing-song chorus.

It also boasts a man called Laza shouting incoherently about seizures and propellers, and a relentless skull-crusher dancehall beat, played as if a Troll was attempting to swat a swarm of cocky gnats off the EastEnders drum kit with his fists. It is deliriously happy, to the point of being simple-minded, and conjures up instant images of warmth and sunshiney freedom in everyone that hears it.

And it is this last point which is causing the trouble.

(Here’s the video. It’s basically Eric Prydz for girls)

On one side of the table, people are shouting that a record this summary needs to be out in the height of, y’know, SUMMER. They’re yelling that it’s a perfect soundtrack for outdoor barbecues and beach parties, and as such, needs to be available to buy at the beginning of the holiday season. A song this happy, they fume, is perfect for the end of term, with long weeks of hot nothing stretching out before you, rather than the beginning of a new school year, with new shoes that pinch, new uniforms that itch, and nothing but extra homework, conkers and the faint promise of Christmas to look forward to.

On the other side, arms tightly folded, faces impassive, are the record company’s corporate wing, the brand-holders. Their argument is far less emotional. They simply point to a copy of a TV listings magazine with a big picture of Simon Cowell on the front, and the headline, “IT’S BACK!”, then re-fold their arms and wait.

There is then some quiet discussion and a brief glace at a contract which appears to have been signed with red liquid, and the debate is over. Autumn it is.

Download: 5th September

www.alexandraburkeofficial.com
BBC Music page

(Fraser McAlpine)

Popjustice says: “We have liked all the Alexandra Burke singles so far and we like this one too.”

Pop Boi says: “The new video takes the cake on cheese-factor”

Swear I’m Not Paul says: “It’s chirpy but banal, and extremely unlistenable. Repeated listens only make it worse. “

View full post on BBC – Chart blog

OK, quick discussion topic: what’s the best way to tell if you like a song which sounds, on first listen, like a bit of a dog’s breakfast?

Is it that you find yourself still pondering it, some minutes after it has finished? Is it that you find you have to immediately go back and listen again? Or are you so overwhelmed that you have to go and put something familiar and soothing on instead? Is it that it makes you laugh? Or cry? Or be sick?

For me, it is simply whether I find I have turned the volume up all the way through the song, all the better to pay closer attention to what is going on. This is so that I can try and divine the heartbeat of the thing, to work out what the people who wrote it think is good about it. To do this you’ve sometimes got to wade through some of the production murk and ignore the more bizarre bits.

With this song, I ran out of up to turn it before the second chorus. By the end I couldn’t tell if my internal joyclaps were enjoyment or relief that the ordeal was finally over.

(Here’s the video. I think you need a better painter too. This one is messy.)

I have since revised my opinion and am delighted to report that it is enjoyment all the way.

The great thing about this is it is proof that we’ve got the bonkers Alesha back from the evil clutches of Those Who Would Seek To Capitalise On Her Strictly Success By Making Her Into A Fully Rounded Family Entertainer. It’s time to celebrate her mad brilliance. She was mad and brilliant in Mis-Teeq. Her early solo singles – ‘Lipstick’ and ‘Knockdown’ – were both mad and brilliant. Then she had a brief – or possibly ongoing, it’s hard to tell right now – dalliance with mainstream success, and apart from ‘The Boy Does Nothing’, the madness and the brilliance was in less abundance, and this felt like a shame. But now it is back.

OH BOY IS IT BACK.

Listen to the blessed thing! It’s all over the shop! Ten million drummers giving it the full paradiddle apocalypse, and I’m not even sure if all of them are playing in time. Meanwhile Alesha is singing some bits and shouting some bits and going “whaaat?” in a manner which will NOT delight Arlene Phillips fans. She’s got some nice harmonies to do, and there are fragments of a complete song being kicked about, but nothing is being treated with due respect. It’s fantastic!

Yes, Destiny’s Child and High School Musical (and the movie Drumline, from which this is sampled) have beaten her to the marching band drummer gimmick, but they were concerned with respectfully putting that sound into a different musical context. Alesha and her gang just want to rudely plonk themselves on top, fire up the synth brass, and blow off in everyone’s faces.

And best of all, there is no possibility that you could confuse this song with anything else in the charts this year. And for that reason alone it deserves top honours.

Not that Alesha cares. She’s way too busy throwing toy spaniels into a bucket of gravy with her face, or something.

Download: Out now

www.myspace.com/aleshamusic
BBC Music page

(Fraser McAlpine)

So Feminine says: “The colourful, foot-stomping new hit, ‘Drummer Boy’… is unlike any other record you’ll hear this year.”

Madnews says: “I have never rated Alesha as an artist and never well. Her music just does nothing for me. But she seems like a nice woman..”

Kid With The Specs says: “The song has completely grown on me and is very different from everything Alesha has done before.”

View full post on BBC – Chart blog

Well this is, to quote a Rock Dad cliche, is just a massive racket, isn’t it? Half the time he’s just screaming, there’s not much in the way of a proper tune, and what tune there is, you can’t really whistle. That’s always the sign of proper quality in a song, a tune you can whistle, and maybe play the spoons along to. Stop huffing, you used to love it when I played the spoons!

I mean, yes, you can tell they’re trying, and at least they’ve got proper guitars. You can’t deny they really mean it, not like most of that pop rubbish you hear on the radio. All that Drizzly Rapscallion and Dustbin Beaver, that’s just childish. But what are they shouting about? You can barely make out the words! He could be singing about tight shoes for all we know. Is that what rock ‘n’ roll has come to? Tsk! You kids don’t know you’re born!

Here, let’s put some AC/DC on. That’s much better.

(Here’s the video. It’s like the One Night Only video, only less magicky)

Sorry, don’t know what came over me there.

I guess the thing is, Rock Dad is quite right, this is a racket. It’s a thrilling racket though.

Musical references fly past – it starts with an At The Drive In squonking blatterbeat ‘n’ huffscream thing, which resolves into something which is half Strokes tinkly ramalam, half Killers bulging steroidal gloss – and it’s all played with total fury and conviction, and screaming.

These are all empirically Good Things. And when they kick the dynamics into gear, and swoop up from the ticky, considered verses into the flip-top head chorus, well it’s a giddy thrill indeed. The fact that among all of these cool reference points lies a slightly stunned Pigeon Detective, holding a wing to its ears and wondering what all the shouting is about, should be neither here nor there.

As a dissonant rock noise, it’s a hell of a pop song.

And of course, as a pop song, it’s a hell of a noise.

Now, where’s my Top Gear CD?

Download: 30th August

www.myspace.com/funeralparty
BBC Music page

(Fraser McAlpine)

Dark Party says: “They truly are a great band live too.”

View full post on BBC – Chart blog

This week alone, there are three notable tales of soul heartbreak doing the rounds, three different ways of saying broadly the same thing – you, my man, have done me wrong. Why is this? – in an ocean of similarly-themed songs from last week, and next week, and all the weeks of the year rolled into one.

Beyoncé is releasing the upbeat, funky-as-hell ‘Why Don’t You Love Me?’ as another single from ‘I Am…Sasha Fierce’. This brings her running total so far up to, what, seven? Six? Something like that. As is often the case, the way she chooses to express her heartbreak is through the medium of rampaging self-regard – if her nickname for herself isn’t The Irresistable Force, it damn well should be – butting up against a stone wall of indifference. She thinks she’s amazing, so why doesn’t he? It’s a mystery to all of us, frankly, although there’s something to be said for not being quite so clingy.

Fewer singles, more mystique. It’s just a thought.

Meanwhile, Shontelle is making a decent fist of being Beyoncé. ‘Impossible’ is a very nowadaysy ballad, blessed with a perfectly weighted versal melody, a huge, pleading (if entirely repetitious) chorus, and the kind of production sheen you can see your face in, even if you’re listening on headphones. It’s quite good, but doesn’t linger in the mind at all. Craft over astonishment, y’see.

But, enjoyable as both of these are, the show has once again been well and truly stolen by Janelle Monáe. And here is why…

View full post on BBC – Chart blog

People in hit bands start work on solo material for a variety of different reasons: sometimes it’s because they’ve got ideas for music which will not fit in with the basic thrust of their day job. Sometimes it’s because they’re not the lead singer, or the chief songwriter, and they’ve had all these ideas and need to get them out before they begin to feel bitterly hemmed-in by their bandmates. And sometimes it’s because the people in the day job band can no longer stand to be in the same room, and need to take a break before they start trying to punch each other’s facial extremities off.

Bearing in mind that 1) this doesn’t sound unlike the Killers, and 2) it’s by the lead singer of the Killers, and 3) he’s their lead songwriter, and 4) being hemmed-in can’t be the issue (see 1), would it be too much to wonder if Brandon’s journey into the solo zone has something to do with that last, fightiest option?

Actually, stuff it. I’m just going to go ahead and assume it. We’re never going to really KNOW, are we? They can SAY it’s because this was supposed to be a new Killers album but they were all too tired to make it, but we don’t KNOW they weren’t tying each other’s shoelaces together and putting clingfilm on the loo, do we?

Right then. Fisticuffs it is.

(Here’s the video. It’s adventurous.)

Of course, the other reason to go solo is because it just feels free-er to do it yourself. Certainly ‘Crossfire’ contains a bit less of that uptight, calculating, self-conscious pop boffinry that made some of the Killers’ more recent output feel less like fun and more like pop homework. This seems to be coming from a slightly more relaxed place, even though it has clearly still been made by a workaholic who can’t switch off.

The clues are there for all to see. The way Brandon starts to paint a familiar picture – widescreen pop with a cavernous boom, basically – and then throws in something unexpected and charming: just as soon as that chest-beating macho chorus kicks off, for example, he slips sideways into a cute, wispy falsetto. One minute addressing a nameless “we” with fire and brimstone, as if he’s preaching to a huge crowd, the next quietly imploring a special someone to lay their body down, in a sexy squeak.

Even the fact that it begins like a Killers Christmas song – often the loosest and most spontaneous-sounding of their musical output – is a sign. I’m not saying he couldn’t have done this with the band, but maybe part of the slight loosening of the Flowers necktie has come from not HAVING to make it work as a Killers record: not having to ensure it keeps the band in business.

On the other hand, maybe he just caught up with his sleep and wanted to bash out a few pop songs for a laugh.

Download: August 30th

www.brandonflowersmusic.com
BBC Music page

(Fraser McAlpine)

Spin Or Bin Music says: “He has finally found his voice which in return makes his songwriting more original and entertaining to listen to.”

The Skinny says: “It should come as no surprise that ‘Crossfire’ closely mimics the clean-cut stadia-rock of The Killers’ recent output.”

Muu Muse says: “There is also talk of devils and fire, and who doesn’t like religious imagery in their songs these days?”

View full post on BBC – Chart blog

Oh interesting! The last time Kanye worked up a beat which was so heavily reliant on noises which can be made by the human body – voices and handclaps – was ‘Jesus Walks’. All the voices were male, and the song was about surrendering yourself to a higher power. It was expressed in quite firm, almost brutal terms, and framed within the argument that Kanye himself had to battle in order to express devotion to his deity within the strictly secular world of bad boy hip hop. And it was delivered with fire and passion and impeccable logic.

It is also, to a lot of people, the best thing he ever did.

This time, the chanting voices are all girls, and the the higher power seems to be Kanye himself. All humility has been surrendered in order to settle some scores, to redress the balance back in his favour, to put to rest the idea that he’s gone a bit too far in recent times – the vocoder album, the awards ceremonies. But in order to do it he has had to go back and remind people that this is what they liked about him in the first place, so you could call it a return to his older ideas, or even a retreat.

21st century schizoid man indeed…

(Here’s some of the video. It’s heavenly.)

Speaking of which, you’ve got to hand it to the man for whacking a sample of a song by King Crimson (ask your tie-dye clad grandad) into the mix. Especially as he’s left in that first guitar “DAAAANG!” after the drum fill, and then scratched it out, like it was super-old school LL Cool J or something. That makes this less a song and more a stone skimmed across the surface of over 40 years of popular culture: sixties, eighties, naughties and now tenties.

Of course, that’s the whole idea. Kanye seems keen to prove not only that he is BACK, but that he is still, in some way, exactly what the world has been waiting for. The real talent in getting an idea like this across lies in convincing your audience without reducing them to helpless giggles. That’s where the gravitas comes in. Everything has to be very serious, very strident, from the first po-faced chants to the little suicide/martyrdom fantasy at the end.

There’s a comparison to be made with Eminem, whose strongest work is often when he’s pointing out his worst flaws. Kanye, by comparison, thrives on dramatising his astonishing brilliance to such a degree it feels like a military invasion. For all that ’808s and Heartbreak’ threw that chippy shell to one side for a bit and exposed a fragile underbelly, it’s this martial certainty, this deep-rooted assurance that he is right and the world needs to catch up, that carries Kanye along.

He’s overcompensating, of course. No-one believed he was anything more than a good producer to start with, y’see. Bound to leave a chip on the shoulder. But still, as long as he has himself on his side, there’s not a lot anyone can do to stop him.

Download: 6th September

www.kanyeuniversecity.com
BBC Music page

(Fraser McAlpine)

Helium says: “Judging from the fan response to ‘Power,’ very few are concerned about the potentially harmful messages that are included in the song.”

We Rate Stuff says: “Kanye gets good and creative on this one, varying up his methods and rhythm as often as he feels like it.”

Rawkblog says: “If Yeezy was cowed at all after the Taylor Swift incident, he doesn’t show it here.”

View full post on BBC – Chart blog

When I was a child, we didn’t always have a lot of biscuits or chocolate in the house. There wasn’t a total ban on biscuits or chocolate, but sometimes there weren’t any, and sometimes there were. I don’t recall feeling an absence of biscuits or chocolate in my life, nor do I recall feeling taking them for granted, or that I had a right to expect biscuits or chocolate whenever the urge took me.

As such, I tend to think I’ve a fairly healthy relationship with biscuits and chocolate. I don’t feel the need to tell everyone that I like to eat biscuits, or put pictures of myself tucking into a box of chocolates as if to say “SEE MUM? I’m FULLY GROWN NOW AND CAN EAT WHAT I DAMN WELL PLEASE!”. In fact, this is probably the first time I’ve mentioned whether or not I even like biscuits or chocolate in a public place, and it’s not as if I haven’t had the opportunity.

Having seen the cover of Katy Perry’s new album, I think it would be fair to assume – even if we didn’t already know – that certain things were kept under such a tight lock and key that she just HAS to show EVERYONE that she is FREE to DO WHAT SHE LIKES NOW.

And no, I don’t mean eat biscuits. Or chocolate.

(Here’s the video. Steady on!)

She does seem to know her way around the topography of the fragile teen heart though. Well, her and Bonnie McKee, who co-wrote the song. Those bubbling feelings, trapped under the surface, have clearly been thoroughly raked over, or they wouldn’t be so perfectly recalled. All of that emphasis on trust, on possible regrets, on “just love” comes from someone who remembers what it is really like to worry about making mistakes when you’re only just getting your instincts together.

The verses are all so perfectly in the moment, so well judged, that it’s bound to trigger memories of first love, or even the early days of new love, in anyone that hears it. That giddy mix of desire and uncertainty, dread and excitement.

This is all very useful, because there are other bits which are harder to love. The fact that it’s just a four-chord spiral of a song gets a little wearing towards the end. Katy’s upper-register mooing is still sonically unlovely, and the chorus is a bit of a let down. It’s basically one note, artfully arranged across the same chords, but, and this is crucial, a bit louder than in the verses. This is how you know it’s the chorus.

That’s it for the bad news though. In every other respect this is going to be huge and it deserves to be huge.

I’m sure Mr and Mrs Perry will be very proud (once they’ve stopped blushing furiously and wondering what they did wrong).

Download: Out now

www.katyperry.com
BBC Music page

(Fraser McAlpine)

Neon Limelight says: “Because the entire video has a vintage-y look, the scene just seems like gratuitous flaunting of Josh Kloss’ sweaty hotness.”

The Reflective Inklings says: “People, you have to understand that ‘Teenage Dream’ is miles ahead than ‘California Gurls’ in terms of overall quality and polish.”

The Chemistry Is Dead says: “Teenage Dream is a total Dr Luke/Max Martin affair and even though she sings as though there’s a BIG. FULL. STOP. AFTER. EVERY. SYLL.A.BLE. like Ca.li.for.nia Girls before it this is a sweet song.”

View full post on BBC – Chart blog

It’s always a good sign when you resent having to turn a song off in order to write about how brilliant it is.

Frankly there’s a whole ocean of enjoyment still to be wrung out of ‘Upside’ and I’m keen to get started. So I’m going to have to keep this brief. C’mon, read faster!

Let’s just assume I’ve said something sharp and daft here about the grammar in the chorus, and how leaving the line “you don’t know which way is upside” unfinished until the final chorus is just begging all the would-be Lynne Trusses on any dancefloor to shout “DOWN!” every time that line comes around.

And let’s assume I’d have then gone on to conjure up some scenario at the annual Christmas party of the ‘Grammar Is One National Greatness Mankind Always Destroys’ club (blah blah acronym blah), where they only play songs which are grammatically correct – with the result that it’s a really, really short Christmas party.

Haha…yes…a crazy scenario indeed…HURRY UP!

(Here’s the video. Boxing for him. Bedroom for her.)

And then here’s where we get a chance to talk about the music. About how rude and lumpy the brassy background sounds after what feels like YEARS of saturated synths and cold, cold dance-hop. But, even though Mark Ronson has forsake the funk for, well, the other funk, it’s songs like this that prove why bringing trumpets back was such a good idea in the first place.

Speaking of cold…Michelle Breeze’s drop-choruses…those gorgeous, sobbing choruses, act like an ice-bath next to the sweaty heat of the verses. She reclines on a bed of frozen strings, far into an icy ocean, calling out for rescue and quietly falling apart.

Meanwhile Kano is all brutal strength and frustration. He’s clearly as keyed up as she is, but rails against it, punchily. He’s the angry man at the bus stop who hasn’t got time to give you the time because can’t believe how late he already is, and how much work he’s going to have to do to catch up. Is this what he pays his taxes for? What is the world coming to?

Although he does express it in a much cooler way than I have, with that densely-structured flow of his.

Whacking the two extremes into one song is a brilliant, brilliant thing, because it makes the sad bits sadder and the funky bits funkier. And they’re already as sad and as funky as you’d normally need. It’s called juxtaposition and it’s been done perfectly.

NOW, have you got all the information you need? I could tell you Michelle’s in a band called Why Why Peaches or that ‘Upside’ was produced by Craigie Dodds, but I really need to get on, so maybe you could just find these things out for yourself for once, yeah?

OK, thank you, much obliged. Gotta go!

Download: 23rd August

www.ka-no.com
BBC Music page

(Fraser McAlpine)

The Couch Sessions says: “The sad thing is that the cats in the UK have been consistently pushing the envelope for the past two decades, creating some of the most imaginative sounds most US rap fans would kill over.”

Mind Of Grime says: “The bars are lacking and it just doesnt do it for me.”

The Lala Report says: “Really love Kano’s lyrical flow.”

View full post on BBC – Chart blog

Now some of the fuss around ‘Candy’ has died down, and Mr Santos has packed away his celebrity guest, it’s time to take a step back and have a think about what kind of artiste this young fella is turning out to be. Is he a new Jay-Z? Could be straddle the pop world like a colossus? In years to come, will this come to be looked up as the moment when we all realised that someone special and astonishing had arrived in our midst, and therefore we should all give thanks?

Maybe if we take both of his songs side by side, we can get some understanding of what he is about, his likes and dislikes, his special skills etc. We already know he can speak more than one language, for example.

After some close examination, I can reveal that he’s clearly very interested in girls, and not so bothered about things which are not girls – apart from his website, and Facebook, and raving, and drinking and having a good time. Other than that it is mainly girls. He especially likes girls who dress stylish, and people who are nice to the Irish (note: must check lyrics).

Yep. He’s turning into the very thing the world needs most – Pitbull Junior.

(Here’s the video. It’s got girls in it.)

This is, of course, wonderful news for everyone, especially as Pitbull is clearly quite so choosy about which projects he will lend his support to. It’s not like he will just appear on any old nonsense just to get his name and his face and his thoughts out to anyone who will listen, is it?

Help is at hand though. Whoever decided to resurrect the breakbeat spirit of early ’90s rave music deserves a hearty handshake, and the chorus is a nice mix of sung and sampled voices, just like Black Box used to do it back in the day. And it would be untrue to say that Aggro’s song works best when he doesn’t appear in it, so in that respect, he still has some way to go to beat his mentor.

Plus he’s actually quite good at the rapping, especially when he throws a bit of UK slang into the mix. Granted, he’s no Lupe Fiasco when it comes to actually finding something to rap about, but we can’t all be intellectuals. SOMEONE’S got to talk about the girls, or, like that tree in the forest, there’s a chance they may cease to exist. And that would be bad.

Or Pitbull would have to do it, and that would be worse.

Download: Out now

www.aggrosantos.com
BBC Music page

(Fraser McAlpine)

Kat Stevens at The Singles Jukebox says: “I have now visited aggrosantos.com, and was not impressed at the auto-starting embedded video player, with a broken pause button so I couldn’t shut the bloody thing off. Also the XHTML does not validate to W3C standards – there are countless unclosed tags, missing ‘alt’ attributes for images, absolutely shocking..”

View full post on BBC – Chart blog