How do you solve a problem like Leona?

Well, if you’re Syco you make her release a hastily cobbled together covers EP. This weekend it was announced that I Got You hitmaker and all round global singing sensation Leona Lewis will release a new EP next Sunday, the same day she performs on the fourteen hour long X Factor final. This should have been the pinnacle of a great second half of 2011 for Leona, her third album riding high in the charts off the back of a moody yet amazing goth-pop tinged ballad. Instead, the third album is now due out in either March or May 2012 and the second single - that a few people had heard and loved - is now on hold. One imagines that a lot of the material due to be on this third album, Glassheart, has now been put on hold, specifically the stuff that saw her trying to expand on her sound, i.e. anything faster than 120 bpm. Following the relative failure of Collide and the whole Aviici-gave-me-the-song-oh-actually-he-didn’t court case debacle, Syco have obviously panicked and gone back down the make-the-song-your-own route. Of course Leona’s pretty good at that, but is that enough in 2011/2012? Should a woman whose first single was Bleeding Love still be churning out covers? In fact, should a woman whose first single was number 1 in nearly every country on the planet and whose debut album has sold close to 10 millions copies be shuffling around a horse sanctuary in Essex on a bill that also features Stavros Flatley? Should someone who was once referred to as the next Whitney Houston perhaps be a bit more selective with the things she gets up to? As much as we all love Natasha Begingfield, duetting with her and that bloke off Glee to help save some horses is just not the best look for someone who wants to be a megastar. Mind you, perhaps that’s not on her agenda. We’d have a better idea if she were perhaps able to express some of her thoughts and opinions in a way that isn’t “it’s amazing” or “I’m so happy to be here”. Leona just isn’t an interesting popstar, which means that the music she makes has to be so much bigger than she is. Bleeding Love is one of the best singles of the last twenty years and she has so much to do with it being that amazing, it’s just that when the songs sneak below ‘very good’ there’s not enough there to lift it. 

Anyway, the covers. It’s clever and cynical from Syco. By giving contestants on The X Factor Run to sing in whichever year it was, we were primed for her cover which then propelled Spirit back to the number 1 slot across Europe (America had kind of given up by this point). Then before Echo came out I suddenly noticed a lot of contestants singing Oasis’ Stop Crying Your Heart Out and lo and behold there she is covering it on the show (the ploy was less successful to be honest). Now, in 2011, it feels that the sudden success of Goo Goo Dolls’ Iris (which has already been propelled back into the charts thanks to numerous contestants warbling all over it) has moved Syco to think “right Leona, that whole Collide shit didn’t work so you can cover this song on the night, we’ll swamp you in dry ice, show a montage of the contestants’ journeys and job’s a good ‘un”. Fine for the ratings and it will no doubt sound lovely, but where does it leave Leona? It leaves Leona tethered to a show that she should have left behind by now. Three albums in and she’s still their own version of Susan Boyle and that’s not helping anyone to be honest. 

Tags: Leona Lewis

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Blimey. I haven’t written anything on here for such a long time. Apologies.

I felt propelled to write a little something something about this here song by the excellent Ruby Goe, not least because it mentions the 149 bus, which, as anyone who lives in North-east London or has ever had to get from London Bridge to the Shoreditch area of a night time will testify, is quite the experience. I tweeted Ruby to confirm it was the bus route she was referring to and she confirmed it all, summing up the 149 thusly; “Its the unpredictable kingsland road sat4am armageddonesque shitfest i have trouble with.” Amazing. 

No, but seriously, Get On It is amazing, all chunky, clattering beats and shedloads of personality. Like all good pop, it’s a little bit racy, a little bit sassy (“he gonna leave me walking like Bambi” isn’t just a cute Disney reference) and manages to contain all the excitement of one of those blog-friendly pop rackets without forsaking an actual tune. 

You can hear some more songs here.

Tags: Ruby Goe

brilliantlydifferent:

‘Compass Points’ is the first single to be taken from the forthcoming album by Nazca Lines. A beautiful electronic ode to dislocation. Produced by Lo Recording’s own Charlie Alex March and mixed by Ash Workman (Simian Mobile Disco, Metronomy, etc) the single is an ideal entry point into the world of Nazca Lines, a world where crisp R ‘n’ B beats merge seamlessly with pop melodies.

In some way a more succinct version of Junior Boys’ 21st Century soul and sharing their love of 80s Scritti Politti, place ‘Compass Points’ in your BMW Z4 before coasting into the evening desert.

We met Charlie Alex March a brilliant young producer who released an under appreciated album on Lo Recordings in 2009 over a year ago. A few months later we ran into him again and he mentioned he was working on an album by Michael Lovett ”It’s POP’ he said. Fast forward 6 months and Michael got in contact with his us and so did Lo Recordings (who are also releasing this) and today we see the first fruits, the brilliant ‘Compass Lines’. It is pop, but it’s different and it’s fantastic. The PR touches on it’s influences very well, that there you can read below. Thank you to the Guardian for writing about the video today.

The first single to be taken from the forthcoming album, also called Nazca Lines, is testament to that with Lovett’s voice layered to create a dense sound that sucks you in further on each listen. Beneath the vocals is a joyously 80s electro-pop melange of pogoing beats, synchopated hiccups and weird synth sounds that seem to engulf and then snap shut in an instant Thank you Michael at The Guardian.

(Source: oohbrilliant)

While doing some research stuff for work I watched the Spice Girls ‘Stop’ video. The song is amazing but what’s more amazing is the fact that Victoria points NINE times in less than twenty seconds (from 44 seconds in). NINE TIMES. It’s ludicrous. Fair enough, she’s not a confident singer, her dancing is perhaps a little stilted, but it’s some kind of physical tourettes to just point randomly. Yes yes, it was ‘her thing’, but Mel C’s ‘thing’ was back flips and you don’t see her doing them every other second (as an aside, if Geri’s thing was ‘being a bit of a nightmare’ then she does that throughout).

This is kind of incredible.

Lana Del Rey is actually New York resident, Lizzy Grant and ‘Video Games’ is her first single, due out in October. It’s basically just some harp, piano and the odd disjointed sound effect but the results are strangely mesmeric. Her voice has a weird detached quality to it, so that when she sings the (clearly amazing) line ”I heard that you liked the bad girls/ Honey, is that true?” it’s done so with a hint of resignation, like, “of course it’s true, you low life good for nothing scumbag who is more obsessed with Mario Kart then he is by my frankly incredible lips.”

Not everyone’s a fan. Here’s a comment left on YouTube: 

“Typical women and their first world problems.”

Typical.

Tags: Lena Del Rey

I’ve been listening to Aaliyah a lot of late (it’s nearly ten years since she passed away), especially her second album, One In A Million. It features a number of collaborations with Timbaland and Missy Elliott, most notably the brilliant ‘4 Page Letter’. It’s got that loping, laidback beat that defined mid-nineties R&B, Aaliyah sounds perfect and Missy provides some lovely harmonies.

I also like the idea of Aaliyah posting off this letter and thinking “he better get it in time” or else she’ll write a stern letter to the US equivalent of the Royal Mail.

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

disconaivete:

Björk is unleashing her Biophilia upon the world: track by track, app by app. We’ve heard Crystalline and Cosmogony, today we get to hear another new track titled Virus. Biophilia is out September 26; by the sound of the songs we’ve already heard it’s set to be a very fine record.

I didn’t write anything about the passing of Amy Winehouse for two reasons. 1). Tumblr wasn’t working and 2). I didn’t have anything to say. Instead, I downloaded every song of hers I didn’t already own and then listened to them.

Like all amazing singers she was able to inhabit other people’s songs completely and sing them in such a way that you assumed they’d been written for her. This is such a beautiful song, sung with an almost nonchalant ease and the lyrics just seem to resonate more coming from her. 

It should always be the music we remember. 

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

This is amazing.

iamqueenofhearts:

Any of you that have been following me over the last few months will know that I did some work in the studio earlier this summer with the brilliant Monarchy.

I haven’t shared any new music for a while, so thought I’d give you a sneak peek of one of the fruits of our labour - Perfect Mistake. It’s one of my favourite songs that I’ve ever written, and one that I think sits very nicely between the intensity of Freestyle and the wistfulness of Where Are You Now. I hope you enjoy!

The loveliness of this song makes me a bit breathless. 

The app thingy is out today and it’s free to download (the additional songs won’t be free, obvs). There’s going to be a super special deluxe version of the album that only three people can afford and rumours are it includes a customised iPad or something. Ridiculous. 

Tags: Bjork