Nicola Roberts - Lucky Day / Rhythm Is A Dancer [Mash-Up]

What could be even better than Nicola Roberts' stunning dream-pop single Lucky Day? How about a remixed, mash-up version courtesy of production supremos Thriller Jill (let's not forget they delivered that jaw-droppingly amazing version of Girls Aloud's Love Is The Key).

When it comes to a good mash-up, there's certain tracks you just can't go wrong with, and one of those is Snap!'s 90s classic Rhythm Is A Dancer. Even now, nearly two decades after its original release, if the track drops on a dancefloor, people will go absolutely mental for it. Guaranteed.

So, paired up with Nicola's Lucky Day, we have a new, pumped up version of the track - all bonkers 90s synths and the kind of perfect chorus us long-time Nicola fans always dreamed of her conjuring up.

Pop lovers, get your dancing shoes on - this is a good one.

Listen to the Lucky Day / Rhythm Is A Dancer mash-up HERE.

Charity shop time machine to the past...

I'm a regular visitor to my two local charity shops, which, rather conveniently, are located about 50 metres apart from each-other on the high-street. I'm not sure what the staff think of me, spending ages carefully checking through every single CD in the rack, but over the past two or three years I've been going to them, I've uncovered some long-since deleted singles and bargain-price albums from my favourite artists - in the process saving me an absolute fortune in having to buy them from Ebay.

My latest purchases were:

Depeche Mode - Ultra
New Order - The Best Of
The Stone Roses - Second Coming
Now That's What I Call Music 37

The first three are all some of my favourite bands of all time. And finding these albums at two quid a go, I just had to have them. Sure, I already have the tracks on my iTunes (and in the case of Ultra, a re-released deluxe edition), but there's something inherently beautiful about purchasing the originals. In their slightly scuffed cases and with the little price-tag sticker on them, they are so much a part of the 90s - the era seems to seep out of the very CDs themselves. Buying them in this way, you are getting more than just the music - here you have a little time-capsule, a link back to the past, a window into the world in which these albums first appeared.

Jessie J - Abracadabra

If any of the tracks on Jessie J's debut album Who You Are stand out the most, it is this one. I love the chilled 90s R&B vibe to the whole thing. It's classy, well produced and shows Jessie's vocals and songwriting talent at its best. Remembering that Jessie co-wrote Miley Cyrus's Party in the USA, it is Abracadabra that sounds most similar out of her solo material, the chorus in particular sharing that vibe of sun-kissed bliss and youthful energy. It's a big feel-good anthem and would make a great future single.

Take That - Kidz

Ever since Take That 'returned', I've been longing for them to return to the sound of their dance-pop roots; the music that made them such a big success in the early 90s. And with Kidz, the second single from their Progress album, they finally do.

Except, now they're even better than before. Gone are the acid-house piano riffs and drum machine, replaced by a hard industrial beat, crunching guitar power chords and buzz-saw synths. It's almost Nine Inch Nails.

It's also a brilliant chance for Mark Owen to shine. I've always been a fan of Mark's vocals and their David Bowie-esque lilt (his solo track Four Minute Warning is a much over-looked pop gem of a song). Kidz, with its minimal, stark verses and crystaline, epic choruses really is a 'progress' for the band - their big, Barlow-penned soft-rock ballads are all very well and good, in many cases even amazing - but this is a new side of Take That. It's fun, risque, daring and above all, very exciting.

Kidz is released 21st February.