The Wanted - Chasing The Sun

They've done it again. The Wanted have come up trumps once more, delivering another lad-anthem dance stomper every bit as excellent as Glad You Came - fitting then that new single Chasing The Sun is set to become its follow-up over in the States. We could go into an essay-length discussion of how brilliant it is that the group are doing well in the US, but suffice to say, Chasing The Sun feels like the sound of a band on top of the world - riding high on another classic chanty Wanted riff and a pumping club bassline. There's a sort of smooth, sultry glide to Chasing The Sun that shoots it into new levels of the whole futuro-synth work-out vibe the band really cornered with their second album and frankly we just love the song. It's also, we hear, the song that Example originally wrote for Kylie - and it sounds like it - which makes it all the more amazing. It's essentially, crucially instant in a way The Wanted have always done with such ease, and if we're this excited about it, we're just trying to get our heads around how excited all those American girls must be. Quite a lot, we imagine.

Nerina Pallot - Year Of The Wolf

When looking to the long lost past it's oh so easy to fall into the trap of becoming a cheesy pastiche. But when things go right, the results can sound so thoroughly authentic they could quite easily sit alongside the originals.

And such can be said of Nerina Pallot's fourth album Year Of The Wolf - a dreamy, wonderful record that mines deep into the sounds of the 60s and 70s. And the real joy is that it works so well because it manages to keep that air of authenticity intact while underpinning it with all the contemporary pop production you'd expect from a songwriter of Pallot's calibre.

Put Your Hands Up is an inspired opener to the record, and quite simply one of the best pop tracks of the year. Here, as with the majority of the songs on the album, Nerina's vocals remain the focal point - in this instance starting off sultry and hushed, but transforming in an instant into a powerhouse Dionne Warwick-esque performance. Put Your Hands Up revolves in such an inherent sense of soulfulness that you can't help but feel head over heels in love with its chorus.

Buzzing with producer Bernard Butler's guitars (him of Suede and Duffy fame), the track brings to mind the timeless charms of the Rolling Stones' Satisfaction, but here dolled up with Pallot's charm - pushing every bit of the unadulterated joy the song's title reflects.

Those punches of guitar are something of a recurring theme on Year Of The Wolf, and while the album always feels effortlessly cool and chilled-out, it still manages to find time to let loose in moments like these. Perhaps it's testament to Nerina lending her songwriting talents to a certain Kylie Minogue recently (she co-wrote Better Than Today and Aphrodite from the Australian songstress's most recent album), but there's a distinct bouncy happiness stamped across the album's upbeat tracks, and the record is all the better for it. This is a fun record, and never is that emphasised more than on the ELO styled I Think, a personal favourite of mine.

One word to sum up the album? Rich. And not just Nerina's honeyed vocals, but also the swirling, chocolatey depths of the tracks themselves. Whether its the reverb-heavy guitar of If I Lost You Now, which shimmers like a Tarantino movie soundtrack - or the delicate harp outro of All Bets Are Off - the album never ceases to surprise with its intricacy.

I'm reminded of *those* supermarket adverts, you know the ones... You see, this isn't just a good album, but it's a good Nerina Pallot album - and that's something that lifts it to another level of greatness.

In a year where female singer-songwriters have been ten-a-penny, Nerina more than holds her own. Songs like This Will Be Our Year or Will You Still Love Me are the kind of track that could easily appear on an Adele album; but where Adele is all about forceful and brazen passion in her delivery, Nerina affects her songs with a far more delicate tint. There's a cute almost-shyness to the album which serves to give it so much more tenderness.

Another personal highlight of mine is Butterfly, the album's most guitar-orientated track. With a melody that recalls David Bowie's Heroes, it conjures up images of endless American highways that stretch away across the plains. Here, like so many tracks on Year Of The Wolf, Nerina's personality shines through so well - something that so many singers, no matter how technically accomplished they might be, struggle with.

This album sees Pallot re-signing with a major label, and with Put Your Hands Up already becoming a sizeable airplay hit, Year Of The Wolf deserves every bit of the critical acclaim it has already received. Go out and buy it - because overlooking such a pop gem as this would be quite frankly criminal.

Year Of The Wolf is available to download now.

Katy B - Easy Please Me

In my review of Katy B's album last week I picked out Easy Please Me as one of the definite highlights of the record. In many ways, its style isn't really that representative of the album as a whole, it's one of the most up-tempo tracks on there, a far cry from the more chilled, laid-back electronica that suffuses so much of it.

The track sees Katy in full-on pop mode, all the sultriness and airy-superiority that made Broken Record and Lights On so good is here in copious amounts. As Katy herself sings, 'one thing I love is confidence', and she has buckets of it herself. Easy Please Me is a real man-eating tale of independence - Katy won't be won over by the first guy to buy her a drink, nope, she sets her standards far higher than that.

In the tinny synths and hushed backing vocals, we have a track that stands on its own two feet; propped up by the sheer attitude and effervescence of Katy's voice. She's in command here, and doesn't let you forget it.

And yes, it does definitely sound like Kylie's Red Blooded Woman.

Easy Please Me is released on 5th June.

Katy B - Easy Please Me by Uwe Uzi

Katy B - On A Mission

On A Mission is fundamentally a pop record at heart, but it's testament to Katy B's talent and ingenuity that her debut LP feels just at home on the dancefloor. It manages to span that treacherous borderline between the two, doing so in a manner that is bursting with inventive melody and songwriting verve.

The real wonder is that while this album already contains four hit singles, it feels like you could easily squeeze another three or four from it - the tracks are of such a good quality. Consistency is the name of the game here and katy knows it - there's an amazing confidence to her that buzzes around, transfusing through into you - you want to leap up and join her on the dancefloor too, 'sinking into the tune' as she sings on Katy On A Mission.

Meanwhile, Witches Brew sees the album at its most poppy with its refrain of 'come with me, I'll make you feel so good'. Empowered and forceful it blasts away any negativity and melancholy, replacing it with that singular bliss that falls over you when you're in that perfect moment of enjoying all the Good Times life has to offer. It is captured again in the relentless, pulsing buzz of Broken Record with its enchanting, hypnotic stream of layered vocals.

Easy Please Me is set to become the next single - and the track reminds me of Kylie Minogue's brief dabble into R&B; Red Blooded Woman. With an insanely catchy hook, it's this track perhaps that catches the power of Katy's vocals at their best; especially in the ad-libs in the last minute of the song.

We feel as if with each song we explore a different night out in Katy's company, a different aspect of her life. And with every chorus, every verse, we feel as if we're sharing in that story, adding it into our own lives and relating to what she tells us. For the duration of the album, she is our trusted confidant, our close friend.
You have to marvel at the sheer intricacy off the beats on offer - synths collide and fizz in the background - a hot bed of almost electric intensity that Katy wraps around her finger and directs at the listener. Her vocals are subtle, hushed, sultry - yet what really makes this album come into its own is the sheer force of personality that comes across, all wrapped up in her incredibly soulful voice.

The album comes to a chilled end with the jazzy keyboard riffs of Hard To Get, the song featuring a touching outro where Katy thanks all the people that helped contribute to the record. It could come across as cheesy, but here you feel Katy's earned the right to indulge - she has just treated us to one hell of an amazing album after all. This is summer music through and through; dripping with the radiance, jabs of brass injecting the track with a real vitality. So often albums fall flat by their end, the final track being a throwaway cut tacked on at the end - but Hard To Get ranks up there with the best of the album, a fitting finale to a stunning  record.

On A Mission is available to download from iTunes now.

Kylie Minogue - Aphrodite 2011 Tour EP

How exciting! Looks like everyone's favourite pop princess Kylie Minogue is going to be releasing a special digital EP to commemorate her stunning Aphrodite tour. Available from the 3rd May, the tracklisting is as follows:

1. Can't Get You Out Of My Head (BBC Live Lounge Version)
2. All The Lovers (BBC Live Lounge Verison)
3. Get Outta My Way (BBC Live Lounge Version)
4. Better Than Today (Live In New York October 2009)
5. Confide In Me (Live In New York October 2009)
6. Short film chronicling 'a day in the life' of Kylie on the road
7. 6-page PDF booklet featuring original Dolce & Gabbana tour wardrobe sketches

The Facebook page announcing the release also hints at a forthcoming digital release of extra Put Your Hands Up remixes!

Vanbot - Vanbot

First, to get the obvious out of the way. Vanbot sounds like Robyn. A lot like Robyn. The similarity throws you for six when you first listen to her self titled debut album, but as you let it grow with you, the individuality works itself out and you realise her voice is actually sugared with a distinctiveness of its own. There's definitely more than a little of Kylie's sweetness to it, especially on the ballad Bad Day. An emotional tale of the pains of relationships, lines like 'the worst thing is that you don't miss me' cut straight to the heart. On an album that sounds as metallic and electronic as Vanbot's does, you might think emotions would be hard to portray with such intensity, but songs like Bad Day highlight just how it can be done, and with real power too.

It's hard to decide whether the album as a whole works more on a subtle level or as an all out pop record - it's a quality bands like a-ha made a career out of; radio-friendly pop hooks welded onto records of swirling, smoke-like natural wonder. For certain, on tracks like the single Make Me, Break Me, it errs straight into that all out pop camp. With its big, bold keyboard riffs, bubbling synth line and a chorus that soars the highest heights in terms of pop amazingness, it's a pure winner. The other single, Lost Without You follows in a similar vein, but here shapes itself around a snake-like, hypnotic mystical quality. If any of the tracks were exceptionally Robyn-esque, it's this one.

And when Vanbot wants to be, she can throw you hurtling onto the dancefloor too. Take album opener Ringing; as it plunges into the chorus the beats collide in a spectacular crash of kinetic energy. This is every inch the floorfiller, and there is an inherent groove to every track on the album; it creeps into your limbs, your whole body even - twitching away. And then there's the magestic, epic ambience of Bitter Is The Sweetest Part - this is the moment of the dancefloor caught in a second of endless frozen power.

The album drips in sonic references to New Order too, especially on Tired and Safe By The Numbers, the two tracks coming as a wonderful finale towards the albm's end. Like a lost treasure from New Order's Technique album, Tired sparks and bounds with synthetic energy. Part of the charm of Vanbot is just how many textures she works out from her sound, every track feels embued with some different essence. Icy, crystaline bells ring out in the final minute, an ecstacy of sheer beauty - the culmination of everything this album seeks to create.

Meanwhile, Safe By The Numbers melds that fragility with a surging, wavelike compressed guitar riff that picks you up in its intensity like a surfer caught adrift in a vast expanse of formless water. You're carried higher and higher on a wall of feeling and musical intensity. It's magic caught in a bottle of delicately carved glass, a slash of diamond glitter across a frozen lake. And as the album comes to a close and you rush to play it again, to emmerse yourself in it once more, you realise Vanbot has captured something completely and utterly beautiful here.

Vanbot is available to download on iTunes now.

The Ultra Girls head up north & booty-shake to Nicki Minaj

This week sees the amazing Ultra Girls following up their stunning support slot for Kylie Minogue with the release of their infectious debut single Girls Will Be Girls. Seeing it in a live setting at London's O2 Arena, it sounded even more epic - the girls also took the opportunity to showcase some of their other tracks including Birds and the Bees, Gonna Stay, IOU for Love as well as their inspired Blur/P!nk UltraMashUp.

Next week the girls will be heading up north to Preston's 'Lava Ignite' and Newcastle's 'Liquid' for a couple of under-18s club shows.

They also feature in today's Daily Star Playlist feature where they talk about their backstage antics while on tour with Kylie.

Laura reveals: "It could have been embarrassing if Kylie had caught us listening to her tunes so we had booty-shaking competitions to Nicki Minaj. We really enjoyed Kylie’s show."

Properly amazing.

The Ultra Girls debut single Girls Will Be Girls is out to download on iTunes now.

Is Kylie being lined up for the BBC's 'Who Do You Think You Are'?

I read a very intriguing story in the Metro this morning regarding producers of ancestry/family tree show Who Do You Think You Are? looking to sign up Kylie Minogue for the next series of the show. Let's just stop and think about that for a second. Actual Kylie Minogue.

I'm a massive fan of this show in its own right and have been watching it for years. It always manages to be utterly absorbing, interesting and factual - I'll be hooked, even when the featured celeb isn't one I particularly care for.

I reckon Kylie would be the perfect choice for something like this and I'm sure there'd be a whole host of fascinating stuff for her to uncover. So fingers crossed she does end up doing it! I'm almost as excited as when it was announced she was doing Doctor Who!

Kylie Minogue - Live at the O2 Arena, 9th April 2011

Kylie Minogue will always hold a special place in my heart. Growing up, her music represented a soundtrack to countless memories and emotions; and looking back now, there is a song for every occasion. Aphrodite was one of my favourite albums of last year; All The Lovers confirming her place as one of the most inspiring and magical artists in pop. And for that to stand true over twenty years since her first single was released makes the matter all the more impressive.

With an artist like Kylie, the fact that she blows pretty much every other live concert out of the window goes without saying, leaving the most logical comparisons being with her previous tours. The thing that struck me most was the more naturalistic feel of Les Folies compared to X2008 and Showgirl Homecoming. It might seem a strange thing to say considering the pure opulence of set design and costumes on offer, yet the observation comes less from what Les Folies contained, but more about what its predeccesors did.

Showgirl Homecoming was the big comeback gig (and in my opinion, still the best Kylie gig to date, in many respects due to its virtue as a 'greatest hits' tour, something 'album tours' can find hard to compete with). Then came X2008, Kylie proving herself in a new, rapidly changing age of pop music as well as serving to help boost the relatively low sales of the X album and its singles. These concerts were so immensely extravagent and often futuristic, a physical push to knock the critics back in their track and to say with complete confidence that Kylie was here to stay. But now, with Les Folies tour and the Aphrodite album, Kylie has assured her place in pop for all eternity.

She has finally truly achieved that which she seemed on the cusp of for so long; untouchable national treasure. Thus, she no longer needs to prove herself to her critics; giving her unparraleled freedom to do what she wants with her music and tour. And that freedom really shows. In her performances Kylie is impeccably cheery, radiant and upbeat. And it transmits through to the audience too - they're all up on their feet partying away, clapping along - having the time of their lives. Tonight, Kylie is the friend of each and every person here - those who hold so much adoration for her and her music. Les Folies is a celebration of that adoration.

The songs felt brisk, muscular; as if they'd all been given an extra spring in their step. The costumes and dancing became an integral part of every track. Kylie riding on a winged dancer above the audience while singing a cover of the Eurythmics There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart) was a physical embodiment of this - the unity between Kylie, the design of the show, and the songs all combined effortlessly into one.

I must admit, I was surprised at how Aphrodite-heavy the gig was in terms of the number of tracks from the album. Obviously, as a tour in support of the record, some of these songs were to be expected, but that also means less space for the singles. And when you have as many singles as Kylie, it's impossibly difficult to choose which ones to include - everyone has their favourites. But equally, there are those classics that are everyone's favourites. Better The Devil You Know and an inspired rock version of Can't Get You Out Of My Head are met with immense cheers.

It was the less obvious song choices that were the most moving though - as I mentioned above, with the new freedom Kylie seemed to convey herself with, the concert is opened up to incorporate tracks like Confide In Me (a personal favourite of mine and re-done here in a fantastic dance mix) and If You Don't Love Me. A cover of the Prefab Sprout song and originally serving as Confide In Me's b-side back in 1994, it was a pure delight to see the song resurrected like this. Delivered as an incredibly touching, stripped back piano ballad, it stood as a defiant testament to anyone who still tries to criticise Kylie's vocals. Here, she was flawless, hitting every high note in a performance that was truly angelic.

In terms of pure visual spectacle, the finale must be mentioned, for it is this that stays with me as the pinnacle of the gig; the memory that will stay with me for years to come. Actual water fountains appeared on stage, shooting over ten feet into the air. They then proceeded to flick out into the specially designated 'splash zone', the audience members located there quickly donning blue ponchos to protect their clothes. That in its own right would be more than impressive, but Kylie is always one to go the extra mile. The fountains flashed through a rainbow spectrum of colours as she walked out to the end of the catwalk which had now transformed into a swimming pool. Dancers climbed into the water around her and all were lifted up on a tiered wedding-cake like construction, resulting in a faithful recreation of the mountain of scantily clad bodies from the All The Lovers video.

The concert also served to envision certain tracks in a new light - In My Arms, third single from the X album campaign, placed directly after Can't Get You Out Of My Head became reinvigorated; feeding off the energy generated by the previous track, and went down exceedingly well. Likewise, an inspired mash-up of Love At First Sight with Can't Beat That Feeling paired old and new Kylie effortlessly. It was great to see SAW number What Do I Gave To Do make an appearance too, a highlight from the brief era of what I like to call 'RaveKylie'. Then there was Slow, which transformed mid-way from a sultry jazz number to all-out club banger.

My overall impression of the gig was of it as a thoroughly professional and incredibly fun exercise in an artist that stands at the very height of popstardom. Kylie really is in a league of her own. She delivers on every single level. In many ways, a Kylie concert is a full-on stage musical - and in that respect you can quite easily see how she's able to sell out date after date of a venue like the O2 Arena. This is an 'event gig', a must see experience. When you to see Kylie, you get more than just music; you get the wonderous staging, the elegance of the immaclately choreographed dancer, but most of all, you get Kylie, the persona - the essence that has won the hearts of millions worldwide.

INTERVIEW - The Ultra Girls

The Ultra Girls are Lauren, Lucy, Amy and Laura – currently supporting Kylie Minogue on tour, they’re bringing their own unique brand of girl power to the world of pop. Their brilliant debut single Girls Will Be Girls is out in April and it comes with an absolutely brilliant airport-inspired video. I caught up with the girls for a quick chat during a break in their hectic rehearsals for the tour.

Hi girls! So, what have you been up to today?

Lauren: Teen press! Going round chatting to loads of people really.

Lucy: We’ve been eating lots of snacks to keep our energy up. We’re really craving a Nando’s though! Maybe one day if we’re very lucky we could get one of those cards that let you get free Nando’s.

I think there are even some celebs who’ve done promotional stunts to get one of those cards...

Amy: We’d do it! Like eat as much Nando’s as possible in a time limit or something like that.

So, you’re supporting Kylie on the UK leg of her Aphrodite Les Folies tour. That must feel pretty good, right?

Lucy: She’s not had a support act in about seven years so it feels amazing to be going on tour with her.

How long is it until the tour starts now?

Lauren: A week!

Laura: We’ve just been rehearsing loads and it really gives you a sense of what it’s going to be like on the night. The whole thing is just feeling more and more real every day. It’s really starting to sink in.

And with all this rehearsing you’re doing at the moment, do you get a real buzz from it?

Lucy: We love it. It’s mental! The thing with rehearsing is that it makes sure you know exactly what you’re doing, and then you feel alright. It really calms your nerves. Every day we just love coming in and doing it. We can’t wait for everyone else to come see us!

So, do you all have a favourite Kylie song then?

Amy: On A Night Like This!

Lauren: I love Red Blooded Woman!

Lucy: That’s where she’s on the truck isn’t it?

Laura: I like the one where she’s walking around in combat trousers and a vest... Love At First Sight!

Lauren: Oooh, and Get Outta My Way as well!

Amy: What I really love is how on the video for Slow where she has all the people lying on towels around her, when they filmed it they had to glue the towels down because they kept slipping.

The video for your single Girls Will Be Girls is set at an airport... but it wasn’t a real airport that you filmed in though, was it?

Lucy: Nope, it wasn’t actually filmed at one. The one in our video would make a great airport though! It’s so colourful! We were thinking about going to Leeds & Bradford Airport to do it but then we thought let’s just get them to design it all on the computer.

And in the video each of you has a certain job that you’re acting out...

Amy: They were kind of all jobs that we had previously done in real life. Like I actually used to be a flight check-in girl. So it was kind of nice to revisit that ha!

Lucy: I’ve never really been a cleaner though! But I worked part-time at a hair salon and they made me mop the floor.

You nearly hit someone with your mop in the video.

Lucy: That was one of the most dangerous things we did when we were filming!

Laura, you’re a waitress serving out food - did you eat any of it?

Laura: Yeah, I ate some of the mushy peas. They were really cold though, and they weren’t green!

In the video you do a special ‘Trouble with a capital T’ dance move, will we be seeing that on tour?

Amy: We want it to catch on! We’d love for everyone to join in and do the dance move with us at the live shows. There’s going to be lots of fun stuff on tour, loads of energy and running around on stage. It’s all about getting the audience really hyped up.

And do you like to cause a bit of trouble yourselves?

Laura: You should ask our tour manager that question ha!

Lucy: It’s been a troublesome day, you could say.

Amy: We’ve had four interviews today and we’ve ended up talking about bogies... farts... poo?

Lucy: No, we didn’t talk about poo! Well... I guess we have now! Hahaha!

Laura: Hmm, what else? Twiglits!

Lauren: Boys!

Laura: Mashed potato... burps.

Lucy: We’re very boyish. Very vulgar actually. Vulgar with a capital V!

That’s the next single! Ha! Going back to the video, how did it feel filming something like that for the first time?

Amy: It felt really weird when we first walked out on set. We were just a bit like ‘What do we do? What do we do?!’

Lauren: The guys filming it will say stuff like ‘Quiet please, artist on set’ and you’ll be like ‘Oooh! Is that me?!’

Amy: Everyone was so nice to us which made the whole thing go really easily.

People getting you lots of cups of tea and stuff?

Amy: We got our own ha!

Laura: It was a bit weird doing everything against a green-screen, having to use your imagination to think about what’s there.

And was it a long day?

Lauren: Oh yes! It got to like one in the morning and we hit a wall of tiredness ha!

Lauren, you used to be in a band with Tom from The Wanted or something like that?

Lauren: People keep saying to me ‘You were in a band with him?!’, but we weren’t ha! Basically we both worked for the same company and we performed tributes. So I did the Spice Girls and Girls Aloud and he did Take That. So that’s how we know each-other.

So do you have a favourite Girls Aloud song then?

Lauren: The Show! I love that one.

There’s a brilliant video on your official YouTube page where you’re all in a car dancing away to JLS.

Amy: They put that up without telling us! And we were like... What?!

I take it you like a good party then? How’s the nightlife up in Leeds?

Laura: Yeah! It’s really good!

Lucy: We actually haven’t been out in a while, so we’re overdue a good night out ha!

You guys have done a brilliant mash-up cover of P!nk’s Get The Party Started and Blur’s Song 2. How did that come about?

Laura: We were just throwing ideas around really and it kind of grew out of that. It always amazes me too how even little kids know the Blur song.

So are any of you rock chicks at heart then?

Amy: I love 30 Seconds To Mars! Jared Leto is amazing!

Lucy: Ask her to name three 30 Seconds To Mars songs.

Go on Amy, name me some!

Amy: Hurricane!

Yes! With Kanye West!

Amy: Oooh, I didn’t know there was a version with him on it! I’ve got the six minute long album version on my iPod.

And there’s Kings And Queens...

Amy: Yes! *sings* “We were the kiiingssss and quuueeeensss!”

Lucy: Which is the one where he takes his top off in the video? Ha! Amy loves Jared Leto!

How did you come up with the name ‘The Ultra Girls?

Lauren: Well we were ‘Project A’ when we started out on the X Factor, but that was a bit of a work-in-progress; we weren’t really keen on it. So we were just trying to come up with some stuff and ‘Ultra’ really felt like us being determined to succeed and being fun.

Lucy: We’re also girls who are nice!

Lauren: And we can get away with anything!

A lot of bands live together when they’re first starting out, what about you?

Laura: We’ve had to really! We live out of our suitcases. It was a bit different for us as we’d already known each-other for about five years so it kind of cut out that ‘getting to know the other guys in the band’ phase.

You recently went on a tour round various schools across the UK, how was that?

Amy: It was cool! Really fun to do!

Lauren: The kids loved it!

Lucy: They were very responsive and really got what we were about. Just loving pop music and everything.

They don’t hold back do they?

Laura: They were all getting up and dancing! At one school we had this little boy that sung on his own, bless him.

Lauren: He was so good!

If you search on YouTube there’s a Spanish version of your song Girls Will Be Girls called Soy Como Soy.

Laura: We’ve been trying to sing it... Soy Como Soy!

Lauren: We might learn it at some point haha! Do a little rendition.

In their video they dance around with really not that many clothes on...

Lucy: Ours is the PG rated version!

Amy: Something for a wider audience.

And can you tell us anything about your plans for the rest of the year?

Amy: Well, Girls Will Be Girls comes out in April, then we’ll probably release two or three more singles and then the album will hopefully be out around September.

And what can we expect from the album?

Lucy: It’s a real goody bag of stuff! A variety pack of cereal!

Amy: We’ve got a few ballads on there. Then there’s some really powerful stuff, lots of good strong bass. Stuff that gets you in the mood to go out!

Lauren: We’re hoping to do some CD signings and we’ve got a lot of radio tours lined up too.

Amy: We just did a nice intimate acoustic performance for student TV which was really cool.

Lauren: We can’t wait to get out on the road and meet lots of people on our travels!

Interview originally featured on M Is For Music.

Tatiana - Spider Web

Poland’s Tatiana will be looking to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Esmee Denters as she strikes out from her Euro-success to the UK. Single Spider Web is a classy, sparkling bit of Pixie Lott-esque pop and has been given airplay on Graham Norton’s Radio 2 show. It’s the kind of song that if it was an entry on the Eurovision song-contest, it’d come complete with some assortment of amazing costumes and accompanying dance spectacular. And it’d probably win too – and not because it’s cheesy – but because it’s really, really good.

Tatiana’s vocals play to their more delicate side for most of the song, but there’s a real strength hiding in there too with definite echoes of Anastacia. Her album, also titled Spider Web, sees her tackling a mix of Amy Winehouse style soul and Kylie-lite disco-pop. It’s a frisky little blend and those looking to sample something a little different from your Jessie J’s and Adele’s reigning supreme over the UK charts at the moment would do well to check it out.

Spider Web is released on the 18^th April.

Kylie... but not as you've ever seen her before

This promotional video advertising the new Dance Central game on Xbox is genius. How many of us have watched Kylie Minogue's iconic Can't Get You Out Of My Head video and had its racey white dress and robotic dance moves imprinted on our minds? Now, massive Kylie fan I might be, but I don't think I'd ever go as far as the guy here, who takes it on himself to make his own home-made Kylie outfit and sneak into her dressing room. Cue quite a few chuckles, especially when he takes those gold hot-pants into a launderette.

But it gets even better when Kylie herself appears and is promptly locked up back-stage. I love this whole little send up and it's a great collaboration between the forces of video-gaming and pop music. Now, it's very nearly time for Kylie's UK tour dates and I can't flippin' wait!

Soundgirl - I'm The Fool

I'm The Fool is a relentless, full on energy rush. The debut single from new British girlband trio Soundgirl, it's a feisty, catchy-as-hell pop track with a razor sharp urban edge. There's something of an early Sugababes to the band, they carry that same effortless attitude and swagger. But Soundgirl's sound is distinctly 'now'. Touching on some of the sounds being pushed across the Atlantic by the best in American Hip-Hop and R&B, the mechanical beats and auto-tuned male backing vocals mark I'm The Fool out from the crowd. It's the super-cool kid at school that everyone wanted to know.

Fresh from supporting Pixie Lott on tour, Soundgirl front up that same accessibility that made Miss Lott such a hit. The infectious-ness of tracks like Boys And Girls, it's all present in I'm The Fool too. And you'd expect that too, coming from such songwriting royalty as Miranda Cooper, the woman behind some of the best pop tracks of the last ten years. Kylie's Giving You Up... The Sugababes Red Dress... pretty much the entirety of Girls Aloud's back catalogue... When it comes to pop music, you can't get much better than that. Cooper is the hottest ticket in town when it comes to songwriting and he stamp is all over I'm The Fool, it's one of those songs that make sure you won't forget them; radio-perfect melodies and vocals, but with a real credibility and staying power. Soundgirl represent something new and exciting, and if this is the start, we can't wait to hear what they do next.

I'm The Fool is released 18th April.

The Ultra Girls - Girls Will Be Girls

This is quite literally the coolest thing I've seen all week. There's so much great pop flying around at the moment, and The Ultra Girls more than make their mark with this fizzy, full-of-attitude bit of awesome - debut single Girls Will Be Girls!

For starters, there's so many genius lines in the song, 'Trouble with a capital T'... or maybe 'Dangerously, heartbreaking, recklessly, trash-talking, drama-making...' (my favourite bit in the song!) Then there's slinky Pet Shop Boys-esque synth bassline. It's half Saturdays, half Kylie, just aching to soundtrack a night of glitter and glam on the dancefloor. And I haven't even got started on the video yet...

You really can't go wrong with setting your video at an airport can you? There's so much potential for brilliant outfits and other assorted coolness. Colourful? There's more colours here than you can shake a stick at. Lyric-inspired dance moves? The Ultra Girls have got those too as they throw up some 'T' shapes to that aforementioned 'trouble...' line.

And just when you think it's over, a plane flies through space and The Ultra Girls logo appears. It's pop, on an Ultra scale. Amazing.

Introducing... The Ultra Girls

Supporting Kylie Minogue is a pretty big gig. Her previous KylieX2008 tour didn’t even have a support act. So The Ultra Girls must be feeling amazing right now as they have the exclusive honour of going on tour with Kylie for her Aphrodite Les Folies arena dates.

So who exactly are The Ultra Girls? Well, they’re a trendy looking new four-piece girl group consisting of Lucy, Lauren, Amy and Laura. “We’re young and fun. We want you to dance with us, wear your trackies with us and go crazy,” they say. “It’s not ‘look how sexy we are’ its girls singing about girls lives, not taking it too seriously or being too polished.” Attitude is a key ingredient for girl groups and these girls seem to have it in bucketloads.

One of our favourite things about them is that Lauren used to be in a tribute band with Tom from The Wanted. He’d sing Take That covers and she’d do Girls Aloud tracks. A good taste in great pop songs always wins us over so we’re liking this little factoid a lot. The team surrounding them is amazing too, including music-mastermind Steve Anderson (the man responsible for producing Kylie’s mind-blowingly good Impossible Princess album, which most hardcore Kylie fans agree is her best). There’s also stylist Kenny Ho on hand, who’s an experienced hand when it comes to girl groups, having worked in the past with the Spice Girls and Girls Aloud.

The band have got a couple of free downloads available on their website/Facebook page at the moment, including a genius mash-up of P!nk’s Get The Party Started and Blur’s Brit-pop anthem Song 2. It’s fresh, feisty and full of attitude. Even better is their gorgeous chilled acoustic version of The Wanted’s Lose My Mind; this one lets the girls really show off their vocals and fans of stuff like Pixie Lott’s cover of Use Somebody will love this. The harmonies in the chorus are spot on and remind us of The Saturdays when they were just starting out in 2008. The Sats started out supporting a much-loved pop act too, and now represent one of the biggest and best British acts around, so the future looks very bright for The Ultra Girls. We can’t wait to hear more from them!

Taio Cruz & Kylie Minogue - Higher

Taio Cruz’s ‘Break Your Heart’ was a piece of sheer fantastic pop joy, and although ‘Dynamite’ did eventually come to grow on me, it never sounded anywhere near the level of amazingness of the former track. So ‘Higher’ comes with a massive sigh of relief, it’s Taio Cruz bang on the money, working his songwriting magic into a track that has got Number 1 written all over it.

Now, the song itself is fantastic in its own right, but add in the ever-wonderful pop princess Kylie Minogue and things go off the scale. ‘Higher’ is one of those tracks that is simply SO good. It demands you to listen again, again and again. The chorus is about as infectious as you could possibly create within the realms of natural science. Kylie’s vocals slot in effortlessly next to Taio’s, seeing a cool return to the R&B side of things she dabbled in for her much underated ‘Body Language’ album.

And then we’ve got the brilliant video, which is just as sleek, glossy and cool as the song itself (although it could be argued it is just one massive advert for BMW). Either way, we absolutely LOVE Higher.

Watch the video by clicking here