Pixie Lott's new single Kiss The Stars might not quite match up to her brilliant Tinchy duet Bright Lights (for which the video for debuted only a few days ago), but Kiss The Stars is still one of her better tracks - a proper return to the fun up-tempo stuff we know and love her for.
The video is really something else though - Pixie trying out an assortment of new haircuts as she frollicks through a heavily Tron-inspired CGI space-scape before floating into an outfit that looks like it's come straight from Katy Perry's ET video.
Of course, we're a sucker for anything sci-fi, so the Kiss The Stars video gets a thumbs up from us - well done Pixie!
The videos for collaborations between big-name popstars are always a bit funny, nine times out of ten they'll be a carefully crafted interplay between shots of the two artists - each eager to get as much screen time as possible to 'do their thing'.
Bright Lights is one of these videos - and not just content with shots of Pixie and Tinchy, there's some obligatory product placement for a Nokia phone in there too.
We reviewed the track on the blog last week and basically it's Pixie's best track in ages. With the single version going for a more beat-heavy vibe, it's a step in the right direction to a more mature Pixie Lott for the future.
A simple fact of life. Pixie Lott is hot. So no wonder she's at her best when styled up for a classy mag cover shoot like this new one for Cosmopolitan.
Here she is rocking a super-short haircut which we reckon is a bit Sarah Harding circa five years ago, which is a very good thing indeed. It's her all grown up, the beginnings of the more mature pop artist she's only starting to blossom into.
Now here's something - a Pixie Lott track with real, proper maturity to it. But look who's teaming up with her on the track - Tinchy Stryder. The rapper has been of something of a limbo of late; his latest LP Third Strike was packed with great tracks (in particular the five-minute epic Game Over, featuring a who's who of British rap stars), but commercial success was not to match the critical acclaim.
Instead, the general consensus seems to be that Tinchy has slipped to a lower gear beneath the fresher, newer echelons of UK urban stars: your Tinie Tempahs and Labrinths.
But Bright Lights is exactly the kind of record that highlights why Tinchy remains relevant; if anything, it injects Pixie Lott (who's been dealing with some commercial worries of her own recently) with the kind of purpose and credibility she's been lacking for a long time.
Tuneful piano chords and strings drive a classic Pixie chorus, the kind of indelible melody that ensured that even if you hated the likes of All About Tonight, you eventually succumbed to its impossible charms. Bright Lights feels like an anthem to new horizons, the very best of second chances - and for both these artists, Tinchy and Pixie, it could just be the record to revitalise and refresh.
Now this is more like! After the tired sounding What Do You Take Me For, Pixie returns to her club-smashing best on the strut-and-pump of new single Kiss The Stars.
While the preppy star is still yet to re-scale the heights of her brilliant Boys & Girls, Kiss The Stars is a flirty, spacey number that plays to all of Pixie's best assets. What Do You Take Me For felt overly strained, Pixie caught in a claustrophobic limbo packed in by the pressure to evolve, to grow-up. The public clearly felt the same way too, with the track only managing to limp to Number 10 in the charts.
Of course, what the average pop-fan wants from Pixie is quite different - chiefly, a casual friday-fun dance work-out like Kiss The Stars. You're still young Pixie, enjoy it while you can.
As I discussed in a previous blog entry, when Pixie Lott wants to be really good, she can be so good. But unfortunately, her new single What Do You Take Me For is not one of those moments.
The general feeling is that it's the sound of a popstar running out of steam before they've even really got going - Pixie's debut album was littered with genuine pop gems, but this new single does not sound like the kind of thing she should be pushing as the lead-in single to front a new album.
In this hyper competitive age, it's just not good enough. Pixie casts off the dancing shoes she so eagerly donned on All About Tonight and takes a turn down the R&B route, even including that all time favourite gimmick; the featured rapper. In this instance, Pusha T (he featured on Kanye West's latest album).
What Do You Take Me For sounds dated, like something off Natasha Bedingfield's first album. That might have been all very well and good in 2005, but hearing Pixie's track on the radio now, it feels slow, ungainly.
When I first heard All About Tonight, I was equally unimpressed - although the track did grow on me eventually, albeit only when I heard the gorgeous acoustic version. Maybe that'll be the trick here too?
What Do You Take Me For is released on the 6th November. Pixie's new album Young Foolish Happy can be pre-ordered here.
Pixie Lott, what are we going to do with you, eh? I have to admit, I was hoping for a lott (Ha, ha...) from Pixie's new single; the first from her second album.
Her first record had been jam-packed with a veritable feast of pop treats - radio friendly, cute, and possessed with a sense that this was specifically Pixie's music.
Like the best in teen pop, it's not just about the music, but the whole package - that 'X Factor' Mr. Cowell is always banging on about. And never was this more true than with Pixie Lott - her songs were the very essence of 'her', the breathtakingly pretty girl about town that girls wanted to be and guys wanted to be with.
Records like the sublime Boys And Girls got that balance spot on - but new track All About Tonight goes too far, tumbling away off a cliff of generic-ness.
Taken with its video in too, the whole thing feels overtly glossy - a more global, commercialised Pixie, processed into a tight package of tinny-sounding synths. With massively-blatant Nokia product placements flying in one direction and a dance routine clearly designed to show as much bared-thigh as possible going in the other, there's just too much going on.
For a song that's supposed to be all about the thrills and pleasures of partying it up at night, the track feels remarkably studied. Every part of it seems to have been precisely calibrated to push all the right buttons; but with those component parts pushed together into the finished article, it just doesn't work. Something crucial is missing - the soul.
Radio and TV will doubtless lap All About Tonight up, but for me, everything that made Pixie's debut so great - the fun-loving liveliness and real heart - is gone. And for a girl who 99% of the time can look so effortlessly smoking hot, she doesn't half look like she's just going through the motions here too.
Pixie, we love you - but let's have some real 10/10 stormers on the new album too please?
All About Tonight is released on the 5th September.
Pixie Lott, Holly Willoughby, 'Rochelle from The Saturdays'; all get a cheeky name-check in Tinchy's new track Spaceship. Pop culture references are always a winning point with me and in terms of giving Miss Pixie a mention, this ranks up there with Professor Green's Monster - we assume she's still drinking Lotts of milk...
The first single from his fourth album, Spaceship sees a return to the rougher intensity of Tinchy's early material like Stryderman; somewhat refreshing after the glossyness of tracks like Let It Rain. At any rate, the record is a fitting tribute to the rapper's success, with Dappy from N-Dubz adding a frenetic burst of speed to the song with his lightning-quick raps.
The track feels suitably in line with the sci-fi themes its title invokes, robotic march-like beats banging out a mechanistic, club-ready stomp. Packed with the confidence of two artists who know they've made it, the song's hooky chants ripple with natural swagger.
She's been in America, that's what! There's been lots of lovely pics of Pixie looking super-hot in New York over the past few weeks working on material for her second album. Between her work for Lipsy and filming her part in new movie Sweet Baby Jesus, she's scarcely had a moment to sit back and chill, but in terms of Nice Ways To Spend Your Day, living it up in NYC ranks pretty highly. Judging by her smile she seems to be having a great time of it too!
She's also been hanging out with new US boyband Big Time Rush, and definitely seems to have left an impression on the lads; band member Kendall saying "Pixie is so hot."
Pixie's debut album Turn It Up is set for an American release later this year with a new track-listing featuring collaborations with Jason Derulo and Joe Jonas.
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.
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.
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!
