[Official Video] Sunday Girl - High & Low

Sunday Girl's High & Low, to put it simply, is amazing. The kind of upbeat life-affirming anthem to reverse the woes and worries of any given day. And now it has a video - although, disappointingly, it doesn't feature the absolutely stunning Jade Williams herself, more's the shame. Instead, given that the track is forming a centre-piece in StreetDance 2's promotional campaign, it features, yup... lots of streetdancing. But for us, as long-time Sunday Girl fans; well, we're just hoping the movie introduces her music to as many new people as possible, because that means all the more chance there'll be an actual Sunday Girl album, which we've been longing for ever since we saw her supporting Ellie Goulding on tour.

Sunday Girl - High & Low (StreetDance 2 Mix)

One of the greatest pop injustices of current times is that Sunday Girl (AKA fashion starlet Jade Williams) isn't a properly massive popstar of Jessie J proportions. God knows, she certainly deserves it - for the past few years she's been turning out synth-pop gems of unparallelled magnificence, of which High & Low is simply the latest in an impressively consistent line.

Taken from the Streetdance 2 soundtrack (the movie comes out later this month), one might hope that the fact this has the film tie-in factor pulling for it might help it to the sort of chart success even Sunday Girl's Pixies cover from *those* holiday ads couldn't achieve.

As for the song itself, it chugs along on a Solveig-esque beat; a wistful little pop dittie on the ups and downs of love. It's cheery in a gloriously life-affirming and *that* chorus melody, it's seriously divine. Sometimes, the most simple, true-to-heart pop moments are the most moving, and in its soaring, synth-kissed musings, High & Low is the very definition of that ideology.

High & Low is available to download on iTunes now.

Sunday Girl covers the Pixies' Where Is My Mind

2011 has been rather a popular year for covering the Pixies classic. First Emily Browning and Yoav's gorgeous six minute version appeared on the Sucker Punch soundtrack, and then Professor Green sampled a big chunk of the track's chorus for his new album.

But is in Sunday Girl's version that the song is stripped back to its most fundamental essence - piano, strings, and Jade's beautiful voice. We've loved Sunday Girl for absolutely ages now and we really hope this cover - Thomson Holidays soundtrack it might be - helps get her some proper chart recognition.

It's not quite up there with her cover of Blur's Tender, but if you ever needed an example of just how good a singer - and artist - Sunday Girl is, this is it.

Where Is My Mind is available to download on iTunes now.

(Official Video) Sunday Girl - Love U More

It's been a good day for pop videos. First The Saturdays with their Icelandic-based romp in My Heart Takes Over, and now Sunday Girl's effortlessly stylish Love U More. Oh, and speaking of The Saturdays, it looks like Jade might have borrowed their luminously bright pink lipstick for her video too.

Listening to Love U More is like stepping into the TARDIS, instantly you're back in some heaving late 90s discotheque raving away to some blisteringly amazing trance anthem - and Sunday Girl's recapturing of this has to be applauded.

Her album is set for release in early 2012, which excites us a lot - previous single Stop Hey was equally fantastic.

Love U More is released on the 30th October.

Sunday Girl - Love U More

It's been quite a week for Sunday Girl fans - first we get her brilliant collab with Martin Solveig, and now her long awaited next single-proper, the follow-up to the sublime Stop Hey.

New track Love U More is a cover of Sunscreem's 1992 dance hit. Steps even had a bash at the track...

Sunday Girl's version is of course, very good - it's the kind of super-uplifting trance number that hardened club fanatic's dream over when they think back to the golden days of their youth. Jade's voice suits the track perfectly, she's got the gift of that wonderful hushed, sultry quality to her vocals.

Could this be the song to finally push Sunday Girl to the masses? We certainly hope so! The UK's been crying out for a big, proper homegrown club hit like this amidst all the US indentikit productions of late.

Love U More is released on the 30th October.

Sunday Girl - Love U More by Sunday Girl

Martin Solveig feat. Sunday Girl - Let's Not Play Games

You may have seen Sunday Girl in all the stylish fashion mags of late, or maybe you've heard her name thrown in with the jumble of hectic culture and lifestyle that is London Fashion Week, but if you haven't heard her music before, you need to get in on the act pronto. The reason, she's brilliant.

While the prospect of another Sunday Girl single remains tantalisingly out of reach for the moment, us fans have been tided over with Let's Not Play Games, a fantastic collaboration with dance producer Martin Solveig.

I absolutely love the mock movie poster cover for Solveig's album, on which this track features - there's a wonderfully quirky mish-mash of ideas going on in it, all tied together in a wash of bold, bright colours and iconography. It's got that clean, sporty look - a refreshing antidote to the usual neon-washed covers of most dance tracks.

Oh, and it has Sunday Girl herself, Jade, on it too - giving it her best movie star pose, and of course looking effortlessly gorgeous as ever. I almost wish it was a real movie.

And as for the track, it's the lushest bit of electro-pop gorgeousness I've heard in a long time.

If there's any justice in the pop charts, this would be every bit as successful as Solveig's Hello was.

Sunday Girl - Human Love

Ever since I interviewed Sunday Girl at the tail end of last year, I've been a massive fan of her own unique brand of electro-pop. She's very much the complete package; a glossy, impossibly cool star for the new decade. Oh, and her songs are brilliant too - just take a listen to new single Human Love.

It's a little New Order (when at their most contemplative - see 1993's wonderful Ruined In A Day), more so a trippy, blissed out record reminiscent, like her contemporary Yasmin, of the very best of 90s dance-pop.

Those sombre Bittersweet Symphony strings, elevating up into a classic, utterly anthemic Sunday Girl chorus, Human Love is every bit the amazing follow up to Stop Hey pop lovers could have wished for.

It's half delicate English beauty, half hyper-styled futuristic synth-epic - the image of Sunday Girl herself captured in an instance.

If you haven't been captivated by her model looks and numerous style features across the media, you will be soon. And going by the quality of songs like Human Love, you're going to want to keep an eye on Sunday Girl.

(There's also a brilliant little acoustic version of the track here...)

Catching up with Outcasts - Episode 6

I'm still loving absolutely loving Outcasts, it really is the best thing on TV at the moment. I think it's such a shame that the BBC have been so quick to move it to a late night Sunday slot just because it hasn't achieved good ratings/good public feedback. The BBC is supposed to be all about championing challenging new dramas and introducing them to new audiences, so by being so limp-wristed at backing Outcasts at the first time of trouble, it really goes against this. Hopefully they'll still have the faith to make a second series, because quite frankly, there's so much more to Carpathia and its characters that I want to find out.

As it stands, we've got only a couple of episodes left to tie everything up, a rather large feat considering the dramatic end to episode five as another landing ship was revealed, floating in high-orbit over the planet. And even more chilling, Julius was in contact with it. His creepiness goes without saying; whether it's his quasi-religious speeches or silver-tongued persuasiveness, he represents himself as the ultimate manipulator.

In Episode six we got a fascinating exploration into the introduction of the idea that there are 'things' out there on Carpathia. We saw Tate 'seeing'his children, convinced they were real and not a hallucination. And now everyone sees a creepy duplicate of soldier Josie Hunter. Her kids can tell something's not quite right, and so can we, already underminding the immense swell of emotion we felt when she stumbled safely home from the dangers of the desert.

One line got to me more than any other this episode though, when one of Josie's kids tells us the fake Josie that kidnapped them 'wanted to know what love was'. This sent a chill right down my spine, similar to how I felt when I saw the skulls and bones Stella uncovered in the previous episode. We have to remember that although Outcasts has kept many traditional sci-fi elements on the back-burner, what we have here is essentially, that good old staple - an alien. A being not of Earth. Whether it will be truly 'revealed' this series remains to be seen though.

Other highlights this episode were a couple of ACs breaking into Forthaven and turning all the lights off; the sight of a disembodied hand surging up through the sand to claw a tunnel under the perimeter fence was thrilling and acted as a nice little parallel story to all the Josie Hunter stuff.

I'd like to give mention to the series' brilliant music too; the main theme and the various variations of it are beautiful and fit the look and feel of the show so well.

Sunday Girl - Stop Hey

Put simply, Stop Hey  is one of the greatest singles I've ever heard from a new artist. With a killer chorus, synths that could have come straight from an OMD 80s classic and a feisty attitude that raises Sunday Girl well above her contemporaries it really is a must-download track.

If you've scanned through the pages of the glossy mags over the past few months, you'll have likely seen lots of praise and attention heaped on Sunday Girl herself, Jade Williams. The photogenic pop darling is well-loved in the style circuits and was named Vogue.com's 'One to watch'. And she really is - If you've heard either of her previous singles; the dreamy, hypnotic Four Floors or her inspired cover of Self Control, you'll know what I mean.

If you're a fan of well-written, brilliantly produced electro-pop then Sunday Girl and Stop Hey will be right up your street. Definitely one of the brightest up-and-coming stars to look out for this year.

Stop Hey is available to download on iTunes now.

Read my interview with Sunday Girl here.

Sunday Girl - Photoshop Handsome (Everything Everything cover)

I love the original version of this song by Everything Everything, but this cover/mix of it by electropop starlet Sunday Girl is quite possibly even better. One of my favourite bits of the original are the bonkers, quirky lyrics, and in Sunday Girl's version, they stand out even more.

All the dreamy, bleepy synths are lovely and by the time it hits the chorus it just leaves you going 'WOW'. It's a pure 80s, almost Human League/Blondie-esque new wave straight out there slice of awesome. Sunday Girl looks set to be one of 2011's biggest new stars and paired with her amazing single Stop Hey, stuff like this is getting me very, very excited for her album.

INTERVIEW - Sunday Girl

The music video for your song Stop Hey is very stylish and you were also named Vogue.com’s ‘one to watch’ - is the visual aspect of your music important to you?

I love looking stylish and dressing up so the video was great fun to film.  I like coming up with cool visual themes to go along with my music, so for this video I went with the idea of ‘superstition’ and had lots of umbrellas open indoors.

Are the 80s a big influence on you?  You covered Laura Branigan’s big 1984 hit Self Control.

I wouldn’t say so in particular, it’s just a song I always really enjoy playing live – I do a cover of Ke$ha’s Tik Tok too and they both get a great response from the crowd!

There are a lot of strong, female singers around at the moment; did you feel you consciously had to make your own stamp on the scene?

You’ve got to be unique – Everyone’s the same otherwise and it’s boring. I’m just myself.

You played a load of festivals over the summer; how does that compare to the smaller, more intimate venues you’ve played on Ellie Goulding’s tour?

I prefer smaller venues like this as it’s dark and more atmospheric.  It really ties in well with my music and I think the audience get a sense of that too.  You get a really great vibe going.

You have an internet blog that you post updates on – Do you think it’s important to keep in contact with your fans in this way?

Definitely!  It’s great to get feedback from fans and I really enjoy doing the blog.  I haven’t had as much of a chance recently because of being so busy with the tour, but I’ve got loads of stuff to add to it now, which will be fun!

Do you feel having a career in music has changed you in any way as a person?

I feel more confident as an artist; a lot braver.  I’ve got a motto that is ‘If you don’t try, you don’t get’, and it’s true.  You’ve just got to keep trying and you get more and more confident in yourself, especially when you’re doing something you enjoy.  In your dreams, you can do anything you want, so why shouldn’t this be true in real life too.

In this age of downloads and people cherry-picking individual songs, is it still important to put a consistent album together as a complete body of work?

I still love listening to albums as a whole – I think it really gets the artist’s message across in a way individual songs can’t do as much.

Is there one song in the history of music that you wish you had written yourself?

Hmmm, that’s a tough one!  I think something by Beyonce, Kelis or Kanye West – I love them!  Whenever I listen to their tracks I just think wow!

Stop Hey is released January 11^th 2011.