New releases round-up - 25th July 2011

Six D - Best Damn Night

Since seeing the six-piece group for the first time supporting The Saturdays on tour, Best Damn Night has grown and grown on me. It's one of those tracks that at some point suddenly clicks and you see it for the piece of absolutely brilliant pop it is.

And what's more, Six D aren't just purveyors of ace tunes, but they're super-skilled dancers too. Seeing them perform the single on Daybreak this week, the energy they pack into this track and its accompanying routine is undeniable - I predict big things for these guys.

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JLS - She Makes Me Wanna

Again, another dance-pop smash that is just impossible to get away from right now. That unmistakable 'oh oh oh' hook stands out as one of JLS's best with this track picking up where Eyes Wide Shut left off, the band moving firmly further down the clubland route.

It's a bit of a flavour of the moment for pop bands at the moment with The Saturdays and The Wanted pursuing a similar direction - but you know what, when the tracks sound as good as this, we're all for it. Now where did we put that glo-stick?

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The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - The Body

A real highlight from a stellar album, this is one of my favourite indie tracks of the year. Mining deep into a vein of Cure-esque melodies, pairing soaring 80s synth glides with frantic guitar, The Body is a case in point as to why you need this band's album in your life. At its most anthemic moments there's touches of Manic Street Preachers too - that wistful, indelible notion of life-affirming music at its very best.

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Now That's What I Call Music 79

If the NOW compilations were an actual person, they'd be old, wrinkly and walking with a limp by now. But instead, they seem in exceedingly fine health - continuing to sell hundreds of thousands of copies. There's something indefinably special about holding in your hands a collection of the best/most successful pop tracks of the past few months - it's a kind of time capsule quality really.

This thing, this sliver of plastic stands as a record to what those people we like to call the 'public' went out in the droves and bought (or more likely downloaded these days). And as such, it could be argued that the NOW albums stand as the best albums ever, through sheer fact that they contain the highest concentration of 'hits' - of course, it might not all be to everyone's tastes, but the odds suggest there'll be at least something on here you'll like.

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Six D announce UK 'Best Damn Night' signing tour

Super-cool new UK pop group Six D are set to release their brilliant debut single on Monday (we reviewed it back in May) and to help celebrate, they're giving their fans a chance to say hi and get their CD copies of the single signed!

The dates and locations of the band's signing tour are as follows:

hmv Hanley, The Potteries Shopping Centre - 24th July at 3.00 pm
hmv Milton Keynes, Midsummer Arcade - 25th July at 1.00 pm
hmv London Westfield, Shepherds Bush - 25th July at 5.00 pm
hmv Brighton Churchill Square - 26th July at 1.00 pm
hmv Thurrock, Lakeside Shopping Centre - 26th July at 5.00 pm
hmv Birmingham Fort Shopping Park - 27th July at 1.00 pm
hmv Manchester 90 Market Street - 27th July at 6.00 pm
hmv Reading Oracle Centre - 28th July at 1.00 pm
hmv Oxford, Cornmarket Street - 28th July at 5.00 pm
hmv Sheffield Meadowhall - 29th July at 1.00 pm
hmv Leicester, High Street - 29th July at 5.00 pm
hmv Bristol Cribbs Causeway - 30th July at 5.00 pm

We'll be popping along to the Westfield date where the group will also be performing live - Exciting times!

With Best Damn Night sitting proud on Radio 1's playlist and the band fresh from touring with the likes of The Saturdays, Six D are definitely ones to keep an eye on.

Best Damn Night is released on the 25th July and can be pre-ordered here.

(Video) Six D - Best Damn Night

Last week we featured Six D's brilliant 2 Seconds on the blog, and today we have the flip side - Best Damn Night. Those that saw the group on The Saturdays tour will already be familiar with the hyper-catchy dance track that shows the band off to their glorious pop best.

One thing I really love about the video is that the camera visibly shakes with every throb of that relentless bassline - everything about this song feels propelled by its immense momentum, sweeping you away in an onslaught of youthful energy.

As it is, 2 Seconds and Best Damn Night serve to highlight the two very different but equally effective sides of Six D's sound - and if one of them doesn't hook you, the other sure as hell will.

Best Damn Night is released on the 24th July.

Six D - 2 Seconds

If you went to see The Saturdays on tour earlier this year, you'll have already experienced a taste of the Six D phenomenon.

Imagine a British Black Eyed Peas (Except with six member instead of four, hence, 'Six D') - twin that with the energy, youthful swagger and urban cred of N-Dubz and you're on your way to what the group represents.

New track 2 Seconds is a big, bold move forward for the band - on The Sats tour they delivered a succinct, club-ready brand of dance-pop, but 2 Seconds feels distinctly darker, more grimy, and with infinitely more space to showcase the group's talents to the full.

Spitting auto-tuned raps and reverb-heavy hand-claps, 2 Seconds comes on like the meeting place between late 80s Chicago house and the latest production trends in British rap. The track feels genuinely adventurous, with a confidence that spills out from the group's eagerness to impress. And it's an eagerness that is deeply catching - maybe it's the track's length, coming in at just a snip under three minutes, but there's a real rush here.

2 Seconds doesn't stop to let anyone to catch up; if you can't keep pace then you're left in the dust. This is a track that runs only on the 'sprint' setting, a turbo-charged shot that gets more and more addictive with every listen. Such is its potency that those moments immediately after the track finishes become filled with an almost irresistible twitch to play the track again.

It's undoubtable that 2 Seconds sees Six D upping the ante on every level. More mature, more slick, more knowing - this is the group truly hitting their stride, and these guys aren't the sort to give up the lead once they're there. Also, isn't it great to see another mixed boy/girl group in pop again! There aren't enough of them around these days.

2 Seconds is released as a double-A-side on the 24th July and can be pre-ordered from iTunes here.