Lady Gaga - Born This Way: The Remix

For a remix album, Lady Gaga's re-envisioned version of Born This Way does a remarkable job of standing on its own two feet. Part of this is down to the fact the majority of the mixes contained here are cut-down radio edits, sticking to the original formats of the songs in the vast majority of cases. But it's also down to the fact a good half of the mixes come from established bands rather than your usual club remixers.

Highlights include the apocalyptically evil sounding Hurts mix of Judas which sounds like Depeche Mode getting their hands on the track - it's a shame the album didn't come out a few weeks earlier, this version would have been perfect for Halloween, as would Goldfrapp's take on the single.

Again, the overtones of 80s synthpop is strong - in this instance the track's vocals are tortuously tweaked out of all proportion; slowed down and lowered into a bassy masculine drawl. It's properly scary and while it's debatable whether this take is wholly good or not, it makes for a fascinating exercise in just how far you can push a track.

The 80s influences continue in the Twin Shadow mix of Born This Way, making it sound even more like vintage Madonna than it already did, by way of a neat little guitar riff and plenty of slap bass. With the pop sensibilities satisfied, the Sultan & Ned Shepard mix of Edge of Glory mashes the track with the Sweet Child of Mine hook - it's, as you'd expect, amazing.

For the most part, the album positions itself in a dirty, low-slung pit of excess and dark glamour. Whether it's the full throttle, relentless Foster The People mix or the sinister Eastern refrains of The Horrors version of Bloody Mary, Lady Gaga has never sounded as mysteriously cult-ish as this.

While the ace Wild Beasts mix of The Edge of Glory provides a brief down-tempo respite, it's not long before the album launches itself back into the party (albeit a grimly decadent party) with the bonkers Guena LG mix of Schiebe - it's like something the Pet Shop Boys would have come up with in the mid 90s.

Perhaps the best thing about the record though is the way it ruthlessly cuts away the fatty excesses of Americana that bloated the original LP so badly - in this form, Born This Way feels leaner, meaner, sharper.

Born This Way: The Remix is available to download on iTunes now.

Parade - Bringing the noise @ Westfield and GAY

This week sees the release of Parade's brilliant second single Perfume and to celebrate, the band took to the stage at GAY dressed as school-girls. And if that wasn't enough, they rocked up at Westfield the next day to sign copies of their new CD as well as perform again.

With brightly coloured banners trailing down from the upper levels of the shopping centre, the band delighted fans with a six-song set including Chris Brown cover Yeah X3, Louder, Perfume, Ticking On It, Rokstar and an acapella version of Lady Gaga's Born This Way.

Shoppers definitely liked what they heard, taking a break from lightening their wallets to crowd the balconies overlooking the stage while the girls performed - rapturous bouts of applause greeting every track.

With slick dance routines, killer vocals and some lovely piano from band member Bianca, the day resounded with the professionalism and fun we've come to expect from the band.

With Perfume already surging into the iTunes top 50, the track looks set to follow in the footsteps of Louder and become another smash hit for the girls.

Perfume is out now and can be downloaded from Amazon here.

New releases round-up - 23rd May 2011

Lady Gaga - Born This Way

The third (or is that second??) album from the global chart-topper. We've all seen the risque reaction-baiting videos and heard her anthems for self-acceptance, now get hold of a whole album of the stuff with Lady Gaga's long awaited Born This Way. And yes, if you purchase this, you too can become a strange person/bike hybrid.

The Pierces - Glorious

The third in a series of absolutely stunning singles, the Alabama sisters (with a little help from Coldplay's Guy Berryman) are back with their joyous new track Glorious. Expect breathtaking Abba-esque vocal harmonies mixed with soulful country-tinged pop. And all this with a good dose of lurid 70s psychadelica.

The Saturdays - Notorious

The UK's hottest girl group are back and they've got their sights firmly set on the top spot with this infectious club anthem. Vocodered boasts of being a 'gangster on the dancefloor' back up a sizzling bassline that seems ready-made to knock back shots to.

Starlings - Sirens

One of our favourite new bands at the moment, Starlings represent a chic, streamlined return to the heights of the 80s New Wave sound. Anthemic choruses and glossy synth rushes inject new single Sirens with a real punch that serves as a fitting introduction to this brilliant Sheffield outfit.

Britney Spears - Till The World Ends (Culture Shock Bhangra Remix)

You thought you'd heard it all with the amazing Bollywood mix of Lady Gaga's Born This Way, and then last week we had the release of the Femme Fatale Ke$ha and Nicki Minaj loveathon version of Till The World Ends.

But now we have the Bhangra mix of Britney's latest single. Yes. You read that right. It's just SO out there. I'm not sure I like it quite as much as the Gaga mix but if you're a fan of immense synth basslines, this if definitely for you. I really like how it completely mixes up the beat too. Definitely enough to keep us dancing till the world ends at any rate, not that we had grown tired of the original version either.

Weird Al's Gaga Saga... 'Perform This Way'

I've always had a soft spot for Weird Al Yankovic. Ever since I watched the World of Warcraft version of his track Amnish Paradise, I've been a fan of his quirky parodies - aided by Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles' constant playing of them on his breakfast show. It's fair to say Weird Al is a Bit Of A Legend.

And how he's done a parody of Lady Gaga's anthemic Born This Way. Say hello to Perform This Way...

The only trouble is, after recording the song, Al sent it to Gaga's management for approval. By law, he doesn't even have to, he just does so out of sheer nicety. What a gentleman.

The answer he got back? A firm 'no'. They did not approve. So Al blogged about the whole business and uploaded the song on YouTube so that while it might not recieve an official release on his next album, at least it would be heard.

But the best bit about this whole story? Not long after the parody was uploaded on YouTube, Weird Al provided a new update to the whole dizzy chain of events, it went as follows:

"Apparently the fact that she didn’t approve it was news to Lady Gaga herself! Gaga’s manager has now admitted that he never forwarded my parody to Gaga – she had no idea at all. Even though we assumed that Gaga herself was the one making the decision (because, well, that’s what we were TOLD), he apparently made the decision completely on his own."

This really does make me rejoice, but also turns my stomach a little too. It's nice as it means Gaga has been a darling and there's a happy ending to the whole story, but it doesn't quite erase the highly unsavoury taste in my mouth resulting from her manager saying 'no' to the track withot consulting Gaga. Very shady!

Going back to the parody itself, with the YouTube video's Doctor Who-title-sequence-esque pulsating colours and Al's inspired and immensely funny lyrics stamped over the top, karoake machine style; the whole thing is as suitably 'weird' as his name suggests. In other words, brilliant.

The production is rather endearing too, all euro-techno synths and bleepy effects. As always with Al's parodies, the lyrics lie at the heart of the hilarity - My personal favourite from Perform This Way? 'I strap prime rib to my feet / cover myself with raw meat.'

Amazing.

Bike This Way... The new Lady Gaga album cover

Let's just stop for a minute and analyse the new Lady Gaga album cover.

Lady Gaga as a bike. That's the gist of it. Well, all of it really. Against a completely black background, there she is, all silver and chrome. What is this saying about her? Is she a machine, an actual 'bike', or does it all represent some far more complicated metaphor that is impossible to decipher. Only Gaga knows.

And then there's the font, equally dramatic and chrome-like. I guess what strikes me most is how far removed stylistically this is from the single cover of the same name. The font is completely different, and for me, it takes away so much in momentum. I guess the fierce, black and white quality remains, but beyond that, all that stands is the fact that... Lady Gaga is a bike. It's quite hard to get over.

If you are a bike, do you still rejoice and love yourself today because you were born as a two wheeled, gasoline drinking machine? I'm not sure. I guess it has its merits - It's faster than walking at any rate; definitely a handy attribute to have if you're going to be touring the world regularly playing all your new songs. But how do you hold a microphone if you have no hands and your arms are attached to a wheel?

And the last thing that strikes me is how retro the whole thing looks. It's like a mash-up between Metallica's Ride The Lightning and Meat Loaf's Bat Out Of Hell:

Lady Gaga - Judas

For a track as eagerly awaited as Lady Gaga's new single, it was only fitting that it should sneak oh-so subtly onto iTunes - read for download - while a nation held their breath from a radio premiere. Gaga's most epic track to date, Judas centres around an absolutely immense euro-pop chorus that stands on a par with Bad Romance. It's strength is in channeling all the best bits of said song but re-injecting them into a massive industrial dance stomper.

When Gaga talked about the track being 'metal-techno' that's exactly what it sounds like. The beat is fucking insane. That really is the only way to describe it. And if it sounds this good on the radio, just imagine it in a club. WOW. It takes the already phenomenal power of Born This Way and multiplies it by a billion. You wouldn't think it was possible, but there Gaga goes, breaking the rules of pop yet again. With songs like this, she really does have the world in the palm of her hand - Judas representing the culmination of everything that is brilliant about her.

Whether it's the heartfelt refrains of 'I'm in love with Ju-u-u-das' or the random screams where it sounds like she's being electrocuted, there's an eerie and irresistible beauty to the song. How can something so harsh and relentless be beautiful? Gaga makes it work. With her, all logic goes out of the window - Judas is a current of pure ecstasy being laced straight through your speakers and into your ears. It's a track that captures every facet of human nature jam packed into four minutes of jaw-droppingly good pop. It goes without saying Gaga stands in an absolute league of her own at the moment.

Hearing this for the first time, you're fixed to the spot, utterly transfixed - the second time you hear it, you want to dance til you drop.

With Judas, Gaga leaves you breathless, reeling, blown out of any sense of the rational world - but My God does it feel amazing.

Judas is out to download on iTunes now.

Lady Gaga - Born This Way (Bollywood version)

Even better than the Country Road version. In fact, a lot better. Born This Way is given yet another lease of life with this genius take on the track. With added sitar, string section and a thumping beat, this is like Jai Ho! to the power of ten and just works SO well. The mix is by by brother duo Salim and Sulaiman and if you fancy more along the same lines, there's an urban desi mix too.

“We collaborated with Indian music producers from across the globe to show our respect and appreciation for our desi fans and music community,” says Troy Carter, CEO of Gaga’s management company.

"Gaga has truly fallen in love with India," added Anjula Acharia-Bath of the production company behind the new mixes. "So we’re helping her pursue this audience to authentically connect with both the huge diaspora and South Asia itself."

Parade's Big T Party live at Love Machine

Two amazing performances from hot new British girl group Parade in one day? Sounds like the recipe for an awesome night out! Add in some super cool goody bags full to the brim with jelly beans and other lovliness and the excitement levels were swiftly creeping up the scale. And in terms of excitement, the crowd of eager teenagers had it in impossibly plentiful abundance. Just watching everyone queuing to get in, you wondered if Love Machine could actually contain it all. Major props to Teen Today for organising everything and coming up with the idea for the Big T Party in the first place - it was the perfect atmosphere and venue to showcase some of the best new pop music around.

Parade's set included debut top 10 single Louder and their cover of Cee Lo Green's Forget You, always one to get the crowd going. I don't think I've heard screams so loud at a gig since Justin Bieber appeared at Capital Radio's Summertime Ball at Wembley Stadium. Now imagine that in a 300 capacity club and you'll have a rough idea of how loud it all was. The girls also gave us a taste of their forthcoming album with new tracks Perfume and Rollercoaster before finishing off with a lovely accapella cover of Lady Gaga's Born This Way. Anyone in doubt of the girls' vocal abilities well have had their concerns well and truly put to bed here, for their harmonies are spot on. With one top 10 in the bag already, the only way is up for the Parade girls, and tonight was a fitting testament to their popularity.

You can check out even MORE pictures and a full run-down of the event on TeenToday.co.uk

Lady Gaga - Born This Way (Country Road Version)

Ever found yourself listening/dancing to Born This Way and wishing you could be sat chilling by a campfire instead, gently strumming along on a beat-up old guitar. The sun is setting behind you and the desert stretches out endlessly on either side - it's just you, there on your own.

Not a scene you can really picture alongside the relentless, overpowering pop-power of Born This Way is it? But Lady Gaga, never one to shy away from the difficult, has done precisely that. Yup, that's right, a country version of Born This Way. And you know what? It actually works pretty damn well.

Lady Gaga - Born This Way

Lady Gaga. New single. Need we say more? Big music moments like this are the stuff the pop world is made for. All that anticipation and intense waiting, all for four minutes of brand new amazingness. Because surely Lady Gaga's new single will be amazing? Or are we hoping for too much from the woman who has become a living icon and one of the biggest forces in music today?

Well, Born This Way starts with one of those classic 'Lady Gaga does some sultry spoken word stuff' bits. The whole song is VERY Madonna's Express Yourself. And it is oh so camp. Like the campest thing ever. The vocals are almost annihilated by the relentlessly thumping beat. All the way through the track, just 'oomph oomph oomph'. But then again, a good healthy dollop of dance-pop 'oomph' is what Gaga has always done so well.

Is it better than Bad Romance? No. Is it a good pop song? Definitely. It's catchy, it's dance-able. So far, so Gaga. But what is new here? After all, this is where we see if she really can sustain all the momentum from her first record onto that 'difficult second album'. What works so well is that all the key Gaga elements are still here in healthy doses, but given a good shine and gloss-up. This is a far more uplifting, positive Gaga. The darkness that pervaded so much of The Fame Monster is pushed back, replaced by a far brighter sound. If The Fame was the descent into a seedy night-club, revelling in pleasure and drink all night long, then Born This Way is waking up the next morning and doing it all day too.

The more you listen to it, the more it strikes you just how Madonna-esque the song is. If you were a fan of her Confessions on a Dancefloor then you will adore Born This Way. That big disco beat is irresistible, the choruses ready-made to be shouted out across arenas and stadiums all the world over. Born This Way is massive, American, amazing, and most important of all, completely Gaga.