Video: Take That - Kidz

I love it when music videos just get it SO right. Where the video just fits the track SO well. Take That's Kidz does just that. I mean, just how amazing is a Take That space-ship coming down and landing in a city?! Very amazing.

Now, to be fair, I definitely prefer Girls Aloud's take on the whole 'futuristic popstars invade the Earth' thing when they did their Untouchable video, but Take That definitely come a very well deserved second.

What are the best bits of the video? Well, for starters, the band's costumes are just so fantastical and steam-punk - very befitting a band that is the epitome of old mixed with new. They're almost scary - Gary Barlow in all his military finest, Robbie with a chain-mail vest and Mark Owen looking like he's stepped off the set of the BBC's Merlin with that hooded robe and staff of his.

Oh, and there's lots of soldiers thrown in. And in our age of Spooks and Call of Duty, stuff like that always adds a bit of excitement to things.

'Welcome to the future of the world...' goes the song. If the future is as exciting as this video makes out, I want more.

Take That - Kidz

Ever since Take That 'returned', I've been longing for them to return to the sound of their dance-pop roots; the music that made them such a big success in the early 90s. And with Kidz, the second single from their Progress album, they finally do.

Except, now they're even better than before. Gone are the acid-house piano riffs and drum machine, replaced by a hard industrial beat, crunching guitar power chords and buzz-saw synths. It's almost Nine Inch Nails.

It's also a brilliant chance for Mark Owen to shine. I've always been a fan of Mark's vocals and their David Bowie-esque lilt (his solo track Four Minute Warning is a much over-looked pop gem of a song). Kidz, with its minimal, stark verses and crystaline, epic choruses really is a 'progress' for the band - their big, Barlow-penned soft-rock ballads are all very well and good, in many cases even amazing - but this is a new side of Take That. It's fun, risque, daring and above all, very exciting.

Kidz is released 21st February.