14th - Take Me There

Currently unsigned, but going by new single Take Me There, you imagine the enigmatically named '14th' won't be for much longer.

Plunging headfirst onto the alcopop-clicked dancefloor, Take Me There's instrumental sounds like something 808 State might have come up with in the early 90s. Then it erupts into a massive Show Me Love style hook - in terms of dance music tropes, it's so simple, but boy does it work.

And over everything, there's those brilliant soulful vocals (courtesy of Tracey Duodo) lending the track its heart and body. This is a club track with substance, a life beyond the blacked-out rooms and neon glow.

A time will inevitably come when people tire of the endless conveyor belt of R&B/dance crossover from the US, and as the cycle of music turns ever on, songs like Take Me There lie in wait to seize the advantage when that day comes.

Take Me There is released on the 6th February.

Cher Lloyd - Want U Back

No X Factor star has had quite such a rollercoaster ride amongst my affections as Cher Lloyd. When she was on the show, I properly adored her - she was a breath of fresh air that the show desperately needed. But post-show, her unfortunate, bratty, antagonising tweets became a real turn-off and I really started to dislike her.

But the real test was in her music, and against all my initial expectations, her debut album turned out to be one of the best pop records of the year. It was consistent, gloriously poppy in the best ways, and above all, it sounded like Cher herself - the kind of music both her and her fans would really enjoy.

And new single Want U Back is the epitome of that. Possessed of the same bouncy R&B-lite vibes as album standout With Ur Love, the chorus is indelibly catchy, perfect for younguns to holler away to until the early hours, bottle of WKD in hand. This is profoundly youthful music, and the best part is that it feels genuine, not clamouring for faux trends like Swagger Jagger was (and even that ended up growing on me).

The best bit of the song has got to be the spoken word 'Remember all the things you and I did first?' bits. It's here that you get the best insight into the mind of Cher Lloyd and what she's all about. It's little nuggets of teen angst and bittersweet jealousy that are the lifestuff of every young person up and down the country - and all of them with a copy of Cher's album can sing along to these lines knowing in their heart they've felt these feelings too. And that's why Want U Back, and the album as a whole, works so well.

Straylings - Entertainment on Foreign Grounds

Quite often, in looking backwards, you find yourselves moving forwards in the best possible way.

Straylings know all about this - the pensive new London band have been turning heads with their thoughtful, hand-wrought guitar riffing, penning tracks that feel like old best friends; the ones you never tire of.

Free download Wallpin recalls mid-90s Britpop, with a great female vocal and rich, lustrous guitar line. This is rock to an older, more considered order than the brisk, frenetic energies of most new brands these days, and Straylings benefit much from this more stately approach.

Carver's Kicks continues down the same route, albeit sounding even better, pursuing a more earthy, rough sound.

A further free download, On Its Way is available from the band's Facebook page. The band's album Entertainment on Foreign Grounds is released on the 5th March.

Latest tracks by straylings

Zebra and Snake - Burden

Like a head on chemical reaction between the glory days of a-Ha and OMD, Zebra and Snake single Burden basks in the bounce of effervescent 80s synth-pop joy.

In the best tradition of Scandinavian pop, the Finland duo slap a rousing chorus over a twirling, gleaming medley of electronics - it's as if they've been let loose in a keyboard shop, free to test each and every vein of synthesiser.

For a track about being weighed down, Burden feels remarkably light and untethered - as the latter choruses roll in, even more ecstatic with energy, the track feels almost ready to lift off from the ground entirely, to sail away into airy heights.

The band's album Healing Music is set for an April 2012 release.

Burden by Zebra and Snake

The Twilight Sad - Another Bed

The bleak, steely sounds of The Twilight Sad make for a formiddable edifice. New single Another Bed, propelled on a raft of vintage analogue synths, sounds like a dizzying concoction of Kraftwerk and David Bowie's Berlin trilogy.

The percussion is harsh, brutal; the vocals windblasted and fatigued - The Twilight Sad make music of the elements, profoundly untamed and bewitching in its dark power.

The band have just announced a series of UK tour dates:

 9 Thu UKGLASGOW Grand Ole Opry 
 10 Fri UK MANCHESTER Ruby Lounge 
 11 Sat UK SHEFFIELD Queens Social Club 
 12 Sun UK BIRMINGHAM Hare and Hounds 
 13 Mon UK BRISTOL Fleece 
 14 Tue UK LONDON Cargo 
 15 Wed UK NOTTINGHAM Stealth 
 16 Thu UK LEEDS Brudenell Social Club

Another Bed is released on the 20th February. The album No One Can Ever Know is released on the 6th February.

The Saturdays unveil My Heart Takes Over video preview

The Saturdays looking gorgeous against a beautiful Icelandic backdrop - what more could you want in a video? In terms of landscape fitting musical feeling, you couldn't have found a much better match than the chilly confines of the wintry isle for the girl group's Christmassy sounding uber-ballad.

Luckily, the girls seem to have wrapped up warm for their trip, although we imagine it still wouldn't take long to catch a cold, especially when you're frolicking around in front of a mountain.

Also, how amazing does Mollie's hair look in the video? It matches the snow!

Monarchy - You Don't Want To Dance With Me (VIVIEN Remix)

It's often said that the best remixes are the ones that take the original track out of its established territory and into a completely new direction. Well, such can be said of this wonderfully funky mix of Monarchy's new single You Don't Want To Dance With Me by their bass player Vivien.

Straddling a limbo between early 80s synth-pop, old-skool funk and some nice little contemporary touches, there's a brilliant horn riff that injects a completely fresh vibe into the track. Never has the track's title sounded more ironic; this version makes us want to dance, a lot.

You Don't Want To Dance With Me is released on the 24th October.

You Don't Want To Dance With Me (VIVIEN Remix) by Monarchy

Will Young - Come On

Sometimes, an artist will just get it bang on the money with their next single choice. This is the case for Mr. Will Young, who's gone for his delightful cover of Kish Mauve's Come On as the follow up to Jealousy.

Half of Will's album Echoes is penned by the electro-pop group (who, if you remember, also gave us Kylie Minogue's brilliant 2 Hearts) and just with Jealousy, there's both the instant appeal of the song's hooks, but also a kind of gradual dawning of just how beautiful and true the lyrics really are.

With his Echoes album, Will has hit on the real sentiment that lies at the heart of each and every one of us.

As Come On launches into its chorus, the song feels like its been locked up in Will's heart ever since he won Pop Idol - it positively bursts out from him, full of emotion and some rather nice vocodered ad libs (note to George Michael, this is what your cover of True Faith should have sounded like)

Take That hit their stride when they turned to dreamy synth-pop, and so too has Will Young. There's much to be said to pairing a voice as soulful and relaxed as Will's to the futuristic electro-scapes that populate his album. There's a crisp, crystalline quality to the production that exudes such luxury, you get a real sense of both the song and album being a real 'premium' product.

Come On is released on the 21st November.

Florence and the Machine - What The Water Gave Me

One of the nicest surprises in music is when an act that you previously weren't that fussed about comes back with something jaw-droppingly good and just completely blows you away.

It happened with Adele and her all-conquering 21 album. And it seems it could very easily happen to Florence Welch too.

While What The Water Gave Me doesn't have the ready made 'hit' feel of the likes of Dog Days Are Over, what it does most definitely have is an infinitely richer sense of production and fullness than anything on her first album did.

Everything about the song feels richer, more lush, more involving. From its subtle, gentle beginnings, soaring up into its epic, sky-piercing chorus, the song is quite simply beautiful.

The bass positively purrs as it creeps back and forth beneath the classic Florence blend of harp, piano and other assorted bits and bobs that help conjure up that spider's web of musical foundations.

Best though is when the track takes on a satisfyingly weighty rock punch, the bass strumming faster and faster as it flies into the final chorus.

It's like the sunrise breaking free on the grimmest, most grey of rainy days - the glorious radiance of pure heat and light bursting through to envelop the listener in a wash of pretty noise and an inspired guitar outro. Perfect.

What The Water Gave Me is available to download from iTunes now.

Geneva - Karma

Do you ever wonder where the acts that don't win X Factor end up? I don't mean those lucky ones, the JLS's or Olly Murs's that somehow burst into spectacular career often eclipsing the actual winner of their respective year.

No, I mean the ones that fall at the earlier stages. Feisty girl group Belle Amie are one of the more fondly remembered acts from the live shows of 2010's series. In the post-X Factor environment, things are probably dizzying enough for a solo artists, let a lone a group - so the decision for Belle Amie member Geneva Lane to leave the other girls is pretty understandable put in context.

Going it alone, her debut single Karma is a real good old fashioned pop track. I'm talking Spice Girls stuff, classic 90s-sounding pop. There's a nice little disco vibe to the track too, something backed up by the track's sparkly roller-skating based video too.

The track's already been picking up a fair bit of attention from the likes of Heat and OK mag, and in a way, it's refreshing to see an ex-X Factor star actually getting up and doing something about their career. So often they seem merely to float away on a sea of apathy into sub-par reality TV shows or simply disappear altogether.

Not for Geneva though, and for that you've got to admire the girl.

My Chemical Romance - The Only Hope For Me Is You

With a title like The Only Hope For Me Is You, it could only be My Chemical Romance. And while the band's latest track doesn't feel like such a 'classic' moment as previous single Bulletproof Heart, if anything, it sees the band operating at an even more poppy level.

Underscored by the bubbling electronics that are something of a hallmark of their danger Days album, the chorus is exactly the kind of uplifting 'Fuck yeah!' moment you buy a My Chemical Romance record for. It's the kind of moment you go and see them live for, that moment when you rock out and just let loose.

And let's not forget, at its heart, this is a love song; the title itself screaming of pure devotion to that 'special' person. Now that all the hysteria and criticism over the 'emo' phenomena has moved on, it's easier to look at songs like this with an un-clouded eye and appreciate exactly what they stand for.

Out there right now there'll be hundreds of teens for which this song means something, for who The Only Hope For Me Is You will soundtrack the passions of a real romance.

And for that, My Chemical Romance will be made all the more real for them. And sometimes, that's what music is about - those emotions, those memories.

The Only Hope For Me Is You is released on the 22nd August.

Kasabian - Days Are Forgotten

Kasabian are never ones to let the public down. And after all, where would they be without those seething crowds to sing back every word of the likes of Club Foot to them?

No, Kasabian are one of those precious few bands who seem to live an almost symbiotic existence with their fans - feeding off their very energy and channelling it back into their latest musical creations.

Maybe this, then, is the secret of their success. The reason why they remain at the top of their game when so many others have faltered. When we covered their new teaser single Switchblade Smiles back in June we loved how it felt like a return to the darker, more brutal sounds of their first album - Days Are Forgotten feels much the same.

With its classic, jabbing, bassy guitar hook, like its predecessor, it already seems destined for the soundtracks of Top Gear episodes and sports montages.

Indeed, this is Kasabian at their most epic; a Good, The Bad, and The Ugly meets James Bond composition of anthemic proportions.

Days Are Forgotten wears those filmic influences bared on its sleeve and boy does it merit from them - the chorus is one of the band's most slick to date, a monster of a thing that screams 'hit'. Add in those eerie vocal wails and you have something completely and utterly thrilling.

Four albums in, and Kasabian still at the top of their game, you wonder how many bands would kill to get their hands on that magic formula.

The band's new album Velociraptor! is released on the 19th September.

Alexis Jordan - How You Like Me Now

How You Like Me Now is a bit of a random one - at this point in an artist's album campaign, they're looking for a radio-friendly single that will wrap up sales for the album with a nice little boost.

And that's exactly how this track feels - a nice little boost. Nothing more, nothing less. With its scrawly, Arabian-esque synth-brass hook, it sees Alexis shuffling towards a more middle-of-the-road R&B direction; a kind of second-rate Rihanna.

Now, this might be all well and good on its own - after all, the song's not a bad little number, but we fell in love with Alexis for her all out disco-stompers, and there remains on her album one of the very best of an excellent bunch.

And that track comes in the form of High Road, a jaw-droppingly good bit of beat-heavy electro-pop. Snappy, feisty vocals - this is Alexis down to a T, all her personality, fire and charm packed into three minutes of WOW. This, for me, would have been the logical single.

How You Like Me Now can be downloaded from iTunes here.