[Official Lyric Video] The Saturdays - 30 Days

All that anticipation, all that waiting with baited breath for the new Saturdays single since the largely unspecified 'end' to the On Your Radar album campaign. And it lived up to our every expectation, exceeded them even!

Because what 30 Days represents is a new scale for The Saturdays, a fully epic club banger that builds on the All Fired Up formula and bolts on all the heartaching emotion of My Heart Takes Over for good measure. It put it in a wider scheme of things, it really is - as so many have long wanted from The Sats - their Call The Shots, their Untouchable.

As with all the best Saturdays songs, there's a top-notch middle-eight bit from Una and an incredible drum fill at 2.25 that sounds like a jet-fighter fly-by. The lyric video, in my eyes, totally fits the feel of the song - that sort of neon-drenched, fizzing realm of pure electricity - barely on the cusp of being constrained. 30 Days is that impossible, teetering moment on the edge of letting loose, of collasping into constituent atoms of pure energy. And boy does it sound good.

30 Days is released on the 13th May and a five-track iTunes EP is available to pre-order now including a karaoke version and the Ruff Loaderz Radio Mix of the track. More important though, is the studio version of fan-favourite Turn Myself In and a 'Saturdays Only' version of The Way You Watch Me (with no Travie McCoy guest raps!)

[Single Cover] The Saturdays - 30 Days

We haven't even heard the song yet, but some quick snooping on The Saturdays Facebook page has revealed this cover artwork for new single 30 Days!

What do we reckon? Speaking style-wise, it's very much in keeping with the On Your Radar look, so could this mean the single is fronting up a re-release of the album? One thing we know for sure, Una flipping her hair sure gets us overwhelmed. We like Vanessa's finger-gesture too, very Saturday(s) Night Fever.

Anyways, the song is getting its premiere on Radio 1 at 7.55am tomorrow morning - so make sure you listen in then.

30 Days is set for a 13th May release date.

Dry The River - New Ceremony [Cover Art]

It's our favourite track off the sublime Dry The River debut (which we reviewed here) and we love this canine-themed cover art, definitely one the band's more darkly ersatz moments and wonderfully at odds with the up-beat anthemicness of the track itself.

Cover Drive - Sparks [Cover Art]

In an age of iPods and iPhones, cover artwork often doesn't seem to count for much any-more; particularly in the case of singles. Indeed, I'm sure I've seen on numerous occasions recently, singles being pushed out on iTunes with nothing more than a generic lick of coloured background and nice font.

But Cover Drive's Sparks single cover, well, it looks like a proper POP single cover, like we used to so avidly buy into down our local Woolworths back in the day. And considering the song is ace too, this would very much convince us to part with our cash and download said song.

B.Traits - Fever (feat. Elisabeth Troy)

Fever comes on like its 1991 all over again. That acid house piano riff and big soulful vocal, sure it’s been done before, but B Traits nails it with such unbridled enjoyment and indulgement of rave’s golden days that Fever literally feeds off its own energy. In its Show Me Love-esque rhythms it harks back to an age where club culture was a simpler affair, its music a thing so more deftly in tune with its assorted revellers. Fever is euphoric in a way only early 90s dance was, and its joy as a club tune all stems from that.

Fever is released on the 26^th March.

[Official Video] Nerina Pallot - All Bets Are Off

Here's the new video from Nerina Pallot, and isn't it pretty! All Bets Are Off is one of the most soulful, passionate tracks from her stellar Year of the Wolf album and the delicate, snowy video makes us wish it was still Christmas, the smell of roast dinner and pine trees wafting through the air. Oh, with good company and good cheer warming our hearts.

The track has already shot straight to Radio 2's A list and Nerina's appeal is even making waves abroad - she's also busy in Germany acting as a guest mentor on The Voice (so basically like how Jessie J was to Tulisa on last year's X Factor).

All Bets Are Off is released on the 30th January.

[Official Video] Cher Lloyd - Want U Back

Cher Lloyd's album campaign is all coming together rather nicely - now that the post-X Factor 'haterz' are starting to simmer down, all that remains is Cher herself and a rather impressive amount of critical praise for her album as the collection of fun pop tunes it is. And Want U Back stands as the epitome of everything's that so good about her.

For starters - the single cover is great. Second - she's got that lad Astro off of US X Factor on the single version. And most importantly, the track itself is exactly the kind of catchy, cool-kids gloss-pop number we always dreamed of Cher coming out with when she first took to the XF stage. The cheese of Swagger Jagger has been ditched, replaced by something that is fundamentally more 'Cher'.

The video features her singing on her bed, flicking through some photos (that move like the ones in Harry Potter!) before getting out her iPad. Just an average day in the life then - for the record, the 'moving magazine' shots are our favourite, can they invent these in the near future please?

Roll Deep - Picture Perfect

If there's one thing you can count in the medley of Urban/Dance/Pop scene that represents the current peak of commercial chart-ready style, it's that following trends will usually help you get a chart hit.

And so we turn to the new one from Roll Deep, a track that couldn't sound more like Example if it tried. Of course, hook-laden dance smashes are no stranger to the multi-member collective - both Good Times and Green Light (No. 1 hits in 2010) built their mass appeal on a heady mix of club beats and pumping energy.

But Picture Perfect feels different; still every bit as irresistibly catchy, more streamlined, yet somehow more derivative. Coming as they did at the beginnings of a sea change, Good Times etc. felt like an unbridled cocktail of pop joy - but for all its considerable merits, Picture Perfect feels like it could just have easily been a cut from Example's Playing In The Shadows LP. And when the boundaries blur like that, something always have to give in the track.

But that aside, Picture Perfect is a sufficiently robust chart contender and currently stands as one of the more promising offerings likely to grace the commercial airwaves in early 2012.

Picture Perfect is released on the 23rd January.

One Direction - One Thing

One Direction, for me, still remain hard to pin down. Sure, their mass appeal to millions of screaming teenage girls is self-evident. But beyond that... what is there? What Makes You Beautiful, for all its generous helpings of cheese, was a great pop record. But follow-up Gotta Be You, stabbing at a kind of Wanted-style maturity - while still managing to chart in the Top 5 - seemed to come and go without much note.

What Makes You Beautiful, despite being every inch the teen boyband song, managed to traverse boundaries. Twenty somethings would dance away to it in clubs like their lives depended on it. With One Direction's album failing to make No. 1, the signs were there that fanbase alone couldn't sustain the band to ever-lasting success; they'd have to work to keep the public buying into them.

And that's where new single One Thing falls down. It's like a twin to What Makes You Beautiful, but one that has been locked away and left to atrophy. In itself, it isn't inherently bad, but everything about it spills out its stumbling attempt to recreate the successes of its predecessor. The same tightly packed guitar riffs and percussion, the same shouty choruses - what worked once simply can't work again when the result is so dull and self-serving. A missed opportunity for the band to expand on their sound.

TOWIE - Last Christmas

It was always going to happen. When a TV show becomes such a cultural barometer as The Only Way Is Essex, a 'themed' cover song is sure to always swiftly follow.

What better, or more seasonal, choice then than Wham's classic Last Christmas. With the cast looking all glossy and slicked up in assorted beauty products no doubt, they delivery a perfunctory cover of the track, complete with a healthy dose of sleigh bells.

Over the past few years, the chart battle between proper Christmas songs has always been dominated by golden oldies The Pogues and Mariah - could it be that this year, TOWIE achieve what the original Wham version failed to do and actually reach No. 1?

We'll leave you with one parting line from the song: 'I can't wait to get my Christmas vajazzle.'

Last Christmas is released on the 18th December and can be pre-ordered from iTunes here.

Seal - Wishing On A Star

Seal and soul. Two words linked with the smoothest of ease. As the lead single from Seal's follow-up to 2008's Soul album, Wishing On A Star sees the legendary singer teaming up with equally predigious producer Trevor Horn for a beautifully realised version of the Rose Royce track.

Seal captures all the essence and class of the 1978 original while polishing up with his charicteristic conemporary sheen. The result is suitably glossy, every instrument and vocal flourish picked out with crystal clarity.

Every snippet of the song feels like a vignette of the most sumptuous luxury wine, a heady mix of beauty and full-bodied flavour; a calibre that is carried through to the track's b-side Let's Stay Together.

Seal once again epitomises that magical instance of when singer, producer and concept reaches a perfect equilibrium. Another impressive chapter to add to the man's career.

Wishing On A Star is released on the 21st November.

Drake feat. Nicki Minaj - Make Me Proud

The anticipation for Drake's Take Care album across the internet has been more than palpable. In this age of instant gratification gratis downloads and On Air/On Sale, it's arrival seemed like an event, a day to indulge in its entirety.

Taken out of the context of the album, Make Me Proud bears less singular appeal than the title track, but boasts an equally star-studded guest vocalist in the form of Nicki Minaj.

Drake spins lyrics of his ideal woman over a choppy, tweaked spool of digital effects and big beats. For a rapper who's made a career out of lush, ambient textures, Make Me Proud sees Drake at his hardest, most biting.

Nicki positively leaks onto the track, cutting across Drake and pulling her usual cod British accent 'thing'. It's no repeat of her magnificent Eminem collab Roman's Revenge, but most crucially, it sees her fitting into the track rather than this being a predictable case of quick in and out guest role. As the track progresses, spiralling vortexes of synth rhythms cascade down over the raps, crafting a rich mix of textures that has come to characterise the classic Drake sound.

With her level of fame, it's key that Nicki doesn't overpower Drake, doesn't become the pinning point of the track - and thankfully, she doesn't; this remains 100% a part of Take Care, with Nicki's role being that of an exciting embellishment.

Make Me Proud is released on the 12th December.

Adele - Rumour Has It

Oh how Adele loves the blues. New single Rumour Has It is in many ways a continuation to the story Rolling In The Deep - again touting a girl-power message of defiance, it was always a standout from the star's 21 album.

With its swaggery chorus and bludgeoning, stompy beat, you're left wondering what it was that the cast-off guy did that was so bad to rouse Adele's anger into penning a song like this. It's impassioned to the point of bitterness; you can positively taste that acid-tongued disapproval flying from her mouth.

Obvious standout it might be, its heavy-handed nature never appealed overtly to me - except, it has to be said, when the track shifts mid way into a hauntingly soulful ballad. It is here that Adele will always reap her greatest successes - that soaring vocal line is sublime.

Rumour Has It is released on the 21st November.

Nicola Roberts - YoYo - The single cover!

Last week we enthused (like we normally do over Nicola) about her brilliant performance of YoYo on the Alan Titchmarsh show, now we have the single's cover art!

Like all the material from the Cinderella's Eyes album campaign, the styling is just spot on - the perfect accompaniment to Nicola's personality and plays neatly into the fairytale vibe of her album (this time it's the Princess and the Pea stories!).

What's more, we've got some more details about the single release of YoYo in January. The CD release will feature a live version of YoYo as well as a demo of the emotional Sticks + Stones, which we're sure will be just as emotionally bared as the original.

YoYo is released on the 2nd January.

[Official Video] The Wanted - Warzone

It was only a matter of time... until the Wanted stepped tentatively into the world of dubstep. Albeit, with their usual boyband twists, the usual kind of female-fanbase-friendly titillation.

For starters, the beat doesn't even kick in till a minute into the track - taking cues from Glad You Came, the boys have clearly worked out that the formula of emo-ballad-into-mover-and-shaker really works for them. A bit of smoochy piano, and then - to coin The Black Eyed Peas' phrase - the 'dirty bit'.

Just as Heart Vacancy served as the perfunctory lighters in the air single from their debut album, so to does Warzone continue the tradition. For me though, a song like this feels flat removed from the live setting. Pained and heartfelt it might be, shoving all kinds of metaphors of a warzone/relationship at you, but the trouble for me is that there's just so many better tracks on the lads' Battleground album they could have released instead.

The video plays up the damaged love theme too - positioning the boys on a ruined scrap of industrial land littered with smashed-up cars. It looks rather nice, but it doesn't match the cheeky bawdiness of the dynamite-in-car moment from their previous video.

After such a stellar run of singles - Gold Forever, Glad You Came, Lightning - this feels like a bit of a comedown, a limp end to the preceding amazing night-out. What's needed is something like the fantastic Invincible to bring the pace up again, because when the Wanted go up-tempo, there's really no beating them within the boyband market.

Warzone is released on the 9th January.

Adele - Turning Tables

Of the two tracks being touted as Adele's next single, for me, it is hands down Turning Tables that is the superior.

Rumour Has It might be fiery, it might have that Adele 'not a care in the world' swagger that everyone seems to want these days, but Turning Tables is a song of such heart-breaking beauty, such sumptuous delights that ever since I first heard, I've wanted it to play as a kind of soundtrack to the most dramatic moments of my own life.

Quite rightly, it builds on the best track from Adele's previous album - Hometown Glory - latching on to another gorgeous piano hook and pumping in a classic full-force Adele vocal. Everyone might rave about Someone Like You, but it's Turning Tables that's the real tear-jerker in my opinion.

So much has been said and written about Adele's runaway success this year, but putting aside all the hype and bluster, it's important to remember just how good her voice really is. Not many singers can truly blow you away, but here, Adele does every single time.

A truly magnificent song.

[Official Video] Rebecca Ferguson - Nothing's Real But Love

It goes without saying that Rebecca Ferguson is one of those X Factor contestants that really does have that elusive 'X' of the show's title.

It's that special something that you can't quite put your finger on, but that sparkles away as a brightly burning flame of talent.

Rebecca has the looks, she's got the voice, and she's putting both to good use in the rather delightful video for her debut single - we approve!

Nothing's Real But Love is released on the 27th November and her debut album Heaven (check out the album cover above!) follows on December 5th.



Kasabian - Re-Wired

Of all the assorted bands to launch from the swirling maelstrom that was the 2004 UK music scene into the bright spotlights of fame, Kasabian always struck me as the most consistent, the most aware of their craft and the continual creation of songs so replete in mass-appeal that there was never really any doubt they'd ever fade.

Until now, that is. Re-Wired is a sort of first, anxious stumble into that dangerous slope of 'the average' - something Kasabian for so long made a career out of being the polar opposite to. When all around them cloned indie groups were penning the same old drawn-out tunes, Kasabian were infinitely bigger, bolder.

There's a touch of U2's Achtung Baby album to the rough, industrial-scale percussion and the scratchy guitars. Kasabian have always been ones for interesting, involving sonic landscapes, and Re-Wired is certainly not one to break tradition. But the sense of indelible choruses that made that album such a classic, and which previously marked out the stepping stones of Kasabian's discography (Club Foot, LSF, Fire...) - they're gone.

With the Stone Roses reformed - one of Kasabian's most hallowed of idols and influences - the pressure is on. Days Are Forgotten - with its Morricone styled majesty - proved the band definitely still 'had it', so why such a faltering here?

Re-Wired is released on the 21st of November.

Nicole Scherzinger premieres Try With Me video

Nicole Scherzinger is one of our biggest pop crushes right now and we're just as much in love with her brilliant new track Try With Me as we are with the woman herself.

The official video for the track has just been unveiled and we think you'll agree Nicole looks amazing in it! She even gets to play piano in the middle of a waterfall - talk about unique locations for everyday past-times!

And speaking of videos - we've just seen that Nicole has over 131 million views on YouTube. She's a popular lady, that's for sure!

(Video) The Kixx - Breathless

'On June 2nd 2009, Cyrus Thatcher was killed whilst on active duty in Helmand Province, Afghanistan... Aged 19' - So begins the video for Breathless, the third single from Reading lads The Kixx. With this sombre dedication in mind, this big, anthemic ballad is even more the tear-jerker.

Attired all in black and with instruments in hand, the Kixx remain defiantly apart from their contemporaries: They are the boy band with intent. Their previous singles saw them delving into fiery uptempo electro-pop, but going by Breathless and a number of new tracks I saw showcased at a recent gig of theirs, the band's new direction is far more down the road of rousing guitar-driven numbers.

It's powerful, moving stuff and while Breathless might be overshadowed by the theme of death, it also stands as a true uplifting moment - a call to making the most of life.

Breathless is released on the 7th November.

You can also catch the band on tour at the following venues:

25/10 - ABC, Glasgow
26/10 - Academy, Liverpool
28/10 - Academy, Oxford
01/11 - Academy, Birmingham