JLS - Eyes Wide Shut

See what JLS did here? Use that piano-into-all-out-club-banger template that worked so well on One Shot and repackage it into a slick new package. The result is Eyes Wide Shut, and it’s actually really good. Sure, it isn’t quite as epic as the aforementioned previous single, but if anything, it’s even dancier and best of all, it features man of the moment Tinie Tempah on it.

And there’s a lyric in it about ‘looking forward to it like a Saturday’. Now we wonder what that might be referencing... Anyways, we’re won over already. And while JLS still seem just as obsessed with the days of the week as they were on Love You More, this is a far better track and perfect for the clubs. It’s futuristic, dancey, got a rap in it; chart smash – in the words of Gordon Ramsey – Done.

Eyes Wide Shut is released 13^th February

Britney Spears - Hold It Against Me (Demo Version)

The ‘return’ of Britney Spears is something we always look forward to with baited breath. There was the first return, when she came back after years of not releasing any music, but even then her life was still consumed by all kinds of randomness, and the music reflected that. Then there was the proper return, when her Circus album came out, packed with amazing songs and an equally amazing accompanying tour.

And now she returns again, with new single Hold It Against Me. And quite possibly, she’s better than ever before. The demo version of the song is out and it’s a full on hands in the air slice of pop joy. The chorus is sublime on the level you have to listen to it again, just to check how good it really it is. And it is good. SO SO good. If the demo is this brilliant, God knows how mind-blowingly spectacular the real thing is.

What I love so much about Hold It Against Me is that on some levels its real classic Britney, the kind of pop music we haven’t really heard for nearly a decade. But equally its bang up to date, full of vibes of Ke$ha and Gaga (who of course owe so much to Britney in their own sound). Let’s just hope the rest of the album is as equally amazing as this track is, because if it is, Britney could easily find herself finally getting that UK No. 1 album she’s waited so long for.

Listen to the demo version of the song here.

Also, check out more Britney Spears information on MTV.

Cheryl Cole - The Flood

Last year, Parachute gave fans a taste of the kind of love-drenched pop Cheryl Cole was capable of producing – but whereas that was a mid-tempo workout with a suitably dance-focused video, The Flood represents the all out epic ballad, the perfect outpouring for all those emotions and feelings. It’s interesting to remember that Girls Aloud themselves hadn’t really brought out a ‘traditional’ ballad since their Chemistry album so the gentle touches of Cheryl’s new single make for a refreshing change. And by God is it good!

What I love so much about The Flood is that in essence it has two choruses, both as equally catchy as each-other. The poetic beauty hits you first, ‘You can’t hold onto water, it fills you up but never stays’, before the song its crescendo, rolling over you like a wave, sweeping you up into its depths. You can lose yourself completely in the layers of this song, each listen bringing something new. Those strings swelling in the background, the lazy tropical sounds of the beat, the sunny strumming of the guitar. This song transports you away to a magical fantasy world where it’s just you, Cheryl and the music – and it’s amazing. Her ad-libs are damn impressive too.

There’s a tenderness to the song, something the beautiful, picturesque – and the brilliant video only serves to further emphasise this. Set on the coast, all arty and windswept, it presents a more candid view of Cheryl than the hyper-stylised likes of the Fight for this Love and Promise This do. It’s all impossibly cute, like the song itself, picking you up on a buoyant swirl of love and emotion. This is Cheryl at her most natural, the acoustic flavours really suiting her voice. There’s a lush organic vibe to the whole thing, a sense of ‘rightness’, and as Cheryl sings ‘sitting on the shore all day, waiting for the tide to come’, we can think of fate and how we’re all waiting for that perfect moment.

The Flood is out to download on iTunes now.

The video can be seen on YouTube here.

The complaints culture – Why so negative?

Everywhere you look these days there seems to be someone making a complaint about a TV show. Whether it be people saying Come Fly With Me is racist, that Frankie Boyle’s comedy shows are too rude, that Rihanna’s X Factor performance was ‘too sexy’, or people casting aspersions that the whole X Factor show in its entirety is fixed, everyone seems to have something to complain about. When did we get so sour? I just can’t see the point in it. TV was designed as a form of entertained, as in something that we get entertainment, enjoyment from. So why choose to watch it only to vent your anger in some kind of explosive outburst that would be more befitting of a stroppy child?

To actually go to the effort to complain about a show, to feel that level of negativity about something that appeared on a small screen in front of you just goes over my head. In life we’ve managed to control many of our emotions, so to succumb to negativity in such a way as this and ‘choose’ to see something in such a bad light that you need to complain about it just seems silly. Why are the people watching these shows anyway if they find them so awful? Maybe on some level they’re craving the enjoyment these shows so clearly provide to millions of other people.

No, the real reason why people seem to complain goes beyond this. One of the best ways this was illustrated by Danyl-gate in X Factor, when everyone got into a bit of a fuss over some comments Dannii Minogue made to contestant Danyl. On the original instance of the show being broadcast, only a few people complained, but as soon as the newspapers printed articles about it, the number of people complaining massively increased. What seems to be going on here is people jumping on the bandwagon in a rather pathetic attempt to exert some kind of ‘power’. To some people, the act of complaining seems to ‘empower’ them. They feel that they are having influence beyond their own small, individual lives – exerting power on a national level. They are venting their negativity in a silly knee-jerk reaction. Surely it’d be better for them to vent this energy in a more constructive form?

In any other situation, yes, maybe these shows might be inappropriate; but the things is, this is TV, comedy, entertainment. It is a format designed specifically for people to sit down and enjoy, to be entertained, to laugh, to forget about the labours of real life for a little while. With shows like X Factor and Come Fly With Me, who’s viewing figures exceed 10 million, it is clear audiences love them – the percentage actually picking up the phone to complain miniscule in comparison. Yet it is the complainers that get all the press. Let’s hope next time when one of these complainers gets the urge to pick up the phone, instead of thinking ‘Oh My God! How can this be shown on TV, HOW OUTRAGEOUS!!!’, they’ll instead just change the channel and think ‘You know what, I don’t think that show’s my cup of tea’.

A very happy engagement for Sarah Harding

I’ve always loved Girls Aloud’s Sarah Harding, so when I heard she had got engaged, I was over the moon for her. Sarah had been a bit quiet in the Girls Aloud stakes recently, what with all the Cheryl and Nadine news, so it was a great time to remind us all what an awesome person she is. I’ve always adored her feisty attitude, the way at times she could seem a law unto herself, and then on other occasions displaying a more subtle, emotive side. Sarah is the Girl that, come an interview, you can always count on to pop up with some genius comment or memorable quote. Her acting roles are dead cool too, especially the film Bad Day (which more people need to go and see, because it’s awesome).

Sarah’s a girl who’s unabashed love for the likes of Primal Scream and the Stone Roses might seem out of place in a traditional girl band, but then again, that’s what made Girls Aloud so amazing, that they were so much more than that. Sarah brought that indie cool to the band, attending NME award shows and hanging out with the Arctic Monkeys. There’s something defiantly British about her and the ever-changing length of her hair is always a source of fascination. Whenever I’ve been to see Girls Aloud live, Sarah and Cheryl were the always the ones you’d have the most eyes for. They just knew exactly how to work the crowd.

So here’s three cheers for Sarah and Tommy, the prospect of two Girls Aloud weddings in a year is very exciting (and who knows, we might even have three if Justin pops the question to Kimberley too...).

You can also catch Sarah on Living TV’s Dating In The Dark very soon!

Some thoughts on Cheryl's Elle interview...

Cheryl Cole’s rather divine issue of Elle magazine is out in the shops at the moment and going beyond the simply sumptuous photoshoot, there’s also a brilliant new interview with her in their too. Now, Cheryl’s interviews are something I always really look forward to as I think there’s a lot of truth to her words. She has a way of saying things, a way of capturing the beauty and fragility of human nature.

One of my favourite quotes from the new Elle interview is this:

“Giving up would be the worst thing. To mope around and feel sorry for myself? I don’t think I could have handled things if I’d chosen to do that. I spent a lot of time feeling sorry for myself. But you can’t allow self pity to swamp you. You learn some hard things in life but they make you grow up a hell of a lot.”

There you have it. In a handful of sentences, you get an instant sense of not only Cheryl as a person, but feelings I’m sure all of us have faced at times. That is after all one of the many reason’s she is the ‘nation’s sweetheart’. She encompasses the normal person, the every-man and woman.

What’s most powerful about this quote, and the reason I like it so much is that on one hand it is the admission to a struggle, between good and bad feelings. More importantly though is the emphasis on choice; the way your state of happiness can be ‘allowed’. Yes, bad things happen to us, and it hurts at the time, but we learn from it, we don’t allow it to beat us completely, and it makes us all the stronger in the future. It’s a classic example, but one that still holds true.

When we feel bad there’s a colossal sense of feeling rushing round our heads, all these emotions and sensations – one thought often leading to another, and we just end up feeling worse. But here, we can see that just as easily as we can tip into this nasty cycle of negative feelings, we can convert that massive excess of feeling into something positive, to go ‘You know what, i’m going to take this feeling and ride on it to new heights, to beat down the negativity and look forward to the future.’

Duran Duran - All You Need Is Now

If I had a pound for every time Duran Duran’s newest album All You Need Is Now is ‘the next Rio’, I’d be a millionaire. But, the thing is, it really is. Not since that marvellous, seminal album have the band sounded quite this good. And not just that, for Duran have released plenty of good tracks since then (though quite how many is rather debatable, depending on how big of a fan you are) – but on this album, they sound energetic, re-invigorated, and most importantly – fun.

2004’s Astronaut was an amazing album, but in many ways, it did not sound like Duran Duran. It was futuristic in the extreme, consistent to the extreme and packed full of immaculately produced pop-rock classics. 2007’s Red Carpet Massacre was a miss-step, a rash grasp at ever-changing musical trends, the band latching onto man of the moment, Timbaland. The result was a jarring and rushed sounding end-product that just didn’t grab you the way you wanted it to. The singles were in place, but the makings of a good album were not.

Perhaps this is why All You Need Is Now comes as such a breath of fresh air then. It’s got that classic, Duran Duran youthful charm to it; that killer element that have kept them alive and innovative when so many other bands of their era have long since fallen. The title track is a brilliant introduction to the album, a cracking blend of old and new – something that defines this album. You’ll hear hints of instruments and sounds that you would swear came straight from Rio.

There’s contemporary touches here too, with producer Mark Ronson at the helm. Important note though: those coming to the album expecting a re-hash of Ronson’s Verion album, all horns and Zutons covers, will be surprised. He’s kept his touches on the band’s sound minimal, serving instead to pull everything together, a commanding force to better ensure the continuity of the final album. Oh, and there’s brilliant guest vocals from the Scissor Sister’s Ana Matronic and Kelis. The latter’s contribution is especially impressive on the epic, hypnotic, irresistible pull of The Man Who Stole A Leopard. It’s easily the band’s best ballad since Ordinary World.

Girl Panic!  is another favourite of mine, harking back to the likes of Careless Memories, displaying an aggressiveness the band haven’t played to in years. Most importantly, as an album, All You Need Is Now is a firm reminder that a band never comes with a sell by date. For Duran to be putting an album this good out 13 LP’s into their career is astounding. And judging by the top 10 position the album surged to on iTunes stores across the globe in its release week, the public tend to agree. Stunning, wonderful stuff.