The Pierces - Me And Him

I can't heap enough praise on The Pierces. I fell utterly in love with their Love You More EP last year and I think the same is most definitely happening with their new You'll Be Mine EP too. Aside from the title track being a quality slice of chilled out pop bliss, there's a real treasure of a ballad on there too in the form of Me And Him.

The song is bewitchingly haunting in its sheer beauty. It's almost nursery rhyme-like in its melody, all innocence and sweetness. Delicate guitar strums away, conjuring up images of campfires on starry country nights. This is music to strike straight at the heartstrings. I defy anyone not to feel even just a little moved by this song. It's just simply wonderful.

Pre-order the You'll Be Mine EP here.

Britney Spears - Till The World Ends

When I first heard Hold It Against Me my first thought was 'Wow, with a track like this, Britney's new album is going to be amazing'. And now, having heard another track from the album, I know it's not just going to be an amazing album, but that it is going to take amazing to a whole new level.

Till The World Ends follows in the same dancey, dirty electro vibe as its predecessor, but is quite possible even better. Soaring epic synths lead into a chorus that is ready-made to be shouted across crowded, heaving dancefloors. And that's what this song is all about, dancing. It's the very epitome of a club banger. All the right ingredients are there - classic, sexy Britney vocals... a hyper-catchy chorus... handclaps... DJ references... a sick bassline...

It really is as if all our Christmasses came at once - the perfect present for Britney fans eager for more. My favourite bit comes three minutes into the track when everything goes all crazy and the synths sound like they've been put through an atomic reactor. SO epic. SO awesome. SO amazingly cool.

This is Britney for a new generation, a new era. She's well and truly back, and if the rest of the album is even half as good as Till The World Ends, it could easily be the best pop album of the year.

Britney Spears - Till The World Ends by Varnfiesh

Parade - Rokstar

I have a big soft spot for piano ballads sung by girl bands, and the brilliant acoustic version of Rokstar by newcomers Parade are currently offering as a free download is one of the very best. The harmonies are spot on, beautiful and powerful in the chorus; which is just the way it should be. Here, the vocals feel real, the lyrics heartfelt and genuine. I love the 'I'm in love with a Rolling Stone' reference too.

There's something distinctly British about Parade and the energy and enthusiasm Emily, Jessica, Lauren, Sian and Bianca give off is undeniable. I can't wait for their album and going on the strength of songs like Rokstar and the amazing Louder - currently soundtracking the Rimmel adverts - it's going to be awesome.

George Michael, please do True Faith justice...

So, what we know: George Michael is doing a song for Comic Relief, but the best thing is that it'll be a cover of New Order's 1987 hit True Faith. Now, New Order are in my top five favourite bands of all time and True Faith is one of my favourite singles of theirs, so I'm really, really hoping George can do proper justice to the track. I haven't been this excited about a Comic Relief single since Girls Aloud and The Sugababes released their cover of Walk This Way. Good ol' Red Nose Day obviously has a fancy for classic 80s hits.

Anyway, please could this be more like the amazingness that was Rihanna sampling New Order's Blue Monday on Shut Up And Drive and not some boring middle of the road Radio 2 friendly re-hash of the track. George himself has brought out some great dance-pop tracks in the past so please can his True Faith cover continue in this tradition.

Oh, and all the proceeds from the single go to charity, which is always nice.

True Faith is released 13th March.

Jessie J - Abracadabra

If any of the tracks on Jessie J's debut album Who You Are stand out the most, it is this one. I love the chilled 90s R&B vibe to the whole thing. It's classy, well produced and shows Jessie's vocals and songwriting talent at its best. Remembering that Jessie co-wrote Miley Cyrus's Party in the USA, it is Abracadabra that sounds most similar out of her solo material, the chorus in particular sharing that vibe of sun-kissed bliss and youthful energy. It's a big feel-good anthem and would make a great future single.

Wonderland - Only Girl In The World (Rihanna cover)

Wonderland are one of the most exciting things in pop music right now. They're gearing up to release their debut single very, very soon - but in the mean time they've treated us to this amazing cover of Rihanna's Only Girl In The World. It shows off the girl group's vocals perfectly and it's nice to see the song work so well in an acoustic setting, so far removed from the all out floorfiller that is Rihanna's original.

Check out the girls' website here.

Catching up with Outcasts - Episode 6

I'm still loving absolutely loving Outcasts, it really is the best thing on TV at the moment. I think it's such a shame that the BBC have been so quick to move it to a late night Sunday slot just because it hasn't achieved good ratings/good public feedback. The BBC is supposed to be all about championing challenging new dramas and introducing them to new audiences, so by being so limp-wristed at backing Outcasts at the first time of trouble, it really goes against this. Hopefully they'll still have the faith to make a second series, because quite frankly, there's so much more to Carpathia and its characters that I want to find out.

As it stands, we've got only a couple of episodes left to tie everything up, a rather large feat considering the dramatic end to episode five as another landing ship was revealed, floating in high-orbit over the planet. And even more chilling, Julius was in contact with it. His creepiness goes without saying; whether it's his quasi-religious speeches or silver-tongued persuasiveness, he represents himself as the ultimate manipulator.

In Episode six we got a fascinating exploration into the introduction of the idea that there are 'things' out there on Carpathia. We saw Tate 'seeing'his children, convinced they were real and not a hallucination. And now everyone sees a creepy duplicate of soldier Josie Hunter. Her kids can tell something's not quite right, and so can we, already underminding the immense swell of emotion we felt when she stumbled safely home from the dangers of the desert.

One line got to me more than any other this episode though, when one of Josie's kids tells us the fake Josie that kidnapped them 'wanted to know what love was'. This sent a chill right down my spine, similar to how I felt when I saw the skulls and bones Stella uncovered in the previous episode. We have to remember that although Outcasts has kept many traditional sci-fi elements on the back-burner, what we have here is essentially, that good old staple - an alien. A being not of Earth. Whether it will be truly 'revealed' this series remains to be seen though.

Other highlights this episode were a couple of ACs breaking into Forthaven and turning all the lights off; the sight of a disembodied hand surging up through the sand to claw a tunnel under the perimeter fence was thrilling and acted as a nice little parallel story to all the Josie Hunter stuff.

I'd like to give mention to the series' brilliant music too; the main theme and the various variations of it are beautiful and fit the look and feel of the show so well.