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Story filed Tuesday, 06 January 2009 |
As our Twitter followers already know, we went to Sony HQ earlier today. Our mission was to have a little listen to the new Kelly Clarkson single, 'My Life Would Suck Without You'.
What's it like? Well, you cannot escape the fact that the intro is so similar to 'Since U Been Gone' you will probably think you are indeed listening to 'Since U Been Gone'. Lyrically the song does actually lend itself to thoughts of being a sort of 'Since U Been Gone Part Two' and one could, at a push, see it picking up that song's story four years on with Kelly realising that despite the earlier song's defiant howl of independence she does, in fact, want her ex back. 'My Life Would Suck Without You' is about the fella returning tail between legs ("guess this
means you take back what you said before, like how much you wanted
anyone but me") and a relationship starting up again and being quite
jolly in spite of all the previous nonsense.
The chorus goes "we belong
together now, forever united here somehow, you got a piece of me and
honestly my life would suck without you". Except it's not just "my life
would suck without you", it's "my life (MY LIFE!) would suck (WOULD
SUCK!) without you". "I know that I've got issues but you're pretty
messed up too" is another good line; we also like the middle eight bit
with "being with you is so dysfunctional, I really shouldn't miss you,
but I can't let you go".
It is structured like this:
1. Long intro with 'Since U Been Gone' guitary noise.
2. Vocal joins guitary nose with drumbeat.
3. Song explodes into chorus.
4. Song pulls back into second verse.
5. Chorus
6. Middle eight: everything drops out, 'Since U Been Gone' guitar noise starts up underneath vocal, drumbeats and Since U Been Gone guitar noise lead into big whooshing noise into...
7. Chorus which leads to hilarious 80s rolling synth drumfill thing (we don't know what it is but you'll know what we mean when you hear it) which leads to...
8. Final chorus, sudden end, guitar noise, 'fin'.
There is no bridge. NO BRIDGE! Production is halfway between 'Since U Been Gone' and Pink's 'So What', with some drum machines chucked in. The song is three minutes and thirty two seconds long - only two seconds away from the Optimum Pop Duration - and comes in at about 145bpm. This BPM means that nightclub rotation will inspire more in the way of hands in the air/pointing/shouting than proper dancing. The song is better than anything Kelly did before 'Since U Been Gone' and it's also better than anything she's done since 'Since U Been Gone', so it should keep people happy. It is a pop song.
Anything else you want to know? We'll do our best to answer your questions:
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is where you will find us.
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Story filed Tuesday, 06 January 2009 |
We had Toni Braxton's 'Get Loose' as our Song Of The Day yesterday and because we know the idea of a new Toni Braxton single is not exactly everybody's idea of an exciting start to 2009, we're writing about it here again today to make sure you give it a listen.
Points of note:
» It's a Darkchild production.
» It sounds like an R&B 'With Every Heartbeat' (sort of) (not at all).
» T-Br has recently been in 'Dancing With The Stars' in America, which means that the "dancing shoes" references in 'Get Loose' are a bit like the rug-cutting imagery in Alesha Dixon's 'The Boy Does Nothing'. It is all very clever. ('Clever' = 'staggeringly obvious and bordering on patronising but you've got to do what you've got to do in this climate etc'.)
» The "get your back up off the wall" business is v good indeed.
» The rest of the album will probably be shit but one decent song per album is sort of par for the course with The Braxto, isn't it.
» 'And them's the brax'.
» Oh dear.
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Story filed Tuesday, 06 January 2009 |
'You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)' is a song that will never go away because it is deep within the planet's collective consciousness and is as much a part of being human as having a big poo.
For this reason it will, from time to time, find itself covered, sampled, rejigged, reswizzled, re-edited, repurposed and reinterpreted. Eiffel 65, Jessica Simpson and Abs are just a few of the artists to have grappled with the track but the new Flo Rida track, 'Right Round', is pretty great.
It seems to be a song about oral sex.
HISTORICAL NOTE FOR YOUNGER READERS
A 'record' is like an old-fashioned iPod, except instead of holding 23 days' worth of music its memory could only contain about ten songs. Records can add a quality and a unique experience (ie loads of noise and clicks) to a song and for that reason some people inexplicably say they are better than CDs. They are people who prefer the ritual of placing the disc on the record player, pulling the arm across and gently allowing the needle to drop into the groove, ie the audio equialent of people who take too long making a simple cup of tea and by that we mean, of course, total mentalists.
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Story filed Monday, 05 January 2009 |
This sleeve - for Kelly Clarkson's comeback single, 'My Life Would Suck Without You' - has been raising eyebrows over the last few days. 'My Life...' is the lead single from new album, but what does the sleeve mean, and what does it help us to deduce about the song itself? The last album 'My December' was all moody and teenage and emo and nobody bought it, so does this 'My Life Would Suck Without You' imagery suggest a complete u-turn?
Here are the options.
0. Non-Bluff
It is a pop sleeve for a pop-titled single because it's a 'pop' song. The sleeve is sort of subversive because it's tacky and over the top which means that Kelly is perhaps sending a message to her fans about how she feels re this new (ie old) direction.
1. Bluff
It's NOT a pop song and is in fact even more of a substandard Evanescence fiasco than 'My December'.
2. Double Bluff
They want you to think they're trying to trick you into thinking it's an ironic sleeve and that it's a rock single when in fact it is pop.
3. Double Double Bluff
They know you're going to expect that it's a pop single pretending to be a rock single playing on the iconography of a pop single, and it is in fact a rock single.
4. Double Double Double Bluff
The fact that it's a rock single pretending to be a pop single dressed as a rock single in the guise of a pop single is too obvious - it is, in fact, a pop single.
5. Frank Bough.
It is probably not Frank Bough.
Anyway it'll probably leak in some sort of low-quality US radio rip type format pretty soon, so there's not long to wait until the dramatic truth is unveiled. In the meantime here are some details on the album - apparently it includes a couple of Katy Perry songs, including 'Long Shot'.
Look love, all we want is another 'Since U Been Gone'. Sort it out.
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Story filed Monday, 05 January 2009 |
 We know that on January 5 the prospect of a Christmas song is a bit like someone waving a pint of Aftershock in your face when you're attempting to negotiate your way through a bad hangover, but one thing we forgot to mention before The Big Day was the very pleasant electronic listening experience that was 'Winter Wonderland' by Rod Thomas and James Yuill.
You can download it from this page.
We suggest you listen to it today and while doing so think of all the fun you had over the Christmas period.
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Story filed Monday, 05 January 2009 |
The BBC's Sound Of 2009 list kicks off properly today. They announced the longlist last year, and now they're counting down the Top 5. At Number 5 is/are La Roux. Well done La Roux. We're not going to do a one-off 'Tips For 2009' thing this year (we didn't do one last year, either) and if it's alright with you we'll just carry on writing about new people we think are great, who make good music and who may or may not eventually experience success.
Incidentally, we invented a great new game when we were looking at least year's Tips For 2008 lists. It's brilliantly depressing. Basically what you do is you look at all the lists of new artists, and all the hyperbole, and all the 'tastemakers' banging on about the reinvention of the musical wheel. You look at the list and you ask yourself, in all seriousness, which of the acts slated to 'save the music industry' will EVER release a platinum selling greatest hits album. :(
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Story filed Monday, 05 January 2009 |
Eurovision: Your Country Needs You started on BBC1 on Saturday. In the picture above you can see Andrew Sir Lloyd Webber and UK Geffen President Colin Barlow 50 minutes into the 55-minute show, carefully mulling over some of the entrants who've been gradually and painstakingly whittled down over the course of various auditions and workshops... Shortly before the voiceover announces that "at the last minute the casting team has brought another entrant to light" and 21-year-old Jade, a former member of Sony BMG-signed girlgroup Trinity Stone, mysteriously appears and is immediately picked for the final six.
Do you know what, viewers, if this programme had been made by a company any less reliable and above-board than the British Broadcasting Corporation we might be wondering whether there was something slightly odd about that.
There were some great bits in the show, like Sir Llord Andrew Loyd
Webber trying to put an end to tactical voting by, er, flying around
the world telling people to tactically vote for the UK. These demands were, of course, being made before the UK's song or singer were unveiled - a brilliant illustration of the pomposity
and arrogance that says it's alright if it's rigged, as long as it's rigged
in our favour. After all those funny foreigners can't be trusted to vote normally because they clearly don't understand that it's the UK's right to do well at Eurovision - regardless of song or singer - because we invented Cliff Richard and The Beatleszzzz.
Then there's the overall concept that 'this year we're taking it seriously', which simply doesn't work alongside the Carry On Austin Powers 'war room' schtick, or the scenes of an 'ambassador's reception' with a Ferrero Rocher pyramid. Presumably the BBC want to seem as if they're taking it seriously so that if our entry does well they can claim a victory and get on with commissioning next year's series, but they also want to make sure they're covered if it all goes horribly tits up. ("Well of course we weren't taking it completely seriously etc etc.") Still, it's six weeks of Saturday night judge-based, phone-in-friendly tears 'n' tantrums filler, right? Could be about picking the new Milky Bar Kid, could be about selecting someone to get the leaves out of Arlene Phillips' gutters. Doesn't really matter what it's about as long as it keeps Graham Norton off the streets.
So - who's going to Moscow? We'll run through the contestants later but you can check them out on the BBC website if you simply can't wait for our hilarious and irreverent 'sideways look' at the shortlist...
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Story filed Monday, 05 January 2009 |
The Daily Mail (:() have more details but to save yourself clicking through the 'Exclusive story we all want to know' is about Cheryl FINALLY lifting the lid on how she really feels about 'Singapore' not making the final tracklisting for Chemistry - and what she thinks the 'Biology' lyrics are really about.
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Story filed Thursday, 01 January 2009 |
As 2009 rolls around, we've published our annual list of half-decent stuff from the last twelve months. The lists include albums and singles released in the UK during 2008, although Annie's 'Don't Stop' has been given a place in the albums list because it very nearly came out and probably won't come out in 2009 so this is its only chance. :(
» Popjustice's Top 104 Singles Of 2008
» Popjustice Top 29 Albums Of 2008
Did we miss anything? (Yes of course we did, we miss stuff every year.) Send your own favourites to
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and we'll give your suggestions some serious attention.
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Story filed Monday, 29 December 2008 |
 We think the cover of 'What Hi-Fi*? Sound And Vision' magazine says a lot about Cheryl Cole's 2008.
The magazine's editorial team could have picked a picture of anything in the world to go in that TV screen on the cover of their magazine. They decided to use one of Cheryl.
It doesn't really seem like much until you start to think about it: instead of a still from any of 2008's big movie blockbusters, or instead of a model, or instead of some family-pleasing shit like Wallace & Gromit, or instead of the winner of a football competition or a man going round a corner on a motorbike, Cheryl Cole is the one thing deemed suitable to show off how brilliant a television is, and the one thing predicted to sell copies of the magazine. Yes we know Cheryl's pop and TV career means that she embodies the magazine's sound and vision 'values', but still.
Things like this are a worry, though.
With her pop career, her TV career and her showbiz/marriage career Cheryl Cole is now famous for being Cheryl Cole. We desperately want Girls Aloud to take a year off but if they do, and if Cheryl throws all her attention into Being Cheryl Cole, will Girls Aloud simply become the band she sings in when she's not doing other stuff? Some would say they already have...
* For younger readers - you know your iPod? And you know your computer? Well, in the olden days your grandparents used to listen to their music on something called a 'hi-fi'. They would use them to play 'vinyl records' (those 'picture disc' Girls Aloud singles you've been buying have actually got music on!) and CDs (basically like CD-Rs but you couldn't record onto them - no wonder they died out). The 'hi-fi' would sometimes go in the corner of a room and people would listen to music together - don't forget that in the olden days people thought that music was fun to listen to with other people, and they hadn't yet realised that it was obviously far better to experience music sitting in the dark at your computer with headphones on.
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