A Very Good Avril Song From Avril. Yep.

What with Tim Burton's incarnation of the much-loved book currently showing in cinemas worldwide, Wonderland is something of a big theme right now. And what better way to get in the mood for teacup-throwing rabbits and a Johnny Depp Mad Hatter with hair more orange than the entire Weasley family combined than an Avril Lavigne track!?

NO WAIT! COME BACK! THIS IS ACTUALLY GOOD!

'Alice', the leading track from the films soundtrack, showcases a much more mature Lavigne than we have been exposed to of late, opening with the perfect creepy distorted synths and then moving on to combine a raw (at first almost a little TOO raw) vocal and a dramatic piano lead chorus which perfectly capture just what the story is about. Well done Avril.

Check out the video below!

(Sorry Weasley family)

A x

Miss Keys Readies Single Number Four!

According to many sites this week, soul songstress Alicia Keys is reportedly readying the fourth single from her UK number 1 -and genuinely very good- album 'The Element Of Freedom', having only shot the video for third single 'Put It In A Love Song' with Beyonce two weeks ago.

The appearance online of both apparently official cover art and instrumental for sultry, hypen-friendly, Drake penned mid-tempo 'Un-thinkable (I'm Ready)' this week has signified that this will be the album's next single, following on from Beyonce assisted 'Put It In A Love Song'.

PERSONALLY, I adore this track, almost harking back to the 'Diary Of' album which made me fall in love with her in the first place! The lush (and I hate the word lush so you know it's gotta' be good!) production and the genuinely emotional vocal add up to what has to be a smash!

Check out the track below, and the cover art above!

A x

Rihanna's 'Russian Roulette' (that's alliteration that is)

In short, it's a little dissapointing.

The song ,'Russian Roulette', is a slow, haunting ballad, the opposite to what most were expecting (a clubtastic poptastic dancetastic tastictastic tasticfest) and is decent enough Rihanna material but it just doesn't feel like 'lead single from important follow-up album' material to us.

The song is lyrically everything you'd expect from a song with such a title ('pull the trigger 'and 'take the gun' being two notable examples) but sonically is very different, bringing together funny little pained Rihanna breathy sounds, gunshots and revolver wheel sound effects as well as a head bopping rock drumloop.

Props to Princess RiRi for serving us something different, but we can't shake the slight feeling of mild dissapointment. We think it's a grower. Check it out yourself, what do you think?

A x

///A very good song by the Tisdizzle...///

Below is a little song I'm very much loving at the moment, Ashley Tisdale's 'Hot Mess' taken from her current album 'Guilty Pleasure' which I inadvertently stumbled across thinking it was her new single (Which is actually 'Crank It Up' FYI)

The track is about the current trend of car crash celebrity and 2007 style Britney tabloid shenanigans (PLEASE never let me use that word again!) and Ashley scrutinizes how *insert female celebrity here* is 'parked in the driveway, parked sideways','waking up in her bra and her makeup' and generally acting a little bit like a Hot Mess funnily enough. MAKE IT A SINGLE MR RECORD COMPANY MAN!

Listen to the track! And check the sidebar on the proper YouTube link if you REALLY love it ;)



ATis's album 'Guilty Pleasure' is out now folks!

A x

Don't Call My Name, Don't Call My name...Lady Gaga

A week or two a go a snippet of an unknown Lady Gaga song titled 'Don't Call My Name' was leaked out into the blogosphere which has now confirmed to be a track called 'Alejandro' which has leaked in full from the upcoming 'The Fame Monster' re-release of her debut album.

The track is a move away from the cheap and slightly samely production of some of the original 'The Fame's tracks (I'm looking at you 'Money Honey', you too 'I Like It Rough') and blends in some crunchy Eastern European sounding synths and takes a VERY welcome break from the incessent lyrical styling of the original album (Usually akin to 'I LOVE MONEY I LOVE FAME BOYS BOYS BOYS DISCO STICK') to tell the tale of a relationship gone sour.

This track is exactly the progression I wanted Gagz to move towards, more serious yet still keeping the fun quirky styling that she has lended herself so well too. This Lady keeps getting better (speaking of, what's Christina up to?)

Check out the awsomeness below!

A x

Timbaland + Shakira + Lil' Wayne = Give Up To Me

And here is the apparent new single (what happened to SoShy!?) from Timbaland featuring Shakira and Lil' Wayne! It wins points for the line about 'hips like nunchucks' and is a 'generally good' Timbaland affair! I'm loving the chorus with Shakira!

Timbaland's all about the 'giving'! Listen to the track!

A x

How do you solve a problem like Mariah?

By completely remixing your rather-less-successful-than-anticipated album, that's how!

Numerous sites have been reporting that Mariah Carey's 12th studio album 'Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel' will be going in for a re-swizz and re-package less than one week after it's -eventual- release!

Mimi's latest offering has been something of a comedown after the successful return to music she enjoyed with 2005's 'The Emancipation of Mimi' and 2008's follow-up 'E=MC2', failing to meet the chart-topping success of both of these number one albums and stalling at number three last week behind Paramore and Barbara Streisand.

To be fair this whole project has been dogged with problems and issues ranging from the infamous 'buzz single' cover-up for initially-underperforming-but-eventually-climbing first single 'Obsessed' to the less than stellar performance she gave on one of last month's editions of America's Got Talent. So, to somewhat combat some of this negativity, super-producers Trey Songz and Tricky Stewart have announced that they will heading into the studio to remix every song on 'Memoirs', raising the tempo on some of the slowies ('I Wanna Know What Love is') and maybe even guesting on it themselves! (yay?)

Tricky says; 'I’m actually doing some remixing myself currently ’cause some of these records were so much fun to make. It’s easy to go in and do a remix. I’mma try to make it into something else.' (Is that not simply admitting it isn't that good?!)

Trey ads 'I actually only had a day to do it. I did it on my day off. [They were] very professional, very adamant on wanting to get it done. They made sure we had all we needed. I just went in and got it done.'

Sounds interesting to say the least -if not a little rushed. Another day another drama for this turbulent campaign!

(Sorry that image is so Perez-like, I'll stop!)

A x