Marina & The Diamonds - Power & Control

It’s solo-female-popstar-masquerading-as-band day on Headphone Icon, it would appear! The video for Marina’s latest cut from the wonderful Electra Heart surfaced today, and while I basically could have done the same thing with an empty room and an inspection lamp, it’s really quite good as well.

I described “Power & Control” as seething in my review of the album, and that’s something that’s perfectly portrayed here. Between Marina slamming her beau against the wall, her beau bouncing a tennis ball off the wall again and again in frustration, Marina throwing ice on her beau… There’s a lot of aggression here, but it’s all relatively contained because whoever ends up admitting their rage first will lose the power they have over the situation.

Basically, for a video that clearly wasn’t that expensive to make, it does a great job of harnessing the push-and-pull nature of the song; the struggle for every inch of ground in a relationship and of course the screaming frustration at having to play these stupid fucking mind games in the first place. I like how the videos for Electra Heart are getting progressively darker as well, as if the deeper we go into this character, the bleaker it gets.

Bottom line: it works. You don’t need a big budget and David LaChapelle to nail a music video. Who knew?

Well, I did, but I was just going for a passive-aggressive dig, which is appropriate for the likes of “Power & Control”, don’t you think?

Florence + The Machine - Spectrum

I’m in two minds when it comes to this video. On one side, it’s hard to deny that it’s vibrant, well-shot, and overall a feast for the eyes with Florence an excellent centrepiece. On the other side, well… It follows the trend that all the videos from Ceremonials have so far in the sense that, while visually impressive, I don’t think it fits Florence at all.

Throughout the whole album campaign, it’s been like someone sent Florence to charm school between albums, except it wasn’t effective enough to be convincing. In her videos, her television performances, and even kind of in the music, we’ve been left with an excess of effectless, boring pomp. The general idea for promoting Ceremonials has basically been to hang guaze from the ceiling of everything and have Florence stand as stationary as possible.

“Spectrum” does little to change that. On an album that seems to be determined to sweeping and graceful (Yet failing to hit the mark on both a lot.), the song stands out as one of the more genuine, visceral moments. With its massive chorus, whip-crack drums, and stunning harp solo, it’s an arresting anchor on a bloated album. David LaChapelle has done more for this song than others did for the likes of “Shake It Out” and “Never Let Me Go”, but there’s never point during all the ballet dancers and the sparkling water and flaming red hair where it all properly comes together. It’s basically an animated photoshoot that, as striking as it is, ultimately fails to capture the intensity of the song.

Basically, I feel like Florence has been a wild thing barely contained throughout this era. One my most enduring images of Florence ever is from the video for “Rabbit Heart” where the sunlight is causing a halo around her head, just before she throws said head forward and surges into the chorus. Similarly, I miss the Florence who pounded her feet on the floor of cathedrals and bounced off the walls as dead leaves flew around her. The Florence of Ceremonials wouldn’t be caught dead doing these things, as Matron might give her into trouble for getting dirt on her frock.

As a video, “Spectrum” was always going to live and die by how well the passion of the song was conveyed. Hell, that’s a general rule for all of Florence’s music videos that has sadly been ignored for a while in favour of an elaborate, disconnected visual. I haven’t properly liked a single video of hers since that hideous redo of “Dog Days Are Over”, which was where this problem first arose in the form of go-go dancing smurfs (?!?!).

It’s still one of the best singles of the year, but what Florence really needs to do next is get back down in the dirt and get some blood back underneath her fingernails, because God love her, she’s fucking incredible like that.

M83 - Outro

A few things have prompted my posting about this song. The first of which is the fact that I just bought a ticket to go and see M83 for the second time this year (The first time, Anthony was ill and there was a ridiculous curfew of 10pm.); the second is that I never really formally retracted my dismissal of last year’s Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, so why not do so by heaping praise on one of the album’s most brilliant cuts?

“Outro”, as the name suggests, is the album’s final track. Anyone who knows M83’s history will know what being the final track of an M83 album means. Previous finales include the soul-soothing “Midnight Souls Still Remain” from the previous album, and of course the blistering “Lower Your Eyelids…” from Before The Dawn Heals Us, which is so bright and glorious that you’ll need to shut your eyes when listening to it or have them burned out of your skull. The point is, the last track on an M83 album is always incredible. With so many hard acts to follow, it would seem impossible for “Outro” to deliver and yet it does, outshining even some of its predecessors.

It’s no surprise to me that it’s being used in the recent World of Red Bull commercials, as it’s the perfect soundtrack for cutting through untouched snow on peerless mountains on your snowboard, for launching yourself into the air with nothing but some kneepads and a bike to break your fall, and for every other eye-popping, life-affirming experience you could possibly have. It’s incredibly melodramatic, stirring, ridiculous, epic, sweeping, towering, and in the context of the album, it’s the end of the dream. One final burst of colour and light before you wake up and leave the world of which you are an eternal sovereign and maybe, just maybe, make that world your reality.

On that subject, it closes one of the most brilliant, ambitious records I’ve heard in a long time. Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming just blooms and blooms throughout its run, endlessly rewarding the listener. Anthony Gonzalez said he wanted the album’s structure to mirror that of a dream in the sense it that he wanted to be slightly disorientating, a little off, not very linear and completely and utterly limitless. If “Outro” isn’t the sound of someone touching the very top of the sky, then I don’t know what is.

                                  You’re buying stars to shut out the light
                                      We come alone and alone we die
                                       And no matter how hard you try
                                          I’ll always belong in the sky

I’ve always found it funny how people take wildly different meanings from the same thing. I mean, we’ve all been there: whether it’s music or literature of even something your friend has said. We all have something we’ve taken to mean a certain way, got attached to our definition, only for the creator of that thing to shit over our parade and tell us what they actually meant.

The initial preamble for Electra Heart felt as if Marina Diamandis was trying to cover all her bases in that respect. It was an album about the American Dream, archetypes, subversion of clichés, turning selling out into a concept… I would be lying if I said I didn’t initially dismiss all of it as pretentious waffling regardless of how good I was finding the output (Teaser single “Radioactive” remains one of the finest singles of last year.). It’s only quite recently that Marina, presumably tired of staring at the stunned expressions of confused morning television presenters, just settled on one simple definition. Electra Heart, according to its creator, is an album about love. Isn’t that just a little bit lovely? The heart of Electra Heart is full of love.

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Little Boots - Every Night I Say A Prayer

Such a good amount of pop music has come out recently! You’ve got Marina’s new album just around the corner, Nelly Furtado’s comeback track being a beast, and just to top off the inanity of it all, you have Little Boots striking back this year with one of the year’s finest singles so far.

If I’m honest, I wasn’t expecting much from Victoria with this second album. Hands was an album that was swallowed by its own shimmering gloss, so it’s a little surprising to see Little Boots return to the scene with this more stripped back, focused sound. This track and “Shake” seem to promise an album that will be far more house-orientated, and if these tracks are anything to go by, it’s definitely a step in the right direction.

Anyway, enough of the irrelevant pontification. This track. With the magnificent Andy Butler in the producer’s chair, we get a song that knows exactly when to pull its punches. On the verses, it gently beats along with Victoria’s much-improved vocals positively gliding over the instrumental, before we get to a chorus aided by this stabbing piano riff that transforms it into something truly colossal. As always with music, words do a shit job of actually giving it any kind of meaning, but basically what you should glean from all this is that the track is brilliant. It’s a style and sound that suits Little Boots so much better than the likes of RedOne et al did on the first album. It’s also a sound that compliments her voice perfectly. Whether it’s just because of the change in sound or a genuine improvement, she sounds just amazing.

I’m hoping a mild resurgence of house-influenced pop is on the horizon. I mean, let’s be honest here: dubstep has been drained of all it can offer to pop and then some, might as well move on and suck something else dry.

Nelly Furtado - Big Hoops (Bigger The Better)

Chances are the video I’m linking to will taken down in the next few hours, but it’ll do for the purpose of gushing about this, one of the best singles of the year so far.

Nelly Furtado returns with something that makes her six year absence from the pop scene (Unless you count her Spanish album, which you don’t.) both fleeting and agonisingly drawn out at the same time. The former because “Big Hoops” instantly reminds you just how shit hot she is at this whole music thing, and the latter because it reminds you of the countless atrocities committed in the genre by her contemporaries while she was away.

It doesn’t really have a chorus, but when all three and a half minutes of it are crammed full of hooks, it doesn’t really matter. And that bassline that runs through the song like music’s sexiest spine; holding it all together and driving it forward at the same time. Nelly’s vocal can be a little shrill in places, but she falls into line with the rhythm seamlessly and effect ends up being more hypnotic than annoying. It’s just a fantastic song, and for the second time today, it’s another example of how something really shouldn’t be this good, yet the execution and the wonderful popstar behind it make it so much more. And it’s produced by Darkchild! Who knew he doing anything else these days apart from producing songs for Britney to reject?

Oh, Nelly. Welcome back. Bring on The Spirit Indestructible!

Gossip - Perfect World

I’m not as familiar with Gossip as I’d like to be. Yes, we were all the victims of “Standing In The Way Of Control” refusing to fuck off and Beth Ditto’s alarming antics in the wake of that success, but they’ve released quite a few things since then. The ones that have caught my ear the most being the aforementioned Skins soundtrack, and the lush “Heavy Cross”.

“Perfect World” advances the sound of “Heavy Cross” in the sense that it relies on the soft side of Beth’s voice to anchor the whole thing in the verses, before she bellows out a massive chorus all about she and her lover are elevated to perfection in this new world they’ve built together. The whole thing is really very brilliant and even a little bit beautiful, and once again serves as a reminder to Beth Ditto’s arresting performance as the front woman for the band.

Apparently, the upcoming album A Joyful Noise is produced entirely by Xenomania’s Brian Higgins. Personally, I’m surprised he and Beth managed to not kill each other for long enough to actually record a full album, but I guess they work together far better than you would think. Especially going by this.

Alexandra Burke - Let It Go

I’ll be honest: most of the time, the only X Factor contestant that I’ll give any sort of attention is the lovely Diana Vickers, but considering she’s constantly playing a game of bait and switch with news of her second album, we’ll change gears and talk about another former-contestant who’s releasing good music.

“Let It Go” is nothing new, I’ll admit. Pop music has told me to put my hands up in the air so much in the last few years that my arms are now in agony, and this one inparticular wears its influences shamelessly on its sleeve (Hi, Robin S!), yet it all just works seamlessly. Whether it’s down to random luck of her A&R, or her team properly mining her best assets and finding a song perfect for them, this song fits Alexandra like a glove and plays right into her strengths as a popstar.

A rousing vocal, an arresting instrumental, and a simple premise all just come together to create something really special here. “Let It Go” is the perfect example of the execution of an idea elevating the idea itself. On paper, this shouldn’t be anywhere near as good as it is, and yet here we are.

It’s out at the end of next month, with Alexandra’s second album Heartbreak On Hold following the week after.

Marina & The Diamonds - Lies (Acoustic)

Before I properly got on the Marina train, the only songs I really liked from her were the quieter, more intimate moments of The Family Jewels where the bizarre vocal ticks were abandoned, Liam Howe’s clattering production was stripped away, and Marina’s strengths as a singer and songwriter shone through.

“Lies” hits all those spots for me. It’s apparently got a bit of a makeover for the studio, but regardless of how its tempo ends up, I feel like its content is the first hint of heart of Electra Heart. The story of a loveless relationship built on the facade of perfection is the first time Marina has humanised her larger than life alter-ego so far, and it makes me even more excited for the album. If that’s even possible.

Are back.

                                 Like the sun, like the light, like the flame
                                 Like the storm I burn through everything
                                    Like a bomb in the night, like a train
                                  Thundering through the hills, let it rain

When the second single for this album was released a few weeks ago, I posted a rather damning review (Can I describe my own stuff as damning? Might as well.) of it and ended it with a threat to sum up what I thought was Madonna’s current creative state when it came to her music. Back then, I was expecting this album to be the nail in the coffin to her artistic relevance. The two singles we had were underwhelming and terrible respectively and everything we had heard about the album didn’t bode well. The potentially hideous pop hydra of Benassi/Orbit/Solveig producing the whole album, excerpts of dire lyrics, news of Nicki Minaj being on more than just one track… Basically, it looked like MDNA was going to be a car crash even more horrifying than Hard Candy, and that any shred of brilliance Madonna still had was gone.

It turns out that MDNA is a record that no one was really expecting, for better or worse. In fact, it would probably be safe to say that no one got exactly what they wanted. However, what I’ve learned over my years as a pop fan is that half the time we really don’t have a clue what we really want until it’s in our laps. Instead, Madonna delivered a ferocious, defiant, and at times incredibly raw and schizophrenic album, and what do you know? It’s not only what we actually wanted, but what we needed as well.

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                                              I bought you a black tin box
                                           Something to put your jewelry in
                                 But it struck me as the property of the childless.
                                              It was cold out and warm in

We go from Madonna’s banquet of homosexuals to a sophomore indie-pop album. You don’t come to my blog for the consistency!

Miike Snow pretty much came out of nowhere a few years ago with their debut and no one really knew what to do with them. Made out of producing duo Bloodshy & Avant and singer Andrew Wyatt, they occupied a tiny territory of bulletproof, experimental indie-pop. I use the phrase bulletproof because as a record, the quality of Miike Snow was simply undeniable. It was crafted by people who, quite simply, know their shit. After years of crafting solid songs for countless artists, there was a sense that the reigns were let go with this project. No longer hampered with a record label’s demands or another artist’s manager breathing down their neck, they took every crazy idea they had, rolled them into a ball and chucked them onto a CD. The result was remarkable and one of the best albums of its year.

However, I’m sure we’ve all come across those acts who we simply can’t imagine a second album for. That’s not to say that I didn’t want it to happen, I just couldn’t imagine where the band would take their sound from here. It turns out we were in for more of the same with Happy To You, except the chaos and explosive nature of the debut have been tempered, and what we’re left with something a little more reserved, more mature, and perhaps even a little more emotional as well. Worry not though, it’s equally amazing.

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Madonna - Girl Gone Wild

NOT GAY ENOUGH.

In all seriousness, it’s a rather well put-together video for such a horrifying trainwreck of a song. The second chorus in particular where she nails the choreography and it all looks so fast-paced and seamless is a particular treat.

That song though…

The last time I saw Florence in a live setting it was 2009. It was the summer that Lungs was released, and if I’m honest I was so drunk the main thing I remember was being near tears during “Cosmic Love” and the fact she kept going on about these plastic cups she had that glowed in the dark. There was also an empty birdcage next to her and fake flowers adorning her microphone stand. What I’m trying to tell you is that three years ago, Florence’s live show was rather basic and intimate. I go to a lot of live shows, and if I’m honest, a lot of the acts that I see in a venue like ABC very rarely hit venues any bigger. There’s absolutely no shame in that; ABC is a pretty sizeable venue, and for the amount of people you can get into it, venues don’t get much better.

And yet, three years and a new album later, the dead flowers have been replaced with sleek, mirrored panels, the birdcage is now a massive art-deco style wall with screens that looms behind the band, and there’s an additional 13,000 people in the audience. Things have undeniably gotten bigger for Florence, but I’m more than happy to report all the original charm of that initial tour is completely intact, and she’s more spectacular than ever.

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Marina & The Diamonds - Primadonna

As far as turnarounds on artists go, my change of heart with Marina has been an entirely rewarding one. It’s refreshing as I feel like my affection for most acts has soured rather than sweetened in recent times, so it’s nice to find an act that is doing the fact opposite in such a brilliant manner.

I don’t think I’ve made any effort to conceal how little time I had for Marina before the incandescent “Radioactive” blew my mind, but as we stand now, Electra Heart is one of my most anticipated albums of the year.

“Prima Donna” is the lead single from the project, and I don’t mind telling you that I’m not its biggest fan. It’s not bad at all, but the amazing thing about “Radioactive” was how it married Marina’s eccentricities with a more commercial sound to produce something fantastic. Here, I feel the two styles are at war rather than in sync with each other. Dr. Luke’s production hammers any joy or life out of what should be a massive chorus, and the rest of time it provides as a distraction to the interesting structure of the song, rather than accentuating it.

It’s still alright, but I don’t understand why it was favoured over “Radioactive” apart from maybe fitting her concept a bit better, but then why release the former in the first place?

Meh, it’s not an issue. I hope this does well and the album is as incredible as the video here. Regardless of how I feel about this song, the way Marina has executed such a strong concept through this campaign is basically every pop fanatic’s wet dream come to life. Keep up the good work, Marina!