New music videos from Katy Perry, Lana Del Rey

More has happened in the world of music videos.

First of all, here's the new clip for Katy Perry's latest single "This Is How We Do", taken from her fairly good pop record Prism. I'm still unimpressed by her choice for the next single (come on, why not give "International Smile" a chance? It's one of the best songs on the album!) but the music video is a very typical Katy Perry video. It's fun, with heaps of completely unrelated stuff - whatever is the connection between ping pong or basket ball players, watermelon fans, animated desserts and the retro aesthetics of the clip is completely beyond me. But maybe it's indeed 'just' a Katy Perry pop video and should be taken as such, so instead of troubling our heads about any deeper meanings, let's just enjoy the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink clip, rich with colours, De Stijl references, twerking ice cream cones and even a Mariah Carey impersonator.





Then there's also, of course, the ever so dramatic Lana Del Rey and the music video for her new single "Ultraviolence". The grainy clip looks as if it was filmed with an old iPhone and is like the audiovisual equivalent of an Instagram filter but I suppose that's intentional. There's lots of close-ups of her infamous lips - sometimes wrapping around her lover's fingers, sometimes a piece of a tangerine - while she wanders around in a garden, wearing a wedding dress. Well, you'd expect much more from her, but then again it's very Lana-esque anyway. Although to that extent that she's starting to resemble a parody of herself. But maybe that's just me.

New music videos from Basement Jaxx, Lily Allen, Katy Perry

Twerking might've exploded in the mainstream in the aftermath of Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke's questionable 2013 VMA performance, but Basement Jaxx have been playing with the phenomenon for some time already - the duo's 2009 album Scars even featured a song titled "Twerk". Not that it'd make twerking any less cringeworthy, though. Anyhow, this bootylicious dance style now makes an appearance in the new music video for their latest single "Never Say Never", taken from their forthcoming LP Junto. The tongue-in-cheek clip features the "Twerk-bot", a high-tech robot designed to save the humanity by inspiring mankind to dance again. Or something along those lines. It's got everything you need: wi-fi, bluetooth, USB connection for charging your devices etc. It's compatible with iTunes and even comes with self-lubricating buttocks that are machine-washable and perfectly suitable for... wait a minute.





Then there's Lily Allen who has a new single on the way from her new album Sheezus, and this time it's "As Long As I Got You". A music video was uploaded on YouTube a couple of days ago, and it's essentially a tribute to the Glastonbury Festival, where she performed this year for the first time in five years. It incorporates bits and pieces from the festival, such as Allen dancing and singing to the song backstage and clips of her Glasto performance. It's quite fun and summery and all but also feels more like a festival trailer than a proper music video.

Also, is it just me or is she going through singles like there's no tomorrow? After "Hard Out Here", "Air Balloon", "Our Time", and "URL Badman", this is already the fifth Sheezus single. (In addition, the title track "Sheezus" was also treated with a promotional video, though it wasn't released as a single.) Hell, it's less than a month since the previous one! Yet, with the exception of the past controversy around "Hard Out Here", none have succeeded in making a major impact, with the latest two even failing to enter the top 40 on her home turf. Lily Allen's comeback hasn't really gone that smoothly, now has it.





Meanwhile, Katy Perry's apparently about to release a new single as well. And the song in question is...

*drum roll*

"This Is How We Do". Well damn. Perry's latest album Prism was a pretty good pop album (I gave it a four out of five) and it features a bunch of tracks that'd make great singles. She seems to have confirmed that "Legendary Lovers" would be released as one, while "International Smile" would make a most infectious uptempo summer hit. And still, she chose "This Is How We Do" that sounds like a Kesha throwaway and is certainly not the best the album has to offer. Sometimes I do question decisions that musicians make. On the other hand, "Dark Horse" - another Prism tune I couldn't stand - turned out to become a surprisingly massive hit so maybe she knows better... Nevertheless, here's the lyric video for the song:

Apparently, Katy Perry's next single will be 'Birthday'

Hmm. Katy Perry's quite good pop record Prism is about to yield another single and this one will be "Birthday". While I'd still prefer her to release either "Legendary Lovers" or especially "International Smile" (or what the hell, while she's at it, "Walking On Air"), I do get the choice - the track has some undeniable catchiness to it. It'll be much better than the trap-riddled "Dark Horse" anyway, I never really understood the buzz it succeeded in creating. Now Perry's released a teaser of sorts of the upcoming music video and it's hilarious. It features an assortment of "World's Worst Birthday Party Entertainers", all played by Perry herself. These characters include a past-her-expiration-date showgirl Goldie the Dancer (Goldie after her "golden nuggets"), an awkward Jewish showman Yosef Shulem the MC ("Did you hear about the rabbi who did free circumcisions? He only did it for TIPS!") and a social media-obsessed, nasal-voiced young lady called Princess Mandee (or as she's known on Twitter, @mandeerogersakalil_prncessmandee) who dresses up as a princess and paints children's faces, wishing them "Happy Birthday bitcheees". On a side note, she plays the different comedic parts pretty well!





The lyric video's out already so you might as well check that one out, too. Lots of frosting and confectionery skills have been used in order to present the lyrics in a literally sugar-coated manner.





Okay, I'm sure "Birthday" is going to be a fine single. And perhaps she's set "International Smile" aside for a later release 'cause it'd make a terrific summer hit for sure! Yes, that must be it.


EDIT: Coincidentally, this was also the release date of the actual music video so I added it here. It's hysterical: it features pranks where Perry participates in five different parties, each with a different disguise. Then she does all this crazy stuff there to dumbfound the partygoers, such as putting a mouse in her mouth, dancing around with an old man's leg prosthesis and causing a car crash. I was just literally laughing throughout the video, it was so freaking funny - especially the parts with Goldie. Watch it below!





Top image via katyperry.com.

Check out this musical chameleon: performs Katy Perry song in 20 different styles

Have you ever wondered how Katy Perry's latest hit single "Dark Horse" would sound like when performed in the style of say, Nirvana or Red Hot Chili Peppers? Yeah, me neither. However, that's exactly what Youtube user Ten Second Songs does and truth be told, it's pretty entertaining! He sings the song in 20 different styles, ranging from Queen and Iron Maiden to Michael Jackson and The Doors. And boy does he do it well. Personal favourites include the Frank Sinatra and Boyz II Men versions. Check out the amazing video below:





Phew, what a versatile guy. That's currently the only video on his channel but considering it was uploaded only one week ago, there's probably more similar clips in the making so watch that space. And here's the original version for comparison, with its music video which is just as hilarious as it's absurd.

2014 BRIT Awards: A brief recap

As you might now, the 2014 BRIT Awards were held last night, with some of the biggest names of the British (and global) music scene getting together and celebrating each other's work. The attendees and the viewers were treated with several live performances among which there was an interesting collaboration between Disclosure and Kiwi indie sensation Lorde. Now, let's be honest - we've heard the lead single of her pretty good Pure Heroine album far too many times already (catchy as it is) but here the song's remixed into a refreshingly new version. However, by the time the song speeds up and segues into "White Noise" with Aluna of AlunaGeorge coming to claim the stage, there's no question of which alt-popper's performance dominates in this mashup. Nice jobs from the both of them, anyway!

We also heard an Egyptian-themed live rendition of Katy Perry's latest single "Dark Horse", complete with her channelling a neon-clad Cleopatra. She does deliver a solid performance, even though I still can't get over the fact that Prism would've had basically ten better candidates for the next single (which is nearly every other song on the album barring "Roar" and "Unconditionally" which have already been released as singles, in case you missed it). I would very much prefer it without its silly trap elements. What is it with me and my disappointment in single choices these days...?






I'll leave the outfit commentary for fashion blogs, so let's move on to the awards. Deservingly, music icon David Bowie was awarded as the best British solo male, becoming the oldest recipient of a Brit Award at the age of 67. He wasn't present himself so his award was collected by Kate Moss. Fun fact: he's been nominated in the same category for four times before, the first of which resulted in a win in 1984, 30 years ago.

Elsewhere, Daft Punk and Arctic Monkeys were expectedly crowned as the best international and British groups, respectively, while the latter's latest record AM was chosen as the album of the year, beating Bowie's The Next Day among others. In addition to Arctic Monkeys, many BRIT Awards performers such as Ellie Goulding, Bruno Mars and Lorde received awards, while the latter's temporary partners in crime Disclosure were nominated in four categories but eventually lost them all, two of them to Arctic Monkeys. Such injustice - "White Noise" should've been the single of the year. And then there's One Direction who, like Arctic Monkeys, scooped two awards as well. *sigh*


Here's the complete list of winners:


British Male Solo Artist - David Bowie

British Female Solo Artist - Ellie Goulding

British Group - Arctic Monkeys

International Group - Daft Punk

British Breakthrough Act - Bastille

Critics' Choice - Sam Smith

MasterCard British Album of the Year - Arctic Monkeys - AM

British Single of the Year - Rudimental featuring Ella Eyre - "Waiting All Night"

International Male Solo Artist - Bruno Mars

International Female Solo Artist - Lorde

British Producer of the Year - Flood and Alan Moulder

British Video - One Direction - "Best Song Ever"

BRITs Global Success - One Direction

Review: 'Prism' by Katy Perry

2013 was quite a competitive year on the pop music front. While in my opinion the year was a bit lacking album-wise, there were several contenders for the best pop record of the year. Three candidates rose above others, at least what it came to public attention: Miley Cyrus's Bangerz, Lady Gaga's Artpop, and Katy Perry's Prism. As it tends to go, music journalists were more than enthusiastic to pit these three against each others, which wasn't helped by the fact that they were all released within a month.

To tell you the truth, I'm not really a big fan of any of them, and find the idea of media pitting female celebrities against each others as nothing more than lazy journalism (catfights equal 'shocking' headlines). There was one thing that did capture my attention, however: whereas both Cyrus and Gaga relied heavily on shock value in their promotional campaigns (seriously, they've taken desperate attention seeking to a whole new stratosphere), Perry's album promotion appeared much more moderate: gone was the in-your-face provocativeness of "I Kissed A Girl" and the muffin-shaped bras. Rather than opting for the candy-coloured rubber dresses of her past, she toned it all down this time, setting herself above the pointless exaggeration and let the music do the talking - hats off for that. In addition, "Roar" was admittedly one of the catchiest pop singles last year (I even chose it for my 'Best of 2013' list) so I wanted to see what the fuzz was all about. And boy was I pleasantly surprised!

Popheaval's Best of 2013: #20-11.

The end of the year is drawing near and you know what that means - best of lists! Yay, amirite? (Also, this is my 100th blog post! This calls for celebration.) And no music blogger would be credible without one of their own so... here's mine. It certainly wasn't an easy task to try and narrow down the best songs of a whole year into a set amount, let alone rank them. I was considering all these different kinds of brackets to do the job for me but ultimately ended up with an unbribable scoreboard (THAT TOOK AGES TO FILL). And of course I forgot to save it and then accidentally deleted the whole thing, having to do it all over again...

Phew, it sure took some time. And innumerable replays of songs. The face-offs were tough, but here's the final results. Lists like this are obviously highly subjective since they are merely a matter of personal taste (I didn't give two fucks about chart positions or commercial success). I have also probably missed a myriad of excellent songs - I've spent the whole past year discovering amazing songs from 2012 that I had totally overlooked in my last year's list. Furthermore, in order to prevent the list from becoming too monotonous and consisting of multiple songs from same artists/albums, I chose to use only one song/main artist.

There will also be another post on special mentions, but here's the first part of my final list with the final order - are you ready?

Here we go!