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 Lana Del Rey, MØ, Jon Hopkins

There's some new music videos I'd like to share with you guys so let's get on with it!

First of all, we've got Lana Del Rey with her (apparently) latest single "Shades of Cool", one of my favourites from her new album Ultraviolence (expect a review in the near future). Musically it - along with the rest of the LP - represents a slightly more minimal direction for her, but the video is every bit as Lana-esque than anything we've seen before: there's smoking and dancing in slow-motion, there's an older man as her love interest, there's rows of palm trees, there's driving in a fancy convertible and yes, there's even the good ol' Stars and Stripes. Much American, such Lana, so wow. We're hardly speaking of a proper reinvention here but oh well, the song's quite amazing nonetheless.

Then there's the incredible Danish indie pop sensation MØ with her latest single "Walk This Way", taken from her 2014 debut album No Mythologies To Follow. I've still yet to review it but spoiler alert: it's good. Directed as a collaboration with the i-D magazine, the music video is a high school-themed romp and portrays MØ as a bubblegum-chewing queen bee of her high school athlete posse. The clip also takes MØ's trademark ponytail to a whole new level.





I've been totally obsessed with this singer ever since I saw her live last year, and it's starting to look like she's just about to break through internationally, too - she's been touring the States, getting a lot of media attention and even appearing on national TV! Check out her performances of "Pilgrim" and "Don't Wanna Dance" on Jimmy Kimmel Live!:









Mark my words, she's going to be huge. Such a promising talent, and she puts on an amazing, batshit crazy show, too!

And lastly, we've got Jon Hopkins with a new version of his amazing tune We Disappear from his latest album Immunity. Featuring the soulful vocals of Lulu James, it's an interesting take on the song. Her gorgeous voice complements the song beautifully, but in my opinion, the track's original, instrumental version was hypnotic and captivating in ways that this one isn't. Perhaps that's the magic of instrumental music: it allows the listener to project more of their own interpretation and imagination onto the composition. Still, the new version is stunning in its own way, and the combination of James's organic, classical vocals and Hopkins's futuristic glitch-hop arrangements make a fascinating juxtaposition.

Listen to new Lana Del Rey songs

A handful of brand new Lana Del Rey songs from her forthcoming album Ultraviolence have made their way to YouTube. Following the release of the lead single "West Coast" and the album tracklist, here's three more tracks: they're titled "Shades of Cool", "Ultraviolence" and "Brooklyn Baby". The songs represent a new, slightly toned down sound for the 'internet era torch singer' - the album seems to be stripped from the super-orchestrated soundscape of the Born To Die era. Yet, the fragile melancholy heard on the songs is distinctively Lana-esque, so the new direction feels like a natural evolution from her past music. The more minimal musical backdrop also gives her more space to experiment with subtlety both as a songwriter and a performer.

While I've never been the biggest Lana fan, I do usually find her music enjoyable, and that is the case with her new songs as well. I'm really happy that she toned down the instrumentation a bit - while Born To Die was a fine record, another LP like that would've been too much of an oversaturation of that type of sound. Anyway, here's the new material:

A personal favourite of mine is "Shades of Cool" but they're all very pretty tunes! Although, the piano of "Ultraviolence" sounds a bit too aggressive to blend in with the otherwise soft mix. It's almost demo-like in that sense so I hope it's not the final version.

And here's the music video for the ominous "West Coast" in case you missed it:





Lana has also shared an alternative cover to the album, exclusive to Urban Outfitters:

As you can see, it's a picture of her knee.

Lana Del Rey shares music video for "West Coast", releases album tracklist

21st century pop crooner Lana Del Rey has shared the music video for her new single "West Coast", watch it below! The mostly black-and-white clip is traditionally Lana with L.A. beaches, palm trees, cigarettes and leather-jacketed lovers in slow-motion, but at least the song represents a new direction for her and I really like it. The song feels dark but in a different way than anything on her previous records.





Meanwhile, she has also revealed the tracklist for her forthcoming album Ultraviolence - a collaboration with The Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach - and it is as follows:

"Cruel World"
"Ultraviolence"
"Shades of Cool"
"Brooklyn Baby"
"West Coast"
"Sad Girl"
"Pretty When You Cry"
"Money Power Glory"
"Fucked My Way Up to the Top"
"Old Money"
"The Other Woman"
"Black Beauty" (bonus track)
"Guns and Roses" (bonus track)
"Florida Kilos" (bonus track)

I sure hope the song "Fucked My Way Up to the Top" isn't autobiographical, though.

EDIT: Now the cover art's out there as well. Here you go:

A lot has happened in music lately

As you might or might have not noticed, I've been absent from the blogosphere for a week or so and phew, there's been all sorts of things going on! Here are some of my picks:

Arguably the biggest scoop is Nirvana's unexpected (or expected, depending on how you see it) onstage comeback. The iconic grunge group was inducted to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility (there has to be at least 25 years from the inductee's debut single; Nirvana's "Love Buzz" came out in 1988). The remaining members of the band then performed a handful of their songs with female singers, with Joan Jett, Kim Gordon (of Sonic Youth), St. Vincent and Lorde singing "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Aneurysm", "Lithium" and "All Apologies", respectively. The group also asked PJ Harvey to join them to sing "Milk It" but unfortunately, she couldn't make it. Check out the performances below:

















Hopefully the performances were also recorded officially so that we wouldn't have to rely on clips recorded with mobile phones.


So that's there. Then to other news:

Trailer for Lana Del Rey's 'Tropico' goes online

That's right folks, Lana Del Rey's mysterious short film project thingy Tropico now has a trailer. We're still not exactly sure what it's supposed to be - Lana herself has called it a "farewell project" which could suggest a retirement from the music biz, but on the other hand, there has been a bunch of leaked songs that apparently were supposed to be on a new album. Go figure. Whatever it might be will be revealed on December 5, the release date announced in the trailer which was published today.

According to Vevo's own statement, the film will be "an epic tale based on the biblical story of sin and redemption and features Del Rey starring as Eve." So there you have it. Indeed, it features a lot of Christian imagery such as Lana holding an apple and facing a snake. There are also people firing guns and Lana working as a stripper, quite likely to emphasise the more sinful side of the story. What we do now is that it will feature music from her Paradise EP.

Personally I have a theory, of course. Lana Del Rey is an image, a persona built by Elizabeth Grant, an American singer-songwriter. Musicians often build these alter egos to create something larger than life, something iconic that will last even when the people behind them won't. And what is the best way for a musician to become immortal? Exactly, die young. If possible, join the infamous 27 Club, a group of artists who have died at the age of 27, including the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain and more recently, Amy Winehouse. Then we have Tropico, a "farewell project" made by a singer who's - yes, you guessed right - currently 27 years old. I'm calling it: she's going to release the film, frame her own death, get her face operated beyond recognition (mostly by normalising her lips) and move to French Riviera to live a socialite life as "Hélène de la Croix" (or something like that) while being immortalised by the raving media, lamenting the untimely passing of the dramatic singer. Remember, you heard it here first!

Alright, jokes aside, here's the trailer. You might also want to check out the two teasers released earlier this autumn. The first one has Lana praying to John Wayne (?) while in the second one you can see her admiring Elvis, Marilyn and Jesus - or as she's stated before, her father, her mother, and her bestest friend.

Lana Del Rey disses Gaga in new song

Have you heard this track already? It's apparently a leaked demo (it feels like Lana keeps giving us new demos every other week) that appeared in the internet around two weeks ago. Lyrics such as "Stefani you suck / I know you're selling 20 million / Wish they could've seen you / When we booed you off in Williamsburg" indicate that Lana herself might not be the biggest fan of the mother monster.







As a matter of fact, another demo did surface just today! With already such a ridiculous amount of demos out you'd imagine she'd have quite enough material for a next album. Oh well.







Speaking of Gaga, she too has a demo out. The song is going to be called Burqa, or Aura, or something like that. It also namedrops the overly ambitious album title "Artpop". It's rather ludicrous and incoherent. It's like she had five versions of the song, then couldn't pick one and eventually incorporated them all. The same goes for the lyrics. And it's quite lacking in the melody section as well. But you know, judge for yourself:







[Edit: It seems that the latter two tracks have been taken down. Oh well, that's internet for ya.]