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:

Check out the music video to Lily Allen's 'URL Badman'

So, Lily Allen's latest single from her Sheezus album is "URL Badman", her take on internet trolls and self-important bloggers. "I don't troll, I make statements", she mockingly sings, before designating her storytelling character "a broadband champion, a URL badman", thus confronting the negative online feedback she got from the music blogosphere in the aftermath of the "Hard Out Here" clip. The dubstep-lite tune is now accompanied with a music video where she's dancing amidst these "keyboard warriors" who suddenly turn all glitchy, like corrupted files, before stretching into rainbow-coloured smudges. That would be you, haters.

Lily Allen shares a bunch of unreleased demos

After releasing her latest studio album Sheezus a bit more than a month ago - a review is on its way... sometime soon-ish - the London-based pop princess Lily Allen has now shared five previously unreleased demos ("just for LOLS", she says), presumably outtakes from the Sheezus album sessions. Personally, I wasn't that impressed with the record as whole, and to be honest, these demos are miles better than the some of the more auto-tune-obsessed numbers of the album. Five demos can be listened to on Allen's Soundcloud page, though apparently, there were originally six more demos that have since been taken down. Go figure.

Anyway, here are the five demos:





















Seriously, what were they thinking when leaving these out of the album? They are amazing! "My Town", an infectious but bittersweet uptempo number, sounds like it could've easily appeared on her 2009 album It's Not Me, It's You, and the brilliant "I Don't Mind Babe" is a classic retro-inspired Lily Allen pop song with her trademark snarky lyrics: "Here's your coat, love / There's the door" and "I don't mind babe / Who the fuck are you?" are prime examples.

"I Was Born In The 80s" is a peculiar reggae-meets-dancehall hybrid, while on "Age of Beige" Allen's giving quite frank opinions regarding the quality of the music they're playing on the radio these days: "I turn on the radio, I can't believe what I'm hearing / Maybe I'm past it but this sounds like bullshit to me". "Stop Right There" is the slowest one out of the bunch, being a beautiful ballad with dreamy arrangements.

No but really, why these tracks never made the cut is beyond me. Instead, we got stuff like *shivers* "L8 CMMR" and "Sheezus". Okay, they're not that bad, but the album would be still so much better with tracks like these demos. Way better. Maybe they'll appear on a future deluxe edition of the album or something. And if not, well, make sure to check them out above before they too are taken down! This is the Lily Allen we were waiting for.

Lily Allen shares new music video 'Sheezus'

Okay, I really don't know what to think about this album anymore. Sheezus is shaping out to be an extremely reactive record that seeks to get attention by referring to other more 'current' and 'relative' topics, such as the Robin Thicke-shaming on "Hard Out Here" (he totally had it coming, though) or calling the album Sheezus after Kanye West's critically acclaimed (and somewhat egotistic) Yeezus. And with the title track of the album, it's hardly getting better - rather than relying on her own talent, she keeps name-checking other female artists that have been ruling the charts during her absence: "RiRi isn't scared of Katy Perry's roaring / Queen B's going back to the drawing / Lorde smells blood, yeah, she's about to slay you / Kid ain't one to fuck with when she's only on her debut". Her jab at Lady Gaga is quite hilarious (and appropriate) though: "We're all watching Gaga L-O-L ha-ha / dying for the art so really she's a martyr" (and a martyr is a role she really, really likes to play). But let's not get carried away with that, here's the video:





The rest of the song is just a commentary on her comeback to the music biz, with lyrics such as "Been here before, so I'm prepared / Not gonna lie though, I'm kinda scared". She dedicates a whole verse to having periods (not that there's anything wrong with that). The music video's way too M.I.A.-esque to ignore. And telling her peers to "Give me that crown, bitch / I wanna be Sheezus" with such a lackluster song? Yeah, good luck with that.

Then again, even she herself has dissed the singles, admitting on Twitter they are "docile pop rubbish" when answering to a disappointed fan. 

Uh-oh. Let's hope the album tracks will be redeeming, then. And while "L8 CMMR" was a bit awful, at least "Air Balloon" and "Our Time" were pretty good. I don't want to be that guy who's complaining about change and new directions and how the old material was so much better and whatnot.

That being said, here's a golden oldie and one of my favourite Lily Allen tracks, "Shame For You". Just for the sake of it.


               

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:

Lily Allen shares new single 'Our Time'

The release date of Lily Allen's forthcoming album Sheezus is drawing near, and another single has been released from the LP. This one's called "Our Time" and it is an ode to the hazy drunken nights you have with your friends. With lyrics such as "Bring some fags and bring some Rizlas / We gonna party like it's nobody's business", it might not be the most groundbreaking thing ever but it's still an uplifting pop tune for your carefree party nights. The record's shaping out to be pretty happy-sounding, isn't it? Fortunately it's also more "Air Balloon" and less "L8 CMMR", with less prominent use of Auto-Tune.

The funny music video depicts Allen's shitfaced adventures in London and less-than-appropriate taxi behaviour - watch it below:





The album itself can be pre-ordered over here.

Lily Allen's new album will be called... 'Sheezus'.

Oh dear.

And no, it's not a joke: not only did she reveal the album title on The Graham Norton Show yesterday calling it "a confident title choice - and a little nod to Kanye West", she then tweeted the following:

Is it just who's worried about how reactive her material seems to be getting these days, milking currently 'relevant' or 'trendy' phenomena for publicity? (Interestingly enough, that was also one of my main issues with M.I.A.'s Matangi.) First there was her comeback single "Hard Out Here" which played with references to both Robin Thicke's slimy dance floor anthem "Blurred Lines" and Miley Cyrus's horrendous signature dance move twerking, and now she names her album after Kanye's (quite narcissistic but also) extremely critically acclaimed Yeezus. Sheesh!

So far we've heard a couple of singles from the album, and another thing that worries me is her flirting with Auto-Tune. Why she does that when she can sing perfectly well without it is beyond me. Take her latest tune "L8 CMMR", taken from the soundtrack of the television series Girls for example:

Ugh.

In other news, "Air Balloon" is still a nice saccharine pop tune and now has an equally cutesy music video to it as well. It features exotic animals of the savannah, oversized mushrooms and a giant crucifix floating about in space. Not a single actual air balloon makes an appearance, though.

Lily Allen releases new single titled 'Air Balloon'

After first treating us with the lead single "Hard Out Here" which prompted some controversy due to its music industry bashing lyrics and music video, the Cockney pop princess Lily Allen has now released a second single from her forthcoming third album. This single is called "Air Balloon" and it's a happy-go-lucky saccharine pop tune that even feels a bit M.I.A.-esque at times. "Air Balloon" is certainly less controversial than its predecessor, although a music video is being shot as we speak so it might be too early to say. I do have a hard time believing it'll be as 'shocking' as that of "Hard Out Here".

Meanwhile, she has criticised the music industry for its lack of experimentalism, calling it "formulaic and predictable". Hopefully her third album will be more adventurous with musical styles and elements, then. Not much is known about the album so far, and even the album title (plus the artwork) remains unreleased. Apparently she's still "piecing it all together" but says that she's "really really proud of it". Speaking to Popjustice, she confirmed that in addition to electronic pop, the album will feature dreamy trip hop-inspired material as well. She has also earlier said that there will be "some feminist vibes going on" and, of course, "a bit of swearing".

Good ol' Lily.





EDIT: Here's the music video as well.

Now Lily Allen returns PROPERLY to music with a new single!

Well whaddya know, just yesterday I wrote how Lily Allen recorded this year's John Lewis Christmas advert and today she released the - supposedly - lead single of her forthcoming album with a music video to boot! How great is that. The song is a danceable pop tune called "Hard Out Here" and tackles sexism in the music industry. It's got way too many witty lines about the subject to pick examples from, but when a song opens with lines like "I suppose I should tell you what this bitch is thinking / You find me in the studio and not in the kitchen" you know she's not playing around. "Don't need to shake my ass for you 'cause I've got a brain" she declares, before continuing to assault the double standards of the way people regard men and women's sexual behaviour, today's twisted beauty ideals, and what have you.

The music video centers around the same themes with the clip beginning with Allen lying on an operating table, being criticised because of her imperfect looks. Then the video depicts her living a gold-plated life and toying with a variety of sexual imagery - bananas, bottles of Champagne bursting open etc., before stating "and if you can't detect the sarcasm, you've misunderstood".

She also notably bashes the repulsive slimebag that is Robin Thicke in both the lyrics and the video: in the lyrics, there is a reference to one of the lines from "Blurred Lines" ("Have you thought about your butt / Who's gonna tear it in two?) while the video refers to the part of the aforementioned song's clip where Thicke declares owning a sizable reproductive organ.

Yeah, she's got a sharp tongue and she ain't afraid to use it - good ol' sweary Lily's back. Too bad the song is slightly watered down by the auto-tuned chorus but other than that, it's a classically sarcastic Lily Allen pop tune. And here's the music video, hear/see for yourself!

Lily Allen returns to music on John Lewis Christmas advert

So, Lily Allen's back with a cover of Keane's "Somewhere Only We Know" in this year's John Lewis Christmas advert "The Bear & The Hare". The song will probably be a contender for the Christmas number one single this year as the songs featured in the department store's Christmas adverts have tended to do well in the charts: English indie singer Gabrielle Aplin's cover of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s "The Power of Love" topped the UK Singles Chart last year (although not landing the coveted Christmas number one spot), while Ellie Goulding's cover of Elton John's "Your Song" peaked at #2 in 2010. Allen's chart performance remains to be seen (although you can already bet on her chart-topping chances with estimated odds of 7/1, apparently), but do enjoy this lovely ballad nevertheless.





As you might notice, it's not exactly your average Lily Allen song - no swearing, no sharp lyrics, no shade thrown at past boyfriends. Then again, it is a cover of another song. For a Christmas advert. Lily Allen telling people to fuck off and ridiculing their bedroom performance is hardly what you'd want from a festive tune, now is it.

Meanwhile, Allen has revealed she's working on a follow-up to 2009's It's Not Me, It's You. The album, described by Allen herself as "empowering" with "feminist vibes going on", is set for a 2014 release though no specific release date has been announced. Also, it is currently unknown whether "Somewhere Only We Know" will be included on the album and thus serve as the lead single or if it will remain a stand-alone release. Stay tuned for more related news!