The Chemistry is Dead

Beams are gonna blind me but I won’t feel blue

thechemistryisdead — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 01:34:17 +0000

Madonna – Future Lovers

“If you’re holding on to a dream that’s gone”

Dragonette – The Right Woman

“Whether you’re looking for corruption or a saviour”

M.I.A. – Marsha/Britney

“I’ve got imitators, haters and some psychos”

Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse – Revenge (feat. Wayne Coyne)

“I just didn’t understand, the ricochet is the second part”

The Magnetic Fields – I Don’t Want To Get Over You

“I could listen to all my friends and go out again and pretend it’s enough”

ABBA – Lay All Your Love On Me

“I feel a kind of fear when I don’t have you near”

Amanda Mair – Doubt

“I run from the people I love”

Frank Ocean – Novacane

“Yikes!”

Rebecca and Fiona – Jane Doe

“Someone has taken your heart…. just to leave it alone”

Juliet – Avalon

“You know I’d love you better”

Groove Armada – Song 4 Mutya

“That’s who has replaced me? What a diss”

Dusty Springfield – I Don’t Want To Hear It Any More

“(Oh, so sad)”

The Magnetic Fields – When My Boy Walks Down The Street

“Amazing, he’s a whole new form of life”

College – A Real Hero (feat. Electric Youth)

“A real human being and a real hero”

St Lucia – Before The Dive

“Never found an answer, never found a reason”

Johnny Cash and June Carter – It Ain’t Me, Babe

“I’m not the one you want, babe, I’ll only let you down”

Oh My! – Dirty Dancer

thechemistryisdead — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 06:36:11 +0000

At first I thought “Hmm no I don’t think so Oh My! and no I don’t give a shit about your parrots” because I found Run This Town annoying. THEN I liked Kicking and Screaming and now I like Dirty Dancer. I would prefer the rap wasn’t there but it’s not bad so I’m coping.

Sak Noel – Loca People

thechemistryisdead — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 19:52:09 +0000

When I heard Sak Noel’s Loca People I knew that it was one of those records that Scott Mills and freshers who remember it from their post-A Level holidays could make happen in September and now with it being Scott Mills’ record of the week I guess it will happen. I hope so because I love it and will be happy to still hear it in January (because DJs in British student unions/clubs only change their playlist once a year). When you’re around people who aren’t quite fluent in English it’s very infectious because after a bit it feels more fun to speak like that and just like us hearing ”I told to myself/What the fuck”, my “Johnny la gente esta muy loca” is an embarrassment. This has already been a hit in many European countries including Spain where Sak Noel is from so I hope that people, outside of the “BUT IT’S JUST NOISE AND A SWEAR WORD” clan, will like it.

Tove Styrke – Call My Name

thechemistryisdead — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 00:13:34 +0000

Tove Styrke’s debut album is one of those albums I’ve been meaning to listen to after lots of people were very positive about it but I haven’t got around to it. She came third in Swedish Idol in 2009 and the songs I’ve heard from her are great, including Million Pieces, a song co-written by Lykke Li. This is a new song that premiered on NRJ Sweden and it has a bit of a Kelly Clarkson pop rock feel but it’s much more electronic in the chorus. It’s very catchy but I can’t quite understand the lyrics because I think she’s singing waiting (boring) but she might be singing waving (amazing) and “I’ll be two steps over the water” must be a Kate Bush reference.

LIPS – Everything to Me

thechemistryisdead — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 01:00:25 +0000

This is a mellow and minimalistic song about how it would be nice to go on holiday because people aren’t at their best when they’re stressed out from work. LIPS is completely unGoogleable at the moment so if you want to find out more about her while downloading the song for free why not ‘Like’ her on Facebook or you could buy it from Bandcamp.

Laidback Luke vs Example – Natural Disaster

thechemistryisdead — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 02:33:43 +0000

I saw Example three times in one week a few weeks ago, twice at Glastonbury and once at Wireless and it was after seeing Changed The Way You Kiss Me ‘go off’ the first time that it was so amazing I had to be there again. One of the new songs he performed was Natural Disaster, a collaboration with Laidback Luke and this went off basically because the build-up of “need some air, need some space” is easy to latch on to, the piano riff is striking and obviously it does make an effort to go off properly.

Glastonbury Pop Picks Playlist 2011

thechemistryisdead — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 22:09:01 +0000

As I mentioned earlier in the year I got a free ticket to Glastonbury in return for being a Blogger Judge for Glastonbury’s Emerging Talent Competition and tomorrow/Wednesday is finally the time for me to accidentally impale myself with a tent pole. Here are 10 of the many brilliant acts playing.

Icona Pop – Friday – Pussy Parlure

Ke$ha – Friday – East Dance

Morrissey – Friday – Pyramid Stage

Example – Friday – John Peel

Yasmin – Saturday – East Dance

Benny Blanco – Sunday – Wow!

CockNBullKid – Sunday – Oxylers in West

Hurts – Sunday – John Peel

Robyn – Sunday – John Peel

Beyonce – Sunday – Pyramid Stage

Youth Kills

thechemistryisdead — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 11:16:56 +0000

Xenomaniacs may remember a time when Xenomania seemed to work with a lot of unknown artists and a lot of it seemed to go nowhere. You may remember a band called DEKADE (previously known as NiteVisions and were in The Electric City) who were Andy and James, sons of Duran Duran’s Andy and Roger Taylor, and you may also remember Lite N Dark, a boy/girl duo that met at Xenomania and the boy was Tim Talbot who used to play keyboards in a Xenomania band that never happened. All three make up Youth Kills, remixers, producers, band etc. They’ve been working with ex-Mini Viver Britt Love on some songs. While Come With Me is a bit too Robyn-‘esque’ I really like Can’t Stop Loving You.

They’ve also done some remixes for other people. My favourite remix so far has been Ayah Marar’s Follow You. There is no original version (how Florrie) so it sounds like a straightforward noisy dance song.

We know what art is, it’s paintings of horses

thechemistryisdead — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 15:32:25 +0000

Kanye West’s video for Monster starts with a disclaimer saying “The following content is in no way to be interpreted as misogynistic or negative towards any groups of people. It is an art piece and it shall be taken as such”. It’s difficult to say whether he’s joking at all with this or whether he’s seriously trying to tell people that they can’t make their own opinion and saying “No offence” before going on to be incredibly rude. My favourite bit of the song is Nicki Minaj and her bit actually seemed to have some thought-out idea behind it when I saw a clip a few months ago but this is edited so it’s meaningless and it just seems weak. Also, why aren’t Jay-Z, Rick Ross or Kanye on all fours in a lacy costume with their arse in the air? Ever? Because it takes something away from their status and they would look ridiculous.

Otherwise the video is of dead women in underwear and Kanye rearranges them so they’re in sexual positions. There is no real coherent story and it just seems like an excuse to get women not wearing much and a prominent theme is that the men have power over them. Dismissing misogyny as art is not fair on women. It’s also a rubbish and boring video.

I love Shakira and she’s someone I’ve admired for bringing intelligent sensuality with her naturally sexy image but in this video I feel like “Why does this pole need to be involved?” It panders to such an old-fashioned image for leery idiots which has been done before so many times and it’s incredibly dull. She is one of the best-selling pop stars around so I don’t understand why she’s acting like she’s desperate (something pole dancers in real life usually are because they need money) and it doesn’t add anything to a story so what’s the point?

Florrie’s video seems to compromise of a flash of cleavage, a shot of her flouncing the bottom half of her coat which she’s forgotten to close properly, legs akimbo in a tight leopard print thing draped over a drum, on repeat from different angles for four minutes. Am I missing something here? Is this a deep reference to something super arty and hipster? Is the fact that it’s filmed in black and white and she’s got a silly wig on meant to make me go “Ooh I see” while really not understanding what the hell this is meant to be? Who would think that this video is a good idea? While Begging Me saw Florrie in an 80s-referencing suit as a cool and in control singer this is just an uncomfortable mess where it’s not clear what she’s trying to be.

Nicola Roberts – Dance The Rain

thechemistryisdead — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 02:57:23 +0000

It hasn’t been confirmed either way whether this Mark Tieku and CockNBullKid produced track will make it on to Cinderella’s Eyes and it sounds quite bland to me so I won’t be disappointed if it doesn’t.

If something I think it would fit in quite well with what Cheryl’s been doing with the rain theme and the fact that it’s a safe electro-infused R&B style ballad. The bridge where CockNBullKid sings sounds really good and it’s cool to hear Nicola warble which shows a different side to her voice and there are some One Touch-esque elements to it which are nice but on the other hand those touches makes it sound quite dated. It is just a demo so there’s things to be added and taken away but lyrically it’s a bit empty despite some nice lines. While the idea of CockNBullKid contributing something to the album is cool this song makes me see that Nicola brings the pop sound naturally so the people she’s working with need to bring something different to it and that I like CockNBullKid more than her songs because they always turn out blander than I’d hoped despite her coming across as a force of nature.