“S! T! A! R! That’s what you are ’cause you’re big in Japan, big in Japan”. What is this, ‘The Summer Of Chanting Four Letters And Then Singing Something After It In The Chorus’? (Hooray if so!)
It’s a Dragonette feature from Martin Solveig’s album Smash and it also features Idoling!!! (yes, three exclamation marks!!!) a Japanese girl group in their fourth generation with the current members being members 22 to 26 <Boring Sugababes comment here>.
This starts quite similarly to Hello and has a hint of Brimful of Asha (“la la la la 45″ etc.) and has lyrics about life while becoming more and more famous “Keep my head down, look away from the flash/ I’ve got a plane full of people saying I’ve got a smash”. It becomes dancier after the first chorus and has a great bit between the second verse and second chorus before closing with dance beats.
The chorus is sparkling catchy chanty brilliance.
I don’t speak German, I can’t speak French
I interviewed Nicola last Monday. As I may have mentioned a million times before I’ve been so excited for a Nicola solo album since forever and I’m so glad everyone let me do it. I was excited up until the day itself when I was suddenly very nervous. There were a few moments where I was a bit like “OMG it’s so cool how you got to interview Lady Gaga, I didn’t think my two favourite pop stars ( blah blah embarrassing etc.)” I also had moments when my brain was blank. What may surprise you then is how well the interview’s turned out and there are bits of it that I absolutely love and thankfully she was interesting, funny and chatty. The only thing I’m worried about is if she’s said the exact same things to other people. Let’s hope not anyway! That’s out June 15th in Notion magazine so I’ll post a link to it then.
Since my rubbish phone has a Guardian app already on it and I was on a six hour train journey I came across this article about Nicola’s solo stuff. This kind of crap is exactly why I was determined to get to interview her. Seeing people say things like “Who would’ve thought that Nicola Roberts would be a one to watch?” makes me annoyed because despite my initial answer being “Me. That’s who.” I feel like pointing out that I’m not alone in thinking this and there are those of us who have known it all along or have at least known for longer than the past month and seeing people reduce it to ‘she used to be unloved, ginger and moody but now she has worked with Diplo so she’s a star’ is not only annoying but depressingly predictable. I saw this shit coming a mile off and it doesn’t do her justice.
I posted this great mash-up of Adele and Nicola (via atDoronandOn) on Tumblr last week and it got a big response but here it is in case some of you hadn’t heard it.
I had a bit of a rambling at atpopjustice about the way some blogs write about Cherrytree Records. Popjustice basically said that once you understand how labels work you look at what Cherrytree do and it’s refreshing. I don’t know if it’s just because I don’t understand labels, especially since it’s (apparently) “pretty obvious from their website” but it feels to me that Cherrytree are ‘very supportive’ of certain blogs and then those blogs are ‘very supportive’ back and whilst that is probably nice for them (because a lot of people don’t see how supporting pop blogs is a good thing) it seems a bit odd to everyone else and it’s odd how in comparison to the blogs going crazy over them other pop blogs and people in general are indifferent to Cherrytree as a thing or movement even if they like one or two of the songs or artists.
A few months ago I said that I wanted Lady Gaga to go on Letterman and she did and it was really good. ‘Fun fact’: Letterman’s band leader Paul who talks around 1.50 co-wrote It’s Raining Men.
Otherwise I’m absolutely obsessed with Born This Way, I like The Saturdays’ single and I like CockNBullKid and Nerina Pallot’s albums even though they didn’t live up to my expectations.
Nicola Roberts – Beat of My Drum
Since I’m interviewing Nicola next week for Notion I’ve got the album sampler and it’s on repeat.
Beat of My Drum is the first single. The verses are like a sing-songy M.I.A. (“keep up! keep up! keep up!”) and the bridge shows off some proper singing. The chorus is very cheerleadery and stompy. “L! O! V! E! Dance to the beat of my drum! Dance to the beat of my drum!” It also has a breakdown similar to the instrumental in the middle eight. The song is summery and Diplo’s part in the whole thing is not completely taking over, in that he hasn’t transformed the thing in to a heavy M.I.A./Major Lazer club thing (where Run The World (Girls) seems lazy on Major Lazer’s part). It’s very pop and it feels like it has a Nicola stamp on it.
You’ve probably heard the instrumental. 0.10 is when the verse starts, 0.25 is the bridge and 0.40 is the chorus and it ends at the end of the chorus.
YoYo sounds like a mix of The Fear and I Could Say by Lily Allen and it’s about being with someone that messes her around despite the fact that “All the other girls, they say you’re full of it and talking shit/ I know what the deal is I can handle it”. YoYo is a reference to the toy, not an attempt at being down wiv ‘da kidz’.
The sad one is called ‘I’. It’s her, a sitar (don’t panic) and some synth noises. They lyrics list a mix of insecurites that everyone can understand and ones that feel like an insight in to her life but you can also apply it to your own life like “I don’t like that you won’t let me speak controversially / because you think that it won’t sit well universally” could easily be about controlling parents as well as holding your tongue because you are in the public eye.
It has lots of great lyrics like “I don’t like nasty words / They hurt me like you’d never know / But don’t think I won’t put on a smiley face and do the show” and as atpopjustice points out this could be a reference to the song The Show which obviously makes the lyric ten times better. “I hope that one day we stop striving for perfection/ I hope that everybody likes my new direction” feels like a nod towards this song since it’s the most different and experimental from the songs on the sampler. “I’m scared to be some two-faced person’s little stepping stone” is something a lot of people feel but I’m curious if she’s talking about someone specifically. In these songs she’s showing that she’s been insecure and hurt but that she’s got used to it and is getting over it.
I think what will first hit people about the songs is how her voice sounds. We all know she can sing but it’s just doing completely different things to when she’s in Girls Aloud. In ‘I’ especially her voice is a super high-pitched screech at some points but sounds very rich. I think a lot of people have been expecting an ethereal, swooshy sound and that doesn’t come across in any of these songs. Overall the sound is British, personal pop with quirks which means she sits well with Lily Allen and Marina and the Diamonds.
I’ve been a fan of Nicola since the beginning and even though she’s been in the public eye for nearly ten years as a member of a big, successful girl group she still feels like a secret because it feels like she’s misunderstood and that people don’t see what makes her special. As Nicola is a big part of these songs I think that if you don’t ‘get’ these songs then you probably don’t get what makes Nicola so great.
Niki and the Dove – The Fox
Last summer I loved their song DJ Ease My Mind, a combination of bombastic Eastern European drum styles and an euphoric chorus. Since then I’ve been slightly underwhelmed by their songs until now. The Fox starts with slightly spooksome strings and whispery vocals, it builds up to an emotional “I carried your fears and your hopes father. They’re so heavy on my back. Oh you should know” and then the chorus kicks in with its fuzzy electro and there is a dramatic cry of “OOOHHH! OOOHHH!”
Mason – Boadicea (feat. Roisin Murphy)
I love this dizzying slice of icy electro. What can I say, Roisin Murphy has a godlike presence and combined with understated dancey pop and one of those gritty videos that seem popular with many dance songs (look through your hands if you’re not keen on blood) it has an addictive quality. I love all of it.
