The correct use of pie charts, pt 73

This just landed in my inbox, and I had to share...



...And now, I'm off on holiday for a week. More "hilarity" when I get back!

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Roisin Murphy begs for pennies!

Ultra-fabulous pop star Roisin Murphy (her out of Moloko) has been achieving moderate success with her second solo album, Overpowered.

The title track failed to get into the Top 40 because of some chart eligibility snafu, but the follow-up, Let Me Know, reached number 28 and the album climbed as high as number 20.

It's a truly great CD, which delves deep into the record box of dance and draws inspiration from Chicago House, Miami Bass, Northern Soul and every classic British dance record of all time.

Better still, you can whistle every melody in the shower.

So what's she doing busking for grubby coppers in Covent Garden? Partly, she's accepted a challenge from arty-farty BBC pretensionfest The Culture Show. More importantly, she is expanding on her promotional campaign's theme of wearing outlandish outfits in everyday places.

For example...




Here she is doing forthcoming single You Know Me Better, acoustic-style on the streets of London town.

Roisin Murphy - You Know Me Better


And, in case you haven't heard it yet, here's the video for Let Me Know.

Roisin Murphy - Let Me Know

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How cute is this?!

Here's Janet Jackson talking about junk food on Larry King's CNN show...

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That Mariah Carey video "in full"

You can catch this flick up on youtube (youtube)

Mariah Carey - Touch My Body


Scalextric! Yay!

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Estelle disappoints

Only one person in the world has listened to the super-groovesome bubbling electrofunk of Estelle's new single American Boy and thought to themeselves: "Hmm, this song is totally flat and lifeless".

Unfortunately, they hired that person to direct the video.

Estelle - American Boy


Presumably the director suffers some kind of reverse synesthesia (the neurological condition where you experience words and sounds as colours). That can be the only reason he has turned in such an uninspired, one-dimensional black and white video, when the song clearly screams out for a sun-kissed, bleached out, hand-held Super 8 film, with Estelle riding around Miami in an open-topped Chevrolet.

PS: If Kanye West is so great at rapping, why can't he think of a word that rhymes with seats other than... erm, seats?

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Payback

Last month, Sarah Silverman admitted to her boyfriend Jimmy Kimmel that she was fucking Matt Damon by putting together a music video and showing it on his US talk show (I blogged about it here.)

In his post-Osars show on Monday, Kimmel got his own back. Big time.

Jimmy Kimmel - I'm F*cking Ben Affleck


I've spotted Don Cheadle, Harrison Ford, Cameron Diaz, McLovin and Robin Williams in that clip. Who else can you see?

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Janet Jackson videos galore

Janet Jackson continued her comeback campaign by "taking over" Times Square yesterday (i.e. she appeared on two TV shows that are filmed nearby and signed some records at a Virgin Megastore).

First off was breakfast show Good Morning America, where she revealed plans for a tour in September - her first live dates in six years. She also performed new single Feeback and career highpoint That's The Way Love Goes, and taunted Simon Cowell by pulling a pair of grey trousers above chest height.

Janet Jackson - Feedback (live)



Janet Jackson - That's The Way Love Goes (live)


I'm not sure what was going on with ABC's cameras, but all those people holding up cameraphones in the audience probably got better shots of the show than the national TV network broadcasting it.

...Meanwhile, MTV has lifted its four-year-long, post-Superbowl ban on Janet and made her "artist of the week." This seems to involve putting her on TRL and getting her to shoot some spoof commercials for its top programmes - My Super Sweet 16, Making The Band, A Shot At Love, etc, etc,

The girl can act.

Janet Jackson - MTV ads

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Mariah vs 30 Rock

Here's a sneak peak at Mariah Carey's new video, Touch My Body. It features Jack McBrayer (who you might know as the delightfully clueless Kenneth from 30 Rock) in a series of clichéd r&b clinches.

Nice to see Mimi poking fun at her own image. If only she'd put the same amount of effort into the dreary song...

Mariah Carey - Touch My Body (preview)


And, just for kicks, here's my favourite Kenneth moment...

Kenneth on the Conan O'Brien set

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Goldfrapp vs Janet

Two of my all-time top five favourite artists released new albums yesterday - synth-fetishists Goldfrapp and common-or-garden sexual festishist Janet Jackson.

But just say you only had one crisp ten pound note to spend on new music this week - which of these albums should you plump for? Here is a handy guide.

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It's funny because it's true

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Is America creatively bankrupt?

She may have won a completely made-up Brit Award last week, but Adele can never make it in the US because she is a great big fat heiffer who ate all the pies, and then the person who made the pies, followed by his dog and a bus and a dinghy.

So claims music business commentator Bob Lefsetz* on his rather spiffing blog.

"It’s our culture, stupid. We don’t revere great music, we revere fame," he writes, arguing that Americans aren't inspired to write truly astounding songs any more because their radio stations are segregated by genre - thus robbing them of any inspiration - while the creative ugly types need not apply for the job of pop star in the first place.

He contrasts this with the UK , which he believes to be a hotbed of musical innovation, full of passion and raw sex, but also with The Feeling.

While it's all very forcefully argued, I'm not sure his outsider's perspective is entirely right. For starters, the US can embrace a porky pop star when it wants to, from Mama Cass to Missy Elliot. Secondly, the major labels here are playing it just as safe as their American counterparts by signing soundalike this-worked-for-someone-else-so-maybe-lightning-will-strike-twice acts like Mika (Scissor Sisters), Kate Nash (Lily Allen) and even Adele (Amy Winehouse).

Nonetheless, there is something more vibrant about our music scene when you compare it to the mess emo and hip-hop have gotten themselves into across the pond.

It's not happening in the mainstream, mind you. Look at this summer's festival headliners and see if you don't feel like it's 1996 all over again. (The Verve? REM? Rage Against The Machine???). Instead, pop music has entered one of its experimental, arty phases, while a subsection of indie has rediscovered melody and songcraft.

If we have anyone to thank for this, it's probably the BBC. As Lefsetz points out in his article, MTV and formatted radio have essentially stripped American music fans of the ability to genre-hop and discover new acts. Our young musicians are exposed to a cornucopia of musical styles via the likes of Zane Lowe, who will happily spin The Eagles Of Death Metal, Gnarls Barkley, Biffy Clyro and Snoop Dogg in the space of ten minutes.

So, if the licence fee was abolished, would our musical heritage be the first victim? I invite your comments or, failing that, plain indifference.

* Kind of

PS For those of you who care, I had a fantastic Oscars night working with a team of seven people putting together the BBC's exhaustive online coverage, fuelled merely by sausage rolls and kettle chips. You should read it. It is top drawer.

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One of life's eternal quandries...

Which would you rather have: A girlfriend, or a puppy? The new video from We Are Scientists has the answer...

We Are Scientists - After Hours

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Guillemots video

Literally minutes after I posted yesterday's story about the Guillemots, Polydor put the video up on Youtube. It is like the one Girls Aloud did for Something Kinda Ooooh, but without the dancing.

Or the hair.

Guillemots - Get Over It

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Goldfrapp: Three days to go

I have been very, very good about not listening to leaks of the fourth Goldfrapp album, Seventh Tree (I was first offered a pirated copy at the beginning of December!) It's finally out on Monday and I'm going to be first in the queue at HMV, having pulled an all-night Oscars shift at work on Sunday...

However, I have allowed myself to listen to the album's opening track, Clowns, as it has been officially released as a B-side to the A&E single. It as beautiful and ethereal as you could ever wish a pop song to be. On this evidence, the album is going to be as elegant and delicate as a butterfly, only with synthesizers and a banjo.

Here is a video:

Goldfrapp - Clowns


Oh, and in case you couldn't quite make out those mumbly lyrics, here they are in complete typed-out format.

Only clowns would play with those balloons
What'd ya wanna look like Barbie for?
Dear oh Lord, it's easy

Roasting, roasting, roast indeed, mahogany
Titties that live on on and on, on and on

Only clowns would play with those balloons
What'd ya wanna look like Barbie for?
Passive when I'm in record day & night
I'm watching you.

Super and, indeed, duper.
[via XO's Middle Eight]

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Uplifting like playtex

Here are six words I never thought I'd type: The new Guillemots single is amazing!

You remember the Guillemots, right? They had a Brit nomination and everything. Not ringing any bells? Maybe you remember that in every article ever written about the band, someone mentions that they once used a typewriter as an instrument. Tres avant garde, non?

Anyway, they've got a new album coming out and the lead single, Get Over It, sounds like those amazing indie-pop crossovers of the 1980s - like Electronic, New Order, The Cure, Billy Ocean (just kidding).

Sadly, nobody plays a typewriter on it. Instead, the band rely on two of pop's most fundamental elements: A shouty chorus and a bit that goes "wooo-woo".

For good measure, they also use the "spooky funfair" sound effect from Scooby Doo. Superb.

This Spanish website has an MP3 of the track. If you are anti-piracy, you'll have to settle for a live performance on Jonathan Ross, which completely robs the song of any subtlety.

Guillemots - Get Over It

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The Brits, then

In order of appearance...

Mika: Insufferable
Beth Ditto: Underused
"The" Osbournes: Grotesque
Take That: Bless
Klaxons: Which ones are the Klaxons?
Rihanna: Hoodie

Fearne Cottons... Now wait a cotton-picking minute (do you see what I did there?)

Why are the public being allowed to decide who wins the Best Single award? The shortlist is already based on the top-selling records of the year, so why not just give the prize to the one that sold the most (Leona Lewis). The phone-in element just ruins the pace of the show, and cheapens the whole affair. They don't let you phone in at the Oscars, do they? No wonder none of the important acts turned up. They thought it was the bloody X Factor.

Adele: Guv'nor
Mika again: Vomitous
Kylie: Not really dancing
Kelly Rowland: Not really Beyoncé
Kanye West: Numbskull
Mark Ronson: Even the voiceover lady points out he shouldn't be given Best British Male
Kaiser Chiefs: Just awful
Kylie again: Best International Female? What must Rihanna think?



Leona Lewis: Wow!



Foo Fighters: Sarcastic
Kate Nash: Fuck off. For the love of God, fuck off.
Foo Fighters: Cheeky
Mark Ronson and Adele and Daniel Merriweather and...
Amy Winehouse!!!!: Jaw-droppingly, monumentally fantastic.



Arctic Monkeys: Girls Aloud wuz robbed
Amy Winehouse again: Wobbly
Take That: Cuddly
Arctic Monkeys: Smirksome
Paul McCartney: Hello, granddad.

And that was the Brits. See you next year, eh?

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R.I.P. Madge Allsopp

Actress Emily Perry, better known as Dame Edna Everage's long-suffering mute bridesmaid sidekick, has died at the ripe old age of 100. She will be sadly missed.

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"I'm at the mall on a diet pill"

That right there is the best bit of the B52s new song, Funplex. You can hear the rest via the wonders of youtube (youtube).

B52s - Funplex


No idea who or what the B52s are? Here is a handy guide to their career to date.

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Eight reasons why Voice Of The Beehive ruled

1) Briefly successful in the 1980s!
2) Girls with guitars!
3) The rhythm section from Madness!
4) Making videos with an air of "gay abandon"!
5) Never actually having beehives!
6) The lyric "I drink at parties so I'll be who they think I am"!
7) Ridiculous dresses - described by Melody maker as "Astronauts Wives On Acid"!!
8) These days, lead singer Melissa Belland labours under the impression that she is a fairy!

Here is a slightly bleached version of their number 22 hit I Say Nothing. I like how it mixes into Manic Monday at the end, in a proper recorded-off-the-telly kind of way.

Voice Of The Beehive - I Say Nothing

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R&B - still breathing, but signs critical

R&B has probably been the most dominant musical form of the early 21st Century. From Crazy In Love to Maneater, the genre has provided some of the biggest anthems of the last five years - and it became a safe haven for pop acts in a time when pop was a dirty word (we're talking Britney, Justin and Gwen here).

Musically, 21st Century R&B is a world away from the impassioned soul music which inspired it. The beats are robotic - just listen to the clattering hi-hat on Survivor by Destiny's Child - and the instrumentation is doled out with all the generosity of a fat kid asked to share his fistful of wagon wheels.

Not that that's a bad thing. I've always been impressed at how a song like Kelis' Milkshake basically uses the factory settings on a couple of industry-standard synths to turn out a song that sounds groundbreaking and unique.

But over the last year, R&B's biggest luminaries seem to have stopped trying, or simply forgotten how to "be good" (I believe this is the technical term).

Ideas are being recycled, melodies are thin on the ground, and if I hear a vocoder one more time... Well, who knows what I'll do? I might even start listening to Mika.*

A case in point is the new song by Flo Rida. He's massive in the States at the moment - having been number one for weeks and weeks and weeks with his debut single, Low. His next release, Elevator, comes from the assured hands of R&B supremo Timbaland.

It's safe to say it is not his best work.

Timbo, a notorious musical magpie, brazenly nicks the "ella, ella" bit from Rihanna's uberhit Umbrella, and attaches it to a song of practially no merit. Both vocalists sound like their minds are elsewhere. The drum loop is lifted directly from Nelly Furtado's Say It Right and speeded up a bit. The video is full of booty-shaking dancers and blingtastic product shots of belt buckles and rolex watches.

It is either the last nail in R&B's coffin, or a badly signposted parody.

Flo Rida (ft Timbaland) - Elevator


* I am of course being ironic.

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Kanye West hit with a shovel

Kanye West has just posted a very odd teaser trailer for his new single, Flashing Lights, on his personal blog.

There's no indication how much of this clip will make it into the finished video, but the basic premise is that a woman drives into the desert with Kanye bound and gagged in the boot of her car. She then sets about his knackers with a giant spade.

Kanye West - Flashing Lights


I once had a dream exactly like that.

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Girls Aloud: Can't Speak French video

In which the Girls come over all Dangerous Liasions.

Cheryl's not in it much :(

Girls Aloud - Can't Speak French

It's not a bad effort, but if you're going to go to all the trouble of dressing up in Victorian frightwigs, you might as well go utterly nutso. For example:

Adam & The Ants - Prince Charming


The single's out in a month, fact fans.

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And relax...

Have you ever wanted to stop time? In this video, Aaron Sjogren has used some cool framing effects to do just that.

I recommend maximising the player to get the full effect.

Pause from Aaron Sjogren on Vimeo

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Isn't that Amy Winehouse's wig?

Lawks-a-lordy, it's the cover for the new Girls Aloud single and they've got their French Buns out.

Also: Horses.

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Your face, their sleeve

Have you ever wanted to be on the cover of an album, but found yourself to be musically hopeless and lens-shatteringly unphotogenic? Well, help is at hand...

Sleeveface is a website where music fans merge themselves into album covers, photograph the results and upload them to t'internet. The best ones put new spins on classic photos by showing what's happening just out of shot (Jazzie B with a bottle of vodka, David Bowie watching Scooby Doo).

Some of my favourites are below (click to enlarge). You can see almost 1,000 more at Sleeveface.com and the Sleeveface Flickr photostream.
















[via The Guardian]

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Random musing inspired by the Grammys

So, Amy Winehouse won five well-deserved Grammy awards last night, despite being denied a US visa to attend the ceremony.

She did, however, perform live at the event via satellite link-up. The songs, You Know I'm No Good and Rehab, were presumably chosen as a knowing reference to the singer's recent troubles. But, against the odds, the set was an absolute show-stopper.

Winehouse attacks the songs as though she's performing them for the very last time, spitting out her lyrics with ferocious passion. When she sings "I cheated myself like I knew I would," you can literally taste the bitterness. And, while her voice is husky with experience, it's all the better for it.

Amy Winehouse - Grammy performance

The set is a complete contrast to poor old Britney's MTV "comeback" last year. Winehouse looks as healthy as she has done for months, and she's completely in control of her audience. It's a mesmerising performance, and something of a turnaround.

I believe one of the reasons for this is that, since Winehouse went entered rehab a fortnight ago, the British press have pretty much let her be. Okay, we heard when she was rushed to hospital, and later when she visited the US embassy, but there were no blurred pictures from inside the clinic, and no "friends" spilling the beans. Even her father, Mitch, managed to keep his trap shut for a couple of days.

Britney, on the other hand, is granted no such grace. The paparazzi even impeded the progress of her ambulance so they could get the all-important shot of her on a gurney (worth around $100,000, I'm told).

One British paparazzo, Nick Stern, has even quit in protest at the way Britney's meltdown is being milked by the media. "Directly or indirectly, Britney is going to come to some horrific end, or a member of the public will," he told the Guardian.

"It's not what's being done, it's the way it's being done. As she continues to deteriorate psychologically, I just can't see a positive way out."

So, what's the difference between the two "troubled" stars? Partly, I suspect, Britney is bigger business. A global superstar with a squeaky-clean image, her downfall is the ultimate example of celebrity hubris. Winehouse, on the other hand, was known to be an oddball with a penchant for weed, booze and ridiculous hair before her very public breakdown.

But, perhaps, there's also a moral code in British journalism that has allowed Amy the room to recover? As Alistair Campbell pointed out in a recent lecture, Hugh Cudlipp - former chairman of the Daily Mirror - warned in the 1960s that he would sack any reporter who intruded on private grief.

The tabloid press pretty much make their money from intruding on private grief these days (poor old Cheryl Cole), but nonetheless, it's interesting to think there might be an element of self-restraint still being practised by the media in this country.

What do you think?

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Girls Aloud break indie in two!

If reports are to be believed, the entire world of indie has gone into meltdown over a Girls Aloud B-side. The song in question is called Hoxton Heroes, and the band have only released a 30-second snippet so far. Here it is:




And here are the lyrics:

You're off your face like you're number one
How many tracks have you sold? Hmmm, none
Walk round the place like you're number one
So why don't you write a tune that we can hum?

Just 'cos your dad knew the Rolling Stones
You've got the Primrose set in your cellphone
Don't kid yourself you're an indie clone
We've seen it before, get a sound of your own.

How inflammatory, eh readers?

Over at the NME messageboards, 'ver kids' are up in arms because (brace yourself) the title is lifted from the lyrics of an indie record.

"Why steal the title from a hadouken! song?" asks Alexelworthy. "You sad sad under-acheiving bunch of whelks."

NB: Girls Aloud were not molluscs last time we checked.

On the girl group's Myspace page, someone has even gone to the trouble of signing up and applying to be added as a friend in order to post the following sage thoughts. "THATS A DISGUSTING TRACK! AND THAT SONG SOUNDS RUBBISH ANY WAY. AND THATS COMING FROM A MUSIC STUDENT! WHO GIVES A FUCK ABOUT YOU SLUTS!!!"

Sadly, this sexism reflects the general tone of the debate. Alisoon Fersure calls Girls Aloud "tarts", Kay123x notes they are "bimbo clones" while Zoo-niverse says they "give women a bad name".

What this has to do with anything is unclear. Perhaps women's opinions don't count unless they look like Beth Ditto.

But my favourite comment of all is this: "pop = no credibility, indie nd anything else = credibility. u suck". From next week, the NME will be using this gem as their strapline.

But, while it's endlessly amusing to watch a group of teenagers having kittens over a pop song, what they all seem to be missing is that it isn't even an attack on their precious indie heroes.

It's an attack on bad indie, and the hangers-on it attracts. It's about the Kooks copying Razorlight as their drama school dissertation. It's about talentless liggers like Peaches Geldof and Kimberley Stewart latching onto these bands and claiming kudos because "their dads knew the Rolling Stones".

Hadouken! have even come out in defence of the song on their own website. "Hadouken would like to distance themselves from any offensive remarks and criticisms voiced by their fans towards the five ladies collectively known as Girls Aloud... Should the girls require any assistance or support in the epic battle against the evil forces of indie rock, particularly on their forthcoming tour, Hadouken would be keen to oblige in any way possible." (this comment was quietly removed overnight. I have no idea why).

But, as always, the last word should go to the eminently sensible Peter Robinson over at Popjustice HQ.

"The song might make more sense if melodic guitar music hadn't decimated the pop landscape and if Girls Aloud hadn't been quite happily embraced by most portions of the Hoxton set. Basically, it would need to be sung by Westlife six years ago to make real sense - but it is an 'enjoyable romp' nonetheless."

Exactly.

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Ready For The Floor. Or not.

I've been sitting on the fence about the new Hot Chip single for two months now. Before it hit the top 10, everyone kept telling me "this new Hot Chip single is totally amazing and it will change the world" and I was all "yeah, but it sounds like an kitsch remix of a novelty record and that bloke sings like Charlie Brown."

Nonetheless, the chorus has been swimming round my head like a singing tadpole for the last couple of weeks.

Every so often, I call up the video on my swanky on-demand telly service and attempt to reappraise it. But no. The video is one of the most teeth-grindingly irritating things ever to have existed, so that doesn't help.

Then today I saw the following clip of the band performing the song live on Jimmy Kimmel's US talk show. Suddenly, it seems, the song has grown balls of steel. There are a plethora of meaty guitar chops and the bloke in glasses now sounds marginally less weedy than my nan's garden.

Have a look and tell me what you think...

Hot Chip - Ready For The Floor (live)

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Peasants play pop

This is 100% my new favourite song. It's what Arcade Fire would sound like if they'd swallowed Girls Allowed - i.e. utterly magnificent.

Los Campesinos! - Death To Los Campesinos!


So who are Los Campesinos! anyway? Well, the group is named after an old Spanish word for peasant and, according to my fastidious research (three minutes on the internet), they are:

a) From Wales
b) Not from Wales
c) Partly from Russia
d) Amazing

If you're very quick, you can see them on the NME Brats tour this week. Otherwise, Death To Los Campesinos! comes out on 18th February, followed a week later by debut album Hold On Now, Youngster...

PS The lady singer is hot in a posh way, no?

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We like Lykke

According to Last.fm there is something called the "Swedish Invasion" happening. Before you get too excited at the prospect of eating from smorgasboards and playing chess with death, I have to inform you that this invasion is of the musical, not the military, kind.

Last.fm has based this dubious piece of reporting on the success of Robyn and Peter, Bjorn and John who, between them, have three top 10 singles. So it's less of an invasion, more of a poorly-planned booze cruise.

Nonetheless, there is plenty of good music emanating from those Scandinavian shores. The Knife, The Ark, The Concretes and other "the" bands are tremendous fun, and I've just discovered a lady called Lykke Li (I can only hope you pronounce her name as though you're saying "likely" in a deeply sarcastic tone of voice).

The video for her single, I'm Good, I'm Gone, features a who's who of the Swedish music scene. Ted Malmros from the Shout Out Louds directed it, Daniel Värjö from the Concretes is in it, and Robyn even puts in a barely-audible appearance on backing vocals.

Seemingly captured in one take at a rehearsal, the camera swoops and dives around the band, who stand in a ramshackle circle to keep themselves in time with one another. It really captures the joy of playing live and hitting on a vibe - with all the musicians dancing along and using their instruments as makeshift percussion when they're not required in the context of the song.

You'll be clapping along yourself by the end of the clip.

Lykke Li - I'm Good, I'm Gone


PS: Lykke Li has just released her debut album, Youth Novels, which is produced by Bjorn of Peter and John fame. You can get it off her webpage if you like.

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I hate Sarah Silverman, but...

...this clip from Jimmy Kimmel's talk show made me do a great big LOL. (For context, Jimmy Kimmel is Silverman's real-life boyfriend).

Sarah Silverman - I'm F*cking Matt Damon

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Remix corner

In which we find some of my favourite upcoming singles, retooled by some of the nation's foremost knob twiddlers.

:: The Ting Tings - A Great DJ (Calvin Harris mix)
Sproingy disco beats + shouty chorus = arms-aloft party anthem.

:: Duffy - Mercy (Thankful mix)
Better because it is longer.

:: Kylie - Wow (CSS remix)
This doesn't add much, save a few synth noises and a cowbell, but it frames Kylie's vocals much more sympathetically than the original.

:: Snoop Dogg - Sexual Eruption (Fyre Department mix feat Robyn)
Yes, that Robyn! She's turned Snoop's superfly 70s porno talkbox ballad into a europop 90s porno talkbox ballad. "Snoop Dogg, I'm going to sex you up," she trills. Amazing.

:: Janet - Feedback (various remixes)
The R&B one, the dance one, the Timbaland one. They're all here.

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When chat turns ugly*

Late-night US talk show lynchpins Jon Stewart, Conan O'Brien and Stephen Colbert have engaged in an increasingly bitter feud over the US Presidential race. Last night, it all kicked off when Stewart and Colbert stormed the set of Conan's show... to the tune of the Arctic Monkeys' Brian Storm.



*Or, a look at how television shows are struggling to come up with ideas during the Hollywood writers' strike.

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Paramore play songs for you

Tennessean teen-rockers Paramore are finally getting round to releasing their US hit single Misery Business in the UK - only eight months after it first hit the US charts.

As I mentioned back in July, it sounds a bit like Avril Lavigne, and the band have been known to attend Sunday mass.

They appeared in Jo Whiley's "live lounge" last Friday and did some acoustic warbling. Here are the results.

:: Paramore - Misery Business live [mp3 via Sharebee]
:: Paramore - Love's Not A Competition (Kaiser Chiefs cover) [mp3 via Sharebee]

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Moving pictures of Cassie and her song

I mentioned Cassie's new single, Is It You, in a somewhat hastily-written post back in November.

The song is now edging towards its official release, along with the film it's culled from Step Up 2 The Streets, which Cassie also stars in.

The music video features scenes from the film alongside the 21-year-old starlet performing the song in a dance studio near a grand piano. Unforgiveably, she neither stands on nor drapes herself over the piano á la Michelle Pfieffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys, thereby breaking one of the cardinal rules of pop videos with pianos in them.

Even worse, there is no dancing despite the following three things:
A) the song is built around a fantastic fuzztone guitar riff,
B) Cassie is a superb dancer
C) Step Up 2 The Streets is a movie about dancing

Despite these crimes against MTV, the video is quite tolerable and you can watch the youtube (youtube) version below.

Cassie - Is it You


PS The Soundtrack to Step Up 2 The Streets is shaping up to be pretty brilliant in an R&B / hip-hop kind of a way. Head over to Chris Picks to hear the film's two new Missy Elliot tracks. They're full of chocolatey goodness.

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Paula Abdul - Dance Like There's No Tomorrow live

It's like 1988 all over again. Except with the internet.

Paula Abdul - Superbowl preshow performance

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