Britney's version of Tom's Diner is surprisingly good

To help us mark the time before Pretty Girls - Britney Spears' forthcoming collaboration with Iggy Azalea - hits the internet, here's a little cover version she's done with Giorgio "quite literally the king of electronic music" Moroder.

Tom's Diner was originally an a capella album track by Suzanne Vega, before dance act DNA turned it into a club smash in the 90s. The lyrics are a vignette, with Vega sitting in a cafe reading a newspaper and observing the people around her.

The mundane subject matter seems like an odd fir for the singer who brought us "Work Bitch" and "Slave 4U" - but it turns out that Britney's limited, husky voice is a good match for Suzanne Vega's deadpan delivery. Although you have to suspend disbelief when she sings "I pour the milk". Britney has a team of people to do that for her.

I'm not so sold on the backing track, mind you. Maybe we can go back to the a capella?

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Kylie and Giorgio are killing it

That kaleidoscope of Kylies ("Kyliedoscope"??) is a screengrab from the video for Minogue's collaboration with Giorgio Moroder, Right Here, Right Now.

Heavy on the vocoder, and shimmering with string cascades, the single tips its hat to Moroder's work with Daft Punk; while Kylie goes to the very top of her register for the chorus: "Staring in your eyes / I see the sunrise / There's nowhere else but right here, right now."

Written by Moroder, Karen Poole and Patrick Jordan Patrikios, it is much better than anyone had any right to expect.

Due out on 30th January (and "impacting 15th March," whatever that means), it is being trailed with a 15-second teaser video, which appeared on YouTube this morning.


But it has already leaked in full, thanks to the leaky cauldron that is the internet. I blame Edward Snowden.

Giorgio Moroder feat Kylie Minogue - Right Here, Right Now

Interestingly, the release says Moroder's new album is "Title TBC" - meaning he's dropped the clunky moniker 74 Is The New 24, which was announced last November.

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Easter round-up: Kylie, Prince, Lana and more

Because they're all servants of Satan, pop stars don't take Easter off. So while we were all lazing around and enjoying the bank holiday weekend, tons of new music started cropping up online. Here's a selection of the best...

1) Prince - Breakdown
Actually, this song of pentinence is quite in keeping with the Easter theme.

"I used to throw the party every New Year’s Eve / first one intoxicated, last one to leave," sings Prince, who catalogues the material things he used to crave, and how they left him feeling empty.

The first release from his freshly-inked Warner Bros deal, Breakdown is also his best ballad since Gold. Sadly, it's only available in the US.


PS: Prince just tweeted a link to a video for Breakdown, where the song is played over a scene from Analyze This, in which Robert DeNiro bursts into tears during a television commercial. Most odd.




2) Lana Del Rey - West Coast (radio mix)
Producer Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys has tweaked Lana's new single to make it stand out amidst the Aviciis and Calvin Harrisses of daytime radio. It's not vastly different, just a little crisper and forthright.





3) Jack White - Lazaretto
Warning: Contains violin solo.




4) First Aid Kit - My Silver Lining
Swedish folk duo First Aid Kit were one of the surprise hits of last summer's Glastonbury - easing everyone into Sunday morning with a set full of lilting harmonies and astutely-judged covers of Bob Dylan's One More Cup Of Coffee and America by Simon & Garfunkel.

Backed by the Omaha Symphony Orchestra, their new single My Silver Lining is a rolling station wagon, ploughing through the dusty plains of, er... Stockholm. This week's record of the week on 6 Music, it's taken from Johanna and Klara Söderberg's forthcoming album Stay Gold.




5) Kylie Minogue - Golden Boy
An off-cut from Kylie's Kiss Me Once album, released on vinyl for Record Store Day. It's good b-side material, basically.




6) Coldplay - Magic (Giorgio Moroder remix)
This wouldn't sound out of place on a Pet Shop Boys album. And I mean that as a compliment.




7) Lily Allen - Sheezus
This is all going so well until Lily starts singing about her period.




8) Janet Jackson - Untitled new project
Legendary producer Jimmy Jam popped up on Twitter this weekend to hint he'd been back in the studio with his longterm muse, Janet "Ms Jackson if you're nasty" Jackson.

In anticipation of some exciting @JanetJackson news let's refresh our memories of her greatness. http://t.co/r68jnNl4gf

— Jimmy Jam (@flytetymejam) April 17, 2014

I'm not sure anyone but her hardcore fans are going to be excited by this news BUT as one of those hardcore fans, I'm dying to know what they've been up to. Janet's career took a nosedive after the SuperBowl incident - but the scandal was only part of it. She'd largely cut off her relationship with Jam & Lewis, who co-wrote all of her biggest hits, and her last three albums just weren't good enough for people to forget that nipple piercing.

So, in the hope that's she's rediscovered her mojo, let's remind ourselves of Janet and Jam and Lewis's finest moment - onstage at the 1987 Grammys. Trenchcoats at the ready!

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Giorgio Moroder remixes Haim's Forever

"I wanted to do a album with the sound of the '50s, the sound of the '60s, of the '70s and then have a sound of the future. And I said, 'Wait a second...I know the synthesizer – why don't I use the synthesizer which is the sound of the future?' And I didn't have any idea what to do, but I knew I needed a click so we put a click on the 24 track which then was synched to the Moog Modular. I knew that it could be a sound of the future but I didn't realise how much the impact it would be." - Giorgio Moroder

"Oh my God, Lionel Richie. I’m going to cry. If he fucking plays "Hello" I will cry. I will make a weird, clay head in the shape of Lionel Richie and throw it on stage." - Alana Haim

Four of the greatest musical minds of the early 21st Century have melded, via this remix, where Giorgio Moroder puts his sticky vocodered fingers all over Haim's old-but-new single Forever.

I don't think it could possibly have turned out any better than it has.

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"If there's a limit to computerised electronic music, he hasn't found it yet"

As posted on Twitter by pop overlords Biffco (Kylie, Spice Girls, The Saturdays), here is a video of synth legend Giorgio Moroder in the studio. Excellent.

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