And the reason is Camille

I have a new musical obsession this week, and its name is Camille.

She's a French singer, who you're probably unaware that you're aware of through her work with Nouvelle Vague. That band's easy-listening covers of Guns of Brixton, Teenage Kicks and Too Drunk To Fuck have soundtracked countless adverts, promos and news packages over the last year (okay, with the possible exception of the last one).

Anyway, it turns out Camille is an artist in her own right with an album called Le Fil coming out in the UK next week. But why wait when you can import it now from Amazon.fr and be ahead of all your friends by, ooooh, days.

It's a hard album to describe. It's mostly a capella, but it's nothing like G4 or Bobby McFerrin. I'd say she sounds like Bjork, but that might put off anyone who doesn't like listening to musical hiccups.

Perhaps the best thing to do would be to put up a video of her performing live. Recorded from French television, this clip totally shows up all those American Divas who breathily exclaim 'my voice is a precious instrument'. Camille really uses her voice as an instrument - and in doing so she's playful, inventive and (best of all) melodic. It's ace.

Tweet

I love being right

There's nothing better than being proved right about everything and being able to go Ha ha, told you so to the entire world. So, it is with great pleasure that I bring you the following news:

1) Robbie Williams is crap, after all.
His new single went into the charts at 22 this week. Ouch.

2) Girls Aloud are actually rather splendid.
Both The Times and The Guardian say their tour is fabborific, like what I did at the weekend.

3) Bands have realised that albums are meant to fit on one side of a D90 cassette.
All of this year's best CDs (Gnarls Barkley, Pet Shop Boys and, especially, The Raconteurs) clock in at under 45 minutes. I have been banging on about this for years, although I think the artists in question may have come to this realisation on their own.

4) James Blunt has been banned!
Okay, only by one radio station in South East England. But it's a start, right? (read more about this fabulous story right here)

Tweet

Gig Review: Girls Aloud

We've just got back from Birmingham where, following a series of scheduling mistakes, we ended up seeing Girls Aloud's Chemistry Tour a week earlier than we'd planned.

It was completely worth the 250 mile round trip. Not only did we get a fantastic hotel, but the gig was one of the best arena concerts I've seen in a long time. There were magic tricks, there were show tunes, there were fireworks so close to me they're still imprinted onto my retina.

The Girls themeselves were much more comfortable on stage than on last year's theatre tour. The choreography was more complex and energetic, while the vocal performances were bereft of nerves. Mind you, there were more than a few occasions where someone's microphone wasn't faded up at the appropriate time, which suggests a certain amount of miming - although this never affected Nadine, the group's most accomplished vocalist. Blimey, that girl has a pair of lungs on her and no mistake.

The musicians were a marked improvement, too, handling the complex arrangement of Xenomania's hits without breaking a sweat. Out of 20+ songs, the highlights were the full-out thrash of Wake Me Up, an Amerie-enhanced Love Machine and a surprisingly energetic cover of Kaiser Chief's I Predict A Riot -although they chickened out of singing "Girls run around with no clothes on to borrow a pound for a condom", changing it to 'bus home'. For shame.

I also spotted a concert first: The inhaler roadie, on-hand throughout the show for Nicola to have a puff.

There were a few minor quibbles with the evening, however. The concert was very squarely aimed at kids, with a sub-Nickolodeon 'plot' suggesting the Girls were created in a laboratory by a mad professor. This was completely unnecessary, considering that the five rows in front and behind us were predominantly 18-and-over.

The costumes, too, were a little peculiar. Apparently someone in the GA camp believes high-waisted shorts should be resurrected from the 1980s; Kimberley seemed to have a perpetual problem with ill-fitting bras (they've got a measurement service at M&S, you know); and poor old Nadine had to dance around in a tutu for half an hour. Not a good look, although the accompanying fishnets were most welcome.

Costume nightmares aside, the girls seemed to be having a great time. They were so relaxed that when it wasn't their turn to sing or dance they'd stand having a natter with each other. (Nadine even managed a crafty snog with one of the dancers at one point).

They do need a bit of work on their stage patter, though. Nicola broke the ice with this classic: "It's great to see all those banners out there... and all the official merchandise".

Anyway, a great night was had by all and Birmingham was a much nicer city than I expected. To the people who bought our tickets for Wembley next Saturday: You are going to have a fantastic evening.



Setlist:
Biology
No Good Advice
Waiting
Love Machine (including 1 Thing)
Bohemian Like You interlude
Long Hot Summer
Whole Lotta History
Watch Me Go
I Predict A Riot
See The Day
Sound Of The Underground
Musical Medley:
Fame
Flashdance (What A Feeling)
Footloose
The Show
Intro / Models
Racy Lacey
I'll Stand By You
Biology Reprise

Encore:
Wild Horses
Wake Me Up
Jump

Top picture from Robmacca's blog

All other photos courtesy of Emmie on the popjustice messageboards. Thank you!

Tweet

Punk news

Here's something rather cool - the BBC have put together a 5-minute round-up of the week's news in video.

Nothing new or exciting there, you might think. But this doesn't suffer from the usual straight-laced BBC presentation - it has attitude in spades, not to mention a devilish wit and a cheery disregard for the normal conventions of telenews.

It's not even a slightly embarassing BBC3 attempt to engage with the kids. No, this is getting a big push: going out on News 24, the BBC's News website and the red button interactive services. They also plan to launch it as a vodcast, but I understand there are some problems with the yawn-worthy corporation guidelines on competitive practices.

But the very best thing of all about this programme is that they let me write the music for it! The fools!

The 5-minute round-up is called Story Fix (for news junkies - do you see what they did there?) and it starts today. Can't find a link for it on the web yet, but I'll chuck one up here as soon as I spot it.

In the meantime, here's a sneak preview of what it sounds like without all the bothersome talking and pictures over the top.
Right-click and select "save as" to download.

Tweet

Video of the Week: Ms Jackson

There's no high-faluting thesis behind this week's choice. Quite simply, it's a hip hop video based on Doctor Doolittle instead of a porn movie.

Quite why this should be the case is never explained. The song itself is a heartfelt examination of André 3000s break-up from his wife, Erykah Badu. Making clear the guilt and sadness he feels about his divorce, he asks Ms Jackson for forgiveness. In real life, Ms Jackson is Badu's mum, whose real name is Kolleen Wright.

History does not record whether the song's plea for understanding changed Wright's opinion of her former son-in-law, nor whether she appreciated his message being delivered by a parrot on MTV.

Buy Outkast's Greatest Hits on DVD at Amazon

Tweet

Shock news! Extra Imbruglia!

Did you know that Natalie Imbruglia has siblings? Nor did I until I came across her little sister's myspace page

Laura, for that is her name, is also a recording artist and she's about to release a new single. It goes I want a magical washing machine that doubles as a jukebox. I kid you not, dear readers.

It seems Laura is one of those people who is either endearingly quirky or dangerously psychotic depending on your point of view. Take, for example, her latest blog entry:

Did I sign some dude's chest last night and draw arrows pointing to his nipples and then write 'Nipples!' excitedly? I think I did.
New rule- Laura doesn't sign skin. It's un-ladylike. And Lord knows I am VERY ladylike normally.

Really, all this needs to push her over the line into Shahbaz* territory is for her to sign off AND I LOVE CRISPS! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

The song's quite catchy, though.

* For those of you who aren't following Big Brother 7, Shahbaz is a housemate who is so very deeply unwell he believes he is Joan Crawford, when in fact he is a prancing Scottish queen who is so many sandwhiches short of a picnic he's in danger of being half of a (very theatrical) Cream Cracker. This is no word of a lie.

Tweet