Kanye vs Common

Kanye West and frequent collaborator / former mentor Common have both released quirky, animation-led videos in the last week.

West's is a technicolour marvel, pieced together by postmodern commericial art wunderkind Takashi Murakami. Common's is almost monochrome, but no less eye-catching, with a grafitti-inspired comic strip feel from Hype Williams protege Lil' X.

Both are smashing, but Kanye's is more of a treat for anime geekboys, while Common's is full of eye candy for da ladeeeeez (it says here).

The question is, which is best? Watch and vote, my lovelies.

Kanye West - GoodMorning (Official Video)


Common - Announcement

Tweet

Credit where credit is due

I was pretty cruel about Pink's new song last month, but I have to admit she gives good video.

Pink - So What

Tweet

What is the point of Solange Knowles?

Beyoncé's little sis Solange, like so many pop siblings (Dannii Minogue, Daniel Bedingfield, the other Jonas Brother) is the victim of a huge cosmic joke, whereby she is given 80% of her sister's talent, looks and charisma, and then expected to try to live up to the reputation of her surname.

Her s last single, I Decided, stalled at an embarassing number 27 despite a terrific remix from The Freemasons. Her new one, Sandcastle Disco, isn't going to do any better.

Everything about it is almost brilliant. The FX-laden primary colour video is charming; the Motown-inspired beat is groovesome; the vocals shimmer like water playing on the mediterranean sea. But, ultimately, the melody is so flimsy it evaporates like an ice cube in a heatwave.

Solange - Sandcastle Disco


Luckily, we have found one use for the would-be soul diva - and it's a guaranteed way to make a living if you're an underperforming sibling (just ask LeToya Jackson) - The "naughty little sister" interview.

Here is Solange in the current issue of Blender magazine:

What kind of drunk are you?
I am a Miss-Tina’s-in-the-back-of-my-head kind of drunk.

You mean, your mom. What is she saying?
"Girl, you better have some panties on!" My mom’s so reserved — last year, for my 21st birthday, she was like, "You can have one glass of champagne, and that’s it." I said, "First of all, I haven’t lived last with you since I was 17. Second, I’m divorced. And third, I have a kid. I am drinking tonight."

Awesome.

Tweet

Cassie's official new video

As I have explained at length in the past, Cassie is a criminally bland R&B singer whose sole selling point is that she is, like, totally hot (and so is her best friend, if this youtube video is anything to go by).

But despite her distinct lack of, er, distinction, Cassie's debut album took up near-permananent residence on my iPod's most-played list two years ago thanks to a couple of demonically catchy robo-pop hooks on songs like Me and You, Ditto and Long Way 2 Go.

Now, the 22-year-old has returned with a bigger budget and a pair of expensive sunglasses with a comeback single, Official Girl. It's 100% by-numbers slick, modern R&B, with a beatboxed percussion loop, a guest rap from bad boy du jour L'il Wayne and a zeitgeist-tickling title. I can't see it being an all-conquering transatlantic smash á la Umbrella, but the chorus is firmly lodged in my brain already.

Cassie - Official Girl


As this premiered in the US on Friday, it's already hit a lot of the Stateside blogs, who seem to be up in arms that Cassie isn't very good at the whole singing malarkey. Is this really an issue any more? Pop history is littered with terrible vocalists who triumphed over their better trained, less charismatic counterparts. Cassie could drone like a malfunctioning Dyson and still outsell Keri Hilson or Nicole Scherzingereeningeer, as long as the songs she's given don't stink of slurry. Is that so really hard to grasp? (Clue: it isn't).

Tweet

Oasis: Not my favourite band

I was thinking earlier this week about how few bands it's possible to hate these days. I don't mean that vaguely bored feeling you get when The Kaiser Chiefs turn up at another festival with their droning self-important "anthems", but that proper seething malice I felt towards UB40 and Dr Alban a decade ago.

Part of it is age. Most of the energy I used to expend on loathing a band, I now need for getting up from the sofa, or deciding between brands of margarine in Tescos.

But I think a larger part is that the charts and the airwaves are stuffed full of what's been christened "landfill indie" - The Fratellis, The Piegeon Detectives, The Wombats. They all use the definite article in their name, which is ironic because they all stand for nothing at all. But you can't hate them because they're too bland and inoffensive to matter.

So thank god for Oasis. Here is a band that genuinely make my blood boil. I hate them with a passion bordering on psychosis. If anyone so much as mentions their name in my presence I am actually compelled to spit out my dummy and launch into an expletive-filled invective, with pointing and everything.

Then I might need a nice biscuit to help me calm down.

So, have you heard Oasis' new single? It's exactly what you'd expect. A droning guitar line, a sitar because The Beatles had one, some psuedo-philosophical bollocks parading as lyrics, and Liam's uninspired, nasal whine that everyone but me seems to think is the sound of dangerous rebellion.

It even uses the phrase "magical mystery". I mean, it's great to be inspired by the Beatles - they were a pretty good band - but couldn't the Gallaghers put an atom of an iota of an ounce of fucking effort into it?

Apparently, the answer to that question is "no".

But this isn't simply a rant about how Oasis went shit after What's The Story (Morning Glory). They were shit even then. Wonderwall, Noel's supposedly tender love note to Meg Matthews, is so leaden it could drown a whale. Who in their right mind wants to be told "after all, you're as great as a George Harrison solo LP"? Even coming from a Beatle-o-phile like Gallagher that's a barely-veiled insult.

I think I would be less offended if this lumbering relic of a band wasn't taken so seriously, but the current levels of airplay for The Shock Of The Lightning suggest that, once again, the new Oasis album will be treated with more respect and reverence than Alan Titchmarsh at a WI cakesale.

Still, I'm glad to have got that rant off my chest. Now, for a nice biscuit.

Oasis - The Shock Of The Lightning

Tweet

New video from Estelle (OMG she is famis)

Estelle's is now onto the fourth single from her Mercury-nominated Shine album. This time round, it's the Cee-Lo-featuring Pretty Please, another one of those sunny barbeque joints she's proved so adept with.

The video is another attempt to convince Americans that Estelle one of them, and features cameos from the following stellar talents:

:: Aubrey O’Day out of Danity Kane!
:: Taraji Henson who was in Boston Legal this one time!!
:: Jackie Long, former beau of Serena Williams from tennis!!!!
:: Malik Yoba, who was in Cool Runnings in 1993!!!!!!

Cee-Lo Green has confusingly chosen not to board this runaway train of talent.

Estelle - Pretty Please

Tweet