Christina's video tribute to Express Yourself

We have had a full calendar month to get used to the new Christina Aguilera single, readers, and it hasn't got any better. If anything it's deteriorated, like a scrap of food that's got stuck under the sofa and gone so mouldy you can't be sure what it used to be. I mean, it was probably just a crisp - but if that's the case why does it smell so strongly of mackerel?

Anyway, Christina has just unveiled the video for said single, Not Myself Tonight. There is a huge (ie pointless) debate raging about whether she is trying to copy Lady Gaga, but if you ask me the whole enterprise is a 15-rated tribute to Madonna's Express Yourself video. Let's have a look at the evidence:


Blonde woman sees something shocking through her monocle


Woman in catsuit drinks milk from a bowl, like a cat


Bare-chested men dance in the rain, observed from an elevated viewpoint


Rumpo! Full-on, uncensored Rumpo! (with rude bits covered up)


Inadequately dressed woman removes coat to reveal her BRA!


"Oh no, I have spilt this saucer of liquid all over my shoulder. Clumsy me".

As you can no doubt tell from the screenshots, the Madonna version wins on such factors as lighting, shot composition, artistry, class, iconoclasm and sex appeal. In Christina's favour... erm... er... the picture is sharper??

Embedding for both videos is disabled "by request". So watch the Christina one on the other side of this link and the Madonna one over here.

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New video: Hurts - Better Than Love

They've made a few changes to the X Factor audition process this year.

Hurts - Better Than Love

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Gig review: Temper Trap, Shepherd's Bush

Every great frontman needs a foil. Bono has The Edge, Sir Mick has Keef, Lennon and McCartney had each other. A fiesty sparring partner gives the singer someone to spark off, to energise their performance, to balance out their ego.

They are also useful to look at during the guitar solos.

Dougy Mandagi, lead singer of The Temper Trap, has yet to find a suitable counterpart. His band aren't short of personality (they've got Angry Anderson on keyboards - FACT!!!^*) but they don't seem to be keen on the whole interaction thing.

It's a shame, because Dougy's soulful, cooing falsetto is catch-your-breath mesmerising. But once the singing stops, he's left floundering. There are only so many times you can turn your back on the audience and wiggle about aimlessly while you wait for the next lyric to come around (it's three times, apparently, or four if you have a very shapely bottom).

That's not to say that The Temper Trap are an unappetising prospect - quite the opposite, in fact. Their swirling, chiming, indie anthems are a four-course feast for the ears. Songs like Down River and Resurrection layer on the tension, building and building to a massive, ecstatic release in the final 16 bars. It's stirring stuff, although a muddy, bombastic sound mix robs some of the more dramatic crescendos of their impact. Here's a hint: If you start quietly, then the loud bits will sound even louder when you get to them.

It's comforting to discover that, like me, none of the audience have been able to decipher what Dougy is singing in his angelic Finley Quaye / Roland Gift voice. During Sweet Disposition, the band's biggest hit to date, a guy next to me ad-libs "A Mormon alive, Nazeem Allah. A kiss, Accrah, I'm right, I'm Rob". I think this is about 90% correct, actually.

A brief technical hitch sees the set-closer, Drum Song, delayed for about five minutes while a roadie fiddles with an effects pedal. It proves again that the group haven't yet perfected their stagecraft. Instead of soldiering on, or breaking out an acoustic guitar for a quick cover of Don’t Stop Believin' (this would have been amazing), they stand around with their backs to the audience, helplessly watching the pedal mayhem unfold.

But these are early days for a young band - and things finally seem to gel during the rambunctious encore, Science Of Fear, when Dougy dramatically dives into the crowd. A gaggle of screaming girls try to tear off his Bruce Springsteen pyjama top, but he prises himself from their furtive grip and makes it back to the stage for the finale, punching the air and belting out his final chorus with all the energy of an exploding volcano.

He had found the perfect foil, after all.



* Not a fact

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Regina Spektor covers No Surprises

Put on your headphones, close your eyes, and lose yourself for the next three minutes. Simply beautiful.


Regina Spektor - No Surprises

Regina's cover of the Radiohead classic was recorded for the charity Doctors Without Borders. If you live in the US, please buy a copy on iTunes to support their work bringing medical care to people in crisis in more than 60 countries around the world, including victims of the recent earthquakes in Chile and Haiti. Both Regina and Radiohead have donated proceeds and royalties from the track to the charity.

Outside the US, you'll have to download it illegally and make a separate donation via this webpage. [*sad face*]

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Guess what? She's still not a frickin' robot

I bumped into Marina of "and the Diamonds" fame at Television Centre on Monday. She'd just done an interview on BBC Breakfast and sheepishly admitted she'd forgotten to plug her single (you can watch the interview here - I like the bit where she says hello to her mum).

But let's face it, you'd have to be an IDIOT not to know that I Am Not A Robot is out this week. What's more, it comes with a ton of amazing new remixes. In fact, before you go any further, check out the Clock Opera mix on YouTube. It's like a piñata exploding gently in your earholes.

As part of the promotional tour, Marina was over at Radio 1's Live Lounge last week doing Robot and a string-soaked cover of 3OH3!'s Starstrukk, which is something of a revelation, given how soul-drainingly terrible the original was.

You can listen to them both below, or watch videos of the performance on the Radio 1 site. I've also embedded a splendid surf guitar cover of Marina's Hollywood, by fellow Welsh act Kids In Glass Houses, which I discovered about a month ago and promptly forgot about.



Marina and the Diamonds - I Am Not A Robot (live lounge)


Marina And The Diamonds - Starstrukk (live lounge)


Kids In Glass Houses - Hollywood (live lounge)

Oh, and if you haven't heard enough versions of I Am Not A Robot today, watch this cute-as-baby-chicklets video from the pupils of Public School 22 in Staten Island, New York. Too brilliant for words.

PS22 Choir - I Am Not A Robot

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Not quite video of the month: MIA

Controversy-magnet MIA is, somewhat predictably, following up her first big mainstream success with a censor-baiting video about the horrors of war.

Stretching out to nine minutes, the promo is full of nudity and explicit violence as it rams home two important and seldom-heard messages: War is bad and racism is bad.

See, MIA is trying to SHOCK us out of our cosy Western COMPLACENCY by confronting us with the brutal REALITIES of armed conflict and military OPPRESSION. The video sees masked soldiers in an unspecified country rounding up all the ginger men and children, bussing them out to the desert, turning their weapons on them and forcing them to run through a minefield.

What we learn is that hating people because of the colour of their skin is as illogical as hating them because of the colour of their hair, or their eyes, or what clothes they wear. I had literally never thought of this before.

The other thing we learn is that guns, explosions and violence are appropriate tools to sell a pop song.

MIA - Born Free


PS: The song is quite good, isn't it?

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