As Plato so correctly observed "Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand." And never has that sentiment been more true than when examining the lyrics of unparalleled wordsmith Taylor Swift. Using the literary techniques of juxtaposition and assonance, she paints a vivid portrait of the perplexing turbulence of the teenage experience in 21st Century America.
"We're happy, free, confused and lonely at the same time," she observes - a heartbreaking depiction of a generation that has everything, but feels disconnected. Freedom from responsibility does not bring us joy, she has discovered. Technology disengages us from the spiritual world. We increasingly connect with our fellow man in isolation. Material wealth is all around us, but the soul isn't nourished by the accumulation of possessions. Yet, the thrill of acquisition gives us fleeting moments of satisfaction; an all-too-brief adrenalin rush that echoes the vitality of our ancestors. "It's miserable and magical," concludes Swift, "Oh, yeah."
If you were lucky enough to catch Jessie Ware's show in London last night, and you got there early enough, you'll have been blown away by Lulu James. (She was the one wearing a pair of pyramids on her shoulders).
Born in Tanzania, raised in South Shields, the singer operates in the same genre of post-dubstep soul as Ms Ware. She calls it 21st-century soul. "Some people concentrate on keeping in the same genres of music," she explains, "but I'm just experimenting with loads of different things. It could be any style of music, as long as it's got soul."
For her new single, Closer, those experiments come with electro and techno. There's a deep house vibe that reminds me of Roisin Murphy's overlooked but incredible Overpowered album. Have a look, have a listen.
The 22-year-old says she didn't speak a word of English when she came to the UK, aged seven. The sense of loneliness and isolation is chanelled into some of her lyrics - especially last year's unsettling, haunted Halfway To Hell.
"Tears don't often fall, my face never cares," her voice echoes over a sparse, rumbling chant. "Everything about me is dry, even when I've bled."
Signed to RCA, and recently added to the playlist at 6 Music, I suspect we'll be hearing a lot more from Lulu in the coming months. If you want to find out more, there's a charming, funny interview with her on the Amazing Radio website... The Geordie accent is mint.
Everything Everything's Arc is one of my favourite albums of the year so far - full of surprising twists and exciting hooks - and Duet is possibly the best song on it.
Inspired by Eleanor Rigby, the song is punctuated by the syncopated stabs of a chamber orchestra. In fact, it was originally supposed to be just vocals and strings, but the polymath musicians got a little carried away and added a few guitar licks and a stuttering drum pattern. Nonetheless, it's their simplest, most direct song to date.
When I first heard it, one lyric really stood out: "Of all the dead volcanoes on earth you just happened to wretch and roll through mine". In my mind, the song became a love story between 007 and a Bond Villain. Let's face it, there was always some latent sexual tension in Goldfinger - one could envisage Auric running his spiders' touch up and down Bond's leg after one too many vodka martinis.
Sadly, despite further Bondian lines ("there were acres of screens before me"), singer Jonathan Higgs shot down my theory in flames when I interviewed him in January. The dead volcano lyric was lifted, he said, from Casablanca's "of all the bars in town you just happened to walk into mine."
He added: "It just came to me as a suitably arresting way of setting up a romantic relationship that was clearly in a dystopian, smoke-filled scene; but which was playing on this romantic, Hollywood nature of it but it was in this ridiculous volcano that was erupting."
Ah well, you can't have everything. I'll just have to channel that idea into a filthy piece of fan fiction. In the meantime, here's the video for Duet, which comes out as a single release on the 25th March.
After a week walking around the various arrondisements of Paris, there are bones poking through the soles of my feet. So what better excuse to sit back and listen to all the music that's been unleashed on the internet over the last seven days? Grab a cuppa, crack open the chocolate digestives and gather round the screen for an audiovisual treat.
1) Russ Chimes - Turn Me Out
I love this. I love this a lot. Courtesy of internet enigma Russ Chimes (he doesn't even have a wikipedia page!) it's the latest entry in 2012's rapidly expanding catalogue of '90s house revival tunes. Chunky bass line? Check. Handclaps? Check. Wailing diva vocal hook? Check x3.
The story goes that Russ churned this song out as a filler for his DJ set, but it went down so well that DeConstruction asked him to put it out as a single. Good call. You can buy it from 29 April.
2) AlunaGeorge - Attracting Flies
In which Aluna stars in a series of fairytales, directed in the style of Shane Meadows. The three bears are particularly grisly. I hope she didn't eat their porridge.
3) Agnetha Fältskog - When You Really Loved Someone
It seems strange that the woman who once asked "without a song or a dance what are we?" would shun music for nine years, but Agnetha Fältskog has never been one to conform to expectations. As she told me in this interview, she was only coaxed back into the studio by megafan Jorgen Eloffson (Kelly Clarkson, Britney Spears), who'd written an entire album for her.
The comeback single - like the rest of the album - is more in the style of Eloffson's Westlife ballads than his Clarko megastonkers. When You Really Loved Someone is basically a Radio 2 crowdpleaser with a predictable key change. It's Faltskog's voice that sells it. Pure and clear, it's lost none of it's power over the years. She's still the A in Abba.
4) Lana Del Rey - Summertime Sadness (Ryan Hemsworth remix)
Fun fact: If you were to play all the remixes from Lana Del Rey's debut album back to back, the playlist would not finish until May 2047. This mix of Summertime Sadness, from Canadian beat machine Ryan Hemsworth, is one of the better ones, though. As sultry as they come.
5) Phoenix - Entertainment
This is one of the most cinematic music videos you'll ever see. Sumptuously shot, the Korean-set story is packed with romance and bloody violence. It must have cost an absolute fortune to make, and it's a must-see.
6) Justin Timberlake - Suit and Tie (Dillon Francis mix)
Take a boring song, cut it into tiny shreds, put it back together at random, add a donk or two for good measure and, hey presto, you've got a song they can play on Radio One with the rave klaxon on top. Job done.
I'm taking a quick break from the blog to send some time in Paris. I've already seen their version of X Factor (awful, gaudy, just like the original) and a dubbed version of House MD (where Hugh Laurie is apparently voiced by a lisping French Syd Owen).
While I'm off, here are a few videos I've added to the holiday playlist.
1) Marina and the Diamonds - State Of Dreaming
It's amazing they still let Marina make videos for the Electra Heart album - but I'm pleased they do. This is decidedly low-budget, focusing almost entirely on a single shot of Ms Diamantis lip-syncing to State Of Dreaming, one of the more "bells-and-whistles" tracks from the album. She looks gorgeous, though, and they even splash out on some confetti for the climax. Lovely.
2) Arlissa - Sticks and Stones
Finally out this week, Arlissa's "proper" debut single still sends shivers up the spine. Worth 79p of your hard-earned cash, surely?
3) Chloe Howl - Rumours
According to our Dulux colour wheel, orange and green are opposite but complimentary, so well done to Chloe Howl for the striking colour scheme on her debut video. The low-key performance reminds us of early Sugababes appearances - but the shifty eyes suit the song's subject matter to a 't'.
This one's also available now, as a free download on Chloe's website. Well, I say free, but you have to surrender your email address so Chloe can email you incessantly with "news" about "product". Hopefully the mailing list will also have one of those birthday form letters so we can get a personalised email greeting from Chloe next to the ones from Shane Ward and Bucks Fizz.
...and that's it for a week. A bientot, mes petits choux-fleurs.
I'm now a veteran of six (!) Girls Aloud tours, with the glowstick burns to prove it. As anyone knows, the main task upon leaving a Girls Aloud concert is to decide which girl is the best girl in Girls Aloud. Here's how it worked out last night.
1) THE SINGING
Oh dear. The vocals were decidedly wobbly on Sunday night. There were missed cues, sharp harmonies, and ad-libs that sounded like a plane full of mating cats going into a nosedive (I'm looking at you, Sarah). In the band's defence, their voices were a bit fragile after performing four shows in three days - as Nadine explained on Twitter, there'd been an extra run-through for the cameras on Saturday afternoon, as the show was filmed for a DVD.
Poor Nicola could be seen clutching her throat in between her lines - but when she let rip, she was incredible. A vampish "always thought you were so cool" in Wake Me Up was an early highlight, but when she practically burst into tears during Beautiful Cause You Love Me, it sent shivers up my spine.
Verdict: Nicola wins.
2) THE COSTUMES
Top marks to the designers on this tour. Gone were the spangly bikinis and luminous unitards of previous outings, replaced by elegant-yet-sexy basques and Oscar-worthy ballgowns. The bulk of the credit goes to Vicky Barkess - a wardrobe mistress on Strictly - who designed the costumes for the feather-tastic carnival section (the one where Cheryl had angel wings) and the Supremes-inspired 60s outfits. And who wore it best?
Verdict: Nicola wins.
3) ON-STAGE BANTER
Girls Aloud tours are not known for their Wildean repartee and quotable bon mots. There was a lot of thanking the fans, and saying how "unbelievable" it was to have spent 10 years together. Sarah made a good start, screaming "Big Mouth Is Bloody Back", but then lost her nerve.
So it was up to Nadine and her garbled Derry accent to give us the night's best lines, including the she-actually-can't-speak-French classic: "Wurr gonta take it back for youse to circa la 2004".
Later, as she introduced Call The Shots, Nadine inadvertently revealed her opinion of the band's back catalogue, declaring: "Now, this one's a really good one."
Verdict: Nadine wins.
4) CHOREOGRAPHY
Weirdly, the show made no use of Cheryl's athletic body-popping or Kimberley's Strictly dance chops, but there were a few nice touches - especially during the b-stage section. Constricted to a smaller space, the girls performed a complicated interweaving routine for Untouchable focused around some pleasingly intricate hand choreography. The line "we're beautiful robots dancing alone" led to a brief outburst of robot dancing. Nice.
Verdict: Group win.
5) INTERACTION
For all of the tabloid stories of inter-band rivalries, Girls Aloud have always seemed a closely-knit unit. Nowhere is this relationship more evident than with Cheryl and Kimberley. Ms Cole was constantly trying to distract her bandmate, giving her a hefty wallop on the bum during one of her solo lines, and pulling stupid faces while she talked to the crowd.
Then, during the encore, the band sang I'll Stand By You. When they got to the line "I’m a lot like you", Cheryl And Kimberley turned and gave each other a big hug. Ahhhhh.
Verdict: Cheryl and Kimberley win.
6) MUSICALITY
The Ten Tour is a jaunt through Girls Aloud's greatest hits and, by that token, it probably has the best set-list of their career, taking a vaguely chronological run through their biggest singles. Interestingly, the early hits all seemed to be in a much lower register than the likes of Call The Shots and The Promise, which certainly didn't help with those aforementioned vocal problems - but it was interesting to see how the lead vocals got divided up as the media focus on the band members changed (ie Cheryl got to sing a lot more in the X Factor years).
The band, led by the brilliantly-named Paul Beard, took an organic approach to the arrangements, with a loose, live band feel that freshened up some of the more familiar numbers. There was even *gasp* a jazz guitar solo in Can't Speak French.
The usual suspects provided the highlights - Something Kinda Ooooh is a perfect thump to the middle of your chest; Call The Shots made 20,000 people swoon; and, after all these years, it's still impossible not to jump to Jump. The band kept alive the tradition of throwing in a recent cover song (Call Me Maybe) to prove how much better their own material is, and Wake Me Up still provides ample opportunity for the quintet to toss their hair in front of a wind machine.
Music is the real winner here, but I'm giving the prize to the only Girl Aloud with a writing credit for last night's set.
Verdict: Nicola wins.
So there you have it. Nicola Roberts is currently the best girl in Girls Aloud. But it could all change, depending on when and where you see the show (NB: nobody sees the show unless their hearts say so). If you're at any of the subsequent dates, put your verdict in the comments box. Or just look at the pretty pictures. It's entirely up to you.
As Plato so correctly observed "Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand." And never has that sentiment been more true than when examining the lyrics of unparalleled wordsmith Taylor Swift. Using the literary techniques of juxtaposition and assonance, she paints a vivid portrait of the perplexing turbulence of the teenage experience in 21st Century America. 
