LovePopMusic

Song of the Day: Willow Smith - Whip Your Hair

A fierce debate between myself and a few friends has raged for a couple of weeks about Willow Smith. It's not one that will be settled easily either. So I'm expecting that this post is going to stoke those fires once again.

On one side of the debate, is the fact that 9 year old Willow Smith shouldn't be singing songs about whipping her hair, gettin' her swag on (a word that is being used too much recently, thank you Cheryl Cole/Cher Lloyd), and shakin' haters off. She should be skipping about like a 9 year old does, singing nursery rhymes, playing on swings and slides, and climbing trees.

On the other side of the debate is taking the situation for it's merits. Willow is an extraordinarily talented 9 year old, who not only can sing well, she can dance well too. Though the video and single are largely the results of a team of talented creatives at Jay-Z's label, Roc Nation.

Ethical and philosophical debates aside, the song is extremely catchy and has an infectiously danceable beat, worthy of Rihanna. At times, however, it can be repetitive but I think the repetitive elements actually add to the charm of the song.

Add a colourful, and visually stunning video to the mix and you have yourself a winner:

 

Song of the Day: Hurts - Stay

Hurts are a fantastic band. Theo and Adam present with über-cool styling akin to an Armani ad campaign, lushious, silky production values and proper power pop ballads.

Their next single, Stay, perfectly encompasses all these attributes, together with a drum beat that Ryan Teder will kick himself for not having programmed first. It's a typical break-up-but-please-take-me-back ballad, but somehow feels more genuine and heartfelt than most.

Following on from brilliant previous singles, Better than Love and Wonderful Life, which have landed at 50 and 21 respectively in the charts, this is a strong enough a song to provide Theo and Adam with the chart success they deserve, they need only the proper promotion this time.

There's also a video:

Ahhhh.

Stay is released on Novemeber 15th 2010 and is taken from Hurts' debut album Happiness which is also fantastic. Go fetch!

Song of the Day: Kele - Tenderoni

Ok, so it's a Friday night and you're getting in from work. You've had a really hard week; there's been loads of work to get through because that guy on your team phoned in sick again on Monday and then he didn't come back 'til Thursday so you spent all week trying to keep on top of your work whilst being made to cover for his slack ass while he skived and most probably spent all day every day lying on the couch watching Friends on repeat or pissing about on the internet whilst he tried to recover from his pathetic "cold". It gets to Friday and you've spent all day catching him up on what he has missed and still trying to keep on top of your work, whilst you also had to cover for your boss today because they were out of the office at some meeting in the Birmingham office, which probably comprised of 2 hours of consensual self-kissing with that Regional HR Manager and a further 2 hours of debating about the upcoming pay review and how to screw everyone over whilst still making sure that they get something for themselves, and then blaming it on the recession.

Then, after all that and coming home 2 hours later than planned, and missing the pre-drinking session with your friends before they go out to the pub to rev themselves up for a long hard night of drinking, dancing, and clubbing the week away, you find this little gem that suddenly makes EVERYTHING better:

 

 

That was Kele. Former member of Bloc Party. And it was called Tenderoni. You loved it. I love it. Everyone loves it. It made your endorphins flow like Beyoncé kicking the top of that fire hydrant off in the Crazy in Love video. It made your terrible, awful, long, and exhausting week pale into nothingness, and made you shake your ass (and watch yourself). Kele's album The Boxer is out 21 June 2010, and Tenderoni will likely debut shortly before that.

Friday. Is. Here.

Enjoy it.

Song of the Day: Gabriella Cilmi - Defender

Today's song of the day is one of those sparkling precious gem's that you don't necessarily know about until you have dug through the depths of an album and found it.

Defender is taken from Gabriella's 2nd album Ten which was released on 22nd March 2010. It is a beautiful pop ballad, the likes of which doesn't often appear on a pop album. These days its all rowdy synths and banging beats. The ballad is something which has fallen out of favour, possibly to due to the recession and people needing that up-beat pick-me-up song to dance their woes away to, or possibly because the ballad has been brutalised by terrible boy bands and singers who can't really sing but shall remain nameless (ahem - Cheryl Cole - oops, did that slip out?). Anyway, Defender is an example of how to get a ballad absolutely and completely right.

The structure of the song is brilliant; Constantly developing and evolving as it grows and swells to a climax, which makes it interesting to listen to as none of it is repetitive. Gabriella's vocal performance also excels. There is a beautiful delicacy and tenderness at the start which grows to a strong and confident decree in the finale. Finally, the lyrics are not only beautiful, but most importantly they are not clichéd, which so many ballads are:

Just remember I am your defender, I won't let you stand there on your own. No matter what they tell ya, I will not surrender, you will never be alone.

Enjoy:

 

 

Song of the Day: Kelis - Acapella

Kelis has been away, gotten married, gotten divorced, and had a child. But she's never stopped being awesome, as this new single and video prove.

After switching record labels (now an Interscope resident) and changing sonic direction, we now have a dancehall diva. Kelis has a new album, due to be released in the summer of this year, entitled Flesh Tone and it is a full and complete departure from her previous works. She has teamed up with Will.I.Am and David Guetta to produce an album that Calvin Harris thinks is "going to change lives". So by that we should expect massive success and amazingness all round.

The lead single from the album is Acapella and it certainly delivers, and in more ways than one. The song itself is a beautiful tribute from a mother to her child, and the video follows an Amazon Queen/Mother Nature theme. Visually the video is quite stunning. There's lots of elaborate costumes and makeup (including a pair of glasses made from lots of crystals). At the end, I should point out, Kelis is standing... actually, I don't want to ruin it for you. It turns out to be quite poiniant.

Acapella is released to download on 26th April 2010 and physically released on 10th May 2010 in the UK. Flesh Tone follows a week later on 17th May 2010.

Please now enjoy this generous offering of excellence:

You're welcome.