The new Taio Cruz McFly single “Party Girl” now has an official video. There’s a lot of blood, vampires, and torsos. As a video clip, it’s generally a winner.

But what of the song? Incredible and forward-thinking, or generic as hell? I’ve been all over the place with this song. One minute I’m really into it and the next, I’m hitting skip. Is this going to age really well or has it already aged? The jury is still out on the track I think; hopefully the album offers up a few sounds that don’t seem so blaringly obvious as “Party Girl.”

Perhaps it’s also time they stopped writing songs with “girl” in the title? Just a thought.

Look, if there’s an extended version made available my mind will be officially made up.

Read a much better video breakdown by Paul at FizzyPop.

KATY PERRY
TEENAGE DREAM
(CAPITOL) ★ ★ ★ ★

Katy Perry’s enlisted the help of Max Martin, Dr. Luke, Tricky Stewart, Stargate, Benny Bianco and a blue wig to make an incredibly convincing second album.

The shock-tactics that surrounded the releases from her first album, “One Of The Boys”, served as somewhat of a distraction from how bad most of that record was, but all of that negative energy and shit music has been thrown out for “Teenage Dream”, which doesn’t feel (as) contrived, or forced for that matter. In fact, generally speaking, this is a pretty great pop record full of potential singles. As Mike from PopTrashAddicts said in his excellent review of the record, it really feels as though the likes of Luke, Martin and Stargate actually saved all of their best for Perry. Mainly killer, couple of filler… There’s definitely a lot more on here to be able to substantially say Katy’s actually proven me very wrong. I haven’t been entirely convinced of Perry’s submissions to the world of pop – up until now anyway. “Teenage Dream” makes up for the over-exposure, the blasphemy-as-entertainment comment, and the condescension of (the albeit catchy) “I Kissed A Girl.”

Opening with current smash, the title-track and second single to be lifted off the record “Teenage Dream”, was a good move. Already this is one of the better pop songs of 2010, with an incredibly sweet sentiment that I think was really missing from Perry’s first album, but is exactly the right way to start off the new one. It’s actually the song that sort of humanised her more for me. When I really listened to the thoughtful lyrics, and paid attention to how truly sincere she sounds as she’s singing it, it just made her a little more relatable; she was more of a human being and less of a jealous slut. And this is the song that really convinced me of the former. This is a cute but also honest and open love song that really gives the record a 10/10 beginning. Interestingly, first single “California Gurls” (featuring Snoop Dogg) follows an almost identical bassline to “Teenage Dream”, but much like GaGa did with “Poker Face” and then “Bad Romance”, Perry took something self-made that was already pretty good and made it even bloody better.

You’d be forgiven if you thought “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” sounded like Ke$ha. It’s from the same song-writing and production hit factory as Ke$ha but – thankfully – is only one of two skank-inspired moments on here. It’s still thoroughly enjoyable and that saxophone ending has rubbed me up in only the way images of Rob Lowe, shirtless, playing the Sax in (insert the title of any of his 80’s movie here) can. i.e; Hot.

“Firework” is tipped to be the next single, the first of two surprisingly poppy Stargate productions. There’s a violin section (tick), a ripper of a chorus (tick), and you can bloody dance to it. Tick! One of the biggest, brightest moments on “Teenage Dream”. Tongue (and eventually cock) firmly in cheek for the arrival of “Peacock”, in which Perry demands the revelation of a particular boys “peacock”, or – for those a little slow on the upkeep – the revelation of a particular boys enormous cock. “Magical, colourful, Mr Mystery… Come on baby let me see, what you hidin’ underneath.” Amazing, and will serve as my future mating call.

Tricky Stewart, who produced the classic Madonna/Britney Spears Australian Number #1 single “Me Against The Music”, pops in for “Circle The Drain”, an Alanis Morissette-infused jam that stands as one of my favourites on the record. The final one minute and fifty seconds of the track are some of the most exciting series of seconds on the album. Excellently, it’s about a lover who’s too off-his-face on drugs to make it past the unwrapping of the condom whenever it comes to fornication. A true pearler that seems to only get better with every obsessively repeated listen.

But perhaps “The One That Got Away” is my absolute favourite here. Really sincere and sweet, the best lyrics on here by a long-shot, a little bit heartbreaking and one of the best Max Martin/Dr. Luke songs to date. “It’s time to face the music; I’m no longer your muse. But in another life, I would be your girl. We keep all our promises, be us against the world. In another life, I would make you stay. So I don’t have to say you were the one that got away.”

I liked “E.T.” when it leaked in demo form earlier this year, but the new-and-improved album version takes the song to even dizzier, exciting heights. The song, already paying homage to t.A.T.u in demo form, ups the Russian-ante to +10; bigger beats, stronger synths, re-recorded vocals. The Alien as metaphor for a lover is brilliant; “Infect me with your lovin’, fill me with your poison. Take me, wanna be your victim, ready for abduction. Boy, you’re an Alien!” Then there’s “Hummingbird Heartbeat”, which kinda sounds like a “One Of The Boys” offcut. Particularly sweet, it sits here nicely as the kind of song Katy’s popped on to ensure she doesn’t entirely alienate her original fanbase who might be bigger fans of her holding a guitar in her hand rather than a Popsicle.

The pace slows down for tracks like “Who Am I Living For” and “Pearl”, which – as lovely as they are – feel a little odd just tacked onto the end. Regardless, they’re both quite endearing, in particular “Pearl” which has one of those depressingly-uplifting choruses I’ve been known to be a wrist-slitting fan of. I like the depressing choruses! I guess that makes me a Masochistic Music Enthusiast. Oh the irony.

The pace also completely dies down for the album closer “Not Like The Movies.” Perry’s voice strains in places but my god; those lyrics. This could have been a really big single for someone with a voice more suited to big ballads. It even has a sense of Regina Spektor in there in places – what started off as my least favourite has turned into a song I’ll no longer skip.

I know a lot of people’s gripe with Perry is that they think she’s “too contrived” or whatnot, or that she “can’t really sing.” A lot of the pop acts I listen to are heavily contrived though! And a lot of those singers who tally up highly in my last.fm chart – hell – most of them have voices as thin as rice-paper. I think that, because we got off to such a shaky start with her when she released that first record, people feel a little more obliged to really make a witch-hunt out of knocking her down. And while I wasn’t convinced she was doing the whole pop schtick for all the right reasons, I definitely am now.

So next week sees the official release of the new HURTS album, “Happiness.” Not since Moloko’s “Statues” have I been more moved by a record; from start to finish, there is something incredibly poetic about the whole thing; the songs, its structure, the irony in the title; this is quite probably the album that’s going to dethrone the Scissor Sisters of their Album of the Year crown. While I try and figure out what it is exactly I want to say about this majestic record for a future review, I thought I’d bring your attention to the long players best moment right now.

Featuring our beloved Princess, Kylie Minogue, “Devotion” pierces through with thoughtfully depressing lyrics, incredibly well landscaped backing vocals, and one of the biggest, proper-use-of-the-word ‘epic’ closings I’ve heard in a song for some time. I can’t stop listening to it, yet never want to hear it again. Beautiful, gut-wrenching, and not a dry eye in the house the first few times you listen to it.

The best lyric? “Forgive my thoughts when I’m asleep, forgive these words I’m yet to speak… I feel so ashamed.”

The second best lyric? “Inside the heart of every man, there lies a lust – you understand. And I’m just the same. When all the love has gone away, and passion stares me in the face… Could I walk away? Here’s hoping, you’ll help me to be brave.”

The best bit? Kylie’s ad-lib’s during the epic closer; they’ll set the waterworks off if the song hasn’t already for you at this point.

I need to see this performed live, and soon. I’m full of hope that HURTS hit off here in Oz, and that “Devotion” – a deserving Number 1 – gets a single release that propels them even further into greatness and success.

Britiain’s best-selling quality daily is also read by a lot of Facebook users.

It’s dawned on me over the last few months that social networking ‘tool’ Facebook has cut down my blog activity so greatly, it’s been hard to get back on the  bandwagon again. Incredibly though, my Facebook profile is over-populated with junk and pop-ramblings (all posted myself) that are wasted on people who seem far to precocious with their music elitism that I shouldn’t be surprised whenever somebody claims that I don’t listen to “real music.” It’s patronising, pathetic and makes you look like a real wanker/Indie prick, but whatever – go ahead and tell me again.

Facebook is this tool that sort of makes a lot of sense and yet simultaneously doesn’t at all. It’s odd that I’d rather tell my friends list, who perhaps don’t all have the most favourable taste in music (people whose chosen Beatle is NOT Yoko Ono – can you imagine?), about how great the new HURTS album is than tell people who will actually probably want to read what I think of the new HURTS album by visiting this website. At what point do I say “I’m a Facebook addict and it’s an enormous problem”? I feel like Whitney Houston, crouching down in a darkened room, bible in one hand, crack-pipe in the other. Except my crack is a social networking website. I can’t even afford crack!

Anyway, the rules are simple. I’ve already logged out of Facebook on both my home computer and my phone. I’m not deleting the page, but I’m just working on my personal restraint – can I do a full week without logging in, but rather – blogging in?

The experiment begins…

iPod shuffle is a strange, wonderful thing. Aside from blowing my mind to pieces the other day by playing three songs – in a row – about Penises (!!) (Gillette’s “Short Dick Man”, King Missile’s “Detachable Penis” and then Mickey Avalon’s “My Dick” – for fucking REALS), tonight it brought The Faders back into my direct line of attention.

“No Sleep Tonight” would have perhaps worked a little bit better had it not been sung by this lot and rather given to Sarah Harding as her debut solo single. The song is a pretty big pearler (so much so that Molly from The Faders went and recorded a solo version after they’d split) and would have done Sarah Harding very nicely. I’d BELIEVE her when she says she’ll be getting no sleep tonight. Molly McQueen on the other hand; definitely napping.

For best results, avoid watching the actual video clip (which is several hundred shades of utter shit) and just look at this picture of Sarah Harding being Rock ‘n Roll at a Rock Concert as The Faders audio plays.

Cor blimey they had a set of mugs on them, didn’t they?

Meg Washington is an incredible Australian pop lady, and after a run of really amazing singles and EP’s she’s finally releasing her debut album. “I Believe You Liar” is released through Mercury/Universal on July 30th and could end up being one of the years best if the new single is anything to go by.

This is the new Washington video clip. The song is called “Sunday Best” and it ticks just about every box on my list both visually and musically. I saw it last night on Rage, our late-night music show here in Oz, and was pretty blown away. Ridiculously fun and incredibly well put together, best I’ve seen from this country so far in 2010, so there you go.

I interviewed Meg a few months back and she was one of the most refreshing and hilarious people I’ve ever had the honour of speaking to. I’ll try and find the transcript and post it on here next week, but in the meantime I’m just going to watch “Sunday Best” again and hope that a higher quality audio of it arrives on YouTube soon.

Back when I was a teenager, Rollo & Sister Bliss were THE go to for amazing remixes. Time and time again they created legendary dance music history with their building, euphoric takes on some of the biggest songs released. Everything from Donna Summer to even their own brand of music as apart of Faithless, generally speaking, Rollo & Sister Bliss were – and are – two of the greatest DJs in the dance community.

Over the last couple of years, Rollo & Bliss’ output as a remixing duo hasn’t been hitting the usual track-records or meeting the standards many of their previous re-swizzles have. There was a distinct sound to the way Rollo & Bliss remixed, but as house music turned into something completely different all together as the late 90’s drew to a close, so did that euphoric, trancey house bassline we’d all come to know and love from R & Bliss. But now, with the 90’s revival well and truly here, it seems fitting that a remix that harks back to that particular time be exactly the kind of sound Rollo & Sister Bliss recreate with this, their finest and most spectacular remix in about five years.

What’s probably even more exciting is that it still sounds like a remix that’s been done in 2010. It’s still fresh sounding but somehow manages to push a number of nostalgic buttons for me along the way. Hell, maybe even you.

The Temper Trap (from Melbourne) released this, their “Love Lost” single last month, with this remix tacked on as a b-side. The original version is fine, but there’s something really magical about that breakdown and beat-drop toward the end of the remix that really takes the song to a much further emotional level. That euphoric sense of beauty, tragedy and brilliance, all rolled into the one truly monstrous and epic seven minute club thumper.

Welcome back Rollo and Sister Bliss. Don’t Leave…