Glee starts tonight in the U.K at 9pm on E4. We for one can't wait. We've had enough of miserable crime dramas and reality shows (though we are loving Vinnie Jones' contempt for Alex Reid on Celebrity Big Brother!), we need some light frothy fun for these god awful winter nights!
At this time pretty much every year we get a bunch of lists and polls tipping lots of new acts for big things in the coming year. However we've decided to go against and the grain - we're fed up of reading about Marina/Hurts/Ellie Goulding thank you very much, and if we're honest, we don't see many of those new acts selling a massive amount of units. However, there ARE a number of things we ARE excited about, so here goes:
Sia - new album 'We Are Born'
The lovely Sia has been busy writing for the like Chrissy Aguilera (and refusing to give songs to Duffy), but she's back early this year with her FOURTH album. She leaked a free taster mp3 before xmas - the sublime 'You've Changed', and if it's a taster of things to come, it's going to be a VERY strong album...
Kelis - Acapella single and fifth album
Kelis has always been one step ahead of the game, and with 'Acapella' she's continuing that trend - a brooding electro track that's miles away from some of her earlier RnB material. Confirmed collaborations on the album include Boyz Noize, David Guetta, Calvin Harris and La Roux, so expect some banging club tracks....
Robyn - New album
For those that picked up Robyn's last album when it was initially out in Sweden, it's been a LONG wait for this one. But the head of her label has confirmed that a new album IS in the works, and will be released in the first half of '10. In the meantime she's been keeping herself busy, providing guest vocals on 'Caesar' - the debut single from new band 'I Blame Coco' (also featuring a certain Coco Sumner, daughter of Sting)
Janet - New album
Some spellbinding performances prooting her 'Number Ones' album on both sides of the pond, and suddenly it seems like Janet may be a viable proposition again. We weren't a massive fan of 'Move Me' - the track used to promote the hits compilation, but we're hoping that the terrible year she's had might just help fire her creative sparks....
Diana Vickers - New album
She may be the musical equivalent of marmite, and she certainly split the X Factor viewers right down the middle, but we're massively excited about Diana. She has a star quality that was sadly missing from this years show, and a quirkiness which instantly makes her relevant in today's pop landscape. We think she could be one of this year's massive successes. With a first single penned with Cathy Dennis, and further work with the likes of Ellie Goulding, Eg White, Starsmith and Nerina Pallot, everything seems to be pointing towards mainstream success....
Other acts we'll be rooting for this year: Sky Ferreira, Ellie Goulding, Starsmith, RBW, RichGirl, Queen Of Hearts
There's little you can say about how sad it is when someone dies so young - Brittany was only 32 at the time of passing.
We were massive fans of Brittany - whether in her career defining role as Taj in Clueless 'You're a virgin. Who can't drive', or in her guise as full on club diva on Paul Oakenfold's 'Faster Kill Pussycat', pretty much everything Brittany touched turned to gold. She had a rare presence and charisma, but also a kookiness that made her light up every screen she graced.
God bless you. x
So, somewhat unpredicatably, this year's X Factor winner wasn't the usual X Factor schmaltz. Instead little Joe McElderry's 'The Climb' was beaten into second place by Rage Against The Machine's 'Killing In The Name' - a song propelled to the top spot on the back of an internet campaign to stop X Factor getting the Xmas number one for a fifth year in a row...
As soon as it looked like RATM was serious competition, The X Factor lot went into PR overdrive - Simon calling the campaign 'spiteful' and wor' Cheryl harping on about how 'unfair' it was. Even little Joe chirped in, calling the RATM 'digusting', and saying how 'gutted' he'd be if he wasn't number one. Now, the thing that annoyed us during this whole thing was how they all somehow felt that Joe was entitled to the number one slot - like it was part and parcel of him winning the show. Even more galling was Joe's attitude that he'd be gutted to not go to number one after all the 'hard work' that he'd put in?? Considering most of the top 75 was full of acts who had grafted for years, toured, wrote their own songs etc - does he really think that singing karaoke on stage for 12 weeks is 'hard work' - because if he does, he's in for a rude awakening...
If truth be told, we think both songs are rubbish - it's the song at number three, Lady Gaga's 'Bad Romance' that is the true diamond in the rough. But What this does do is hopefully wake SImon Cowell et al up to the idea that they can't release any old shit and watch it sale to number one. Like everybody else, they're gonna have to work for it...
Before we start with our weekly X Factor roundup, we thought we’d address the lack of XFactor related pieces last week. We were actually stuck in the middle of nowhere on the Monday without any internet access – however, when we came to write the piece the following day, we realised that there wasn’t really much to say. Danyl was still shit. Joe still good but boring. Stacey still shakey and Olly still preposterous. We were actually, surprisingly, a bit sad about Lloyd going – he might not have been the strongest singer, but he was the closest they had to someone who could actually be a popstar in the real world...
So, onto this week’s show...
01. Firstly can we just stress how much we HATE Simon Cowell this season?? When did it happen? Where has it came from? This is the man who usually spoke for everyone watching by telling things how they were– this year however, he’s petty, bad tempered, and more importantly, clueless. His shameless pimping of DanYl, a guy who couldn’t hit a note if it was standing right in front of him, has been quite cringeworthy to watch...
02. We may as well get it out the way now seeing as we’re talking about DanYl – hurrah! We’re so glad he’s gone. What took so long??! Simon’s pimping reached new proportions this week despite DanYl singing like he had two tennis balls stuffed in his mouth and a clothes peg on his nose. As usual, he spent both of his songs completely off key, before omitting a blood curdling screaming towards the end. We can’t say we’ll miss having to hear that ‘singing’ every week....
03. And what of the rest? It’s hard to get enthused to be honest. Stacey’s ‘Somewhere’ was pretty impressive, but she’s hardly in Leona’s league. Hell, she’s not even in Lucie’s league. And the less said about her ‘sexy’ rendition of ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’ the better. Bad move Dannii, bad move....
04. Joe’s ‘She’s Out Of My Life’ was probably his best performance of the series – the first time we’ve genuinely enjoyed one of his performances. But he’s still SOOO dull! And who’s styling him?? He looked like some chav going down to Bigg Market this week. Should we mention the teeth again? Or the bizarre head tilt? Or even the walking – how does he walk so annoyingly??!
05. We don’t even know what to say about Olly. We want to kill him. Yes, we know that ladies of a certain age seem to love him – but the fact is he can’t sing, he certainly can’t dance and he’s a twat. His ‘moves’ during ‘We Can Work It Out’ were so embarrassing that we wanted to hide behind the sofa. He’s not cool, he looks like an embarrassing uncle at a wedding. And why was he dressed like a dental hygienist?? Dear God, why??!!
06. We *heart* Lady Gaga. Now, that’s how you do a performance. We did find it quite funny when someone called into The Xtra Factor later and somehow managed to compare her to Olly, as they’re both ‘performers’. Only in the same way that you could call both Aldi and Harrods ‘food halls’.
07. We also *heart* Janet. We have to admit, we’re not as big a fan of fat Janet, and ‘Make Me’ isn’t exactly her strongest single, but she still ran rings around the contestants we have left. She probably refused to speak after her performance after seeing her brothers songs murdered one by one the night before...
08. Oh, and how short is Joe?! Dermot towers over him, and isn’t Dermot a midget??! He looks like the lovechild of Jaws and Jeanette Krankie.
09. We’re only at nine, and we have nothing more to say L
10. Bring on the final next week – if only so we can finally say goodbye to this sorry, sorry excuse of a series...
Sorry for being so late with this post. We're still reeling from the news that Rated R didn't make the top 10 last week. So come on. How many of you bought the Chris Moyles album! Identify yourselves!
Yes it's Christmas. But surely as a nation we can't be that stumped for Christmas ideas! I hope you've all kept your receipts....
Okay. Rant over.
Cheryl Cole and Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka.
You can exclusively listen to samples from American Idol winners album, imaginatively entitled Kris Allen. Can you let us know what it's like? We got bored by track 3. It's a shame that the cutest winner of a reality show is actually the dullest. :(
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