The editors of Modern Tonic present a weekly music update here on Towleroad. The rest of the week, they scan the pop culture landscape for movie, TV, book and Web recommendations in their daily email. FIVE OVERLOOKED ALBUMS FROM 2009:
You can’t shake a stick without hitting year-end/decade-end best-of lists right now. So here’s a twist: The five albums of the year that didn’t get the full attention they deserved in 2009:
Miike Snow, Miike Snow
— Production duo Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg (aka Bloodshy
& Avant, producers of Britney Spears’ "Toxic" and "Piece of Me" as
well as album tracks from Madonna and Kylie) and American
singer/songwriter Andrew Wyatt teamed up to become Miike Snow. Their
self-titled debut is a tuneful collection of low-key jams that pop with
colorful details (check the flighty, treated vocals of "Silvia") and
endless surprises (start with the synthetic reggae of single "Animal"). It’s doubtful we’ll be ignoring their follow-up. God Help The Girl,God Help the Girl— Just when you thought Belle & Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch couldn’t be twee-er, here’s his collection of songs for an unmade film, with vocals from 60’s-sounding femmes and a few guest stars — Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy and Murdoch himself. It would all be too precious if he weren’t such a fine writer, especially on "Come Monday Night," a tune so redolent of the mid-60’s it could’ve been commissioned by Jean-Luc Godard for Masculin Féminin.
Clint Michigan, Hawthorne to Hennepin — If a man named Clint Michigan had recorded this delicate debut in a Wisconsin cabin after a devastating breakup, we’d have been discussing it like the second coming of Bon Iver. As it is, this New York-via-Portland duo (Amy Bezunartea and openly gay Clint Asay) have crafted the Americana release of the year, with beautiful harmonies throughout and open, roiling melodies as evocative as a sunset horizon.
Golden Silvers,True Romance — Golden Silvers essay the history of British rock on True Romance. The trio has a Kinks-ian music hall good time on "Queen of the 21st Century," detour through Brit-pop on the Pulp-like "Shakes," and head for the rave in the Primal Screamadelic "True Romance (True No. 9 Blues)." It’s an impressive debut for the group that won 2008’s New Talent competition at Glastonbury.
jj, jj n° 2 — Little is known about this Swedish group, so let us tell you all you need to know about jj’s debut. It’s 25 minutes of electro-ambient paradise, from the Caribbean-inflected opener "Things Will Never Be the Same Again" to the sad, Moldy Peaches simplicity of "Me & Dean." They sound like Air France, The xx and Yacht. Now you know.
MUSIC NEWS:
Mariah Carey announced a 19-city tour starting January 2 in Atlantic City. The Angels Advocate Tourwill run through February 27. Fan club pre-sale starts tomorrow.
The naysayers can piss and moan all they want. We love NINE and its superb soundtrack
featuring vocals from Daniel Day-Lewis, Penelope Cruz, Fergie and that
renowned belter Judi Dench. If you ever wanted to "Be Italian," here’s
the place to start. Also available is Kate Hudson’s big number "Cinema
Paradiso," remixed by Ron Fair.
She hasn’t made a bad album yet, and she’s not about to start now. Alicia Keys’ The Element of Freedom gets into the thick of her recent love triangle with producer Swizz Beatz, and even makes time for a sequel to Jay-Z’s "Empire State of Mind (Part II)."
Sometimes Robin Thicke’s white-boy lover-man shtick seems like a joke, but not on Sex Therapy: The Experience, a horned up collection of horizontal jams that makes us proclaim that the doctor is definitely in.
Just how gay is Kylie Live in New York? Let’s see — the "Overture" features snippets of The Sound of Music and The Wizard of Oz. And that’s before Kylie even starts singing her beloved canon of Eurodisco classics.
Hot Chip: "One Life Stand" Shot primarily from an overhead security camera, the men of Hot Chip get goofier and funkier by the second on this joyous ode to the monogamous life, from their same-titled forthcoming album.
Pet Shop Boys: "All Over the World" A highlight from Yes, and re-produced for the current Christmas EP, this performance clip intersperses footage of PSB concerts around the globe. There's Neil with his head in a box. There's Chris with a crown of feathers. There are the dancers dressed like the NYC skyline. Looks like somebody missed a great show.
Portishead: "Chase the Tear" This video is shot cinema vérité style, in black and white. Though the camera moves slowly, Bristol's finest trip-hoppers pick up the pace during a lively synth-pop jag like nothing they've ever done before. Released as a single to raise money for Amnesty International, buy it here.
Chromeo: "Night by Night" From their upcoming summer 2010 release, the Montreal groovers channel Flashdance on this track, complete with keytars, a truck warehouse full of auditioning dancers and beanpole thin singer David Macklovitch twirling like he just won Dancing with the Stars.
The editors of Modern Tonic present a weekly music update here on Towleroad. The rest of the week, they scan the pop culture landscape for movie, TV, book and Web recommendations in their daily email. NEW HOLIDAY RELEASES:
Twenty-four shopping days left for Christmas — only 10 if you’re prepping for Chanukah. And if you’re thinking of buying holiday music, we’re here to help sort the frankincense from the myrrh.
Pet Shop Boys’ holiday party will be in — where else? — a club. Their Christmas EP (available December 15 via import) features “It Doesn’t Often Snow at Christmas,” three non-holiday tracks (including a “Viva La Vida”/“Domino Dancing” mash-up), and a cover and subsequent remix of Madness' “My Girl,” which sounds like the James Bond theme vacationing in Ibiza. Who wouldn’t want a little Daniel Craig under the mistletoe?
With its mix of artists-of-the-moment and iconic Keith Haring covers, A Very Special Christmas has been starting the holiday party and raising money for the Special Olympics since 1987. The latest in the series, A Very Special Christmas 7, features tweens (Miley Cyrus’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”), starlets (Ashley Tisdale’s “Last Christmas”) and a Reggae-fied “The Little Drummer Boy,” courtesy of Sean Kingston. Oh Blue Christmas by L.A. alt-band A Fine Frenzy offers the Peanuts classic “Christmas Time Is Here,” two more standards and three sad originals that could grace a dramatic breakdown on any holiday episode of Grey’s Anatomy.
And does anything evoke the holidays more than Bob Dylan croaking his
way through holiday chestnuts? Maybe not, but Mr. Dylan né Zimmerman
carries on a long tradition of Jewish entertainers (Neil Diamond,
Barbra Streisand…) singing holiday songs associated with a different
testament, on Christmas in the Heart.
Gold and Green is a country Christmas card of Sugarland’s seasonal originals and two-stepping standards. Just try not line dancing to “Winter Wonderland.”
Mimi’s ever-popular 1994 Christmas cut “All I Want for Christmas Is You” gets a 15th anniversary remix on Mariah Carey’s download-only EP, with the original track and three versions of the new mix by Low Sunday. If Santa wants to shed a few post-Xmas pounds, this’ll be his jam for that aerobic North Pole-dancing workout.
But nothing beats some old favorites. The original A Very Special Christmas with Madonna’s vampy “Santa Baby” is Christmas camp supreme. Elvis Presley’s Elvis’ Christmas Album lets your shake your hips from the waist down in the privacy of your own home. Sufjan Stevens’ five-EP collection Songs for Christmas is to indie kids what waking up to snow on Christmas Day is for the rest of the little ones. And the girl-group super-party known as A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector is a must for any festivities. Raising a glass to Spector in jail: optional.
MUSIC NEWS:
Goldfrapp have announced a new album to be released March 23, 2010, titled Head First. Lead single "Rocket" debuts March 9. A tour is planned for later next year.
Michael Jackson's This Is It will be released on DVD and Blu-ray January 26, with over an hour of extra material not seen in the theatrical release. Exclusive to Blu-ray will be alternate versions of the lavish pre-filmed "Smooth Criminal" and "Thriller" sequences that were to be shown during the concerts.
Allison Iraheta — fourth runner-up of this year’s American Idol — is a rock dynamo in a tiny package. Her debut, Just Like You, is a rough-and-tumble collection of big riffs, gruff vocals and attitude inherited from her rock godmothers Suzi Quatro and Joan Jett.
New jack mack daddy R. Kelly yodels, breaks out the falsetto and diddles with Auto-Tune all over Untitled. Wonder why he sounds so happy? Couldn’t be that 2008 acquittal, could it?
It’s amazing how muscular the New Wave revivalists The Bravery sound on Stir the Blood — especially on the herky-jerky Goth of “Slow Poison” and a fast and violent little number called, appropriately, “Hatef**k.”
The Celtic goddess of New Age mysticism releases the CD/DVD combo The Very Best of Enya.
Scoff all you want, but in the post-holiday mash of shopping don’t you
need something that’s easy on both the eyes and the ears?
George Michael: "December Song (I Dreamed of Christmas)" Available last year as a free download through George Michael's website, this smooth and soulful tune — originally written for the Spice Girls — gets a commercial release in the U.K. this month, and this gorgeously surreal animated winterland video.
Cheryl Cole feat. will.i.am: "3 Words" On hiatus from her day job with Girls Aloud, Cheryl Cole and the ubiquitous B.E.Pea will.i.am offers this slinky cut from her solo debut featuring split-screened, shirtless dancers in an interpretive dance of deeply committed love.
Fever Ray: "Keep the Streets Empty for Me" If Fever Ray's minimalist electro is darkly evocative, their videos are downright creepy. This B&W clip features shredded curtains blowing across chicken-wire, nightscapes as lush as velvet paintings, and ghostly images of disenfranchised street people. The Saturdays: "Ego" This Brit girl-group knocks a social climbing man down a few pegs on this dance track from Wordshaker. It’s also a great excuse for the ladies to wear some fierce and skimpy Girl Power outfits, as if bodies as slamming as theirs ever need a pretext.
The editors of Modern Tonic present a weekly music update here on Towleroad. The rest of the week, they scan the pop culture landscape for movie, TV, book and Web recommendations in their daily email. TODAY’S FEATURED NEW RELEASES:
We’ve been riding Lady Gaga’s disco shtick since the release of The Fame last year. The woman born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta has shot to the forefront of gay consciousness with a combo of cheeky post-Madonna dance grooves and a sartorial sense that makes Björk’s Oscar night Swan dress look like a gingham hand-me-down. Gaga’s follow up, The Fame Monster, features 8 new tunes sold as a single disc or packaged with The Fame. (A super deluxe Fame Monsterbox set — to include a lock of her hair (!) — will be available December 15.) Highlights include the single "Bad Romance" (does Gaga have any other kind?), the Spanish-flecked "Alejandro" that’s like half Abba’s "Fernando" and half Madonna’s "La Isla Bonita," and the hi-NRG club jam "Telephone" featuring none other than Gaga’s latest BFF Beyoncé.
For once, the press was right. Christened 'Glambert' for his theatrical preening on last season's American Idol,
Adam Lambert brought a sexually ambiguous charisma to a set of stellar
pipes that knew how to sell chestnuts from not only Queen and Zeppelin,
but Foghat and Tears for Fears. No longer ambiguous — he came out
publicly following the end of the season — Lambert juices up his debut For Your Entertainmentwith
a powerful sexual allure. He gets help from Pink with "Whataya Want
from Me," one of her trademarked tracks that's tough on the outside and
tender on the inside. And from the multi-tracked falsetto of opener "Music Again" to
the flamboyant "Soaked," a ballad that sounds like an Arabic showtune
by Muse (written by Muse’s Matt Bellamy), it's one blue-rinsed
highlight after another. And we mean blue as in profane – this is one
proud gay boy who’s not afraid to tell you what he wants, as we saw on the AMAs last night. "Open your
mouth, open it wide," he teases on the stealthy "Strut." On the
pounding title track he’s a decisive topman with one thing on his mind: "Can you handle what I'm 'bout to do? / 'cause it's about to get rough
in you." Well, bring it on, baby. To quote Nirvana — here we are now,
entertain us.
Is it possible to listen to Rihanna's fourth release Rated Rand not think about the domestic violence incident that transpired earlier this year between her and then-boyfriend Chris Brown? Not really, though you’d be looking for that proverbial needle in the haystack to find a song that point blank addresses the issue. (The closest she comes is “Stupid in Love.”) But, boy, is she angry, which translates to lots of hard rock moves, from Slash’s guest guitar on "Rockstar" to the punk-metal opening riff of "Fire Bomb." Elsewhere, she gets breezy with Jeezy on the island-hip-hopping of “Hard” and stretches out on the mid-tempo Justin Timberlake co-written "Cold Case Love."
MUSIC NEWS:
Seventy-seven-year-old music mogul Clive Davis on the re-launching of Whitney Houston's career, American Idol artist album sales and the music business's rough transition from CD to digital.
Sony has announced plans to launch the creatively-titled Sony Online Service to compete with iTunes. It's expected to sell music, films, games and books. No date is set yet.
Angie Stone, a sistah from the old skool of R&B, releases Unexpected — 12 sexy slow-ish jams that’ll rock your rump vertically or, oh yes, horizontally.
Beyoncé gets cozy on the 2-CD/DVD I Am Yours…An Intimate Performance at Wynn Las Vegas. Her voice is deeper and stronger live, especially on some inspired medleys, including an extended set of songs from a little band named Destiny’s Child. Also released today: a deluxe edition of I Am…Sasha Fierce, which includes the remix of "Video Phone" with Lady Gaga.
The frumpy Scottish church lady Susan Boyle releases her debut in the aftermath of her Britain’s Got Talent buzz. I Dreamed a Dream
includes that star-making song, her pristine version of The Rolling
Stones' "Wild Horses," and more easy listening tracks.
Shakira, Colombia's biggest export after coffee, gets the heart racing faster than caffeine on her latest English-language release, She Wolf, with help from The Neptunes and Wyclef Jean.
Patrick Wolf: "Damaris" From his superb The Bachelor, this sensual, pagan clip teases the sacrilegious undertones from Wolf’s dramatic telling of Saint Paul’s conversion of Dionysius’s wife.
David Gray and Annie Lennox: "Full Steam" Old Wobbly Head and Ms. Eurythmics are lovers on the lam in this gansta-land clip set in an industrial wasteland. Best effect? Lennox’s industrial-strength pipes — still a thing of wonder after all these years.
Charlotte Gainsbourg featuring Beck: "Heaven Can Wait" Filled with incongruous images — a skateboard with burgers for wheels, a man with a stack of pancakes for a head — Gainsbourg and L.A. freak Beck take us on a jaunty stroll through a surreal day in suburbia.
Valley Lodge: "All of My Loving" (video NSFW) And the award for best use of human beings as furniture goes to Valley Lodge, who, as far as we are concerned, one-upped Brüno. We especially like the bed!
Our friends at Modern Tonic -- the guys who compile and write our weekly music column -- have been good enough to secure copies of both the new Lady Gaga and Adam Lambert CDs. We're giving away three pair in each of two contests. That's six sets total. And all you need to do to be eligible is join our Facebook page and leave us a nice wall message for the first, and follow both Towleroad (@tlrd) and Modern Tonic (@modern_tonic) on Twitter and tweet us. Sign up and directions below.
The editors of Modern Tonic present a weekly music update here on Towleroad. The rest of the week, they scan the pop culture landscape for movie, TV, book and Web recommendations in their daily email. FEATURED NEW RELEASES AND FREE DOWNLOADS:
After her successful 2004 debut Anniemal, with its elastic hit "Chewing Gum," Norwegian pop star Annie signed to Island Records in 2007. In 2008, she released the single "I Know Ur Girlfriend Hates Me" as a precursor to her follow-up Don’t Stop. But when the song failed on the charts, she left the label and took the finished record with her. A year later, Don’t Stop finally sees the light of day (in a revised version that includes three new tracks replacing three that were dropped), and it’s such a pop high that it makes the suits at Island seem like fools for letting her go. From the cheery marching band drums of opener "Hey Annie" to the Caribbean flavored New Wave of the title track, it’s a one-way trip to pop nirvana. The punchy future single "My Love Is Better" — available as a free download here in a bottom-heavy dub version — may get more chart action than "I Know UR Girlfriend Hates Me" (available on the import-only Deluxe Edition), but even if it doesn’t it’s good to have our favorite Anniemal back on the prowl. (Bonus free download: album track "I Don’t Like Your Band," a velvet-gloved bitch-slap to shallow divas).
With Simon Cowell and Clive Davis’ combined muscle behind her, it was a foregone conclusion that 2006 X Factor winner Leona Lewis would be big. But who knew she’d be the first U.K. vocalist to chart a U.S. number one ("Bleeding Love") since 1987? Chart glory is once again in her future with her second releaseEcho. Opener and first single "Happy" rides its low-key "Nothing Compares 2 U" groove into a soaring chorus built for Lewis’ diva-grade pipes. And after that it’s one potential number one after the next, with highlights including "I Got You" (written by Max Martin, who penned Kelly Clarkson’s "Since U Been Gone"), the Justin Timberlake-produced "Don’t Let Me Down," and "Lost Then Found," an encore-worthy mid-tempo ballad written by Ryan Tedder and featuring his band OneRepublic, a cell-phone waving audience pleaser. Echo’s full of such moments, so if you see Lewis in concert, bring an extra cell-phone battery or two.
When Norah Jones swept the pop landscape withCome Away With Mein 2002, her jazzy simplicity was an alternative to over-the-top divas who’d never met a musical scale they didn’t like. But her popularity brought out the grumblers. Some called her ‘Snore-ah Jones’; Nellie McKay even bitch-slapped her when she titled her own debut Get Away From Me. Yet Jones persevered, and 36 million album sales later she’s releasing her fourth album, The Fall. Jones opened up her sound here, playing with new musicians and enlisting the help of some well-respected collaborators like Ryan Adams and Okkervil River’s Will Sheff. She’s still a girl with her head clearly on her shoulders, but The Fall expands her sonic palette with the alt-country Adams co-write "Light As a Feather," the rumbling juke-joint-jive of "It’s Gonna Be," and the back-porch blues of "Man of the Hour." It’s adult and it’s contemporary, but we doubt you’ll be hearing it on Lite-FM.
She's not the commercial titan she once was, but Janet Jackson’s two-disc Number Ones will remind you what Ms. Jackson’s done for us not only lately but steadily since the ‘80s. The two-disc collection’s new track, "Make Me," is a glorious, and welcome, return to old-school Janet.
He’s been a Grammy-winning pop star, a bluesman, a writer for Esquire, and a celebrity boy toy. With Battle Studies, John Mayer is ready to become the new Sting — a middle-of-the-road artist with chops, hooks and good taste. You think he does yoga?
Much as we love Morrissey’s comeback work since You Are the Quarry, his B-sides are an Anglophile’s wet dream. The latest collection Swords (Deluxe Edition) includes the classic gay-love lament “Christian Dior” and a live take on Bowie’s "Drive-In Saturday."
Down-home American Idol Season 8 victor Kris Allen releases his self-titled debut — a super-catchy mainstream winner — a week before runner-up (and likely chart champ) Adam Lambert rules the world.
Kid Sister: "Right Hand Hi" This Chi-town rapper — with a long bob of black and blonde hair — surfs a bouncy, grimy groove in this L.A.-based clip. Her debut Ultraviolet, out today, is crammed with hi-NRG smackdowns.
Lights: "Ice" Canadian synth-popper Valerie Poxleitner’s jaunty lost-love tune — a highlight of her debut The Listening — features a boxing match between the sprightly singer and her darker doppleganger. Who wins? In matters of the heart, it’s always a draw.
David Guetta feat. Estelle: "One Love" French passion meets Brit cool on Guetta’s thumping dance jam featuring U.K. R&B star Estelle. The clubland compatriots cruise the night city searching for the downtrodden and lovelorn. When they find them, they flash them with a hand gesture — the sign of the heart — that infects them with the urge to hotfoot it like crazy.
Orianthi: "According to You" She calls herself a “mess in a dress” on this raucous shredder, but Australian guitarist Orianthi is girl power incarnate, fingering that fret-board faster than Eddie Van Halen in his wildest dreams.
The editors of Modern Tonic present a weekly music update here on Towleroad. The rest of the week, they scan the pop culture landscape for movie, TV, book and Web recommendations in their daily email.
TODAY'S FEATURED NEW RELEASES AND FREE DOWNLOAD:
It’s hard to be Robbie Williams. A gigantic star all over the world, he's ignored in the U.S. (where he currently lives — in Los Angeles — with actress Ayda Field. Sorry, boys). So here comes Reality Killed the Video Star (out digitally today, on CD 11/17), his 8th studio album, and the speculation starts again: will this be Williams' rocketship to American stardom or another one-way trip to Planet Oblivion? Sure, he's got a stateside cult following, but boy band refugee Williams deserves a Justin Timberlake-size audience. The good news? Reality's the best thing Williams has done since his U.S. debut compilation, The Ego Has Landed. Produced by Trevor Horn — the former Buggles main man — Reality, a pun on Horn's "Video Killed the Radio Star," plays to Williams' strengths from start to finish. First single "Bodies" (FREE DOWNLOAD OF FRED FALKE EXTENDED REMIX HERE) layers monk-ish chanting over an Art of Noise robot groove. "Blasphemy" is a theatrical ballad that sounds like Williams' audition for the roadshow of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. And "Starstruck" confronts Robbie's lack of U.S. commercial respect head on. As longtime fans we're used to our fellow citizens' deaf spot, but the reality is we'd like it to change.
Tori Amos used to be a "Cornflake Girl" (to quote a hit title), and sometimes she’s been just a flake —From the Choirgirl Hotel anyone? But as an interpreter of others' songs she’s been damn near peerless. Her take on Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"? Inspired. Covering Eminem on Strange Little Girls? Ballsy. And now the woman who suckled a piglet at her breast in the booklet for Boys for Pele brings us a juicy Christmas morsel called Midwinter Graces. This being Amos, a straight-up holiday album won't do. She mixes obscure traditional tunes like the Victorian "Candle: Coventry Carol" with seasonally-inspired originals such as "A Silent Night with You." It’s a gift from a "Snow Angel," to quote an Amos original, that’ll sound just as delightful long after the holidays have passed.
On her debut The Bridge Melanie Fiona, the Toronto-based child of Guyanese parents, layers Motown-flavored R&B over sharp-edged lyrics that mix the bitter with the sweet in finger-snapping harmony. The results? 12 potential singles as catchy as a Raphael Saadiq retro jam with extra-added hip-hop attitude. First single "Give It to Me Right" anchors the hook from The Zombies' "Time of the Season" to a non-stop plea for slamming sex. "Bang Bang" is even more lascivious, wherein Fiona wants to "introduce ya to my Lucy" to a beat that can only be called shagalicious. And when you treat her bad, you better "Walk On By," a tune that channels Mavis Staples' earthy soul squeals in a tale of hell-hath-no-fury-like-a-woman-scorned. Perhaps that’s Fiona's way of warning you that The Bridge is one that you won’t want to burn.
MUSIC NEWS:
Susan Boyle will perform the song that changed her life ("I Dreamed a Dream") on tonight's "Dancing With the Stars." She is also scheduled to perform live on NBC's "Today" show on November 23, the day her debut album, also titled I Dreamed a Dream, is released.
Britney Spears made her Australian concert debut last Friday, and (surprise!), a whirlwind media frenzy surrounded it.
Aussie media has made a big deal about her partial lip-synching and how
fans have stormed out of the concert because of it. Apparently, Britney
is "extremely upset" over the controversy.
Hot Chip have announced a release date of February 10, 2010 for their next album, One Life Stand.
Swedish Electro-pop trio Miike Snow will be touring the U.S. next spring. Two of the band's members, Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg, have written and produced songs for Britney Spears (winning a Grammy for "Toxic"), Madonna and Kylie Minogue, among others, under the name Bloodshy & Avant.
Green Day's well-reviewed musical, American Idiot, based on their 2004 album, now winding down a successful run at California's Berkeley Repertory Theater, is confirmed to open on Broadway. No date or theater has been announced yet.
A threesome of compilations in ten years is a bit much, but since Britney Spears is high on "3" these days we’ll give her a pass, especially when The Singles Collection includes that hot track and 16 more of Spears’ single releases. (The single CD version is released today; a deluxe box set — pictured — will be released November 23).
If it’s change you want out of Washington, D.C., Obama’s not the only brother who’ll make you say 'Yes We Can.' Rapper Wale's (pr. wah-LAY) debut joint Attention Deficit — on Mark Ronson’s label — finally drops after years of well-regarded "mixtapes."
Snow Patrol's the band mainstream alternative didn't know it was waiting for. Their super-catchy arena anthems ("Hands Open," "Chasing Cars," etc.) are collected on the two-disc best-of Up to Now, as well as lesser known tunes from 1998 up through their 2003 breakthrough "Run."
Mini Viva: "I Wish" From the Xenomania production powerhouse comes the frothy duo of Frankee Connolly and Britt Love. “I Wish” is Euro-pop and proud, with an L.A.-set video that adds extra digital color to the land of Hollywood dreams.
Massive Attack: "United Snakes" A sinister tune from 2006 gets a high-tech new video from Massive Attack. Black-and-white geometric shapes morph into menacing configurations on this creepy, provocative clip with vocals from 3D.
Jamie Cullum: "Don’t Stop the Music" The jazzy Brit makes a sexy swing of this Rihanna track, while his baby grand piano, over-stimulated by Cullum’s “jazz hands,” experiences an explosive climax of its own. From new album The Pursuit, due in February.
Pixie Lott: "Cry Me Out" The latest U.K. thrush advises her ex to cry her out of his system in this gorgeous black-and-white homage to ‘30s Hollywood glamour, complete with an Esther Williams synchronized-swimming segment.
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