*Obvious, hardly-needs-mentioning statement about how pleasing on the eyeballs Sarah Cracknell was/is*
Now that’s out of the way, let’s focus on the music (MAN). Because the music is, to the surprise of perhaps ohidunno THE WHOLE WORLD, quite brilliant.
Produced by the reliable Richard X, it’s a lush, sparkly dance-pop number varnished with La Cracknell’s still “ahhh”-inspiring coos. It feels effortless and delightful, so give it a spin below (it’s not a cover of the Hall & Oates song of the same name, don’t worry. Oh, you’ve never heard of it anyway? OK then.):

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Monday January 26th, 2009 at 1:30 pm

Spring will see two erstwhile R&B divas return to the fold with new albums. Christina Milian has just released her video for “Us Against The World”, from her forthcoming album Dream In Color; while Toni Braxton’s “Get Loose” has hit various spots of the internet ahead of her new album Pulse.
Let’s pretend that ONLY ONE CAN SURVIVE, and compare their sleeky sleekness.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Tuesday January 13th, 2009 at 12:15 pm

Annie, one of the defining “big on the internet” pop stars of the noughties, was dropped from her label, Island Records, earlier this year. For a legion of fans eagerly awaiting her second album Don’t Stop this was pretty frustrating, but now she’s popped up and assured us that the album will see the light of day. She’s not sure when. Or how.

As The Guardian reports, Annie has asserted that she owns the masters to her recordings, so can pretty much do what she likes with them. She hints that she may release them on her own label which, along with the news that she’s building her own studio in Berlin, suggests she’s had quite enough of being dicked around by “The Man”, thank you very much.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Thursday January 8th, 2009 at 11:00 am

They’re not really breaking boundaries anymore, but if The Prodigy were a footballer they would be a good, solid “midfield general” with the ability to do you a fair amount of damage.
“Invaders Must Die” has a bit of a crappy video, with some lad wandering around looking at bits of net and fish-heads and appearing confused/paranoid/bored. Perhaps he should get himself a hobby. Given the combustible nature of the tune, I would suggest he take up firesurfing and re-record the video immediately.
“Invaders Must Die” comes from the album of the same name which is due to be released in March 2009 and apparently includes a collabthing with Dave Grohl. Click through to check out the vid, and if you then decide you’d like to download the track for freezies go to The Prodigy’s website.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Monday December 1st, 2008 at 10:32 am

If you’ve been passing your cold winter eves the same way as me, by watching ITV’s I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, you will no doubt have been transfixified by the insight into the songwriting process provided by new best buds David Van Day (ex-Dollar) and Timmy Mallett (ex-Wacaday).
When they’re not engaged in a seemingly endless battle to be crowned THE MOST ATTENTION-SEEKING PRICK ON TELEVISION, the pair have been pooling their ageing brains as dynamite pop due Croc Idol. So far, they’ve come up with this:

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Friday November 28th, 2008 at 10:31 am

Sad news, power-pop fans - Phantom Planet are to call it a day. Sadder news - as this article illustrates, they’re probably forever going to be referred to as “actor Jason Schwartzman’s former band”.
And if it’s not that, it’ll be as “the Californiaaa” band. At least they’re being remembered at all, but I was shocked to read that Phantom Planet have actually been around for fifteen years. Kind of makes me wonder if they were really trying pre-2003.
Their last show will take place at the Troubadour in L.A, where they played their first gig in 1994. I was always fond of the track “1st Things 1st” from the album Phantom Planet, so rather than “that one from The O.C.”, I’ve posted a live performance of it after the jump.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Wednesday November 26th, 2008 at 11:30 am

Darnell was my favourite housemate in this year’s Big Brother, no doubtseez. His journey from self-loathing albino wannabe rapper to even more self-loathing albino wannabe rapper was extremely entertaining, and rather touching in a “he’s-funny-when-he’s-not-shouting-scarily-at-the-womens” kind of way.
So I was delighted to discover that he has own video channel on Muzu.tv, complete with blingin’/mingin’ branding a go-go (click image to enlarge). It follows him as he goes around trying to get people to care about his rapping. A sample quote from the video you can watch over the page:
I read all day in the morning I’m supposably being dropped by my management firm which I never even had in the first place.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Thursday November 6th, 2008 at 10:45 am

Back in the heady Britpop days Menswear pulled of the frankly admirable stunt of appearing on the cover of Melody Maker before they’d actually released any records. They then played Top Of The Pops - back when that was still a big deal - a week before their single had been released. Sounds like small fry now, but back then it was quite literally the musical equivalent of Barack Obama being exposed as a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
The band’s exposure was thanks largely to the fact that they were based in Britpop HQ, Camden Town in London; and also their (or their management’s) at-the-time remarkable decision to dress in - gasp! - suits. The fact that they were quite pretty boys didn’t hurt, either.
Anyway, with a rise to fame that vertiginous it was always likely to turn to shit sooner or later, and so it came to pass.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Tuesday October 28th, 2008 at 10:30 am

Former Guns N’ Roses members know a fair bit about debauchery. They might not remember too many specifics regarding their antics in the 80s and 90s, but you know they’ll have emerged with a pretty decent understanding of how depraved young men can be.
Which poses problems when it comes to raising their own children. OK, daughters. To be fair, if you’d seen half the filth ex-G N’ R bassist Duff McKagan has, you’d probably be pretty nervous about your daughters’ impending puberty as well.
To his credit, though, Duff has detailed his approach to such a tricky subject in an intelligent and perceptive article for Seattle Weekly. Looks like you can drink until your pancreas explodes without it affecting your grey matter too much.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Monday October 27th, 2008 at 10:20 am

It’s all about comebacks this week, innit? You can now legally listen to new Guns N’ Roses material, folks. “Chinese Democracy”, the lead single from the-apparently-now-not-apocryphal-at-all album of the same name, is available for streaming here.
The initial reactions from the Twittersphere weren’t particularly positive, but you know what occurred to me? It’s been so long since anything was heard from Axl and whoever he’s playing with these days, I’d forgotten to form any expectations whatsoever of their new stuff.
And let’s face it, the first single from Chinese Democracy could just have been the sound of Axl sitting down to some chow mein and it would still have been the biggest musical happening to occur on the internet on that particular day.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Thursday October 23rd, 2008 at 8:30 am