British pop girls ready to take over
We all know there are quite some British female pop singers that have been very successful over the past few years. Think about Ellie Goulding, Florence + the Machine, Marina & the Diamonds and of course the likes of Amy Winehouse, Adele, Jessie J and so on. I listed seven pop girls that released a single recently and will try to be the next British sensation. Some of them we have seen before, other are rather new, but all sound fresh and promising!
This week, three major female pop artists from the UK launched their new singles. Paloma Faith premiered the video for the lead single of her new album, ‘Can’t Rely On You’, Lily Allen premiered the new single ‘Air Balloon’ and Pixie Lott released the video for ‘Nasty’, the first single for her new album. Let’s take a look at those three brand new songs!
Review: Paloma Faith – Can’t Rely On You
Paloma Faith announced the March release date of her new album last week, and Monday she dropped the new single and video ‘Can’t Rely On You’. From the first listen, it becomes apparent Faith took a whole new direction in her career. The song is less poppy, and more soulful, funky and edgy. At first, I was not convinced this would be the right style for her as I hoped for a beautiful pop song like ‘Picking Up The Pieces’, but the new single turns out to be a grower and Paloma’s raw vocal style fits the atmosphere of the song very well. It is not a surprise that ‘Can’t Rely On You’ is produced by Pharrell Williams, as the beat sounds quite similar to the production of his hit with Robin Thicke, ‘Blurred Lines’. The video is full of beautiful symbolism and metaphors. In the end we see Paloma left alone on the backseat of a driving car, she gets drowned in a bath with a white fluid and a group of women try to calm her down when she has a breakdown. It is all beautiful, but quite complex at the same time. “This is just the beginning”, Paloma says in Italian at the end. I am sure we will see quite some exciting stuff from Paloma in the next few months!
Review: Lily Allen – Air Balloon
Lily Allen announced to retire from music in 2009, but after the birth of two baby daughters the singer made a comeback at the end of last year. She released the singles ‘Hard Out Here’ and ‘Somewhere Only We Know’, a cover of the Keane song. Now it is time for the single ‘Air Balloon’. It basically has all the ingredients a successful Lily track needs. It is poppy, has a killer hook, an incredibly catchy chorus and of course some cheeky lyrics. At some points in the song she even sounds a bit like M.I.A.. It is definitely a good and contagious track that could do well in the charts, but it feels a bit Allen by the numbers. Lily recently stated that she thinks record labels are afraid of taking risks. “That’s quite frustrating as an artist, when it comes to picking singles, because they only ever want to go for the watered-down stuff”, Lily said to NME. Let’s hope we get to hear more of experimental Lily on her new record.
Review: Pixie Lott – Nasty
Pixie Lott released her most recent album Young Foolish Happy in 2011. She has been working on a new record for quite a while and she previewed the track ‘Heart Cry’ in December. Now it is time for the release of the first official single ‘Nasty’. This song was recorded previously by Christina Aguilera and Cee-Lo Green to appear on the soundtrack of the movie Burlesque. It did not make the final cut as the producers did not get the rights to use the James Brown sample. For Pixie’s version this is all set and her vocals work well on the seductive track. ‘Nasty’ is catchy, naughty and swings and it absolutely sounds like something that would have fitted perfectly on the Burlesque soundtrack. The video shows a flirty Pixie dancing in a club. It is not really Pixie’s best song to date, but she should be able to get at least a decent hit out of it.
Pixie Lott previews third album with new song ‘Heart Cry’
It is almost five years ago that Pixie Lott made a huge impact in the British music charts with her debut single ‘Mama Do (Uh Oh, Uh Oh)’. The song grew out to be a hit in large parts of Europe and the singer launched her debut album Turn It Up. She managed to gain success with other singles like ‘Cry Me Out’, ‘Boys and Girls’ and ‘Broken Arrow’. Her second album campaign started very successfully with the number 1 single ‘All About Tonight’, but Young Foolish Happy did not sell as much as expected. The young singer is now determined to make a big comeback. Her new self titled album will be released in 2014, but Pixie gave us a first taste with the premiere of new song ‘Heart Cry’.
There is no official release date or track list for the album yet, but it is expected to drop in the first half of 2014. The singer posted a teaser video for ‘Heart Cry’, which is just a promo song and not the first single of the new album. The official first single of the new record will be released in January and is called ‘Nasty’. The song might premiere this month already. On her second album Young Foolish Happy, Pixie Lott chose a more soulful direction. She mostly left the pop/dance behind and incorporated a bit of a Motown sound into her songs. If ‘Heart Cry’ is anything to go by, the next album will follow this line, but probably with a bit more conviction.
‘Heart Cry’ is a swinging soulful pop song with a full band instrumentation. The style of the track is slightly similar to John Newman’s ‘Love Me Again’ for example. This type of track definitely fits Pixie’s voice perfectly and could help her to (re)define her identity as an artist. ‘Heart Cry’ is full of catchy trumpets, infectious whistles and powerful, feisty lyrics that deal with a breakup. The repetition of the sentence ‘have you ever heard a heart cry?’ works well and the verses where Pixie tells her ex “don’t you ever…” in every sentence, are quite memorable as well. In the teaser video, we see Pixie looking very classy and stylish, which matches with the song that expresses a certain class as well. If ‘Heart Cry’ sets the mood for the new record, Pixie Lott could come back smashing next year.