Let's all talk about how Kylie's 'Timebomb' video is the best she's ever made

Things that are epic.

Kylie is one of those stars who has been in danger for some time of becoming a "heritage act."  One that is great for all their old hits, but whose new output doesn't really connect with audiences.  Like Madonna or Cher or those other divas who have been around for a couple decades, she always had the gays to fall back on, but though her last album 'Aphrodite' was a smash, some worried that lately she'd just been preaching to the choir.

'Aphrodite' spawned one huge single ('All the Lovers') and a couple mediocre ones, but it seems as though everyone - including Team Kylie - agreed a fresher approach was needed.

And we got it, ScopiSubjects.  'Timebomb' the track - a one-off single celebrating K-Mo's 25 years in the business and her 44th birthday - is the perfect Kylie single.  Like 'Slow' or 'Can't Get You Out Of My Head' it features the usually sweet and bubbly pop princess being slightly menacing, taking on a bit of an edge.  With a strategic whisper and a shout or two, she injects her trademark personality into the track, and like the aforementioned hit singles, it comes out all the better for it.

The video, though, is where Team K really hit it out of the park.  Gone is the slick, campy imagery so often chucked out by her gay-husband "image designer" William Baker, and in its place is a gritty, relevant clip that both honors the 25 year legacy of the star and signals to the world that she's not leaving anytime soon.  And all of that without throwing on a leotard and acting like a grandmother in heat (ahem, Madonna).

The 'Timebomb' clip features Kylie at her most natural, which happens to be Kylie at her very best.  It's "now," it's epic, and it should make the young up-and-comers sit up and take notice that to be a truly great pop star you don't need any gimmicks.  Just good editing, a great track, and a world of personality.

'Timebomb' is out now on iTunes UK, Australia and US, and will be performed on the UK's 'The Voice' final this weekend.

Gossip 'Move In The Right Direction' in new video

Hipster nonsense.

Gossip - which one commenter snarkily pointed out are NO LONGER CALLED 'The Gossip' - have been ramping up their new album campaign for a couple months now.  They just played an epic show in New York City last night, which was streamed live across the interwebs, and, as the LP came out last week, are now chucking out the album's second single.  

It is called 'Move In The Right Direction' and it is a slick Xenomania-Fred Falke kind of affair, probably because those are the actual people who produced it.  It's not the catchiest thing we've heard, to be honest, but luckily for everyone, Beth Ditto's sassy vocals could make even a Katy Perry song sound interesting. 

For the video - which may or may not be a temporary "lyric" video, as bands are wont to do these days - the band have gone all black-and-white and drag-queen-makeupy, and from the appearance of the troupe of robotic male Kylie-esque dancers, it seems the group are GOING FOR THE GAYS even more than usual.  And that's saying something for a band whose last album was called 'Music For Men.' 

It's all very good, and all in the aid of album sales (which are NOT SPECTACULAR IN THE LEAST AT THE MOMENT - the album will debut in the low 30's in the UK), as everyone involved knows this isn't exactly going to light the singles charts on fire.  But at least their die-hard fans have an excellent record to jam out to while they wait for everyone else to remember that Gossip are brilliant.


Gossip - Move In The Right Direction by AceVideos

Milla Jovovich's new single 'Electric Sky' is...electric

Leeloo Dallas Multipass.

Way back in the 90's when we were just spotty teenagers and Resident Evil was still just a video game, Milla Jovovich was a burgeoning actress and model who also did some singing.  Though she had a small role in the cult hit 'Dazed and Confused,' and would later shoot to fame in movies like 'The Fifth Element,' it was actually her debut album that first put Milla on our pop-culture map.

The album was called 'The Divine Comedy' and was amazing.  It was released in 1994, with the brilliant lead single 'Gentlemen Who Fell' preceding it.  It was folksy, earthy, catchy and grounded, and though the LP was far from polished, it was a hidden gem of 90's alt-pop that deserved more fanfare than it received from the general public.  To us, though, it was the soundtrack to our year, and was hardly out of our 5-CD changer at any given time.

Of course, right after the album came and went with ABSOLUTELY NO ONE NOTICING, Miss Jovovich's film career exploded and music was understandably shoved to the wayside.  And so it remained for, oh, two decades or so. 

But no longer, ScopiSubjects, because she is back with a big new track called 'Electric Sky.'

It's a world away from her nearly 20-year old debut, and finds the modtress (actel?) taking up a disco-y club style that wouldn't seem at all out of place in the aforementioned 'Fifth Element.'  It's all KILLER BASSLINE and ETHEREAL VOCALS and is under 3 minutes long, so requires very little commitment on the listener's part, which is always a good thing unless you're a 20-minute remix of Kylie or we're on ecstasy and have access to unlimited amounts of glo-sticks.
  
In short, it's a great little pop song, and is only the first track of what Milla hopes will be a "6 to 7 track EP" which will come out......sometime.

Let's hope it's not another 20 years from now. 

Maroon 5 still uses a 'Payphone' in new video

"speak into my mouthpiece"

Ok so we're fully aware that this video came out like 5 days ago, but we were in Vegas trying not to die when everything "went down" and upon our return we were SO MOVED by (read: ambivalent to) the clip that we had to write something about it.

So it's Maroon 5's new single and it is called 'Payphone' and it is good, and even though it is not the heartfelt eulogy to its near-extinct namesake that we hoped for, with lingering closeups of the old rusty bacteria-hives we once were forced to use, the whole thing is still VERY GOOD.  We say it is VERY GOOD not only because it is ACTUALLY VERY GOOD but also because they obviously spent quite a lot on it and made an effort so we'd feel bad saying anything else because it would probably hurt lots of peoples' feelings.

Also, Adam Levine doing hero stuff in glasses....so.......

No Doubt is coming back on Sept 25 with new album

Kids, this is what the 90's looked like.  Yes.  You are right to be scared.

Virtually nothing of note has come out in the last week so we've been kind of at a loss for what to talk about.  Sure, The Wanted sang a song on a tv show, and some kind-of-crap tracks were foisted onto the interwebs, but nothing really piqued our overly-demanding, toddler-like interest.  Until now, thanks to a band that most of One Direction was barely alive to enjoy.

No Doubt is one of those bands from the 90s who seem quaint and safe now, and also kind of like your grandmother might "like" them on Facebook because they're hip enough to score her points with the kids, but safe enough that they're not going to get her barred from the church bridge club either.  It's hard to remember that when they first came on the scene, they were actually pushing the envelope in a number of ways.  BUT THEY WERE.

Musically, they were part of the breakthrough of post-punk ska that acts like Sublime pioneered, and culturally, they gave the world Gwen Stefani who was the 90's Dr. Martin version of Debbie Harry - which despite how it sounds is a good thing.

The band certainly had their highs and lows throughout the years, and when Gwen went solo in 2004, it seemed like the group might be finished for good.  BUT THAT IS NOT SO, SCOPISUBJECTS.  For the fierce foursome are set to return with a brand new album on September 25, as this cute video featuring an inexplicably un-aged Gwen announces.

It's a pretty by-the-numbers interview thingy and doesn't give a whole lot of information but still.... yay! etc.

Cher Lloyd gets all American in the new video for 'Want You Back'

America, meet your newest pop star.

With the sudden and unexpected success of The Wanted (mmmm sexy) and One Direction (eh, we'll have a few drinks first) in the US, other British teen-pop artists are trying to get in on the action.  The latest is X Factor non-winner Cher Lloyd, with her single 'Want You Back.'  It already came and went in the UK, but for some reason her handlers think that this could be the song to break her in America.  BECAUSE IT IS PROPERLY TREMENDOUS.

We already went on and on about how brilliant it was as a tune back when it was originally released, so we'll save you all that nonsense and on that score just say that the "rap" bit by something called an Astro has been taken out and the song is a billion times better because of it.  The weird thing is that Astro is actually an American rapper, so they've removed the one thing US audiences might recognize.  Having said that, the rap was the kind of cringe-worthy "featuring" nightmare that makes us want to sit on a knife, so regardless of how it may hurt the track's chart prospects this has to be considered a win all around.

As for the video, it's a lot like the UK version, in that it involves Cher DOING FACES and BEING SEXY and also dumping edible things on people she doesn't like but of course in this version everything takes place in a diner because what could be possibly more "America In 2012" than a 50's diner..

The key here is that as much as the whole thing is just an HD version of Mandy Moore's 'Candy,' it works (and works rather spectacularly) solely on the back of Cher's undeniable charisma.  She comes off as more authentic and committed than any of the Jojos or Jessica Simpsons or Avril Lavignes, because even though we know she's faking every second of this bullshit, we can also see how much she enjoys it.  She's making those faces because that's what Cher Lloyd does, not because someone told her to.  Never mind the fact that someone obviously told her to.

'Want You Back' (US VERSION) is, in sum, a cute little video that serves as a neat introduction of Cher to American audiences, which is probably exactly the point.  So, well done everyone, cheap champagne all around.

Oh and also there's a puppy.  A really cute puppy.