Maroon 5 – “Payphone”
Published April 16th 2012
Filed under Reviews
Maroon 5′s new single Payphone, from their upcoming studio album Overexposed, premiered today. The track features Wiz Khalifa and it’s produced by Shellback and Benny Blanco.
Payphone is definitely one of the poppiest Maroon 5 singles to date. The strong melody sung by Adam Levine and aided by the melancholic piano, makes the song ridiculously catchy on first listen. This is backed by a marching band style of drums. It’s so simple but so effective.
As a long time Maroon 5 fan, I’m very happy with the results of the band working with bigger producers. Even the rap by Wiz Khalifa fits the song and adds to it. This is going to be a huge hit.
You can listen to Payphone below:
Overexposed is out June 26th.
The Saturdays – “30 Days”
Published March 30th 2012
Filed under News,Reviews
The Saturdays’ new single 30 Days premiered this morning on BBC Radio One. The track is written and produced by Steve Mac and Autumn Rowe.
30 Days sounds like a track from On Your Radar. It’s a dance pop track similar to All Fired Up but not as catchy. The first thing that came into my head when the song started playing was how much it sounds like Inna’s Hot. But the most surprising thing of all was that I heard Mollie’s voice open the first verse. The song really suits her voice and she also sings again on the second verse.
The problem with 30 Days is, it doesn’t have a strong, catchy melody. It just goes along and while there’s nice production and it’s interesting at times, it’s not really enough. I can’t see this being a success for them. When I mentioned it sounds like a track from On Your Radar, I meant it sounds like a good album track from On Your Radar. It’s not the kind of song that should be released as a single, never mind the lead single from a damage control re-release album.
The damage control is on a low budget which is apparent from the use of the On Your Radar photoshoot for the single cover as seen above and the tracklisting for the single which includes Turn Myself In, a track recorded sometime in 2010 that the girls performed on their Headlines tour. Usual Saturdays releases always include a specially recorded b-side.
Overall, 30 Days is a good song but nothing amazing and not what The Saturdays need right now to help them recover from a flop album. They needed a Higher, Ego, Faster, Up kind of song that would’ve guaranteed them a big hit.
You can watch the lyric video for 30 Days below:
30 Days is out May 13th through Polydor Records.
Justin Bieber – “Boyfriend”
Published March 26th 2012
Filed under Reviews
My hate for Justin Bieber might be about to change. His new single Boyfriend, produced by Mike Posner, was released today and it’s surprisingly good. My iTunes now consists of two Justin Bieber songs, the other being Baby.
The sound of Boyfriend is really similar to a typical Justin Timberlake song except Justin Bieber can’t pull off the talking bits too well. The talking bits are probably the only thing I don’t like about Boyfriend. The production is a bit reminiscent of Timbaland’s work with Justin Timberlake which isn’t a bad thing. Bieber’s got a big hit on his hands because after the first listen, it’s ridiculously catchy and memorable.
If the rest of Justin’s upcoming album is anywhere near as good as Boyfriend, I’ll be interested to hear it, which is something I never thought I’d want to hear.
Boyfriend is out now on the US iTunes.
Tulisa – “We Are Young”
Published March 23rd 2012
Filed under Reviews,Videos
Tulisa’s debut single We Are Young premiered today along with its music video. It sounds a bit like a mix between Rihanna’s We Found Love and Alexandra Burke’s Elephant.
We Are Young is a good song but nothing amazing. I expected more from Tulisa for a debut single but then again she’s signed to AATW Records so it’s not surprising that it’s not the greatest debut single. Hopefully better tracks will be on her album which is rumoured to be released in November this year.
You can watch the video for We Are Young below:
We Are Young is out May 7th through AATW/Island Records.
Katy Perry – “Dressin’ Up”
Published March 20th 2012
Filed under Reviews
Katy Perry’s Dressin’ Up leaked online last night. The leaked version is in low quality but it still gives the idea of the whole song. I’m a bit concerned about the lack of bass in the first verse so I’m hoping that’s due to the way the song was re-encoded to remove the watermark.
The intro to Dressin’ Up is identical to the demo. The vocals on the first verse are more produced and have a slight reverb effect on them. Midway through the first verse, the beat kicks in and unlike the demo it slows the track down with a dubstep effect. The demo had a fast pace which really added to the song.
By the time the chorus hits, the song gets back on track and redeems itself with a punchier, louder production than the demo. The chorus is going to sound amazing in clubs. The only real difference vocally in the chorus comes at the end when the last “dressin’ up” is put through a vocoder.
The second verse is much, much better than the first. Although it’s not faster, the production is a lot edgier and like I wrote in a previous blog, it sounds similar to E.T.
The middle eight is a mixture of good and bad. It doesn’t start off too well. There’s a lot of vocoder used and it slows the song down until Katy sings “beads of sweat drip down your neck,
breathing deep, gaining speed, about to peak, trembling, trembling, trembling” which speeds up suddenly and gives the song momentum as it leads into the final chorus. The faster half of the middle eight has become my favourite part of the song.
Overall, I’m really happy with the finished version of Dressin’ Up, as long as the high quality version has some bass in the first verse.
You can listen to Dressin’ Up below:
Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection will be officially released on March 26th.
