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Making The Effort
See this picture of Simon Webbe here?
Lovely fella, isnee? Now, if you take a look behind him, do you notice anything? That's right, someone - or someTHING - has elected to throw a bridge at a block of flats, just behind Simon's head. And does he flinch? Does he turn his head? Does he EVEN BLINK? He does not.
THAT, my friends, is a true professional. And it is for this reason alone that ChartBlog is honoured to present his latest video, for 'My Soul Pleads For You', which is out on February 5th.
Windows Media: Realmedia: / / Well, that and the thought that a man that tough could snap everyone involved in ChartBlog like a series of dry twigs if we got on his BAD SIDE, obv...
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Space Cowboy ft. Nadia Oh - 'My Egyptian Lover'
Bah! How come everyone has gone hog wild over the Eric Prydz / 'Floyd' non-remix, when there's dance tracks as brilliantly head-spinning as this making a bid for the big time? I mean, surely everyone wants to be entirely squashed flat by a bass synth so corpulent (it means 'fat') that you could suck the blubber out of it, use it to give implants to Pluto, and make it eligable for planet status again, and still have enough left over for a banging choon.
Continue reading "Space Cowboy ft. Nadia Oh - 'My Egyptian Lover'"
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Chart Report - 14/01/07
THE TOP 5...
Click on song titles for ChartBlog review and media. 听 1 LEONA LEWIS 'A MOMENT LIKE THIS' 
听 2 ERIC PRYDZ vs FLOYD 'PROPER EDUCATION' 听 3 MIKA 'GRACE KELLY' 听 4 JUST JACK 'STARZ IN THEIR EYES' 听 3 TAKE THAT 'PATIENCE' The entire Top 40 is right here... Ooh! How interesting this new chart is becoming. We've got a single which isn't due in the shops for another FORTNIGHT at No.3 - take a bow, Mr Mika - and another one right next to it which is out the day after it got to No.4 - and one for you, Captain Just Jack.
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Klaxons - 'Golden Skans'
Aren't words brilliant? I mean, think about it. If it wasn't for words, how would we know what to call something? And more to the point, why would you bother? Here's an example: Someone comes up to you with a fish in their hands and says "hey, do you like my new handbag?" and what do you do? That's right, you immediately look more closely, just in case you missed a zip or a clasp or a strap of some sort.
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The Good, The Bad & The Queen - 'Kingdom Of Doom'
As a song, 'Kingdom Of Doom' - the second single to be lifted from The Good, The Bad & The Queen's debut album - plays like a sequel to The Clash's doom-laden apocalypto-rock classic 'London Calling'. It's another dour, downbeat ode that sees the capital nearing the end of its days, again.
Seriously, according to Damon and co the "country is at war", the Tower's ravens have flown the coop, and a flood is coming to wash us all away ("all of you that live in London, that is" - Rest of World). Lovely. Thank God the "sunset wheel" is still turning.Windows Media: Realmedia: / / Continue reading "The Good, The Bad & The Queen - 'Kingdom Of Doom'"
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Fall Out Boy - Your Questions Answered...
The task was simple. Ask a load of Fall Out Boy fans for the questions they would most like to ask Patrick Stump, the band's elasti-throated, fret-busting singer. Then compile a list of the most interesting-looking ones, and ring him up. Along the way, things got a little (excuse the pun) EMO-tional, but that's another story for another time. All you need to know now is that Patrick is a very lovely man and we had a nice chat.
So, you've two choices. You can either read the whole damn thing in glorious textovision, or you can hear how it all went in Realmedia form, by clicking HERE.
Continue reading "Fall Out Boy - Your Questions Answered..."
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Sunday Shopping List - 14/01/07
It seems like ages since there was a decent crop of singles to get excited about, doesn't it? Well, depending on your view of the ones listed below (all of which should be available in the shops tomorrow, Monday January 15th), that's all either just about to change dramatically, or remain the same, undramatically.
(Naturally most of these songs have been available in download form since before the internet was invented, this page is all about the CDs)...
THE FIRST SIX...
听 THE BLOOD BROTHERS 听 'SET FIRE TO THE FACE ON FIRE' Review 
听 CLIENT 听 'XEROX MACHINE' 
听 THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE QUEEN 听 'KINGDOM OF DOOM' 
听 GUILLEMOTS 听 'ANNIE, LET'S NOT WAIT' Review 
听 VANESSA HUDGENS 听 'BABY LET'S NOT WAIT' Review 听 HUSKY RESCUE 听 'NIGHTLESS NIGHT'
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Jamie T - 'Calm Down Dearest'
Judging by the titles of his third single, 'Calm Down Dearest', and imminent debut album, 'Panic Prevention', Jamie T would quite welcome a nice cup of tea and a sit down right now, thank you very much. Is Wimbledon's local-boy-done-good a bit jaded after six months of solid touring and handing out mixtapes, perhaps?
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Vanessa Hudgens - 'Baby Come Back To Me'
Hands up anyone who's surprised that the kids from High School Musical ended up launching their own pop careers? It'll be like a real-life re-enactment before long, with the Vanessa Hudgenses and the Ashley Tisdales battling each other to see who can get to No.1, only without the advantage of being able to read the script and see what happens. Hmmm.
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The View - 'Same Jeans'
OK, in order to appreciate where I'm coming from with this one, you might need to step in your random musical time machine and imagine this being played after Cornershop at a disco in 1997. Which would make you, what, 5, 6?
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A Brazen Grace
See this lady here? She's a hussy. And the reason I know this isn't because she's pulling that pouty face, or because I was told she is by a jealous ex-boyfriend from the 1950s (it's not that modern a word, see). No, the reason I know this is because she is in a band with that name. And they've got an EP made up of the best songs from the two EPs they released last year, and it's coming out in February (the 19th) and I've heard it and I really like it.
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The Ordinary Boys - 'I Luv U'
Oh PLEASE. How many 'ironic' quote marks can you put around a bloody SONG, PRESTON? You're too busy trying to second guess what the cool kids will pick out as the lamest part of this song - and for the record, it's your 'sincere face' in the video - that you've forgotten that the sole purpose of a love song is to make the listener feel loved. That's it.
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Titled And Emo-tional
So, in case you've not been here for a while, yesterday I spoke to Patrick Stump, the lead singer out of Fall Out Boy. And I had two interviews ready for him. One was a big list of questions sent in by Fall Out Boy fans, and the other was an equally big list of potential Fall Out Boy song titles.
What I wanted Patrick to do was pass judgement on the collection of well-known sayings, quotes, and entirely made-up things, and maybe comment on what kind of Fall Out Boy song he could write, presented with an over-wordy, over-clever title like 'I'm A Little Teapot, Short And Stout' or 'Is That A Cornish Pasty Or A Corny Pastiche?'
Sadly, we ran out of time, cos the fan questions were so good. And actually, it's probably no bad thing. But I've still got the list of song titles, and I'm going to share them all with you now. Together with some scientific analysis and a handy points system.I KNOW! It IS exciting, isn't it?
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Just Jack - 'Starz In Their Eyes'
There's a word your English teacher will have used quite a lot when you were studying poetry. It tends to come up when a poet says something pretty, and then immediately says something nasty, or stinky, or generally unpleasant straight away (or the other way around, obv), and it sort of sums up what's brilliant about this song. That word is JUXTAPOSITION.
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Secret Shots - Tatt-y New Year
Click on the envelope to launch the Secret Shots popup...
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Blood Brothers - 'Set Fire To The Face On Fire'
In honour of the ChartBlog Fall Out Boy interview situation, I declared that today is officially ROCK DAY. And as such, here's a lovely example of what I believe 'the kids' are calling 'screamo'. And if it's not an example of that, it damn well should be, bearing in mind all the screaming and stuff...Windows Media: / / Continue reading "Blood Brothers - 'Set Fire To The Face On Fire'"
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CALLING ALL EMOS!
Yes, yes...I know, they're not really emo actually ("and what IS emo, when you come to think about it?" - EmoBoy), but still...
OK, at 9pm (GMT) TODAY, I took a sheaf of your questions to Patrick from Fall Out Boy and we had a lovely chat.Which means, one thing....
I DON'T NEED ANY MORE QUESTIONS NOW, THANK YOU SO MUCH!
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Top 5 - Here Comes The Pride
You need a certain kind of self belief to really cut it as a world-beating pop, rock or rap star. The kind of self belief that leads people to deduce that your mirror shades reflect in as well as out. And here's five of the best examples...
No. 5: Justin Timberlake
There's surely no better example of extreme self-regard in action than the first line of JT's comeback song 'Sexyback', in which he makes the outlandish claim that he is returning the gift of 'sexy' to everyone, presumably because he had borrowed it for a while in order to get frisky with that Camera D'Ass lady.
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Guillemots - 'Annie Let's Not Wait'
2007 is going to be a very interesting year. For some reason, the singer-songwriter division of the pop army is showing signs that looking very intently at its own feet and moaning on about bad feelings in a mopey way is no longer the giddy thrill it once was, and that other emotions might be worth singing about too.
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Amy Winehouse - 'You Know I'm No Good'
If, like me, you're a disciple of tabloid rumour and wicked whisper, you'll have formed quite the opinion of Ms Amy Jade Winehouse. Since she arrived on the scene, she's made a name for herself in the press on charges of booze-related badbehavioury and other alleged naughty antics.
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Chart Report - IT'S ALL KICKING OFF!!
THE TOP 5...
Click on song titles for ChartBlog review and media. 听 1 LEONA LEWIS 'A MOMENT LIKE THIS' 听 2 ERIC PRYDZ vs FLOYD 'PROPER EDUCATION' 听 3 TAKE THAT 'PATIENCE' 听 4 U2 'WINDOW IN THE SKIES' 听 5 AKON Ft. EMINEM 'SMACK THAT' The entire Top 40 is right here... [Whispers] Psst! Is there anyone still there? Did everyone go into the new download shelters? What's that noise? HELP!
OK, slight over-reaction, but come on, have you read some of the damning, old mannish and grumpy reactions that half the news-blatherers of the world have put out to the new change in the rules for the UK singles chart (what changes? THESE changes)? Apparently, the single is dead, the charts are dead, and music, well, that's dead too. And not only that, these frump reports could lead a timid soul to assume that life as we know it is about to end as well. And, y'know, a quick glance at this week's Top 40 is all you need to realise that THEY'RE RIGHT. WE'RE DOOOOOOMED!
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The Cooper Temple Clause - 'Waiting Game'
Hmm. Now here's a pickle. Over the sprawling course of their first two albums, the Coopers spent a great deal of time stuffing violent songsmithery, nasty rock noise and and skyscrape-soundscapes into a series of mind-boggling (and very well stuffed) song packages, which trained pop scientists have taken to calling sausonges.
Continue reading "The Cooper Temple Clause - 'Waiting Game'"
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The Game - 'Let's Ride'
It's no good, I can't help it... There's a line in this song, where our tattooed friend is trying to get everyone to dance, right? And being a MAN'S MAN, and a rapper who likes to think about ladies and their bottoms quite a bit, his method of getting some total craziness happening down on the floor is to holler "bounce like you got hydraulics in your g-string", and then point out that he does rudey rapsex with a different lady every single day of the week (mmm! NICE!)...
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Jarvis Cocker - 'Don't Let Him Waste Your Time'
It's always rubbish when you read a review of a noteworthy musician's new song, and all the person writing it seems to want to talk about is the video, isn't it? I mean, here you are, desperate to find out what your dad is banging on about when he calls Jarvis The People's Poet Of Britpopshire (or something like that), and here I am droning on and on about how clever it is that that he's made a video where he's the worst taxi driver in the world. Windows Media: Realmedia: / / Continue reading "Jarvis Cocker - 'Don't Let Him Waste Your Time'"
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YouTube Raid - James Morrison
Showbiz is a funny old game. One minute you're busking outside M&S in Truro, Cornwall, the next you're on Top of the Pops. And then they cancel Top of the Pops, but you're still OK, cos you can sing rather well...
Actually, can someone check if M&S is still there please?
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JoJo - 'Too Little, Too Late'
Remember JoJo? She had a No.2 hit with 'Leave (Get Out)' back in 2004, which was an awesome ode to useless untrustworthy boyfriends, despite the fact that she was only eight-and-a-half years old or something. Then she took some time off to make films about mermaids and family holidays like all good pre-teen superstars must, and now at the ripe old age of ten (okay, fine, she's 16 - we can tell when a joke stops being funny - or indeed doesn't start, or maybe it's that we can't tell after all...), she's back to conquer pop again. Anyone else feel like an underachiever yet? Yep, me too.
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Ben Macklin ft. Tiger Lily - 'Feel Together'
This one is going to come as a blessed relief to any dance fans who've been finding that Eric Prydz remix 'technique' to be a little bit - how can I put it? - uninspired?
Rather than just pilfer the best bits of a [local radio DJ voice] "classic track" from "yesteryear", or the entire song, in Eric's case, Ben has just taken a tiny sample of the gospelly backing vocals from Culture Club's '80s torch song 'Victims', and then roped Danish soulster Tiger Lily in to create an entirely new tune (or 'choon', as they say in Danceland) around it.
Continue reading "Ben Macklin ft. Tiger Lily - 'Feel Together'"
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YouTube Raid - Girls Aloud
Bikes! Camera! ACTION!
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The Automatic - 'Raoul'
Whether you think this is a brilliant way to get the new year started or not probably depends on whether you're one ot the people who were aware of how great this song is the first time it was released, early last year, or whether you first came to the band via their megahit 'Monster' and were wondering if they had any other songs which were as good.
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YouTube Raid - Lily Allen
Let's not beat about the bush. Lily Allen OWNED 2006, because she's the kind of pop star who tries to make her songs sound as sweet as possible, if only to highlight how downright evil her lyrics can be...like a viper's fang in a teddy bear. She sings like an angel, dresses like a '50 prom queen and swears like a fishwife. And her blog is almost as good as mine! Here's the song which started it all off...
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Evanescence - 'Lithium'
It seems there are only so many ways you can reinvent gothic sound for a high, glass-shattering set of pipes. This track had the potential to be a heart wrenching love epic, with a gorgeous sweeping piano and strings accompaniment ,and later a dramatic guitar 'n' drums explosion.
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Ring In The New...
Hey, what are you doing lying about in a haze just cos you were up late last night, eh? The world of music needs you to get out there to the shops, real or virtual, and jump start 2007 with some firm and decisive pop appreciation, OK?
And to kick things off, here is a probably very innaccurate list of some songs which are being released over the next few weeks. Surely there's ONE among this lot that you can get behind, hmm? Now. Cold shower, hot coffee, and GET TO IT!
January 1st
Eric Prydz Vs. Floyd - 'Proper Education' - Reviewed here
Nerina Pallot - 'Learning To Breathe'
Soul Seekerz - 'Party For The Weekend'
Sunfreakz Ft Andrea Britton - 'Counting Down The Days'
U2 - 'Window In The Skies' - Reviewed here
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