Lopez Blogs

What a week it has been. I'm absolutely shattered this early Friday evening to be honest with you. And this is going to be one of those mega giant ridiculously long posts that i'm so good at because there is so much going on this week that I'm behind with! Highlight of the week was definitely my latest slot on the Larry Flick show. I think the exhaustion of the week had caught up to me, so I took an hour's lunch and got a bit saucy on air. Check the comments if you want to hear it :P Right - most of the pop I've been interested in this week has been bought to us by the letter J! Let's see how this works out...

The week that was...

• J is for Jessie J (Price Tag): Oh didn't the world and his wife just fall for the extremely talented ways of young Jessie this week? The Doctor Luke (he always comes up with the perfect pop prescription) produced Price Tag just screams massive world wide hit. Jessie delivers a pop song that is essentially a social commentary with such gusto and brilliance that she puts to shame some of her longer established pop peers. It's a laid back groove, extolling the virtues of getting back to basics but without ever sounding preachy - rather it invites you in to it's simple but outstanding chorus and you just want to stay for days...Altogether now "we just wanna make the world dance/forget about the price tags"! Inredibly talented new act to watch (PS her song on the Step Up 3D soundtrack is TO DIE FOR)
• J is for new Jason Mraz duet (with Hope - Love Love Love): Hurrah! My beloved Jason Mraz has added his vocals to a single by delightful new artist Hope on her effervescent song Love Love Love. I've heard a solo version and this duet, and their vocals blend so well that at times I forget I'm not listening to a self duet (a la Janet's Love Will Never Do). It's musical alchemy of the highest order with a sweet as honey chorus that stays the right side of cheesy and just remains romantic. Quite heavenly. Perfect for the I'm Yours brigade. Keep an eye on Hope too - I really like her sound :)
• J is for Jordin Sparks (Beauty and The Beast): I actually mistyped that and put Beauty and the Beats, which - if it hasn't been already - would be a great girl group album title. But I digress. Anyway, Disney are putting one of my favourite movies of all time onto blu-ray and Jordin is joining Celine & Play in being the latest artist to cover the title track. It's got a lovely acoustic lilt to it for the first few bars which are so charming. Of course, it all then gets a bit A/C and Disneyfied, but that's to be expected and it's a fine version. Million miles from Battlefield of course but I'm so excited about the blu-ray that I can't help but not really care and sing along anyway.

• J is for Japanese comeback (Deborah Gibson - Ms Vocalist): Well bless my barnacles! 7 long years after her broadway album, Deborah is back to being Debbie and is releasing an album of Japanese pop songs! Apparently it was done fella style by Eric Martin (from Mr Big, 90s ballad fans) and now Debs is doing 10 Japanese hits and a new version of Lost In Your Eyes (it's been 4 years since she rerecorded this last as an acoustic song with The O'Neill Bros). I was mightily surprised by Larry Flick lason Thurs when a sexily purring Deborah spoke to me on the phone for a little while. I was so flabbergasted I came across as right blustering tit (see the comment section!) but it was quite lovely. I got the scope from Deb that she is working on adding her new song Rise to the cd (from her fella's new documentary and potentially one of the best things she's done in a long time) and looking for a US iTunes release. Brillo.
• J is for Japanese bonus track (Maroon 5 - Crazy Little Thing Called Love): I did quite a positive write up of the new M5 album in the week. Since then, i've got their acoustic version of the Queen classic. It's a pretty straightforward cover version, but Adam's vocals stand out and are quite lovely against the rockabilly vibe of the tune. Definitely worth a moment or two of your time...
• J is for Elton John (duet with Leon Russell - If It Wasn't For the Bad): Apparently Leon is one of those grizzled old American singer songwriters. He's teamed up with Reginald for his new album The Union, and this dark little ditty is apparently the first fruits from that collaboration. It comes across as a sort of nicer version of the True Blood theme tune, with lots of enjoyable piano and a sort of wisdom to the simple message of the chorus that younger singers wouldn't be able to convey. I really like it as it happens...
• J is for James Blunt (Stay The Night): La Blunt is back! I've never been in the "lets revile him" camp and found lots of songs I enjoy by him. His comeback tune is a very pleasant indeed, upbeat little swinger - powered forth by an energetic guitar riff and fun chorus, with chanty vocals during the middle 8 (which I always adore in pop songs). A couple of listens and you're entirely hooked. Aces.

Top 21 songs of the week:

21 ~ Brandon Flowers, Only The Young (NE)
20 ~ Alesha Dixon, Drummer Boy
19 ~ McFly, Party Girl
18 ~ Bjorn Johan Muri, Once Upon A Time
17 ~ Bright Light x 2, Love Part II
16 ~ Jesse McCartney, Shake
15 ~ Nadine Coyle, Insatiable (NE)
14 ~ James Blunt, Stay The Night (NE)
13 ~ Ace of Base, All For You
12 ~ DeeDee, Balls
11 ~ Kelly Rowland, Shake Them Haters Off
10 ~ Scissor Sisters, Any Which Way
09 ~ Jessie J, Price Tag (NE)
08 ~ Kylie Minogue, Get Outta My Way
07 ~ Sophie Ellis Bextor, Not Giving Up On Love
06 ~ Eric Saade, Masquerade
05 ~ Darin, Lovekiller
04 ~ Elouise, The Winner Takes It All
03 ~ Maroon 5, Give A Little More
02 ~ Gravitonas, Religious
01 ~ Robbie Williams, Shame (2 weeks/vid)

Next: X Factor double bill. Oh Lord...

In an effort to at least be ever so slightly more up to date, I'm trying to do the monthly musical compilations mid-month (ooo what lovely alliteration, oh I am clever, etc) rather than right at the end of the month when half of it is old news anyway. Plus these compilation cds have always been for my core circle of friends, none of whom are particularly internet savvy (only Bernice has twitter, and she scarcely uses it!) so don't really know about new acts til they hit the charts. So I seem a lot more innovative and clever among them :P But I quite like posting them here too for "posterity"!! (I did have a lovely text from my friend Cat at the weekend saying she was listening to a cd of mine from October 2005 and it was brillo - i fair was skipping about with a happy after that!)

• The Pipettes ~ Stop The Music: Our Love Was Saved By A Spaceman may be a mariachi meets Baccara slice of genius pop, but this lovely first single proper after far too long away is a heavenly fusion of sumptuous disco, a warm 70s vibe, a delicious hook and harmonised vocals. They may not be polka dot princesses anymore, but their new sound is equally as inviting (and they are almost out viva-ing Mini Viva)!
• Simon Curtis ~ Super Psycho Love (above): I was reluctant to include the amazing Simon at first particularly as this track isn't on general release yet... However, he has previewed it on youtube and it's so immense that I can't sit on it any longer. Hopefully this will be his next "free" release as he is so close to the next twitter follower requirement! It's a dark, insiduous beat with a dangerously insane chorus that shows he really is Lord Gaga rising...
• Mini Viva ~ Do You Want A Candy?: Sigh. They really should be flying high now, shouldn't they rather than sinking into a Reynolds Girls type obscurity. Tokyo was perky, I Wish was lovely - so thank the pop gods there is a third chance in the offing. It's a tremendous new track they performed at the Jazz Cafe and live it already sounds like a fluffy piece of brilliance, so one can only salivate in anticipation at a magnificent studio production...
• Diana Vickers ~ Once: Oh I'm just as surprised as you that this has made the list. I wasn't the most ardent fan of hers during the X Factor... However, I'm always open to a little bit of musical persuasion and Once has done just that. I'm always a sucker for a Cathy Dennis composition and this one is just a nice slice of Ellie Goulding-lite pop for the masses ie, me! Plus The Boy Who Murdered Love may be the best pop song of it's ilk since Sugababes 3.0 Every Heart Broken!!
• Alex Gardner ~ I'm Not Mad: The other xenomania project worth investing in at the moment is lovely Alex. As I mentioned on Sunday, his album sampler is quite simply the bees knees and lead off single I'm Not Mad is a lovely laxidaisical slice of rock driven pop that ingratiates from the first second you hear of it. It has a beautifully layered chorus that just jangles along and Alex delivers a most pleasing vocal performance. Plus he's not too shabby on the eye either...
• Bjorn Johann Muri ~ Yes Man: Love, love, love. Simply one of the most glorious songs I've heard this year. Foolishly Norway decided this wasn't good enough to be their eurovision entry but still sent it to the top of their charts anyway. It's basically an updated version of an 80s up-tempo synth ballad - delivered so sincerely that it absolutely launches skybound and stays there from the first chorus. The word anthemic was made for songs like this. Joe McElderberry would give his left nut for something as amazing as thing - and yes, it would sound bloody brilliant in an episode of Glee.
• Elin Lanto ~ Love Makes Me Stupid: Oh who hasn't been a bit of twat because of the person they are temporarily infatuated with? For example, I'm missing the Brits for a night of rumpy pumpy with darren :) Elin Lanto - swedish songbird extraordinnaire - has put those into one of those brilliant angry sounding disco songs that The Veronicas do so well. In fact it's nearly as marvelous as Revenge Is Sweeter Than You Ever Were and so aggressively in your face that you can't help go back for seconds. That's love.
• Alexandra Burke ~ Bury Me: Yes, I know that ballad is the official next single, but to me it feels like the arse-end of an album campaign and I'm not really ready to give up on the Bezerker just yet. So I'm opting for the ever so 60s girl band vibe of the pretty Bury Me instead to tide me over. The video could be quite good too - Alexandra with big hair, and three others of her all doing a sweetly innocent little shimmy for the cameras. None of these crotch riding outfits from Broken Heels. Best funeral song ever.
• Jordin Sparks ~ 911 Emergency: What the piddle are Jordin's record company doing with her album? Bugger all that's what. Really she should be on the fourth single by now (after the quite nice Snow song at Christmas) and this would just shoulder-shake it's way into the top 20, where it would linger for 3-4 weeks around the number 14 mark. In other words, it's quite good but if they'd aggressively launched the right songs in succession on the public it would seem much better (I'll be having a similar rant about Blake Lewis in part two of this volume). Quite good song though!
• Dragonette ~ Easy: I often lay awake at night pondering what the world would be like if Simon Curtis were actually launching his 8BitHeart as his second smash album proper and then as I drift off, I imagine Dragonette are world wide superstars. That would be quite justified in my eyes as they keep churning out top drawer material like this simply delectable mid-tempo tune that charms and woos you with every note and nuanced syllable. I remain in despair at their fringe status because Easy is divine.
• Alphabeat ~ MonsterMash (below): Dear lord, what has come over me? G'Gah songs on my playlist? Has hell frozen over? :P Alphabeat have done this rather brilliant mix of Telephone and mixed it perfectly with the (yes) epic Bad Romance. And it's as if Black Box were still doing Strike It Up because it's a 90s disco extravaganza that transforms both songs into something that takes me back to the heady days of my sixth form discos. And it's equally as dramatic in it's new format. Alphabeat - reigniting 90s brilliance one song at a time...

Back tomorrow with part two...

UNIMPORTANT EDIT 4TH JUNE: BIG BRO UK 10 LAUNCH NIGHT OVERVIEW IN COMMENTS :)

Well, i'm not particularly good at sticking to this weekly posting malarky - though I am finally getting on with some stuff I should be getting on with "off net", so it is working out somewhat :) Anyway, I won't bore you with a long spiel, just enjoy one of my holiday photos above (one of many) and I'll get on with this months selection of top tracks I'm sending to my friends :)

MUST HAVE TRACKS FOR JUNE:

01 - Dan Black, Symphonies: True story ~ of all the acts I listed in my Jan tips for the year, I'm still probably only avidly following the top five (though I dip in and out of the other 5's gorgeous songs fairly regularly). Dan's Alone was spunky-jerky dance pop of very good proportions, but this? I know it samples Umbrella, but it's practically an active doll - loaded with new personality and Dan sounds just lovely on. Great lyrics too. I think I've found my perfect summer single :)
02 - Dragonette, Fixin' To Thrill: Surely you must have all heard this by now? It was free to download and featured heavily on Popjustice - but then again so did Luigi Masi this week in a true jump the shark moment, so maybe you missed it? No surely not, because within seconds in the usual blogosphere rush to be first to post it was blooming everywhere. It's decent, but not entirely amazing. Still a fun song that mixes Scissters, a more punky No Doubt and some Blondie elements.
03 - Jordin Sparks, Battlefield: The song that caused twitter to go into meltdown over how brilliant it is. And it is. Whether you chose this or the ryan tedder version (because it sounds so much dirtier when ryan sings "both hands tied behind my back for nothing"! Oh ryan, not for nothing...:P), there is no denying that it's a great pop song that soars as soon as it hits the first chorus. Oh, and the "better go and get your armour, bananarama" bit is just deliriously lovely.
04 - JLS, Beat Again: Well, as I always knew, the real deserving winners of last year's X Factor, clean up good. Marvin is even more of a tall drink of water that I remembered and the tune is an insiduous r'n'b meets gentle electro jam that grows on you with each listen. Loving the bow tie/sleeveless sweater look :) And the hilarious bad quality upload of the video! This absolutely must be a hit. The most deserving credible pop stars to hit from the X Factor since Shayne Ward!
05 - BWO, Right Here Right Now: Firstly it's probably the most lovely of videos for quite the longest time (though it took me a little while to reach that opinion). Secondly, the general opinion is that this is one of the finest tracks from the latest album (it's darn tooting, but it's not the best). And finally and most important, it's a very decent song indeed with a glorious swirling chorus ("give me love right here right now" section makes my veins itch with glee). They are global superstars if only in my mind.
06 - Pet Shop Boys, Did You See Me Coming: I toyed whether I wanted to stick to the official second single for this mixtape, or substitute it with All Around The World. I'm sticking with the official as you can see - it's just so delightfully summery and a perfect early evening song as the sun remains high in the sky and the smells of barbecues waft up to my balcony window. Plus it's also the perfect walking home song to gaze appreciatively at the work boys coming out the offices all dishevelled in shirts and loosened ties :)
07 - Alcazar, From Brazil With Love: I did indeed love Burning when Disco Defenders first came out, but it's grown ever so slightly tiresome now so I've gone with this kitsch gem. The verses are all cleverly twee lyrics and the chorus soars into this glorious slice of samba meets disco. It takes on a slightly strange and sad meaning as my friend pointed out in light of the disappearance of the french plane that disappeared :( Lost doesn't look so far fetched now... But on a more cheerful note, if The Saturdays covered this it would be very massive indeed.
08 - Mans Zelmerlow, Home: Again, I could have chosen the official single (Hold On - seems more autumnal to me) or the groovesome Forever (end of summer pick me up for sure) but as summer "launches", I'm feeling this homage to Black and Gold with it's sleek beats and sing a long chorus. Great tune indeed. Bonus - the fan made vid in the link has lots of lovely pics of the adorable perfect man (active doll) that is Mans :) Hurrah.
09 - Star Pilots, The One and Only: Any one who can get away with covering a Chesney Hawkes song so perfectly while giving it a decent dance makeover had me at hello. These boys went down a storm at gay pride in Birmingham last week and while the crowds went wild for the current single, this took the roof off. People were hugging each other with excitement (though that might have been too much to drink and the sun). This could be epic. True fact - while they and the dolly rockers got one of the biggest receptions of the day, no one topped the sheer adulation Hazell Dean received when she sang the glorious Searchin! Who knew?!
10 - The Saturdays, Work: I wrote about this on Sunday, and Aaron has a jolly good write up over at the one year old this week (and happy birthday Aaron!) Fabtastic :) So i won't blather on about it other than to say, it's still quite edible and while I prefer the colourful cheesiness of Up, this puts the Satz on a new level of pop perfection. Hurrah for D;Luv for convincing me they were amazing back in August last year :) (And forever silently editing my typos!)
11 - Kevin Borg, Street Lights: There is something about this song that works when it probably should come off as mundane. It's probably the symphonic strings in the song mixed with Kevin's impassioned vocals and a chorus that soars like an eagle. Yes, the song is a little old now but again the summery weather has made me fall in love with it all over again. Plus Kevin looks a proper popstar at 2m53 in the video.
12 - William Young, I Won't Give Up: And i won't give up on William's near perfect fourth album Let It Go - at least not yet. This is a prime perfection of how Britain can sometimes ignore sheer class in pop songs and instead spend needless amounts of money promoting the childhood obesity of Stavros Flatley. Sheesh. Just lie back and the gloriousity of this track wash all over you and imagine a world where it's top ten. There - isn't that a better place?
13 - Pink, Funhouse: Let's just skip the Bad Influence and be taken straight to the funhouse. It's actually quite a dark song disguised as a quirky little pop single and one that has hidden depths in it's countdown laden choruses. Perfectly catches the spirit of how you feel when something good ends and all you are left with great big empty memories. Oh great, now I'm depressed :(
14 - Lenka, Don't Let Me Fall: It seems very wrong indeed that Lenka isn't a massive star in the UK by now. She's quite the wordsmith and her excellent debut album still continues to captivate me almost a year after I first heard it. This is a lovely laxidaisical gem of a tune that really deserves a much wider audience. Time to start a UK Lileth Fair maybe?!
15 - The Days, Never Give Up: Making tracksuits seem sexy again is quite a hard task, but in the video to this tune The Days boys just about manage to pull it off. It's not quite as instant as the euphoric pop-rock of No Ties, but it's a more mature sounding tune that gives the listener an insight into another side of the boys. Who all seem quite quite charming.
16 - Julian Velard, Feels Like Love Again For The First Time: How I adore Julian. He even tweets when his washing machine is broken. How "pop stars are just like you and me" is that? I've really written about this tune a ridiculous amount of times already, but I will add that it is an absolutely mega piano driven romp with a joyous melody and a chorus as big as all outdoors.
17 - The Yeah You's, 15 Minutes: They are increasingly becoming my boombastic say me fantastic touch me in my back she says I'm mr ro-ro-ro-mantic pop band of choice. Their radio 2 show last week convinced me that yes indeedy, I'm forgiving of the apostrophe and embracing the genius of their cleverly crafted pop magic. I suspect that actually their debut album may be very pleasing indeed. Fingers crossed.
18 - Mika, Toy Boy: Despite the low key nature of the release and the lack of love the tracks have received, I've enjoyed the EP. Toy Boy remains my highlight, and as Mika has said himself, he wanted to release some tunes that would be perfect to perform in an acoustic setting. This is Disney meets Donnie Darko music and is probably more Billy Brown than the more discotastic songs Mika became more famous for after. It seems like those are being held back for the second album proper. Phew, etc.
19 - Indigo Girls, What Are You Like?: Lovely. That's what most of the music produced by the Indigo Girls is. This doesn't deviate too much from their perfected formula of delivering top notch acoustic pop tunes with clever socially insightful lyrics married to their knack of popping out an addictive chorus and melody. Perfect summer singalong music that also makes me yearn for the return of the Magic Numbers. Sigh. Remember them. Both albums of theirs were fine...
20 - Regina Spektor, Laughing With: As I've said before, I ignored poor Reg until she won me over with her track from the Ben-RAR-Barnes starring Prince Caspian that managed to pull off the tricky task of sounding completely amazing within the context of the movie as well as adorable on the radio. This is more coffee house poetry and although not my favourite song of hers, this is proper bonza. And you really won't hear her music described like that anywhere else, will you?!
21 - Dave Matthews Band, Funny The Way It Is: God, I went right off them when all they seemed to do was release live music and release shit from coaches into canals. But back in the mid to late 90s I was quite enamoured with their singles (more than the albums) and spent many a happy moment singing along to Crash Into Me and So Much To Say. This is actually not a bad return to form, and grows on me each time I listen to it. God i'm so diverse this month. (*pats self on shoulder!)
22 - Jason Mraz, Try Try Try: I effing adore Jason Mraz. I'm sort of half sad that people mainly know him in this country for I'm Yours when there are so many different facets to his music. There is coffee house manteuse Jason of his first album, the pop star in the making of Wordplay and Geek In The Pink and then there is the Jason that seems to embrace life and all that is marvelous about it - the Pushing Daisies Jason as I call him. Songs like Life Is Wonderful and Live High have given me a new perspective on life and this really isn't too removed from that philosophy. Which i find very charming indeed. Plus he's still an alternative stone cold fox :)

Bonus Dance CD for people like me who don't really do remixes but need something to work out to in the mornings: Sophie Ellis Bextor - Heartbreak Makes Me A Dancer (Club Mix) / Diana Ross & The Supremes - Love Child (2009 Almighty Mix) / Hazell Dean - Searchin' (2008 Almighty Mix) / Dan Black - Symphonies (Passion Pit Remix) / Marina and The Diamonds - I Am Not A Robot (Starsmith's 24 Carat Remix) / David Guetta & Kelly Rowland - When Love Takes Over

Anniversary: Who knew? It's been 3 years exactly since I started writing about Simon Curtis and his deliciously more-ish Alter Boy album. Still sounds brilliant for me 3 years on, and different tracks are favourites at different times. Today? Religion Reduced. Just an epic frenetic track about the fad religions that seem to take over the world...

If you check out one blog today (other than mine): make sure it's Ademwithane - in particular his quite scintillating guide to all 21 Girls Aloud videos (i'm assuming the St Trinians clip doesn't count). It's a guide i didn't know i needed until i read it :)

Back sunday with the weekly round up and news of something quite industrial... ;) And follow my live tweeting of the Big Bro 10 UK Launch tomorrow (Thurs 4th June)

Weekend catch up:

First of all, before I launch into the album reviews, it was certainly the most decent chart in a while on Sunday here in the UK. And actually that topped off what was a pretty decent weekend. Here are some of the highlights and random quotes...

• Darren's xbox 360 got the Ring of Death lights thingy on Saturday. He was not best impressed.
• He did look dead fit later in his figure enhancing FITCH t-shirt he bought on sale
• Hadn't seen Bernice for ages. Finally got to catch up with the little minx on Saturday night. Her life is still the title of Martha Wainwright's second album...
• Refurbished bar at the end of our street played some "banging" toonskis. In a cheesy discopop sort of way - i can't remember when i last heard Steps Chain Reaction, Six Whole Lotta Loving, Bananarama Every Shade of Blue, Alphabeat Fascination and Crush Jellyhead. Freaking marvelous.
• Random quote 1: "Can you believe he is in his forties and has never been tied up?!"
• Random quote 2: "If he's really dirty, try and slip a finger in his botty passage. Not too far, no one wants a brown tinged finger nail"
• Went to a car boot sale on Sunday am. Which really is now more of a farmers market as there were barely any non-professional car boot people there. And honestly, farmers market sounds so much more classier......
• Jonas Bros have achieved fame in the Uk! They entered the charts at 16 - proving that all those people waiting for the new McFly record will not wait forever. Still SOS is quite good I suppose (more on Jonas Bros, Camp Rock and their new song Burning Up later in the week)
• Billiam who clearly now exist purely to be slagged off by Popjustice, entered the charts at 23. My Generation frankly is not the best boyband material out there. However, they have worked hard and are on a tiny new record label so I think the boys done good. Read more of the fabtrashulous Billiam over here...
• Maroon 5 are still lingering on with Rihanna on their collaboration! Hurrah. And it ain't even out properly for a couple of weeks yet...That's my Adam :)

(Check out more and frankly better chart gossip over at Chartrigger)

ALBUM REVIEW ONE: Chris Brown ~ Forever

Chris Brown - MTV awards 2007

L'il Chris (not that one) and Jordin Sparks (more on her below) have been fingering the UK charts for sometime now with a variety of different singles. Thank God they have both finally plunged straight in as they have produced two of the best pop songs of 2008. Or at least within the top 30 (my half year round up coming Sunday!) and they have finally gone from bubbling under to bonafide top ten hits. I think I first became aware of Chris Brown when he dazzled audiences with his dancing skills at the MTV Awards last november (yes, the one where Britney performed approximately 2 bars behind the rest of her crew, so granted, everything looked pretty good compared to that!). I didn't really pay attention to his music though until he was quite rightly championed by Chartrigger and Poppostergirl (where for art thou?) earlier this year. While his album (an extremely bloated 19 tracks) isn't perfect, it has enough cool pop/urban ditties on it to keep me happy for the forseeable future. Here are the highlights:

Kiss Kiss is one of those urban club stompers that just reeks of quality career potential. It's incessantly catchy and deliciously feel good. It so could have done without the T-Pain rap though. Not necessary at all.

Forever (the current UK top 5 smash) is just a perfectly breezy pop song with some aces eurosynth beats, just the right smattering of vocoder and enough urban cool to keep it from being a cheesy boyband effort. No doubt this will be tearing up the dancefloors in Mykonos this summer :P

With You is a Stargate production that is the male version of Beyonce's Irreplaceable. It has an endearing groove, and is a nice change of pace from the synth driven sound of the album thanks to it's reliance on acoustic guitars and strings. Plus it gives Chris a chance to let his vocals shine, and they are as smooth as a baby's bottom after nappy change. Just lovely.

Take You Down sees Chris being more mature and a bit more sexualised than on his first album. It has some groovy electro sounding drum programming and isn't a million miles away from Ciara's Promise. It's not quite a clear cut choice for a single, but it's certainly one of the top songs on the album

I Wanna Be is a lovely ballad that will be perfect for the Christmas market, and probably benefit from his festive contributions to the This Christmas movie he was in last year...

All in all, there are about 8 decent songs on this album, 3 ok ones and the rest perfectly dreadful depending on your musical tastes. Chris certainly has a team surrounding him that picks the best singles and makes him look decent in shirt and tie on the album cover. This isn't the best album ever, but as a career stepping stone for a young developing artist, it will do for now...

ALBUM REVIEW TWO: Jordin Sparks - Jordin Sparks

Jordin and Chris on American Idol

Ah little Jordi. I pretty much ignored her last year when she beat my lovely Blake in the American Idol final (boo you whore) but she has since won me over with her quite lovely pop singles that she has had the sense to release. Those two key radio friendly tracks have shaken off the Idol spectre and wafted across the Atlantic to give the young idol two bonafide hits. Much like her duet partner on No Air, Chris Brown, her album isn't quite flawless, but again has enough highlights to keep pop people satiated. For now....

• Ignore the dreary obligatory Idol winners song and go straight to "first single proper" Tattoo. I first heard this in Walgreens (classy!) in Vegas and couldn't work out who the loveliness was coming from until the chorus and then I was a smitten little kitten. Again much like Chris' With You, it reeks of Beyonce's Irreplaceable and is carried well by a memorable if understated chorus and Jordin's enchanting vocal.
• No Air is of course the UK top ten smash duetting with pop star du jour Chris Brown. Not since Kylie and Keith has a duet worked so well (some people will think that is sarcasm, but I bloody love that cheesy little ballad) - it positively creeps it's way under your skin and then lingers there until you are completely sucked into the ethereal little tune. A gorgeous acoustic version is floating around somewhere, so be sure to check it out.
• Freeze is probably the riskiest song on a tame album but it works - Jordin's voice suits the darker themed number and is quite a haunting track. It's also a key track in showcasing that Jordin will probably have a career beyond the tween set and reach a more mature crowd. Definitely an album highlight...
• One Step At A Time is a catchy little pop ditty - not outstanding, but now it's a single probably worthy of some beefed up remixes to give it the extra je ne sais quoi that it definitely deserves. Though Shy Boy would have been a more daring choice (though apparently fans hate it) - it is a real club thumper with an electrifying prince tinged chorus, a great hook and lovely understated vocals.

Overall, like Chris' Exclusive, the album is somewhat frustrating. There are some incredibly well crafted pop tunes on there, and then there are dire songs like God Loves Ugly (but i'm pretty sure he wouldn't love that song. Shudder) and the boring beyond belief Now You Tell Me (old lady music at it's finest. Celine would have been better served recording this instead of the shambles that was (not) Taking Chances). Still the beauty of the mp3 age is that you can take what you like and ditch the rest. And that is exactly what I intend to do...

Coming tomorrow: Fizzypop 21 continues and a look at Camp Rock...