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AM
AZEP
OP
TOP 50 POPSTARS
IN THE WORLD
8,700 VOTES CAST... WHO CAME OUT ON TOP?
THE CURIOUS CASE OF THE SATURDAYSWELL, ARE THEY AMAZING OR NOT?
ISSUE 03JUNE 2013
www.amazepop.co.uk
AND THE WINNER ISN’T...WHEN CHAMPS BECOME CHUMPS
OLD-SCHOOL P!NKREMEMBERING HER R’N’B DAYS
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UNION J
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AMAZEPOPIssue 03
Editor & Head WriterSHAUN KITCHENER
ContributorsBETH DAVISONROBIN DARKEKIERAN FIELD
ALEX MACGREGOR
www.amazepop.co.ukwww.twitter.com/amazepop
HOLLER. Welcome to AMAZEPOP.
I’ll cut the crap, readers, and jump straight to the point - I am FASCINATED by the re-sults of our new Best Popstars In The World extravaganza. We singled out 150 ‘active’ pop acts and subjected them to a general poll, allowing people to vote for up to 15. Nearly 9,000 voters obliged, and I’m pleasantly very surprised by who came out on top. Well done, everyone.
Anyhoo, there’s also a Union J Q&A in this issue, which was brilliant fun. The boys had been doing press stuff all day but were still on top form when I got a cheeky 20 minutes with them; and if you’re not convinced by their new single (AND WHY NOT) or the incredibly entertaining interview they gave me, then you should know this: As I left the room, George Shelley started humming Demi Lovato’s ‘Heart Attack’. I mean COME ON.
This issue also boasts entries by four amazing contributors, who’ve each got some great stuff on offer this month. Robin Darke takes The Saturdays into consideration (are they shite or are they amazing? WHO KNOWS??), Beth Davison revisits all-school P!nk, Alex MacGregor yearns for some classic S Club 7 and Kier-an Field explains why it’s about time Fergie got on with another solo album.
On top that, there’s your usual onslaught of reviews, features, news and all that business, plus 10 outstand-ing tweets by generally outstanding tweeter Taylor Swift.
Take it to the bridge,Shaun Kitchener (Editor & Head Writer)
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THE LINE-UPmay 2013
Q&AUNION JPage 6
ESSAYSTHE CURIOUS CASE OF THE SATURDAYS
Page 12AND THE WINNER ISN’T...
Page 26WANTED: FERGIE
Page 30
BIG VOTE THINGBEST POPSTARS IN THE WORLD 2013
Page 14
REGULARSFIRST VERSE
Page 4MODERN CLASSICS COLLECTION
Page 32MY “UNCOOL” ADDICTION:
LAWSONPage 36
POP’S UNSUNG HEROES: ORDIN SPARKS
Page 48
REVIEWSSINGLESPage 38
ALBUMS: STOOSHE, DEMI LOVATO, LEANNE MITCHELL, GABRIELLE APLIN
Page 41LIVE: ALLSTARZ SUMMER PARTY
Page 44TV: THE APPRENTICE
Page 45FILM: THE GREAT GATSBY
Page 46
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F I R S T V E R S E
1. How come no one told me that for 4 hours there was chocolate
cake ALL over my face?!? Because you ate it alone, Taylor. You ate it alone.2. That San Antonio crowd was amazing and SO loud. Now I’m stuck in my own concert traffic, which is a conflicting feeling.3. That moment when you buy scissors and then you try to open them but you can’t because you DON’T HAVE SCISSORS.4. Played Houston! Then rehearsed
in Vegas for Billboards! Then cleaned my closet and concluded that roughly 79% of my shirts are striped.5. GJust tried reading a shampoo bottle an arms length away from my face to check if I still need con-tacts-Turns out I do. Eventful night.6. Watching tv with my cat while eating Toy Story fruit snacks. So basically I’m 80 and 5 at the same time.7. So my TV remote is broken- which pretty much cancels my evening plans with detectives Ben-
son and Stabler. And Eames and Goren. And Dr Grey.8. I shouldn’t read into the fact that my family got me a new scrabble board (the one that swivels!) &cat treats for Christmas, right? Am I 85?9. Chinese food. Law and Order DVDs. Cat. Blanket. Couch.10. So excited about performing on the ARIA’s tonight! Never been before. Here’s comes ‘trouble’....See what I did there? Sorry. I know. Sorry.
THE GIRLS ALOUD SPLIT IS 100% FINAL, SAYS CHERYL COLE
Cheryl Cole has shot down any suggestion that Girls Aloud could reform in a few years’ time, ex-plaining that they are absolutely 100% split up for good... and she “hopes to God” they aren’t back when she’s in her mid-forties.
Asked by InTouch if the door was open for them to ever return, she said: “No, we’ve definitely split. I know Nadine [Coyle] always said that she never thought we should say out loud the words ‘we’ve split’, but at the same time we don’t want to mislead the fans.”
But they could do a reunion in a few years, right? Apparently not. “I hope to God I’m not turning up to Girls Aloud jumping around do-ing all the routines when I’m 45,” the ‘Call My Name’ caller laughed. THIS IS NO LAUGHING MATTER, CHERYL.
She also said in the same Q&A that
she wasn’t completely on her game during the 2010 X Factor, in which she mentored Rebecca Ferguson and Cher Lloyd.
“The last X Factor series I did was too hard for me,” she said. “I wasn’t right in my mind enough to give it my everything and be focused. And I wasn’t strong enough mentally.”
Since being dropped from the US X Factor, she has apparently “seen Simon [Cowell] once”. In case any-one was wondering.
10 AMAZING POPSTAR TWEETS: @TAYLORSWIFT13
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THE X FACTOR JUDGES HAVE BEGUN JUDGING
Here we go again - the X Factor judges have commenced film-ing after a billion-year lead-up to Sharon Osbourne’s confirmation onto the panel.
In a dark and actually quite sad co-incidence, the filming has start-ed on the same day that newly-re-moved judges Tulisa was alleged-ly arrested by police over claims made against her in a leading Brit-ish tabloid.
Sharon joins the other three of last year’s judges - Gary Barlow, Louis Walsh and HRH Nicole Scherzinger,
while Dermot O’Leary does of course return as host.
The auditions return to their old conference-room format to begin with, but the big arena tryouts re-main in place further down the line.
As for The Xtra Factor, Caroline Flack has been joined by a new chap in place of Olly Murs, and has already had to nip romance ru-mours in the bud.
Asked if she fances 22-year-old newbie Matt Richardson, who pre-viously mocked her relationship
with Harry Styles during a stand-up gig, she told The Sun: ”There prob-ably will be stories, particularly be-cause of his age! But I don’t fancy him.
“He is more like my naughty young-er brother and I’m going to have to keep him in line - but in a good way, not in a dominatrix way!”
Inevitably those quotes will make sod all difference and the Do You Fancy Him question will be back in due time.
And Caroline Flack has done some bud-nipping
Britney Spears’ 8th studio album is currently in its early stages of production, and William Orbit and Naughty Boy have been having a lil’ Twitter exchange on the mat-ter.
‘La La La’ maestro Naughty Boy
tweeted William Orbit: “it’s about to get toxic! can’t wait to get started sir!”, to which Orbit then responded: “Ooops, she’s gonna do it again!!!”
Yes alright boys, get on with it please.
PRODUCERS TWEETING ABOUT BRITNEY 8.0
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“ENOUGH HAS HAPPENED IN THE LAST YEAR TO FILL A BOOK”
BUYING FREDDOS, SITTING ON THRONES, REJECTING SINGERS CALLED DAVE, COMPARING FANS TO A ZOMBIE INVASION... TO BE HONEST THERE ISN’T MUCH WE DIDN’T DISCUSS WITH BRILLIANT BOYBAND UNION J
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“ENOUGH HAS HAPPENED IN THE LAST YEAR TO FILL A BOOK”
BUYING FREDDOS, SITTING ON THRONES, REJECTING SINGERS CALLED DAVE, COMPARING FANS TO A ZOMBIE INVASION... TO BE HONEST THERE ISN’T MUCH WE DIDN’T DISCUSS WITH BRILLIANT BOYBAND UNION J
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This time last year, Union J didn’t exist. But when three-piece act Triple J - made up of JJ Hamblett, Josh Cuthbert and Jaymi Hensley - were knocked out of The X Fac-tor at the Boot Camp stage and bought back with new member George Shelley, the nation’s new favourite boyband was formed.
Six months after placing fourth on the ITV show under the mentor-ship of boyband connoisseur Lou-is Walsh, they are releasing their debut single; the straightforward and altogether brilliant ‘Carry You’. As it ascends the charts and earns them even more screaming fans than they already had, the boys sat down with AMAZEPOP’s Shaun Kitchener to talk about just about everything there is to talk about. Even bad particles on the tube.
The first single is cracking. What’s the reaction been like for you guys?Josh: It’s been crazy.Jaymi: It’s been amazing. Every-one’s really got behind it and been really supportive of what we’ve come out with. The reviews seem really positive... it’s been amazing for us.
You have a huge fanbase - does knowing that ease the nerves at all?Josh: It kind of makes us more confident that if people don’t like it, we’ve got people to help us get through it!
Carry you, as the song says.Josh: Carry us, yeah.
What was it about this track that made you want it for the first sin-gle?
JJ: It was the first song we heard. We kind of loved the demo.George: We did have a few to choose from, but it’s the most ap-pealing for most people. It’s really catchy.
You only finished The X Factor tour recently; how much have you recorded so far?Jaymi: We’re about 75% of the way through, I think.Josh: 78. We’re 78%.Jaymi: We’ve done most of the al-bum. We’re just starting to write the last few tracks. We’re getting there.
Who are you teaming up with?JJ: Steve Mac, Wayne Hector... Claude Kelly...
Josh: Josh Cuthbert...
Your last year’s been crazy. How does the reality of what you’re doing compare to what you were hoping for 12 months ago? Is it every bit as “magical”?Jaymi: It’s a year today that Triple J did our first audition. I’ve been building this up for a week...George: “It’s in a week, 3 days and 2 hours!”Jaymi: ...But it’s actually here, to-day. We were in a room auditioning for the first time on The X Factor.JJ: (Disbelief) Was it a year today??Jaymi: It’s crazy that we’re here on the other side writing our al-bum... writing our book. We’ve been through a lot in a year. I never would have said a year ago today
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that we’d be here talking to you about our debut single.JJ: Crazy, man.Josh: And BOOK!
Well, yeah, I didn’t know there was a book, that’s crazy...Jaymi: Our film, museum, our theme park...George: Seriously, there is a book and an annual coming out... We’ve just seen the annual.Josh: It’s a dream come true, isn’t it? The weirdest thing is I don’t think enough has happened in our lives to have a book. That’s a thing I’ve said about when people have books out, but now it’s happened to us...
Jaymi: But you do fill it up.George: We’ve had to fill it up with things like, “On the 21st Decem-ber 2004 I walked to Tescos and bought a Freddo”.Jaymi: Enough has happened in the last year to fill a book, let alone our life before. The last year was crazy. You don’t see what happens on The X Factor so it’s quite nice to let people have a look.
I always wondered... this is a real-ly stupid question, but bear with me... obviously when George joined the band, it was great, you all said it just clicked straight away... But was there a split sec-ond where you were like, ‘But his
name doesn’t start with a J’?Jaymi: Yeah, we changed it to Jorge with a J.George: But then everyone was like, ‘but that’s Horhe’.Josh: That could have helped us break Europe.Jaymi: There was a whole investi-gation about ‘Who’s this Mexican Jorge?’, so we just changed it back to George.
Quadruple J doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, does it.JJ: It still sounds like a J, though.
It’s not like “...aaaaand this is Steve”.George: “...And Drew”.Jaymi: There was Dave. “Hi, we’re Union J.. I’m Josh, I’m Jaymi, I’m JJ... [deep voice] I’m Dave.” Ac-tually they did put a Dave in the group at Boot Camp but we kicked him out because he started with a D, so then we had to choose be-tween George and Simon... People don’t know that.
Exclusive.Jaymi: Exactly.
When you guys did the X Fac-tor Secret Gig thing back in No-vember, I heard someone asking your fans how you knew where it was... they said they chased your car from Embankment. How cra-zy is that from your perspective?Jaymi: They’re outside now.George: It’s like a zombie invasion. Have you ever played, like Left For Dead or anything?
Nope. I scare easy.Jaymi: It’s like that I Am Legend film.JJ: They know where we’re going before we do. I remember when
Above, L-R: George Shelley, JJ Hamblett, AMAZEPOP’s Shaun Kitchener, Josh Cuthbert, Jaymi Hensley
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we were going to a studio, we were driving round looking for it for about 20 minutes, we couldn’t find it. And there were fans waiting outside. They knew. They’re amazing, our fanbase are abso-lutely amazing... our supporters follow us wherever we go. We have a mas-sive connection with our fans.
When you guys go back home-home, is it as nuts as it is in Lon-don?Josh: It is, yeah. Everyone knows when something happens, espe-cially in our towns. It’s relatively compact, so when someone does something exciting like The X Fac-tor in your hometown, everyone knows about it. That’s when I feel most like a “celebrity”, as such - because everyone recognises who I am.Jaymi: I don’t. When I go home I’m
quite good at evading it.JJ: You don’t go out of your house, that’s why.Josh: Puts his sunglasses on in
his house so he doesn’t get spot-ted when he puts his bins out.George: By his
mum. Or jogging down your old school, like: ‘... Do you recognise me yet?’Josh: I’ve got a big sign saying ‘I’M IN UNION J!’Jaymi: I have a throne when I go home. I like to sit on my throne.Josh: Your throne?Jaymi: Yeah. While the Help put bins out for me.
That’s it. That’s the soundbite. That’s my headline.Jaymi: (Suddenly very serious) I do normal stuff! I go to the pub and I do normal stuff. A big thing in our world is you have to go out
every day looking like... you have to make an effort. When I go home I’ve got my old joggers with holes in. If I go out without my hair done, hoodie on, people are like ‘That’s him, he’s taken a drastic turn for the worse...’
I’d hate that. Having to look above 4/10 on a daily basis sounds like too much of a thing.Jaymi: It’s quite fun to fancy dress it up. Put a moustache on.
Is public transport still safe?Jaymi: Not any more! There’s these particles in the tube, they’re really worried about them, they get into your brain and they can cause brain damage. It was on the radio this morning. I am getting a car.Josh: But when there’s no particles we use public transport.George: (Concerned) Is this true?Jaymi: Did you not hear it?
“Our fans know where we’re going before we do... they’re amazing.”
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Josh: Something about the neu-trons... and the electrons...Jaymi: You breathe in, and then it damages your inside. In the tube! Metal particles, and your body can’t... I don’t know.
We look at the people with masks on like they’re weird, but they know. They’ve got it.JJ: They have!
Moving on. JLS have said they’re splitting up - did you guys meet them?JJ: They’re an amazing band. We’ve met them a few times. Re-ally, really nice guys. It’s sad to see them parting, but hopefully one day they might reunite.Jaymi: In ten years time we might all be part of the next Big Reunion. Us, JLS, One Direction, all of us...Josh: We’re gonna have hair in places we don’t want hair. Mind you, Blue have hit the gym, hav-en’t they?Jaymi: They’ve come back looking better. You could grate cheese with Duncan James’s stomach, couldn’t you.
Pop acts are always getting com-pared to each-other, especially you with other boybands - when you were recording ‘Carry You’ were you making a conscious ef-fort to go your own way, or did that just happen?Josh: You want to have your own place in the market. There are ob-viously loads of other bands out there at the moment that are do-ing so well. We can’t be a carbon copy of one of them. We’ve got to be a bit different. We’ve tried to take the best bits out of all of the different bands and tried to make a different sound. We definitely
took it into consideration.
Regarding The X Factor, Sharon Osbourne is back - you worked with her at Judges’ Houses last year. Will she be good?Jaymi: She’s amazing.Josh: Sexy as well.Jaymi: You’ve got to be careful though because she wears these really sparkly dresses, with all the glittery diamonds on them. And when you run up and hug her, you come back and you’ll be bleeding and scratched. So if she’s a judge, on the Sunday if they get through and they get Sharon as a mentor, don’t do what we did with Louis and jump on her because you will cut yourself on her diamond dress-es.
Have you guys been watching The Voice, Britain’s Got Talent etc... would you have gone for ei-ther of them were it not for The X Factor?Josh: Britain’s Got Talent is amaz-ing. There’s no show like it at the moment, it’s so good. The banter the judges have between them... David and Simon’s relationship is second to none. It’s so funny.Jaymi: We’re very much a part of X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent’s family, and it’s interesting to watch talent that’s on those shows. Even with The Voice, we’ll watch it and there’s some incredible talent on there.
JJ: They’re both great shows.Jaymi: You watch it in a different way after being on one. You see the show for what it really is, how much hard work these guys are putting in ALL the time. It’s inter-esting to watch it. I love reality TV.
Aaaand finally. Signature sign-off question. In 2013, what makes a great pop song?George: Something that’s catchy. With a beat. Drums.Jaymi: Singing.Josh: Feel-good! Happy!Jaymi: Words.Josh: Happy, up-beat, positive... Maybe a bit of drums and guitar helps.George: What’s popular at the moment are the big, like, march-ing band drums. DOOPH DOOPH DOOPH, D-DOOPH...Jaymi: Something that takes you away... if you listen to a DJ that plays this song that you love, and it takes you a different place. For those three minutes you should be able to let yourself... (Whispers) Es-cape.
Beautiful.George: (Spanish twang) Escapé.
Union J’s debut single ‘Carry You’ is out now.
@ShaunKitchener
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THE CURIOUS CASE OFTHE SATURDAYS
The Saturdays are a curious beast. Critics blast them for being bland and generic, they’ve never really become *that* big, and their recent attempts at breaking the US seem to have been met with widespread indifference. So how come they’ve lasted half a decade? Surely they must be
doing something right? ROBIN DARKE thinks things over.
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Being a member of The Satur-days is a pretty thankless task. In a world where pop history is measured by pre- and post-‘Bi-ology’, being in a girl group is akin to pushing a Sisyphus-style boulder up The Shard. It’s almost impossible to get anywhere in these sweaty pop days without throwing all caution and self es-teem, to the wind and plunging on despite name calling and the perhaps lack of natural talent. And turning their collective nos-es up to name callers and claims that none of them can really sing is what The Saturdays do best.
Although their American reality TV show Chasing The Saturdays was beyond awful, it did help to secure them the pinnacle of what all pop bands strive for; a Number One. Yes, it made the fivesome look like a band of pillaging idiots hav-ing panic attacks and arguments around the world while shacking up with Sean Paul, and yes, it did start to propagate a new feud be-tween Una Healy and The Other Four, but does that matter? ‘What About Us’ is a natty pop song.
The Saturdays don’t need you to realise how clever they are, or how they feel their way through the pop market like your blind aunt reading Fifty Shades Of Grey, as long as you can see how polished they are, and as long as you are still captivated by their private life (awwww, isn’t Marvelle’s daughter just adorbz?) then it doesn’t mat-ter that they’re as shrewd as Katie Price, Alan Sugar and Him what
manages Hamfatter rolled into one. No one cares.
Between them, the band has countless years of past experience behind them. Rochelle and Frankie are part of the S Club dynasty, Una has won the Irish version of Euro-vision twice, and Mollie is so mu-sical theatre that her wrists prob-ably sound like a broken washing machine because of all of the jazz hands she was forced to do. Ru-mour has it that in Sylvia Young, in-stead of doing push ups as punish-ment, unruly students are forced to high kick their way around the main court yard in the rain. The Saturdays know their shizzle inside and outizzle.
Naysayers may crow that they, just like every other girl band, are trying to emulate Girls Aloud, but they’re really not. Whereas Girls Aloud were created by Popstars: The Rivals, The Saturdays are al-ready mature enough to see that the time to have a group of gig-gly teenagers singing in unison is gone, and instead, perhaps in-spired by Gary Barlow, or worse, Mick Jagger, having a band com-prised of more maturer women is the way forward. Because, as long as the sound they pump out stays relevant, they will still fit in with their current slew of fans.
Unfortunately, The Saturdays are sticking to their formulaic brand of synthpop and it’s starting to sound a bit tired. Even new release ‘Gen-tleman’ sounds more like a poor Destiny’s Child rip off than it does
anything by The Saturdays. Gone is the British and proud sound that they championed, and instead there’s some really underpar rap-ping and the trademark hiccuping vocals that Beyonce et al ruled the early Noughties with. It’s a lazy at-tempt at trying to crack America, and they are better than that.
For all their failings - putting more emphasis on how they look, re-leasing lazy songs, not updating Frankie’s hair cut in five years, nev-er singing a cover of S Club Juniors ‘New Direction’ - The Saturdays aren’t really terrible at what they do. Obviously some will say that having a Number One might be the pinnacle of any career, and can launch into one of those ter-rible Bieber-esque statistic Tumblr graphics about how many albums they’ve had and how many follow-ers they’ve got on Twitter, but any-one can really have a Number One. Mr. Blobby had a Number One. Even Eiffel 65 had a Number One. I think at some point even I’ve had a Number One.
They could do better; embrace the fact that none of them really like each other and enter a Pop Hunger Games alongside Brother Beyond, all of the Sugababes and whichev-er Bedingfields are left, kick out a member every now and then (be-cause it hasn’t done the Sugababes any harm really), and move away from Rent-A-Rappers into more authentic realms like Bananarama and The Bangles.
@Robin_Darke
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best popstars
in the world
2013
(BIG VOTE THING)
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OK. THIS IS THE BIG ONE. THIS IS LIKE THE 100 SEXIEST WOMEN IN THE WORLD LISTS, EXCEPT IT’S NOT.
AT THE BEGINNING OF MAY, A LIST OF 150 ACTIVE POP-STARS WAS DRAWN UP AND SUBJECTED TO A GENERAL PUBLIC VOTE. VOTERS WERE ALLOWED TO OPT FOR UP
TO 15 ACTS, WITH MOST GROUPS SPLIT INTO INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS IN THE VAST MAJORITY OF CASES.
THE RESULTS ARE FASCINATING. SOME A-LISTERS FLOPPED WHILE MANY BELOW-RADAR UNDERDOGS THRIVED. WITH 8,700 VOTES CAST, IT’S THE BIGGEST POLL AMAZEPOP
HAS CONDUCTED YET... AND HERE ARE THE RESULTS.
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50 cher lloydA boosted US profile has no doubt boosted Cher’s stock - and it’ll be interesting to see how she fares with her second album.
49 carly rae JepsenJeppers seems to have narrowly avoided one-hit wonder status, but there’s approx. a 3% chance she’ll ever top ‘Call Me Maybe’.
48 alicia KeysThe Girl On Fire LP may not have arrived with much fanfare, but Ali-cia can still fill arenas and please critics with her soulful pop.
44 madonnaA ludicrously high-grossing tour and a number of minor scandals keep Madge among the industry leaders.
43 selena gomezShe’s dating Bieber and then she isn’t and then she is... but as a popstar Selena has ditched ‘the Scene’ and is ready with a 4th LP.
42 nicola robertsThe first of two former Girls Aloud members in the list, Nicola’s pop-ularity is yet another sign that she NEEDS to do a second solo album.
47 danny o‘donoghUeThe Script have reaped the bene-fits of Danny’s The Voice UK stint, and despite all the critics he still clearly has a lot of admirers.
46 perrie edwardsThe only Little Mixer to appear in the Top 50, Perrie’s awesome voice and Zayn-based tabloid power seemingly give her an
45 emeli sandeWho’s Emily Sande? Has anyone heard of her? Does she even have an album out? Is she familiar with a thing called promo?
BIG VOTE THING
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41 miley cyrUsHer public pop activity over the last year has been minimal, but anticipation alone keeps Miley on the radar.
40 mariah careyHer tenure on American Idol wasn’t as all-conquering as some perhaps expected, but Mariah’s ‘lambs’ remain as faithful as ever.
39 JUstin bieberBiebs has kept the hits coming over the last year, but scandal af-ter scandal after scandal prevents him from finishing higher than 39.
38 calvin harrisAccountable for about 85% of all Number Ones over the last year, Calvin is still the world’s most in demand hitmaker.
37 shaKiraShe hasn’t really released much over the last year, but a stint on the US version of The Voice has kept Shakira’s popularity afloat.
36 will.i.amWill’s recent solo output has been the kind of shite you just love to hear in a club, and he’s great val-ue on The Voice UK, so... fair do’s.
35 robynThe thinking pop fan’s popstar of choice, Robyn did a spot of Cold-play stadium supporting last year and clearly was a wise choice.
34 nicKi minaJNew music videos every five min-utes and a divisive stint on Ameri-can Idol keep the polarising Minaj at the forefront of the ‘biz’.
33 lana del reyHer movements once the curtain falls on her Born To Die era will be interesting but, for now, Del Rey is a force to be reckoned with.
best popstars in the world 2013
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32 robbie williamsWhether Radio 1 will playlist him or not, Robbie has regained his ability to dominate the charts and sell out giant venues.
31 marina and the diamondsElectra Heart was perhaps the fin-est album of 2012, so it’s a shame if anything that Marina doesn’t poll higher on this list.
30 ellie goUldingThe Difficult Second Album was no problem for Goulding, whose Halcyon LP was even more beau-tifully crafted than 2010’s Lights.
28 liam payneAll five One Direction members make the list, but Liam’s at the bottom.. probably because he cut his hair off :(
29 christina agUileraLotus wasn’t the Earth-straddling phenomenon supporters were hoping for, but Xtina’s fanbase re-mains commendably large.
27 olly mUrsPeople seem to be slowly coming around to the idea of Olly Murs being a good popstar. Compare the reaction of recent album Right Place Right Time to, say, 2010’s ‘Thinking Of Me’, and there’s been a definite shift. ‘Trou-blemaker’, for example, may be pop at its most basic (you could set your watch to the chorus’ chord sequence) but it’s also an irresistably catchy hit with a not-awful appearance from Flo Rida.
BIG VOTE THING
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26 Kylie minogUeShe released the very mature Abbey Road Sessions and then signed to Roc Nation. Kylie knows how to keep the world guessing.
25 Florence welchWith thanks to Calvin Harris, Flo has finally scored her first UK No1 - and her brief dance-y makeover won her a new influx of fans.
24 cheryl cole‘Call My Name’ spent most of 2012 as that year’s fastest-seller, LP A Million Lights hit No2 and she even embarked on a solo arena tour. Even with con-stant criticism and reports of miming/not selling enough tickets/generally being bad, Chezza remains one of the country’s most in-demand popstars. How long she can keep that up now that Girls Aloud have officially disband-ed will be fascinating to watch.
23 loUis tomlinsonHis voice is probably the weak-est in One Direction but hey... he dresses nice and isn’t altogether nasty to look at.
22 harry stylesHe may seem the most notorious member of One Direction but The Styles is 3rd most popular of the band with our voters.
best popstars in the world 2013
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21 avril lavigneShe may be finding it harder these days to score a smash hit, but Avs is still a valued pop asset with tunes to spare.
20 niall horanAfter just making up the numbers back on The X Factor, ‘Nialler’ as emerged as a Properly Good Pop-star over the last year or so.
19 JedwardA surprise entry, yes - but Jed-ward still boast one of the most dedicated fanbases in the buis-ness, and as a result they sail into
18 zayn maliKA surprising choice for Most Pop-ular 1D Dude, Zayn’s personal life allegations haven’t stopped him securing a huge number of votes.
17 Ke$haThe lack of huge success for Ke$ha’s great second album Warrior is a mystery - but clearly enough people still rate her.
16 Jessie JOne of the UK’s most divisive ex-ports, Jessie is still adored by a huge number of Heartbeats and general pop watchers.
the ones that got away100 acts from our longlist failed to make the Top 50. Here are some notable place-ments from the rear end.
51 nadine coyleNot an obvious name to have just missed out on the list, but for what-ever reason Girls Aloud’s big-lunged beaut missed out on the Top 50 by just ONE vote.
59 nicole scherzingerWUT? Nicole ‘The Scherzina-tor’ Scherzinger is more than deserving of a place in the Top 50, and yet she barely scraped
inside the Top 60. For shame, voters. FOR SHAME.
63 lily allenEven with nothing more than a few lines on a Pink song, Lily Allen still manages to trump several other popstars-du-jour and garner enough votes to place 63rd. How high will she go if/when she actually releases prop-er new stuff?
68 delta goodremSure she’s a lovely woman, but... eh?
BIG VOTE THING
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15 lady gagaGaga hasn’t done a great deal in public besides touring over the last year, but even the anticipa-tion for her third record ARTPOP sends her sky-high in this poll. It’d better not be terrible...
14 Katy perryThe thousand-year Teenage Dream campaign finally over, Katy is wisely tak-ing a brief break from putting out singles every 10 minutes. But it’s hard to convincingly argue she’s been a bit over-exposed when 90% of her output has been excellent. The concert movie may have been a little ill-advised, but musically Katy continues to prove herself as an incredibly savvy pop artiste, and her next album will hopefully be a thing to behold.
70 rita oraThis was a surpris-ing result. Three gi-ant-selling No1s and a seemingly massive fanbase, but Rita Ora goes no further than the edge of the Top 70 on this poll.
80 mollie KingEven the highest-placed Saturday can only make it as far as No80. Mol-lie is the most popular, but even she struggled to secure votes. Rochelle
was close behind at No89, Una and Vanessa took Nos 93 and 94 respec-tively, and Frankie was No146.
92 tUlisaThe Female Boss’s unfortunate struggle for success didn’t stop her sneaking into the Top 100, as she crept in at No92.
150 chris brownThe only person on our given longlist to receive absolutely no votes.
best popstars in the world 2013
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13 JUstin timberlaKeThe 20/20 Experience has split opinion, but just the general notion of JT being back in the world of hitmaking is clearly exciting enough.
12 rihannaHer personal life continues to provoke fierce de-bate, but as a popstar Rihanna still has the very best writers and producers queueing up for her.
11 brUno marsNew album Unorthodox Jukebox has replenished Mars’ popularity. His showmanship and knack for penning a great hook easily convert to sales.
10 adam levineMaroon 5’s enduring popularity off the back of ‘Moves Like Jagger’ and The Voice US continues apace, with Levine at the forefront of it all.
09 ed sheeranSome people adore him. Some people can’t stand him. But the former group is clearly strong enough to outweigh the latter, as Ed nudges his way into the pub-lic-voted Top 10. Whether you think his music is the stuff credibility wet dreams are made of or just loose cast-offs from Match.com adverts, you’ll have to put up with him for a good while yet.
BIG VOTE THING
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08 britney spearsHer stint on The X Factor USA was a GIF-maker’s dream, and the promise of an upcoming 8th LP is unbearably exciting. Excellentney.
07 beyonceA new album is allegedly en route before 2049; but in the meantime Beyonce is keeping everyone satisfied with a casual world tour.
06 adeleA Bond theme is all Adele has really done over the last year, but the after-taste of 21 is still enough to keep her this high in peoples’ good books.
05 adam lambertA surprisingly high finish for Adam considering his criminally modest UK success, but it’s a testament to his fans that his talents don’t go unnoticed.
best popstars in the world 2013
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04 demi lovatoSlyly stealing the show from under Britney’s nose on The X Factor and upping her game musically has boosted Demi’s stock massively. LOVATIC 4 LYF.
03 taylor swiFtThis time last year, Taylor was a relatively niche country-pop act as far as the UK was concerned. Some amazing singles later, and here she is.
02 pinKIt’s easy to forget Pink when listing the world’s greatest artists, especially when she’s not in the midst of an album cam-paign. Stars like Beyonce, Britney, Katy, Gaga etc may fill more column inches, but Pink is every bit as phenomenal a popstar - she can always be relied on for an amazing single or two, she puts on some of the most acclaimed tours in the business and she manages to mar-ry giant radio-friendly pop hooks with widespread critical acclaim. She is one of the best in the world.
’analysis‘ shit
8,713 people voted in this poll - more than 1,500 more than the last two Big Vote Things (Best Girlband and Boyband singles of the last 15 years) - and each voter was allowed
to vote for up to 15 acts from a given shortlist of 150. Kelly Clarkson beat Pink by a margin of just 15 votes, and Pink in turn trumped Taylor Swift by 13. The Top 5 generally was very close, basically. The closest fin-ish in the Top 50 - unless you count
Cher Lloyd at 50 and Nadine Coyle at 51 - was between Cheryl Cole at 24 and Louis Tomlinson at 23, who were only 1 vote apart. There were no ties inside the Top 50, but sever-al occured further down the list.
BIG VOTE THING
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and
Kelly Clarkson is amazing. This is in-disputable. Nobody sticks around for ten years after shooting to fame on a TV talent show without being some kind of brilliant. But still, her finish at the very top of this poll - out of a given longlist of 150 - is pleasantly surprising. After all, she’s never really in the tabloids, her singles don’t always set the charts on fire (‘Catch My Breath’ peaking outside the UK Top 40? Was that a
sick joke?) and there isn’t the kind of general hysteria around her that you find with so many of her peers. And yet here she is.
The theory is that, while others may be so high-profile that they provoke passionate hatred as much as they provoke passionate adora-tion, everyone seems to quite like a bit of Clarko. If you don’t love her, chances are you at least don’t dis-
like her. She has fans, but hardly any ‘haters’. At some point in time most modern music fans have warmed to one Kelly empowerment anthem or another, and because of the relative lack of fanfare and gimmicks around her she’s been able to come and go as she pleases; easily lasting 10 years on the strength of a likeable personality and a fucking brilliant repertoire of pop music. Long may she continue.
01 Kelly clarKson
best popstars in the world 2013
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There was a time in the not-too-distant past when a talent show winner was a rare specialty; a new arrival into the world of popular song with legions of re-cord-buying fans behind them, ready to snap up whatever tour tickets, hastily-recorded albums or cheaply-produced merchan-dise popped up on the market. Now, in 2013, these kinds of tel-evisual assaults are on so many times in a year that it’s hard to keep track of those who only had a brief period of commercial success, but what happened to those who didn’t take off at all.
As Leanne Mitchell’s horrendous-ly-promoted debut album sinks without a trace like some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy (she was branded a flop within days of her victory on The Voice UK last year),
we sadly have another unsuccess-ful victor’s launch to add to an ev-er-growing heap. She wasn’t the first public-voted champion to fail at converting votes to sales, and she certainly won’t be the last. But what is it that goes wrong? Why is there often so big a difference be-tween how much adoration an art-ist gets when they come up trumps on telly and how many copies of their album are bought?
It varies from winner to winner, but in the case of Leanne, there seem to be a couple of distinct explanations. For a start, the reac-tion most people had when read-ing about her LP missing the Top 100 was “wait… she has an album out?”. You’d never have that issue with an X Factor winner; adverts would be scattered all over the shop and the artist would be get-
ting dragged from magazine to TV show to radio station to newspaper to magazine to newspaper to web-site to radio station to etc etc like their lives depended on it. Where’s Leanne been? She popped up on BBC Breakfast, the odd quote has emerged here and there, but that’s just about it. Sources quoted by a couple of websites claim that she wasn’t a fan of the promotion cir-cuit and just wanted to focus on the singing… which is all well and good, but nobody will listen to the singing if they don’t know there is singing to be listened to. Wheth-er those sources were accurate or not is of course anyone’s guess, but if they’re false, then the label themselves have a lot to answer for. Were they just not really trying because they knew people were expecting a flop anyway? Or did they have a go at pushing her but
AND THE WINNER ISN’T...As Leanne Mitchell’s album sadly fails to register on the UK chart, why do so many talent show winners struggle to convert votes into record sales? SHAUN KITCHENER has a wonder.
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media outlets just weren’t inter-ested?
The press coverage also didn’t help. When her winner’s single ‘Run To You’ stalled at No45 last year that was basically that. Her career had already been declared dead in various news stories and it’s almost as if it would have been a massive shocker if the album had gone anywhere within sniffing distance of the Top 20. As it is, it hasn’t even achieved the Top 100 – at least not in its opening week, anyway.
It would also be fair to suggest that perhaps Leanne fell victim to the whole format of the show from whence she came. With rat-ings dropping lower and lower with every live show, it was under-standable this year that producers
wanted to massively cut down on the amount they, er, produced. But even last year’s live rounds felt rushed, and as a result it became tricky for the public to really get behind anybody – let alone some-one like Leanne. She didn’t really break through as a solid contend-er, but by the time she wowed everyone with her cover of ‘Run To You’ on her third live show, it was already the semi-final – perhaps a little too late for a long-lasting loy-al fanbase to be formed and main-tained.
So for Leanne, a number of fac-tors are evident. For others, solu-tions are harder to come across. Why, for example, did Matt Cardle find himself dubbed a flop winner when he didn’t really flop? He in-sists that he parted ways mutual-ly with his record label and wasn’t
dropped, but that won’t stop the media – or James Arthur, it would seem - referring to him as an un-successful champion. His first proper single may have struggled to find longevity in the charts, but his album didn’t. And, overshad-owed by the more higher-profile successes of Rebecca Ferguson, Cher Lloyd and some band called One Direction, he simply looked poor in comparison. Now signed to an indie label, he’s continued to sell a steady amount of tour tickets and nabbed himself a sec-ond Top 10 record; more than can be said for poor Alexandra Burke, whose last album limped into the Top 20 before making a very, very hasty retreat. Yet still, he will not go down in The X Factor’s history as one of their all-time favourite winners, as ludicrously popular as he was when he actually compet-
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ed. No other act ever came close to him in the betting markets, and the public voting results tell a sim-ilar story. Weird.
Joe McElderry’s in a similar boat. After he left SyCo after one luke-warm album, he got a second wind courtesy of Popstar To Oper-astar, and saw his sophomore set Classic outsell his post-X Factor debut Wide Awake within a mat-ter of weeks. To date he has now released four albums and is only now, several years after appar-ently “flopping”, set to grace the dreaded world of seasonal pan-tomime. But even though people didn’t really seem to notice his sur-prising longevity, the funny thing was that, actually, ‘proper pop’ album Wide Awake was actually pretty strong. Why didn’t more people buy it? Was it because ‘Am-bitions’, its lead single, wasn’t ac-cessible enough? Was it because
of the humiliation surrounding that whole Rage Against The Ma-chine thing? Why didn’t his votes convert to sales, when Olly Murs’ lack of votes has?
Going back further to when these shows weren’t just simply tele-vised A&R festivals, it’s a lot eas-ier to identify why winners didn’t stick. Within weeks of winning, Steve Brookstein already had a shoddy covers album on the shelves and it was pretty appar-ent that nobody was really bank-ing on him as a viable pop prod-uct once the curtain fell on The X Factor’s first ever series. Similarly, Hear’Say were milked to death in such a short space of time (two al-bums in one year is never a good sign of quality control) that their Best Before date may as well have been stamped to their foreheads. But even Pop Idol, which intro-duced us to the incredibly “cred-
ible” Will Young, served up a dud with poor Michelle McManus. She was an easy winner on the short-lived show’s second and final sea-son, so why couldn’t she sustain the record sales?
Perhaps the shows themselves have a lot to answer for. If peo-ple are watching and voting just because they’re swept up in the excitement of presenters’ hyper-bole and melodramatic VTs, then a few months further down the line they’re probably not going to give a damn anymore. You may be distraught, for example, when someone you love gets voted off of a reality TV show, but a couple of weeks down the line do you still give anywhere near as much of a shit? Probably not. And so it is with winners... the person you want-ed to win may be victorious, but there’s often a good chance that once the novelty of the pyrotech-
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nic finale has faded, your passion for him/her/them will have faded with it. But if the show does feel like a genuinely big event, then maybe the momentum can be sustained for a little longer than you thought it would. This certainly could ex-plain why Cardle and McElderry have, despite falling under the ra-dar a little, managed to keep hold of loyal fanbases for so long. The X Factor series’ that they featured on were the two most-watched in its history - the show by then was a massive, massive deal and, even if the winners didn’t necessarily re-write the record books, they had such an undeniably collossal platform that at least some hint of success was inevitable.
With that in mind, if you look at Alex Parks and David Sneddon - the two champions of the BBC’s short-lived Fame Academy - you can probably see why they strug-
gled. Sneddon may have carved out a nice career for himself with songwriting, but it’s certain-ly not the career he thought he was getting when he triumphed over Lemar and Sinead Quinn in the show’s glittering finale. Even though both he and Parks had adequate artistic input and rela-tively decent reviews, people per-haps didn’t really care about Fame Academy as a show enough to really get behind its victors in the long run.
But despite their OK-ish music, in a lot of cases the lack of longevi-ty can quite easily be put down to simply the quality of the output. The X Factor USA’s first winner, Melanie Amaro, STILL hasn’t re-leased her debut album because none of the teaser singles have caught fire. And while ‘Don’t Fail Me Now’ is pretty solid, the rest are admittedly far, far poorer than
you’d expect someone of Amaro’s vocal calibre to be given. Leon Jackson, similarly, was slated for his shoddy release Right Now back in 2008 and, when you pair that with his impossible task of having to follow Leona Lewis’s Spirit cam-paign, the poor chap was pretty doomed from the outset.
While promotional strategy and quality of TV show are often unde-niable factors, ultimately it’s surely just gotta come down to the music and the star quality. Girls Aloud came from a naff competition, and look how they fared. Their songs were the dog’s bollocks and their general attitudes made for great popstars. A great platform helps and a terrible platform is a hin-derance, but ultimately if there’s no star quality and no decent tun-eage, the only way is down.
@ShaunKitchener
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Remember Fergie’s solo album? Good times. But packed as it was with absolute tunes (and busy as she is making babies) it’s about time for a follow-up. The return of The Dutchess (her spelling, not ours) can’t
come soon enough, writes KEIRAN FIELD.
WANTED: FERGIE
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Ask anyone who their favourite Black Eyed Pea is, and I’d say 8 times out of 10 they will name Fergie. And can you blame them?
The addition of Fergie to the group marked the beginning of the Peas’ quest for global domination and basically led to them becoming one of the biggest-selling groups in music history. OK, their success may not be wholly down to Ms Fer-guson, but can you imagine tracks like ‘Meet Me Halfway’, ‘Shut Up’ or even the beast that is ‘I Gotta Feeling’ without Fergie Ferg?
Her inevitable solo career kicked off in 2006, which only added to her popularity. With tracks like ‘Glamorous’, ‘Clumsy’ and ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’, it’s no surprise really. True, it’s not to everyone’s taste, but her album The Dutchess is, undeniably, a fantastic pop al-bum. Now it’s been almost seven years since its release and the mu-sic industry has been noticeably less Fergalicious in the interim.
Although the Peas have still been going strong, it’s about time that Fergie (alone) returned with a fol-low up album. Here are just a few reasons why the world needs a Dutchess 2.0.
Firstly, It’s easy to forget how good Fergie’s vocals can be. Yes, her voice is often disguised by big will.i.am beats but songs like ‘Fi-nally’ and Nine’s ‘Be Italian’ make it pretty clear that Fergie wasn’t just chosen to be the Peas’ pretty frontwoman; she has an excep-tionally unique voice that would be welcome back in the charts.
And aside from her voice, there are plenty of other reasons. For one, Fergie never scrimps on pro-duction and if we do get a second album, expect some big name producers to be working on it. Although she has been accused of taking a ‘style over substance’ approach, this isn’t always a bad thing. You may or may not be sur-prised to hear that some reviewers slammed Fergie for her meaning-less lyrics, but us pop freaks can enjoy songs like ‘London Bridge’ and ‘Fergalicious’ for what they are. With lines like “such a lady but I’m dancing like a ho”, how could we not? The Dutchess also gives a new meaning to London Bridge and gives listeners a few lessons in how to spell (G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S) and how not to spell (T to the A to the S-T-E-Y). This is fun, unadulter-ated pop...and I love it.
It would be great to hear some of the silly Fergie we know and love again, but, with a second album, there is also a chance that we could see a completely new Fer-gie. Seven years is a long time and she will have inevitably grown as an artist. She has also been preg-nant and gotten married since her last album so a new one could be just the opportunity for Fergie to put these experiences into her mu-sic, hit back at critics and make a different, more mature record.
There is also the money to fac-tor in. Not that she’s short on the dough, but Fergie could rake it in if she makes a record that sells even half as well as The Dutchess did.
In that respect, it is quite surpris-ing that she has left it this long
to put out anoth-er LP, but she has promised her fans another one. Let’s hope that this means it is finally in the works; I have no doubt it will be worth the wait. Why? See above.
@KieranJField
WANTED: FERGIE
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Released: April 4 2000Chart Peak: No13Label: LaFace, AristaProducers: Kevin Briggs, Babyface, Steve Clarke, Kandi Burruss, Terence Abney, Daryl Simmons, Tricky Stewart, Daron JonesSingles: ‘There You Go’, ‘Most Girls’, ‘You Make Me Sick’
CAN’T TAKE ME HOME
P!nk
M O D E R N C L A S S I C STHE AMAZEPOP
COLLECTION
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By BETH DAVISON
When a girl chooses her stage name after a col-our, especially a girly col-our at that, you sort of ex-pect sequins and stilettos, pop-princess-come-tween-queen, or something similar right? WRONG.
When P!nk arrived into the ainstream pop arena in 2000, whether kickboxing or snarling, she was far from girly. As ff the buzz cut and the scowl weren’t enough her debut album was bluntly named Can’t Take Me Home and her hair was died a shocking cerise - the verdict was clearly that this P!nk chick is as hard as nails.
Born Alecia Beth Moore in Penn-sylvania, 1979, P!nk was orig-inally part of girl group Choice (yeah - I hadn’t heard of them ei-ther). Despite the band’s failure - they disbanded after just 3 years in 1998 - these influences seem to be what perpetuated the genre of her first album.
A far cry from the ballads or pop/rock tracks she has released more recently, Can’t Take Me Home was marketed as an R&B album. Spouting lyrics of independence and decidedly anti-male, her first single ‘There You Go’ was
received well both in and out of the United States. It peaked at No6 here in the UK and No2 in Australia, meaning P!nk’s solo career was off to a good start.
With her second single, the re-ception was even better. ‘Most Girls’ was another feminist mes-sage with a killer bass-line, but this time it had a great video. Still rocking the fuscia flat-top, she was in a boxing gym; and with a torso for females everywhere to envy P!nk was leading the way in strong, androgynous icons. ‘Most Girls’ increased her commercial success stateside, peaking at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and opening up her horizons further. Surely proving that she was more pop than R&B, she was booked to open for NSync on their huge No Strings Attached tour in mid 2000.
Looking back, it’s hard to see the transition from Can’t Take Me Home to her later albums; how-ever the answers seem to come from Ms Moore herself. She openly admits that this album is full of music she didn’t really want to make. Lead more by pro-ducers and profit that anything
else, in her early days P!nk does look a little uncomfortable. Her third single ‘You Make Me Sick’ seems aggressive and yet with a hint of satire as it opens with a fictional phone conversation be-tween P!nk and a female friend. It marked the least successful release from the album and per-haps proved that whilst her im-age made an impact, it wasn’t enough to sustain a whole career.
Whilst received fairly well in most countries, Can’t Take Me Home is not a genre of music which Moore has particular-ly returned to, and perhaps it’s this which lead to the title of her second studio album, Missun-daztood, the following year. La-belled by Entertainment Weekly as “just another brick in the R&B wall”, P!nk could easily have been a one-album-wonder. How-ever, CTMO sold over 2 million copies in the US alone and the three singles she chose to release are still well known.
The singer herself has gone from strength to strength and, now free to make the music she loves, is a genuine talent among todays A-Listers. Can’t Take Me Home is a pivotal album; less an iconic classic and more a stepping stone to glory, this album seems to act as her gateway to greatness.
@BethBecomesHer_
Pop moves quickly, doesn’t it? In a gen-re where artists like Pixie Lott can go from label’s finest to In Desperate
Need Of A Hit mode in one swift album and Jessie J can be offered a judging role on a big-budget talent show after four sin-gles, it’s easy to forget the classics-to-be that pass us by. But that’s what the AMAZEPOP
Modern Classics Collection is for. The mid-00s may not seem like that long ago, for example, but it’s four albums’ worth of time in JLS terms. Heck, Conor Maynard was probably only about 5 years old in 2007, right? So we’ve picked out a trio of masterpieces from bygone years for you to wipe the scratches off and play in a tatty old CD player. Or, y’know, look up on Spotify.
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By ALEX MACGREGOR
It’s hard to believe now but there was a time when pop acts with a near 50/50 ratio of girls and boys could fly to the top end of the charts. And that time was at the start of the new millenni-um, when S Club 7 were at the top of their game.
2000 saw them win their first BRIT award and their hit BBC TV series screen to just over 110 countries. And before the cannabis scandals and Paul’s departure that ultimately led to their demise 10 years ago, they were quietly capable of being a brilliant, multi dimensional jukebox of sounds in a pop land-scape dominated by bland solo
Spice material and stool sitting boybands.
7 opens on the song that is by and large the group’s anthem even to this day. Despite being unable to dislodge Sonique’s mighty dance anthem ‘It Feels so Good’ from the top, the self affirming, pre-High School Musical candy rush of ‘Reach’ stayed in the charts
M O D E R N C L A S S I C STHE AMAZEPOP
COLLECTION
Released: June 12 2000Chart peak: No1Label: PolydorProducers: Cathy Dennis, StarGate, Simon Ellis, Abso-lute, moreSingles: ‘Reach’, ‘Natural’, ‘Never Had A Dream Come True’
7S Club 7
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To suggest an album for the Modern Classics Collection, or if you want to write about one yourself, tweet us @AMAZEPOP
for the whole summer and went on to become one of the biggest selling singles of the year, as well as a quintessential staple of wed-ding discos ever since.
The hugely underrated re-written Norma Ray cover ‘Natural’, sit-uating a R&B groove around the oboe riff from ‘Pavane’ by clas-sical composer Gabriel Faure is a true work of genius, and illus-trated Rachel Stevens’ star qual-ity long before she was to release the two brilliant solo albums pop connoisseurs know and love her for now. In fact, the R&B vibe is omnipresent throughout much of the album but it’s done in a stylish manner whilst still being good pop - particularly on the Jo/Bradley-led ‘All in Love is Fair’ and ‘Cross My Heart’, and the laidback, almost trip-hoppy re-interpretation of Urban Spe-cies’ ‘Spiritual Love’.
The anthemic, four to the floor single that never was ‘Bring the House Down’ is another high-light, as are the two solo numbers from Tina towards the end of the album in ‘I’ll Be There’ and ‘Stand by You’. Though they were to di-verge off towards the disco for their last two albums, 7 is argu-ably the strongest album that S Club made whilst they were still a septet. It embraced their fun and serious sides in equal measure and that’s what makes it such a good pop record.
@ThePensmith10
By SHAUN KITCHENER
I’m gonna go out on a spiced limb and say that Emma Bun-ton’s Free Me was the best solo Spice era. Better than Geri Haliwell’s No1-spouting Schiz-ophonic, better than any of Melanie C’s 398 albums, better than Victoria Beckham’s retro-spectively hilarious VB... The best.
Drenched in 60s style production, Free Me oozed fluffy class. Emma dropped the Bunton from her name for this campaign (making her very hard to track down on iTunes and Spotify) and turned into a sophis-ticated retro chick. The title track sounds like it could have been a Bond theme, if Bond was ever a chick flick, and ‘Maybe’ is arguably the best solo
Spice single ever released. Except for maybe that one Sporty did with Brian Adams. I digress.
For 12 tracks Bunters struts, purs and chants her way through a string of orchestra-backed pop gems, in-cluding the frankly bizarre ‘Crickets Sing For Anamaria’, the relatively contemporary-sounding ‘Who The Hell Are You?’ (sounds like a good fit for the first Girls Aloud album, as it goes) and sweeping almost-ballad ‘Tomorrow’.
Released today, it would probably flop in an instant (it barely struck gold 9 years ago), but Free Me isn’t a billion miles away from actual Spice Girls stuff, and it remains Baby’s de-fining moment as a soloist.
@ShaunKitchener
FREE MEEmma
Released: February 9 2004 Chart peak: No7 Label: Polydor Producers: Cathy Dennis, Boo Dan
Productions, Ray Hedges, more Singles: ‘Free Me’, ‘Maybe’, ‘I’ll Be There’, ‘Crickets Sing For Anamaria’
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LAWSONMY “UNCOOL” ADDICTION
Any all-male pop act that insists on not being called a boyband is bound to be looked down on by many - but with a great brand of guitar-pop at their dis-posal, Shaun Kitchener reckons Lawson deserve some recognition.
The thing about bands like Law-son is that they can harp on as much as they like about how they’re Not A Boyband and how they like to Just Rock Out when performing live, but at the end of the day their core fanbase will pretty much be comprised of younger teen girls who, were they a decade or so younger, would probably have aligned themselves similarly with the short-lived Rooster or a fresh-faced McFly.
I’m not gonna argue why Lawson shouldn’t be counted as a boyband – they are, after all, a band of boys – but I do think they deserve a bit of credit for being very good at sticking out some cracking pop-rock tuneage that sets them com-
fortably apart from acts that they would otherwise be far too eas-ily compared to. They’re not the young Coldplay they seem to want to be, but what they are is a great act with a great repertoire.
The band’s beginnings are mod-est. Lead singer Andy Brown had previously been drafted in to make up the numbers in short-lived boyband Avenue, who had already tried and failed to impact The X Factor. That, incidentally, is where he struck up a friendship with The Wanted’s Max George that still seems pretty strong today. But when drummer Adam Pitts con-tacted him through his acoustic MySpace page and suggested they meet up for a drink, the beginnings of the band were already coming
together and, with the additional recruitments of bass player Ryan Fletcher and his old pal Joel Peat, a guitarist, Lawson was born.
When the quartet began making music in early 2010, it didn’t take long to attract the attention of record label execs and consum-ers alike. Their YouTube work was brilliant, and quickly established them a loyal fanbase – covers of The Saturdays’ ‘Missing You’, Bru-no Mars’ ‘Grenade’ and Lady Ga-Ga’s ‘Marry The Night’, among oth-ers, all sounded brilliant and easily notched up tens of thousands of views.
The group bagged a two-album deal with Polydor in 2011 and were quickly ushered off to support acts
Taking one tween-friendly pop act at a time and explaining why they’re basically brilliant
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like The Wanted and The Saturdays on their huge arena tours. As buzz around them began to grow, in 2012 they finally lifted the veil on their proper debut single – ‘When She Was Mine’, a summer-friendly mid-tempo guitar-pop track that sailed into the Top 5 upon its re-lease and laid the groundwork for stronger things to come. The first stronger thing was the exception-al second single ‘Taking Over Me’, which went one better in the charts (No3) and ensured that the group would be more than a one-hit won-der. It was this track that began turning the heads of serious pop critics and really began broadening the group’s horizons beyond the young tween female demographic.
Old fan favourite ‘Standing In The Dark’ ushered in the boys’ debut album Chapman Square last au-tumn, with extra media attraction coming from the fact that Brown
wrote it Mollie King of The Satur-days, whom he had previously dat-ed. The song fell just short of the Top 5 but still finished its chart run as the band’s biggest-selling single to date, and the LP comfortable settled at No4 upon its release.
In my opinion, the fourth and fi-nal single from the record was the strongest. January’s ‘Learn To Love Again’ was a stadium-sized pop-rock anthem that perfectly united Lawson’s brand of tuneage with the kind of big, radio-friendly work producers Carl Falk and Rami Yacoub are renowned for. It didn’t quite manage to infiltrate the Top 10, but as the fourth cut from a suc-cessful album, it certainly can’t be considered a flop.
The group’s live performances are a treat, and its a shame that only their most dedicated fans get to see them. While I haven’t caught
them on any of their 4885 headline tours, I did see them recently at the Allstarz Summer Party in Reading, and - much as I scowl at any act who declares in the most arrogant way possible that they play their own instruments - the band-ness of Lawson really did give their set a bit more of an edge. Their particu-lar ‘sound’ really suited that live effect, and several of their songs sounded far better live than on re-cord. In the largely electronic, stu-dio-enhanced world of pop music, that’s quite something.
They’ve enlisted B.o.B. for their next single ‘Brokenhearted’, and as they prepare to enter a new campaign I suggest you embrace the lad-pop and board the Lawson train.
@ShaunKitchener
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Titles marked with a * were reviewed in a previous issue but had their release dates moved.
JUNE 2
Afrojack ft Chris Brown - ‘As Your Friend’*: At times club-pop by numbers, at others like the soundtrack to a Sonic The Hedge-hog game, Afrojack goes for all-out bonkers with his latest project. It treads the line between brilliant and terrible very precariously. 70%
Bastille - ‘Laura Palmer’*: The next single from arguably the year’s best album so far, ‘Laura Palmer’ is a euphoric hands-in-the-air stroke of genius, helmed by a chorus that settles for nothing less than top
volume. 92%
Kodaline - ‘Love Like This’: A uke-lele, some whistling and an accor-dion make this folky toe-tapper a real treat. 76%
Phillip Phillips - ‘Home’: The victor of American Idol’s eleventh season sounds marvellous on this debut single; finally seeing the light of day on this side of the Atlantic. A really surprising choice of corona-tion single for a talent show winner, and a very, very good one too. 80%
The Script - ‘Millionaires’: This is more like it. After a triple-wham-my of crud, The Script are back to their ‘Breakeven’/’For The First Time’/’Man Who Can’t Be Moved’ best in this hugely likeable rock bal-lad. 82%
Union J - ‘Carry You’: It doesn’t make the Earth move, but ‘Carry
You’ is a really strong debut from a boyband who desperately needed to set themselves apart from their obvious rivals. A lovely start. 85%
Vince Kidd feat Vanessa White- ‘The Zoo’: His affected vocal styl-ings will annoy as many people as they impress, but Kidd is much more accessible here than on last year’s ‘Sick Love’, and The Satur-day’s Vanessa seems to relish doing something a little different. 68%
JUNE 9
Alicia Keys - ‘New Day’: One of the world’s most low-key superstars is all sass in this irresistable, classy cut from the excellent Girl On Fire LP. 86%
Bridgit Mendler - ‘Hurricane’: ‘Ready Or Not’ may not have been particularly original, but it was un-deniably catchy. Sadly the same can’t be said for ‘Hurricane’, which - likeable as it is - puts Mendler at precarious risk of being a one hit wonder. 59%
Mark Owen - ‘Stars’: Don’t let Take That’s ‘Shine’ put you off - Mark Owen heads down a slightly dif-ferent route on his first proper solo single for a good few years, and it’s a strong offering. Thoughtful and mature, with a great “adult” cho-rus. 71%
Tegan & Sara - ‘I Was A Fool’: Among the most radio-friendly cuts from one of the best albums of
THE REVIEWS BIT
SINGLES
90-100%: FUCKING AMAZING | 80-89%: IN THE VICINITY OF FUCKING AMAZING | 70-79%: FAIRLY AMAZING | 60-69%: SEMI-AMAZING | 50-59%: NOT PARTICULARLY AMAZING | 40-49%: UNAMAZING | 20-39%: DISTINCTLY UNAMAZING | >19%: :(
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the year so far, ‘I Was A Fool’ is a beautiful, melancholic midtempo heartbreaker with a cracking cho-rus and super piano riffing. 89%
Wiley feat Angel & Tinchy Stry-der - ‘Lights On’: The single choice that prompted Wiley to quit his record deal, ‘Lights On’ is certainly a lot ‘deeper’ than his more club-ready bangers, but it’s hard to see it achieving the same success. 63%
JUNE 16
Avril Lavigne - ‘Here’s To Never Growing Up’: Avril can always be relied on to deliver an amazing hit single, and that’s exactly what she does yet again with ‘HTNGU’ - a brilliant summer anthem with the right amount of wistfulness and all-out celebration. 94%
Bruno Mars - ‘Treasure’: Bruno comes over a little Jackson-ish on the third single from the Un-orthodox Jukebox album, and it’s another surefire hit. Decent. 75%
Cahill feat Kimberley Locke - ‘Feel The Love’: Cahill is a name most often affiliated with amazing club remixes of other people’s pop songs, but this is a banger in its own right. Locke sounds like a mix between Alex-andra Burke and Agnes, and the production is as polished and rave-ready as you’d expect. Great hands-
in-the-air euphoria. 81%
Dizzee Rascal feat Robbie Wil-liams - ‘Goin’ Crazy’: Odd. But weirdly good. 78%
Jason Derulo - ‘The Other Side’: Jayyyyson Der-ooooolo has been a lot more irritating than he is here - ‘The Other Side’ is still far from a mas-terpiece but line it up next to some of his previous hits and it’s a bloody G r a m -my-win-ner. 73%
STOOSHEIt’s been a rocky road, but the trio’s debut album is finally out. Was it worth the wait? [Page 41]
THE GREAT GATSBYBaz Luhrmann is known for his extravagant approach to film-making - how well does that suit this classic tale? [Page 46]
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REVIEWS: SINGLES
Leanne Mitchell - ‘Pride’: What should have been the big lead-in single for this bafflingly horren-dous album campaign, ‘Pride’ has a whiff of Emeli Sande’s ‘Next To Me’ about it, but is a very strong track in its own right, too. 84%
Nervo - ‘Hold On’: An EDM-by-numbers banger, disappointingly. You’ll either think it’s alright or tire of it immediately depending on your tolerance levels for This Kind Of Thing. 55%
Ruth Lorenzo - ‘The Night’: JLS have released four albums and an-nounced their split since The X Fac-tor 2008, but it seems Ruth Lorenzo is only just warming up. ‘The Night’ is a commendable 90s-style rocker but is easily forgettable. 58%
Tom Odell - ‘Another Love’: Odell hasn’t really taken off yet in the same way that his Brit Critics’ Choice predecessors did, but sadly it doesn’t seem like ‘Another Love’ has enough ball-grabbing shine to it to get the job done. 57%
JUNE 23
Bo Bruce - ‘Alive’: The only con-testant from The Voice UK so far to score a Top 10 album, Bo is brilliant
on ‘Alive’; a Danny O’Donoghue co-write with an exceptional chorus. 88%
Kamaliya - ‘I’m Alive’: Euroqueen Kamaliya is still unlikely to break the UK if this bland flamboyopop is anything to go by. Chorus is alright. though. 49%
Kelly Clarkson - ‘People Like Us’: Kelly’s knack for turning angst into empowerment is rife on this fitting final release from her Chapter One collection. Like ‘Stronger’, it’s as gay as a maypole and thoroughly amazing. 93%
The Wanted - ‘Walks Like Rihan-na’: Once you see past the bizarre and needless gimmick of the Ri-hanna namecheck, ‘WLR’ is an annoyingly catchy Dr Luke pro-duction with just enough going for it to counter the boys’ blatant desperation for a ‘Glad You Came’-sized smash hit. 62%
JUNE 30
Icona Pop feat. Charli XCX - ‘I Love It’*: Bolstered in popularity thanks to HBO’s Girls, this phenomenal enormorave - first released in the US last year - is sheer perfection. Play it loud, jump around. 95%
John Newman - ‘Love Me Again’: Chap from Rudimental smash hit goes it alone with massive tune; not exactly lacking in the chorus department. 87%
Lucy Spraggan - ‘Lighthouse’: Spraggers kicks off her major-label career with exactly the kind of thing she does best: simple, guitar-led in-die-pop with oodles of sentiment and heartfelt lyrics. 89%
The Saturdays - ‘Gentleman’: At times, The Sats can be accused of being the country’s safest, least exciting girlband - but this is not one of those times. ‘Gentleman’ is a brave choice of single and - after many, many listens - it just about starts to make sense. 71%
Taylor Swift feat Ed Sheeran - ‘Everything Has Changed’: It may not be as much of a riot as ‘We Are Never...’, ‘...Trouble’ or ‘22’, but this is a lovely moment of quiet from Swift’s brilliant Red LP and Sheer-an is a natural fit for a guest vocal. 77%
All dates are subject to change.
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REVIEWS: ALBUMS
The StooShe launch hasn’t been the smoothest of rides. In the year since their last Top
10 single, the enormously suc-cessful ‘Black Heart’, they’ve released and abandoned a cover of TLC’s ‘Waterfalls’ and tellingly delayed this debut LP two times.
But here it finally is, and it’s ac-tually a very good collection of tunes. The girls’ ballsy attitude schtick isn’t as unbearable as their mainstream debut ‘Love Me’ sug-
gested, and the general platter of motown-flavoured pop hits far more than it misses.
Next single ‘My Man Music’ in par-ticular is an irresistable treat, and - even if the lyrics are a bit Daily Mail stereotype - the melody on ‘Hoochie Mama’ is hard not to love. Latest single ‘Slip’ remains an under-appreciated highlight, and the piano-only ballad ‘Fly Again’ drops the pace to magnif-icent effect.
In the con column, the girls’ ad-libs - which were evident on ‘Love Me’ and are scattered all
over the shop on the album - flit between entertaining and unnec-essary, and occasionally some of the lyrical content is a little too over-wrought when it comes to self-image, self-confidence, etc. It also would have been nice to have some of their more provocative material from before their main-stream breakthrough make the final cut.
But generally, London With The Lights On is an unexpected treat. There’s a lot to like about the vast majority of the tracklisting, and hopefully it performs well enough to warrant a follow-up. 86%
STOOSHE - LONDON WITH THE LIGHTS ON
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REVIEWS: ALBUMS
DEMI LOVATO - DEMIWith a well-received role on The X Factor USA and more tabloid prom-inence than
ever before, Demi Lovato’s star is continuing to ascend - no mean feat considering she’s been in the public eye since 2002. So it’s no massive shocker that fourth LP Demi is rammed with the kind of big, brash pop songs usu-ally reserved for only the biggest of names.
Lovato takes a writing credit on 10
of the collection’s 13 tracks, and with co-writers and producers like Ryan Tedder, Savan Kotecha, Carl Falk and Rami Yacoub on board, there are radio-ready hits pep-pered left, right and centre. And truthfully at least 9 of the tracks here would make sensible single choices - ‘Made In The USA’, ‘Fire Starter’ and Cher Lloyd collab ‘Really Don’t Care’ are big ste-reo-hogging pop masterstrokes, while ‘Without The Love’, ‘Night-ingale’ and piano-only ‘In Case’ put Demi’s sizeable vocals to good use in a more down-tempo context.
While there isn’t anything particu-
larly boundary-breaking about the set (‘Heart Attack’, one of the best singles of 2013, aside), its strength is just its sheer pop force. The standard only drops on a couple of occasions (‘Never Been Hurt’ could easily have been excluded), and other than that it’s just great song after great song. Demi’s voice is maturing with age, her songwriting is evidently in as good a shape as ever, and - per-haps most importantly - she’s nev-er anything less than hugely likea-ble. She admits that she hopes to go global with this LP, and it’d be tricky to bet against her. 90%
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REVIEWS: ALBUMS
She may be a knee-high 20-year-old but Gappers has worked hard to get where she
is; rising through the independ-ent circuit until she eventually bagged herself a major label deal and the chance to release a ful-ly-fledged debut album.
English Rain isn’t particularly boundary-breaking but it is incred-ibly likeable. Aplin’s songwriting is likeable and touching through-out, with singles ‘Panic Cord’ and ‘Please Don’t Say You Love Me’
comfortably setting the pace for much of what follows.
Her quiet ditties are much more successful than those that opt for a bigger sound, which is probably just down to the size of her own pipes. ‘How Do You Feel Today?’, for example, with just a guitar and a few strings to accompany it, comes across far better than the much grander, more bombas-tic ‘Keep On Walking’. Along those lines, mid-album ballad ‘Salvation’ is brilliant - backed by a piano riff similar to the one that accompa-nies OneRepublic’s ‘Apologize’, it sees Aplin’s voice used to its full
haunting effect, and the result is quite affecting.
English Rain is generally a very pleasant record. It won’t change the world and it’s unlikely to do for Aplin what, say, + did for Ed Sheer-an. But it’s a lovely listen, one with plenty of radio-friendly hooks and remarkably accomplished for an artist of such a young age. 71%
LEANNE MITCHELL - LEANNE MITCHELLCredit where credit’s due to Leanne Mitchell - she reportedly rejected the idea of releasing a
hastily-assembled covers album after winning The Voice UK last year; opting instead to put some solid hours into a record of (most-ly) original material.
There’s a lot to like about her epon-ymous album. It’s as original as a jam sandwich, but some of the tracks are more likeable than the
standard cynic might expect - up-tempo opener ‘Pride’, for example, is a brilliant, ‘Next To Me’-esque toe-tapper, and the beautifully stripped-back ‘Walk You Home’, dedicated to a lost loved one, is exquisite. Yes, exquisite. ‘No Man’s Land’ is well worth checking out as well.
What’s lacking is a real stamp of identity, originality and excite-ment. It’s a cliche, but she’s miss-ing an X factor. The barrage of bal-lads in the second half is tiresome, and even the full studio cut of teas-
er single ‘If I Knew Then’ is as beige as they come in its fully-produced form (it was just an acoustic piano recording before). Some songs, like ‘To Love Someone Like You’ are so grand and packed with cheese that the sentiment is totally lost, while others are just outright dull.
So it’s a mixed start for Mitchell. While there is more to like than its sales figures will suggest, there’s also - disappointingly - not quite enough to silence any of the more stubborn critics. 59%
GABRIELLE APLIN - ENGLISH RAIN
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REVIEWS: LIVEApparently Reading’s Madejski Stadium hasn’t played host to a music event for six years, but the all-new Allstarz Summer Party didn’t seem to have too much trou-ble booking big names for the bill.
Headliner Jessie J stormed the stage with a 90-minute set, following successful stage stints from Law-son, Union J, Amelia Lily, JLS and newcomers such as The Vamps and Charlie Brown.
Jessie was of course the star of the day; the stage decked out in her own special set while others with brief 20-minute spots had to make do with a straightforward set-up. The Voice UK judge opened with a blinding remix of ‘Price Tag’ before belting her way through her reper-toire of fan favourites. It’s no secret that her voice is astounding, and actually her banter was pretty good between tunes as well.
Her aside though, it was Lawson who turned in the best performance. Playing their own instruments gave them a massive advantage as they made the stadium shake with enor-motunes ‘Learn To Love Again’, ‘Standing In The Dark’ and Swed-ish House Mafia’s ‘Don’t You Worry Child’. Union J put in some great vocals but singing to a dodgy back-ing track did them no favours, and Amelia Lily did a good job with her trio of singles, a Paramore cover and stripped-back album track ‘Blue’.
The atmosphere was family-friend-ly, the music was of a decent stand-ard and hopefully Allstarz will be back again in 2014. 80%
ALLSTARZ PARTYREADING, JUNE 1
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Cries that The Apprentice has lost its touch and become noth-ing more than a tired old format are becoming more and more fre-quent. As the show launches into what must by now be its 73rd sea-son, those cries are louder than ever.
It’s true - the format has barely changed one iota. But the Beeb are clearly fans of the old “If it ain’t broke..” saying and know that, if you strike the right balance be-tween loud morons and loud via-ble candidates, you’re still going to have a good TV show on your
hands. And this year’s mix is a good one - there don’t seem (yet) to be any characters to sit up there with the show’s legends, but the mix is just about good enough to keep the quality relatively high.
The 2013 season isn’t a classic one, though. In spite of the casting; the tasks, the blunders and the board-room confrontations have been seen countless times before, and naysayers perhaps have a point this year more than ever before. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t still a good watch - Karren Brady and Nick Hewer remain in fine form,
arrogant quotes spouted by the show’s more loathsome characters are still fun to watch and there’s still plenty of tension to be enjoyed as Lord Alan Sugar decides which hopeless loser to send packing.
There are whispers that next year’s series will be the last one and, as it stands, that’s probably a wise move. For now, the show is still worth tuning in for and is a wel-come mid-year treat, but it is be-ginning to show its age and could perhaps do with being retired be-fore it gets too predictable. 74%
THE APPRENTICE SERIES 9
REVIEWS: TV
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REVIEWS: FILM
By BETH DAVISON
So: If you didn’t know that the powers that be were remaking the film of the iconic F. Scott Fitzgerald novel The Great Gats-by then you must having been living under a rock somewhere. Teaser trailers have emblazoned cinema screens, billboards and dark crevices of cyber space for the last 6 months and with Baz Luhrman confirmed as director right from the off it’s safe to say that I was excited.
The story is remarkably famous across the pond, cropping up in practically every high school sylla-bus and labelled one of the great
American novels. Arguably it’s less well known here in the UK so let me paraphrase. Nick Carraway is a war veteran who, for the entirety of the film, is recounting a summer spent in the company of his mil-lionaire neighbour J Gatsby. What unfolds is a tale of love, lust, dra-ma and darkness as mysteries are unveiled and marriages crumble all amidst the New England heat of the summer of 1922.
One of the best things about this adaptation is Luhrman’s talent in capturing the glitz of the Roaring Twenties. As we would expect hav-ing seen Moulin Rouge, everything is turned up to the max with the sweeping cinematography Luhr-
man is famous for littering this nar-rative as well. The similarities stop there though; in all honesty I hated Moulin Rouge and for me it was an irritating love story smothered with cheesy melodrama. Thankful-ly Gatsby doesn’t have the gaudi-ness of the Parisian musical and the source material is substantially better.
Since he was executive producer on this project, the best way to describe it is a two hour Jay-Z vid-eo. Fireworks dazzle, champaign sparkles and diamonds glisten all to the background of a power-house soundtrack - and the cast are as star-studded as the set piec-es. With one of the most perfect
47
castings in recent years Leonardo Dicaprio was born to be Gatsby. Perfectly conveying the power of wealth along with the sadness of regret and anguish of obsession, Dicaprio adds yet another flawless performance to his glowing rep-ertoire. Similarly Carey Mulligan delivers a standout performance as the breathtakingly beautiful but frustratingly vacuous Daisy. Even the support cast excel, again, and it’s great to see Joel Edgerton becoming a more familiar face in Hollywood. Arguably the only weak link would be Tobey Magu-ire. Whilst Nick Carraway may not be the most thrilling character, Maguire brings nothing new to the performance. He does polite
confusion very well (almost like an American Hugh Grant) but we’ve seen it before; as his character de-scends into the darker side of the twenties his “drunk acting” leaves much to be desired.
As is becoming more and more frequent in cinema these days, the central problem for The Great Gatsby is the 3D release. Almost certainly a financial decision rath-er than stylistic, the 3D effects add nothing to the feel or look of the film - quite the opposite in fact as the light loss means that all the glitter becomes dull and lifeless.
One other criticism has been that Luhrman has taken too much ar-
tistic license - over-doing the lav-ish to the point of grotesque and bastardizing the true history of the 1920’s. But honestly, that’s sort of the point. Originality is becom-ing so rare in today’s film releas-es that I think Luhrman must be commended. Everything about Fitzgerald’s original text screams over the top and with a wonder-ful cast and fantastic style The Great Gatsby has become one of the more intelligent and enjoyable romps of this summer’s cinematic calendar. 83%
@BethBecomesHer_
THE GREAT GATSBY
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Oh Jordin Sparks, where art thou? There was a time, not so long ago - actually, fucking ages ago - when it seemed like this American Idol champion was destined for big things. Huge things. But somehow something didn’t quite click, and now she’s in some odd unappreciated no man’s land.
The thing is, J-Sparx’s hit collec-tion is absolutely brilliant. The then-fresh-faced teen may have launched with one of the worst coronation singles in the history of talent shows (look up ‘This Is My Now’), but what followed - the gorgeous mid-tempo pop/R’n’B semi-ballad ‘Tattoo’ - was excel-lent, and her subsequent release ‘No Air’, featuring Chris Brown, was outstanding. The song recent-ly rose back to prominence courte-sy of The Voice UK’s Battle Rounds, and served as a timely reminder to the few of us waiting for her third album that it is long, long overdue.
The problem was that for some obscure reason her second album just Didn’t Really Happen. Battle-field’s lead single, its title track, was arguably the best pop song of 2009; packed as it was with Ryan Tedder’s stadium-sized percussion and massive fuck-off choruses. The
song spent what felt like a millen-nium skirting around the edges of the UK Top 10 at glacial speeds, but follow-up ‘S.O.S. (Let The Mu-sic Play)’ only achieved moderate success. Granted, there were bet-ter single choices on the album (‘Walking On Show’ = megatune), but ‘S.O.S.’ certainly deserved to fare better in the US than peaking outside of the Billboard Hot 100. The album sold only 177,000 cop-ies domestically, according to the oracle that is Wikipedia - a long
way off the 1 million achieved by her eponymous debut.
When the third LP was supposed-ly signalled in by the bizarre ‘I Am Woman’ in 2011 and mustered only a No82 peak Stateside, everything suddenly shuddered to a halt. She’s now promising some progress lat-er this year, but has too much time gone by now? Has she been wast-ed? I hope not. She’s got a brilliant voice, a likeable personality and a superb ear for a great pop song.
JORDIN SPARKS
Pop's Unsung Heroes
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THIS YEAR’S
EDINBURGH
FESTIVAL FRINGE
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