I WANT YOUR PSYCHO

Lady GaGa's new single, Bad Romance, from the re-release of The Fame (entitled The Fame: Monster) was premiered on UK radio station BBC Radio 1 this morning and it is a beast! It's another RedOne collaboration (he produced most of The Fame notably Just Dance and Poker Face), and they evolve their signature sound with this fortress of a pop tune. Bad Romance comes at you fast and it hits hard. GaGa sings as if she's singing a hard rock tune, but it works with the song's intensity. The chorus is fantastic and soaring and as XO Middle Eight blogger wrote last week: "The chorus is beautiful. When she actually sings in a full, throaty voice she transforms into a sort of Eurodisco Joan Baez,". GaGa digs into her grimy lyrics making them sound raw and primal (and she sings in French at one point). The "oh oh oh" part of the chorus is stunning and extremely catchy. The album version has a lovely intro that I wish was part of the radio edit. In short, Bad Romance practically compels the listener to react whether that be through dancing or singing along or turning the volume up as high as it will go. This is a song to blast. This song bodes well for her future and shows how her sound has expanded over the course of a year. Simply magnificent. Also check out that single cover. It's so weird yet awesome at the same time. I love how we can't see her face, and that red fabric just pops! Great font!

The Fame: Monster will include 8 new songs (yay!) and will be released on Nov. 24, 2009! She starts a new tour, The Monster Ball Tour, in November.

Full Version

Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel

Mariah Carey has a new album coming out in a few months and its title can be seen above in the title of this post: Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel. Yikes. What a wonderfully awful title. I kind of adore it. Anyway her new song Obsessed has arrived and I'm totally into it. I heard it in our bus on the way to the Rome airport last Friday. It rides a great beat and it's quite the summer jam. Much better than a lot of last year's questionable E=MC squared. The beat is a harder version of last year's #1 Touch My Body. I especially love the "you're delusional" part after the chorus. It's all extremely catchy and radio-ready. I'm pleasantly surprised Mariah.

Oh My Gosh

The trailer for the movie version of the musical based on Fellini's movie 8 1/2 (mouthful) entitled NINE arrived the other day. The cast of this movie is absolutely amazing: Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Judi Dench (rocking a bob), Kate Hudson (looking gorgeous), Sophia Loren's cheekbones (and the rest of her), Nicole Kidman, and Fergie Ferg (looking a little scary). Rob Marshall who did a great job with Chicago back in 2002 directs, and I have faith in him. The staging looks similar to that of Chicago's where some of the numbers occurred on stages. The song used in the trailer is fantastic, big, and dramatic as hell. Judi Dench closes and begins the trailer with some witty lines. Daniel Day-Lewis could actually be good in this role. I have mixed feelings about him, but he looks like he's having fun. Penelope looks stunning as usual and that dance with the huge curtain: sexy as hell. Marion is a radiant being who I adore. Kate Hudson (the most surprising member of the cast) looks like she's fitting in nicely. Even if this movie is all about the outfits and fierce women in it who cares? Deeves are the best!

I ADORE LEIGHTON MEESTER

Leighton Meester, one of my favorite young actresses at the moment, has signed a record deal and is making an electro-pop album to be released this fall. Hell to the yes! She is featured on the new Cobra Starship song, Good Girls Go Bad. Cobra Starship are emo-pop-rock and their songs have always been a tad too heavy for me, but this bubbly, super fun ditty with Leighton is pop to the core. It's extremely catchy and there's a sassy clap and stomp part in the middle. I first I questioned Leighton's vocal chops. They are somewhat reminiscent of the Tiz's. Leighton sings her verse well though. She's somewhat convincing. I can't wait for the video. It involves Leighton running a speak easy with a deli as the front for it. Sounds fantastic. What a great song to blast!



Also, as a side note, the above photo is of Leighton (in Louis Vuitton) at the Costume Institute Gala in New York a few weeks ago. There has been much debate over this outfit. Entertainment Weekly gave it an "F", but I think it is absolutely fierce and kooky. I love the everything about the look: the pattern, the orange and the bows. Leighton be the shiz.

Amazingness

Beyonce premiered two new videos yesterday for her next singles, the ridiculously epic, synth explosion also known as Halo and the crazy sassy Diva. The video for Halo is boring and doesn't really have a plot, but it's a great, soaring song filled with bombast moments. How appropriate that the co-writer of Bleeding Love, Ryan Tedder of One Republic, wrote it. At first, I thought Diva was awful. It didn't really have a beat and was annoying. Now after seeing the edgy video, I love it. Beyonce sings/raps the hell out of it with a ton of attitude. It's a total jam. The video has some awesome choreography and weird angled shots. I love the angular, modern, and fierce outfits (the fringe sunglasses are out of this world). This video is a different side of Beyonce. That dance routine throughout is awesome. 0:47 to 1:40 is perfection! The sassy head movements during the "Ima Ima a diva" are kind of hilarious and amazing. It's all nuts. Well done, B!

Sasha Fierce Has Arrived

Beyonce's third album, the amazingly titled I Am...Sasha Fierce was released Tuesday. Surprisingly, I'm not going crazy over the album. It doesn't have the singles Dangerously in Love had (the classic Crazy in Love, Baby Boy, Naughty Girl) or the consistency and lack of filler that B'Day had. I usually adore Beyonce's upbeat numbers, but only a few have grabbed me on this new album. The slower songs are quite good though. I don't like how she split the album up into ballads and upbeat songs. I know she's trying to make a point, but it's kind of silly. People want a mix of ballads and dance tunes on pop records or in my case, all upbeat tunes. I love my Beyonce though, and I admire her for the risk she's taking. She's expanding her horizons. I'm liking Halo, Disappear, Ego, Scared of Lonely, Sweet Dreams, Radio and Single Ladies at the moment. The other songs on the album just didn't really jump out at me. The rest of the ballads sounded kind of the same and could have been sung by anyone. Radio, Scared of Lonely, and Single Ladies are great though. Radio and Scared of Lonely are very modern and of the moment especially the screechy synth laser sounds in Radio. I also love how Scared of Lonely has this hard bouncy walking beat. Single Ladies is a dazzling, dizzying mess of fierceness, sassy lyrics, and hard-hitting, super fast, back-breaking, workout-inducing beats that works pretty darn well. It's super catchy. The video is also amazing with the sick nasty choreography and crazy silver glove. It really shows how talented Beyonce is. The video for If I Were a Boy is even better. It's truly moving and enhances the song, giving it more meaning and context which is rare for a video to do. I watched her AOL Sessions and her voice is just crazy good (obviously). It can soar or it can have grit as she shown in a cover of Etta James' At Last. The photo on the left was taken at the AOL sessions. I love it. It's simple, and I love the Suga Mama in the background. All my love Sasha.

Fashion Queen

Rihanna is the shiz. The outfit she wore at the Justin Timberlake and Friends concert the other night was hip, high-waisted, and sleek with a burst of color. I love the yellow top and jacked weave! Bossay!

New Lady GaGa!

Lady GaGa, was supposed to be releasing Beautiful, Dirty, Rich as her second single, but now Poker Face is the second single. This is a better choice because Poker Face is out of this world good. It's hard-hitting and ridiculously fierce. I love the ecstatic chorus and the weird background sound that runs throughout the verses. It has elements of Just Dance in it, but I think I like this better. Check it out! It's awesome! Album out October 28!

Fashion

The Teen Vogue Young Hollywood Party was in L.A. last night, and there were some notable appearances. Ok, basically, piece of meat supreme Zac Efron and that's it.

Here is a picture of Ashley Tisdale, my favorite HSM deeve, at some fashion event thing in LA yesterday. I like the dress and sweater. Well done, Tiz.

News Galore!

Very exciting music news:

-Sugababes new album will be titled Catfights & Spotlights. I love it. Super fierce album title.

-Girls Aloud new single, The Promise, will be played for the first time Sunday night on British radio. This is their first single from their fifth album coming later this fall. I think they could have released plenty more singles from their last album, 2007's genius Tangled Up, but oh well. New Girls Aloud music is super exciting too.

-Super cool Canadian, London-based band, Dragonette, who I posted about a couple weeks ago, are finally releasing their debut album, Galore, in the US on October 28. I'm so excited. The album features such divine songs as Competition, Take It Like A Man, and I Get Around. Their lead singer is the definition of fierce.

-Deeve extraordinaire, Beyonce, will be releasing her third solo album on November 18. The first single, If I Were a Boy, will be released on Oct. 7

-Apparently, Britney Spears new album will be out by the end of the year as opposed to early next year as was expected. The single should be out at the end of November, and the album should be released in December. Super exciting!

-The Saturdays new album will not be called Taking Back Sunday. Darn. It was such a clever title. Now the title is rather lame: Chasing Lights. Oh well.