While Queen JoJo continues to burn up the Pop Radio charts with her latest single, “Disaster,” as well as showcase her free-of-all-flaw skin for Clearasil PerfectaWash (I could write a dissertation about the hat alone), the sexy songstress just delivered a brand new treat for fans who’ve been long thirsting to jump onto her upcoming third studio album, Jumping Trains.
“Sexy To Me” is JoJo’s new promotional single, produced by (the unstoppable) Danja. As a result, it’s dripping in pure Britney Blackout realness–chilly space-age electronica, scorching synthesizers, and tripping 808 drum beats, the same killer combination that made The Holy Spearit’s 2007 release so ahead of its time. (Think “Get Back” meets “Perfect Lover”!)
Pouring somethin’ cool up in her cup and stepping out onto the dance floor, it’s the emancipation of JoJo this evening. And happily for Jo, there’s no explosive relationship angst this time around–just pure, self-empowered sexy time!
“I don’t need nobody ’cause I’m sexy to me/You keep doing you tonight, ’cause I’m doing me,” JoJo deliciously declares during the twinkling chorus. Those moans in the background, that bass bumpin’, those melodic vocals–it feels so good, it feels so good! (Get it? Got it? Good.)
It’s just like RuPaul says: If you don’t love yourself, how in the HELL you gon’ love somebody else? Can I get an “amen” up in here?
“Sexy To Me” was released on February 28. (iTunes)
Live fast, die young, bad girls do it well…
The magnificent M.I.A. comes guns blazin’ back onto the scene in 2012 with the Danja-produced “Bad Girls,” a track originally featured on her off-the-charts brilliant 2011 mixtape, Vicki Leekx.
The accompanying Romain Gavras-directed video, which was released earlier today on Pitchfork, finds the genre-smashing British femcee getting flossy and flying free in the desert, racing dusty cars and pulling some rather insane stunts along the way. Oh…just chilling sideways on top of a moving car, you?
Whether she’s ra-ra-sis-boom-bah-ing for Madonna or just hangin’ tight off the hood of a car, M.I.A. is simply too cool for school–and I love every minute of it.
“Bad Girls” was released on January 31. (iTunes)
filed under: Avicii, Danja, Kesha, Kylie Minogue, MuuMuse Excluusive, Nelly Furtado, Nervo
As the scribes behind such colossal pop smashes as David Guetta and Kelly Rowland‘s “When Love Takes Over,” Ke$ha‘s “Fuck Him (He’s A DJ)” and Kylie Minogue‘s “Put Your Hands Up (If You Feel Love),” it’s safe to say that Liv and Mim Nervo–more commonly known as the Nervo Twins–know a thing or two about writing a hit.
The drop dead gorgeous Aussie-born duo have written for dozens of today’s most beloved pop and dance acts–from Armin van Buuren to Rachel Stevens to the Pussycat Dolls, rapidly becoming one of the music industry’s most consistent, unstoppable hit machines for the latter half of the past decade.
But penning smashes for some of today’s most beloved pop acts is only one of the components to Aussie duo’s recipes for success: The twins have just as quickly climbed their way to prominence within the dance community as a result of their frenetic, high energy live DJ sets, achieving the ultimate stamp of approval after being cast as one of the opening acts on Britney’s massively successful Femme Fatale Tour earlier this year.
Now, as their profile continues to grow between both the packed dance floors of the indie-dance community and the radio airwaves of the mainstream pop scene, the girls are now taking their first steps toward a debut in their own right with the release of their debut Astralwerks single on August 16: “We’re All No One,” featuring Dutch DJ Afrojack and indie-House titan, Steve Aoki.
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak with the ever-lovely Mim of the Nervo Twins just one day after the duo stepped down from their opening DJ duties on Britney’s wildly successful Femme Fatale Tour. Read on to see the full interview, including banter about being on tour with Britney, writing for the divine Miss Kylie (and nearly Cheryl Cole!), and all the latest on Nervo’s upcoming debut.
filed under: Bloodshy And Avant, Britney Spears, Danja, Guest Muuse, Kara DioGuardi, Keri Hilson, Klas Åhlund, Pharrell Williams, Robyn, T-Pain, Teddybears, Timbaland
Another day, another drama…
In helping to celebrate Blackout Purchase Week (have you entered the MuuMuse giveaway yet?), MuuMuse is proud to present “Blackout Once Again: A Look Back at Britney Spears’ Greatest Album,” an incredibly comprehensive, in-depth examination of Britney‘s fifth studio album, written by Vertigo Shtick‘s David Salter.
If there’s anything to be said about Blackout, it’s featured here in this extraordinary piece. A must read, Muusers!
Please click “Read More…” to see the full article. (MOAH!)
filed under: Britney Spears, Clinton Sparks, Danja, JoJo, Lady Gaga, Muuses, Nikki Jean
Last Friday night (no Katy Perry segues, please), MuuMuse contributor Sam Lansky and I had the great pleasure of attending the She’s The First: Girls Who Rock 2011, a benefit concert to raise money for the Arlington Academy of Hope in Uganda.
After munching on some free Pop Chips and taking shots of some of the other talent set to hit the stage that night including Nina Sky, Nikki Jean and Kimberly Nichole, Sam and I settled into a nook in the back of the Gramercy Theater press room to have a brief chat with the one and only: Queen JoJo.
filed under: Aerosmith, Amelle Berrabah, Beyonce, Bloodshy And Avant, Britney Spears, Cheryl Cole, Danja, Girls Aloud, Heidi Range, Joseph Kahn, Keisha Buchanan, Muuses, Muusical Chairs, Nadine Coyle, Swizz Beatz
Okay–new post idea!
This is Muusical Chairs, or essentially the “6 Degrees of Separation/Kevin Bacon” game. The idea is to take one pop star, connect the musical dots to another, and maybe share some previously unknown pop tidbits in the process!
This one’s an easy start, but I’m sure I can dream up more complex connections in the future. Let me know what you think!
Volume 1: Siobhan Donaghy to BoA
Siobhan Donaghy is a talented UK indie-pop songstress responsible for releasing two albums: 2004′s Revolution In Me and 2007′s Ghosts, a gorgeous, electro-tinged smart pop record that spawned two singles (“Don’t Give It Up” and “So You Say”) and remains an absolutely essential addition to any pop lover’s collection. Donaghy first rose to fame…
As one of the three founding members of the Sugababes, the massively successful UK girl group famous for both their soulful smashes–including “Freak Like Me,” “Round Round” and “Hole In The Head”–and their ever-changing line-up.
In 2007, the groups third incarnation (Keisha Buchanan, Heidi Range and Amelle Berrabah) recorded a cover of Aerosmith‘s “Walk This Way” as a charity single for Comic Relief with another another UK girl group…
Girls Aloud, the power pop fivesome originally formed through the reality series, Popstars: The Rivals in 2002. The girl group ruled the UK charts for over 7 years until late 2009, when they chose to go on hiatus to pursue personal projects, including solo albums by Nadine Coyle and the group’s breakaway star and current X Factor UK judge, Cheryl Cole.
During the group’s majorly successful Out Of Control Tour in 2009, Girls Aloud performed a cover of “Womanizer” by…
Britney Spears, the legendary icon who requires no formal introduction. (Plus, if you’ve hung around this site long enough, you’d already know every minor detail about her life.) The superstar’s fifth studio album, 2007′s critically acclaimed Blackout–featured production by several high profile acts including Danja, Bloodshy & Avant and…
Sean Garrett, who worked on Britney’s “Toy Soldier.” Along with writing the follow-up to his 2008 debut, Turbo 919, the rapidly rising producer has busied himself with several major productions including Beyoncé‘s “Diva” and “Video Phone” as a writing duo with producer Swizz Beatz, Nicki Minaj‘s “Massive Attack,” and…
BoA‘s “I Did It For Love,” the second single off of the international superstar’s 2009 English self-titled debut album (which allows for some truly sick choreography–check that Joseph Kahn-directed video, stat!) The single went on to peak at #19 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play in May of 2009.
AND THERE YOU HAVE IT: Siobhan, meet BoA!
filed under: Album Review, Blaqstarr, Danja, Diplo, Kanye West, M.I.A., Munchi, Nicki Minaj, Rusko, Sugu Aruler, Switch
“I’m not talking about making it free, I’m talking about making it freer,” M.I.A. announces on Vicki Leekx, which was released at midnight on December 31.
And so, she has: Vicki Leekx is M.I.A.’s second free mixtape after 2004′s Piracy Funds Terrorism, this time bolstered with a bit more star wattage on the production front thanks to the likes of Danja, Munchi, Diplo, Blaqstarr, Sugu Aruler, Switch, Rusko, and So Japan.
Fans who found themselves put off by the unpolished grit and wailing screeches of /\/\/\Y/\ will find much to love in the Vicki Leekx mixtape, a continuous mix that polishes the best gems from M.I.A.’s last album, wraps them around the bounciest beats of Arular and worldly influences of Kala, and then sends them speeding into the next century with stellar, intergalactic dubstep sound.
Vicki Leekx is a concentrated moment of mania, jumping between beats and samples at breakneck speed–from the Arular-esque electro-eclecticism of “Super Tight” to the tribal, “Boyz”-like “Tamil Beat Munchi” (which includes a brilliant moment in sampling with Nicki Minaj‘s verse on Kanye West‘s “Monster”), to the gloriously scathing “Generation -N-E-Y”–a track originally leaked on one of M.I.A.’s many odd, ugly .GIF-heavy landing pages that cropped up earlier in 2010. “You think you’re bad, you think you’re so fucking cool,” M.I.A. snarls above the song’s monstrously grinding beats. It’s an utterly major attitude attack–and arguably the mixtape’s finest moment.
To be fair, though–while the music is supreme, the politics remain hopelessly muddled. As Sputnik Music member Conrad Tao points out in his own review of the mixtape, M.I.A. is a seemingly endless barrage of contradictions. Apart from her own personal hypocrisies, it’s never really clear what M.I.A. is exactly criticizing (Money? The government? The Internet? Facebook? Hipsters? Everything?)–and to what to degree she’s even being serious. To try and analyze this mind-melting mishmash of sociopolitical motifs would prove impossible–there’s simply too many inconsistencies.
Yet political motivations (or non-motivations) aside, M.I.A. has rolled out a solid, concise production with deep, thumping beats and stuttering vocals that bang as hard as anything else released last year. Vicki Leekx is basically the epitome of why I first fell in love with M.I.A. back in 2005: It’s provocative, it’s addictive…but above all, it’s fucking cool.
Loading ...
