Something glittery this way comes.
Remember when Dr. Luke became the Great Snippet Master of Britney‘s Femme Fatale campaign, and we all stayed home on the weekends hungrily refreshing his Soundcloud page in the hope that he might leak another 20 seconds of B’s next grand masterpiece? (No, just me?) Well, he’s teasing us again–and this time, it’s with Ke$ha.
This morning, the stellar pop producer spilled a brand new 40-second snippet from a newly recorded session with the trash-pop princess (possibly called “Super” or “Supernatural”)–and it’s MASSIVE.
♡♡♡
“‘Oh my God, you look just like Shakira! No, no–you’re Catherine Zeta!’ ‘Actually, my name’s Marina,’” she sang on “Hollywood,” the second single off of 2010′s The Family Jewels.
It’s been over two years since her debut, and Marina + The Diamonds is back with yet another identity crisis for her second go-around in the studio–and this time, she’s evoking a cold, cruel bitch named Electra Heart.
It’s been what feels like forever and a day (as Kelly Rowland might say) since we last heard from our almighty Ke$ha, Empress of Trash-Pop. But rest assured–she’s coming back, animals.
Earlier this year, the glitter-drenched rock ‘n’ roll pop princess spent time in L.A. recording with unstoppable pop hit-makers that helped shape her debut record Animal, Dr. Luke and Benny Blanco. This time however, she was busy crafting her very own genre, which she lovingly referred to on Twitter as “cock pop.”
Along with the usual suspects however, K$ also took to her Nashville home studio to record with Oklahoma-bred alt-rockers and newfound pals, The Flaming Lips.
As my friends over at Pop On And On initially reported, frontman Wayne Coyne tweeted out a bunch of photos and teaser clips back in January while recording a track for their upcoming Record Store Day compilation, The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends. The end result was “2012″ with Biz Markie, a track centering around “the end of the world.” (Hey, wait–that sounds oddly familiar. I wonder if she’s ever written a song like that before?)
In an interview with Pitchfork earlier this month, Coyne spoke in depth about recording with Ke$ha:
I like her so much because she’s just willing to be a freak. I’m around a lot of rock star people, and there’s just so much fucking pandering and drama. She’s not like that. It’s such a great relief to be around people that are so energetic, creative, funny, and into life.
(You’ll want to read that whole interview by the way, including a fun little anecdote about almost dropping acid with her before recording the track. Silly K$!)
Now, Ke$ha and Coyne have reunited in the studio to record more tracks–and this time, it’s for her long awaited sophomore follow-up. Once again, Coyne’s been tweeting out teasers from the sessions, like a clip of Ke$ha seductively moaning the phrase “You really got it goin’ good now.”
And most recently (as in, just a few hours ago), Coyne tweeted that he was mixing a new K$ track called “You Control My Heart,” including a sneak peek video which you can check out below.
And this is exactly what we’ve been waiting to hear: New Ke$ha. New sound. As she told MTV earlier, it sounds like she’s allowing herself to be much more vulnerable. With The Flaming Lips on board, it sounds as though our drunk-pop darling is navigating into some seriously dreamy, ambient indie-rock on whatever she’s cooking up–and it sounds fucking amazing.
As we know from her leaked demos and tracks penned for other artists, Kween Ke$ha’s quite kapable of penning pop with substance and krooning far better than she’s led the public to believe based on her most popular club-pop smashes. So, if she turns around and delivers a collection of bold left-of-center tunes that still pack a power-pop punch? I wouldn’t be surprised in the least.
This album cannot come soon enough.
Marina + The Diamonds has such a big ego lately–and for good reason.
Just moments ago, Fearne Cotton premiered Miss Marina’s electric new Dr. Luke-produced single on BBC Radio 1, and it’s a proper pop smash and a half. (Actually, it’s several dozen smashes.)
“Primadonna,” the latest off of her upcoming studio album Electra Heart, finds the UK singer-songwriter having fun frolicking in the morally corrupt, emotionally barren wasteland that is the life of Electra Heart, the fictitious protagonist around which her upcoming album is based.
Life is but a dazzling dream of diamond rings and endless dramatics, like Madonna‘s “Material Girl” gone wild: “Would you get down on your knees for me?/Pop that pretty question right now, baby!” Marina urges.
As I said when the song and video were first teased out to us last week, there’s something slightly Femme Fatale about the production, specifically “Hold It Against Me”: The surging beat, melodies galore, the anti-chorus structure (the beat drops out each time until the final explosive chorus)–oh, and the fact that it sounds pretty revolutionary.
“Primadonna” is already one of my favorite songs of the year: It’s so catchy (those BRIDGES!) and so, so sharp. And, in typical Marina fashion, oh so lyrically scathing: “Get what I want ’cause I ask for it/Not because I’m really that deserving of it.” Socialites unite!
Add this together with “Radioactive,” “Starring Role,” “Sex Yeah,” “Homewrecker” and any other track we’ve heard from Electra Heart thus far. One of the best albums of 2012 already? Um, duh.
Marina + The Diamonds – Primadonna (Radio Rip)
Thank you to Jon Ali’s Blog for the radio rip!
Electra Heart will be released on April 30. (iTunes)
Katy Perry has a new (old) song out. It’s called “Part of Me” and it’s, well…amazing.
My displeasure with Katy Perry is a storied affair, but I’ve always maintained that for any pop star, it’s “all about the music” in the end. (Except, of course, in the case of Chris Brown, in which it’s “all about the GET THE FUCK OUT.”)
As my good friend Sam Lansky breathlessly explained to MTV Buzzworthy last week, “Part of Me” was
divined by pop wizard Bonnie McKee, maker of “Teenage Dream,” “Hold It Against Me” and basically all amazing pop songs ever. It’s science: The woman is incapable of crafting a bad hook.
Katy’s new single sounds like “Teenage Dream” mixed with “The One That Got Away” mixed with “Hot And Cold” mixed with, well, every other Katy Perry song, because every Katy Perry song sounds like the same Dr. Luke production over and over again. (It’s a partnership which will soon come to an end. 2012: The end of Katy Perry?)
As a result, it’s a pretty solid (if not entirely derivative) smash.
Of all the different incarnations of Katy Perry–whether it’s bullying her effeminate boyfriend, sensationalizing same-sex kissing or churning out reductive renditions of Ke$ha hits–my favorite flavor is ‘pissed off Katy’, because I can usually suspend my distaste for her eye-rolling ‘I’m only doing pop for the money’ state of being and genuinely get into that growling anger, as evidenced on the really, really fucking good Alanis-lite “Circle The Drain” off of Teenage Dream.
“Part of Me” continues in that general direction, as the scorned songstress triumphantly declares: “This is the part of me that you’re never ever going to take away from me!” Nice.
Although I find it a little advantageous to release a two year old breakup empowerment anthem NOW after the ink on her divorce papers hasn’t even dried yet, I’m not surprised: After all, she is the Queen of Shameless Marketing, including major discount iTunes pricing and last minute remixes for yet another assent to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. (Yay, integrity!)
Still, “Part of Me” is several layers of amazing, a nearly instant #1 in the making, and a song I’ll quickly grow to hate within 1 to 5 weeks after it’s played to oblivion on every radio station across the country.
In closing, my emotions regarding this song are best represented in this scene from Bridesmaids, in which I am Kristen Wiig and the pink lemonade is Katy Perry’s “Part of Me.”
Goddammit, that’s good.
“Part of Me” was released on February 13. (iTunes)
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