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“‘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.

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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)

The Living Legend, The Sensual Seductress, The Enchanting Mistress Miss Britney Spears opened up to V Magazine for their 2012 Music Issue to discuss 2011′s Femme Fatale Tour, including her pre-show rituals (she prays!), backstage goodies (hummus and pita bread!) and her thoughts on the tour as a whole.

Plus, check out the brand new photo above of Spears and a part of her Femme Fatale Tour team…looking GORGEOUS! I think? Maybe? It’s kind of insanely Photoshopped in the strangest way. Err…Cutoutney?

An excerpt from V Magazine (courtesy of BreatheHeavy):

What is the most fun part of touring?
Britney: Meeting different kinds of fans from all over the world. They are so different in every country. I just did a few shows in Russia and all of the fans had big heart signs in the audience and had hearts painted on their hands. It was really cool. Also having the people I am closest to with me all of the time and staying in the same hotels every night. We have been together for many years now so we have become one big happy family.

Is there someone not pictured who is integral to making your show happen?
Britney: Yes a ton of people: my entire crew who builds my show, runs my show and moves my show from city to city. They work SO hard and I am so thankful for them. My band Shock and Awe made up of my longtime musical directors. Simon Ellis and Marc, my wardrobe girls who help me dress every night and keep my costumes together, my dad who keeps me on track, and of course my boyfriend, Jason, and my boys who keep me smiling every single day.

Do you have any lucky charms?
Britney: I believe I make my own luck.

As we already knew from “Criminal,” she’s speaking the truth: She’s his lucky charm, after all! (Oh, and she chooses her own destiny too, thank you.)

For the full interview, check out BreatheHeavy.

By the way, Happy One Year Anniversary today to “Hold It Against Me”–otherwise known as MuuMuse’s Single of 2011!

Go on and revisit the original review from January 10, 2011 (can you believe it’s been a year?!). Here’s to Britney, Dr. Luke, Max Martin, Bonnie McKee, Billboard and Myah Marie for making the song possible!

Does any other pop star’s album art talk the talk quite like Rihanna‘s?

Two years ago, the black and gray sheen and jagged metal “R” logo perfectly exemplified the grim, post-apocalyptic noir of Rihanna’s 2009 masterpice Rated R, as the singer menacingly peered out from behind her hand while suited in futuristic space gear, looking like Grace Jones beamed in from the year 3000.

Just a year later in 2010, Rihanna smoldered on the cover of LOUD with her fire engine red coif; her eyes closed and lips pouted with pristine 1970′s disco queen poise (where’s Andy Warhol when you need him?). Accordingly, the collection was largely colored by its StarGate-produced dance floor throbbers (“Only Girl (In The World),” “S&M”) and and airy Island-infused mid-tempo jams (“What’s My Name?” “Man Down”).

With Talk That Talk, her sixth studio album released on November 21, Rihanna has once again rih-invented, this time veering closer toward the Rated R menace, albeit not completely: She’s stripped away the metallic sheen of Rated R and given it a decidedly more street vibe.

Buttoned up in a sleeveless camouflage blouse, she appears sweaty and disheveled, her hair mussed as she grips her forehead. With a hungry glare and a dagger-sharp tongue firmly planted in the corner of her lips, she utterly oozes sex. But this isn’t a candle-lit dinner at the Four Seasons followed by a rose pedal-strewn romp in bed. This is a rough, rowdy back-alley FUCK on break during your mid-day work shift.

And that, in a nutshell, is the essence of Talk That Talk.

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It’s here! It’s here!

Click above to listen to Illuminati Bajan Navy Princess RiRi‘s second Talk That Talk single “You Da One,” produced by Dr. Luke and penned by Ester Dean. The song will hit iTunes on Sunday night. Read my review at MTV Buzzworthy!

Talk That Talk will be released on November 21. (iTunes)

NO, BUT ACTUALLY HOLD THE PHONE AND DROP YOUR BABY RIGHT NOW BECAUSE THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

FIRST OF ALL: Rihanna JUST announced on Twitter this evening that she’ll be Ri-leasing the Dr. Luke-produced “You Da One” on Friday, which will then hit on iTunes on Sunday night. Um, fuck YES! Flawless single cover is flawless.

Now then–let’s get down to bidness.

Beginning this week, Team RiRi has begun the listening sessions for Ri’s upcoming sixth studio album, Talk That Talk.

ALLOW ME TO EXPLAIN FURTHER, FLOPTINA…