With Born to Die only days away from hitting shelves, Lana Del Rey has revealed her plans to re-release the album she recorded under her real name, Lizzie Grant, back when she was an independent artist.
The album was recorded back in 2010 with Regina Spektor producer David Khane for about $10,000. It appeared on iTunes for two months, before quietly vanishing. Lizzie then re-emerged the following year as Lana Del Rey, with a new look, new music, and a more polished sound.
If you’re in the UK, then chances are that you would’ve already heard of the velvet-voiced Lianne La Havas. After her defining performance on Later… with Jools Holland last October, La Havas impressed fellow guest Justin Vernon so much that he enlisted the then-unknown singer to open for the North American leg of Bon Iver’s tour.
The 22-year-old English songstress and musician (she plays the keyboard and guitar) was on the chat show to promote her debut EP, Lost & Found, with a performance of her first single “No Room For Doubt” — a beautifully bare slice of minimalist neo-soul about leaving a lover after a fight. The song features indie folk singer Willy Mason, who trades verses with Lianne over a warm bed of sparse acoustics in a similar vein to Gotye and Kimbra’s “Somebody That I Used To Know”, but with an empty melancholy in the place of Gotye’s understated fury.
After riding around on suggestive pink rockets and playing per-pubescent supa dupa divas, Dal★shabet have finally decided to act their age for their new single “Hit U”. Not that I’m complaining –I love Dalegend’s childish aegyo– but it’s good to see the girls taking on a completely new concept after playing the cutie-pie role for all of 2011.
There aren’t any rookie groups who have worked as hard as Dal★shabet have in the past year. It’s only been 12 months since the girls made their debut, but they’re already onto their fourth mini-album, and with each new release so far they’ve not only managed to reach consecutive new peaks on the charts, but they’ve also continued to improve on stage.
For “Hit U”, the girls have ditched their sugary-sweet image for that of sexed-up murderesses with a penchant for domestic violence. The song is about a girl who is dumped for her boyfriend and left with a broken heart, only to then have the boyfriend change his mind and ask for her back, leaving the girl enraged over the audacity of her ex.
And you know what they say: hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!
As a hardcore fan of Secret, I’ve been heavily anticipating the debut of their boy band labelmates B.A.P (Best, Absolute, Perfect). Secret are super talented with their own unique style and sound, and since K-Pop agencies love to recreate the formula of their successful acts in the opposite gender, I assumed that B.A.P would be the same, and as usual, I was right.
Despite B.A.P only making their debut this week, TS Entertainment have been building buzz around the group for close to a year now. First with leader Bang Yong Gak, who featured on Ji Eun from Secret’s chart-topping solo single “Going Crazy”, and then with his own single “I Remember” featuring one of the B2St members. They didn’t stop there, later putting Yong Gak in a special sub-unit with B.A.P member Zelo; the duo released one single, “Never Give Up”, starring Secret’s gorgeous leader Hyosung in the music video.
With almost a year straight of releases and special cross-promotions with other artists, it’s obvious that TS Entertainment mean serious business with B.A.P.
The boys finally made their debut as the full six-member B.A.P this week with their first single “Warrior” and accompanying mini-album of the same name.
Chris Brown‘s a bit of a douche bag and he annoys the piss out of me, but I enjoy most of his singles. Other than “Deuces”, most of his R&B stuff has gone to shit recently, but he makes up for it with some hot dance tunes like “Yeah 3x” and “Beautiful People”.
Breezy’s got a new album called Fortune dropping this March, and he’s just dropped the set’s first mainstream/pop single “Turn Up The Music”.
To sum up the song: I’ve heard better, I’ve heard worse.
While Kelly Clarkson is slaying the Hot 100 and Kris Allen is preparing to take nightclubs by storm with his new single “Vision of Love”, American Idol’s Country Queen Carrie Underwood has just announced that she’ll be returning next month with a brand new single “Good Girl”.
