New Release: Jahméne - Is This The Time?



Jahméne is back! With this new fire track that compliments his soulful voice perfectly. However with little promotion, and radio not really picking this up, he doesn't really stand a chance of charting next Friday. This X Factor runner-up has such a perfect voice, but it seems he's holding back on this track and the performance side of the video. Jahméne performs statically in this video for "Is This The Time", whilst the narrative excites and entertains by pausing a snapshot of life.

Let's be honest Jahméne Douglas should've won The X Factor series nine, and his vocals on this track just proves how much he deserves to do well in the music industry, yet his style and songs seem stuck in the past. This is not a current track, it's something that would've been released in the 90's or early 00's where this genre was popular. This is his first single from his upcoming second album, his first album hit number one on the UK albums chart, yet the singles from that album didn't fair well, with only his debut single charting titled "Titanium", a cover version of David Guetta & Sia's song "Titanium".

Directed by Mike Baldwin, the video has both a performance side and a narrative, as I mentioned earlier.

You would think his time on The X Factor would've boosted Jahméne's on-stage presence, and yet he is standing there like a statue. He has a slight confidence which he exposes during the big notes, but he goes back into his shy little self during the chorus and other parts of the verses. This is not what I'd like to see on stage. He needs to send out those all important performance vibes, but he doesn't seem to have any.

The narrative is detailed, taking a moment on the escalators where a man and woman cross paths, and there's an instant connection between the two. The escalators stop and he walks down them. A daydream state ensues where we watch his unsurety of whether to go after her, is it the right time or not?

I think it's clever, we've all passed a total stranger and considered them to be our future lover or a little bit of fun, but are they worth humiliation of rejection for? Confidence has always been a good thing in my book, and if you don't live for the moment, it'll never be the right time.

Personally, I think we pass many people who could potentially be 'The One', you just have to take the risk and find out. This  music video, however, does the complete opposite, encouraging people to carry on with their lives, and the right person will finally come along. Yet if we all did that, then it means they'll never come along, because someone needs the confidence to take the first step.

Overall, this video is a high quality visual, yet it fails to entertain, questions whether confidence is good or not, and totally makes Jahméne static. Although the basic idea behind this video sounds good, it just fails in the visual aspect of things.
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Big Brovaz - Favourite Things



Not long until Big Brovaz, along with S Club and Booty Luv, will perform at The Nightingale Club in Birmingham, which I am totally excited for. This song is their biggest hit to date, and although I believe they could make a brilliant comeback if they tried, since this style of music is totally missing from the charts, especially since they were the gap in the music industry, and they totally still are; I doubt they will be reforming officially. So we are left to relive the good old days with their amazing singles! Big Brovaz ride a carousel as they describe their favourite things, what they want from a guy, and don't we all want expensive things?

Big Brovaz were a six piece band that consisted of Cherise Roberts, Nadia Shepherd, Dion Howell, John Paul Horsley (J-Rock), Tayo Aisida (Flawless) and Randy Jackson. They had various hits, but this is the one song that hit number two, just missing out on the top spot. The song is based upon the musical song "My Favourite Things" from The Sound of Music. In the original, Julie Andrews sings about simple things, whereas this one focuses on glamorous and expensive things, that the girls want. The song was written by Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Cherise Roberts, Nadia Shepherd, John Paul Horsley, Dion Howell and Randy Jackson.

The music video has a Victorian freakshow vibe to it, that doesn't really fit with the whole song, unless you part relate it to the fact that back then guys had to court girls, and they had to buy them expensive things, to take them out etc.

They don't do much, apart from dance, ride the carousel and they have a slight performance piece.

I am unsure of the meaning behind the masks, but they definitely freak me out.

I would love a guy to court me, to buy me expensive things. Maybe I'm expecting too much nowadays. This music video is engaging and interesting, yet it's quite weird and scary. It fails to exactly relate, they could've worked with something so much better, and there's not a lot going on. This song was fire, but the video doesn't live up to it. Compared to "Nu Flow", this falls completely, and even though it was their biggest chart hit, it might have started their downfall.
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Booty Luv - Don't Mess With My Man



As you can probably imagine, I literally cannot wait to see these live on 30 July. It's so close now, my childhood dreams will be coming true. This song is the sassy number that I loved. Booty Luv were releasing hit after hit after hit, unfortunately a second album never emerged, even though songs were released. This was their third single. Booty Luv attends an exclusive club, with their men. They add sassiness whilst on stage, as they watch their doppelgangers go after their boys. They soon see them off, don't mess with my man.

Booty Luv were created after the split of Big Brovaz. Consisting of Nadia Shepherd and Cherise Roberts, they covered some known songs and made them into club current hits, that slayed the dancefloors. This song is a cover of Lucy Pearl's song of the same name "Don't Mess With My Man". This version out-performed the original, chart wise. It was written by Raphael Saadiq, Dawn Robinson and Ali Shaheed Muhammad.

This music video, has a narrative with a performance piece enrolled within. Set inside a club, the girls play doppelgangers in this relatable but tongue-in-cheek music video.

This is classy, sexy, stylish, and over the top but in such a good and exciting way.

The narrative, follows Booty Luv as they attend a club, where they end up performing this song, leaving their men to watch in the crowd.

Then their counter-parts sneak into the club, they are dressed as if they have money but can't really afford anything, they're totally cheap.

They create a normal havoc, we've all been there, wanting to get drunk, wanting to be in the spotlight dancing on the tables and wanting the hottest guys to fall for us. But they're always taken aren't they?

This seems to be the case, and the girls come off their stage and soon see their doppelgangers thrown out of the club. In the last scene, the younger Booty Luv are sitting outside of a take-away, on the side of the curb, eating away. Definitely bringing back memories.

Overall, this fast-paced music video is definitely impressive considering their previous two singles "Boogie 2nite" and "Shine". I remember watching it repeatedly on the music channels, as the narrative was comedic. Although this video is dated, it is probably one of their best music videos. I literally can't wait to hear this song live.
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S Club 7 - Bring It All Back



Yes, I am bringing it all back. I am going to see Jo O'Meara and Bradley McIntosh, two of the band members from this group, in just over a week, so I'm bringing it all back, but not just S Club songs. The other acts performing on 30 July will be Booty Luv and Big Brovaz. This song was S Club 7's debut single in conjunction with their TV series Miami 7. The music video features scenes from the TV series as they totally perform the hell out of the song on a beach stage.

S Club 7 were a seven piece group that started off in a TV show called Miami 7. They consisted of Hannah Spearritt, Jo O'Meara, Jon Lee, Tina Barrett, Rachel Stevens, Bradley McIntosh and Paul Cattermole. They were just starting out with this debut single, but it got around and became an instant number one hit. The song was written by S Club 7, Eliot Kennedy, Tim Lever and Mike Percy.

There is apparently two official music videos released for this song. However, since this is the UK and Australian version, I'll leave the other one for the American's, and if I ever need to, I can always review that one at a later date.

This is a full performance-based music video with intercutted scenes of Miami 7 throughout. The performance is set on a beach stage in Miami, and at the very end we can see a small crowd of people watching them from afar.

The performance is a usual S Club 7 performance, full of confident dance moves that had kids copying them all around the world. The choreography is simple and relates to the song in detail. This was the typical manufactured pop dance moves that were around at the time.

Totally confident, all even members of this group nails the choreography, and although it is totally over the top, this was the style back then. It totally explains my confidence as a child.

The scenes of Miami 7, adds very little to the the music video, apart from breaking up the performance scene.

Overall, it works to an extent, but the scenes from Miami 7 distracts from the overall visual of the video, failing to capture any sort of narrative, and instead showing a collection of scenes to advertise the show. Which totally brings down my rating.
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Chart Mondays: Kent Jones - Don't Mind


Don't Mind - Kent Jones |

What have I just watched? Like how is this in the top 10 of the UK chart? Seriously? It is catchy, I have to admit. Regardless.... This makes my Chart Mondays because Drake has still not released his music video for "One Dance" which is still sitting pretty at the top of the UK chart, and has done so for 14 consecutive weeks now. This has popped out of nowhere, much like Desiigner's "Panda" did, and probably will be the only hits both acts manage to get over here. Kent Jones clearly spent the budget of the video on models, hence why he's just singing whilst girls parade around him.

Kent Jones is an American hip-hop rapper. This song is his debut single. He moved to Miami, Florida to work with LL Cool J and Dr. Dre, where he ended up signing a record deal with their company Epidemic Records. He has collaborated with many artists, before meeting DJ Khaled, who signed him to a joint record label, where he released his first mixtape. This debut single contains five different languages, which are: French, Spanish, Japanese, English and Haitian Creole. It was written by Kent Jones, Marcello Valenzano, Andre Lyon, Khaled Khaled, Barry White, Gerald Levert and Edwin Nicholas. It samples Barry White's "Practice What You Preach".

Directed by Eif Rivera, the video is nothing special, unless you count the model falling over as something exciting. The video has nothing going for it and is unrelated to the song. Something we've seen a hundred times before.

Luckily for us, we see a cameo appearance of DJ Khaled. Which also adds nothing to this video.

Totally a typical rap music video, there is always going to be a video, just like this one, in a rapper's career. Only this one isn't of a high quality, definitely budget blown on the models.

Camera work is dodgy, and the models don't even look like they're having a good time, apart from when they're on the swings and they're running around.

Overall this has no substance to it at all and is just another generic music video that gets lost in the thrall of models and rappers in a video. What makes this one stand-out though, is definitely The Powerpuff Girls jacket, that model works that pink overcoat perfectly, now I want one too!
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