Tyler James first became noticeable to me on The Voice UK, he was mentored by Will.I.Am and finished in 2nd place. Before then he had a bit of success with 3 singles all getting into the UK chart and an album, all in 2004/5. His highest charting single back then was "Foolish" at chart position 16 and it still is. Recently he released "Single Tear" which only managed to make it to number 28, however his new album managed to crack the UK chart this time around at 47. Now his follow-up single is released this week, and even though the song has been picked up by Radio 1, it still is not performing as well as everyone thought it would on the iTunes top 100.
This song features Kano, real name Kane Robinson, he has had a lot of chart success, not that I know any of his songs, but almost all his singles have charted and half of them entered the top 40 between 2005 and 2010. Recently he is working on his fifth album, we could potentially be seeing more of him.
"Worry About You" was written by Tyler James and Blair Mackichan according to the album credits. And I do find it effortlessly catchy, one of these songs that will be around for a while. However as I have previously stated, it is not performing well on the iTunes top 100, regardless of the fact that Radio 1 has been playing it a lot recently. So what is it this time? Well once again, I think the sales are split, half of them have gone and bought the single, which includes remixes and the rapping from Kano which is also seen in the video. Others have opted to download the song from the album, as most did in the last two weeks, managing to get the song alone to chart at number 52. But with these annoying split sales the charting position may not be as high as it would've been if it were released before the album. It just seems so unfair.
Throwing away the sexy, flirtatious side of Tyler we first saw in "Single Tear" we now see a man ready to take on the world to save his one true love. The music video is passionate and intriguing, and confusing all mashed into one.
I was watching it unsure of where this may be going, for all we knew the music video may not relate at all and it could've just been created. But that is not the case. His love interest has a serious gambling problem, and he doesn't know how to help her... It relates to the song perfectly... But I wonder where he gets this idea for the song from... As he had a famous friend called Amy Winehouse... And didn't she have a drug problem? Clearly she is watching over her friend and is trying to help him the way he helped her. Hopefully she'll haunt people all this week and make them buy the single from iTunes.
Overall, I can see why Radio 1 has picked up the song and are playing it often. It's one of those that will get stuck in your head, if only more people will download the single! The music video fits perfectly. I'm not quite sure what the role of Kano is, although maybe he was the one who told Tyler where his love interest was... Who knows? Anyhow, I've just realised that I can't give this music video anything other than this rating, I have no negative comments, only that it's different to his first single, but what do we expect?
Elliot Minor becomes my Sunday Revisit, purely because I don't think I'll have a chance to review this band again since they may never stop their hiatus. So instead, I hope The Dead Famous or Spirits will be reviewed on this blog soon, as one member from each of those bands were in Elliot Minor. The band consisted of Alex Davies, Ed Minton, Ed Hetherton, Dan Hetherton and Ali Paul. Dan is now in The Dead Famous and Alex is in Spirits. The other three are studying in various different places.
I chose this song as I thought it would only be fair to review their first single, as I reviewed their most recent "I Believe" on Friday. "Parallel Worlds" was written by Alex Davies and Ed Minton and is about supernatural ghosts in a room, as when they were at school an attic flat was believed to have been haunted according to Alex. This song got to number 31 in it's original release, but a year later it got re-released, scoring the band's 3rd best charting single at 21, following "Still Figuring Out" which got to 17 and "Jessica" which got to 19. The UK chart was being dominated by rock bands, but now there is no successful charting positions for them, hence why teenage memories of famous bands is just a past-time (for the moment, I have a feeling the rock age will swing around again at some point).
This is not the original music video since I have been struggling to find the original. I'm sure if I was pushed I'd eventually find it, but for now we have the re-released version, which is a lot better nonetheless.
There is both a narrative and a performance, but surprisingly it's all rolled into one. The band are ghosts and so are their instruments (funnily enough), but they can still manipulate real-life objects, scaring the people eating at the dinner time, if only they knew how lucky they were to have Elliot Minor performing in front of them.
On paper this sounds amazing, in the music video... It's just as good, it's engaging, clever and different to other videos, therefore making it stand out. The only critique I have is that I think the editing has made the scenes short and quick, I had to watch it twice to see if I missed anything the first time round as it's speedy and you don't realise what is happening until too far in, and then it all clicks.
Overall a catchy song that deserves that 21 charting position, however nowadays it would have no chance. The music video is hauntingly creepy and shocking, I can't help but laugh at the wine glass, definitely my favourite scene. Apart from the speedy cuts of the camera shots, I have nothing else negative to say, and I'm willing to let the camera cuts slide, so here's a very deserving rating.
Britney Spears seems to be a constant on my blog, so the fact that she hasn't appeared since October ("Scream & Shout" doesn't count), just shows how focused I have been. But this song has been haunting me for the last month. It keeps coming up on my iTunes Up Next; then I heard it in Tesco's; next it was played on Signal 1, the radio station my alarm goes off to in the morning; not only that but my friend always plays the song when she comes over, which is quite often. People describe this song as Jonni's song, as people believe that it's about me, only I was born to make everyone happy, not just one person. I guess it's true, it's definitely a me song.
"Born To Make You Happy" was written by Andreas Carlsson and Kristian Lundin. This song is so powerful, and I can see why people think it's about me, sadly it isn't, although it could well have been. The song is about a woman who wants to fix her relationship. The video is not quite the portrayal it could have been.
Now this YouTube video is out of sync, the lyrics of the song doesn't match with Britney's lips. They're a few seconds out, which really annoyed me. I am not entirely sure if that is in the original video shown on the music channels or if it is this version on YouTube. Since I don't know, it does not affect my rating (however if I were certain it was like that in the original, it would create a low rating, since this is the worse matching up I have seen).
I have never seen this video, believe it or not. I was quite surprised that I hadn't so this is something new.
There's narrative and performance, once again. I love the use of it all being a dream. I struggled finding the name of Britney's love interest, but after much researching, I found him, his name is Christopher Snyder. There's not much to the bedroom scene apart from slow walking, pillow fights and sleeping, but she clearly makes him happy (or is it the other way round? Who knows?)
The performance side is filled with choreography. I especially like the blue and silver room that has different level tables, it's quite futuristic and engaging, I think there should've been more scenes cut from that part. The choreography shown through-out seems too quick for the song and it's not easy to follow, which shows how good of a dancer Britney is, but also makes me think she's dancing to a remixed version which is sped up.
Overall this song means a lot to me, and I agree with my friends, it is a Jonni Song, and if people were to write a song about me, it would be similar to this as I am always trying to make everyone happy. The music video is missing a lot, the choreography is too quick and the scenes flit by, you have to try and make sure you catch it all, as if you blink you might just miss something.
Elliot Minor is a band I have followed since their very first single "Parallel Worlds", since then they had a spike of popularity when the amazing song "Still Figuring Out" got released. Recently they are on a hiatus after their most recent album only managed to chart at number 73 and their accompanying singles failed to chart. The band consisted of Alex Davies, Ed Minton, Ed Hetherton, Dan Hetherton and Ali Paul. Ali has left the band indefinitely, and it is unknown if or when the band will reform. The band members are all doing different projects at the minute, Dan, at this time, is in a band called The Dead Famous, who have released two singles thus far. Alex has also formed a band called Spirits, they are currently using PledgeMusic to release their album. The other three band members are all studying. I sincerely hope that this band will reform, but by the looks of things, it seems unlikely.
"I Believe" was this band's last ever single, and it did not chart. Personally I think it's before it's time, and would've fit nicely to have been released next month as it is the perfect song to be included on the soundtrack to the film The Host. Unfortunately it looks like that won't be the case either. The song was written by Alex Davies.
This music video is up there, it's both narrative and performance based, however it's not something I was expecting. But then again I am currently reading The Host by Stephenie Meyer, so it's quite hard not to imagine a video quite similar to the book. This song NEEDS to become part of the soundtrack to this film!
The narrative side is quite the opposite to the performance side. Here we have a rock band playing instruments and singing a catchy song, on the other side we have someone performing ballet, however she has dark problems enveloping her and so ballet can be seen as a way to escape just like music can help people escape too.
Overall a song that needs to be on a certain film's soundtrack. It's accompanying music video has everything it needs to give me top marks, but I don't think there is a big enough link with the narrative and the song, so that is why I'm dropping one star. I still have my fingers crossed a reformation will happen sometime in the near future.
Of Monsters And Men are a band from Iceland and have become quite well-known across the globe, their popularity just keeps getting bigger and bigger. They were a band of six members but one has left (apparently) so now they're down to five. But when the music video was recorded there was 6 members and so I shall list all of them. The members include Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir, Ragnar þórhallsson, Brynjar Leifsson, Arnar Rósenkranz Hilmarsson, Kristján Páll Kristjánsson and Árni Guðjónsson. This is definitely a band that shall be sticking around.
"Little Talks" was written by Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir and Ragnar þórhallsson. The song is their highest UK charting position to date at 12, and it is quite catchy, once again not my sort of thing, but it is very current. I can see this band becoming more and more successful!
The music video is definitely out of this world, not something I was expecting but it wasn't surprising and I think that was to do with the name of the band. You just can't help but think monsters will be involved in their videos and guess that was why I wasn't too shocked.
As you all well know I'm not a fan of black and white films or videos, and I rarely think it's a good idea. However in this case it is to make Nanna stand out as she is colourful and is like the guardian angel of the sky-sailors. I also like how she manages to change things into colour.
I like the narrative it's like a complete journey and kind of reminds me of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as the sky-sailors look like they're on a mission, plus their singing a song as the march. I also like how they always run into trouble, but manages to return the guardian angel to her home.
I thought the ending seemed unfocused. The ending looked like another monster was going to attack them, and maybe that is what happens afterwards and maybe the angel is actually not an angel in the first place. Personally I think the ending should've twisted what we knew and developed the story more.
Overall a great song that gets catchy the more I hear it. The accompanying music video is theatrically great and I have no problems against it since it stands out from the crowd and I've seen nothing like it ever before, and although it is repetitive, I'm prepared to let it slide and give this video top marks, since it clearly deserves it.
