Cheryl Cole '3 Words' kind of review

Earlier this week I made a complete meal of writing a proper Cheryl Cole '3 Words' review, but here are the random notes I made during my first few listens. This is not exactly award winning writing, it's just random thoughts I made while trying to figure out if it was amazing or rubbish. It was hard to disassociate my love for Cheryl's shiny hair in her new L'Oreal adverts from the music and just before writing it she annoyed me a bit by kicking Ethan and Duane out of X Factor. I'm so easily swayed. It's very girly, all about being in love and is pretty sad. There's no Xenomania, there's lots of Will.I.Am and it's far, far away from a Girls Aloud album.

1. Three Words: Strange guitar opening, sounds a bit like Foals, before the bass builds up . Bizzaro. Will.i.Am/Cheryl co-write and Will.i.Am is all over it - it's a duet! The three words are indeed 'I Love You'. Very brave opening track. "It wasn't complicated, wasn't pre-meditated, to you I'm dedicated." Anthem for Chuck & Blair.
2. Parachute: Awesome military drumming. Cheryl sounds sad. About a secret love 'I won't tell anyone your voice is my favourite sound'. Her love is the parachute that will catch her if she falls. Nice, strong 90s rnb chorus. Brilliant little pointing finger breakdown "I won't fall out of love."
3.Heaven: Another wibbly electro Will.I.Am song and he's on it again. Most annoying bit is Cheryl totally aping his accent and singing 'My heaven's with you' as 'My heaven wit you'. No need. Best bit - Will I Am sounds like he's telling Cheryl she's immature at one point.
4. Fight For This Love: Best song on the album. The drums on this are amazing now. SOLDIER.
5. Rain On Me: Madonna-ish, teeters along before you have some very odd synthesised oboe (?!) sounds and it blows off into a big midtempo dance chorus. Tears in my eyes while raving kind of affair. Not a will i am track so no idea who is singing along in the chorus. Co-written by Livvi Franc!
6. Make Me Cry: Nice 70s Chic type of bassline. "Are you trying to make me cry?" Fierce, talk to the hand. Cheryl says shit! Doesn't really go anywhere but pleasant.
7. Happy Hour: Ridiculous, yet adoreable analogies. Bad boy she needs a taste of, he's an addiction. Co-written by Priscilla Renae, originally a Rihanna demo. Nice layering up of vocals without any Nadine style warbelling. Type of song I think Cheryl would sing along to in the shower. Middle Eastern vibes - K-Ci & Jojo esque piano topline. "Some days I can be sweet and some I'm sour, but I can't help but drink you up cos you're my happy hour." 2nd best song.
8. Stand Up: The only upbeat song, only one that doesn't sound like Cheryl is the saddest person ever. Taio Cruz penned and he features on it during a rap where he bigs up his advance and his bloody Rokstar shades. Makes me want to crouch to my knees and then fascinatingly 'Stand Up' in some kind of never before considered dance routine.
9. Don't Talk About This Love: Cover of a Nikola Bedingfield song. CUT YOUR EARS OFF AWFUL.
10.Boy Like You: Opens with a sample of Fleetwood Mac 'Little Lies'. Random. Another Will.i.Am track. Clapping / electro drumbeat. It's a shoulder wiggler.
11.Heartbreaker: Identical to the single release, no Cheryl mix or anything. Is that FIVE Will.I.Am duets??\
12. Got To Be Real: Amaz-Oh no, this is Cheryl Lynn. Thanks iTunes!

Cheryl's Hair: 10/10 ; Album 7/10

Mr Discopop's heard it too.

Glee!

Buffy, Angel, Veronica Mars, Doctor Who, Gossip Girl, Pushing Daisies True Blood and now Glee. These are the shows that have / would make me cry actual tiny tears should they be cancelled.

One of the major things I want in life (save love, peace, a new Billie single, unlimited crispy aromatic duck) is to join a choir that sings pop songs. Earlier in the year I had singing lessons for the first time and now I feel a little bit more confident about singing in front of others. Though if you ask any of my Singstar pals I've felt confident in that for years. So pop choirs are you out there? I'm Jewish - so I didn't do choir at my CoE school and I don't want to start praising the lord or anything like that now, I just want straight down the line Girls Aloud, Abba, JLS, Mamas and Papas, Sean Kingston style nonsense with over the top harmonies and my name in lights. London - can you sort this out please? One exists in Barnes, but unless I move into Jack's, it seems an unlikely distance. It might as well be in Wigan.

Anyway, back to the seemingly random list of TV shows. Fox's Glee is yet another show to make me want to go back in time and redo high school but be in America. The notion of a glee club in US high schools seems to be a choir but with choreography who take part in country wide championships like a sport. This is where I want 15 year old me to be.

The show will be on E4 later this year, and is the first of the new US season shows to be picked up for a full 22 episode series with massive ratings and twitter trending insanely.

Here's an idea of what you should expect. It's quirky and often laugh out loud, I could bang out about how hot Matt Morrison is or blah blah blah but I don't want to spoil anything:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzWrnsASi3c[/youtube]

And in this week's episode Kristin Chenoweth guest starred. Olive Snook! The way she hits the chorus of 'Alone' is jawdropping. She also performed a brilliant version of 'Maybe This Time' but it's probably better to see that in context.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmj6Vdlteo8[/youtube]

If nothing else, it will make Helen ridiculously happy.

Being Erica

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zGkg-l-8tU[/youtube]

If you're a girl and like your comedy / dramas with a bit of time travel, then E4 at 10pm tonight is the place to be as Canada's 'Being Erica' hits our shores. I was lucky enough to catch the first series last year in Canada and while I'm surprised it's been picked up over here (hell, if Privileged can be…), it's well worth your time.

Erin Kapluk plays the brilliantly named Erica Strange, a down in the dumps late 20 something with no direction and no hope for where her life is going. Then the mysterious Doctor Tom enters her life and gives her the opportunity to go back into her history and change key decisions she now regrets. Cue bad outfits, 90s hair, and 'hilarious consequences'. Even if the plot is a bit clunky, Erin is so much fun to watch that you'll easily find yourself rooting for her. She both looks and has the comedy acting of Jennifer Aniston and I've often caught myself thinking it is in fact 'tragic Jen', plus there's Wonderfalls' very swoonable Tyson Leitso as eye candy. Series 2 has just started in Canada taking a darker twist, so it's well worth checking out, particularly as you can enjoy a double bill tonight. In reality I think about 9 people will watch it, but hey, cult hit. Come on you 9!

Boy Crisis

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no7fy9mDbpQ[/youtube]

Although they were knocking about in the UK a couple of months ago it seems, I've just got round to listening to self declared 'Brooklyn Buzz Band' Boy Crisis. Signed to B-Unique, they are Tal, Alex, Victor, Lee and Owen and if you love your synth pop could quite happily become your new favourite band.

Lots of people are comparing them to MGMT because they've come out of the same world, attending the same college and even being mainly introduced to each other by them. From the songs I've heard, I think there's a bit less messing about. Brilliant disco track "Dressed To Digress" packs together funk, pop and a breathless dirty vocal that draws images of a packed, sleazy nightclub or at least a soundtrack during a particularly sexy scene on Gossip Girl with the 'tiger looking for the tigress.' One for the Popstarz bag.

New single, 'The Fountain of Youth' (video above), comes out on Monday here in the UK just preceding their debut album " " (formerly called Tulipomania). It's a big bag of joy that opens with electronic flutes that'll put you in mind of Daft Punk's 'Veridis Quo', before a guitar snarl gives way to a seductive 80s beat. The video is ridiculously over the top and campy, with a very strange hot dog moment and a glorious boy band dance routine from the band clad in white tunic tops and tight gold leggings. This is a band who are enjoy dressing up and creating something a bit silly. Hurrah for that.

Daft Punk Hero

Despite having turned them musically into 2 Many DJs, how ace is this?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0r38l7oNCQ[/youtube]

Gives me another chance to plug my documentary about Daft Punk if you've not already heard it - it's here (will trade on this forever)

Introducing Dollface

This is Yulanda Lindsay aka Dollface aka today's obsession. First springing into the lives of pop bloggers via her part in 'girl group in development' The Silhouettes, the band have recently split leaving Dollface to set up her own label and go solo.

An alumni of the Brit School, she's moved away from The Silhouettes retro sound and moved towards electro-pop with demo standout 'Miss Jamaica' pulling together elements of Red One's production and her own fiesty throwdowns. Couple that with elements of Calvin Harris in the blissfully repetitive but undeniably soulful girl put downs of 'Who's Laughing Now' and we have ourselves a brand new popstar if these demos are anything to go by. Citing Grace Jones, Bowie, Rihanna and Daft Punk as references, this is a lady to keep our eyes on in 2010.

Have a listen over on her myspace.

Chelley - Took The Night

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g_RFWpm5dg[/youtube]

I've not DJ-ed much at Miss-Shapes recently but if I had then Chelley's 'Take The Night' would be totally filling the dancefloor. I don't really know its story other than it came out in Spring in America on Ultra Records and has recently been remixed with a verse from Mims. I've no idea if it's coming out in the UK properly but 1xtra have been playing it every so often.

Chelley is a 21 year old singer from Brooklyn who put together the song with Ricky Blaze. Fiesty and utterly unforgiving, it reminds me a lot of Avenue D's Do I Look Like A Slut. The other couple of tracks on her myspace don't sound that interesting but this song should be legendary.