SHAZAM

StooShe #1 In The UK

London newcomers StooShe are number one in the Shazam New Release Chart UK

Katy Perry #1 In The USA

Katy Perry takes the number one spot in the Shazam New Release Chart USA with her new track, ‘Part Of Me’

Madonna Feat. Nicki Minaj & M.I.A – Give Me All Your Luvin’

After all the furore around her Super Bowl half-time show, Madonna and her co-conspirators Nicki Minaj and M.I.A. are back to finish the job. Slightly disappointingly, there’s actually nothing in ‘Give Me All Your Luvin’’ all that likely to upset Madge’s easily offended detractors. Compared to something like ‘Justify My Love’ or ‘Like A Virgin’ it’s all pretty PG-rated. Those seeking to be outraged will have to content themselves with just one bleeped out expletive.

None of this is to say that ‘Give Me All Your Luvin’ isn’t a bona-fide pop hit. Despite the lack of controversy, it’s a propulsive, hook-laden track that sounds far more sprightly than might be expected from an performer of Madonna’s age.

It certainly helps that Madge has been characteristically canny in her choice of collaborators. Nicki Minaj and M.I.A. are two of the most unpredictable female artists in the game. Their involvement is a clear nod to Madonna’s own beginnings as an outspoken and iconoclastic pop upstart. With just one short verse each, Minaj and M.I.A. don’t have much time to make an impression. It’s a testament to their unique skills that even these minor appearances allow their personalities to shine through.

‘Give Me All Your Luvin’’ is the first sight of Madonna’s latest album M.D.N.A. Her 12th LP is set to be released at the end of March and will feature collaborations with dance superstar David Guetta. Despite Guetta’s involvement, don’t expect the record to be wall-to-wall club bangers. “It has a lot of up tempo music,” Madge told Ryan Seacrest, “but I also have three ballads which I haven’t done in a while. Something for everyone!”

Check out ‘Give Me All Your Luvin’ here.

Lady A Competition Winner Meets The Band

Last year we ran a ‘Golden Tag’ promo asking all Lady Antebellum fans if they’d like to ‘Own the Night’ and win a VIP trip for two to meet the band in person and see them play live at an exclusive event.

Well check out competition winner Heath Sneyd -  the above pix shows Heath and friend Emma Bowman with Lady A themselves, when they headed off on their VIP trip to Nashville last month.

To quote Heath “We had a blast, and meeting the band was amazing! The show topped the last one in Knoxville! Thanks for helping us out and planning it all. We really do appreciate it!”
And if you missed out on the Lady A competition, you could enter to win a VIP trip to the 55^th Grammys in 2013 – check out the details here.

Shazam: In The Loop

Here is this week’s In The Loop. All the week’s musical chatter delivered in one easily digestible chunk.

Emeli Sande, Speech Debelle & Field Music, CD’s of the week (Standard)

Whitney Houston dies at 48 (CNN)

Adele sweeps at music’s biggest night (Aol)

Beyoncé and Jay-Z‘s Baby in Pictures (Guardian)

Lady Gaga & Sir Paul McCartney‘s cool friendship (Mirror)

Gallows start work on new full-length album (Kerrang)

Scott Storch arrested in Vegas for possession of cocaine (TMZ)

Gucci Mane Trap Back mixtape review (Pitchfork)

Pete Doherty I’ve stopped injecting drugs (NME)

Blink-182 announce 20th Anniversary tour (Billboard)

Maybach Music Groups’s Teedra Moses releases Another Luvr (Allhiphop)

Lana Del Rey has 3 albums worth of material written (Musicweek)

Plan B sets up publishing company with EMI (OK)

Janet Jackson remembers Whitney (Musicnews)

Chris Brown denies making Rihanna jokes as chat up lines (MTV)

2012 Grammys – Winners, Losers, and the fallout

The 2012 Grammy Awards was a rather strange affair compared to the full scale glitter-and-glamourama-fest that usually takes place. Yes, there were the requisite number of red-carpet celebs pressing the flesh and flashing various body parts at the cameras (most notably Fergie, who came dressed in an orange doilie over a black bikini and Anne V, who may as well not have been wearing anything at all). Some female celebs took the opportunity to show off new hair – Katy Perry doing the blue crimp thing, Rhianna doing her recently-unveiled blonde-beach thing, and Kelly Osbourne was doing a crazy grey-lilac thing. There were the requisite number of outstanding performances (from Adele in particular) and also the WTF performances (from Nicki Minaj in particular, who took her opportunity during her stage time to confuse viewers with a man dressed like the pope, a lot of fire, Nicki Minaj levitating, and then an exorcism performed – check out what her fans had to say about her performance on Twitter

But the tone of the show was set with the sad news of the death of Whitney Houston just hours earlier. “Even as the show was rolling on, details of Houston’s death were emerging,” reported The Washington Post. “How she was found in the hotel room bathtub, how friends had tried to revive her before paramedics arrived. Grim video footage of the singer’s body being removed on a stretcher played on the local news.”

A grim background indeed to what is usually such a glittering ceremony. Despite the sad news, the awards rolled on, and British singer Adele found herself to be the unexpected heroine of the night, winning the coveted awards for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Pop Solo Performance and Pop Vocal Album. Not bad for a Londoner who has only just recovered from recent throat surgery… Adele was overcome with emotion, but managed to thank her fans through her tears. “This record is inspired by something that’s really normal – a rubbish relationship,” she said.

Other acts that found high recognition during there night were Foo Fighters (winning four awards for Rock Song, Rock Album, Rock Performance, and Hard Rock/Metal Performance), Kanye West (who took a share in four awards) and an unexpected success for US electro/dubstep pixie Skrillex, who won awards for best Remix, Dance Recording and Dance/Electronica Album. Good news all round for the underdogs…

BEST OF THE REST – GRAMMY 2012 WINNERS

Record of the Year: “Rolling in the Deep,” Adele
Song of the Year: “Rolling in the Deep,” Adele Adkins & Paul Epworth New Artist: Bon Iver
Pop Solo Performance: “Someone Like You,” Adele
Pop Performance by a Duo or Group: “Body and Soul,” Tony Bennett & Amy Winehouse
Pop Vocal Album: “21,” Adele
Alternative Album: “Bon Iver,” Bon Iver
Rock Song: “Walk,” Foo Fighters
Rock Album: “Wasting Light,” Foo Fighters
Rock Performance: “Walk,” Foo Fighters
Hard Rock/Metal Performance: “White Limo,” Foo Fighters
R&B Album: “F.A.M.E.,” Chris Brown
R&B Song: “Fool For You,” Cee Lo Green, Melanie Hallim & Jack Splash
R&B Performance: “Is This Love,” Corrine Bailey Rae
Traditional R&B Vocal Performance: “Fool For You,” Cee Lo Green & Melanie Fiona
Rap Album: “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” Kanye West
Rap Performance: “Otis,” Jay-Z and Kanye West
Rap Song: “All of the Lights,” Jeff Bhasker, Stacy Ferguson, Malik Jones, Warren Trotter & Kanye West
FULL LIST OF GRAMMY 2012 WINNERS AVAILABLE HERE

Koop – Waltz for Koop

The early 2000s were a particularly fruitful time for the wonderful brand of downtempo, jazz-tinged ‘chill out’ that emerged from the ashes of the gritty trip-hop produced in the mid to late 1990s. Acts like DJ Shadow, Portishead, Massive Attack and Tricky paved the way for things to slow down – slow right down – and to start incorporating a more bright and breezy lilt.

So July 2002 was the right time for the Swedish production duo that called themselves Koop to bring out their sophomore album, Waltz For Koop, which was an eclectic mix of bossa and jazz rhythms put together with modern electronic influences. The album embodied the very essence of cocktail parties at dusk, and featured guest artists Terry Callier, Cecilia Stalin, Earl Zinger, and Yukimi Nagano, who has recently popped up as the lead singer of Swedish electro-pop act, Little Dragon (so-called after Yukimi’s own nickname for her fiery temper).

A wonderful review by Matt Keller described the vocals on the album better than any other review at the time: “The voice of Yukimi Nagano suggests the exuberant insouciance of picnics, rides in convertibles on warm, full-moon nights, and an afternoon spent dancing barefoot with friends with a glass of sangria in your hand. Like Astrud Gilberto, the great talent of her voice is the emotion it evokes – it’s less about technical perfection and more about its acute ability to set a mood.”

Though the album features a number of gems, one of the very best is the title track ‘Waltz for Koop’, which is a shimmering, slow-paced jazz number featuring Cecilia Stalin on vocals, plus generous helpings of double bass, jazz flute and soaring strings – timeless and utterly divine.

Drake Feat. YG & Nipsey Hussle & Snoop Dogg – The Motto

No hip hop track should consider itself fully realised until there is an LA remix of it. Luckily for Drake, The Motto has had the full works, with YG, Nipsey and Snoop all adding verses in the remix. There’s a California vibe bouncing through the track, which had its video filmed in Oakland, and that just keeps on building in this mix.

“I love the Bay,” says Drake. “I shot ‘The Motto’ video out here, and I saw the cut today which looks absolutely incredible,” he said. “It’s going to coloring on Tuesday and then it’ll be done. We actually shot it on real film, because a lot of people don’t do that anymore … I’m excited about that.”

‘The Motto’ (originally a Lil’ Wayne collab) was the third single released from Drake’s sophomore album Take Care, and reached number 80 in Drake’s native Canada, 16 in the US singles chart, three in the US R&B chart and the top spot in the US rap chart. The album was a 2011 smash, debuting at the top spot in the Billboard album chart, and selling 631,000 copies in its first week and earning Drake the third-largest sales week of 2011 for an album.

Not bad for a kid who shot to fame as a member of Degrassi High. Few people manage to make the switch from TV to credible artist, but Drake – born Aubrey Drake Graham – has breezed into the scene, earning serious musical credibility on the way. His debut album, Thank Me Later, was released in 2010 and received rave reviews from press and fans alike, going straight into the US album charts at number one, and selling 447,000 copies in its first week. Who’d have thought young Jimmy would amount to so much one day??

Chris Brown #1 In The USA

Chris Brown takes the top spot in the Shazam New Release Chart USA with ‘Turn Up The Music’ .

Madeon # 1 In The UK

Madeon, a little known French DJ, looks ready to breakthrough to the mainstream as his track ‘Icarus’ hits the number one spot in the Shazam New Release Chart UK.