New Lana *slow ambien clap*

This new Lana track is sort of hard of work. It sounds nice, it's not offensive to the ears. It has a memorable-ish tune. It's her to a t. It's... you know... there's nothing wrong with it that we can directly identify.

But it feels a bit like hard work. It's not quite as effortless as some of her previous stuff. It doesn't really sound like a world wide smash hit. It slogs along a bit without really soaring.

Maybe it's a 'grower'.

Beautiful & boring

There's no doubt that this is masterfully crafted: beautifully shot, finely conceived and even well-acted. BUT IT'S JUST SO BORING. For ages it doesn't go anywhere and then by the time it suddenly does you've lost interest. Or at least we did.

Even though we're guilty of endlessly scrolling through tumblr (an experience very similar to watching this video) we still can't get too excited about it.

It is super pretty and very .gifable though.

Stuck In Our Head: Bumper Edition

While we've been spending approximately 85% of our listening time in the company of MDNA, we've encountered the odd song here and there which has forced it's way into our crowded brains.




The amazing Trash-o-Rama played an incredible remix of Lana Del Ray's "Blue Jeans" at the last Bollox, produced by the also amazing Club Clique guys - do you feel the Manchester love? - and it's not left us alone since. We still haven't made up our minds totally on Llama but we're obsessed with her vocals on the "I will love you til the end of time" line. This morning we discovered another Clique remix, this time of Saint Etienne's glorious new track "Tonight". Ramping up the melancholy euphoria we're so obsessed with a few more notches, we can see ourselves having a 'moment' if we hear it on the floor.




Two more glorious remixes we were introduced to through Trash are the Hudson Mohawke re-fixes of our favourite ever Janet track "The Pleasure Principle" and Tweet's "Oops! (Oh My)". Darker, sexier, pulsating slices of dance floor magic. Both have been floating around for months (maybe years?), but we're were clearly in the dark for too long. Obsessed...


...which conveniently leads us into our thoughts on HudMo's own EP. We imagine his profile will explode at some point over the next twelve months, as his blend of hetero-friendly club beats with an incredibly gay musical sensibility and awareness of homo club culture seems to rock everybody's boat. "All Your Love" sparkles and shimmers, leaving the listener breathless with ecstasy.




Finally, two tracks we encountered sitting on our rooftop in the recent burst of sunshine which flooded Manchester with unnecessary skin exposure (and even more unnecessary skin damage). We've never delved into Angie Stone's discography despite being enamoured with many of her contemporaries (holla at me Jill and Erykah), but we found ourselves enraptured with her 2001 "I Wish I Didn't Miss You Anymore" as dusk fell and the positively electrifying undercurrent of the piano caused a 'moment'. A magical sample and a perfect combination of chords. Next, Frank Ocean's "Swim Good" has been floating around since August last year but it seemed to take hearing it in the sunshine for it to 'click'. We're seeing him at the Manchester Academy tonight with that douche Tyler the Creator, so we'll be sure to report back along with our reviews of Kylie's two night residency in the very same venue.

See you Tuesday.

*reluctantly impressed face*

We know Lana Del Rey is overhyped and overrated and overexposed. BUT, we admire her dedication to her specific and chosen aesthetic. We dig her old school glamour vibe. Not much happens in this video, but what does is very beautifully shot and the music is sumptuous and seductive and panoramic and empty as we have come to expect from her. Rather good.

That "Born To Die"-alike string opening is completely unnecessary though, and if we have any advice for the 'broad' we imagine she'd probably die less at the end of her videos if she stopped dating tattooed men as everyone knows that tattoos are the sign of SATAN.

Haute Glamour

This is sumptuous and sexy and slow-burning and very, very easy on both the eyes and the ears. It's good, and we don't want to play that down just because Lana is the victim of hype so vast and overwhelming it's almost obliterated any goodwill we felt towards her.

This is also about 10 times better than "Video Games". The strings are lush and swoonsome. Approval rates are soaring.

HOWEVER (and you knew there was one of those coming) we just can't see her managing to sustain it for any lengthy period of time. Perhaps we're wrong. Perhaps we're being unimaginative or unnecessarily negative. But we're not sure we could even take an entire album of the heavily sedated drowsy vocals, let alone a career's worth. Where does she go from here? How does she progress? Can she do uptempo or is it going to be slow, dirgesome femme fatale snoozeballads for the next 5 albums? Will she go into acting (she has an actressy look)? We're interested to know what happens next.