Amazing: The Bird & The Bee have got a new album coming out and it's all covers of Hall & Oates songs (except for one track which is brand new).
THE BIRD & THE BEE IN BRIEF: A 'chanteuse' called Inara George along with a chap by the name of Greg Kurstin who's basically one of the world's Top 10 pop inventors. The pair first bonded over a shared passion for jazz NO WAIT COME BACK then went on to do some songs that weren't in fact jazz and actually sound like big pop, like last year's 'Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future' album (Spotify link) and the single 'Love Letter To Japan' which could quite easily have been a fairly popular Little Boots or Lily Allen song.
ANYWAY the new album is called 'Interpreting The Masters Vol 1: A Tribute To Daryl Hall And John Oates' and it's out towards the end of March.
The first song, 'Heard It On The Radio', isn't a Hall & Oates song
at all. Instead it's a warm and brilliantly observed 'Yesterday Once More'-style 'homage' to Tunes Of
The Past and for that reason is a very good song to kick off this
tribute album. You'll already have guessed this if you're familiar with
Greg's work but 'Interpreting The Masters...' isn't one of those terrible 'LOL remember the 80s' efforts; instead it's a passionate fan latter to the greatest songwriting duo of the 1980s whose names weren't Tennant & Lowe or Morrissey & Marr or Stock & Aitken or (GET ON WITH IT - ED)
Tracklisting:
1. Heard It On The Radio
2. I Can’t Go For That
3. Rich Girl
4. Sara Smile
5. Kiss On My List
6. Maneater
7. She’s Gone
8. Private Eyes
9. One on One
We have listened to this album approximately three times so far and are currently on the fourth lesson. It's rating quite high in the listenableometer.
Radio 1 announced the new Top 10 last night, as they do every week near the end of the Reggie Yates Show. Unfortunately the whole thing was in the wrong order. Here's how this week's Top 10 should look.
1. Example - 'Won't Go Quietly'
Despite its eye-wateringly bad video 'Won't Come Quietly' is one of the best singles of 2010 and you can take that to the pop fact bank.
2. Glee - 'Don't Stop Believin''
Make the most of this, readers, there are three weeks left until you will never need or want to hear the Glee rendition of this song ever again until you are dead and in the ground and therefore incapable of hearing anything at all although, even when you're six feet under you'll probably still be able to detect the distant annual thud of X Factor Big Band week as it vibrates through the afterlife.
3. Alicia Keys - 'Empire State Of Mind (Part II)'
It would be better if 'Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart' was in the Top 10 but it's not so we'll just have to make do with this. It says something quite complimentary about 'Empire State Of Mind' that even when you've taken out the best bits you're still left with a song that's better than Most Other Songs. Imagine, for example, if you took all the good bits out of 'Playing With Fire' by N-Dubz featuring Mr Hudson! It would sound like this.
4. Owl City - 'Fireflies'
Do you know what's worse than Owl City sounding quite a lot like The Postal Service? People saying "Owl City sounds like The Postal Service". YES THANK YOU WE HAVE EARS.
5. Journey - 'Don't Stop Believin''
Quite a good song. Marginally better than 'Starstrukk', marginally worse than 'Fireflies'.
6. 3OH!3 feat Katy Perry - 'Starstrukk'
A song that was invented for the benefit of morons but turned out to be alright in the end.
7. Iyaz - 'Replay'
This is clearly an amazing song and if anyone attempts to tell you otherwise you have our permission to call them a massive bastard but it is only at Number 7 in our rundown of the proper Top 10 and that is due to the extreme badness of his next single, 'Solo'.
8. Timbaland feat Katy Perry - 'If We Ever Meet Again'
Here's an oddity - a song which involves Katy Perry but whose video features someone other than Katy Perry pulling the video's most ridiculous faces. The guilty party here, of course, is Timbaland, whose endless 'cat done a whoopsie' facial contortions must surely be part of some elaborate audition process for a 2010 bigscreen 'Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em' remake.
9. JLS - 'One Shot'
The good bit (where it goes "HNRRGH NRGHRHGRN NRGRHRNN NRGRGHRNN" and sounds like it's about to all go off) should go on for longer and by 'longer' we mean 'the entire song'.
10. John & Edward feat Vanilla Ice - 'Under Pressure (Ice Ice Baby)' The song at the heart of this is brilliant but everything around it is 100% shit, dragging the whole thing down. Imagine a nice birthday cake, but imagine it put in a sack with a dead dog and a brick then chucked in a river. That is what this song is like.
And that, readers, is what this week's Top 10 should have looked like.
Sometimes when a new artist comes along it is difficult to really get your head around what they're 'about'.
Obviously the most important thing is that you like the songs, and whether or not you tap your toe to a tune shouldn't really have anything to do with whoever's responsible for bringing that song into being. But after you've decided you like that first song it gets to a point where you're wondering whether it's worth investing more time in the artist. Will you be interested in hearing another song from the act, for example? How about checking them out live, or purchasing a t-shirt?
With some new artists you'll know at first glance whether they're up your street but with others it can be less easy.
Imagine, for example, you're a really cool teenager like those teenagers in Skins. Your diary reads like an issue of Platform, except it's an issue of Platform that won't even be published for another eight months because you're so cutting edge, and it's not even a diary, it's a BLOG, and it's not even a blog because it's a brand new type of journal known only to you and your small group of friends. Except it's not a group, it's a network, and it's not small, it's so big that Facebook looks small in comparison thanks to all those parties and events you're involved with. So you're quite a happening young person, and you come across 'Number One Enemy' by Daisy Dares You and you think to yourself, "well. This is certainly a catchy tune that I will find myself humming from time to time. But how does Daisy Dares You fit in with my lifestyle? I don't want to get involved with this artist if she is too pop or if she is not credible enough".
We've all been in that sort of situation. It's not easy. Fortunately sometimes record labels can give you a helping hand and RCA have done a great job with Daisy. One quick glance at the sleeve for 'Number One Enemy' and any doubt about whether this is A Real Artist can immediately go out of the window. There are three key points here.
1. A small detail that you might miss at first glance so let us just point it out: there's a massive red guitar in shot. This subtle, almost subliminal signifier tells us that there is more to Daisy Dares You than you might think. She doesn't just sing pop songs - she can hold guitars as well. This makes her ideally placed for a job in a music shop if this pop career doesn't take off but of course it will due to her collection of incredible songs and general 'artistry' so there's nothing to worry about there.
2. There's hole in her stockings (a bit like that Amy Studt song 'Ladder In My Tights'
except not as good) to show that you can dress her up as much as you
like you evil conformist BASTARDS but her personality just can't help but come through because she's
a little bit alternative and a little bit kooky and yes she might be
signed to a major but she's indie in spirit you know, why not join in
her gang etc etc etczzzz.
3. The most important factor here: an old typewriter font has been used for the song title. This is useful because it lets us know that she is PROPERLY alternative and 'traditional', like those bands that people used to write fanzines about during the days of PUNK etc. It should be noted however that Daisy Dares You is not threateningly punk rock. If she was threateningly punk rock her sleeve would look like this.
And that, we think you will agree, is just too confrontational. Nobody needs this sort of font-related aggression on a Monday morning.
» Owl City beat off John & Edward yesterday evening, while Alicia Keys has 'scored' her first UK Number One album. (Radio 1 Chart Show)
» Lady Gaga is putting together a new spin on her live show for UK audiences - it's themed around The Wizard Of Oz. (Daily Star)
» Not unreasonably, Men At Work are right royally fucked off about all that 'Down Under' plagiarism business. (BBC News)
» Illiterate pop divots John & Edward are still planning an album and Alphabeat have been approached to write a song. And if you think that sounds unlikely, wait until you see how The Sun describe Alphabeat. (The Sun) "Cool Danish dance producers" indeed...
» The Sun have figured out a pointlessly complicated way of letting you watch JLS (or 'JSL') video content. (The Sun)
» Massive Attack are sort of furious about their artwork being censored except it's really lame censorship based on the London Underground not accepting graffiti-inspired advertising so it doesn't really matter very much. (Daily Star)
» Oasis' admittedly-quite-good '(What's The Story) Morning Glory?' looks like it might win that Brits 30 album vote thing. Poor old Travis. (The Sun)
» Jay-Z believes Susan Boyle should launch a clothing line. (Digital Spy)
As you may have read elsewhere, Nick Jonas has a solo single coming out. It's called 'Who I Am' and it's one of those ludicrous but semi-catchy "ooh listen to me 'n' my serious tunes I'm more than just an idiot out a boyband" numbers.
As you can see from the sleeve below, Nick has 'risen above the madness of the city' (ie he is away from all those screaming girls - he is a musician!) and is now just a wandering minstrel.
Observe:
» The scarf!
» The beaten up leather jacket!
» The guitar!
We're in deepest, darkest troubadour territory here, readers.
But how good is the song?
So good they've put it on the CD single FOUR TIMES IN A ROW.
We love how it's the radio edit three times, then the album version just to mix things up.
GAME IDEA: 'NICK JONAS ROULETTE'
Put the CD on in random shuffle mode.
When the album version comes on, perform a forfeit.
The End.
Could this be the format to save the music industry?
» Simon Cowell is unwell so Louis Walsh will step in at Britain's Got Talent auditions. Louis should put through lots of terrible acts as payback for Simon making him pick John & Edward for last year's X Factor. (Daily Mail)
» In other Britain's Got Talent news, George Sampson's mum has been cleared of flytipping behind her home. (Mirror)
» Pixie Lott is thinking of getting a tattoo, or she might not, or she might get one where you can't see it or something. She's been inspired by the tattoo Lady Gaga got in honour of her fans. (Daily Star) Notes Pixie: "I don’t have a specific name for my fans like she does but when I go on Twitter I always say: 'Hey crazy cats'." Oh dear. OH DEAR.
» There's still some serious shit going down with Michael Jackson's doctor. (Gigwise)
» Watch Marina & The Diamonds being talked to like a child by a GMTV presenter. (YouTube) It would have been better if the line "you look like Wonder Woman!" had met a response of "actually my name's Marina" but it was early in the morning so what can you do, eh?
» Frances Bean Cobain is recording a song with Andrew WK. (NME)
» Fresh-faced pensioner Paolo Nutini has been writing tunes for another artist. Arno Carstens will sing Paolo's song at the World Cup. THAT SOUNDS GOOD. (Daily Star)
» Yet more 'you couldn't make it up' guff about the JLS tour... (Daily Star)
» John & Edward, the X Factor duo whose musical career is shaping up to be the pop equivalent of making a wet fart in a teacup out of a molehill, have apparently annoyed other acts on the X Factor tour by singing too many songs. (The Sun)
That's your lot. Except to say...
» A new soy product has been developed - it's just like chicken. (Science Daily)
An interview will take place and it seems like a good time for one of those 'fans ask the questions' jobs.
SO. If you have a question for Will and/or Alison, email it to
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
before midday tomorrow (Friday) and we'll do our best to use as many of the interesting ones as possible.
Warning: queries of the 'when are you coming to [insert remote hillside community]', 'can you clear up some confusion about this catalogue number from eight years ago' variety probably won't make the cut.
So the image on the Ellie Goulding album sleeve (left) is pretty nice and the image on the Ellie Goulding single sleeve (right) is pretty nice but as you can see there has been a slight mix-up at Polydor and an album sleeve image is being used for a single sleeve, and a single sleeve image is being used for an album sleeve.
Let's have a quick look at the 'Starry Eyed' single sleeve image in hi-res.
If that blueness etc is not completely albumsleevular we don't know what is.
The simplest solution would be to change the title of the single to 'Lights' and the title of the album to 'Starry Eyed', but the song on the single is called 'Starry Eyed' and 'Lights' is a far better name for an album, so that means the artwork will have to change.
Et voila!
So here is the final Ellie Goulding album sleeve.
If you work at Polydor and would like to help get this unfortunate confusion cleared up click here for the new sleeve in hi-res.
Meanwhile, if you're in the mood for hearing a new mix of Ellie's forthcoming single 'Starry Eyed', the v amazing Monarchy (who we've mentioned 'a few' times recently on Popjustice) have done a remix called the 'Horse Head Nebula' (?!) mix. It's big and bouncy and exciting and they've given it to Popjustice to pass on to you.
Listen here and download using the little grey arrow thing.
» Here's an example of one of those Mastercard sponsorship things not being completely shit: a lady opened her door to the Pet Shop Boys standing there; they went on to perform a gig in her front room. (Richmond & Twickenham Times)
» We haven't read the whole thing but from the headline it looks like Dappy N-Dubz has taken part in Mastermind. (Watch With Mothers)
» Cathy Dennis, Scissor Sisters and Miike Snow are among the acts lined up for Mark Ronson's new album which is showing all the signs of being VERY BRILLIANT. "No covers, no horns," promises the 'Stop Me' hitmaker; the album's due early summer. (NME)
» Is it just us or does it look like Usher's head has been Photoshopped into this We Are The World picture? (Radio 1 Newsbeat) And here's some video footage involving Quincy Jones making a joke and only Lionel Richie laughing as well as quite a touching pep talk from Wyclef Jean. (BBC News) In a west London office, Simon Cowell throws something breakable at a wall and thumps his fist on a desk.
» If you're playing 'boyband on tour tabloid news story bingo' this might be of interest: here's some stuff about JLS being told to tone down their set because fans are getting too excited. (Daily Star) The Daily Star's Kim Dawson also names JLS "Britain's best boyband", which has got to come as a terrible blow for Vice.
» There's some 'shit going down' re Michael Jackson's doctor. (BBC)
» Stevie Wonder has been announced as a Glastonbury headliner. (NME)
That's your lot. Except to say...
» The Food and Drug Administration has approved two animal drugs, one for the treatment of otitis externa in dogs and the second for the treatment of lower respiratory tract infections in horses. (Veterinary Practice News)
Daily Pop Briefing 
Hold onto your hats:
