Haven't done this for a couple of weeks. The songs are marked in Simon Amstells out of 5, celebrating his long-term aceness.

Ana - We Are
Ana is perhaps Sweden's answer to Kym Marsh, but being Swedish she is many times better. She was in Swedish Popstars Excellence and is now a fairly successful solo artist singing pop-rock niceties. This is a bit rockier than her usual, perhaps as it is the lead single from the Spiderman 2 soundtrack and they didn't want to stray too far from Chad Kroeger and friends. It's a nice enough song and perfect for a film soundtrack but it's hardly the most original sounding song and doesn't really stand out among all the other pop-rock girls of the moment.


Kane - Rain Down On Me
Kane supported Maroon 5 on tour when I saw them in March and I didn't take much notice, presuming they were American. I probably would have paid more attention had I known they are in fact Dutch. Sadly they prove that European rock is not always better than British or American, as this is pretty average, although there is apparently a very good dance remix which I want to hear. They have also done a duet with the always ace Anouk which is fantastic but on their album it is only them with no sign of Anouk.



Busted - Thunderbirds
I thought this might be quite fun being a brand new not off the album song, but it is in fact their 2nd worst single so far (the worst being Sleeping With The Light On). The highlight is when Charlie sings "It always look so cool when spaceships come out of the pool" but I think it is only good in contrast to the rest of the song. Charlie also gets to do the slowed down bridge bit as always. It's such a generic Busted song it's almost like a parody of them. And Matt's current look make me feel slightly ill.

And what a pretty cover it has too!

In equally exciting news my Big Fish DVd is finally on it's way. Only a few more days til I can ogle the lovely Billy Crudup.

No, not about Justin...

* V are a proper boyband (ie. they know that's what they are, shown by their ace boyband medley on TOTP Sat) and they can sing quite well too. Hurrah!
* Jessica Simpson is a robot.
* Jamelia should be an embassador for pop as she was spot on in CD:UK hotshots.
* The Some Girls video is reminding me a bit of Beyoncé's Naughty Girl.
* Busted are pains in the bum by making me miss Phixx on the other channel.

3. Top 10 Videos Of 2004 So Far

1. Will Young - Your Game



2. Maroon 5 - This Love



3. Will Young - Friday's Child



4. Pet Shop Boys - Flamboyant



5. Britney Spears - Toxic



6. Girls Aloud - The Show



7. Phixx - Love Revolution



8. Scissor Sisters - Laura



9. 0-Zone - Dragostea Din Tei



10. Snow Patrol - Chocolate

I have found the new Maroon 5 video, but I can't get it to play on my WMP (nothing to do with Womp thank you Crystal) because .asx files hate me for no good reason, so now I'm racing around the internet trying to find a different file or pictures or anything! If you want to see it and have a better relationship with .asx files then click here, you annyoingly lucky person.

In other soexcitingicantbreathe news, Darren Hayes's new album has a release date (September 6th) and the single Popular is out in August but goes to radio on July 12th AND he is performing at BRMB PITP in less than a month. Be there or be not me!

Yippeeeeee!

Click!

So, a The Graduate theme and even ruder than This Love. It's a beautiful song so the video is bound to match, although how it will ever beat This Love is beyond me, but I still can't wait to see what they come up with. I just hope Ryan is better in time to be in it. A Maroon 5 video without Ryan is like me without any Will CDs - tragic to even think of! Here's a nice picture while we wait:

2. Top Ten Pointless Pop Stars

1. Antony Blue
Simon's the 'cool' one, Lee's the stupid one, Duncan's the slimey one, but Antony is as usueless as the 3 of them combined.

2. Michelle McManus
Most annoying voice & face combination ever?

3. Emma & Lynsey Clea
Chloë is scary, Aimee is sweet, these two are just boring.

4. Bradley S Club
His mum has been on TV more than him this year.

5. Chris, Joey and Lance 'N Sync
I guess all the charisma was used up by JC & JT.

6. Chris Phixx
He was confident to the point of arrogance on Popstars but is even outshined by Nikk and Peter in Phixx.

7. Usher
What is all the fuss about?

8. Rochelle S Club 8
She looks mean.

9. Kevin & Howie BSB
I can't even think of anything to say, they're that pointless.

10. Kanye West
All his songs and videos are about his accident - does he have nothing else to talk about?

June
Jem - It All Starts Here - not heard this yet but have heard 2 others by her and love them.
Freestylers - Push Up - I love this song and can't see why it isn't massive already. It's fab!
Javine - Best Of My Love - This has to do well so she can release Don't Walk Away and at least if she flops she'll go with a smile.
Portobella - Covered In Punk - I love shouty girls in colourful videos with senseless lyrics so therefore I had to to love this.
Beverley Knight - Come As You Are - Bev's best single yet, deserves to do well. Loving the new poppier direction.
JC Chasez - All Day Long I Dream About Sex - This deserves to be no.1 forever but top 20 will be lucky :(
Phixx - Wild Boys - Again this doesn't look to be doing as well as it should be, despite total aceness. The lack of a new b-side is disappointing.
Girls Aloud - The Show - It's Girls Aloud!

July
Shaznay Lewis - Never Felt Like This Before - It's lovely to see Shaznay back and I look forward to hearing her album. This is a grower.
Will Young - Friday's Child - Quite worried about chart position for this, likely to be his lowest yet but hopefully will sell even more albums.
Jody Lei - Just The Music - Unexpected greatness. Sounds just like Beyoncé but is fab in it's own way too.
Mania - Looking For A Place To Go - Loving this more and more, I hope they survive to an album but it's doubtful.
Rachel Stevens - Some Girls - Heard this yesterday and it's as good as everyone said though I'm still going for The Show over it, I always prefer the Aloud.
Snow Patrol - Spitting Games - Excellent choice for new single but Ways & Means must be next.
Alex Cartañá - Have You Lost Your Mind? - Loved the last one so hoping this is as good.

August
Maroon 5 - She Will Be Loved - Couldn't have made a better choice for single 3 and I cannot wait to see the video.
V - Hip To Hip - Looking forward to hearing this, really liking V at the minute.

Streets - Dry Your Eyes
The first thing I thought when I heard this was how massive it could potentially be and with Mike Skinner's cool factor at the moment and these 'urban ballad' types of songs doing so well right now, I'm even more certain. It's quite different from his other singles as it's a touching break-up song with a big orchestral backing and proper singing as well as the usual talking (rapping?). I think this will become a bit of a dumpee's anthem. The video reflects the song well as it is subtle and sad, showing Mike moping around at home, the shops, the cinema and (cleverly with what's coming up) an empty football stadium.



Nelly Furtado - Forca
This is one of my favourite tracks from the Folklore album so I'm a bit worried it'll be ruined by being the official Euro 2004 song (Nelly is part Portuguese, in case you hadn't connected there). The video starts off with a small boy playing with and the losing a football, and as the song builds up, more and more people come to help him get it back by making some kind of human tower. I guess it's meant to show everyone coming together in football, but surely if everyone loves football so much the owner of the building that the ball is stuck on would have just got it down for him from the window?



Ash - Starcrossed
I'm not a fan of Ash (no big surprise I'm sure) but I am rather liking this one. I liked the video first with it's buff hottie actor boy and Romeo & Juliet theme, but I'm actually really liking the song now too. The chorus is good to sing along to, even if I seem to be even more out of tune than usual when I do. If Ash songs make me sing out of tune, perhaps that explains Tim's similar problems!

1. Top 10 Dance Routines!

1. Britney Spears - Baby One More Time


2. Girls Aloud - Sounds Of The Underground


3. Spice Girls - Stop


4. 'N Sync - Bye Bye Bye


5. S Club 8 - New Direction


6. Sophie Ellis Bextor - Murder On The Dancefloor


7. Steps - Tragedy


8. Jamelia - Superstar


9. Five - Everybody Get Up


10. Whigfield - Saturday Night

March: We celebrated boybands of the 90s, wrote a very long review of JC Chasez, Bryan left Westlife, discovered AGSFB, reminisced about Ace of base and Gina G, saw Maroon 5 live, loved Surferosa, Scissor Sisters and the PSB's Flamboyant, heard news of my long lost love Darren Hayes and got Will tour tickets.

April: Loved Seth on The OC, Shebang, AI3, Erik Faber and Robyn, realised the aceness of Snow Patrol, got scared by Will's glasses and reminisced about Take That.

May: Saw Will at Oxford, launched Into The Groove, loved Gavin Degraw, Alcazar and Lambretta, reminisced about the Vengaboys and got over-excited by Eurovision and the GA comeback.

What a fab year it has been! Let's hope the next 12 months are just as fun and pop-filled.

December: I picked my top 25 singles of the year and held the Dirrrty Pop Awards 2003, got very excited about Will's album and World Idol, loved Ari Hest, S Club 8 and Pop Idol, was sad at the end of Dawson's Creek and made presents for all the ace people I met in 2003.

January: I was very pleased to see the return of American Idol, discovered the lovely Ben Jelen and ace Soundic Radio, Alistair released an album, Atomic Kitten split (yay!) I was loving Love Revolution and You Freak Me Out and it was Will's (and Gary Barlow's!) birthday.

February: Will unveiled the Your Game video, the Brits were rubbish and Will woz robbed, we found out all about V, enjoyed Making Our Mind Up and Toxic and fell in love with Travel Girl.

To be continued (again).

Well not me exactly but Dirrrty Pop is one year old this month! So here's all my best bits of our first year:

June: Started Dirrrty Pop, went to Summer XS in Reading, read the Popstars: The Rivals book which I still haven't finished!

July: Went to Party In The Park in London and Will Young in Exeter, compiled the A-Z of pop reality tv, got comments boxes, deciding which albums I would buy this year (only 2 ever came out!), Fame Academy began.

August: Realised the aceness of Alistair (he WAS ace!), found this, watched Alistair's pants...all a bit Alistair shaped really! Also, Pop idol 2 started and I went to Germany on holiday.

September: Went back to school, loved Delta Goodrem, Thicke and Adam off Pop Idol, realised Chris the Vicar was not a real vicar.

October: Alistair lost out on FA at the last moment, causing much stress, which was lifted by a Will gig the next day. Loved Maroon 5, Siobhan Donaghy, Jamelia, Phixx and Jason Mraz, had a Darren Hayes day, demanded JC and Sarah Connor's songs were released here and for once it worked! Plus Andrex Phixx came out (Shock!) and Will came back with LRN which I didn't think would do that well. Hmm...

November: Will, Sita and Britney returned, this happened and I got a bit too excited about World Idol.

To be continued!

In Nicola Alouds out of 5!

Jamelia - See It In A Boy's Eyes
I was a bit disappointed by this track when I first heard it, although I don't know why I was expecting excitement from a song involving Chris Martin, but since seeing the video it's growing on me a lot. I hadn't expected the video to actually be Jamelia being a boy (in the army to be precise) but it looks great and really fits the song. There's a really cute boy in it too who even has some shower scenes, which is always a good idea. I reckon this could be a really big hit, maybe even no.1.


Will Young - Friday's Child
I was quite surprised when I heard that Will was releasing this and it doesn't seem to be going down that well (except with my aunt who can't stop talking about Will's swimming trunks) which is a shame. The video doesn't match the song, but looking past that it's still an interesting and certainly amusing video, which includes Will wearing swimiing trunks and precisely nothing else. Unless armbands count?


Freestylers - Push Up
I love this song more with every listen and I'll be shocked if it's not a huge hit. It's a great dance/pop track that will appeal to anyone wanting a summer party song. The lyrics are great and the video, although a bit trashy, has some super-fab dancing that makes you want to join in even sitting on your sofa.


Shaznay Lewis - Never Felt Like This Before
I remember Shaznay's aceness and talent from All Saints ("She wrote Never Ever!" etc.) so I was looking forward to hearing this. It turns out to be a lovely mid-tempo ballad with great lyrics. I don't know how well this will do, it doesn't exactly grab your attention, but hopefully with enough promo and radio play it will be at least top 10. I suspect that she will try and get the album out whatever happens cos I'm sure she has put a lot of effort into it and I am very much looking forward to hearing more from her.


Snow Patrol - Spitting Games
I don't know if I ever confessed my love for this band on here but basically I adored Chocolate, saw the album cheap in Woolies, bought it and loved it. I'm very pleased they are re-releasing this because it's one of my faves and the video has singer Gary Lightbody looking even more of a buff hottie than usual! Very impressed.


In other video news, Razorlight are filling the gap between the Strokes and the Strokes and Flip & Fill's Discoland is making everyone's eyes hurt.