ANNIE - TUBE STOPS AND LONELY HEARTS

Every four or five years the world gets too terrible to handle and in those moments, a perfect human named Annie Strand emerges and presents the world with a song that is so perfect that it momentarily cures all earthly woes.  That's what it does for everyone else, too, right?  It's not just me, is it?

Anyway, Annie is back and it is officially the best day of the year so far.  I can't fully express how I feel about "Tube Stops and Lonely Hearts" at the moment because as I'm listening to it, my brain just keeps shouting, "ANNIE IS BACK!  ANNIE IS BACK!"  But I am positive that the song is absolutely brilliant and better than every other song this year so far.  And aside from consistently creating nothing but perfect pop songs since 1999, she also continues to pleasantly surprise me with her ability to come up with the most perfect amazing jacket/skinny jean combos.  Gods bless you, Annie Strand.

BEST HUMAN EVER.

CHARLI XCX - CLOUD AURA (video)

This isn't my favorite Charli XCX song, but it might contain my favorite Charli XCX chorus and this is definitely my favorite video of hers so far.  I liked it throughout, but the clip of Quinn Fabray crying at the end sealed it for me.  Unfortunately, I'm just not that crazy about Brooke Candy.  I don't hate her or anything, but I don't think she fits in the song very well.  I liked her a lot more when she was just strutting around being a weirdo in that Grimes video.

Anyway, enjoy the tears!

ELI & FUR - TONIGHT (video)

Eli & Fur is one of the most promising acts of the moody and a bit scary subset of pop.  And by scary, I don't mean Fever Ray scary.  I mean music that just makes you go, "Ooh, dark!... but pretty!"  I think some people have settled on the name noir pop, but I can't keep up with genre names.  The duo have only graced us with a couple of songs so far (unless I'm wrong which is entirely possible), the really rather brilliant "Sea of Stars" from earlier this year and the possibly even more amazing "Tonight" from not so earlier this year.

They've also just plonked the video for "Tonight" online.  It's an old-fashioned smoke and flashing lights affair, but the simple concept works very well in this case and suits the tone of the song perfectly.  And you can clearly see that the girls play their own instruments which earns them at least ten points on the authenticity scale, if that sort of thing is important to you (It shouldn't be).

So, to sum it all up, Eli & Fur is incredible and will probably be even more incredible next year.  And the video is good.  Well done, everyone involved.

QUEEN OF HEARTS - WARRIOR (video)

I've already talked about how brilliant this song is right here.  And now there's a video to go along with it.  Now you can take a break from looking at Tumblr while listening to music.  The video features the Queen looking perfect and amazing in lots of different great outfits.  That shirt with the forest on it is really good, right?

Oh, and Popjustice made a joke about Skyfall being the movie she is standing in front of.  That got me thinking that Queen of Hearts should definitely do the next Bond theme.  Unless Daniel Craig and decent directors are done with Bond after this one and the movies go back to being terrible.  Although Madonna did a song for one of the terrible ones and the song was still really good so maybe it doesn't matter.

Anyway, here's the video.  Enjoy!  Or else.

GIRLS ALOUD - SOMETHING NEW (video!) + tons of other amazingness!

Today was the most glorious day of the year.  Perfection held a press conference in the form of five women.  That's right, the greatest band in the universe, Girls Aloud, is back.

I'll give you some time to stop shaking and crying.

The girls already graced us mere mortals with the presence of their brilliant comeback single, "Something New" earlier this week.  And today in London, they celebrated the announcement of their upcoming greatest hits collection and new "turr" by answering some questions from journalists and fans.  The questions basically amounted to nothing but, "OMG, WE LOVE YOU, WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A DEITY?"  Which is all well and good, but why didn't they select me to ask them whether or not they're ever going to work with Xenomania in their solo careers?  ANSWER ME THAT.  I would die of happiness if there was ever a Cheryl Cole solo album as earthshatteringly amazing as "Crazy Fool".  Or a full album of Slaydine Coyle Xeno-bangers.

But anyway!  They announced their new greatest hits album which is called Ten.  And it includes FOUR NEW SONGS.  You are not prepared.  There are one and two-disc options but really what you want is the deluxe limited edition box set, which includes both CDs, a 2-DVD set of The Passions of Girls Aloud (witness the origin of Push 10!), six beautiful art prints, and the possibility of a golden ticket to win one of ten prizes that will probably give your life new meaning.

• triple platinum personalised Out Of Control presentation disc
• A pair of shoes worn by one of the girls in the Something New video
• A signed, personalised art print of the album sleeve for Ten
• A phone call from one of the girls
• @GirlsAloud will follow you on Twitter (LOL!!!!)
• Tickets plus a meet and greet with the girls at a forthcoming tour date of your choice
• A piece of clothing from the Girls Aloud archive
• The complete Girls Aloud back catalogue, signed
• A signed, personalised and framed photo of the girls
• A triple platinum personalised Sound Of The Underground presentation disc

Those Nadine shoes are mine, you bastards.

The most important question that was asked was actually the first one.  I don't remember the exact wording because I was still freaking out, but it was something along the lines of, "Are you going to destroy our world again by abandoning us after the tour is over?" and Queen Nadine spoke right up and said something like, "Bless you, sweet child, we haven't made up our brilliant minds yet."  ARGH!!!!!

Oh, and speaking of that "turr", I don't even want to think about it because they aren't coming to America and my whole life is ruined and I'm never eating again, etc.

You can watch each monumental moment of Girls Aloud perfection right here.



And if all that wasn't enough, they also premiered the video for "Something New"!  And it's basically the best thing that's ever happened.  For instance, this happened and I "AWWWWWWWW'ed" until my head fell off.

But you don't have to take my word for it.  You can have your very own heart attack by watching the whole thing yourself!



To sum up the day, this happened:

And I was like:

*Credit for me knowing these gifs exist goes to oneofthosefaces and MuuMuse.  Thanks, guys!

QUEEN OF HEARTS - WARRIOR

Behold! It's the latest popstorm of brilliance from Queen of Hearts! "Warrior" sees her reunited with previous collaborator, Diamond Cut, who produced the stunning, "Where Are You Now?" from last year's The Arrival EP.  Diamond Cut opens the track with the literal sounds of heaven and then some AMAZING afro-funkish percussion drops and then the Queen's voice comes in and you think, "Oh, do you know what?  This is actually better than heaven.  I think I'll drop dead now."  It's an incredibly powerful tune and like all of her songs, worthy of aproximately one million repeat plays.

It's actually mind boggling to me how great this artist is.  I don't even imagine her making these tracks in a studio.   That's too domestic.  Being the enchantress that she is, she's probably reciting some sort of spells from an ancient tome while sprinkling some magic dust into an open flame.  And then voila!  Pop masterpiece!

It seems like only two months ago I was writing about the last amazing Queen of Hearts song.  Oh, it was only two months ago.  It has become quite clear that this woman can do no wrong and goes around doing no wrong quite often.  I think I'm going to have to put a limit on how many times the same artist can be on my year-end list because otherwise, it's just going to be a bunch of Queen of Hearts tracks with a few other people scattered throughout.  Dear Liz, what's it like to make one of the best songs of the year every time you make a song?

The only Queen that matters is gracing us mere mortals in America with her presence starting this week.  She is playing her first show on American soil this Friday at DC9 in Washington DC and is doing another gig in New York on October 16th at Santos Party House.  And as British people apparently love to say (according to X Factor), I am absolutely "gutted" that I'm missing the show in DC.  So, if you're in the area, make up for my absence by swooning like a teenage girl in the front row. 

Warrior will be released on December 2nd via NightMoves.

BRITT LOVE - MUSIC MAKES YOU LOSE CONTROL

I'm personally devastated that Britt Love didn't make it through to the live shows of this year's X Factor.  She was literally the only contestant I was looking forward to.  Not that all of the contestants are bad, but none of them hit the spot with me yet.  Honestly, I think Britt should have just gone out on stage with a boombox, played Mini Viva's "Left My Heart in Tokyo" or "I Wish", and then said, "See, I'm amazing."  Oh well.

But all is not lost because we now have this brilliant new Britt Love song that will be better than the X Factor winner's single, anyway.  It's another example of how incredible Britt's voice really is.  Perhaps not in the over the top diva way that the talent shows require, but she sounds like no one else.  And the song itself is a properly amazing dancefloor anthem.  And I don't even think there's one mention of "the club".  It's a lot more full on Euro dance pop than a lot of what's in the charts these days, but that's totally fine with me.

I really hope something positive comes from her stint on X Factor.  Whether it's just more fans, or some attention from a good label, or perhaps a collaboration with one of the current superstar producers.  Come on, Calvin Harris, you don't only have to work with the Rihannas and Ellie Gouldings of the world, you know?