New Pop on the Block

McFly – Party Girl (Listen)
When McFly claimed their new single was Lady GaGa-esque, I thought they just meant it was a bit more electro in contrast to their usual acoustic-pop sound. But no, it actually does sound like GaGa – well, it rips off Bad Romance’s “woah-oh”s anyway. McFly started off as a sweet retro-pop boyband, but soon took themselves too seriously and lost my interest entirely. In my opinion, Party Girl is the first good song they’ve made since their debut album, and I love that they have ‘gone poptastic’ but at the same time it’s a bit sad. After spending so many years trying (and failing) to be credible, to release their cheesiest single yet simply reeks of desperation. It’s a fun song and I’d like it to be a hit, if only to encourage other dull guitar acts to be more poptastic, but I’d so much rather a brand new band was behind this.
82% Poptastic!

Stephen Jerzak ft. Leighton Meester – She Said (Listen)
I wanted to like Stephen’s music cos he seems like a sweet young lad, but it really isn’t very impressive. This new single makes the problem very clear – it’s Stephen’s voice. The amount the song improves when Blair – I mean Leighton – is singing is just ridiculous. He’s clearly trying to ride the 3OH!3 wave but She Said doesn’t have enough energy or momentum to it to compete with their hits. Its structure is kind of rambly and after a year or so of 3OH!3 being popular Stephen’s way of singing sounds very unoriginal. If he stopped with the breathy autotune and painfully annoying way of pronouncing “dance”, and improved the verses (the chorus is better) it could be quite a good song. Not good enough to make him a star, though.
62% Poptastic!

Roll Deep – Green Light (Watch)
I’ll never quite get used to the transformation Roll Deep have made from being a big name grime collective (members including Wiley and Skepta) in the mid-’00s to their new sound, which can basically be summarised as ‘Cascada + rap’. However, they’ve always had a way with a tune, and have come out with some ace singles over the years, from The Avenue to Good Times. I knew Good Times was a hit as soon as I heard it – not only is ‘Cascada + rap’ a combination that any chav would love, but the song was amazingly catchy with its inanely uplifting chorus. Green Light isn’t quite so good, but it gets my thumbs up simply for featuring the lovely and very talented Tania Foster, who (fact fans!) is the sister of Danielle from Uni5!
73% Poptastic!

Jay Sean – 2012 (Listen)
2012 is the lead single from Sean’s upcoming new album, and I’m pleased to hear that it’s extremely cheesy pop! In fact it’s so cheesy I find myself wondering if this would surprise anyone if it was Jedward’s new single rather than Jay’s. It’s very light and the lyrics are 100% cliché. It has woah-ohs and whoosh noises and everything! It’s not at all ground-breaking and I can’t imagine Jay would have released anything like this if he was still only known in the UK, as UK producers would know as well as we do that this is ten years out of date. However, it is sweet and catchy and the target audience (teenage girls) can barely remember five years ago, let alone ten, so they’ll unoubtedly lap it up. That makes 3 big UK acts who’ve ‘gone poptastic’ in one post – I can’t wait to see who will be next!
75% Poptastic!

0 comments

  1. Yeah, none of these scream classic to me. The McFly single sounds way too calculated, and the Jay Sean isn’t doing anything to dispel the 2-hit wonder label he’s going to end up with here in the US. I’m not a Roll Deep fan, but anything that gives Tania a chance to find a broader audience is alright with me.

  2. Yeah, none of these scream classic to me. The McFly single sounds way too calculated, and the Jay Sean isn't doing anything to dispel the 2-hit wonder label he's going to end up with here in the US. I'm not a Roll Deep fan, but anything that gives Tania a chance to find a broader audience is alright with me.

  3. I really like the McFly song – i never thought of it as a cheesy attempt at prolonged success til now. Which has slightly spoilt it 😛 I will be sad though if their album doesn’t produce something as epic as Sorry’s Not Good Enough or Transylvania. Or even Last Song.

  4. I really like the McFly song – i never thought of it as a cheesy attempt at prolonged success til now. Which has slightly spoilt it 😛 I will be sad though if their album doesn't produce something as epic as Sorry's Not Good Enough or Transylvania. Or even Last Song.

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