Natalie Bassingthwaighte “1000 Stars” New Single + Video Review

The 1000 Stars Single Cover

After a number 1 debut for her debut solo effort “1000 Stars”, a platinum single “Alive”, and a gold single “Someday Soon”, Natalie is now releasing her third single from the album, the title track “1000 Stars”.

This inspirational song, is set to top the charts, with a killer music video as well as a physical and digital release on May 2nd. Signed copies of the single “1000 Stars” are available for pre-order on JB Hifi currently, I highly reccomend this to anybody who enjoys the song, it will come with remixes, an acoustic version, and a new b-side from Natalie.

CLICK HERE TO PREORDER “1000 Stars”

Enough of the technical crap! The music video is fantastic, it definetly stands out compared to her previous two videos which both had her with a Macy Gray Style wig, and fake tan to boot! Problem was it did not suit her one bit.  However in this video we see a more natural Natalie, showcasing her beauty, on a beach.

1000 Stars The Album

Whilst this may sound benign, there are three different looks, in the first Natalie writhes in the sunlight on the beach in a way reminiscent of Kylie Minogue’s “Slow” video, this is Natalie, without makeup or hairstyling, and she looks incredible. Then we diverge to her second look which is on the album art for the single, it’s almost like they are trying to make her look extremely old and almost bald, it’s very elegant, but at times it is too… antique.

Finally we see the dressed up Natalie in hot pants, she once again looks great, only problem is the timing of the vocals in the chorus at the end seems a little bit off.

Overall the video deserves a rating of 3 and a half stars, it needs either much brighter blue colours to match her album cover, or it needs a storyline. Either way a music video doesn’t need a storyline but if that is overlooked then it is very important to make the video spectacular and captivating in terms of the colour and the editing, they just didn’t perfect the colour.

Take a listen to 1000 Stars being performed Live in Melbourne at the Crown Casino. And below this you can watch the video!

1000 Stars Performed Live

Music Video Review – Britney “If U Seek Amy”

Britney

So finally it’s here! Three months after her last music video for “Circus”, Britney Spears has released the video for “If U Seek Amy”, and I’ll give you a heads up, it’s nothing like “Womanizer”, and it’s nothing like “Gimme More” because the days where people have constantly chanted “Britney’s Back” succesively are over, there are no awkward moments in the video,  no blank empty looks on her face, this is who she is, and the reason it comes off so well is because the video relates around the concept of how the media can redefine and manipulate who you are, but they can never change who you are behind closed doors.

The dancing in this video is pretty decent, in fact the best since Toxic, but to be honest it’s one of those video’s where it focusses more on perspectives and emotions, than choreography. I commend them on that, because her dancing isn’t as good as it used to be, and it’s better to sway away from that for the time being and to play to her strengths.

The video fixates on the new Britney, the mature adult Britney, the one that has brought her public image more down to earth in many peoples minds. Before she was this teenager who could dance and sing, she was talented and sweet. But now her persona is full of dimension, she’s hit rock bottom, she’s become a mother, she’s reached the extremes of fame and infamy, something not many other’s can claim to such a magnitude. She is the archetypical celebrity, she has been the one who has been at the complete mercy of the press, obsessed with bringing somebody down until there is nothing to do but to talk them back up to the top again, it’s sadistic, and that’s why Britney’s vocals in the song express “All of the boys and all of the girls are begging to if you seek amy”, everybody is out to fuck her over.

Britney and the exterior

In the beggining she is surrounded by faceless people shrouded in the darkness of impropriety, and suddenly we see her face, in clear focus and bright lights, she lifts her head up and sings right into the camera it really is raw. She walks seductively (something she seems to be doing more than dancing in her tour, but at least she does it well…. right?) to the window, as she contemplates what she already knows, the reality she faces on a daily basis, that outside everyone is seeking this identity “Amy” her public identity, which as the video progresses we learn is nothing like who she really is.

There are people watching her in the video in every scene, until she is shown in pools of white light as she dresses herself up into “Amy” the ideal conservative, woman. As she slowly makes her way ouside holding a pie, we see jump cuts between Amy and Britney, showing the bitterness within what lies beneath, and the eerie confidence of this picture perfect housewife on the outside. We see the house is used as a metaphor to capture the essence of how we all want to seem, and how horrendously different we usually are.

Amy and the media

At the beginning and end of the video we see short fox “news” (And I think we all understand why I used inverted commas there…) clips, the first, a bitter yet “virginal” news reporter who in a real “news” broadcast mocks the songs title saying slowly “If…. You…. Seek…. Amy” and then she dons a bitchy little smile. However at the end of the video she says stupidly “It doesn’t make sense, does it!”. This is executed by the editor so well, because it mocks her for not understanding the hidden meaning of the song.

Great work from Britney and her crew, they have exceeded expectations, and once again proved that whilst the new mature Britney is different from the old one, she is better in more ways than one.

This video recieves  4 stars, it would recieve more if the editing was a little better, there are a few moments that could have been improved. But overall what drives the video is the idea of the underlying message, from the interior of ourselves to the polished and surreal outside, that strives to stifle realism.

Music Video Review – Lady Gaga “Love Game”

Lady Gaga Channelling Britney Spears

Evidently, Lady Gaga has filmed two music video’s at once, because they have been released so closely together despite LoveGame’s release not even due yet in the United States for months. But first let me say, whilst the start of both the video’s seems cheap and tacky, just hold on a minute, bear with it, and BAM! You realise how good the video’s are.

However both videos make it very clear where Lady Gaga has gotten her inspiration and drive from, in Love Game we see Ms. Gaga revisiting the classic Michael Jackson dance for the “Bad” video, and she does it well, something which Love Game proves, she can really dance quite well!

Love Game is a fantastic song, and the music video encapsulates this, the energetic intense dancing which represents the beats in the song, and the inevitable and sort of creepy gyrating of the hips which obviously conveys the indiscreetly sexual nature of the song.

Lady Gaga’s crotch is mainly the subject matter of the first quarter of the video, and to be honest, she is a little bit too unflatteringly skinny to be wearing her outfits the way she is… “Downstairs” especially the chain mail chastity belt panties as I shall deem it that she thrusts at her backup dancers.

Gaga Chanelling Gwen Stefani

 

Lady Gaga’s crotch is mainly the subject matter of the first quarter of the video, and to be honest, she is a little bit too unflatteringly skinny to be wearing her outfits the way she is… “Downstairs” especially the chain mail chastity panties as I shall deem it that she thrusts at her backup dancers. 

Then we move into a bus where we see Lady Gaga looking like a dead ringer of Britney Spears, alongside snippets of her looking exactly like Britney when she wore Swarovski crystals in her Toxic videos.

Oh yes, and people said Katy Perry “Pushed a few buttons”, well if that is so, then in “Love Game” Lady Gaga Bashes those buttons with either a fork or her crotch, whichever you prefer. Lady Gaga makes out with a female cop, just as the words “It always starts the same, with a boy and a girl”, which personally I love, because she’s bringing another dimension to what she is saying, becuase to be honest that lyric without this fabulous soft-core cinematography would sound like your local catholic priest’s take on “The sanctity of marriage”.

After this Lady Gaga turns into an absolute dead ringer of Gwen Stefani, more so than she already is, she dresses exactly like Gwen did in her “Hey baby” video with No doubt, she even wears a boob tube that makes her look flat chested, this is no accident people! Then she grabs her smoking crotch and does a verbatim replica of Michael Jackson’s Bad dance, and she does it really, really well!

So it may sound like I didn’t enjoy the video, but the truth is, this is the sort of video I’ve been waiting for from Lady Gaga, Poker Face was good, but not great, Just Dance was just home-video quality, but Love Game is a true pop megastar video. The choreography is amazing and the camera work is phenomenal, this is truly a fantastic video, and Lady Gaga would do so well to just ditch the mankini and the chain mail chastity crotch guarding panty’s and to wear some hot pants… I’m not being prudish but it’s a little off putting and almost insanely contradictory, she’s practically wearing armor on her Swimsuit area and begging someone to have sex with her, is it her idea of birth control?

Music Video Review – Lady Gaga Poker Face

One day my partner said to me, “Can you get this new song, it’s called ’somethign’ dance” and I was like right…

So anyway I had a look and all I found was a song by Vanessa Hudgens and I almost vomited it was riddled with dated cliches. However then he told me “the names Lady Gaga” and immediately i assumed she was some crappy club act, who sounded alot like Ashlee Simpson.

But no I heard “Just Dance” and I didn’t mind it, so I got her album, and then became addicted, and realised that she was not some one hit wonder. Subsequently after the success she’s had it seems as if she’s going to become an icon, she already has a name for herself in the sense that people will accuse others of copying her hair (cough Christina Aguilera) even though it was really Gwen Stefani’s hair in the first isntance right?

Onto the video, Poker Face is an awesome song, with great thumping beats and holds similarites to the whole album The Fame. This is not because she’s running out of ideas, but because she’s obviously been conscious in making her album an album, not 5 singles and 7 filler songs.

The video begins with Lady Gaga emerging from a pool in a mansion wearing this insane glass mask and an outfit similar to that worn on her Ellen performance which again encapsulates the continuity not only in her music, but image, and performance which is the active ingredient in the recipe for superstardom.

The video captures the high energy of the song, with fast choreography and sexual dance moves to beat. The most enticing part of the video is the effect of layers of glass reflecting throughout the scenes which along with pyrotechnics make it seem spectacular.

Lady Gaga moves like a confident performer, she’s aware of every nuance of performing pop music and she executes it fiercely which is why she’s a force to reckoned with. The second scene of the video shows her with major fake eyelashes that make her look like she’s just had some of Amy Winehouses cocaine fairyfloss. If you can overlook this scene then you’ll love the video, the main reason I adore this video is because it’s clear the video for Just Dance was an introduction of Lady Gaga, and Poker Face instead is Lady Gaga in her element and you can feel it during every second of the video.

As an artist she is pretentious, but not prententious like ‘Estelle’ was in her commenting that Duffy couldn’t sing real soul music because she was white despite Estelle shamelessly plugging her lame RnB album at any oppourtunity, beleive me watch any interview she’s like “I’m totally against fur and like rnb and shit, and like thats why you should buy my album, yeah?”. Lady Gaga knows what she’s doing and she’s finally achieving her dream of becoming a megastar, and as Billboard stated, she really is the future of pop.

Overall i rate this video three stars, fantastic, still not close to the level of a Gwen Stefani video, but she’ll get there. This video would’ve benefeited if the choreography was made to look less like a live performance and more like a slick music video, but it’s still impressive.

Music Video Review – Britney Spears Circus

 

Britney channeling Kylie

Here is Britney’s new video for Circus, the third song to ever debut at number 1 on Itunes without being released as a single. This video is quirky, original, and fast! Ms Spears appears radiant, she glows in this video and her personality maintains it’s position as ringleader even whilst she echoes Madonna and Kylie Minogue almost flawlessly.

 

This video begins with a shameless plug, like most videos, yet that is really commonplace these days so it should be overlooked, the atmosphere of the video at the beggining builds up the anticipation of waiting for her to appear on the stage, it’s executed so well by both Britney and the director.

For the first time in a while Britney takes center stage and dances faster and better than her backup dancers, and it really becomes clear why she’s as famous as she is today, she has the star quality that is rare to find these days, where the singer emanates from the song, not the other way around where an artist is known for a certain song. Her dancing is edgy once again, and this is the point of her comeback where we begin to realise, not only is she back and “better than ever” as they say, but she really is BETTER!

 

Britney Preparing For Her Show

At first I thought this video was annoying as it seems very dusty, glary, and hazy, but it is only in some scenes and when you watch the video in its entirety it seems fitting. This video has broken the record for getting over 500,000 views on youtube in less than 15 hours, and currently approaches the million mark. This is the version from her official site, it’s higher quality.