Niki N. Phaser

Robbie Williams’ 2006 album, Rudebox, was the very definition of mixed reviews, as the pop idol went a bit too electro for what people expected of him. Once you overpass the controversy and the unlikely first single Rudebox, you find a nice collection of tracks sporting mixed styles, but all of them sounding quite catchy. The perfect example is this non-single, pop-hop tune, The 80′s. You should know from the start that if you have a problem with Robbie Williams’ rapping, you can still enjoy the great music and the hook of the chorus, one of those cases of upbeat nostalgia. It doesn’t happen too often. But The 80′s is also one of those cases when you can’t really choose which is your favourite, the music or the lyrics. Nostalgic and very funny, the lyrics make the song unfold like a movie in the listener’s mind, one of those coming of age drama-comedies. There is talk about football, family, Falklands and a lot about sex: “And it was but I couldn’t care less, I’d seen a girl’s part, made a mess on her dress, oh yes! You’re now rocking with the best, second person in my year that had seen a breast”. And in pure retro-fashion, you get a bunch of pop-culture references to the mentioned decade, stuff like The Beastie Boys, Wham, LL Cool J, Berlin (Take My Breath Away), Snap (Rhythm Is A Dancer). The song wasn’t released as a single, but there was a video contest, where directors all over the world could submit their video for this song.

SEE THE WINNER HERE

We all know (or do we?) the story of The Prodigy’s The Fat of the Land album and how, because of it, the rave elders of the tribe ruled the world for about two years, before taking a long break. The three singles released from this album, Breathe, Firestarter and Smack My Bitch Up have all made history: the videos included in almost every countdown of controversial mv’s, the tracks covered and remixed by legions of dj’s, they haven’t missed from any live set of the band ever since. But an album does not achieve such success and notoriety on singles alone. Amongst non-single masterpieces like Funky Shit, Mindfields or Climbatize, we also encounter the first official collaboration between Liam Howlett and rapper Kool Keith of Ultramagnetic MCs fame. The hip-hop crew is one of Howlett’s favourite to sample, but this is the first time Kool was actually invited to do the vocals and the lyrics. Before being included on the album, the track used to be played live, known as Blow Ya Mind with Maxim doing some freestylin’ over the beat. The Kool version retained the chorus “Blows your mind drastically, fantastically” and most importantly, the sick d’n'b line, punctuated by a base hit that will test ya speakers and blow ya mind, all in one. It’s interesting that despite hip-hop being one of Howlett’s primal preferences, this is about the only Prodigy tune that would qualify in this genre. It is one of their most powerful tracks, displaying once again Howlett’s ability and pleasure of creating beats that no matter at what volume you play them, they still sound too loud for the neighbours.

LIVE PERFORMANCE OF Blow Ya Mind IN 1996

Muse have fed some more news to their army of fans, all excited about the new album, The Resistance, coming out this fall. Through their official website they’ve announced that the first single from the new record, will be Uprising, the first track of the album. Another exciting piece of news is that they are confirmed to play at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, which will take place on the 13th of September in New York City. Muse have a memorable “prior” related to MTV awards: their legendary performace of Starlight at the 2006 EMA’s. And that’s not all. Muse too have embraced the one free song trend, but in their own original way. A global treasure hunt for six USB sticks, located in Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Moscow, Dubai and Hong Kong, will unlock parts of the new song, United States of Eurasia. When all six sticks are found and the puzzles they contain solved, the song will be available in its entirety. Great promo strategy.