All I am going to say about the video for "Dancing On My Own," the sadness-on-the-dancefloor epic by the Swedish pop enigma Robyn, is that it very nearly moved me to tears (twice!) with its simple, yet elegant depiction of the noisy despair spelled out by the song's lyrics. Emotions! Seriously though this track, which appears on Robyn's upcoming mini-album Body Talk Pt. 1 and which was apparently inspired in part by Ultravox, is one of the best things I've heard in all of 2010, perhaps because it is a bit of a gut-punch every time the first chorus kicks in.

The new single from the British MC Professor Green, who just happens to be a veteran of Knifecrime Island's brutality, is the self-referentially titled "Just Be Good To Green." It is a hypercompressed track that is mostly notable to these ears because it features the ever-chiding voice of Lily Allen on the hook, although she's not singing her own keenly observed material; instead, she's taking on the hook from Beats International's "Dub Be Good To Me," which is itself an early-'90s remix of the S.O.S. Band's stone classic "Just Be Good To Me." And yet… Lily's voice here sounds a little too pitched-up and wheedly — like if [...]

Hey, look, the Internet has unearthed something that is claiming to be a new, possibly illicitly leaked Kelly Clarkson song that sounds a bit unfinished, but definitely summons the Arcade Fire's "Rebellion (Lies)" in its verses! Not that her songs haven't taken cues from indie before, mind you.

Perhaps emboldened by the Internet's more lax standards regarding swearing and simulated sex, the blustery songbird Christina Aguilera has returned to her hypersexualized "Dirrty" mode with the Hype Williams-directed video for her stridently club-ready comeback effort "Not Myself Tonight." There is lapdancing, orgiastic throbbing that would make Paula Abdul blush, unbleeped usage of the word "fuck," and clear homages to at least three videos from the past: Madonna's "Express Yourself" (which was itself inspired by Metropolis); Madge's stark episode of Kinky Hollywood Squares "Human Nature"; and George Michael's "Freedom 90". These throwbacky reference points would seem odd for a record that has been hyped to [...]

Next month Tracey Thorn, she of Everything But The Girl and the Marine Girls, will release her third solo album, Love And Its Opposite. It's hands-down one of the best releases of 2010, a tightly wound series of meditations on love that's embroidered with tiny, gut-punching details. "Why Does The Wind?" is a brooding, downtempo reflection on the conflicted feelings that crop up when a relationship might be at the beginning of its end, sweetened with just enough strings to make the sadness described by the lyrics hit even harder.

As previously threatened, here is Liza Minnelli's interpretation of Beyoncé's "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)," which was put together for the Sex And The City sequel. I… I just don't know if it's camp, or meant to not really be listened to outside of the context of whatever scene it's in, or just the end product of a lot of really bad decisions by people drunk with consumerism-driven power. But I will say this: One of the thoughts I had while listening to it was, "Hmm, so, is this better or worse than the Chipettes' version?" I still can't decide the answer to that one, [...]

Treats, the debut album by the Brooklyn-slash-Florida duo Sleigh Bells that is available for you to purchase today, vaulted to "one of my favorite albums of the year" status pretty much immediately after it landed in my iTunes. "What does it sound like?," people ask me when I repeat that statement to them, and it is actually a question that I have had a devil of a time answering. So let me start off by saying this: The album bows with a guitar sound that resembles a cross between the "pew pew!" that comes out of one's mouth when one is play-firing a finger-gun and a skyscraper-sized, earth-destroying laser [...]

Perhaps taking all the Bettie Page references to her hairstyle in the "Video Phone" video to heart, Beyoncé has released a video for "Why Don't You Love Me" in which she plays the retro-pinup role to the hilt, complete with sexily staged household mishaps, a bit where she dusts… her Grammys, bubble-bath interlude, and shots of her smoking. (Gasp!) There is also, oddly, what seems to be an homage to Britney Spears' red-carpet outfit from the 2001 Video Music Awards. The song, however, is quite the banger, even if it was at first sabotaged by the abysmal sequencing of I Am… Sasha Fierce, not to mention the [...]

The first thing that's noticeable about "Not Afraid," the first single off Eminem's forthcoming album Recovery, is the singing. He's not going singer-songwriter, mind you; the chorus is constructed from an army of Ems, not unlike the ones he's gathered at awards shows past, raising their voices in a style that brings to mind ragged glam-rock anthems from 40 years ago, defiantly uniting to say that they're going to overcome their fears. Eminem has thankfully dropped the accent that plagued so much of Relapse, as well as the stale pop-culture references of his previous "comeback single" effort "We Made You"; perhaps those were just more plagues that [...]

The post-retail era in American pop has resulted in Rapidshared collections of songs becoming a semi-legitimate way to find out about new tracks from big artists, and Tapemasters Inc's every-so-often "Future Of R&B" series of mixes is probably my favorite example of this trendlet. The just-released 32nd edition bears a few oldish songs (the Jamie Foxx/Justin Timberlake collaboration that soundtracks NBA-playoff ads, Mary J. Blige's dreadful violation of the "No Stairway" rule) alongside newly minted tracks; the first-listen standout is the sample-drenched "For The Sake Of Love" from the Virginia-born Trey Songz, on which the singer thankfully stops singing about the Internet and employs his [...]

It is very easy for new British bands to get lost in the NME-led shuffle of Next Brilliant Things, which is a shame for acts like Blood Red Shoes, a biting male-female duo out of Brighton who are currently flogging their second full-length album, Fire Like This. (It's not available in the States yet, annoyingly enough.) "Don't Ask", the record's latest single, sounds like a post-postpunk tug of war between Steven Ansell and Laura-Mary Carter, who trade off vocal duties (his is petulant, hers is recorded in such a way that it sounds directly lifted from the Lush back catalog) over pounding drums and taut, wiry guitars. It's [...]

Here it is, everyone: the song that you will not be able to escape this summer, should you choose to leave your house. It is called "California Gurls" [sic] and it features many things, including: A sorta-not-as-barky-as-usual Katy Perry! An audibly leering Snoop Dogg! Dr. Luke's trademarked 8-bit bleeps! Copious references to the California brand of summertime and Daisy Dukes (yes, again!)! David Lee Roth, sadly, was unavailable for comment.

Seth Colter Walls: Maura, has it been a good first third of 2010, music-wise? What were the highlights? And what depressed the shit out of you? Maura Johnston: 2010 has actually been a great year for music. So far! And there's more to come!! Seth: Really? Because I've felt slightly… underwhelmed. (Though I'm glad you are confirming that the rest of calendar year 2010 is still to come.) Maura: Well, I know the whole existence of the future has been a cause for worry recently. But I am optimistic!

Pop provocateur M.I.A. has been throwing elbows lately, so it probably isn't too surprising that her new single "Born Free" (warning: nausea-inducing animated GIF at link) is a pretty aggressive affair once it gets going, with her reverbed-out proclamations cut and pasted over a loop nicked from Suicide's "Ghost Rider." The overall vibe is very similar to the blown-out giddiness put forth by the awesome New York duo Sleigh Bells, whom M.I.A. has been speaking very highly of when she hasn't been bitching over GaGa's 1-D Grace Jones-biting. (The Sleigh Bells love, by the way, is not undeserved, if only for the rapturous "AB [...]

The Swedish electropop star Robyn will release her first album in five years, Body Talk Pt. One, in June. This is very exciting news for people who like smart dance music by android-embracing ladies! If you are one of those people, or even if you just want to hear a great (if tear-inducing) song, you should check out the mournful electro track "Dancing On My Own," the latest track to leak from the album. Like many of her best songs (exhibits A and B), it is plainspokenly heartbroken in such a way that makes me want to give her a hug.