Mark Savage

Hello strangers! I'm emerging from blog hibernation to post my annual Top 10 list. Hopefully this will prompt a bit more posting in the new year... Fingers crossed. As usual, my Top 10 is compiled using the play counts in my iTunes library, keeping me honest about the songs I actually listened to, rather than the ones that sound cool. So here they are, in reverse order... 10) Muna - I Know A Place Brand new girlband Muna put on one of the best shows I saw this year, deep underground in London's Notting Hill - and this was the highlight: A great big exuberant hug for the LGBTQ community (lead singer Katie Gavin wrote a moving essay about the lyrics in Time Magazine , which is well worth a read). Played live, it's one of those coming together moments, where the whole club - from the cloakroom to the drum riser - jumps up and down in unison. The recorded version loses some of that energy, but emerges as a terrific singalong, nonetheless. 9) Zara Larsson - Lush L...

As well as being the owner of a magnificent hat, Pharrell Williams is a brilliant and prolific songwriter. In fact, he's one of the most consistent producers/composers in the business, racking up hits for everyone from Beyonce to Britney to Justin to Jay-Z and, more recently, himself. But here's the thing: He's rubbish at writing intros. Take a listen to his new album, GIRL, and seven of the 10 tracks start exactly the same way. He takes the first beat of the first bar, loops it four times, then goes straight into the song. It's not a bad technique - for one thing, you get to the melody quicker, and that is a sure-fire way of making your song memorable and radio friendly - but when it's used to such a ridiculous extent, it starts to lose its effect. Looking back through Pharrell's production catalogue, both by himself and with the Neptunes, it turns out he's been employing the trick since his first hit in 1993 - SWV's Right Here. Here's a shor...

The video for Lana Del Rey 's new-but-not-as-good-as-Video-Games single Born To Die popped up on YouTube last night. Compared to the patchwork montage of her previous videos, it's incredibly lavish. She's surrounded by tigers in a gothic chapel, kissing some guy who can't afford a shirt, and generally playing up the whole "femme fatale" thing. There are certain realmusicfans TM who have turned against Lana Del Rey after discovering that she'd ditched her first album, worked with new producers and bought some funny lips like Chelsee Healey off Strictly Come Dancing. These same people will also tell you that David Bowie is a godlike genius because he changed his name, experimented with a number of voguish musical styles, and spent two years pretending to be an alien. So what do they know? If you can bear to listen to this "fake", "manufactured" chanteuse after all that opprobrium, here is the video for the song that she has sun...

Photo by Carlbob on Flickr The Tangled Up tour is Girls Aloud's fourth jaunt round the UK in as many years, and it's by far their most professional show to date. It's got pyrotechnics, moving walkways, costume changes, wire tricks and five (five!) video screens. But a large part of the girls' success has been down to their scrappy charm, so could all this polish smooth out their charmingly rough edges? The answer is yes. And no. The fivesome rose to the challenge of the show with ease - hitting all their marks and cramming personality into the increasingly complex routines. But their backing band was trying too hard. All of the intricate detail of Xenomania's songs was scrubbed out in a squall of noise, including several unnecessary guitar solos. Worse still, the fussy arrangements frequently drowned out the melodies. Musically, it was an utter mess. By now, however, Girls Aloud are old pros - and occasionally managed to rise above the bombast to get the show movi...