Love Machine

That’s our advice to anyone thinking of giving up almost 14 minutes of their life to watch Lady Gaga’s new video for ‘Marry The Night’. Don’t waste your time. Just like the song itself nothing happens until the climax when it ALL GOES OFF.

We’re a little disappointed that the epic dance scene was ruined a bit by editing in other clips, but all in all, we like the franticness.

It’s a slow week for new releases - we’re not particularly enamoured with anything due to hit the charts on Sunday, and besides, Rihanna will probably be #1 again anyway.

With that said, if you’ve got 99p there are worse songs you could spend it on than The X Factor Finalists 2011 (featuring JLS & One Direction) and their cover of ‘Wishing On A Star’ - a song that proves to be so brilliant, not even that motley crew could balls it up. True, the JLS & One Direction “feature” (all of the last 20 seconds of it) is just a cynical way to get more teenage girls to cough up their cash, but in an odd way we kinda like the “JLS! 1D!” cry that heralds their appearance. Most importantly, all proceeds will go to the children’s charity Together For Short Lives. If you caught the VT before the performance of this on Sunday night’s show, you’ll agree that this is a very worthy cause.

In less heart-rending corners, Emeli Sandé releases her second solo single, and her first since bagging a #1 with Professor Green on ‘Read All About It’. There’s a stark franticness to ‘Daddy’ feat. Naughty Boy, but it’s not even close to the epicness of ‘Heaven’. Still, Emeli has an incredibly listenable voice which makes the non-event chorus far more eventful than it should be.

StooShe drop ‘Betty Woz Gone’ in their attempt to become the girl band that sticks. With The Saturdays making a dismal showing on both the album and singles chart, the Girls Aloud reunion allegedly being delayed and the skeletons of the careers of RD, the Sugababes, Soundgirl and Parade being picked apart by pop vulture fanatics along the roadside, the time has never been more ripe for a girl group to make a massive splash. This gutsy, profanity-riddled effort that sounds as if it was lifted from the soundtrack of a streetwise West End musical and even nods to the theme tune from The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air probably won’t make more than a ripple, which is a shame. On the other hand, when Little Mix win the X Factor in a couple of weeks, we won’t be mourning these lesser girl groups so much.

Finally, Lady Gaga’s ‘A Very Gaga Holiday’ EP hit UK iTunes towards the end of last week and as you might be able to tell from our Pick of the Day, we’re a tiny bit in love with it. Gaga’s voice is completely breathtaking throughout, and superfans will appreciate the opportunity to own a legitimate copy of her gorgeous cover of ‘Orange Coloured Sky’.

Lady Gaga - ‘The Edge Of Glory’ from A Very Gaga Thanksgiving

Hello, have you heard of Lawson? Chances are if you’re a fan of The Wanted or Avril Lavigne you may have caught them live supporting them on tour. Alternatively, if you’re a fan of trawling The YouTube for acoustic cover of hit records you may have stumbled across their better than okay version of The Saturdays - Missing You, better than good version of Bruno Mars - Grenade and better than the original version of Katy Perry - Firework.

Today they dropped a video of their performance of Lady Gaga’s album opener and latest single, ‘Marry The Night’. Lawson are signed to a label now, so the whole affair is a bit more glossy (check out those opening split screens!) but the added style doesn’t mask a lack of substance - this is a really soft, autumnal take on a track we once described as “like a frenetic street-fight sequel to ‘Dance In The Dark’”. Lead singer Andy really does have an incredibly listenable voice, and there’s some fantastic guitar work from Joel which gives the whole performance a magnificent classic rock feel. ‘Marry The Night’ is not our favourite song from Born This Way, but we’re loving the stripped back cool of this. 

You can stalk Lawson in all the usual ways: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and they’ve hitched their wagon to the Will Young tour bus next month too so you can get a double fix of great pop music for grown ups in the flesh.

We hear one or two of the boys may be at our Girls Aloud themed birthday party tonight too. If they know the dance routine to Something Kinda Ooooh, they’re our new favourite band.