RIP X Factor 2004-2012

Worked out where you've heard Little Mix's 'Wings' before?

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A few Lana Del Rey 'National Anthem' remixes

Lana Del Rey is releasing National Anthem soon. This is good news because it is brilliant.

To commemorate the occasion Lana someone at the label has asked some poeple to remix the song.

The first is a noisy affair from West Funk Music. They have made the "making me so wow, wow" bit sound funny.

Apparently it is official, but they've spelt Lana's name wrong on their Soundcloud page so we're a bit dubious.


And Todd Terry (who we only found out recently was NOT Candyman) takes a more subdued approach.



Good good.

UPDATE: Here's the video

2012 Music Blog Zeitgeist

Our friends over at BBC 6 Music (hello) didn't get to go to the Radio 1 Hackney Weekender. So instead they are having a rival party tonight and counting down the top twenty five artists of 2012.

We have been invited to take part, which is very kind. They know that we usually talk about Girls Aloud so we're sort of seeing ourselves as the black sheep of the whole affair.

Anyway, we're not averse to a free shandy and some cake, so here's our contribution. These are our top three people emerging this year who sort of straddle the RobotPigeon/6Music playlist divide.

In reverse order then...

3. Haim.
We'll be very surprised if Haim don't make the list.

They are three, not unattractive, girls who make music that has catchy hooks.

They're also ball achingly cool (and inspire us to say things that really don't suit us. Like "ball achingly"). Pretty girls with guitars is a no brainer in indie world.

We like them because they do dance routines and ride bikes.



2. Swiss Lips
On the subject of dance moves, the only band this year who are guaranteed to get both Robot & Pigeon swiveling their hips like geriatrics on Lucozade are Swiss Lips.



Three tracks into the launch campaign (Danz, U Got The Power, Grow) and not a stinker amongst them. If they put another eight boring ones around that they'll already have beaten the new Cheryl Cole record.

We think the name means something rude (*ahem* fannies *ahem*), but as the band consists of five trendy indie boys we think they'll get away with that.

1. Jake Bugg
Our number one pick was easy.

We love Jake Bugg. We've seen him live, bought his vinyl, searched out all his tracks on the internet, and are basically counting down the days to his album release (it's 120 from today).

This is a funny one for RobotPigeon. He sounds like Dylan, looks like a Gallagher, and is sickeningly young and talented. On paper he's everything we resent. But in reality his songs are so emotive, and frankly catchy as hell, we just couldn't get him out of our brains.

He does ballads better than Adele:



He does uptempo guitar pop better than Mumford and Sons:



And he does dance music better than Rihnna and Calvin Harris:



Ok, the last one was a lie, but if he did songs like 'We Found Love' on top of everything else then the rest of the music industry would basically be defunct.

Jake Bugg is, without a doubt, our top artist of 2012 so far, and to be honest unless Girls Aloud make a comeback before December, we can't see him being toppled.

Two album cinema club

Sound the indie guitar electro alarm, one of our favourite bands of the past few years, Two Door Cinema Club, have announced a new album.

There are some snippets in this video, and things sound like the excitement level has had a trampoline put underneath it.

Bear with us whilst we copy and paste the embed code off of youtube...



Thrilling stuff, non?

The album will be called 'Beacon' and is out on 3rd September.

Bonus fact: We once sat behind the entire band in an actual cinema (ironic). They were watching Scott Pilgrim Vs The World. They were very well behaved.

A good ol' album review: Cheryl Cole 'A Million Lights'

It's an odd thing to review the Cheryl Cole album.

The woman is so hyped and famous that most people in the UK have an opinion on her, and that opinion seems to extend to her musical output. With or without listening to it.

The point of umbrage with Cheryl seems to be the correlation between her 'talent' and the level of celebrity she's achieved.

Our take on this is that she's struck a balance between luck, hard work and determination. There are plenty of people who do this in life. It's to Cheryl's credit that she's got to where she has, and it pisses us off when people try to take that away from her.

But, with that in mind, the music she puts out needs to reflect her level of celebrity.

It's an argument that can be leveled at most pop stars who have achieved 'I only need one name' status, and it boils down to this: she is a huge priority at her label, she could sell a poo simply by putting her name on it, and with those assets at her disposal she could have any songwriter/producer in the world work on this record. So this album better be pretty top notch.

Let's see shall we? Listen to the album below. Sort of.

Here's what we reckon each track sounds like. Not sonically, perhaps, but this is the level of pop song we're talking for each track.

*PRESSES PLAY*
1. Under The Sun.


2. Call My Name.


3. Craziest Things.


4. Girl In The Mirror.


5. A Million Lights.


6. Screw You.


7. Love Killer.


8. Ghetto Baby.


9. Sexy Den A Mutha. (sic)


10. Mechanics Of The Heart.


11. All Is Fair.

Make of that what you will (i.am).