Kieran

Some more reviews: Last night in a central London hotel theatre, Def Jam head L.A Reid invited a very exclusive VIP audience to hear the new albums from both his 2 top divas Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey. With stringent rules laid down at the top of the evening about not leaving the room for a bathroom visit, handing over all gadgets and returning song word sheets we knew it was about to go down. Beginning with Janet's new material which sees Janet reworking her old sounds from the days of Velvet Rope and Control, Janet's material was quite sexually overt and a little gross ("real heavy like my first period"!) but it was really Mariah's new material that blew everyone away. Mariah's new album, tentatively titled That Chick, saw collaborations with T Pain, Young Jeezy and Damien Marley with production by her long time friend and producer Jermaine Dupri, Will I Am, Rodney Jerkins and The Dream. The new music with catchier hooks and melodies than ever, even sees Mariah taking on an exciting new musical adventure where she sings in Jamaican patois on her Damien Marley duet "Cruise Control" where she references "dramas" and "baby mamas" and like your favorite rap star Mariah throws down a new Mariahism ("you love yourself some me!") soon as the album gets into the public domain. Urban music lovers in the house were really excited about that track as well as hip-hop banger "Heat" produced by Will I Am, "For Real,For Real", and "Migrate" where 2007's hit man T Pain hooks up with Mariah but it was the title track "That Chick" with its double entendres which includes a tip of the hat to Michael Jackson with references to his "Of The Wall Classics" that had pop chart taste makers excited claiming it was the number 1 track on the album closely followed by likely international pop hit "Love You Long Time". In typical Mariah fashion there were the legendary ballads "Love Story" and tear jerker "Bye Bye" (an ode to people who have passed away) that will have reality pop contestants singing away for decades to come! One track titled "O.O.C" summed up the night and the return of Mariah - once the albums out it's gonna be "Out Of Control!". To recap, here are the confirmed tracks from the new, tentatively-titled Mariah Carey album, That Chick: • "Touch My Body" • "Migrate" ft. T-Pain • "Heat" • "For Real, For Real" • "That Chick" • "Cruise Control" ft. Damien Marley • "O.O.C" • "Bye Bye" • "Love Story" • "Love You Long Time" Mariah Carey - That Chick Their old diva (in terms of contract, not age, of course) is Mariah, who is riding high after the 7xPlatinum-selling Emancipation Of Mimi. We got to hear 10 tracks from the follow-up, That Chick, which I have to say sounded more polished and commercial than Janet's effort. One track in particular is set to make big bucks, and that's Bye Bye - a torch song for people "who lost they grandmothers". I guarantee that Simon Cowell will be sick of hearing badly-realised auditions of it by the end of the year. Lyrics were never Carey's strong point, mind you, so her paean to loss is summed up with not-very-insightful Hallmark platitudes like "I'd give the world to see your face" and "Life goes on". Profound, eh? Still, at least it's better than when she desperately attempts to prove how bang up to date she is. In Touch My Body, she purrs to her lover: "If there's a camera up in here then I best not catch this flick on youtube (youtube)". Not exactly the sexiest boudoir come-on you've ever heard, is it? But there are plenty of good tunes to counter the awesomely bad lyrics. Migrate, about a night out with Mariah while she wears jeans ("yeah, they fit", she informs us) is sure to be a candidate for heavy MTV rotation, although I hope to God they excise T-Pain's hopelessly strained vocals. Lovin' You Long Time, meanwhile, is a strutting uptempo number very much in the style of It's Like That. So, what have we learnt from this listening "event"? Well, I wasn't overwhelmed by the music - despite (or perhaps because of) the fact it was played so ear-splittingly loud that it felt like I was being punched repeatedly in the ears by a cyberman. Both artists have turned in a tuneful, competent set of R&B songs, but I'm not sure that any of them have the charisma or vitality to compete with the Rihannas and Beyonces of this world. Both albums: 6/10 (scores may go up or down after further listens at levels tolerable to the human ear).

Ugh I just read about it on her message board. I'm so pissed if it's true :angry:

Ha, I love Mariah. I think this is really old though, I remember when they tried to get them to perform together at the Grammy's and there was some comment like this. I read it on a few blogs today though so I'm not sure why it's came back up :S

Oh yeah I saw this, to be honest I'm surprised they didn't put Catch You higher than that because I remember their review of it and they said it was the best thing she's ever done. Glad for the underrated Today The Sun's On Us though. Popjustice have always supported Sophie well, good thing as they know proper pop music. I remember their interview with her not so long ago, it's available as a free podcast on iTunes, you should check it out. Search for Sophie Ellis-Bextor and then download the Popjustice podcast then play it by selecting 'podcasts' from the left hand menu.

Out of those options, 'If You Go'. But I've said it before and I'll say it again, it should have went: Catch You, If You Go, Me and My Imagination and then If I Can't Dance or Love Is Here. It's all over and ruined now tho :(

I guess what they say about her is right - how can she say that when she did name her song LDN and often doesn't use 'correct' English herself. I'm sure she would have some smart answer back to that though.

Pink, although I love all of those :(

Ohhhh I saw her at Beyonce, well I say saw.. more like heard because I hardly watched her, she was good from what I remember though.

She has got her own forum :P But yeah, I love this song. Hope it helps the album a bit and I hope this is a hit for her here and in the US. She really deserves it.

I don't think that it's confirmed but Da Brat often pops up on the remixes of the singles, so I doubt she will be left out of the project at all

Did you go on the 3rd? Because that guy looked like he knew he was going up I thought. When I went to see Christina thought, a friend of a friend got chosen to go up on the stage and they chose him before hand and took him backstage to sign some stuff and to prove he was 18+, so I think they have to know they are going up? Obviously it could be different rules for the Spice Girls though. Oh and also, she didn't really chose him, he was just sort of shoved on to the stage.

My friend at work went and I asked her how Sophie was and she was like 'well she was ok, but I didn't get to watch her much and I didn't really know the songs, but she looked really nice' and I said 'you didn't even know Murder on the Dancefloor' and she was like 'yeah obviously I knew that one, how did you know she sang it?' and i said 'well she has to perform it everywhere she goes because unfortunatley it's her only major hit' :(

I love the title of the track. Is it missing a comma though, should it be 'Heartbreak, Make Me A Dancer' because I don't understand the title otheriwse :P I saw on her site they spelt it without one though so maybe I'm reading it wrong?

I don't think she was :( I saw in the paper that Girls Aloud were and some other people, but Sophie wasn't mentioned.. I guess that just be because they wasn't interested in her though :lol:

I know! The album has so much potential and it's just wasted - I mean I know it underperformed and so did the last single but that's not to say all future singles form it will. Such a shame the whole project has been given up on :(

Did the awards happen? I mean, I know they wasn't televised but surely they happened in the club?

Oh gosh, she won her category!

Owh she didn't win :(

1. Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Catch You Britney Spears - Gimme More Girls Aloud - Call The Shots Sugababes - About You Now Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love Groove Armada Ft Mutya Buena - Song For Mutya Mark Ronson Ft Amy Winehouse - Valerie Kate Nash – Foundations Nelly Furtado - Say It Right Rihanna Ft Jay Z – Umbrella Fergie - Big Girls Don't Cry OneRepublic Ft Timbaland - Apologize

Voted :D She's totally winning :D

I can't believe how much I hate Beth now :angry:

Happy birthday, girl! :D

Sophie Ellis-Bextor wrote and recorded over 80 for her last effort. I think it's quite common tbf

Before I even read what you wrote I thought of BREATHE ON ME straight away, it would have done SO well. It's easily one of my all time favourite Britney songs.

...Baby One More Time 11 Sometimes 4 - (You Drive Me) Crazy 11 Born To Make You Happy 9 From The Bottom Of My Broken Heart 6 Oops!... I Did It Again 9 Lucky 9 Stronger 13 Don't Let Me Be The Last To Know 10 I'm A Slave 4 U 15 + Overprotected (DarkChild Remix) 8 I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Women 10 Boys (Co-Ed Remix feat. Pharrell) 11 Me Against The Music (feat. Madonna) 12 Toxic 17 Everytime 16 My Prerogative 12 Do Somethin' 16 Someday (I Will Understand) 8 Gimme More 4