Ultimate Pop Star Countdown: 30-26

26. New Order - Regret

Neon-lit rueful depression: “have a conversation on the telephone”. It does get like that sometimes. Aching guitars that seduce you into the seductively drowsy eloquence. 

27. Sheryl Crow - If It Makes You Happy

The whole album I have now decided is loosely bases on her friend she now realises cannot be helped: Oh Marie, Sad Sad World (“if I was unhappy I’d be someone you could care about … enemies make the most interesting friends”) and this are home truths served bitter-sweetly.  Taking her own advice, Every Day Is A Winding Road makes every day your birthday. 1996. Now that’s what I call miserable (that's quite a specific reference - basically it was on a Now compilation I wanted specifically to have this song).

28. The Killers - Mr Brightside

Dripping in dread and anxious hesitance – “but it’s all in my head” – and revelling in it.  The Stuart Price remix is a masterpiece, and turns in into the one song that was out of New Order’s reach, even at their vintage peak.

29. Dead Or Alive - Nukleopatra

The original Bad Romance.  Sorry to be a bore.  This is an avalanche of scathing venom, vicious narcissism, dated 90s rave thunder and unflinching decadence.

30. Ladytron - Destroy Everything You Touch

Stark pulsating discothèque, apocalyptic Hi-NRG exotica, that brittle and waspish voice and Game of Thrones style video.

Gala: Dance Diva Reborn

I am pinching myself - the new Gala song released to youtube (far below) You & Me is a bit of a sentimental love anthem. Those cooing 'doo-doo-doo-doo's are going to be my life support machine this summer - like all healthy relationships, it just stabs you in the heart making it impossible to live without its devastating control. With her gorgeous whispers, I never expected something so gushing from Gala but it has lit a flame inside me that I know is not going to burn out. Because her androgynous image is something I marvel at endlessly (scroll right to see her in the Diva Incarnate banner above), it makes me wonder who gave her the inspiration: they must be the most gorgeous girl/boy on the planet.

Below: Gala on the set of her self-financed Tough Love video. I shall suggest nothing about her Prisoner Cell Block H fantacies!
As it finishes (around the 2 minute mark), Gala yelps beyond her wildest dreams just when the track sounds like Hong Kong Garden by Siouxsie & The Banshees as well as those rusty-sounding vintage New Order disco fiascos. Fireworks explode outside her lights-out New York apartment and this track makes the metaphor a shared experience - her visceral performance in the video is utterly transfixing as she revels in her romantic euphoria.

Above: who wouldn't look this smug with cheekbones Madonna would trade a surplus African orphan for?

I never saw this coming from her: I was secretly disappointed by the rawness of the song Tough Love and really had to analyse it in order to appreciate its good points, but with You & Me she makes it as easy as Freed From Desire with a track that wounds you with its beauty and brings you to your knees with it's romantic impact and sheer sincerity.


Above: her 2.40 nourishing yelp makes the 12 year wait for Gala's re-surfacing worth every second. In the video, her movement shadows a striking resemblence to her iconic animation in the Freed From Desire video, a song which has sold 6 million copies worldwide to date (more than fucking Cher's Believe).

Tough Love EP available June 1st (French iTunes only) and full album September 6th. Expect a 57 page review any day whenever I get my hands on the files!