Finally a release date! Can't wait, I was just listening to Songs From the tainted Cherry Tree the other day and realized how underrated that album is. Hopefully this will be just as good if not better.
How is Diana Vickers's new album shaping up? - Review
The answer is quite well, judging from the five-track sampler we received in the post today.
Before we get into the songs, it's worth mentioning that as well as collaborating with synth-pop producer David Gamson (Kelly Clarkson, Ke$ha), Vickers has also teamed up with Xenomania lyricist Miranda Cooper - the woman behind Girls Aloud's biggest hits.
Here's what Diana had to say about it: "I met her when I was writing with Donkeyboy in London and they were writing a song called 'Cinderella'. I walked into the writing session and all I heard was the mega '80s pop going on and I was just like, 'Oh my God'. I literally was going through the corridor and I put my bags down and they were all dancing, so we finished 'Cinderella' and it was amazing and the next thing I knew we were in Norway working on Music To Make Boys Cry. It went from there."
Brilliant. Now to the music.
1. 'Cinderella'
It's her new single so you've probably already heard it, but 'Cinderella' is proving to be one of those songs where you forget how good the chorus is until it's blasting out of your speakers/headphones/other listening device at that very moment. We're not sure what that means for its eventual chart position, but let's all have another listen to the song now.
See what we mean?
Rating: 4/5
2. 'Music To Make Boys Cry'
Another song that Vickers fans will already have heard after she whacked it online last December. It's since gone through all the usual mixing and mastering, but like 'Cinderella', it's another slice of twinkly '80s pop that generates a feeling of warmth and fuzziness inside that few could pull off without sounding trite.
Rating: 4/5
3. 'Lightning Strikes'
As the title suggests, it's a song about having a moment of realisation that you can do that thing you've always to do but haven't quite got around to doing yet. It's less '80s-sounding than the previous two tracks, but equally as feel-good and about five times as breezy. It also contains a ridiculously addictive hook not too dissimilar to "Hey-na-na-na-na" in Dario G's 'Sunchyme'.
Rating: 4/5
4. 'Dead Heat'
Stabbing synths, a wistful melody and electronic bleeps not far off something you'd expect to hear on the Drive soundtrack put Diana back in '80s territory. "Without you I'm just a puzzle with a missing piece" she confesses, before suggesting on the chorus that she would give up breathing for love. It's just our opinion, but we'd say that was probably a bit much.
Rating: 4/5
5. 'Mad At Me'
Instantly our favourite of the lot. With its high-wired electro-swizzles, drum-thumping chorus and lyrics about kissing people you really shouldn't, it sounds like a cross between '80s icons Samantha Fox and Tiffany. If this isn't a number one by this time next year, we'll be having words.
Rating: 5/5
The good news is that it's a very promising start to an album that, this time last year, we didn't think would see the light of day. The bad news is that it doesn't come out until September 16.
ugh
