Music News: Pet Shop Boys Offer Free Lady GaGa Mix, Plus Your 15 Life-Changing Albums

ROBBIE DAW 

Robbie Daw presents a weekly pop music update here on Towleroad. Robbie runs his own site called Chart Rigger.

Last night the Pet Shop Boys performed a medley that incorporated no less than 16 of their songs at London's Earl's Court during the Brit Awards, where the duo were recognized in the Outstanding Contribution To Music category.

And today on the Boys' official website, Neil Tennant posted a photo of Chris Lowe knocking back a beer last night with The Killers' Brandon Flowers (right), who guested on "It's A Sin" and "West End Girls" last night.

The duo have also remixed Lady GaGa's "Eh Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)," and their version is being offered today as a free download from AOL Music.

Meanwhile, the PSBs new album Yes (cover art pictured above) is out March 23, and it was announced this week that a limited two-disc edition titled etc. will be made available. In addition to the six album track dub mixes that will appear on the bonus disc, there will also be a brand new Pet Shop Boys composition featuring none other than Phil Oakey of the Human League, titled "This Used To Be The Future."

Say Neil and Chris: "The inspiration for this bonus album came from The Human League's 1982 dub album, Love and Dancing.

   While I succesfully managed to dodge the "25 Random Things" meme going around on Facebook earlier this month, I knew I couldn't outrun the "15 Albums That Changed Your Life" one that popped up in its wake. "Think of 15 albums, CDs, LPs, that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life," the intro to the list implores. "Dig into your soul. Music that brought you to life when you heard it. Royally affected you, kicked you in the ass, literally socked you in the gut..."

I'm using this as a call to arms for all music-loving Towleroad readers. I'll post mine below. But let us know yours, too!

And as my pal who tagged me on this also noted, these could change daily. In no particular order:

1. Morrissey, Viva Hate
2. The Smiths, Louder Than Bombs
3. Pet Shop Boys, Very
4. Smashing Pumpkins, Siamese Dream
5. The Cure, Standing On A Beach
6. Saint Etienne, Smash The System
6. Nirvana, In Utero
7. R.E.M., Monster
8. Pet Shop Boys, Actually
10. Ace Of Base, The Sign
11. Kylie Minogue, Fever
12. The Pulp Fiction soundtrack
13. Suede, Suede
14. The Killers, Hot Fuss
15. Eurythmics, Sweet Dreams

TWO MORE CLIPS FROM THE BRITS: Take That get intergalactic while performing "Greatest Day," and multiple award winner Duffy does "Warwick Avenue."

THE WEEK'S NEW RELEASES:

Morrissey's ninth studio album Years of Refusal. Producer Jerry Finn had just finished work on the record last year when he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage last July. He was taken off life support in August last year, and passed away two weeks later. In addition to Morrissey's own You Are The Quarry, Finn had also produced Blink 182's Enema Of The State and mixed Green Day's Dookie.

Anastacia's Heavy Rotation, featuring production by JR Rotem, Rodney Jerkins and Lester Mendez. It's her first album since 2004, and fourth overall.

New singles from Jim Jones ("Na Na Nana Na Na"), Rick Ross ("Mafia Music) and The-Dream ("Rockin That Sh*t).

Music News: Take That Have 'Attitude' Covered, Plus U2, Kelly Clarkson, Real McCoy, The Saturdays, Antony And The Johnsons

Robbie Daw presents a weekly pop music update here on Towleroad. Robbie runs his own site called Chart Rigger, which is celebrating its fourth anniversary this week! Congrats!

The members of Take That—Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange and Mark Owen—appear on four different covers of U.K. gay mag Attitude's February issue.

Says Attitude: "Riding off the success of their number one album The Circus, we shot four covers with Gary, Jason, Howard and Mark. In one of their most revealing and intimate interviews, Attitude Assistant Editor Colin Crummy spent an unprecedented amount of time with the band and got the scoop on rumours, Robbie [Williams] and their ongoing relationship with their gay audience."

The Circus recently spent five weeks at the top of the British album chart, and has sold 1.5 million copies in their home country since its release last month.

In early December, Universal Music U.K. chief David Joseph told Billboard, "We have a lot of interest in the music from our American partners."

He also added that a decision on a U.S. release will be made "in the next few months."

It was announced this week that Take That have been nominated for a 2009 Brit Award in the category of Best British Group, along with Coldplay, Girls Aloud, Elbow and Radiohead.

SOME CLIPS FOR THE WEEK:

U2: Their new single, "Get On Your Boots," from its world debut on Ireland's RTE FM2 morning show on Monday. What do you all think of this one? A bit too "Vertigo" maybe?

THE SATURDAYS: The radio edit done by Erasure's Vince Clarke for the U.K.-based girl group's current single "Issues."

LILY ALLEN: Her cover of the Clash's "Straight To Hell" for upcoming compilation Heroes benefiting the multi-national War Child charity. The album will also feature Rufus Wainwright, Franz Ferdinand, Hot Chip and Duffy.

REAL MCCOY: The unreleased U.S. video for the German act's 1995 hit "Run Away," which surfaced online this week. The 1984 theme was apparently deemed "too dark" by Arista at the time.

THE WEEK'S NEW RELEASES:

Kelly Clarkson's new single "My Life Would Suck Without You," currently #1 on iTunes. Produced by Max Martin and Dr. Luke, the song pretty much picks up where "Since U Been Gone" left off. Curiously—but perhaps appropriately?—iTunes stars out the "U" and the "C" whithin the word "suck" at the online store. That kinda sucks.

Antony And The Johnsons' third LP, The Crying Light, which contains a 1977 photo of butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno on the cover.

Merriweather Post Pavillion, the eighth album from experimental Baltimore-based indie act, Animal Collective.

The self-titled debut from Fiction Family, a duo consisting of Nickel Creek's Sean Watkins and Switchfoot's Jon Foreman.

A compilation of reheated Mariah Carey leftovers from her former label Sony. It's called—brace yourselves—The Ballads.

Take That's Gary Barlow Tries Beefcake on for Size

Fans of Brit boyband Take That should appreciate this shot of singer Gary Barlow from last month's iD magazine.

And the group performing their latest single on X-Factor last month, AFTER THE JUMP...

Music News: A Final Listen To 2008

Robbie Daw presents a weekly pop music update here on Towleroad! Robbie runs his own site called Chart Rigger.

Another year, almost over. At the onset each January, the music fan in me looks ahead, anticipating new whatever intriguing new releases may be on the way. Yet for many reasons, politics took the front seat to pretty much everything in 2008.

Listening to and waxing philosophical on pop just kind of felt insignificant at many points over the past 12 months.

That said, this being my last Towleroad music column of the year, I decided to take a look back at just some random music-related points from 2008: Some that maybe didn't get mention here, some that did. Some perhaps unimportant in the grand scheme, but all of which are off the top of my head on this cold mid-December day:

   Lil Wayne had the best selling album of the year with Tha Carter III, which moved 2.7 copies. The second best-selling was Coldplay's Viva La Vida, which sold 1.9 million. By comparison, the top-selling album of 1998 was the Titanic soundtrack, at 7 million copies.

   I was bummed that I missed catching Aussie dance trio Cut Copy live at every turn. Their latest album In Ghost Colors is pretty groovy, and definitely worth checking out (particularly the track "Lights & Music").

   I did get to see MGMT live at Austin City Limits—which, as I read in Billboard today, was the fifth top-grossing music festival of the year, with $11.7 million in ticket sales. The band was a bit disappointing live. Chalk it up to the Texas heat? Meanwhile, there are two awesome new Pet Shop Boys mixes of MGMT's current single "Kids" out there—the "PSB Abstrakt Mix" and "PSB Synthpop Mix."

   I'm not sure pop really got more perfect than Chris Brown's "Forever" in 2008.

   Albums that will be worth revisiting after December 31: The Ting Tings' We Started Nothing, Robyn's Robyn, Cyndi Lauper's Bring Ya To The Brink and Kylie Minogue's X.

   Ones that were perhaps a bit ahead of their time, or underappreciated: Santogold's Santogold, Keane's Perfect Symmetry and The Killers' Day & Age.

   One import worth snagging: Take That's The Circus. That said, rumor has it the album is getting a U.S. release in 2009.

At $282 in earnings, by year's end Madonna is set to see her Sticky & Sweet tour become the top-grossing jaunt ever for both a female and solo artist.

   It was jarring to see Britney Spears on the cover of Rolling Stone in February for a story titled "Inside An American Tragedy," then nine months later with "Yes She Can: Britney Returns!"  But return she did, scoring her first #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 since her 1998 debut single. She also landed her first two back-to-back Top 10 singles ("Womanizer" and "Circus") last week.

   It didn't seem possible for any artist to make an equally-impactful version of "Run" as Snow Patrol's 2004 original, but Leona Lewis somehow came close. Her cover has been the #1 U.K. single for two weeks now, and was just added to U.S. iTunes today.

    In the spring we all pondered whether Katy Perry was offensive with her songs "Ur So Gay" and "I Kissed A Girl." Who knew she had a decent jam like "Hot N Cold" up her sleeve, to boot?

Kevin Cogill cooperated with authorities and pleaded guilty to leaking tracks from Guns N' Roses Chinese Democracy online over the summer, ahead of the album's November release. He could face a year in prison.

   Whoever can count the amount of times Andy Towle mentioned Lady GaGa gets a gold star.

   Following in the tradition of Sugababes and Girls Aloud, the Saturdays are the next in the line of great British girl groups who may never get proper exposure this side of the pond.

   David Archuleta sure is merry, lively and spirited!

   Finally, if ever there was a starlet deserving of claiming she sufffers from the grand Hollywood malady of "exhaustion," it just might be Rihanna.

A FEW CLIPS FOR THE WEEK:

ELLEN DEGENERES AND BRITNEY SPEARS: Christmas caroling in L.A.

SARA BAREILLES AND INGRID MICHAELSON: "Winter Song," from the compilation Hotel Cafe Presents Winter Songs.

GIRLS ALOUD: New single "The Loving Kind," co-written by Pet Shop Boys and Xenomania, and officially out in the U.K. next month.

LILY ALLEN: "The Fear," new single (on iTunes now) from her upcoming second album It's Not Me, It's You.

THIS WEEK'S NEW RELEASES:

Fall Out Boy's fifth album Folie à Deux, produced by Neal Avron and Pharrell Williams.

The Killers' third annual Product Red AIDS charity single "Joseph, Better You Than Me," also featuring Elton John and the Pet Shop Boys' Neil Tennant on vocals.

Keyshia Cole's third album A Different Me.

Holiday songs by Lady GaGa ("Christmas Tree"), Slim ("This Christmas") and Lady Antebellum ("Baby, It's Cold Outside").

New singles from Leona Lewis ("Run"), Bruce Springsteen ("The Wrestler") and R. Kelly ("I Believe").

Music News: Chinese Democracy Debuts In, Gets Judged By The Online Community, Plus Beyonce, Britney Spears, Take That, Alesha Dixon

Robbie Daw presents a weekly pop music update here on Towleroad! Robbie runs his own site called Chart Rigger.

Last night the official Guns N' Roses MySpace page began streaming Chinese Democracy—an album, as we've been reminded at every opportunity by the media, that is 17 years in the making.

You can't help but think the soaring expectation for something "revolutionary" after the waiting period alone has set this album up for disappointment from the get-go.

So whether you're a fan, could never stand GNR or are just morbidly curious, here are some entertaining opinions from the web:

From EW.com: "And the verdict? Mixed! Gone is the Sunset Strip guitar grime of Appetite for Destruction, replaced by an army of ProTools-packing shredders, three ''digital editors,' and a dude responsible for choral arrangements. This is unapologetically huge music, not fit for tiny iPod earbuds... We can't wait to hear what he does next — hopefully sometime before President Chelsea Clinton takes office in 2025."

NME reader whatawasteoftime: "17 years to make, 2 minutes to download off bittorrent, five minutes of laughing then one second to bin it. What a joke this album is..."

Stereogum reader try maturing: "If you're over 30 and didn't wear all-stars in high school, you will get a kick out of four or five of the songs. It sounds dated -- and GNR should sound dated. It could have been a lot worse. And if you don't believe that you can hang yourself with your white belt."

London's Times Online: "Anyone looking for clues that may shed light on the gestation of Chinese Democracy would be well advised not to get their hopes up. While distant strings circle around a discourse of plunking ivory and elemental powerchords, the final song 'Prostitute' sees [Axl Rose] concede, 'It seemed like forever and a day,' before beseeching his audience to 'be kind, I’ve done all I should.'"

NME reader aphexbin: "Its utter shit. Ive heard it and can confirm its utter shit.Youll only like it if your a massive guns and roses fan and miss the sound of axls voice on record- which to be fair, was the only positive thing I can think to say about it."

AbsolutePunk.net user Sikbeat37: "...the guitar solos are sick, the orchestration in 'Madagascar' and 'Prostitute' is actually pretty cool, and songs like 'Better' and 'Riad N' The Bedouins' do well in reaching back to the classic GNR sound that made them famous."

Rolling Stone: "To him, the long march to Chinese Democracy was not about paranoia and control. It was about saying 'I won't' when everyone else insisted, 'You must.' You may debate whether any rock record is worth that extreme self-indulgence. Actually, the most rock & roll thing about Chinese Democracy is he doesn't care if you do.

Stereogum reader Ash: "I would rather listen to Third Eye Blind."

A FEW CLIPS FOR THE WEEK:

BEYONCE: "If I Were A Boy/Single Ladies/Crazy In Love" medley on Sunday's final episode of MTV's TRL

BRITNEY SPEARS: Recording "Womanizer," saying she married for the wrong reasons in MTV's For the Record.

TAKE THAT: U.K. Marks & Spencer's Christmas ad.

ALESHA DIXON: Music video for her current U.K. Top 10 hit, "The Boy Does Nothing."

THE WEEK'S NEW RELEASES:

Beyonce's third solo album I Am...Sasha Fierce, containing the hits "If I Were A Boy" and "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)."

Dido's Safe Trip Home, her third LP overall, and first one in five years.

American Idol winner David Cook's self-titled debut.

New Zealand electropop/rock artist Ladyhawke's self-titled debut, now added to U.S. iTunes.

Nickelback's Dark Horse.

Simon Cowell's operatic quartet (read: classed-up boy band) Il Divo's The Promise.

Music News: "Greatest" Hits? Plus The Smiths, Sam Taylor-Wood, The Smiths, P!nk, Take That, Lady GaGa

Robbie Daw presents a weekly pop music update here on Towleroad! Robbie runs his own site called Chart Rigger.

Holiday season typically sees a slew of "greatest hits" and "best ofs" released by record labels. This year is certainly no exception. By January compilations from the following will have been released: Christina Aguilera, The Smiths, Celine Dion, Hilary Duff, Enrique Iglesias, Anastacia, Sarah McLachlan, Dave Koz, Mariah Carey, Goo Goo Dolls, Rascal Flatts, Celtic Woman, Jump5 and Boyzone, as well as a Best Of Bond theme collection and a 10-disc Motown box set.

And, sure, in the case of Duff, Iglesias and McLachlan, an artist will usually contribute two new songs if they're actually participating in the label's decision to put the collection out. But in the case of Mariah's The Ballads, not only is nothing new included, but thanks to this being slapped together by her previous label Sony, there aren't even selections from her last three albums.

A Mariah Carey ballads compilation with no "We Belong Together"? Hmmm.

Of course, in the digital age, how necessary is a greatest hits set anyway? On the one hand, fans of a band or singer probably own all the tracks already—and can whip up a better playlist in three minutes than any corporate exec could after undergoing five setlist determining marketing meetings. But then there are always newer generations of fans to consider; ones who don't already own every album, single, European B-side and unreleased Sarah McLachlan rarity.

At any rate, two to consider:

The Smiths, The Sound Of The Smiths:  Both Morrissey and Johnny Marr were involved in the song selection and mastering. The single disc edition contains all the singles, while the "Deluxe" edition has a second disc of rarer tunes (on American shores, at least) like "Wonderful Woman," "Jeane," "I Keep Mine Hidden" and "Money Changes Everything." Also included are live versions of "London," "Handsome Devil" and "What's The World." (November 11)

Motown: The Complete No. 1's:  This 10-disc box set is arranged chronologically and goes all the way from the Miracle's "Shop Around" (1961) to Erykah Badu's "Bag Lady" (2000). There are 191 tracks total, and the title is apparently justified by grabbing #1 singles from every major international chart and genre. Incidentally, January marks Motown's 50th anniversary. (December 9)   

  A few music clips for the week:

1. Sam Taylor-Wood, "I'm In Love With A German Film Star": The London-based contemporary artist pairs up with her pals the Pet Shop Boys for a cover of the Passions' lone hit.

2. Take That, "Greatest Day": Shot in L.A., this is the official video—unlike the audio-only clip I posted two weeks ago—for the lead single off the four-piece's upcoming U.K. album The Circus.

3. T.I. featuring Rihanna, "Live Your Life": Recently became Rihanna's fifth chart-topping single in two years.

4. Hilary Duff, "Reach Out": One of two new songs off her upcoming Best Of...

  THE WEEK'S NEW RELEASES:

P!nk's fifth album Funhouse, featuring her #1-charting hit "So What," and production from Max Martin, Danja, Billy Man and Tony Kanal.

Lady GaGa's debut The Fame, which was already released in many countries throughout August and September.

The Cure's thirteenth studio album, 4:13 Dream, containing 13 tracks.

Snow Patrol's A Hundred Million Suns.

New singles from David Archuleta ("Angels"), Usher ("Hush"), Sam Taylor-Wood & Pet Shop Boys ("I'm In Love With A German Film Star") and Taylor Swift ("You're Not Sorry").