Jennifer Lopez – Dance Again (Feat. Pitbull) 
Ok, so it’s pretty much “On The Floor 2″, we’ve all gotten our heads around this fact.
Jennifer Lopez (her name has changed AGAIN) and Pitbull reunite after their global smash “On The Floor” to bring us more of the same and arguably up the ante this time. “Dance Again” is essentially every successful song of the last year mixed together, making it startlingly catchy and astonishingly unoriginal.
The positives: Jennifer Lopez comes up trumps and the chorus will make this track the ebola virus of commercial radio.
The negatives: The video clip is effectively Jennifer Does Dallas. Oh, and If Pitbull could go half a song without reminding us that he is Mr.Worldwide, that would be quite amazing. 3 stars.
Florecnce & The Machine – Never Let Me Go
Lungs was an out-of-the-blue triumph for Florence & The Machine. Refreshing then that the band survived sophomore album syndrome when they released an arguably superior Ceremonials. Managing to find the happy medium between giving their fans more of the same and also challenging by taking us in a slightly different direction, Florence & co nailed it.
“Never Let Me Go” is a remarkable achievement. In an album where the filler is more capable than most lead singles, it manages to hold itself on par with tracks like “Shake it Out” and “Breaking Down” – songs that aren’t disposed of the second they leave the charts.
While most popstars bang on about getting drunk in a club, smacking arses and how fast their cars are, Florence (and her machine) leave this as their legacy,
“In the arms of the ocean, so sweet and so cold, and all this devotion I never knew at all,
And the crashes are Heaven, for a sinner released, and the arms of the ocean, deliver me.”
Round of applause everyone. 4.5 stars.
Tulisa – Young
As the lead singer and face of N-Dubz, the UK’s highest selling hip-hop act, Tulisa Contostavlos appeared to be untouchable. After taking over Dannii Minogue’s judging role on the X-Factor, Tulisa was now even more in the mainstream.
When an artist with this much credibility and popularity goes solo, you’d expect a debut single so immensely powerful and amazing, that the nation’s heartbeat stops. What you don’t expect is a rehashed and inferior version of Rihanna’s “We Found Love”. A clattering, loud, over-produced, chorus-less mess.
Poor Tulisa. 2 stars.
