BANKS sticks to her moody in 'Beggin For Thread'

BANKS has hypnotized fans around the world with her real moody R&B chops since she released "Before I Ever Met You" and "Fall Over" in 2013, and whilst some of the early BANKS tracks felt a little passive and apathetic at times, her more recent run of material are far more direct and forceful, going straight for the jugular, especially in the cutting lyrical content. With her fittingly titled debut LP, "Goddess," out just about a month away, the Los Angeles songstress is gradually teasing the entire album on her Soundcloud, with another track, "Beggin For Thread."
This time around, BANKS steps out from the shadows of neo-R&B, coming across a bit more forceful and aggressive over an especially moody, house-inspired medley of chunky synths, zig-zagging layers of percussion, and random studio noise. While her croon can be especially poignant and fragile at times, the rawness is doubly apparent in lines like "I got itches that scratch/ And sometimes I don't got a filter/ But I'm so tired of even/ I love my misspoken words." "Beggin For Thread," is yet again sultry but surprisingly danceable. It may be the most upbeat and memorable track she's released but don't expect disco balls or choreographed dance moves.
On "Beggin For Thread," the big-in-England singer-songwriter sounds something like a genetic fusion of Fiona Apple and James Blake, and I consider that to be high praise indeed. The brooding chanteuse sticks to her somber black-and-white tones in the song's accompanying clip, produced by Jesse Rogg and Tim Andreson. Unlike her video for "Drowning," this one is entirely done in black-and-white, following sensual body movements by topless, and bulky, male dancers, as BANKS shows off that vocal range of hers, and even dances a bit in the background.
So far, BANKS' videos have been moody and minimal and her latest is no different and matches the emotional intensity of the song. In the stark, intense, mostly black-and-white video with dramatic flashes of tonal red cut in for contrast, we see BANKS on a soundstage, surrounded by provocative interpretative dancers and a white horse appear on an empty sound stage, moving and writhing to the California musician's haunting melody and lyrics. But the best thing about this video is BANKS' icy stare into the camera. Dark and elegant, this video giving depth to the music thanks to the talented director Barnaby Roper.

FKA twigs Rocks a Goddess Look in "Two Weeks"

FKA twigs (literally, "Formerly Known As Twigs") may just be the coolest, most mysterious "it" girl of this year. And after her "Water Me" video had piqued our curiosity in 2013, the music lovers want to know more. Lucky for us, the Jessie J's former backing dancer has just released the music video for "Two Weeks," the first single from Tahliah Barnett's upcoming first full-length, "LP1," due out on August 12. The song is a sighing, soaring bit of electronic pop with her breathy falsetto and magnetic presence, and its lush slow-motion video matches the song's regal, ethereal beauty.
“Two Weeks” a beguilingly straight-laced cut of silken R&B, is a commanding blast of raw sexual power. It captures everything that her unapologetically sexual music is about. "My thighs are apart for when you're ready to breathe in," she declares on the compelling, ecstatically filthy "Two Weeks." This is a song purely about lust, sex, and ecstasy delivered with the subtlety of a dime-store romance novel and it's enough to make you melt. Thankfully, "Two Weeks" is a new age sex jam that even luddites like us can comprehend. Filthy as sin and wholly aware of its own pomposity, it's a bawdy taster of FKA twigs' upcoming "LP1," and she is set to reign over the changing attitudes toward sex.
Of course, this isn't the first time Tahliah Barnett has luxuriated in the realm of carnal pleasures. "Water Me," "Papa Pacify" and "Weak Spot" are all pretty much concerned with doing the nasty, and by that we do mean the nasty. FKA twigs isn't much concerned with love. Lust and vulnerability are her songwriting vices, and on "Two Weeks" she exploits them with slow percussive intent. Falsetto sighs are rolled on top of rasping snare fills in extravagantly brash fashion so that you can't help but gurn along.
And FKA twigs' new video for "Two Weeks," directed by Nabil, is the same way, starting off with a simple focus on the British singer and then panning out to see that she is an empress looking over other small, little twigs dancing beneath her. As we see FKA twigs herself takes a seat on a throne to star as a Hindu goddess who can shoot water from the tip of her finger. The intensely choreographed video mirrors the disjointed otherworldliness of the track itself. The audience is not meant to feel bad for her, but rather be intimidated. It reminded me of certain Björk videos from the Vespertine era: an era of self-actualization through sexual experimentation.

Lana Del Rey lets sin & symbolism fly in 'Tropico'

After months of teasing online, Lana Del Rey released her short film for "Tropico" at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, and now you can watch the whole thing. The 27-minute passion project is just that: a work of overflowing, era-traversing passion. Ultimately it's a love story. Del Rey's new "Tropico" works, more or less, as a glossy but bugged-out extended-length music video, a pretentious but sensationalistic dive into her center-free aesthetic. As the virgin mother, hints "Tropico" film will send Del Rey's career to heaven.
Del Rey lives to provoke. From her suburban bad girl gangsta pose to explicit lyrics that give us way too much information about which part of her tastes like Pepsi, the singer with the sad eyes lives up to her reputation in a short film accompanying her new EP, "Tropico." The three-song album  features the songs "Body Electric," "Gods & Monsters" and "Bel Air," comes with a super trippy mini-movie of the same name in which Del Rey plays Eve to model Shaun Ross' Adam as the pair glide their way from the Garden of Eden to a brazen stick up and outer space.
"Tropico" is the word kind of lends itself to a paradise and a paradise lost. Del Rey had always had it in her head as the title. The film, directed by veteran Anthony Mandler, puts a contemporary spin on stories from the Bible and opens with the singer and Ross portraying Adam and Even, dancing seductively to Del Rey's "Body Electric" around the Garden of Eden as the aforementioned quartet of Wayne, Elvis, Monroe and Jesus hangs out on the sidelines. Following the inevitable eating of the apple from the forbidden tree of knowledge, the couple are transported to modern day Los Angeles, where Del Rey finds herself transformed into a stripper with a heart of gold, while Ross becomes a bored convenience store clerk.
With life not offering much, the two enter a life of pure debauchery to the tune of "Gods and Monsters," and unsurprisingly, all the guns and boozing lead to an inevitable breaking point. Following the heist and suitably ridiculous celebration, the couple steal away for a nice romantic romp through a field at sunset while Del Rey sings "Bel Air." Ostensibly reborn and cleansed of their sins, the couple put on some white clothes to prove it and then ascend to heaven in each other's arms. The ambition in this extended morality play about love, lust and loss of innocence is hard to deny, as it invokes multiple religious and pop culture figures in exploring the extremes of human experience.

London Grammar debut haunting ballad "Strong"

English art rock trio London Grammar have unveiled the video for "Strong," the latest cut lifted from the fast-rising youngsters' debut album, "If You Wait." One of the big success stories of 2013, the three piece Hannah Reid, Dot Major and Dan Rothman, have already experienced chart success with their pop anthem "Wasting My Young Years," and are set to eclipse that with "Strong." An epic, haunting ballad, the video is a cinematic experience, featuring a father caring for his child in adverse conditions, dressing up as a robot and covering himself in fireworks for her entertainment.
London Grammar hasn't been around long, but each of their singles has been better than the last, building on an expansive, wide-eyed brand of pop which evokes slow-moving images of young people falling in and out of love. The newest offering, "Strong" is such a dark and moody, down-tempo number. It continues on from their previous entry with its sonically powerful melodies and lyrics. London Grammar are like a cross between the xx's minimalism and Florence and the Machine's opera indebted style.
They can conjure emotions without hammering you over the head with them, on the autumnal "Strong", lead vocalist Reid showcase of her abilities with a timeless, tranquil quality that immediately silences everything around it, as she singing abstractly about some unspecified pain of being "wide-eyed and I'm so damn caught in the middle," plotting coordinates where romantic idealism and reality meet to disastrous results. The slowburn track has some shades of the xx especially in the guitar lines, but Reid's emotional vocal performance sounds more arresting than ever here, and it glides across the song's delicately layered canvas.

The emotionally stirring number is a moody, fairly downcast number with a powerful chorus, whilst the Sam Brown-directed video, equally as beautiful, featuring some absolutely amazing pyrotechnics and depict the endearing relationship between a father and his child putting on a unique fireworks show with a twist what looks like some kind of attack, is a strange affair that alternates between shots of the band wandering the streets of an apocalyptic-looking Los Angeles and a story with a rather bizarre ending. Watch a father's amazing act of love below.

Lana Del Rey has another "Summertime Sadnes"

Lana Del Rey has teamed up with French DJ Cedric Gervais for a dance remix of her haunting trip hop ballad "Summertime Sadness," her biggest chart debut yet from 27-year-old Indie pop singer's debut set "Born To Die," which has seen huge success since its release in January of last year, is one of those rare albums that just keeps feeling fresher as time goes by. The glamorous and classy songstress is currently working on her sophomore studio collection to be distributed under her Lana Del Rey guise.
No one knows what it's like to experience that "Summertime Sadness" quite like Del Ray. The gloomy cut is Del Ray at her most head down and the pouty title alone drew giggles at Del Ray's Bowery gig, but the lovelorn ballad itself proves to be one of the more durable tracks here even if its lyrics start to get redundant. But even though there is a palpable damaged girl in her raspy voice, she commands attention with her lazy delivery. Now, “Summertime Sadness” is climbing the charts due to a new house remix by Gervais, who transforms Del Ray's lachrymose original into a dancefloor stomper, and now there's a video to match, a tale of lesbian love and broken hearts!
An accompanying video for the house remix of "Summertime Sadness," is another vintage home video-styled clip and shows Del Ray as a ride or die chick with actresses, Jaime King and performing the song through a series of vintage and colorful filters. Exactly a year after the original "Summertime Sadness" video's release. The new clip was directed by King's husband, Kyle Newman, shot using a retro, blown-out camera filter, and features cut-up footage of Del Ray and suicidal lesbian lover, King, laughing and smiling together in the beautiful summer weather. Eventually, however, things turn sour and after a teary-eyed fight in a car and some incredibly despondent faces, Del Ray jumps off a cliff and plunges to her demise.
Later, we learn that King has done the exact same thing. It's debatable whether or not the two reunite in a bizarre afterlife filled with coral-colored smoke, but it seems unlikely, as the clip closes with an image of Del Ray and her ghost walking alone down an empty road. Sad, sad times. It's just stitched together with familiar glitchy footage of Del Ray in her conventional Tumblrwave style from the original video, but it's still a nice visual accompaniment; the euphoric house production contrasts with the melancholy aesthetic in that way that feels quintessentially Del Ray and, well, if nothing else, the track is straight fire.

Leona Lewis performs acoustic ver of "Trouble"

To celebrate the upcoming release, Leona Lewis has turned all hip hop with an exclusive live performance video, a stripped back solo version for her comeback track, "Trouble," which features US rapper Childish Gambino, and serves as the second single for the 27-year-old British singer's third LP, "Glassheart," which will be released in the UK on October 15, and a day later in the US.
Having won the UK version of the X Factor back in 2006, Lewis' new song is a typically emotional song about a failing relationship, and the subject matter suits her voice well. Taking musical inspiration from British trip hop pioneers Massive Attack, "Trouble" is a mid-tempo piano and strings-driven ballad speaking of Lewis' break-up with childhood sweetheart Lou Al-Chamaa. It's an anguished epic journey that reveals ethereal, haunting tones and chilling falsetto added with a modern twist of rap that simultaneously showcase the sheer power and intimacy of Lewis' incredible talent. The song was powerful, it's heartfelt and it confirms Lewis as one of the most remarkable vocalists of the day.
Lewis explained the aim and meaning behind "Trouble:" "it tells the story of love going bad and becoming destructive, aspects of which we can all relate to. It's a deeply emotional and poignant song that I have a real connection to." The song has a convincing, compelling and dramatic vocal performance which works brilliantly against its opulent but bleak mid-tempo production. "Trouble" is a return to the "safer" templates of her first two albums, but the song's production is a vaguely trip-hop beat buffeted by soaring strings and a troubled lyric in the chorus.
The smooth acoustic performance was recorded live in a studio in just one take, and was filmed in black and white. The moody video features a stripped vocal performance set against a minimal cello and piano production accompanied by a pianist and a violinist. It's really just a chance for Lewis to show off her impressive soprano over soaring strings without the distraction of a video. And it works well, giving the song a raw and emotional edge. While the original version just about added up to the sum of its individually brilliant parts, the acoustic perhaps even better than the original.

Lana Del Rey falls hard in "Summertime Sadness"

Lana Del Rey showed us her penchant for tragedy when she and A$AP Rocky played the Kennedys in her last video for "National Anthem," and she continues down that road in the hazy new video for "Summertime Sadness," a cut off her major-label debut studio album, "Born to Die," which the 26-year-old raspy-voiced singer describes as "Hollywood Sadcore."
You know that feeling you get on cool nights in the dog days of summer? That tight feeling in your chest as you watch the sunset from your third floor walk-up? Well, most adults like to supplement that with cigarettes and beer, but Del Rey would rather jump off a bridge than deal with that type of twilight sadness. The scenario of "Summertime Sadness" is typical of her debut album, and tells the super true sad love story of two lesbian lovers ending their own lives.
Keeping the buzz alive while sticking with sepia-tones and a healthy dose of melodramatics, Del Rey probes a crumbling relationship in the new video, which was filmed in April in Santa Clarita, California with "Hart of Dixie" actress Jaime King playing her other half, and directed by King's husband, filmmaker Kyle Newman with the help of "Hesher" helmer Spencer Susser - looks like a visual ode to Instagram, which is similar to Del Rey's other videos.
The video is bittersweet with beautifully shot, sepia-soaked and melodramatic, and flickers through mock found footage of the viral singing sensation and her girlfriend enact a love story during their happy days that ends in suicide attempts with both the grief stricken lovers falling in slow motion off of a bridge, suicidal after realizing the irreparability of their relationship. "I just wanted you to know," Del Rey intones as she tumbles slowly into the abyss, "that baby you were the best."

Lana Del Rey pays tribute with 'National Anthem'

Lana Del Rey has just released the music video for her new single "National Anthem," which places her in the midst of John F. Kennedy's final days. With Harlem rapper A$AP Rocky playing the part of the young commander in chief, Del Rey takes on both Marilyn Monroe in her best effort at all its slinky and seductive glory, and Jackie Kennedy, a very loose-hipped, dancing version of the First Lady. This song fits in well with the indie pop intrigue's post-Lizzy Grant cinematic "gangsta Nancy Sinatra" public image.
"National Anthem" is the fifth single taken from Del Rey's debut album, "Born to Die," which peaked at No.2 on the Billboard 200 upon its release back in January. Save for the fact that the song is called "National Anthem," its hard to see how the presidency and death of JFK really figure in here. The takeaway line from the whole song: "Money is the anthem of success." Throwing Rocky into the mix actually makes a bit of sense, as the song was produced by Emile Haynie and Jeff Bhasker, two maestros with resumes rich with hip-hop and rap productions.
"Every so often, I top what I've done, and this video is definitely the most beautiful thing I've ever done," the 26-year-old moody songstress previously said. The Mandler-directed 7-minute epic clip lives up to the hype by coming in with a sprawling nearly eight-minute run time, and boasts a visual ode to money and success more so than a history lesson. Through good performances and gorgeous Super-8 cinematography and a complete indifference to anything related to governing, actually does an amazingly nice job depicting Del Rey and Rocky embrace their characters completely.
The clip begins in black and white, and flashes back in time with Del Rey as Marilyn Monroe sings her seductive "Happy Birthday" to the cigar-smoking President in 1962. The clip then segues to Del Rey as Jackie Kennedy sitting beside her husband during the tragic Dallas motorcade in November 1963 during which the President was assassinated, but as the music fades out, Del Rey leaves the viewer with some food for thought.

Kanye West' "Runaway" Is Dark Twisted Fantasy

Kanye West's highly anticipated debut film, "Runaway," finally arrived and proved to be the 'ambitious' effort that fans who previewed the short have been raving about for weeks. "Runaway" is the third single from Chicago rappe's upcoming fifth studio album, "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy." The film features Victoria's Secret model Selita Ebanks as the main character and Nicki Minaj as the film’s narrator. The 35-minute film features West expressing himself in a new way that is much more grandiose than anything he has attempted before.
West debuted the song on September 12, and performed "Runaway" featuring rapper Pusha T of Clipse, at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards. He said the song was about having remorse for being a fool then rapped about toasting those who are douche-bags, scumbags and jerk-offs. Afterwards the Chicago MC dedicated his performance to his late mother. Shortly after the performance, West revealed he was working on a 35-minute short film based around the song. "Runaway" might be loaded with deeper meaning but essentially it's just another way of getting people talking about "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy," his guest-heavy fifth LP.
The 35-minute abstract musical short is inspired by other music-related short films such as Purple Rain, Pink Floyd The Wall and Michael Jackson's Thriller and painters Picasso and Matisse. It was filmed in Prague over the period of four days during the summer. The script, a carefully modulated art-film made by a man on a mission, was written by West, Vanessa Beecroft and Jonathan Lia. West describes the video as an "overall representation of what [he dreams]" and a parallel to his music career. Speaking to MTV News, West said he wanted women in his life, including his mother and ex-girlfriends, represented in the video, and for them to "connect with the different emotions". According to Ebanks, who co-stars in the video, the moral of the video is, "the world doesn't accept, or they try to change, what is different, instead of trying to understand it." The film was inspired by directors Federico Fellini and Stanley Kubrick as well as fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld.
The film is implementation of the nine West songs, which are totally making us crave his album even more. The promo is based on the life of the mythical phoenix, which West admits relates to his own career. He told New York Magazine: "It's the story of a phoenix fallen to Earth and I make her my girlfriend. And people discriminate against her and eventually she has to burn herself alive and go back to her world. I've been feeling the idea of the phoenix. It's been in my heart for a while." West added, referring to the controversial incident when he stage-crushed Taylor Swift during her acceptance speech at last year's VMAs: "It's maybe parallel to my career. I threw a Molotov cocktail on my career last year, in a way, and I had to come back as a better person."