Amazing lyrics in the Beyoncé song 'Radio' - Update

"You're the only one allowed to hang out in my room with the door closed."

If she was a boy she'd be BOYANCÉ!!!1!!

This whole new album business from Beyoncé is rather ridiculous: a double album, the first disc full of slow songs about breaking up with Beyoncé and how amazing Beyoncé still is, and the second full of quicker songs about how you shouldn't break up with Beyoncé because she is so amazing. And then there's that alter-ego matter (that's her on the right, apparently).

However, it does have one saving grace - one of the quicker songs, 'Radio', is fantastic.

"I think I'm in love with my radio, cos it never lets me down".

It does if you're listening to Radio One love, but let's not quibble. This is the best song she's done since she let the Freemasons rearrange the pieces of 'Green Light'. We know that was only about 18 months ago but it feels more like decades really.

(Other than the dismal 'If I Were A Boy' and the so-so 'Single Ladies', there is also one alright ballad ('Halo') and one more alright uptempo one ('Sweet Dreams'), all of which already elevates the album above B'day in our estimations.)

Also, don't judge this CD by it's cover...

Have you seen the state of this though?

Surely this is not the cover a comeback album? Or a comeback-from-the-first-comeback-last-year? (A second coming, if you will.)

Don't judge a CD by it's cover!

And on to the new Girls Aloud album.

'The Promise'

Not as 'poppers o'clock' as some Girls Aloud songs, is it? It is a bit more 'Duffy o'clock' though, which is clearly the blueprint for a number one song these days. But what does a number one really mean in this day and agezzzzzzzzzz...

'The Loving Kind'

PSB + GA + Xenomania + time and money = a very very very good song. But 'Call The Shots' was a very very very very good song indeed. Hmmm.

'Rolling Back The Rivers In Time'

And so we come to the longest song title in Girls Aloud history. It's all very Abba-esque, i.e. fan-bloody-tastic. The intro is a bit D:ream-esque too. These are good things, by the way. Should be a single.

'Love Is The Key'

The fourth song in a row with the word "the" in the title (ZOMG WHAT'S THE HIDDEN MEANING?!?!?????!!!!ONE!?). At the start you think it sounds a bit like' Waiting', then you think it sounds like 'Wild Horses', especially because of that choir at the start, and then you remember it's a new Girls Aloud fucking song so stop comparing it to their old ones and saying they've lost their spark and are treading water because this is an album by a girlband who've found their footing now and have realised they don't have to release rave anthems just to keep afloat but can now delve into slightly deeper topics and release songs below 128bpm that are about love and relationships and living in Suffolk.

We're bored now. The album is brilliant. 'Untouchable' should be the 3rd single, with an expensive video set in space. 

[Insert pun about new Saturdays album here]

So, that Saturdays album. Here’s what we thought (of the songs worth mentioning).

‘If This Is Love’ This was only really alright, looking back on it now, wasn’t it.

‘Up’ Christ knows what they thought they were doing when they pissed all over this to put it on the album, but the version you see in the video/hear on the single/hear in your head is rather great.

‘Keep Her’ If this album is going in chronological order of singles then we will be very happy. Although then again it means about a hundred singles from them. Well, twelve. But that means ten more 25 pence videos.

‘Issues’ The acoustic version they did on some TV programme about 6 years ago: 8/10. This (apparently, rooted in 1995 pop production) version: 4/10.

‘Work’ AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING PUT YOUR BOOTS ON BABY LET’S GO AMAZING.

‘Set Me Off’ God knows why they gave this away, as it’s the fifth best song here.

And that’s it.

We do think that ‘Crashing Down’ should’ve been on the album. Preferably in place of that ‘Up’ remix.

NB Do you think they’re all looking to the right on the album cover because they’ve just cottoned on to some lights they should be chasing?*

* “Dear Bop Pop, I would like my jokes back, thank you, Al The Pub Landlord.”

Cold 'n' then hot

Okay, so we weren't really particularly big fans of 'I Kissed A Girl', but the song grew on us, somewhat like a limpet. And then this came along...

And now we seem to love Katy Perry.

Damn.

So, Madonna then...

We saw her last week. Everything you're heard everyone bang on about was true: the chaos, disorganisation, problems et al. The woman herself actually put on a rather good show, though. Despite the fact that this was out view for most of the show:

The good points:

1. 'Candy Store', never our favourite song on 'Hard Candy', and certainly not our first choice for show opener (we always seemed to want 'Heartbeat' for some reason) takes on an entirely new lease of life performed live. It's now a 7/10 song.
2. As above for 'Beat Goes On'. Except it's more of a 7.5/10.
3. 'Vogue vs. 4 Minutes' is amazing. As in, AMAZING. Really very good. Well done to everyone involved.
4. The same goes for 'Like A Prayer', although slightly less so.
5. 'Ray Of Light' and 'Hung Up' WITH THEM GUITAR THINGS is better in practice than in theory. Which might be the first case of such a thing. Madonna, always trailblazing...

And the bad points:

1. The performances of 'Borderline', 'Spanish Lesson', 'Devil...' and 'You Must Love Me' all waste good songs. Well, maybe not 'Spanish Lesson', that's just a waste of everyone's time.
2. Black underwear, black dress, black trousers, black hot pants, black tracksuit top, black shoes, black roots...
3. 'Give It 2 Me' is Quite A Good Song to end things on.

We'd give it 9/10 overall.

It would have got full marks if she'd have done this at Wembley though:

It's that time of year

By which we mean, the time of year when all of your favourite popstars bring out their calenders for next year.

Here's Kylie's new one:

And Girls Aloud's:

Even Elvis has done a new photoshoot for his:

This has got to be our favourite though:

Readers! Have you seen any more interesting popstar calenders? Answers on a postcard...

Róisín* Week Mental

You may (or may not) be aware that in lots of towns and cities around the world that aren't any of the towns and cities that we live in are having their fashion weeks at the moment. And you know what fashion week means, don't you...

CRAZY RÓISÍN OUTFIT TIME!

Click the picture on the right to see ten of her best, in all their glory.

Meanwhile, does anyone know what's going on with 'Movie Star'/'Slave To Love'/EMI/the economy/the price of bread?

* For the sake of punnage, we will all pretend that "Róisín" rhymes with "fashion". Thank you.

Dirrrty cow

You've heard of Christina Aguilera, yes? The famous singing woman who's usually either dressed as a prostitute from The Fifth Element, a prostitute from the 1930s, or a mixture of the two.

Well, did you know that she sometimes gets pissed and dances like a loon?

We have evidence!

RING THE ALARM!!!1!!ONE!

Beyoncé's back, y'all!

Here she is filming the video for her comeback-back-BACK! single 'If I Was A Boy'. It seems odd in this day and age to have not gone through the usual single leaking, rushed label press release and Last.fm raping of a song leading to eventual Internet musings on music video treatments rigmarole, but hey ho.

She looks pleased with herself. Well done.

We saw Madonna on Thursday

More soon...

STOP PRESS!

How about a nice picture of Sarah Harding looking disproportionate?

She was out the other night meeting Nadine's new piece. Nicola was also there, but no-one thinks to photograph her do they?

In other Girls Aloud news, the new single will be premiered on Annie Mac's Radio One show at some point in the next week or so. We think.

And the Girls are going to be part of Jo Whiley's Live Lounge On Tour. Whatever that is.

Bop Pop - for all your well-researched and up-to-date pop news!

(Indeed - The World)

MTV VMA FYI

So, the MTV Video Music Awards were held last night. (No, not the ones in Liverpool, that's soon. These ones were in The America. Where everything that isn't about giant robotic spiders and MTV Awards shows held in Liverpool happens.)

The following people looking amazing last night:

And the following performances were amazing:

The End.

Speaking of The Saturdays...

This...



...sounds quite similar to this...



...no?

Here's the video for The Saturdays' new single 'Up!'

Points of interest:

• Not one of the Saturdays doesn't look stunning

• Even Frankie, with her P!nk-style hair

• It is amusing watching people try to dance on top of bollards

• This song is amazing
  

Back! Back! BACK! (Don't forget to turn over and do your back!)

Here we find Britney, deep in rehearsals for her rumoured MTV VMAs comeback performance...

Look! Rihanna's normal too!

Here she is, just popping into her local Maccy D's for a double sausage and egg McMuffin and a hash brown...

...this is, of course, on her way to a video shoot or to frolic with Chris Brown, but it was nearly a normal thing.

Happy Birthday, Madonna

Madonna turned 50 on Saturday. Don't worry if you forgot, she'll probably understand.

Here is a picture of her from her birthday night out. If it's anything like ours then she'd have ended the night in a Chinese karaoke bar.

What do you think that present is in her hand? Is it from Guy? Do you think he wrapped it himself?

Sometimes it's better to mime

In the absence of anything new happening on the Annie horizon (fingers crossed 'My Love Is Better' is still coming out), let's have a look at her singing her recent Top 60 hit 'I Know UR Girlfriend Hates Me'.



Our top tip for Annie's future success: film the 'My Love Is Better' video as an Annie versus Girls Aloud 'Walk This Way' style affair.

World domination? Check.

It's new Girls Aloud picture time!

Something to do with Kit Kats or charity or white t-shirts, we think.

Honestly, we're not obsessed with the Sugababes...

No really, we're not.

But we've noticed something a bit themetic about this new photo...



Namely:

1. High-waisted skirts
2. Blouses

We can also exclusively reveal what each Sugababe is thinking in that photo:

• Keisha - "You know I've firmly established myself as the new Head Sugababe in Mutya's wake, I know I have, we all know I have. And that's something I'm highly self-satsified with."

• Amelle - "Pfft, whatever Keisha. I'm coming up on the inside..."

• Heidi - "DANCING!!!!1!!!ONE!!!"

By the way, did you know this exists?

Edit...

Ok, we'll concede that Heidi's wail at 1:58 is a bit amazing.

Here come the 'Babes

So, the Sugababes are back. Weren't expecting that so soon were you! They have a new song, called "Girls", and it samples that song off the Boots adverts. And when we say samples, we mean "sounds exactly like, except with a beat and a bit of wailing in the background".



Forgive us for being a bit underwhelmed, if we're honest. It's no 'In The Middle', is it?

And the cover of Will Young's new album will look like...

...this:

An Open Letter to Girls Aloud

Hello Girls.

When are you going to release 'Girl Overboard'?

We think you should soon because it is 1. Amazing, 2. Really Amazingly Good, and (c) will send poppers sale through the roof once the Tony Lamezma remix 'hits the clubs'.

If you could just get back to us and let us know, that'd be great.

Thanks.

Bye.

A Day In The Life Of Bop Pop

We heard that there Jordin Sparks on t'radio today and thought it was actually her off of Lean Rimes fame doing the singing. When we realised, we didn't feel any increase or decrease in disappointment, and carried on with the rest of our day.

The End.

Time does go by a bit slowly when you're listening to certain songs

If Madonna's only got four minutes to save the world or whatever it is she's pertaining to do with the power of one slightly-less-good-than-'Maneater' tune, then why is the song four minutes and five seconds long?

Are we to assume the last five seconds of the song is the sound of the world not be saved?

Oh dear...

Hello again, The Internets...

You may or may not be familiar with the briefly popular, recently deceased, pop music-related pop music website Bop Pop. Or you may not.

If you're in the former camp, then you may or may not be pleased to discover that Bop Pop has been resurrected! Like the phoenix from the flames, like Nelly Furtado from the burning ashes of Folklore, BopPop.co.uk is back (possibly with a bang, not definitely though, keep checking back) and is now boppopblog. That is Bop Pop Blog written all as one word. It was going to be just Bop Pop (or boppop) but we've forgotten the password for that so you're just going to have to make do with this one.

Anyway, we shall be posting soon, probably not as regularly as we used to*, but we will try.

Promise!

*I.e. about 5 posts a day in the beginning, or about 5 posts a month by the end :(