Oops up side your head

We've been going nuts about Theophilus London for some time now and it seems appropriate to go slightly bonkers for him again seeing as his new mix-tape, I Want You, has now been given a release date of 28 April. As a little taster, he's started leaking a few of the tracks and one of the best we've heard so far is this cover of Tweet's excellent, Timbaland-produced ode to masturbation, 'Oops'. Production duties on this cover were handled by a certain Hudson Mohawke.

You can hear it here and download it for free here

This is the original, which is still very much worth hearing:



So good.

It all got a bit Missy

The other day we were queuing in the Post Office when who should we see but Missy Elliott, standing there in her (slightly tatty, it has to be said) gold tracksuit. Now, regular readers to Musick will know that our relationship has soured somewhat following a nasty argument about money and a mildly negative review of some of Missy's recent output. With that in mind, we approached cautiously, keeping a small pack of Cadbury Snacks at hand just in case our offer of an apology wasn't accepted (Missy loves her chocolate). Thankfully, Missy seemed to have forgotten all about our disagreements and treated us to a big hug and an incredibly convoluted hand shake that involved elbows and all sorts.

We asked Missy what she'd been up to given the fact that her new album, Block Party, was due out about ten months ago and has yet to materialise. She went on about how Timbaland had just started night school (he's doing a woodwork course) and that the record label weren't particulalry happy with how the first couple of songs had done. We sensed some sadness behind the sunglasses and tried to cheer her up by offering to listen to some of the new songs she'd been working on. So, over some milky tea and another bag of Minstrels she played us this:



We're not going to lie, what followed was pretty ugly. Things were said, stereos were smashed, words like "rehashed" and "former glories" were banded about and it all ended with Missy trying to stuff a Wagon Wheel somewhere a Wagon Wheel does not belong. Still, it's best to be honest with Missy and hopefully she'll realise that we were only trying to help. Fingers crossed there's better on the album, should it ever materialise.

Making it her own

Forget Radiohead dropping new songs left, right and center, the real delight comes when songs begin to leak from some of the years most anticipated pop albums. You can almost hear Simon Cowell's hands wringing around some poor studio assistant's neck. In two years, Leona Lewis has gone from 'receptionist with a dream' to one of the world's biggest superstars, selling records in every major territory (nice), despite being about as charismatic as Kate Thornton.

This new ditty is called 'Don't Let Me Down' and features Justin Timberlake and the production skills of a certain Mr Timbaland:



It's not exactly 'Maneater', but what did you expect. It's good to see that Leona's gone a bit street, starting a song with "fucking around". Oh, "fork in the road", that makes more sense.

Holiday! Celebrate!

Madonna has so many great hits that she's decided to release a THIRD hits collection, entitled Celebration. The album is her last for Warners and is in no way some kind of 'will this do', contract fulfilling gesture with little artistic merit. Hell, it's Madonna, she's got more integrity then that.

Either way, it means there's some new Madonna material to go with it, which is usually a good thing. The first single is also called 'Celebration' and as if to prove that she doesn't just work with hot, young producers, it's produced by Paul Oakenfold.



It's back to the dancefloor after that mostly misjudged foray into 'urban' with Timbaland and Pharrell. It suits her much better in our opinion. Rumour has it that the video will feature Madonna's daughter Lourdes recreating scenes from the 'Like A Virgin' video, which is some insane, Freudian nightmare made flesh.

EDIT: The video has been removed. Boo Madonna, boo!