Today's Pick

Dreaming of palm trees tonight? You're not alone. Singer-songwriter-pop star extraordinaire Bonnie McKee is getting us in the sunny, sparkly Christmas spirit with her new cheerful holiday song "California Winter," and McKee's got a hot holiday tip for you as she belts across the chorus of the lovey-dovey wintry ode that is all about cozying up to your love - the only thing that can make you feel like a "California Winter," despite the snow and chilly weather.
"California Winter," is a future holiday classic with bright, catchy, and full of hooks. It's just like one of McKee's pop hits - only with a festive holiday twist. The talented "American Girl" pop penner, who looks like a gorgeous Christmas pin-up dream on the song's cover artwork, provides cheerful horns and wintry jingling bells on her cheery new tune. The super bubbly, upbeat track bops like a squeaky-clean '50s tune with McKee letting the world know that California still basks in the sun during winter. "It's always summer with you," she sings to her lover - the only thing that can make you feel like a "California Winter," despite the snow and chilly weather.
Reflecting the warm weather on the west coast, she wears various pin-up-inspired looks in the festive clip. McKee admitted that this was also a last minute project that came together with a lot of D.I.Y. work from the singer and her friends. Their labor of love is just as charming as the romantic, feel-good track itself. "This one-shot video was duct-taped, stapled, and glued together with chewing gum by my loving, wonderful, talented friends," says McKee of them making of this video.

Merry Christmas, Lovatics! Demi Lovato gave her fans an unexpected Christmas present with a sleigh full of feels on Christmas Eve, when the singer released an introspective new video for her emotional song, "Nightingale" just for fans. "Thank you all so much for the most amazing year yet! My Lovatics are truly the best. #Nightingale" she thanked her fans on Twitter with a link to the clip which basically takes us through behind-the-scenes concert footage scenes of her life on the road with shots from her concert performance.
The song, appears on the 22-year-old singer's 2013 album "DEMI," is purely for those who have supported Lovato through the years and it serves as a kind of sentimental year in review for the singer, who looks for a hero, someone to lean on, belting out, "Can you be my nightingale?/ Sing to me/ I know you’re there/ You could be my sanity/ Bring me peace/ Sing me to sleep/ Say you'll be my nightingale." The pop star shows love for her fans who serve as her nightingales.
Showing off a much more intimate side of her, the beautiful black and white affair follows Lovato on tour around the world as she shows you the behind the intimate scenes of her life. From introspective glances out of car windows, to images of fans climbing the stairs to get to her arena shows, to watching Lovato work out - it's the perfect look at her life from a perspective we don't often get to see, and even sneaking a sweet kiss with her actor boyfriend Wilmer Valderrama. Are you up to the task? From the stage to the streets, get a look at Lovato's life. Happy Holidays Lovatics!

Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness released the music video for "Cecilia and the Satellite," the post-fun, lead single from American indie pop solo act's self-titled debut album, which could be a personal soundtrack and the soundtrack to McMahon's inspiring rise-from-the-ashes recovery. Going through a crucible has the tendency to change a person and make them stronger. That was the case for pop-punk/piano-pop songsmith McMahon when he was diagnosed with leukemia in 2005.
"Cecilia and the Satellite," is a piano-driven tune acts as an ode to his newborn daughter, Cecilia, detailing McMahon's new life leading up to her birth and then happily confesses about events in McMahon's life, "through all the things my eyes have seen, the best by far is you." He definitely has the pipes for it, as he belts out "I'm the satellite/ and you're the sky," there's no denying that he has the experience to know exactly what he's doing. "I wanted to have a snapshot of who I was in the years leading up to meeting her," the new dad says.
Unfold and mirror the lyrics and sketches shown in the book, the Olivier Agostini-directed clip features McMahon and his adorable daughter intertwined with beautiful clips featuring Anastasia Krivosheeva as a grown-up Cecilia who dressed in white, wearing a flower headband, relaxing on a still rowboat, embark on her adventure while soaking up the rays and constantly looking up with a smile. This video will make even the best of fathers look bad, while those in possession of ovaries will participate in a 3:40 "awwwww" fest, and possibly an ovary explosion.

To top off Sam Smith's wildly successful 2014, where he nabbed six Grammy nominations earlier this month, the 22-year-old British crooner busted out the champagne and suited up in a tux with the black-and-white music video for "Like I Can," the fifth single off his Grammy-nominated "In The Lonely Hour" album, directed by Sophie Muller and it's a total black-tie affair.
"Like I Can," a robust ditty which is, perhaps, one of the most underrated tracks on his entire album which highlighted he was really lonely and his unrequited love for another man. This song was inspired by Oleta Adams' "Get Here," as Smith explained: "I used that same format with the list of ways that he will never love you like I can." While the song's lyrics tell the story of someone desperately in love with another who seems to be looking for love in "all the wrong places," the video doesn't quite match the story the song tells.
Instead, it's an aesthetic masterpiece, following Smith and a crew of male friends as they experience a quintessential day in New York City, looking totally dapper in tuxedos, hitting up a corner bar, taking time to smell the roses outside of a bodega and busting out choreographed dance routines on the Brooklyn bridge and serenading folks in alleyways before a round celebratory shots at a local corner bar. Despite his past music videos being pretty somber in nature, Smith is showing off a new side of himself with his latest effort. It's such an unbelievably happy and playful clip despite the nature of the song.

Zara Maria Larsson better known as Zara Larsson is a Swedish singer-songwriter and potential international star who rose to fame by winning the 2008 season of the talent show Talang, the Swedish version of "Got Talent." She is currently signed to TEN Music Group (For Sweden) and internationally to Epic Records. The 17-year-old Swedish beauty is ready to blow up worldwide and have released a new music video for her brand new Rihanna-esque track, "Weak Heart," the fourth single of her utterly fantastic debut album, simply entitled "1."
Larsson's Rihanna-lite phrasings are distracting on the verses, and her thrilling chorus isn't just effective at fusing slo-mo bass drum hits with twinkling keys - the classic beauty & the beast ballad - it's rhetorically clever. Larsson sings about a having a weak heart, but the song thumps along  with an incredibly strong pulse. It's a relatively uncommon trick, given how satisfying it is, but it places "Weak Heart" in the esteemed company of "This Old Heart of Mine," which similarly thrills at the heart's inefficiency in matters of love.
written by Robert Habolin, Patrizia Helander and Marcus 'Mack' Sepehrmanesh, "Weak Heart" is a mega ballad with a soaring melody that gets bellowed out over the top of some properly dramatic beats. And the lyrics are somewhat genius in that they're perfect for a girl of Larsson's age, yet at the same time quite grown up and so therefore really clever. An epic chorus and a popstar on horseback. You cannot ask for more. In the David Soutar-directed video you’ll see Larsson in a treehouse, riding a horse and more. Watch it below.

Angels & Airwaves (AVA) has gone through a series of lineup changes over the years, and this year became a duo with Blink-182's singer-guitarist Tom DeLonge and Nine Inch Nails' drummer Ilan Rubin. The band have debuted a music video for their electronic-led new soaring track, "The Wolfpack," which is the first single taken from their latest fourth album, "The Dream Walker," but that's only a piece of a much larger trans-media project aptly titled "Poet Anderson The Dream Walker," which will also include a short film, comic books, a graphic novel, videos and animations.
"The Wolpack" encompasses melodic layers that flow seamlessly into an undeniably catchy song. Romanticized lyrics build around a fantasy, a vision of forests and sunsets. Written, recorded and co-produced by frontman DeLonge, the colossal electro-inspired new track is described as "a bit of a journey in and out of the many teeth of the music business - an industry that can be a sexy girl on one hand, but a vicious axe murderer on the other." The catchy tune is a great addition to the vast Angels & Airwaves back catalog.
Directed by Mark Eaton, the dark, smoky clip, features a crowd in animal masks, the girl from the single who "bites like a wolf," and a lot of drunken hallucinations. It follows a forlorn-looking protagonist in a bar as he trying persistently to find an unforgettable girl that he just can't seem to get off his mind, seeing her in dreams and hearing her voice when she isn’t there. The weird part of the video is that the people the guy believes to be the girl all turn out to be women wearing plastic creepy animal masks.

British singer-songwriter Lauren Henson, professionally known as Indiana, is finally back with brand new music video for "Only the Lonely," the final track to be released before her debut LP "No Romeo" drops on January 19. We like Indiana a hell of a lot. Her upcoming album might be a mixed bag, but what she's released this year has A-grade pop written all over it. "Only The Lonely" adds to that impressive resume, and maintains the dark, swirling vibe that has become quite the specialism for the Nottingham girl.
The synthpop songstress has cut the ribbon on "Only The Lonely," a diverse synth-pop anthem with a deep and mournful synth verses and a proud, rousing chorus. The vocals of this latest track tread the perfect line between pop catchyness and a soulful tenderness, creating  a gentle but singalong effect. From what we've heard of it thus far, it looks set to make a mockery of her ingenuous questioning, "Why can't anybody hear me?" midway through "Only the Lonely." Because on the evidence of this stirring, and strangely insecure latest track, shortly, only the reprehensibly aloof will be left unaware of this slightly off-centre starlet.
The single is a champagne-sparkle cut, Indiana's vocals bubbling through a misty onslaught of synths. It's sodden with emotive fragments, but the rousing chorus is sure to banish any woes. It's an uplifting, festival fist-pump belter with the potential to ignite enormous lighter-waving singalongs. Once again, Indiana's vocals make the track something special and likely fodder for future tropical, trap, futuristic, bass-heavy remixes. The accompanying video, directed by De La Muerte, sees the British star covered in glitter while swimming around a pool, keeping in line with the water-themed artwork for her album.

Wrapping up 2014, Jhené Aiko pleases fans' palates with the sexiest new video yet for her sultry ballad, "Wading," one of the more emotional songs from the Californian singer''s recently released debut album "Souled Out," and she wasted no time channeling that energy into the visual. Ever since her EP "Sail Out" released in 2013, the 26-year-old songbird has risen into the higher tier of modern day music artists. It's safe to say that Aiko has the winning formula figured out.

The Dot da Genius-produced ballad that finds Aiko "turn[ing] blue" thanks to her unreciprocated feelings for a certain man. First for those who don't know what the term wading means, slowly walking through water or a liquid substance. Aiko's voice croons through this track flawlessly. She takes a Tupac verse and turns it into a what if metaphor for losing her love. It's very ambient as her voice echo and fades out. To accompany the record, a melancholy, director Jay Ahn creates a moody, atmospheric clip set in a starkly-lit strip club.
Along with a dope story of infidelity, most of the visuals are dark and colored with a red tint. The R&B singer sports a skimpy black leotard with knee high boots and puts on her best "come hither" face as her plays an exotic private dancer in a seedy underground nightclub and everyone is enjoying themselves until a man tries to put something in her drink. From there, another gentlemen comes to her defense, which starts an epic Kung Fu battle before the SWAT team raids the venue as a terrified Aiko looks on the scene.

Imagine Dragons returned and give us a wild ride with a new video for "I Bet My Life," the first taste of alternative rock band's as-yet untitled sophomore LP, and the sing-a-long anthem finds the Las Vegas-based rockers in a much mellower mood. The striking clip is a visual feast and a surreal odyssey with a harrowing near-death experience. Directed by Jodeb and stars Spider-Man 2 actor Dane DeHaan, who getting into a fist fight on the shores above the Theodore Roosevelt Dam. Things get stranger from there.
The epic track is full of the bombastic, pounding percussion with a slightly folkier vibe than typified the four-piece's past hits like "Radioactive," and transitions from somewhat apprehensive verses to loud and celebratory choruses. "This song is about the relationship I've had with my parents throughout the years," frontman Dan Reynolds explained. "At times it's been strained and difficult, but in the end, 'I Bet My Life' celebrates the bond that we still hold on to."
The clip captures the emotion of the song, as two young rascals fight, forcing one into the Roosevelt Dam and sending him on a glorious, bizarre adventure. The two dastardly fellows, who are dressed in old-timey clothes despite the video being set in relatively modern times, get into a scuffle near the dam, sending one into the raging, flowing river. he young gent is then sent into an expansive underground tunnel, to an otherworldly journey.
The first stop is an underwater house that was seemingly abandoned years ago. Though the chairs are up on the table and everything is covered in protective white sheets, there is a cozy bed for which the boy can slumber on, before he wakes up... only to find himself in a boat. From there, he sails away to freedom against the river until he tumbles over a waterfall. Though that only lands him in the hands of an adoring crowd. But, the otherworldly adventure was just that, a dream. And the boy awakes at the base of the waterfall, in the arms of his enemy. Was it heaven? Was a life actually bet?

What’s the best way to deal with a breakup? Olly Murs hammers down the brick wall that's separating him from his heartbroken on-screen love Demi Lovato in a tense and emotional new video for their emotional duet "Up," the second single from the British singer's latest fourth album, "Never Been Better." It's just as moody as you'd expect for a song about a flailing relationship and the devoted love of a couple for one another and that they will definitely overcome the troubles that currently affect them.
The "Troublemaker" crooner and the "Heart Attack" hottie songstress trade verses about heartbreak, all while smashing various household items from guitars, to flower vases to pillows, perfectly depicting the frustration and pain you feel when going through a split. But, just as the lyrics suggest, there's a glimmer of hope that things will be looking, well, up, for this failing relationship. Together, the pair are like a whole demolition crew of emotion as they are seen leaning on the opposite sides of a wall as they sing about fighting to keep a relationship alive.
The shadowy video, directed by Ben and Gabe Turner, is a bit dark but emotions run high, with both artist brooding in bare rooms and having breakdowns on either side of a brick wall, as they portray the varying emotional stages of the uplifting soaring ballad. Murs lamenting a broken relationship in his living room, singing "Just tell me it's not the end of the line" before Lovato comes in on the chorus and on the other side of his wall to apologize for breaking his heart. But they'll try save it as they decided to bring down the wall between them, remove most of the bricks and give their love a second shot.

Never has there been such a thorough discussion about sex with Nicki Minaj than in her song, "Only," the third single from Minaj’s upcoming third album, "The Pinkprint," due out on December 15. Rapping alongside Drake, Chris Brown and Lil Wayne, Minaj adds to the racy content with her newly released dark and twisted video for the extremely sexual song on Friday, a month after the song's controversial lyric video for using Nazi imagery, and a week after she performed of the Dr. Luke-produced hip-hop record on "Saturday Night Live" last weekend.
The Young Money first lady going head to head with her label-mates Drake and Wayne as they rap a verse each. The rap queen kicks off the song shutting down rumors of her sleeping with Wayne and Drake in a very explicit way. Drake reiterates that he's never had sexual relations with Minaj, but would if she hadn't already got a man. Wayne brings home the final verse, which continues the hardcore lyrical content as the Young Money boss' fantasies about sleeping with the Queens MC, who trades Nazi imagery for torture porn in new "Only" video.
Directed by Hannah Lux Davis, the porn-esque video, which is full of risqué costumes, bondage equipment and blood in a dominatrix setting, is not as controversial as the previously dropped lyric visual. It starts off with a bunch of muscular men being abducted and taken to the Trinidadian raptress, who shows off her killer curves in a sheer black body suit over a black bra and tiny panties as she and some other ladies in a dark-lit room where they torture several men. While fellow hypnotizing Young Money rap about how they have never slept with her, Brown appears in another place to sing his hook, sporting a pair of creepy colored contact lenses and golden grills.

Jessie J takes us on a journey of how awesomely awesome her life is in the video for her girl power anthem "Masterpiece," the third single off her latest third album "Sweet Talker," which debuted at No.10 in the U.S., has spawned the Nicki Minaj and Ariana Grande-assisted Grammy-nominated hit "Bang Bang," and "Burnin' Up" featuring 2 Chainz.
The melodic ballad that is tamer than its single predecessors but still packs the same punch, is about self-empowerment and living up to one's potential. "I still fall on my face sometimes, and I can't color inside the lines/ 'Cause, I'm perfectly incomplete/ I'm still working on my masterpiece," the British pop star sings. The song's thematic similarity to her debut album, "Who You Are," in that it is addressed to her haters.
Shot in Los Angeles, the Tabitha Denholm-directed music video see a makeup-free Jessie J doing everyday things as she wakes up in her L.A. hotel room and shares grainy Instagram-like footage from her regular day. She then jumps in her BMW vehicle and heads to the set for lengthy photoshoots, handles interviews with the press, and later is partying out in the streets and performing the uplifting track along with a huge crowd of her adoring fans, who know all the words to her new song. Sure, Jessie J's perfectly incomplete, but she's still working on her masterpiece. The best is yet to come!

X Factor finalist 2012, Ella Henderson, has premiered her brand spanking new video for her next single, "Yours," the third single off tetney singing sensation's debut studio album, "Chapter One," which is now getting an official US release! It features songs like "Glow," "Mirror Man" and the breakout single "Ghost." Look out for the LP on January 13.
Henderson co-wrote "Yours" with Josh Record, who also produced the song, and it's so incredibly romantic we don't know whether to be happy or sad. About the whole shebang, Henderson said: "I wrote 'Yours' to represent something beautiful that's going on in my world right now. Being able to strip everything back to just me and the piano allows me to simply speak through my music."
The beautifully stripped ballad gets an equally minimal visual which was directed by James Lees and it's shot entirely in black-and-white, giving it a soft, romantic vibe that fits in perfectly with the style of the song. Shot in New York, the video sees the 18-year-old British singer playing the tune on a piano in her city apartment, and gazing lovingly at her boyfriend sleeps the day away to reflect on their relationship. A simply beautiful stripped back black and white study of X Factor UK breakout star.

Jessie Ware's sophomore album "Tough Love" mostly dealt with heartbreak and unrequited love, but on some songs, the tone was much more hopeful. One such track, "You & I (Forever)," was perhaps the LP's most uplifting offering, and now, it's received a touching music video to boot. Ware issued an invitation for her family members, friends, and fans to shoot footage in a photo booth for the video, which was subsequently placed alongside performance shots of the singer.
The track opens with Ware admitting, "For me, 'You & I (Forever)' is celebrating the person you love being by your side. This is what it means to others." UK singer wrote this song after childhood sweetheart Sam Burrows proposed to her on the Greek island of Skopelos. She explained "(It) is me celebrating the memory of the fact that he's proposed to me and that we'll be together for ever." The song finds Ware singing about her frustration regarding Burrows' delay in proposing. "We waited such a long time, we've been going out forever," she said. "I wanted it to be this motorbike riding song, lots of yearning on an open highway."
The video’s director, Adam Powell, chooses to take us back to those 1889 vibes by putting treating the video to be grainy and black and white, which featuring Ware singing in a photo booth spliced together with shots of various couples, of all sorts. Straight, old, LGBT, young, mother and child, and a few singles who are simply interesting characters, getting their pictures taken. The sugary sweet video is a simple, but truly compassionate and effective concept. Strike a pose with Ware in this tender "You & I (Forever)" video.

Charli XCX is red hot while holding a hunk hostage in a brand new music video for her 90's-inspired pop/rock track, "Breaking Up," off her upcoming punk rock-inspired sophomore album "Sucker," is expected to be released on December 16. When discussing the album Charli states that while the album is still pop, "it's a very shouty, girl power, girl gang, sort of feel." The cartoony video definitely fits that description with Charli's bad chick attitude in it.
This slice of brat-pop finds Charli bashing her former lover. "That song is really brutal - every time I sing it I feel bad for everyone of my ex-boyfriends," she explained. "I feel like I'm making all the guys I ever dated cry," Charli added. "Which I kind of like." Obviously, the 22-year-old English singer likes to destroy them really bad with a hammer! Well, only if you're her boyfriend and you mistreat her.
The ultra-colorful BRTHR-directed video opens with vintage Charli listening to her boyfriend prattle on to his parents about how every girl in school wants to be with him. After tossing her drink onto the ground and shattering it, she lowers her cat eye sunglasses and says "we had a good run, Patrick" with an infinitely bored expression on her face. After she breaks up with her football star boyfriend, she hops into limo with her girlfriends and begins her girl power and feistiest breakup anthem.
The rest of the video takes place at a bowling alley and entails generous hair flipping while Charli belts out the lyrics and playing bowling with close gal pals and enjoying sweets. Throughout the chorus of the song she proclaims "you say you love me, I say what?" These simple yet sassy lyrics affirm the fact that this song is letting the world that she doesn't need to be on the arm of a guy to be confident. The style of the video is dripping with the 90s revival aesthetic that millennials are begging for these days and Charli makes it look ridiculously fun that gives off all of the ultra-cool dark pop vibes that the song does.

We danced in the mirror and singing in the shower all summer, and now it is time to move forward as Becky G dropped the sexy new video for her mellow, mid-tempo new single, "Can't Stop Dancin'," and the video takes a 180-degree turn from the fun and flirty visual we got for "Shower," and will thaw you out of this winter weather.
The talented pop princess follows up what should have been the song of the summer with "Can't Stop Dancin'," the second single off her upcoming debut studio album, a slow-burning song that's ostensibly about dancing, but also clearly about other things as well. "Your lights are shining like the sun out tonight/ Just keep your body moving how I like/ Oh yeah, the music feels like paradise/ It can't get any better," Becky sings beneath the hot and cold neon lights. It's so fun and just free-spirited.
Going along perfectly with the title and feel of the song itself, the Hannah Lux Davis-directed colorful clip opens with the 17-year-old Mexicana standing on a porch, hair blowing in the wind and bathed in the sweltering sunlight as she slinks around a village caught in a heatwave and serves up hair tosses and hip shakes aplenty before entering into the local saloon. Becky then proceeds to break it down and makes her way into a darkly lit dance club, where she dancing with her friends and occasionally flirting with boys and doing tons of product promo in the process.