Today's Pick

Shows her vulnerability, P!nk has just unwrapped another visually arresting video for her duet with Fun.'s lead singer Nate Ruess, "Just Give Me a Reason," the third single from the 33-year-old singer's latest sixth album, "The Truth About Love." Surprise, it's surreally dramatic! The stunning visuals and a compelling narrative render the clip a winner. This emotionally heavy video has P!nk contemplating her broken relationship.
The mid-tempo ballad plays out like a traditional love ballad between a couple. The stripped down, piano-based track begins with P!nk lying alone tossing and turning in bed. With flashbacks of her former flame, she tries to convince herself that they're not broken up and the two can learn to love again. P!nk sings the love tune so beautifully, and the chorus is little gem. Although it's a little jarring to hear P!nk's raw, live vocals paired with Ruess' Auto-Tune, it's ultimately a less-schmaltzy version of those male/female duets found at the end credits of every 80s movie.
The video was filmed last November and was directed by the starry Diane Marte and it is far from P!nk's best visual effort, but it fits the song well. While it's not a physical spectacle like "Try," it's a simple, yet stunning effort, takes on a dream-like quality and centered on P!nk writhing around on a mattress in the middle of a foggy body of water. She and Ruess also belt out verses side-by-side against a white backdrop, but instead of sharing the bed with Ruess, she's snuggling up to her real-life husband Carey Hart.
The married and very fit couple put on a sultry display in romantic interludes while both laying on a bed expressing all their love for each other she belts out the passionate song. P!nk also hangs onto a teddy bear when she isn't hanging on to husband, while floating on a floating mattress in the water about a relationship that seems to be missing something very important. Complete with a glowing teddy bear and surprise appearance from Hart, the singer's imagination runs wild in another memorable video.

Back to last summer (June 2012), Jason Mraz and director Elliott Sellers asked fan to tweet what "The Woman I Love" means to them. Now the 35-year-old Atlantic Pop-Rock singer-songwriter and Sellers chose their favorite ideas to create the remarkable Companion music video has finally released via Mraz's Twitter account in honor of Valentine's Day. The track was taken from the multi-Grammy Award-winning tunesmith's incredible fourth studio album, "Love Is a Four Letter Word."
Mraz decided to base his new CD, "Love Is a Four Letter Word," around the theme of love. However, he found the fundamentals of making "an album about love" took some time and hard work. "I thought it would be pretty easy as a songwriter to always write through a filter of love," Mraz told Jam! Music. "But the challenges at first were trying to write songs about love from the heart that weren't cheesy. What I learned quickly was that when a song was cheesy, it usually just came from the mind. It usually came from the craft of songwriting which anyone can do. So what I needed was experience, things that were going to rip my heart open to show me what I'm made of."
Mraz explained this song's meaning to Billboard magazine: "I try to keep my music gender neutral, but this is obvious, its called 'The Woman I Love,' but I'd like to dedicate to the men in the relationships because every so often the woman forgets her own greatness and she goes a little bat sh*t crazy sometimes. So its up to the other half to love that person back into the person we know them to be. That's basically what this song's about."
The new video for "The Woman I Love," shows Mraz singing the romantic tune in a warm scenery as images of this beautiful lady are displayed where she just gets passed a regular day in her life, is the result of an unprecedented online contest where Twitter users were invited to answer the question, "What does 'The Woman I Love' mean to you?" More than 10,000 responses followed, tweeted, of course, in 140 characters or less flowed in with #MrazingTheVideo. The best of those submissions were then used to inspire the storyboarding, which pop up as animations, propel the video's overall concept. Mraz rewarded fans from all around the world whose ideas were used by putting their Twitter handles at the video's end.

The R&B outfit Rhye capture the unsettling fear of fading love in their new intimate video for their sensual infectious slow-burner song, "Open," a cut from their secretive imminent debut album, "Woman," due out in March. Although they previously released a not entirely safe for work video for the single last year, this second version, which follows a couple's romantic beach house getaway, features less nudity, more longing sentiment and a reference to the Los Angeles duo's last video for "The Fall."
Mike Milosh and Robin Hannibal, the down-tempo pop duo behind Rhye, are playing their cards close to their chest. Set to lyrics that express insecurities present in every relationship, "Open" is Rhye's first offering, a really lovingly and delicately sung request for someone to stay conscious so you can make out. This is a beautiful melodic tune albeit a sexual one, and on top of all these gentle strings and dancing harp lines, "Open" is a love piece of indie tinged R&B with a vocal that will take you straight to Sade from bar one. The orchestral opening of the track betrays the simpleness that follows as it melts into a smooth warm and loving vocal and lush instrumentation.
"Open" has a light, electronic groove that reminds me of the synth-heavy art pop of the 80s. The gently sparkling guitars that flow throughout the track call back to the same era of music. It's smooth, pretty, soft, and assuring. The strings swelling up underneath it as the track reaches its end are a great touch, too. Attempting to express love and sensuality in a very honest way with their subtle sound, Rhye show that sex doesn't have to be a dirty word. The anonymous act reveals itself and explains why facelessness can be powerful. The result is a hyper-confessional, intimate, fragile slow-burner just in time for your Valentine's Day playlist.
While the clip is a completely new take on the song, and it very fittingly framed pretty shots of couples dry humping, and chronicles a couple's fraught trip to a beach house. This new, Daniel Kragh-Jacobsen-directed version falls decidedly in the former category, focusing on a young couple trying to fix a clearly damaged bond with a seaside vacation. It connects to "The Fall," in that the themes are the same: love is complicated, doubts are ever-present, it's hard to stay open, the gnawing feeling of knowing something's off. "If you can't stay open you're bound to take the fall," as Rhye says.

Squeal with excitement pop lovers, Little Mix, the best-selling British girl group of 2012 are back with a brand new music video in support of their latest inspirational girl power theme song, "Change Your Life," the third single to be lifted from their debut album, "DNA," has been made available in stores since last November 19 in the U.S.
Formed in 2011 during the eighth season of British "The X Factor," consisting of members Perrie Edwards, Jesy Nelson, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jade Thirlwall. The four Little Mix girls wrote this song about the way their lives have changed after winning 2011 champion of The X Factor. It's a given that every girl group needs a stirring mid-tempo for a 'raise your mobile phones in the air' moment come the big headline tour. That said, get the slowie wrong and you could end up with a snooze-fest on your hands.
Luckily for Little Mix, taking it down a notch with their new single 'Change Your Life' avoids such results, as they attempt to reinvigorate the Girl Power boom of the late '90s. The four-piece pledge over spiraling piano and rousing strings, reaffirming their sisterhood chemistry in pitch-perfect harmony. Almost channeling All Saints' "Never Ever," the tune begins with a spoken-word intro from Leigh-Anne. Very dramatic, very serious, lovely stuff. And then the power-ballad with an empowering message takes an epic turn as the mid-tempo stadium anthem really kicks in and against a backdrop of tumbling R&B piano chords and a pulsating, driving beat.
The low-budget clip takes us backstage and shows the girl group performing the empowering song in a recording studio, dancing rehearsals for their current headline tour of the UK, and hugging their mothers in a dressing room before heading onto the stage and features footage of the girls promoting their debut album. We see how literally the girls' lives have abruptly changed in the last year thanks to their victory on 'The X Factor UK' and chart success. The track is about 'changing your life,' so the documentation of the girl group's rise to fame is fitting.

The Girls Aloud star Kimberley Walsh has released a new full video for her  very first debut solo single, "One Day I'll Fly Away," the lead single taken from her upcoming new album, "Centre Stage," a collection of covers from classic theatre songs, out February 4th. The song, a cover of the 1980 Randy Crawford classic that was also performed by Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge,  is fine, borne aloft as it is on floaty Enya-isms.
Has taken her love and solo endeavors for musicals theatre performing and combined them for her album, Walsh decided to record a studio album featuring her own renditions of popular hits from musicals, commenting that "I've always loved musical theatre and doing Shrek the Musical definitely reignited the passion in me." For the album, Walsh commented that she wanted "to share the love I have for musical theatre by taking some classic songs and completely reinventing them. The melodies in so many musical songs are so brilliant, I knew we could create something special by experimenting with the production, and I really feel like we've come up with some interesting takes on classic songs."
Filmed at London's Pinewood Studios with dramatic effect of falling sparks added some glamor, the clip takes on a rags-to-riches theme as the 31-year-old Girls Aloud member dances in a fairytale peasant-style dress, fittingly styled with 40's Hollywood curls and performing the song in different settings, until she is joined by her Strictly Come Dancing dance partner Pasha Kovalev who added some finesse and they perform a ballet number. Although Walsh is without the rest of the girls, the pop star looks really lost and upset, but looked extremely classy and ladylike in her shiny dress and gowns.
Walsh looks like a classic Hollywood screen siren in her new video as she slips into a floor length gown with her hair falling gently with slight twists in it. Walsh sensually moves throughout the video and even shows off her Dirty Dancing style moves as in another section she jumps in the air to be caught by Kovalev as she wears a ballerina style costume under a spotlight. Throwing her hand up in the air as she sings her track, Walsh looks every inch the pop princess. Perhaps better known for her pop prowess as a member of Girls Aloud, Walsh has always loved Musicals, the subject of her solo album.

Eve is back and badder than ever in a good way. After a decade-long hiatus, the Philadelphia rapper makes her long-awaited comeback and continues her march back to relevancy with the chic video for "She Bad Bad," the lead single from her upcoming ever-delayed fourth album, "Lip Lock." Admittedly, Eve looks good and the video's attention-deficit visual style compensates for what was likely an independent budget, and still slay. Simple, yet effective, the clip does a solid job of capturing swagged out aura of the song.
Now a resident of London town, the 34-year-old former Pitbulls In A Skirt is eying April as the release window for the project which will be independently via her own label, Blondie Rockwell Inc. She's still bad. So she's rapping about it. Eve has suffered through plenty of pushbacks for this upcoming album. But it may just see the light of day this time around. Especially because she finally has a video for her aforementioned single.
The good ole indie route opened up for Eve, who came hard this time around with this African-inspired swaggy banger, "She Bad Bad." Over a chanting beat produced by JukeBox, the Scorpion delivers stinging verses about her re-entry into the game and her competitors. Set to a sparse and rather aggro beat, the track is laced with tribal chants and grunts leaving ample room for Eve to spit some rhymes about her comeback. We may have mixed feelings toward Eve's comeback single, but you know we're still crazy happy she's making new music.
Getting glammed it up to remind us why she's the reigning "Pitbulls In A Skirt," Eve continues to show the sultry side of the former Ruff Ryders first lady in TAJ-directed black and white sepia style video with a Caribbean influenced hook and a vintage, sepia-toned look. It starts off with Eve looking at herself in a mirror, with skulls on the wall oh her left. Then the video shows Eve looking glamorous while rapping, dancing and spitting her braggadocios rhymes in various high-fashion outfits, including some stylish bodices and fedora hats.

Piecing together footage her recent headlining tour, Ellie Goulding has released an explosive performance video for her heartfelt, emotional tune, "Explosions," the third single from her forthcoming sophomore studio album, "Halcyon," which has cemented her spot as an indie-tinged pop star with her life in warp speed. The 26-year-old UK electrapop darling gets rather personal by using actual footage from various trips and tour stops to compile the intimate visuals.
Goulding isn't afraid to show off her unique voice and powerful message. "Explosions" is tremulous, haunting, trippy, relaxing, enchanting, intense and delicate all at the same time, and is an infectiously smooth, laid back, melodically driven ballad that does a great job at showing off her ethereal vocals soar throughout the emotional song. “Explosions” is also a strong moving ballad that strikes you with elegant keys, enchanting strings, soaring choir hymns with Goulding's heavenly vocals.
As the title implies, "Explosions" is a powerfully stirring track with some brilliantly-written lyrics. The song has a deep storyline with a hook that bursts out with a strong piano accompaniment. Goulding penned this strings-laden ballad about her father, Arthur, who divorced her mum when she was five. The "Lights" songstress sings about how he was missing as she grew up and how he does not have her in his life anymore. The video is simple in concept and execution, but this helps to further demonstrate that "Explosions" is a beautiful and emotional experience all on its own. It's all about her music and her life.
Filmed on the road, and comprised of live performance footage from several different shows, the video is a cleanly shot of Goulding bearing her soul on stage in stark black-and-white effort, which showcases Goulding performing the powerful tune at Terminal 5 in New York City, intertwined with other shows, and capturing a diverse range of emotion and highlighting her spirited performance style. Scattered throughout these performance clips are also shots depicting life on the road from pre-show rituals and backstage with her band to tour bus traveling.