Today's Pick

A wild night out with The Vamps is just one big party judging by the party-themed music video for their latest single "Last Night," which sees the midland-based teenage four-piece band - Brad Simpson, James McVey, Connor Ball and Tristan Evans - manage to take the budget they're given and turn the soundstage into a makeshift mega dance private carnival party, where they ride a mechanical bull, smash a guitar-shaped piñata, ring-toss teddy bears for a pack of eager girls and enjoying some typical lads banter.
"Last Night" is the third single to be released by the British pop rock band following on two consecutive top five UK hits from their debut hit "Can We Dance," which peaked at No.2 and "Wild Heart," which soared to No.3 on the UK charts. All releases are expected to feature on their self-titled debut album, which is set to drop in April. The MTV Brand New For 2014 winners could well be pop's next big thing. They have been causing a stir everywhere they go, with legions of fans following their every move and causing pandemonium at every turn.
Thematically, there's not much difference between The Vamps' new single "Last Night" and Katy Perry's 2011 chart-topper "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)." Both involve crazy throw-downs that result in the attendees having a bit of convenient amnesia afterward, while nonetheless vowing to do it all again. The Brits were quick to explain that their latest video was their own idea and expressed their desire to bring guitars back to popular music. After all, what sets The Vamps apart is the fact that they play their own instruments.
The three-minute promo all starts off as a tame affair with The Vamps rocking out in a room with their guitars before they spot the "Mega Dance" and the party really kicks off with the boys rocking out in the middle of the theme park before being joined by a massive group of fans. It's not long before they're hanging out with pretty, young girls and shooting objects to win them teddy bears, swinging around on a bucking bronco, having a dancing competition and eventually stirring up enough courage to hop on the queasy roller-coaster whirlwind rides.

The 1975 have unveiled a brand new video for latest single "Settle Down," the fifth UK single taken from the Manchester-based indie rock band's self-titled chart-topping debut album, which was released last fall. The video sees frontman Matthew Healy and the boys take a nostalgic approach this time around, and returning to their grim and dark black and white aesthetic present throughout most of The 1975's earlier videos after abandoning it for recent videos - the American movie vibe of "Sex" and the colorful pop feel of "Girls."
Manchester has a lot more to offer than a famous soccer team. This band also calls it home, and their magnetic energy is causing an excited reaction within music lovers everywhere. With their self-titled debut, The 1975 marked the arrival of a new British rock sound: something dark in imagery and storytelling but warm and pop-y in sound. Their seamless ability to connect with each other and the music is refreshing even now. Their honest electro-pop/rock music has a versatility similar to pop of the '80s. This trait has found a way into music in our day and made it hip again. Their album, and the song, "Settle Down," possesses a youthful vigor that is infectious.
This sensual track "Settle Down," is about the obsession Healy, has for the pop legend, finds he singing of an ill-advised relationship and the chaos that ensures. It was inspired by Michael Jackson, whom Healy has noted his admiration for in the past. The lyrics tell a tale of the nonsensical attraction between lovers and the chaos that ensues. It'll be hard to resist getting up out of your seat and not cracking a smile. The cheerful guitar riffs accompanied by the pulsating drums make for a song you just want to get lost in.
The accompanying video for "Settle Down" - documenting the minutiae of small town life - tells the story of two mysterious teenage boys, lost and troubled in a post-industrial rural village, who reveal supernatural powers. Healy's there, wandering out looking moody and observing proceedings before they take a peculiar twist before the end. It was shot in Redcar, Yorkshire and features various shots in and around the Northern England town. The video is sure to please the hardcore fans, after many didn't take issue with the nudity or drug use shown in the "Sex" video, but were disappointed the band had ditched the black and white aesthetic they have used since their early days.

HAIM is back with their third single off the critically acclaimed killer "Days Are Gone" album with “If I Could Change Your Mind." The new clip for their latest track finds the L.A. sister act (Danielle, Este and Alana) juicing its once-scrappy stage show with the kind of coordinated dance routine not often seen in the grungy rock clubs HAIM came up playing. From disco shoulders to a 'Soul Train' backdrop, the sisters live out their own fantasy. It is a far cry from their more indie inspired "The Wire" and "Don't Save Me" videos.
"If I Could Change Your Mind," is about ending relationships. Este Haim told NME: "You think back to the decision that you made to not be with someone any more and whether it was really the right one. It's kinda a weird thing, especially in my case. I'm 27 now and I'm not old but I think the relationships that you have you think about longevity. So when you do break up with someone there's always a thing in your head of, What if that was the one and you said goodbye?" The song is one of the catchiest on the album and it bears all the hallmarks of good dance-rock: sweeping synth lines, Nile Rodgers-like guitars, clattering drum machine and lyrics about misunderstood love.
Although the song is more dance driven, there are peaks and valleys. Este's vocals stand out with their soft yet stern attack to the song, with lyrics like "If I could change your mind/ I would hit the ground running/ It took time to realize/ and I never saw it coming." And because it's not too heavy-handed, the Jewish sister rocker trio only add to it with their wind-milling arm dances, tight circle of clapping and Charlie's Angels-esque silhouette breaks throughout the video. They know that changing minds is always a lot easier when everyone is having fun.
Directed by Warren Fu, the performance video sees the HAIM sisters in a variety of settings from the trio being circled by the camera playing their instruments, to act out corny, melodramatic, fun dance routines with only a dash of irony on a backdrop that's equal parts American Bandstand and a vintage Calvin Klein cologne ad inspired stage, completed with "HAIM" in bright neon behind them. Later, the stage turns to a darker shade, while they girls pick up their instruments and play. Not only credible vocalists and musicians, but their dancing is very well choreographed too. The HAIM juggernaut continues!

5 Seconds Of Summer arrive and bring out people's wild sides in their new and very "cheeky" music video for their breakthrough song "She Looks So Perfect." Formed in December 2011 from the western suburbs of Sydney, the Australian four-piece pop-rockers - comprising vocalist Luke Hemmings, guitarist Michael Clifford, bassist Calum Hood and drummer Ashton Irwin - who recently signed a deal with US label Capitol Records, is releasing this upbeat breakthrough song as the "worldwide first single" from their upcoming debut album, that will be released later this year.
The quartet having only been together for around several months, they have managed to summon a loyal fan base. The four teenagers may not have known what was in store for them when they started out in their bedrooms individually, only a few years ago, however, their current success is undeniable, and it's more than logical to expect greater things to come as the band break the local music scene into international success. 5 Seconds Of Summer staked their claim as pop's next big boy band this week by landing in the iTunes top five with new EP "She Looks So Perfect."
The title track is a great introduction to boys. The catchy punk-pop anthem covers the always popular topic of young love and boasts an instantly catchy chorus. The Australian foursome has built up a steady online following over the past couple of years but exploded in popularity after supporting One Direction on their 'Take Me Home' tour. Temperatures must be pretty high in Australia considering what we see in their new video for "She Looks So Perfect." What's the plot of the video? Pretty much that people in Australia feel so hot right now that they cannot help to remove their clothes when they hear 5 Seconds Of Summer's "She Looks So Perfect."
Directed by Frank Borin, the clip opens with the Australian boy band performing the anthemic pop/rock track in an alleyway as tens of garments fall from the sky with scenes of small-town boredom: disinterested kids in class, people eating alone at a diner, dudes in a jail yard, an uninspired grocery store cashier. Luckily they all heed 5 Seconds Of Summer's call, losing their inhibitions and stripping down to their underwear, and dance. The boys themselves even tease whipping off their clothes during the final seconds of the video, but you'll have to watch it to find out if they follow through!

Coldplay has unveiled a haunting black-and-white music video for chilly new track "Midnight," an atmospheric track absent of the anthemic rock elements of earlier chart-toppers, but overflowing with hints that frontman Chris Martin and company have been spinning Bon Iver records pretty hard as they prep a sixth studio album, their first album since 2011's "Mylo Xyloto," which heard them sprinkle pop electronics over their soaring serenades, but the first teaser from upcoming album No.6 strays much further beyond that. It's subdued, murky, twinkling, but definitely not lead single material on first listen.
The ethereal track's desolate feel and heavy use of vocal overdubs, along with what sounds like a vocoder, feels more Bon Iver or The Knife-like rather than U2 and Radiohead, the group's traditional targets of comparison. A far cry from the anthemic chorus of their most recent track, "Atlas," which doubled as their contribution to the Hunger Games: Catching Fire soundtrack, "Midnight" is one of the group's most understated singles. For five minutes, the British rock band maintains a slow pulse highlighted by shimmering synthesizers that have more in common with downtempo EDM than Coldplay's piano rock. It's the band at their most spacious and ambient, stripped down to a ghostly essence.
What hit us the hardest is Martin's plaintive, thoroughly treated vocals. The frontman's tone has become ubiquitous in modern soft rock, but "Midnight" hears it distorted, with any hint of recognition gently drifting away further into the darkness. Martin intones heavily affected vocals that, at times, resemble early Nineties Peter Gabriel as he sings about darkness, while the synths build throughout the track before a skittery, rave-like keyboard line flits about noisy static. The track closes with Martin asking that a light be left on. Maybe somewhere deep within the effects-heavy murk of his more incoherent lyrics is something that explains just why the song came out at a time local to Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia.
The Mary Wigmore-directed atmospheric clip, matches the mood of the tune, is dark and chilly, full of black-and-white photo-negative images and what looks like heat-sensitive silhouettes of Coldplay's members ambling through some sort of parallel universe X-ray forest. Set primarily in a wooded area and shot in negative exposure, the trippy "Midnight" clip follows the band as they dance around to an airy electro-pop arrangement. You also get glimpses of a wandering wolf along with sped-up cityscapes. What Martin and his Auto-Tune will sound like when morning comes and they're out of the woods, we'll have to wait and see. Enjoy its subtle spookiness below.

Beyoncé, following up to her sexually-charged performance of "Drunk in Love" with her husband Jay-Z at this year's GRAMMY Awards, unleashed the elegant, magnificent and eye-popping video for her next single "Partition," which was co-penned by Justin Timberlake as third single on the R&B star's self-titled fifth album. Beyoncé explained in videos for the album that she is very much aware that she is showing off her body; she wants to prove to women that you can have children and still have an amazing body. The "XO" singer and Rise Fragrance creator wasn't singing much about love, but served up sex for the latest clip.
"Partition" is a sexy urban song, that Beyoncé wrote inspired by the thoughts she had on her mind the night she got engaged to Jay-Z. The track opens with the call-and-response that Beyoncé pumps the crowd with before going to "Get Me Bodied" every night on tour. It contains explicit lyrics that describes Beyoncé making love in a limousine. She sings in French on the bridge, where she criticizes those who believe feminists are not interested in sex. And the steamy track gives gawkers a peek into the intimate side of Beyoncé's marriage to Jay-Z. If you thought their Grammy performance was too hot to handle, you'll want to take a cold shower in Siberia after watching this video, which features Beyoncé performing a striptease on a piano and giving viewers a whole new way to think about the word "peaches."
Directed by Jake Nava, the sexy, extravagant and scintillating clip was inspired by Beyoncé's desire to prove that women can maintain their personal sexy even after childbirth, and a trip to the famous Crazy Horse strip club in Paris. "The day I got engaged was my husband's birthday and I took him to Crazy Horse and I remember thinking, 'Damn, these girls are fly.' And I just thought it was the ultimate sexy show: 'I wish I was up there, I wish I could perform that for my man...' so that's what I did for my video," said Beyoncé.
"It takes me back to when me and my husband first meet and he's trying to scoop me and he thinks I'm the hottest thing in the world," she explained. "I kinda had this whole fantasy of being in the car and this whole movie played in my head." Opening with Beyoncé staring down her man at the breakfast table while drinking tea, the clip dives down a rabbit hole of burlesque shows, strip teases and backseat canoodling as the Beyoncé danced suggestively, showcasing her famous assets and teases Jay-Z, who makes another classic, cigar-smoking cameo with an array of outfits and head-spinning dance moves. The clip suddenly cuts back to the breakfast table at the very end in classic it-was-all-a-dream fashion.

Angel Haze makes a major leap forward with an emotional video for her Sia-assisted inspirational anthem "Battle Cry," arguably the strongest track on her debut album, "Dirty Gold," which was released in December of 2013 in frustration at her record company delaying the album multiple times. She said that "music is all I fucking have." Whatever your opinion is on Haze leaking her debut album to pressure her label to push up its release date, you've got to respect how driven she is. And, in Haze's extremely personal new video for "Battle Cry," you really get a sense of how she got that drive.
Raised in poor, sapped Detroit and now a resident of prospering New York, the 22-year-old rapper produces hip hop that's remarkable for its crunching collision of tones. Lyrics express sorrow as often as swank. The powerful track was produced by big time pop player Greg Kurstin and features "Dirty Gold"'s only guest, Sia, who handles chorus duties, so it's no surprise it's the rapper's most radio-friendly song to date. "Battle Cry" is sickly sweet and uplifting and it's an extremely personal song that sheds light on overcoming a tumultuous childhood, which she uses as motivation to be the best she can be.
"Battle Cry" highlight has a mighty message to begin with - overcoming a painful past to achieve a more perfect version of human imperfection - but Frank Borin's beautifully shot visual gives the music extra poignancy. Filmed near Joshua Tree National Park, the haunting clip shows Haze battling her demons and illustrates this back story and recounts Haze's journey from childhood to burgeoning "It" girl status on the music scene. Nevertheless, seeing Haze's trying journey underscores why she'd risk anything to get her message out there, perhaps best summed up by the lyric: "'Cause you only get one moment in this life to be great/ And you can give it your all despite what it takes."
We first find Haze alone on a desert highway as she walks down a long, abandoned road, but soon she relives episodes of her own troubled childhood experience with various forms, including being raised in a cult, suffering sexual abuse and attempting suicide. We see her progression from a wrist-cutting teen to the artist she's become, with vivid imagery to accompany the lyrics: "I been there, I'm still here, and I know how you feel." The video ends with her playing piano on the road, showing the effect music has had in empowering her. Watch the inspiring and powerful video below.