Today's Pick

Nelly Furtado makes a major comeback with a colorfully quirky video for her latest song, "Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)," the lead single from her upcoming first English-language album in six years, "The Spirit Indestructible." Due June 19, the follow-up to 2006's multi-platinum "Loose" includes an 18-track deluxe edition. The "Big Hoops" video focuses on striking visual rather than a clear concept or storyline. It appears that size does matter for Furtado. Bigger the better!
"Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)," is a "noisy" urban pop song, featuring hip hop beats, staccato percussion and Furtado's Auto-Tuned voice which is solid and sexy. Lyrically, it talks about the singer finding strength in the size of her earrings. The 33-year-old Canadian songstress's vocal swagger, and the towering drum and bass breakdown that closes the song will rock any dance floor. Furtado has given us big hoops. All is balanced in the universe.
Furtado co-wrote every track on "The Spirit Indestructible." She said: "I began writing these songs around the time I released my Spanish album 'Mi Plan.' I was in a great headspace, feeling refreshed and ready to really deliver in English again. This album is all about positivity, youth, good energy, and the relentlessness of the spirit. I want people to live this music the way we did when we wrote it. I want them to jump, dance, scream, laugh, cry, love and vibe to it, and to turn it up very loud everywhere."
There are hoops of all sizes in the Little X-directed video, as Furtado towers over everyone and takes a stroll around the city. But she doesn't wear comfortable sneakers for her walk - homegirl steps out on a giant-ass pair of stilts. As she walks gracefully through the city, she breezes by all the plebeians below her who stare up in awe. A few outfit changes later, the clip shows a colorful side as the Canadian singer dances in various backdrop scenes and practicing with world champion Native American hoop dancer Tony Duncan.

After a rush of new material from Kanye West in April, the Chicago rapper is turning to the archives his latest video for "Lost in the World," the first part of the finale to his critically acclaimed 2010 solo effort, "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy." Collaborated with filmmaker Ruth Hogben, the black-and-white visual reliant on simple, but effective, imagery. In typical Yeezy fashion, the video breaks the mould of popular rap aesthetics while still celebrating the extraordinary talent that has made West a modern icon and captures the pulsing energy of the Bon Iver-assisted track.
"Lost in the World" about love gone wrong features tribal drums and samples Bon Iver's "Woods," a song originally written about alienation, applied by West "as the centerpiece of a catchy, communal reverie" on the album. It features several musical changes, beginning with indie-folk singer Justin Vernon of Bon Iver frontman's faint vocals, followed by 4/4 drums, gospel-styled chorus, and increased tempo, and a final measured tempo.
The song also samples the vocals from the soul musician and jazz poet Gil Scott-Heron's "Comment No.1," a blunt, surrealist piece in spoken word about the African-American experience and the fated idealism of the American dream. West explained to MTV News: "That was the last song on the album and emotionally it just fit the crescendo of everything that I was saying and what I wanted to say to this girl. And it's also my favorite eight bars that I've ever written in my life. I think it's one of the greatest pieces of writing."
The dark clip plays up the desperation of the "Lost in the World," with cloud-filled images and a group of models dressed in sheer fabric expressing their pain through dance. West himself appears on a mirrored platform, which reflects the dark sky above, and as the video progresses, the looming structures overhead begin to part, revealing an ominous city skyline. It's simple but beautiful imagery that turns dark and intense as West turns on the bright lights in the form of jarring strobes as the video swerves into abstract urban scenes.

Jennifer Lopez proves she's still got the jump on younger music stars with her fast-paced new video for her single "Follow The Leader," a collaboration with Puerto Rican reggaeton duo Wisin & Yandel. Adding her sweet spice to the latest single "Follow the Leader," contains South American rhythms. Wisin sings in the style of Wisin & Yandel in that of Wisin, referring to the more powerful tone of the former and the lighter vocal touch of the latter.
The 42-year-old "American Idol" judge shows off some fake ink, hip shakes as a woman running away from several men who are chasing her, and the trio's mission with this video is to break the 24-hour Vevo view record! It is a truly magnificent piece of work. The movements are exciting, yet dangerous for the unskilled. Meanwhile, Wisin & Yandel are both looking handsome as well as they text on their Blackberry mobile phones to make plans for the day.
The "Waiting for Tonight" songstress wakes up in a luxury suite with a primo view of the Acapulco shoreline, the video begins with the view from a helicopter flying into Acapulco, Mexico. The scene is magnificent, showing greenish-blue ocean as it meets the beach where holiday-makers are soaking up the sun. Further on, the chopper flies over some of the luxurious mansions built on the seafront. And then a mobile phone awakens "someone" with the message, "Wanna play?" to which she replies, "Follow the leader."
The song begins with a Lopez introduction, soon showing a different shot of her with a huge tattoo of "Lideres" (Spanish for Leaders) emblazoned across her upper torso and what appears to be a dragon covering her back. Wisin & Yandel join in the chorus. After a short introduction, they dress for action. The trio sing the track, and then the chase is on as they race through and across the city: vaulting, rolling, and tumbling. Like seasoned experts, they fall, they roll, yet without a scratch or bruise, they leap up for the next exciting challenge.

American rock band Soundgarden has just unveiled their new clip for "Live to Rise," the grunge heroes's first newly recorded song in 15 years, and it will not appear on Soundgarden's upcoming new album as the band wrote the soundtrack for the new film, "Marvel's The Avengers," features iconic Marvel Super Heroes team up together to fight the foes no single hero could withstand, is just in time released in theaters across the United States Friday and tops box office.
Soundgarden, headed up by lead singer Chris Cornell, was one of the seminal bands in the creation of grunge, a style of alternative rock that developed in Seattle in the early '90s. The new track combines the band's heavy riffs and guitar heroics with sensitive balladry and a psychedelic intermission perfect for scoring a summer blockbuster. "Live to Rise" continues a tradition of Marvel movies using rock songs over the credits.
Comparing the song to the one he crafted for "Machine Gun Preacher", Cornell told THR, "This song came arduously. It's different, because it has to be a Soundgarden song. It has to resonate with every band member. Writing a song for the 'Avengers' film, it has to be lyrically not specific to the movie or the story, but it has to work with it. It wasn't so easy. But it turned out absolutely a Soundgarden song."
The Robert Hales-directed epic and cinematic video features frontman Cornell and his Seattle rock bandmates delivering a searing live performance inside a warehouse under the glowing blue Tesseract-like orbs with footage from the superheroes movie intercepting every once in a while. Cornell's soaring powerhouse vocals sound they could have been lifted off one of their classic albums from the early '90s.

Just in time for the summer, Colbie Caillat teams up with Chicago MC Common and is excited to unveil the new video to support their breezy duet single "Favorite Song," the third single from the 26-year-old Caillat's third studio album "All of You," which has been in stores since last summer. "Favorite Song" is the perfect summer jam to relax to, while Common will release his new album "The Dreamer, The Believer" on Warner Bros Records this fall.
"Favorite Song," stray from Caillat's usual sound with a sweetly strummed guitar groove, is undoubtedly bright, summery, and it is utterly charming like most of Caillat's music. Musically, the song is a guitar-driven pop, hip-hop jam, and the lyrics speak about being in love with someone and desiring that the person feels the same. The song is a metaphor for wanting to be the object of someones affection. The tune is different from Caillat's usual sound, being considered a hip-hop jam, in which Caillat croons between the rapper's slick verses, and Common's lyrics are softhearted as he tries his hand at crooning.
"I've loved Common's music for years," Caillat says of the unlikely pairing, which was put into motion when the sweet adult pop singer and gritty, intellectual rapper met each other at an event for the Grammys in 2009. "He ended up singing his song 'The Light,' and he needed a girl singer [for the chorus] and I was like, 'I know it!' Afterward he was like, "I love your song and I love your voice.' It took about a year for us to get something together, but it worked out better than we could have imagined."
The video was filmed outdoors by the beach and palm trees of Venice, California. In the video, Caillat and Common chill out on the Venice Boardwalk and enjoy a warm summer day on beach party along with some skateboarders, take over the streets and skate parks of the ocean walk. Teenagers rocked bikinis and rollerblades as Common rapped away before the sunset. Yes, the patron saint of sunshine and sandal anthems has tossed Caillat's floppy beach hat into the ring, and her platform is simple: She wants to be your favorite song.

After weeks of teasing and hype, Cheryl Cole has finally released the video for her new dance tune "Call My Name," the lead single to be released from the Girls Aloud star's upcoming third solo album, "A Million Lights," will be released on June 18 in the UK. The 28-year-old singer looks extremely attractive, adorned in on-trend fashions and that will no doubt perk up some interest.
Cheryl makes her return to music minus her surname and with a new album after a long absence. She worked with Lana del Rey on the record, and confesses to have 'fallen in love with' the US singer. The song "Call My Name" itself is extremely catchy, especially on repeated listens, largely thanks to producer Calvin Harris' Caribbean bombastic rhythms, which will go down a treat for summer playlists, and Cheryl's enthusiasm and energy in this are refreshing after all the drama last year.
The Anthony Mandler-directed promo was filmed in downtown Los Angeles, which opens with about 60 seconds of just a quiet beat with just Cheryl preening and posing before it finally kicks in. A muddy handprint is visible on her bottom while a quote from French philosopher Marquis de Sade's words: "The only way to a woman's heart is along the path of torment" appear on screen. We then get wind chimes in a graffiti drenched tunnel where Cheryl finds herself after clearly forgetting where she parked the private yacht.
A distorted version of her single plays in the video as Cheryl dances her way down through Los Angeles' predominantly dry river bed and happy to show off her physique and certainly looks her best throughout as she writhes around wearing three different racy tiny ensembles, showing off her super svelte dancer's body in the energetic video. Cheryl is later seen walking and coincidentally meets up with a troupe of muscular male dancers hanging around with their cars. It's then she kicks off her dance routine and performing tight choreography with a handful of male dancers under the bridge.

Shakira is following up her Billboard Latin Music Awards success with a new music video for "Addicted to You," the fifth and final single from Colombian pop star's third Spanish bilingual album. "Sale el Sol." As always, it's far from unsexy. The new clip will simply reconnect fans with the sensuality and radiance Shakira so effortlessly emits.
The bilingual "Addicted To You" is a colorful, Latin-infused pop record, laced with lively, hip-shaking rhythm worthy and influenced heavily with merengue and dance music that perfectly showcases Shakira's one-of-a-kind vocals. The song was noted for trying to incorporate bilingual lyrics, a very 70's chorus and Copacabana sounds. The song hurries back to the hip-swaying dance beat, and the cheap keyboard that drives the tune reminds us of music played at weddings and quinceañeras.
Shakira has created a new merengue-rock hybrid that lays down bare horn riffs over a driving beat in a groove that is irresistible, and her striking vocals never fail to romance us. The verses are in Spanish but the chorus is in English and speaks to a feeling we can all relate to - being addicted to your significant other: "Baby, I'm addicted to you," she sings half the song in Spanish, which just adds to the exotic flavor. Another upbeat dance tune, the song has many percussive elements happening, from different shakers to hand drums. They keep the song alive, and it never grows dull.
Treating fans to a brand new production, shot in one day in L.A., the 35-year-old singer emits her signature sexpot style with barely-there jaw-dropping outfits and cooing the Spanglish lyrics in the Anthony Mandler-directed uber-sexy video. The steamy footage shows the "Hips Don't Lie" songstress writhing around on a chair, getting sudsy in the tub, and pretty much just looking hot as she dances around in a pair of black hotpants.