Today's Pick

Hit big with her piano-driven "A Thousand Miles" back in 2002, and the last few years seem to have been transitional for her music and career, Vanessa Carlton is back and dropped a little indie-homemade video for her latest single "Hear The Bells," the second official single and third overall taken from her fourth studio album, "Rabbits on the Run," and it was also the title track for her 2011's four-track holiday EP, which isn't exactly the next episode in Carlton's tale of musical growth, but it still gives us something of significant substance to chew over.
"Hear the Bells" is the story of a person navigating their recovery, and making many stops along the way, angry winter walks through the city, meditating in a church cemetery, floating on the sea with lots of wine in you in Costa Rica, finding a Chinese witchdoctor, until you realize the remedy was pretty much there all along. Though I still float on seas and I boil my Chinese herbs every morning." The song is driven by a pulsating, almost temperamental piano riff, and Carlton herself sounds like she's in the middle of a séance as she insists in a sordidly deadpan tone. Her vague Victorian musings about death, witchdoctors, and stomachaches are pulled into their definitive form.
The 31-year-old songbird spoke about the track: "Hear the Bells" is about clarity, enlightenment. It is song map about the journey of someone who is seeking out a remedy. But remedies lie within us. That is powerful and true but not always obvious. I hope the song is a reminder. In society, the sound of bells marks an important moment in time, whether from a church tower or a wind chime in a garden, it is always a sort of mystical alarm." It does not sound anything like I've heard from her before. She has a total old school Kristen Hirsch vibe.
In the airy, blurry visuals, Carlton showcases a timeline of past rare never seen before footage of her ballet history as she reminisce on life. She explains: "This visual clip is my favorite video I've ever done thus far. Re-teaming with Jake Davis and his team was fluid and an inspired experience. It was filmed in my house in New York City, the place where I wrote the song. Doing a video for this song was Jake's idea and I'm really happy he pushed me to do it. It's a reveal of my history woven in with the story of a reclusive woman based on 'Little Edie of Grey Gardens,' an eccentric and wonderful lady who rarely left her house. I believe we are our own fortune tellers."

Cody Simpson recently premiered his latest offering "Got Me Good" over Memorial Day weekend with his sister Alli on Radio Disney, and now the Aussie teen has just released the official music video for his track, served as the second single slated to appear on his forthcoming new five-track EP, "Preview to Paradise," which will hit shelves on June 12, and teases the Gold Coast native's long awaited debut full-length album, "Paradise," is still on schedule to be released sometime this October.
Simpson has a lot to live up to after his last EP, "Coast to Coast," reached No.12 on the Billboard charts and helped him snag Favorite Aussie Superstar at this year's Kids' Choice Awards. Looks like he's on the right track with this song! The perfect summery single, "Got Me Good" which borrows a little swagger from Justin Bieber and a bit of lyrical manipulation from Jason Mraz, is definitely has a fun summer vibe to it.
In the same way my teenaged self is dying to be the girl that dips fondue with Bieber in his "Boyfriend" video, she's also dying to be the girl frolicking around with Simpson in his "Got Me Good" video. Not in a weird "He's 15 and I'm 26" way, just in a "This is the most adorable teen romance I've ever effing seen" way." The water-loving swimmer and surfer keeps things real in his latest clip, Simpson is quite literally the perfect boyfriend and showing his fans all the things he loves to do in his everyday life.
Life's a beach for the 15-year-old pop star, and it has clearly inspired his latest beach-filled video, directed by Cameron Duddy. The vintage-style footage takes in plenty of sun, surf, sand and features the Aussie heartthrob strums his guitar while enjoying a warm sunny day on the beach, surfing the ocean waves, jumping shirtless into a swimming pool and trying to win over his summertime crush who who sports a age inappropriate skimpy bikini and has "got him good."

Following the success of single "We Are Young," Fun. return and hit the battlefield in their new video for "Some Nights," the second single and the title track from their sophomore studio album, which has been released since February and made its debut on Billboard Hot 200 at the third place. The clip very artfully showcases a battle between Union and Confederate soldiers, and "Some Nights" is a sure-fire contender for the sound and anthem of this summer!
Fun. named their album after this track as they feel it best represents not only their entire record, but also where they're at as a band. "I think that the song 'Some Nights' just kind of sums up who we are as a band, and while it's über-personal, I think it gives people a lot of stuff to relate to. It's not a love song; it's a song about being an underdog and trying to figure out where you fall into that situation," lead vocals Nate Ruess told MTV News.
After all, "Some Nights" is very much about the inner battle he - and most of us, really - faces on a daily basis: the challenge of trying to find a balance between wildly different desires, of giving in to basic instincts one moment, then attempting to walk the moral tightrope the next. There is genuine guilt and frustration and even actual anger, he can't believe he acts the way he does, and yet, he cannot imagine acting any other way. And above all else, he truly can't comprehend how one person can be this complex, this hell-bent on destruction.
The Anthony Mandler-directed clip, takes place on a battlefield that evokes the Civil War, is more like a short film than actual music video, with 5:41 minutes needed to have this story truly come to life. With Ruess and his bandmates performing on a makeshift stage in the middle of the firefight, fans see a glimpse of a young man and older gentleman who both happen to be soldiers in their respective separate lives. It concludes in the aforementioned gun battle, where the two coincidentally face off. You never see your enemy as more than just that, and Fun. delve right into that notion with this one. But really, "Some Nights" is a video about war and its tragic outcomes.

British alternative rock band Coldplay has finally released the music video for their new single with Rihanna, "Princess of China," and it does not disappoint. The track is the fourth single off Coldplay's fifth studio album, "Mylo Xyloto," which debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200. We expect rock bands to work with rappers, but cross-pollination between rockers and R&B. Singers is a little less common. The song is a hard-to-categorize pop confection that has left listeners wondering what the video would look like. Wonder no longer.
"Princess Of China" features a moody and heavy synth throughout the duration of the song with a string loop and an epic, Asia-influenced. It exemplifies the adventurous vibe that comes from an alternative-hip-hop combination that making it one of the band's less Coldplayesque tunes. Lyrically this song finds frontman Chris Martin writing from a female point of view. He told NME: "I found that with 'Viva La Vida,' I enjoyed writing from someone else's perspective to actually get out what I was feeling. That song is from a girl's perspective. I wonder what that says about me?"
The song features Rihanna duetting with Martin. The Coldplay frontman admitted to The Sun that it took him a while to finally muster up the nerve to ask the Bajan superstar to contribute some vocals on "Mylo Xyloto," and Rihanna's vocals surprised Martin. "When the song came out, it sort of asked for her to be on it. And I think at this point, we have nothing to lose, and so we've been trying some new things and trying to break down the perceived boundaries between different types of music." Much like the characters in the song, the onscreen characters are torn up about their dying love.
Filmed at the Taiko Center in Los Angeles, the trippy clip was directed by Adria Petty & Alan Bibby, which is full of eye-burning surreal images that play on the song's references to Asia, with Martin and Rihanna donning all sorts of ninja and ninja-goddess couture. A desert, the sky and some ancient-looking Chinese palaces all serve as backgrounds. Martin dressed as a stealthy ninja, goes head to head against Rihanna's own "gangsta goth geisha." as she appears a fierce warrior princess. But then things get serious as the two star-crossed lovers kneel in the desert, forehead to forehead, and mourn the loss of their love.

The Band Perry have released the video for "Postcard from Paris," the fifth single from the band's self-titled debut album. Since their debut in late 2009, The Band Perry have made their mark on country music while keeping the instrumentation decidedly country, a foreign concept to many of their contemporaries. Their latest single, "Postcard from Paris," follows perfectly in that trend.
"Postcard From Paris" is a beautiful song that finds a fresh way to spell love: a simple story of newly found love until you realize she's with the wrong man. The chorus is a brilliant lyric performed with honesty and familiarity by Kimberly and the brothers Perry. The metaphor isn't right down country Main St., but neither is this band. Kimberly always has to be ruined when a better catch comes along or obsessed with the person who doesn't notice her. With her gorgeous and tantalizing twang; she pulls off each character with the ease of a singer with twice as much life experience.
Like any great song, the emotions of being with the wrong person are fully flushed out - every decision she's made is now coming into question, as though the universe got it backwards and her diamond ring was actually a fake. Now that she feels she's supposed to be with someone else, the protagonist can't help but let out her primal scream. And it's that twisty angst element that's helped to form the trio's sound and thusly helped them emerge as one of the most exciting acts having hits right now.
Although the video shoot in New Orleans seems to be a fairly laid-back affair for the trio siblings, the decision to release this latest tune wasn't as easy due to their label had planned to not release another song until the first single from their sophomore album was ready. The release is a smart move, though, as "Postcard From Paris" is the perfect song to help bring them to the next level of superstardom and like others have stated, is one of the strongest lyrics on their record that deserves further cultivation in the years to come.

Florence + The Machine have released an ultra-theatrical video for "Spectrum," the fifth and final single off of the English indie rock band's most recent sophomore studio album, "Ceremonials." The frontwoman Florence Welch said despite her own natural conflicted and irreverent mindset, she attempted to put some positive messages on album: "Like putting something in there that wasn't just for me, like 'Spectrum,' they're really earnest, saying don't be afraid of who you are and follow your heart."
Musically, "Spectrum" is a downtempo baroque pop and indie pop and drums while backing vocals repeatedly sing "Say my name" throughout the song. The song is a huge, churchy tune, even in the context of the band's typically bombastic blend of arena rock and gospel. Music video legend David LaChappelle rose to the challenge of making a clip for the song, matching its drama and energy with a vivid color palette and incredibly theatrical staging.
LaChapelle explained: "It's a beautiful song that really touched me and inspired me to create imagery that matches its power. 'Spectrum' is free of scepticism, irony, and the coldness one finds in a lot of contemporary popular music. It's the opposite – full of light, positivity and authentic joy. I hope that I can do justice to this moving modern classic." The clip depicts ballet dancers pirouetting, jumping, and dancing around the singing songstress. Upon the release of the video, critics praised Welch's look and the video's dark atmosphere.
The new colorful clip looks like every fashion blogger's "Favesies" board on Pinterest, and the often imitated, never duplicated Welch brought out the big guns for this new video which is as bombastic and over the top as the song itself, and a what a ballerina-mermaid dance party looks like inside Balmain's house and/or a Baz Luhrmann film. It's a sparkly musical venture featuring Welch as a futuristic Venus emerging from a spiky, metallic shell among other things! By the end, you won't just be "saying her name," you'll be screaming it.

Gym Class Heroes, a rap rock band from Geneva, New York, have premiered the music video for the uplifting cut "The Fighter," the third single from group's latest album "The Papercut Chronicles II," that hits stores on last November 15. Gym Class Heroes deliver an ode to perseverance. It sounds like they have a third big hit from the album. OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder provides signature martial percussion and a winning pop hook to the empowering anthem. His sweet featured vocals are icing on the cake.
The uplifting Tedder collaboration, "The Fighter," is a song about never giving up in life. Frontman Travie McCoy raps about staying positive, no matter what your situation in life. Musically, the mid-tempo guitar-based groove has sweet Tedder's fingerprints all over it, making it feel more like a OneRepublic song featuring McCoy than a Gym Class Heroes song featuring Tedder. However regardless of the actual credits, this is a catchy song with a light touch appropriate for summer pop radio airplay. The 'Firework'-lite lyrics will have everyone singing along.
Directed by Marc Klasfeld, Gym Class Heroes get emotional in their newly-unveiled mix of docu-style clip, which documents the journey 19-year-old gymnast John Orozco takes as he 'fighting' for his dream to represent his country at the upcoming Olympic Games. His 'story' footage is intercut with images of McCoy and Tedder performing "The Fighter" in different sports facilities. In between shots of the band tearing it up, we see incredible footage of young athlete working out hard - running, sweating and doing all kinds of sick flips and twirls on the parallel bars.
Gym Class Heroes are banging the drum for sportsmanship, athletic prowess and relentless determination. It seems that experience has turned Gym Class Heroes into consistent hitmakers. The formula is clear. Take a lightly uplifting rap, weld on a strong hook from top level pop songwriters and producers, and then punctuate it with a strong featured vocal. From the home-movie-style shots of Orozco competing as a child, to him meeting with youngsters who want to be just like him when they grow up, "The Fighter" is feel-good all over. Does he end up making it? Guess we'll have to wait till the 2012 Olympics to find out!