Today's Pick

Following a successful 2013, Ellie Goulding kick starts the new year with a new colorful video for the Nate Ruess-co-penned tune, "Goodness Gracious," a tropical-flavored highlight from "Halcyon Days," the hefty reissue of her sophomore album, 2012's "Halcyon." Any lingering doubts that Goulding is not ultra-cool should be squashed with the arrival of the "Goodness Gracious" video, which shows the U.K. songstress dancing in light-up shoes, partying with futuristic-looking pals and even skateboarding with ease.
This electro, tropically-infused tune finds Goulding singing about attempting to break free from a relationship but unable to sever the ties. She penned the song with Fun.'s frontman Nate Ruess. Goulding told Coup De Main magazine about their collaboration: "In Australia we first met and we hung out loads, and it turned out we were big fans of each other's writing," she said. "Sadly, we didn't get to write the song in the same room which was a shame, but he wrote his bit and I wrote my bit and I sent it back to him to see what he thought and thank goodness he liked it, because that would have been embarrassing if he didn't."
Directed by Kinga Burza, the video finds Goulding lighting up the night with the same pop pyrotechnics that highlighted the "Burn" music video. This time, however, everything is illuminated as the "Burn" singer and her gang of exceptionally attractive pals spend a rowdy, all-neon night on the town, bouncing from a private dance party to a psychic's den, finally landing on an admittedly cliché yet totally necessary moment of joyriding bikes down on an empty street. It's as if Goulding downed some psychotropic Starbursts with a bunch of friends and filmed the whole weekend.
The 27-year-old British electro pop goddess serves up so much fun in her new holiday-themed visuals, as Goulding explained that because the song's lyrics are dark, she wanted the images to be "bright and bold," so obviously, it was shot in Los Angeles, capital of all of the above. The video is both of those things, big time, and Goulding's glittery and glowing looks command attention. It is a day-glo dream. So forget the freezing temperatures outside for a second, and check out her cheery wardrobe and peep all the sparkly colorful goodness for yourself, below!

Katy B is engulfed in her own personal light show in the music video for her new electro-ballad, "Crying For No Reason," which will serve as the second cut comes from British dance-pop purveyor's upcoming sophomore album, "Little Red," scheduled for release on February 3. The red-haired U.K. alt-dance pop diva has consistently slayed us with tunes such as "What Love Is Made Of," "Aaliyah," and "I Like You." Now, praise everything, Katy B's back with a new video and she's brought her own personal light show with her!
Speaking about new album recently, the star revealed: "That first album had a certain innocence about it. I think this album has a bit more experience. My relationships have got more serious, I've moved out of my parents' house, I'm dealing with issues on my own. My friends are all going through that transition as well - those questions you ask of yourself as an adult. This is real life." She added: "There are still going to be lots of songs about me and my little adventures around London, but then at the same time I've had experiences in love and life that have been about this period of my life."
"Crying For No Reason" is a big electronic ballad, where she croons about trying in vain to get over the ending of a relationship. The singer told Q magazine that she found it was an emotional experience laying the break up anthem down in the studio. "When we recorded that vocal, halfway through I started crying. I ran out the room," she recalled. "Five minutes later I came back and asked, 'Did you get that?'" The track features Katy B's buttery R&B pipes laced with some poignant Adele balladry and infused with a little forward-thinking electro-pop à la Robyn.
The emotional ballad is the twinkling, strobing heartbreak-anthem, and the video is beautiful and stark, perfectly pairing with Katy B's titanic performance and the track's dramatic swell of pop histrionics replete with huge glacial synths. In Sophie Miller-directed video, Katy B boldly stands alone on a platform and belts the song out before a dark, sleek, arena-like stage set while an epic extravaganza of light slowly erupts all around her. As the song builds from simple ballad to mid-tempo dance banger, the luminous beams slowly become more extravagant and everything feels right in the world. Simple and effective!

Sara Evans is excited to be getting back in the thick of the music business with the release of a music video for her emotional new ballad "Slow Me Down," the lead-off single and title track from her forthcoming seventh studio album, which will be released on March 4. It's been almost three years since Evans released her last album, "Stronger," and she's more than ready to bring new music to her fans. "I am so excited to have some new music out. We're finishing the album up in October," the 42-year-old powerhouse songstress said.
"Slow Me Down" is a mid-tempo country ballad, backed by plucked strings and guitar. The song is sung from the perspective of a woman threatening to walk out on her man, finishing by saying that if he has something to say that he should "hurry up and slow [her] down." Speaking of the song with Billboard, Evans said: "There's definitely something about it. That's what we all felt when we heard it. When they pitched it to us, it was so emotional and the thought of 'Hurry Up and Slow Me Down' is one of the best lines I have heard in a song in so long. I'm very lucky they pitched it to me."
Evans also told The Boot that she was excited about the recording process: "I love songs that evoke emotion - it really is what connects people to the music. When we went into the studio to record ['Slow Me Down'] my main goal was to capture the desperation and passion in the song - to strike a balance between a strong vocal and the emotion that would pull in the listener." The song seems poised to follow in the long line of successful ballads for the singer, who gives the song all she's got, delivering a forceful performance of the chorus while rendering the song's title phrase with a plaintive trill.
Directed by Peter Zavadil, and was shot primarily at Club Anthem in Nashville, Tennessee last September, the angsty, emotional clip begins with Evans in a wedding dress before cutting to her and her significant other, played by NASCAR driver Carl Edwards, arguing in their high rise. As the video continues, it's clear there is trouble in paradise. Edwards is glued to his phone while Evans vies for his attention before realizing she's fighting a losing battle. Does he convince her to stay or does she finally walk away? Watch the video below to find out!

After an arduous wait for new material, Christina Perri makes vulnerable return with a dramatic new visual for her brutally honest alt-pop ballad "Human," the first taste and lead single from her upcoming sophomore album, "Head or Heart." It's a properly dramatic way to come out swinging as Perri ramps up for the release of her new album, due out March 11. Named as iTunes' "Breakthrough Pop Artist of 2011," the 27-year-old singer-songwriter earned critical applause and an increasingly fervent fan following with her extraordinary debut and her raw-and-heart-wrenching break-up anthem "Jar of Hearts."
Perri wrote with Boys Like Girls frontman and top-notch popsmith Martin Johnson, "Human" is a soft, yet powerful ballad about the societal pressures placed upon women to be, well, perfect. The song is an emotionally charged ballad which finds Perri in a destructive relationship. Perri is sounding a bit more somber, telling her lover over a sparse piano melody, "Your words in my head/ Your knives in my heart/ You build me up and then I fall apart." Perri then dejectedly listing her subservient skills in the verses before finding her nerve in the chorus and declaring, "But I'm only human/ And I crash and I break down."
With its compassionate "be yourself" theme, Perri's "Human" says it's OK to be yourself, even if that means occasionally falling apart. Still prominantly featuring Perri's raw vocals and her broken lyrics, the song has an elevated production from her previous release, with swelling strings and bursting percussion over Perri's beautiful piano stylings. This emotionally-charged ballad also continues the theme of "lovestrong." relating to those broken and alone and commiserating with them. However, the defiance in the lyrics and Perri's own voice are hopeful and strong. For those who can relate to heartbreak, which is all of us really, this song will soon be on repeat.
Are humans just a series of parts or are we something deeper? That's the question at the heart of Perri's stunning video for "Human," which was directed by Elliott Sellers. The just-over-four-minute clip begins with Perri alone in a room and standing on a white platform against all-white background, wearing a black bra-like top, and black hotpants. Perri isn't really herself, or only Human, as the song's sonics build, so does her true self begin to emerge and dramatically turning into human while sings about her heartache. It's so simple, but this visual works for this kind of song.

Beyoncé's new song "XO" contains six seconds of audio sample from the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster and the move has sparked a controversy and heavily criticized by the families of the lost crew, NASA, and the media. At issue is whether the song is a tribute to those who have lost someone special in their lives, or whether the track is just another pop love song. The video features Beyoncé visiting an amusement park, but Beyoncé herself has reportedly suggested that the song has deeper themes and saying that the song "was recorded with the sincerest intention to help heal those who have lost loved ones," and that the sample was included as a tribute to the Challenger crew.
As the dual lead contemporary hit radio single along with "Drunk In Love" from her surprise new self-titled fifth studio 'visual' album, "XO" is a mid-tempo pop love power ballad and built on jittery keyboards, synthesizers, looped organ riff and electronic flourishes. This rousing Pop ballad finds Beyoncé reuniting with previous collaborators Ryan Tedder and The-Dream. Beyoncé uses her "subtly exhausted" low register while growling the lines "Baby love me, lights out." This radio-ready anthem on the entire album was reminiscent to Beyoncé's own 2008 power ballad "Halo" with a celebratory, bumping Caribbean groove and influences of Jamaican singer Tanya Stephens.
Upon its release, "XO" received positive reviews from music critics as a "buoyant celebration of love and life." Pitchfork Media praised the uplifting pop song's "big, boundary-obliterating" pop appeal that "demands to be projected onto the sky, like the aural equivalent of a firework" further praising the 32-year-old Beyoncé's vocal performance with her lower register concluding that "all of the flawlessness here is brilliantly undercut by that gravelly croak."
Beyoncé spreading the love and enjoys a day at Coney Island in her feel-good carefree, neon-drenched clip, which was directed by Terry Richardson. As she driving bumper cars and riding the Cyclone roller coaster while wearing a Biggie Smalls tee at the Brooklyn amusement park, where she also played video games, danced on the skee-ball lanes, and hugged and kissed the fans who clamored around her. In one point, she leads a sea of people in putting up their arms in "X" and "O" formations, which may be her version of the "YMCA" dance. It's almost too perfect clip for a likewise song in a way that's sweet if not exactly original, and shows Beyoncé at her most flippant, casual best!

Ke$ha has been threatening to rawk out for quite a while, so with the help of some elusive (to her) electric guitars and Stooges icon Iggy Pop, the pop singer finally gets to show off her snarl with the newly leaked "Warrior" track, "Dirty Love." And just before 2013 ended, might as well start off the new year with a nasty bang, the LA-born singer premiered the filtered grainy video for "Dirty Love" ("my favorite on the record," she's said) on YouTube. According to Ke$ha's track-by-track commentary, she loves this song "because we're just screaming about sex."
Pop's 1977 debut solo long player, "The Idiot," was cited by Ke$ha as one of "Warrior"'s main musical influences when she was constructing the album's sound, so it's not a major surprise that she ended up collaborating with the veteran rocker on this track. "Dirty Love" was inspired by Pop's music and draws from garage rock and punk rock and celebrates the lack of fancy things in favor of something more raw. It finds Ke$ha sporting a rockier tone to her vocals, influenced by her love of '70s music. Whilst the "TiK ToK" singer's previous records were dominated by synth sounds and the use of Auto-Tune and incorporate more guitar-based songs on "Warrior."
In a recent Billboard cover story, she said she was so adamant about proving herself that she first contemplated making "Warrior" a rock album. Speaking with UK radio station Capital FM, the singer described the experience of recording with Iggy as "insane." She continued: "It was amazing because, for me, saying something nice about someone, that's being polite. But to actually [work]... with someone that's putting both of your names and making a piece of art together, and you kind of have to respect one another for that. So I obviously respect the hell out of him, but for him to respect me enough to actually put his name on something and collaborate with me was incredibly flattering as an artist."
The song is a gnarly rocker with lots of distortion and Ke$ha's "out-there" visual is death by glitter, which is the the 26-year-old singer's directorial debut as she acting a fool, rocking garter belts, rainbow-colored hair and writhing around on the floor, plays a stripper, ripping her clothes off, shows off her hot booty to the masses. She also gets doused in champagne, which she spits at the camera, as well as dancing with a pair of transvestite dancers, as the mighty rock beat takes over her. Dirty, indeed. Yes, it's Ke$ha through and through. The clip closes with sound bytes from a news cast about smut peddlers!

The Civil Wars used lost footage from their trip to Paris in March 2011 for "Dust to Dust," the third single off their self-titled sophomore album released last August. The song was used in the 2013 horror/drama remake "Carrie," as well as the ABC Family TV Show, "Ravenswood." In their new video, the defunct folk duo Joy Williams and John Paul White take to the streets of Paris, where we find White alone in a cafe, sipping espresso and penning a letter he ultimately hesitates to send once at the mailbox. His former bandmate Williams is also alone with her thoughts, sipping wine at a bar.
But they're not kept apart for long. Much of the video intersperses shots of the two in the studio together with scenes of them roaming the Paris streets. And for a moment, they look to be in perfect harmony. Even the most romantic city in the world can feel lonesome and uninviting, as you can see in The Civil Wars' latest video, "Dust to Dust." Set in Paris on a drab winter day, the embattled bandmates go about their separate yet hopelessly-intertwined lives, all the while pining for something more.The folk band duo wrote this anthem for the lonely late one night in Birmingham, England. "Sometimes you come across somebody who thinks they are hiding their pain, but if we are all honest, nobody is very good at it," Williams explained. "You're like a mirror, reflecting me / Takes one to know one, so take it from me." According to Williams, when she penned this song with White, they "decided to change the pronoun at the end of the song. We wanted to represent that we all experience loneliness in our lives."
The video's footage was filmed in Paris by Becky Fluke in March 2011 and at The Art House studio by 1504 Pictures in September 2012. Sung in a near-whisper and backed by a tiptoeing combination of guitar and drums, the two characters in the song seem almost afraid to let their guard down. Since the duo announced their abrupt hiatus in the middle of their European tour last November, that tension probably didn't require a lot of acting. "When we re-discovered what we'd once thought to be lost footage from two years ago, these forgotten images from a trip to Paris strangely seemed fitting for the feel of 'Dust To Dust,' says Williams. "For me, it's like stepping back in time."