LA ROUX 'S SYMPATHY FOR LITTLE BOOTS

Whilst Little Boots was tipped to conquer all before her in 2009 by various tastemaker polls and pop forums , its been Elly Jackson and her electropop cohorts La Roux that have stormed the charts this year.
La Roux have topped the charts with Bulletproof , whilst In For The Kill remained in the Top 10 for weeks , and add to that a Mercury Prize nomination for their self titled debut.
Little Boots on the other hand failed to land a Top 10 with debut New In Town , her heavily hyped debut Hands, despite going Top 5 has stalled in the lower reaches of the album chart. An expected Mercury nomination failed to materialise.
Even though new single Remedy is tipped to land her a first Top 10 hit , Little Boots has so far failed to live up to high expectations and next big thing hype. Truth be told , the general consensus is that Little Boots has been a notable flop , whilst La Roux are the ones sitting pretty at the top of the electropop tree.
Elly Jackson has claimed that the media places an overwhelming amount of hype and pressure on new acts to succeed and deliver the goods commercially almost immediately.
The reaction she got was so unfair. Hype can be a very dangerous thing, it can accelerate people's expectations," she told the Daily Star.
We felt the same about our album but we have got away with it."

Little Boots topped the BBC's Sound of Poll , their annual list determing who would be the biggest acts of the forthcoming year. In the past artists such as Duffy , Corinne Bailey Rae , Franz Ferdinand , 50 cent and the Scissor Sisters have all featured on the list and gone on to connsiderable success.
It seems this time around Little Boots has fallen foul of the hype , rather than thrive off the back of it. I'd expect her to make some ground up with Remedy charting highly. These sort of polls do generate an unprecedented amount of hype. However Boots is not the only hot tip for 2009 that has so far underperformed. The likes of VV Brown and Frankmusik have both stalled somewhat. But Frankmusik 's debut album Complete Me looks set to go Top 5 this weekend.
With 4 months of the year left to run , perhaps some if these acts will pick up the pace commercially. But in terms of new acts to conquer all , as determined by polls and music forums , it seems there'll always be winners and losers. And the likes of La Roux and Florence And The Machine seem to be winning.

ALPHABEAT GET SPELLBOUND

DirtyPop's favourite Scandipop misfits Alphabeat return in October with fab new single The Spell. Released on October 12th , their as yet untitled second album follows a week later on October 19th.
Much excitement as Fascination was , if not , the greatest pop single of 2008. All though its been a bit overwhored on the Coca Cola ads at the moment. We can forgive that given the joyous rush of blood that emanates from such a modern pop classic.
We'd expect more of the same sunshine pop from the forthcoming album to brighten up what will be a predictably gloomy winter. Breath baited for this return. Fascination indeed!!

LOOK OUT , KEISHA'S BEEN ON TWITTER AGAIN

Pop legend Keisha Buchanan has been letting off stea on Twitter. Keisha has become revered as regular tweeting but launched a tirade against negative criticism of her.
"I'm feeling sad today, there are some very mean people out there man, hating, bitchy, fakes who have knocked me down but only for today," she wrote.
"I'm going to get up tomorrow and not let their negative vibes hold me in this space. I'm not going to let them make me feel that being confident, loving my curves, my values, standing for something other then following the latest trend is wrong."
She added: "I know who I am, what I'm about. So they can keep trying to break my spirit so I can be as insecure as they are. But it will never happen.
"The thing that hurts most is when its those close to you. To all my Twitter friends don't let the haters keep you down.
"Chin up, keep pushing forward. Don't let them win because I won't either. They will be exposed in the end. And we'll be the last ones standing."

Aww bless her. As much as we love Keisha , theres a large majority of Sugababes fans who wiish her laptop was wrestled from her and Keisha kept off Twitter. Some of her recent tweets have seen her criticise section sof the Sugababes back catalogue , most notably 2007's Change album and revealing she hated fan favourite , last years Top 20 hit Denial.
One thing our Keisha is , is feisty and honest , free of the blandness and bullshit of some popstars. We say leave Keisha twitter to her hearst content. After all her Twitter is one of the must-folow Twitter pages.
Keisha will soon have reason to smile though. Get Sexy should land her another Number 1.

IWILL YOUNG'S GREATEST HITS ON THE WAY

Some would argue he's only had the one greatest hit and that was the epic Leave Right Now. But Pop Idol winner Will Young releases The Hits on November 16th.
Sevn years on from his reality tv victory , and with four albums , 4 Number 1's and 10 Top 10's , the singles retrospective comes a year after the underperforming Let It Go. We'd expect this album to sell by the truckload in time for Christmas.
Just a pity that Will's recent albums and singles especially have somewhat faltered chartwise. Indeed his last Number 1 was 6 years go with Leave Right Now. The song alone will b ethe mass appeal and selling point of this album. But lets not take for granted some of the underrated singles from Will. Who Am I , All Time Love and Grace will of course all be included along with two new tracks. And who can forget Your Game which was ludicrously deemed by the public as the Best British Single at the 2005 Brit Awards. Yes , this already forgotten Will Young classic was more popular than Jamelia's Thank You or Keane's Everybody's Changing.
How he'd long for such heady days now. or does he ? This greatest hits wraps up this chapter of Will's career nicely. But where does he go from here?Its become apparent that he's not the chart force he once was. A successful lead single off the hits compilation will be a huge boost. But theres plenty of scope for experimentation for his next record. But I'd wager it'll be a long hiatus before we see a new studio album from Will. For now enjoy a Greatest Hits album , that I'm sure many who saw him win Pop Idol would thought they'd never see.

The full tracklisting is as follows:

'Evergreen'
'Light My Fire'
'You & I'
'Leave Right Now'
'Your Game'
'Friday's Child'
'Switch It On'
'All Time Love'
'Who Am I'
'Changes'
'Grace'
'Let It Go'
'Bonus Track 1'
'Bonus Track 2'

TINCHY STRIDING TO ANOTHER NUMBER 1

Tinchy Stryder's rise and rise continues with new single Never Leave You hurtling towards Number 1 this weeked. The duet with Sugababe Amelle Berrabah comes just two months aftr Number 1 with N-Dubz hogged the top spot for over three weeks.
Technically this will make Amelle the first Sugababe to have a 'solo' Number 1. Mutya will be seething.
Its really been the year of the Stryder and we;d expect Cathc 22 , his forthcoming album to be a similar success. Its quite rare these days to have a UK male have two consecutive chart toppers in a debut year. Along with Dizzee Rascal and the much maligned N-Dubz , UK urban music seems to going from strength to strength. Tinchy could have a few MOBO nods when the nominations are revealed soon. A stellar year for UK urban acts and Tinchy appears to be the shining star.

GAGA AND BEYONCE TO CLEAN UP AT MTV AWARDS ??

Its gearing up to be ladies night at this years MTV Video Music Awards in New York next month. As expected Lady Gaga leads the race with a stunning 9 nominations , tying with Beyonce. Gaga's nods come for Pokerface in the main categories such as Video Of The Year , Best female Video , Best Pop Video and Best New Artist. The Jonas Ackerlund directed Paparazzi steals mentions in the technical categories for Cinematography and Art Direction. Its a phenomenal achievement for GaGa in her debut year and her first VMA's held appropriately enough in her beloved NYC. A triumphant homecoming or a night of snubs a la Craig David at the Brits , it remains to be seen but is highly unl.ikely
But shes got a fight on her hands in the form of one Beyonce. Her Single Ladies promo has become one of the most memorable videos of the year. We'd expect the bootylicious one to be a red hot favourite for Video Of The Year. The video has become a true pop culture moment for this year. I much preferred If I Were A Boy however. No confirmation on whether either ladies will be performing at this years bash , but expect both to steal the show and some prestigious moonmen.
Elsewhere , MTV's love affair with Britney Spears continues as Womanizer earns her a none too shabby seven nominations , including Video Of The Year. Spears won the same award last year for Piece of Me. Hard to see her repeating last years clean sweep , but given MTV's fondness for her , it would'nt be a surprise.
Other deserved nominees include Pink , Kings of Leon , Green Day , Bat for Lashes ,Coldplay , Taylor Swift , Kanye West and Eminem.
Shockingly , given the huge success they're enjoying globally and in the US at the moment following teir marathon run at the top of Hot 100 , the Black Eyed Peas haven't registered a single nomination.
We here at Dirty Pop expect Beyonce to clean up for Single Ladies , with Lady GaGa scooping a double at the least. I'd also expect Kanye to take one home. Watch the action unfold on September 13th and be sure to check back here for a full review of the bash hosted by sex pest and funnyman Russell Brand.

ROBBIE WILLIAMS -WE'VE BEEN EXPECTING YOU

After the car crash thatw as 2006's Rudebox , Robbie Williams will try to reclaim his pop crown with forthcoming album Video Killed The Reality Star. His seventh album is released on November 9th , with lead single Bodies released on October 12th.

Legendary knob twiddler Trevor Horn has produced the album with Don Taylor contributing songwriting duties. Robbie promises a monster of an album combiining old Robbie , new robbie and someone inbetween.

Theres no doubting that when Robbie gets it right , he gets it right and makes top pop music. Rudebox was a disaster with Shes Madonna the only possible saving grace.

2005's Intensive Care had its moments , but on the whole felt a bit flat. For us the last truly momentous Robbie single was Feel back in 2002. To this day , I've Been Expecting You remains our most beloved Robbie album with Sing When You're Winning not far off.

It seems Robbie has been around for an absolute eternity. Will the pop public welcome him back with open arms ? Love him or loathe him , I reckon so. Expect Robbie to storm the X Factor stage around the time of the albums release. hes totally ripe to have his songs make up a theme night. Theres still no UK male popstar around like Robbie.

Admittedly we were ready to give up on him and let him fester in LA, after Rudebox bombed. This could well be one of the more interesting pop records of the year and certainly one ofthe biggest returns. Expect Robbie to be welcomed back to the fold. In these times of dwindling album sales , Robbie is a proven seller. Does he still have it ? We;ll find out come November , in what is already shaping up to be a mammoth schedule for major releases.