# 35: Britannia High - Picking Up The Pieces

Read my review of the whole soundtrack here.

I had a hard time choosing between Do It All Over Again and this song, but in the end, I think this is the better song, melodically and vocally.

Lola's voice isn't the best in the world, which is why the start is a bit shaky and thin on the high parts for me but once you hit the chorus, the song transforms into sheer brilliance. The delivery of the second verse is much, much better, but I think the jump from first verse to chorus is what makes the song itself.

In defense of Britannia High, this song just goes to show that they're not another HSM wannabe, I can honestly never imagine this in any of the HSM movies.

That plus the fact that the actors can actually sing, and they have gorgeous voices, better then the nasal HSM cast.

Britannia High Soundtrack

So before the series started and once I'd heard Start Of Something for the first time, I thought this would be another HSM wannabe, and I was partially right.

The main thing that I like about this series is that the characters don't have these wimpy nasal voices that just put you off, they can actually sing for a change. You've got one strong female voice, Rana Roy who plays Lola, and two mind-blowing, jaw-dropping ones, Sapphire Elia and Georgina Hagen who play Claudine and Lauren respectively. Then you've got the guys, who're just as amazing as each other. They can actually sing, and they do it extremely well, singing these brilliant songs.

The only thing I didn't see coming was this set of songs. Sure, there are tons of songs that I just can't stand, but there are 7 that just stand out. Wanna see which ones I was blown away with and which just didn't make the cut? Just click to enlarge..
Lemme focus on the seven songs that just blew me away, OK?

Best Of Me, which was featured on the first episode, is a cool mid-tempo song. The verses are OK, the bridges are a bit strange for me, but once the chorus kicks in, just makes me fall in love with it. Everything about it, the vocals, the melody and the production are all amazing.

Watch This Space was one of my early favorites. It took me the soundtrack release to love Best Of Me, but with this song, the minute I heard it on the show, it was amazing. I fell in love with the song, a brilliant ballad that sort of shifts over to a pop-y masterpiece. The mix of the two voices, one ballad-driven and the other more pop princess-like, just gives the song a cool edge.

Wake Up is indescribable. I love the verses, I worship them and the chorus is just so perky that it makes me wanna shoot whoever wrote this song. The other thing about this song is that it sounds so Brit, it's not too obvious that it's trying to be another HSM if you just hear this song, it sounds very pop band-y. AMAZING! If I could, I'd give the song a 10/5..

The Things That We Don't Say is one of those songs that attracted me with the chorus, but by listening to it more and more, I fell in love with the whole song. The vocals are strong, but this song just wins you over with the melody, simple yet brilliantly pulled off.

I remember getting goosebumps and nearly crying when I first saw Proud performed on the show. The again simple melody, and the strong vocals just make a striking song, that makes you stop whatever your doing and just listen. It's something that I think is very hard to do, with all these complicated, heavy songs coming out now.

Do It all Over Again is one of the two best of the brilliant songs on this album for me. It is what it is, an amazing pop song that just makes all these American R&B/dance artists want to hide under a rock and never come out, for me at least. The song is just amazing, the verses are mind-blowing beyond words and the chorus just complements the beyond brilliant verses. That plus the ultra-pop middle eight and the song is perfectly perfect. I can't say anything else about it, I might not do it enough justice.

The other song that I think is the best of the brilliant on the album is Picking Up The Pieces. The verses are really, really strong, the bridge sung by Lola is a bit awkward but once you get past the kind of shaky first verse into to the chorus and the rest of the song, it just gives me goosebumps. I can't describe how much this song hits all the right spots, but it does, and it does it extremely well, enough to make it my favorite song on the album along with Do It All Over Again and one of the most gorgeous songs I've heard this year.

A short, random update..

School has been a huge pain, and I've got a big debate tomorrow. Gar! Anyway, I've got time for a short updates. The reviews for the Britannia High Soundtrack and Take That's Circus will come sometime this weekend.

• I'm loving Lemar at the moment. The Reason is BRILLIANT.
• I'm almost done with listening to the Britannia High Soundtrack, and I'm loving what I'm hearing, some song are just pure genius.
• I've heard the new Take That album briefly, and there are a few songs that've caught my ear. One more listen and I'll have a solid opinion on the album.
• Speaking of Take That, I'm loving the b-sides to Greatest Day. Amazing stuff.
• I've heard Britney's new album as well, but I'm keeping my mouth shut. I don't want to get into any more trouble.
• I got this really rare CD by a Brit girl group called Tymes 4. If anyone's interested in reading what I think about it, just leave a comment and I'll gladly whip up a review for you when I have the time.
• Can I freak out? I'VE HEARD THE AUDIO OF THE NEW WESTLIFE DVD!!! I'm going to buy my copy of the DVD this weekend(Sony BMG Philippines said that it was released earlier this week, so I'll check out the local record store), and THE CONCERT WAS BRILLIANT. Everybody's voice was in top condition, and the vocals were just amazing. I was getting goosebumps all throughout the songs, and that was just the audio, what if I start watching the video? I might faint. I mean, the fact that there were 80,000+ fans there screaming their throats out, and being able to hear it on the DVD is just amazing.

Relatively short update, I've got a debate speech to write, that's enough heavy writing to do! haha.. Reviews are coming within the next days, so watch out, OK?

New Music!

School for me's starting tomorrow, so let's recap on stuff that's come out since the last post!

• A new Taylor Swift song just came out, and it's confirmed my thoughts, Taylor Swift is going to wow us with her second album. If we all thought her first album was amazing, this one's looking to be mind-blowing!
• Why has almost everyone in the blogging world heard the new Same Difference single in full? WHY? I'll wait, but beware, I'm not that patient!
• New Hannah Montana songs have been circulating, and I absolutely loathe them. She's trying to do something she can't, mix country with Britney-like pop. I know that kind of pop is popular now, but look at Taylor Swift! Hannah/Miley has forgotten how she became popular in the first place, nice, catchy, distinctly Disney songs. Oh, well. Let's hope there's at least one good song on the soundtrack.
• Sara Bareilles has a new live album. I'm loving it! Obviously, I adore the songs! Some new songs were included, and I'm once again loving them!
• Not directly related to music, but Kian Egan from Westlife, Anthony Costa from Blue, Kenzie from Blazin' Squad, some guy from East 17, Jenny Frost from Atomic Kitten, Mutya Buena from the Sugababes, A girl from All Saints and someone from this 80's girl band were all on Alan Carr's Celebrity Ding Dong. I love the part when Ant and Coleen mimed Flying Without Wings in mid-air! Plus the fact that Kian was there(eep!).
• A new Corbin Bleu song's out. It's an OK song, but it's slowly growing on me.
• I'm loving Amy Diamond's Music In Motion. Seriously! I might review it later in the week if I have the time..
• Natalie Bassingthwaighte's new single, Alive is amazing! I wonder if her album will be any good..
  
• Not so hot about this week's episode of Britannia High, but it might get better later in the series. No particular songs that I'm loving, and the dance routine in the canteen was all too predictable. But Nicola and Kimberly(GA!)'s visit was nice. But Danny(is it Danny?) screwed the whole thing up. Gar.
• Mariah Carey has a new song, but I haven't heard it yet. Downloading at the moment, so it'll take a few minutes. Will edit the post when I've listened to it already. EDIT: I don't like the song. It's a ballad, but the melody just doesn't cut it for me. Plus it reminds me a bit of When You Believe or some Spanish-like song(Westlife's I Cry? something like that..)
• The video for David Cook's Light On is out. It's a generic video, with clips of the story and Cook singing, nothing special. The song is OK, but I expected more from Cook. I adored him on AI so what happened to that guy? Right. He got controlled by a bunch of record company executives who know nothing about music!

• Darin has a new single out, and the video premiered sometime last week. The song is nice, I haven't listened to it enough to say it's amazing, but I like it.

What to expect this week:

• MAYBE a review of Amy Diamond's Music In Motion
• My very own countdown to Taylor Swift's Fearless, out next week!
• MAYBE a review of Sara Bareilles' new live album, Between The Lines: Live At The Fillmore
• Something to get us all into a Christmassy mood, maybe?

New Music...

So after even more back-to-back releases and the battle of the Girl Groups coming to a close this week, let's catch up on all the new music that's been circulating around the internet these past few days, shall we?

• Well, the version of Hero by the X Factor top 12 that they performed on the results show last Saturday was released earlier this week. It's actually not that bad, although Diana could've sung more, like in the live performance but all in all, it's a not bad version. If I was in the UK, I'd buy the single!
• Britannia High premiered last Sunday in the UK, and I'm slowly getting addicted! It wasn't as bad as I expected it to be, and I'm loving the song Lauren and Claudine sang right after the principal asked Lauren if she was gonna give up or carry on with the whole thing. Lemme guess, the title is You Just Wait(or something to that effect..). I just hope it's on the soundtrack!
• Carrie Underwood has a new Christmas EP out and I love it. I'm particularly adoring the arrangement on her version of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, but one every song, her voice is just flawless and really, really smooth. Amazing stuff!
• Taylor Swift has a new song out called You're Not Sorry. The song is strong, it's got a nice melody but the album cover is just all messed up, she looks nothing like herself and her feet look huge in the picture!
• Another David A. song is out in HQ, Angels. I haven't had the chance to listen to it yet, but I'll get to doing it sometime this week. EDIT: I've only realized now that the song is the Robbie Williams cover he did for Idol Gives Back week. Garr, and here I was thinking it was an original. OK cover, but not so hot about him recording a song he did on Idol.
• And the new Hilary Duff song, Reach Out, is also out in HQ. When I heard it in medium quality, it was so-so, but now it's kind of growing on me. It sounds a lot like a cross between Girls Aloud song back in 2003, The Saturdays' Set Me Off and something else, though. That something else it at the very tip of my tongue, but I just can't put my finger on it, garr. I've heard it before but I can't remember!
• I'm loving Amy Pearson right now. After one of my favorite blogs posted about her, I dug up her album from my collection(another one of those albums that I have but never listened to) and played it form start to finish. I love the album, she's like a cross between Stacie Orrico and Christina Aguilera, both vocally and stylistically.
• Westlife's Miss You Nights was covered by an American boyband(thanks to It's About Music) recently and it's not that bad. Still not as amazing as the original(with Shane's flawless, smooth vocals), but good enough. I just hope that if they become successful with that song, it doesn't become another FWW(Flying Without Wings, Ruben of AI 2 stole the song, then murdered it, but it was still a hit in the US..)..
• Ever since the Carrie Underwood Christmas EP came out, I've been looking around for classic Christmas songs with arrangements are gorgeous as hers but I can't seem to find any. Any suggestions?
• And finally, the new Take That video is out, I love the song but the video reminds me too much of Westlife's Fool Again! Still, the song is amazing, when can we get it in HQ? Gar.

Some new obsessions..

Quite a few, actually.

• Mya's new song, 'Paradise', is amazing! She doesn't have the strongest voice, but she knows which songs give her that egde. It's got that African vibe that we heard with Jordan Pruitt's 'One Love', the only catch is that this is heavier on the R&B side. Still, I have a fixation for African-inspired songs that manage to fuse those elements with other genres, most often R&B. That plus those mentions about 'jungle' and 'eden', make the song simply brilliant! I never really took notice of her last album, but now that I've heard this, could her previous effort be this good as well? I'll give it a listen sometime this week. EDIT: I heard Ridin' from her last album and I just have one word, BRILLIANT. I can't wait to hear the rest of the album!
• Why does the lead single of Britannia High(that's being offered as a free download on the site..) sound a lot like the stuff from the I Dream soundtrack? I know a lot of people had been saying this for a long time already, but I just got the chance to actually download the song today so forgive me. Seriously, the song sounds like it could've been on the I Dream soundtrack, and I adore the songs there. This song though, I'm not so sure, it's a bit too camp-y and it's trying too hard to be a modern cross between I Dream and HSM 1. I'm afraid it's failed. OK, there are some good points in the song, like the melody of the chorus, but I don't really like the song as a whole.
• Taio Cruz's album. Let me just say one thing, Brits make some amazing R&B. First Craig David, who's just mind-blowing and now Taio Cruz, who may even follow in Craig's footsteps. All the tracks on his debut album are worth listening to, but there are some that I adore more than the others. My favorites are I Don't Wanna Fall In Love, I Just Wanna Know, I'll Never Love Again and Never Gonna Get Us(which reminds me of a Seal song..). The songs are simply amazing! Seriously.
• Can't Stop Thinking About You from the new Boyzone greatest hits album may be cheesy at the start and sound like something from a musical(I have no idea who's singing, is that Ronan?), but I adore it for some strange reason. The melody just makes me adore the song, but I wish the instrumentation was a bit different. All in all, it's an amazing song and I'm seriously obsessed with it.
• The more I listen to Greatest Day, the more I adore it. As if I never did. When can we get it in HQ? Garrrr...
• I just noticed something. My top five most listened songs for the week are all Sugababes songs! Hurrah! I guess that shows how much I'm adoring the album, and how eager I am for the new GA album!

This is me being bored, again. I don't have school for the next two weeks, face it!