James Arden checks out the garage rockers latest album.
The Christian rock band from Brighton bring religion to the masses.
Recipe for modern R'n'B album: liberal helpings of guest rappers and an overdose of sexual euphemisms.
Yet this year sort of failed to deliver in the “did that just happen?!” incidents. As the stars walked the white carpet to the Nokia theatre, entertained by some woman named Nicky Menaj in a bright pink wig and purple rubber, and Ke$ha milked her inexplicable fame wearing a dress made of a garbage bag (too...easy...to...make...jokes...) the black-and-white themed evening kicked off.
The night belonged to Lady Gaga of course, who won 8 of her record-breaking 13 nominations, 2 of which had to be handed out before the show even began. She offered some of the few moments of enlightenment of the night, from her bringing discharged servicemen as a result of the US Military’s ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ policy with her as friends, to her outlandish outfits including a controversial meat dress (she later explained to Ellen DeGeneres “if we don’t stand up for what we believe in, if we don’t fight for our rights, pretty soon we’re gonna have as much rights as the meat on our bones”) to her singing an excerpt from her new album upon her third win (not as obnoxious as it sounds – who was she going to thank for the same video three times?).
On the other hand, this year’s host Chelsea Handler was easily my least favourite portion of the telecast. Not only did she look massively uncomfortable whenever she was on stage, pacing up and down nervously, but her jokes were all over the place, inappropriate (not in the satirical South Park kind of way) and just plain unfunny. As she egged the audience on to be on their “worst behaviour” and got little response, it became obvious that the first female host of the VMAs in 16 years wasn’t exactly representing her gender.
And of course, there was the musical sing-off between Taylor Swift and Kanye West – a chance to finally put all those rotten events of last year behind us. Mid-show, Taylor busted out her guitar and sported a beautiful ‘40s movie star appearance, before debuting her new song ‘Innocent’ with lyrics clearly directed at Kanye: “32, and still growin' up now/Who you are is not what you did/You're still an innocent”. But rather than being bitter or angry, it all came across as adorable and forgiving; a musical equivalent of “It’s OK. I got your back”. Isn’t it nice when pop stars all get along?
Meanwhile, following an apologetic Twitter rant last week, Kanye closed the evening singing a rather infectious tune with the not-so-street-friendly lyrics “Let's have a toast for the douchebags/Let's have a toast for the assholes”. Still, the most poignant moment of his comeback performance were the self-chastising lyrics “You been puttin' up with my sh*t just way too long/I'm so gifted at findin' what I don't like the most” which seemed like an honest ‘man in the mirror’ self-assessment - albeit in his standard, conceited way. The audience bought it though, chanting “Kanye!” enthusiastically by the end.
So it wasn’t the best year for the MTV VMAs – they relied a lot on the scandal of last year to keep the buzz up, and I was left a little celeb-hungry waiting for the ‘real stars’ to turn up (anyone else longing for the days of Britney-with-a-boa-constrictor and Pink-on-a-trapeze over excessive Jersey Shore screen time?). I guess there’s always next year.
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