Luciana: 'Pop My Trigger' - The Album That Got Away (Almost - Listen Here!)

As the waning days of last year faded away, the fabulous and underrated Kimberly Cole suddenly dropped a debut album so fun and brilliant it made the usual worries over all the things left undone and fear about all the things yet unknown fade into bliss. This year, the fabulous and underrated Luciana Caporaso has suddenly released the cuts from a planned US debut album meant for this year but that never saw the light of day, and it's so fun and brilliant it may well make the usual worries over all the things left undone and fears about all the things yet unknown fade into bliss. Only it'll pound them into submission first, because that's the Luciana way, and that's why we love her.

The 12 Days of Shtickmas: Day 4

On the fourth day of Shtickmas, Vertigo Shtick gave to me:

Four nifty words 

hateration (n.) - the display of hostility, judgment or distate, usually toward a person.

Hateration

Don't need no hateration, holleration in this dancerie. (Mary J. Blige, "Family Affair")

tragical (adj.) - extremely sad (rare usage: generally used to create imperfect rhyme with "beautiful")

Sadness is beautiful; loneliness is tragical. (Backstreet Boys, "Shape of My Heart")

clubbington (n.) - a location, typically active during evening hours, that peddles in alcohol and dance music, particularly moombahton.

We get it poppington up in the clubbington. (Nadia Oh, "Taking Over the Dancefloor")

gizzo (v.) - go (obsolete usage, late 1990s and early 2000s)

Now, ladies, here we gizzo. (Snoop Dogg, "Drop It Like It's Hot")

Three club gems

      Rihanna                                 Dave Aude                          Christina Milian

Two flops we love

J.Lo                                                    BSB

and an obscure song we ♥ by Britney!

Today's song:

"Can't Make You Love Me" (Oops!...I Did It Again)

The 12 Days of Shtickmas: Day 3

On the third day of Shtickmas, Vertigo Shtick gave to me:

Three club gems

TaioKylie                                        Ono                                  GuettaEstelle

Two flops we love

Janet                                                    JC

and an obscure song we ♥ by Britney!

Today's song:

"Phonography" (Circus - Bonus Tracks)

The 12 Days of Shtickmas: Day 2

On the second day of Shtickmas, Vertigo Shtick gave to me:

Two flops we love

Miley                                                    Xtina

and an obscure song we ♥ by Britney!

Today's song:

"(I Got That) Boom Boom" feat. The Yin Yang Twins (In The Zone)

The 12 Days of Shtickmas: Day 1

On the first day of Shtickmas, Vertigo Shtick gave to me:

An obscure song we love by Britney!

Today's Song:

"Bombastic Love" (Oops!...I Did It Again)

Oh yeah...there's more coming. Happy holidays!

2011 Best of Pop - Nominations and Vote for your Favorites!

If there's one lesson to be learned from pop music in 2011, it's that flying solo is all well and good, but nothing gets you over that final hump like a good old collaboration. Your single about sadomasochism stalling out just within the top five? Just call Britney Spears. Worried your album's fourth single might fizzle out in the afterglow of the pyrotechnic breast show you unleashed for the previous one? Sounds like a job for Kanye West! Trying to launch or re-launch a solo career alongside your night job judging a Simon Cowell reality show? That's why God invented Lil Wayne and Pitbull. Sometimes these matchups are ho-hum and forgettable, and sometimes they're ridiculously amazing - interestingly enough, they're just about never fatal.

We're Number One!

The 10 Best Pop Music Videos of 2011 (#6-10)

It's been an interesting year for music videos. Vevo hasn't exactly revolutionized the art form, but it has made a place that artists can display new music videos and the general public can not only watch for free (with a commercial or two) but also embed the videos on Facebook, Twitter, and...well, blogs, without fear of copyright infringement. In a post-MTV/VH1 world (yes, it is) this is really the only reason anyone makes videos anymore, and a good video can really amp up sales and airplay for a new single. Jennifer Lopez's "On the Floor" became the most viewed music video of the year on Vevo after it debuted during American Idol, and the song hit number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 11 on the year-end chart. So let's count down the top ten pop music videos of the year, shall we?

First Listen: Ke$ha - "Sleazy Remix 2.0 Get Sleazier" (feat. Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa, T.I., and Andre 3000)

Ke$ha. Wiz Khalifa. Andre 3000. T.I. Lil Wayne. (In order of appearance.) That phenomenal beat by Bangladesh. Penis cleaners. Cleopatra's pussy. A lot of marijuana.

Filthy. Amazing. $leazy as hell.

The Best Version of "Santa Baby" (Hint: It's Not Taylor Swift)

I heard Taylor Swift recorded "Santa Baby." This is not welcome news.

Naughty.

I'm countering this with my favorite version of the song (apologies to Eartha Kitt): ladies and gentlemen, Kylie Minogue. (I can't stand Madonna's. I don't care if it's heresy.)

Ooh!

.