A brilliant song and a brilliant popstar - it's no surprise this pairing makes for an excellent cover version. One of my absolute favourite British shows of recent times is Beautiful People, a comedy-drama series which is on at the moment, about an adorable gay teenage boy growing up in 1990s Reading. I also lived just outside Reading in the 90s, so despite the many continuity flaws with the programme (the most ridiculous being that it is not filmed in Reading at all, and they keep referring to things like the Oracle and showing H&M, which definitely weren't there in 1997), I can certainly sympathise. I may never have been a gay teenage boy, but that didn't stop me dedicating my life to learning the Spice Girls' lyrics and dreaming of being in a musical. Actually, that's an equally accurate description of my life today. Anyway, back to Sophie - she is one of the most fabulous British popstars of all time, and it's great to hear something new from her. Bring on the new album!

Are the Sugababes (or their management) totally mad? Why would you release No Can Do when you have a song like this on your album? There is another song which is a collaboration between Klas Åhlund and Max Martin, and still this one is better. Every Heart Broken is one of Klas' other contributions, and you've probably read about it on Popjustice under its original (and much better) name of Murder One. The lyrics are brilliant, but I mostly love how the song is just a great, traditional sing-along pop song: funny verse, building bridge, super-catchy chorus, funny verse, building bridge, super-catchy chorus, middle eight, super-catchy chorus. I'd also like to recommend Side Chick (including a rhyme of "knickers" and "ridiculous"!!), retro-tastic You On A Good Day, and the aforementioned Max collaboration, Unbreakable Heart, which is the song Chris Brown's Forever can only dream of being. After the disappointment and sell-outosity of Girls, I wasn't expecting much from this album, but I should have known better when Klas is involved.

It's been a while since I've heard a new song which is pure pop and absolutely excellent, and I certainly wasn't expecting to hear it on an ITV kids' show. Georgina and Sapphire play two of the main characters on the new series Britannia High, and as you can guess from their names, Georgina plays Little Miss Ordinary while Sapphire is the Drama Queen Bitch. They are rivals, of course, and this song is their musical face-off in the first episode. Its excellence is unsurprisingly most due to Sapphire's icy fabulosity - as soon as she enters the song it suddenly sounds like something Girls Aloud or Rachel Stevens would be proud of. It's like See You Again with a grump on, a brilliant self-empowerment song for 8 year old girls to sing in front of their mirrors with a hairbrush, just like the good old days. Kid-pop is definitely back, and after the barren and boring Busted/McFly years it's a very big relief!

Sometimes I can spend hours scouring the Internet for brilliant pop music, following leads (artists or writers I usually like, or bloggers I often agree with), but find nothing at all of interest. However, when I do discover something special, it's all worthwhile. This song is my latest discovery, found through its ace writer Klas Ahlund, and I'm very excited about it. I haven't heard such a feel-good song in ages, and after only one listen its super-catchy chorus was firmly wedged in my brain. I'm sure you remember Eagle Eye as the oddly-named (and it is his real name - his middle name is Lanoo!) brother of Neneh, who had one hit in the late 90s with the lovely Save Tonight, although he actually managed two top 20 albums. Skull Tattoo was from his third, which was only a minor success even in Sweden (although Skull Tattoo made the UK charts... well, at 158!), but he is still going and plans to release another album in 2009.

California Liar's album is one which doesn't bowl me over, but it is consistently very strong. The American-Swedish band are a project of Max Martin, and comparable to Rooney or One Republic in sound. This song popped up on my iPod the other day and I realised what a fantastic chorus it has, especially at the end where the song builds up. I imagine it would be brilliant to see performed live with a whole crowd singing along. The fact that Max Martin can make songs like this as well as girl-rock and Britney-pop (what else can you call the sub-genre initiated by Baby One More Time?) and boyband-sop, shows that he is the most talented songwriter/producer around today. That he isn't celebrated for that while people like Chris Martin and Gary Lightbody are, is an absolute travesty! Make sure you also listen to the single, It's Not Over, if you haven't already had the pleasure, and for fans of gratuitous swearing there's always All That Shit Is Gone...