If you can't get enough of Jordin Sparks' amazing new single, Battlefield, then here's another Ryan Tedder song in the Bleeding Love/Halo/Battlefield style. I love Esmée's first single, Outta Here (and even posted it here a couple of months ago), but the album is quite average, which is disapppointing considering she worked with many big name writers and producers. Victim is definitely the best song on the album, and if she has any sense at all she'll release it as her next single. The only thing I dislike about it is her prenunciation of "victim" as "vic-dumb"! It's very catchy, though, especially the "ah-I" bits. It will be interesting to see whether Esmée is successful in the UK, cos I think her career could easily go either way. She's not particularly well known here from her YouTube fame, but the combination of a song as good as Outta Here and the backing of Justin Timberlake will get her plenty of publicity. Personally I think Kristinia DeBarge might beat Esmée to becoming the next new female R&B star in the UK (along with Alexandra Burke, of course) but there could certainly be room for both of them in our charts, and if so it'll be a very poptastic year for R&B.

Adding an electronic slant to rock or r&b music is nothing special these days, but now the trend has spread to another genre and the result is quite fantastic. Now forgive me if I'm forgetting something major, but have you ever heard a song before that could most aptly be described as electro-country? Whether you have or not, you're just about to! Robots in Love is half Taylor Swift, half Margaret Berger (well, who else could I compare a song about robot love to?). It's gloriously cute and happy, danceable and adorable. The band's other songs aren't quite so country-influenced, but they're just as brilliant. Beautiful Small Machines are undoubtedly one of my favourite discoveries of 2009 so far, and that means something because I've discovered some amazing new pop acts this year. Check out all of the songs on their MySpace, because there's not one track on there that I can't say I absolutely love! The band members, Bree and Donnie, seem like great fun people and you must look at the cute robot pictures in their Pics section on MySpace. This duo are definitely going to be giving my other favourite bands a run for their money this year. I can't wait til they get a whole album out!

As you may know, the Backstreet Boys have got back together with Max Martin, the man who caused their success by giving them some of his best ever songs. I don't know how many songs they've recorded together, but one called Bigger has leaked. A short live recording has been on YouTube for a while already, but now there's a full length studio version doing the rounds. Last time the BSBs worked with Max they were one of the first acts to try out the Max-rock sound, and together they came up with classics like Just Want You to Know and Climbing the Walls. Bigger, however, is a return to the sound of the Black and Blue album or even Milennium. It's nice to know that while Max can capture the tastes of a new generation with acts like Katy Perry and Kelly Clarkson, he hasn't lost the knack for making the perfect pop songs he was originally known for. I reviewed several of the new BSB songs recently on TMBP, but since then several new tracks have appeared, most notably this one which is terribly dull but unfortunately features T-Pain so will probably still make the album.