Young London Sneaks In New Single

They thought I wasn't paying attention. They thought I had stopped looking. But I would never do such a thing. Upcoming pop stars Young London are being a little sneaky, and I made sure to call them out on it! They only did one tweet about it, and I waited, oh how I waited, but they said nothing. So I  butted in and got the scoop my damn self. Enter: New Reputation.

This is the next single from Matt and Sarah. I got tired of waiting for an announcement, so I harassed got with my pal Sarah and got everyone the info before it hit anywhere else -- and if it has hit anywhere else, I'mma have to start crashing some websites. Kidding. Well, kind of.

Sadly, the track is not the ballad that these two were so crazy over in my exclusive interview with them, but she reassured me that this song is no flop. The track is inspired by 90's music, and supposed to be a total blast. Sadly, I haven't got to hear even a note of it yet, but being scheduled for the end of the month, I'm sure this will change soon. Could this be their third entry in Song of the Week? Who knows? What I do know is that my main complaint with their last single has been addressed -- Sarah will be much more prominently featured in this song!

I can honestly say that I am excited for this song. They have never disappointed me before, and they always seem to get better. Hopefully they won't disappoint. And don't worry, if they push that damn album back one more time, we're gonna have a problem. Oh, I kid. But seriously.

Drag Race Season 4 "Alter Egos" Revealed

I open my email this afternoon and what do you know? Yet another amazing email from Logo TV that told me almost absolutely nothing (not that I don't love being on the mailing list). The top just said "Mondays will be the biggest drag ever," and I almost stopped reading right there... Until I saw what was underneath. Check this out.

Click it. Make it bigger. Take it all in. These are the men that will start their engines this January and start racing to the finish line to be the next drag superstar. One of them towards the middle actually looks a lot like Yara Sofia from last season, but over all there are some cute boys in this group. Yes, I am aware that LGBT community is terrible at keeping secrets and that the entire cast is pretty much known depending on what circles you roll in, but I have been trying to avoid too many spoilers. I can say one thing, though. There are 13 faces up there, so I think it's safe to say that there won't be any previous contestants popping out of boxes this year.

Taking Over The Universe is mainly a music blog, but much like I did with RuPaul's Drag U, I will be reviewing season four of Drag Race episode by episode. Being that I don't live in a major metropolitan area, I don't recognize any of the names I've been told, nor any of the faces I see here, so hopefully I can bring you an unbiased opinion. It all begins in January, people. Get ready for it.

XELLE (Finally) Reveal Next Single

All I gotta say is it's about damn time. Who am I kidding? I can never say just one sentence on something. I always gotta ramble. My friends Ronnie, Mimi, and JC who make up the girl group XELLE have finally let the world in on their next single. They even gave us a clip of it. It's not long, but its still more than "Ooh la la." Check out "Hologram."




Much more electronic sounding than "Party Girl," their debut single, this song seems to be very 80s inspired, which leads me to believe that these girls are Jem fans. I mean, all three of them are truly outrageous. Anyway, the clip only gives us two lines of the song. "You're a fiction of my affection" is one of the best lines I've heard all year. I have to say I am COMPLETELY pumped for this song. Sadly, the world will have to wait twenty-one more days for it to drop.For those bad at math that is November 29th. Hopefully by then I can squeeze a bit more info out of these girls on the matter.

If you can't stand the wait, XELLE has popped up as a guest appearance in a new track. Electro/Dance singer Moses featured the girls on his new single "I'm Your Man". You can pick the song up on iTunes here. I know you want to.

Song of the Week - Jello

Please don't hate me. I just can't even explain what it is that draws me to this song. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't give this song a second glance... but Far East Movement rules. Cherry Tree Records is amazing. I just can't pass this song up. If you want you can chalk it up to me being a fanboy.

Upon my first listen I thought the song was a bit of a mess. The back beat seems generic and the lyrics are all about poppin' bottles... but oh god I just can't stop listening to it. They talk about Cherry Tree Cola (which, by the way, this blogger has yet to taste. And after all the promo I do for them!), and they are just here to party. What is wrong with that?

It was nice to see Rye Rye pop up again. He song with Robyn was quite fun, and she doesn't disappoint this time around either. She is proving herself to be quite the talented female rapper. We need more of those on the scene, as the new age of girl rap consists solely of Nicki Minaj it seems.

You can buy the track on iTunes here.

Charice To Sing Theme For Upcoming Game

Charice, who you probably know from that show I can't stand Glee but I know from having some of the best songs on the market, has landed her biggest role yet, filling the shoes of Leona Lewis by singing the theme for the next Final Fantasy game. Final Fantasy XIII-2, a direct sequel to XIII, is set to release in Japan in December and January in the United States. The theme song, titled "New World" is a ballad style song more like Charice's first album than her new material.

The track is actually going to be done in two different versions. One version, exclusive to the PS3 will be sang in Japanese by Mai Fukui, and the second being in English by Charice for the Xbox 360. Both songs have the same lyrics (in different languages), and the same back track. I don't exactly like the song more than "My Hands" by Leona Lewis used in Final Fantasy XIII, but it is still great track and fits the feel of the world that the game is set in.

The track was released on her sophomore album "Infinity" in Japan in early October which lead to an explosion in her popularity there. The album reached number 8 on the charts. There has been no official date set as of yet for the release of the album in North America, but given her popularity and appearances on both TV and soon to be Xbox in the United States, I'm sure the album will see a stateside release.

Since the track has yet to be released in the United States, I really don't feel too guilty posting the video up here for however long it lasts on YouTube.




I would like to take a moment to send out my best wishes to Charice as she goes through this trying time. My heart goes out to her family as they get through this rough patch. Things will get better, and with die hard fans out there and her career on the up-and-up, I'm sure she will make it through this.

Album Review - The Sinner EP

Once again, I am using the facade of the "album review" title to review an EP. This time I am reviewing an EP that I actually have already listened to a lot, despite it only coming out a few days ago. Mason Black, a good friend of mine, has finally compiled his musical library together under one title for everyone. Each track has been released individually on various sites such as Soundcloud and Spotify, so I've had a good idea of what I was getting myself into. Regardless, I have decided to give the overall EP a review for you all.

Get Ready For Hot Couture by Manila Luzon

The title says it all. I haven't even heard the full version of this song, and I am willing to go out on the line and say that this has the potential to be the Drag Song of the year -- Did I mention that was one of the awards categories I'm doing? Regardless, this song is going to be hot. Why am I doing a post on this? Well, let's just say I'm a little behind on the Manila news, so please allow me to catch up.

Look at that cover. It is AMAZING! I know I can always expect her to look stunning, but the actual design for the cover looks spectacular as well. I sometimes forget that Manila is well versed in graphic design (which is probably an understatement since I believe it's her day job). The outfit seems to be inspired by the infamous wig challenge from Drag Race season three. I also love that the signature blonde stripe is showcased in the photo too.

Lately she also revealed an extended clip of the song. While the only lyrics we have are still "Ooh La La", we get more of the backtrack. It has that same techno/borderline dubstep feel to it that "Go Off!" by boyfriend Sahara Davenport did, but in a different way. I still can't get over how amazing she sounds on the bits we did get to hear. Manila did say something on Twitter about using autotune, which I still haven't decided if it was a joke or not. I guess it doesn't matter, as I'd probably need it, too.





The single is going to hit the internet on November 8th. That is less than a week. Can I survive that long?