In praise of Tove Lo

If anyone deserves to become an all-conquering, chart-smashing, globe-straddling, supersonic streak of lightning in 2014, it is Tove Lo. She is a 25-year-old pop singer from (where else?) Sweden, who is literally named after a cat. This cat:

To explain: The Swedish word for a Lynx is "Lo". A young Tove Nillson (for that is our heroine's true identity) fell in love with a Lynx in a Swedish zoo when she was three. As a result, her godmother started calling her Tove Lo. And the rest, as they say, is growing up to be a powerful and mature songwriter.

Tove penned her first song, "People Think I Am Crazy", when she was just 10. And, aside from an ill-fated spell in a rock band called Tremblebee (!) her music continues to be a Lena Dunham script-full of bad decisions, bad boyfriends and bad habits. Which is basically what pop music is all about, isn't it?

But if you need any further proof that Tove Lo is amazing, here are three proofs.






If you ever read the "get info" tab on iTunes, you'll know that Tove Lo wrote the first two songs. The last one, her solo single Out Of Mind, was described as "a proper 'star is born' moment" by big chief pop blog Popjustice when it came out late last year. And they weren't wrong: Melancholy, visceral, and anthemic, Out Of Mind was a calling card the size of your front door.

The song features on Tove Lo's Truth Serum EP, which comes out worldwide on Monday. The other tracks include the narcotics-vs-oxytocin themed Habits ("I gotta stay high all the time to keep you off my mind") and Not On Drugs ("I'm not on drugs, I'm just in love").

The latter, which popped up online this morning, is a whole bathtub full of brilliant, and immediately recognisable as a massive hit single. I know this sounds like over-excitable hyperbole from an idiot blogger but, for once, it's justified. Have a listen:


If this all leaves you very excited about Tove Lo (and it should) here's a long but informative interview on Popjustice and a link to her bilingual Twitter account. Fan va kul det var!!

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Pharrell's done another song with Daft Punk

Gust Of Wind, from Pharell's forthcoming solo album G I R L, is his third collaboration with Daft Punk in a row, and it's another bona-fide retro disco smash, complete with a vocodered hook from the Francophone Robots.

But let's face it, you don't care what I've got to say about it, you're just reaching for the "play" button. And who could blame you?

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Kanye West's career-spanning medley

Standing under a flickering light-bulb, Kanye West performed a medley of his biggest hits (and Mercy) on Seth Meyers freshly-minted US chat show last night. The a capella verse of Stronger is the obvious highlight, but the whole thing is exceptional.

It makes you imagine how good a Kanye Hits album would be. He could call it Yeezus Talks. Or The Kanye Westboro Baptist Church Hymnal and Psalmery. Or maybe even "Your Apartment Is Too Nice To Listen To Rap In."

Here's the performance in full, plus a couple of interview clips, in which Kanye talks about having synaesthesia, writing a sketch for SNL, and wanting to make marble sculptures (because why not?). Despite your expectations and preconceptions, he actually comes across as funny and personable and definitely not daft as a brush.

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And so it begins...

Rock's favourite whipping boys Coldplay are back with a new song which is, GASP, not entirely bollocks.

Plinky-plonky atmospherics and hushed vocals are the order of the day, as Chris Martin implores "In the darkness, 'fore the dawn / Something something the light on". Possibly. It's hard to tell. His lyrics are practically indecipherable, thanks to multi-layered harmonies and a squashy talkbox effect that pushes his vocals deep underwater.

The end result is a cross between Sigur Ros and Bon Iver, with an unexpected nod to Color Me Badd in the coda (ok, I made that last bit up).

Coldplay - Midnight

The song heralds Coldplay's forthcoming sixth album, about which we know very little. There's a potential clue in the timing of the video release - which the band specifically uploaded at midnight, Mongoloian time. We should find out more when they play the iTunes Festival at SXSW on 11 March.

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Haim: The gift that keeps on Gif-ing

We already knew that Haim were accomplished dancers - you may even remember this video of Este recreating Britney's routine for Ooops! I Did It Again - but their new video is on another level entirely.

Choreographed by Fatima Robinson (Aaliyah's Are You That Somebody, The Black Eyed Peas' My Humps), the video for If I Could Change Your Mind recalls the dance-centric videos we used to get in the 1990s. Alana, Este and Danielle aren't quite as pop-and-click perfect as, say, Janet Jackson - but nonetheless this is a serious rival to Beyonce's Single Ladies.

It is also the most Gif-able video of the year. Feast your eyes on these killer moves.

1) The finger-clicks




2) The hair flicks


3) The soft-shoe shuffle


4) The "just stepped out of a salon"


5) The synchronised handclap


6) The sucker punch

Gifs via Consequence of Sound, Oystermag and FuckYeahHaim)

Now you've digested all of that, here's the video in all it's hip-shaking glory.

Haim - If I Could Change Your Mind

UPDATE: The band were in Radio 1's Live Lounge this morning, where Este sang a particularly fruity version of Beyonce's XO. At this moment in time, Haim can literally do no wrong. Unless they kill Bambi.

Haim - XO

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Update: Now you can officially watch Beyonce's Brits performance on YouTube

And it looks like this.

Beyonce - XO

Good, huh?

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Duke Dumont parodies Pitbull

Forget what the Brit Awards told you: Last year's best video was Duke Dumont and AME's (Need U) 100%, which told the sorry story of a man who swallowed a ghettoblaster.

The follow-up, for the Whitney Houston-referencing I Got U, is similarly high-concept. No doubt inspired by the song's steel drum refrain, it sets off for the Caribbean, deftly parodying Pitbull's penchant for sun, sea and sexy ladeeeez in his own music videos.

It's not quite as gripping as the 100% clip, but there are enough quirky moments to keep you watching 'til the end.

Duke Dumont ft Jax Jones - I Got U

Bonus "content": If you haven't seen it already, you should really watch Pitbull being skewered by Scottish comedian Limmy on Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe a couple of weeks ago.

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Katy Perry's Dark Horse video is neither dark nor full of horses

Fresh from her Egyptian-themed Brits performance, Katy Perry has unleashed the Egyptian-themed video for her US Number One single Dark Horse. Let me hear you say "brand consistency".

As you might expect, the production values are through the roof and, in keeping with her "pop star of the people" persona, Katy keeps the tone light and comedic (apart from the highly disturbing cat-men).

If you peer amid these photos. There's no de-nile that Katy is Pharoah than your average pop star [you’re fired – puns editor]


Hieroglyph hair.
"Interestingly" the two symbols mean God (the triangle) and Royal Power (the Eye of Horus)


What a lovely pair of Nefertitis. [you're still fired - puns editor]


Those ancient Egyptian robes are a nightmare for static.


Ladies and Gentlemen, it's Katy Perry-grine Falcon? [oh, I give up - puns editor]


You know, those Fish Fingers just don't look right.


Ouch. Just ouch.
Here is the video in full. Without the puns, for which I apologise unreservedly.

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The Brits' best bits and eight other songs you may have missed

At this moment in time, I feel like a walking bucket of snot - so I dread to think how many pop stars I infected with the lurgy at last night's Brits. Poor old Katy B...

From a reporting point of view, though, it was a great night with lots of access to proper A-list stars. We spoke to Kylie ("There should be a David Bowie award. He should get an award just for being Bowie"), One Direction ("we're a bit drunk"), Haim ("we owe our lives to the UK") and Pharrell ("Yes, I understand why Blurred Lines was controversial").

The ceremony itself was an odd affair. James Corden's "hilarious" prison rape jokes were, presumably, a desperate attempt to recapture the Brits edgy reputation; and he had the temerity to announce Bruno Mars as "the finest showman performing anywhere in the world right now" while standing in the same room as Prince.

On the other hand, the performances (Bruno's included) were actually very good for once. Beyoncé, who was in London for approximately an hour, stole the show despite being dressed as the Little Mermaid. She didn't give The Brits permission to put her performance on YouTube, but lots of other artists did... So here are my picks, alongside the regular "songs you may have missed" selection.

1) Nile Rodgers and Pharrell - Get Lucky / Good Times / Happy
Unbridled positivity from the two nicest men on the red carpet. Pharrell even scolded a reporter who asked him whether the Brit Awards needed American stars to remain relevant, saying he wasn't fit to walk in Freddie Mercury's footsteps.




2) Disclosure and Lorde and AlunaGeorge - Royals / White Noise
Strangely odd. Oddly compelling.




3) Katy Perry - Dark Horse
"Katy Perry is reenacting a period of historic slavery in dayglo," whinged half a dozen killjoys on Twitter. I'm sure they'll raise the same objections when the RSC next stages a production of Anthony and Cleopatra. Or maybe they're just twats.

Anyway, this was the most visually-arresting performance of the night. All it lacked was Katy singing: "All the old paintings on the tombs / They do the sand dance don't you know..."





4) Arctic Monkeys - RU Mine
How Matt Helders manages to pull of those drum fills while maintaining a perfect falsetto, I will never know.




5) London Grammar - Hey Now
Interesting discovery at the Brits: London Grammar are really tiny. Like, smaller than Kylie. I wasn't expecting that.

Anyway, they've just unveiled a mesmerising stop-motion video for Hey Now, one of my favourite tracks from their debut album, If You Wait. If you like this, you should also check out the awesomely atmospheric club mix by Russia's Artyom Stolyarov.





6) Shakira - Nunca Me Acuerdo de Olvidarte
It's the Spanish language, Rihanna-free version of Can't Remember To Forget You and, as is often the case, Shakira's lyrics scan better before translation.

I still find the video slightly disturbing, though. Shakira's not being sexy, just making herself available. There are moments where she presents her posterior to the viewer like a dog in heat. Is that healthy? Am I just getting old? Answers on a postcard.





7) The Chainsmokers - #Selfie
This is the most aggressively terrible song since whatever will.i.am's last single was called. Truly, grotesquely, shamelessly awful. [Breaks a Kit-Kat in half] It's going to go a long way.





8) Lana Del Rey - Behind Closed Doors
Leaked Lana Del Rey songs are about as common as Malaria (and often just as infectious) but this one's particularly interesting, because it seems to be the first track to have emerged from the sessions for her upcoming album UltraViolence.

It has a slightly more contemporary, Britney Spears vibe to the production, but Lana's voice is as alluringly gauche as ever. Worth a listen.





9) Chvrches - Recover
Prior to the release of their debut album, Chvrches' Recover was widely considered to be their weakest single - but time has been forgiving, and it has set up a little camp site in my brain where, once a week, it toasts marshmallows and hosts a little singalong around the fire.

It's not getting an official re-release, as far as I know, but this tour video has just appeared on YouTube as a sort of travel diary / album promo.





10) Alexa Starr - Famous
For fans of Kelly Clarkson and Avril Lavigne, here's an unsigned young Londoner who's attracting interest for her brand of shiny guitar-pop. Her strongest song, Famous, could be an early Gaga demo with a couple of nice lyrical flourishes ("life is a stage but I need an arena").

The production could do with a bit of a polish, but the melody and the energy are there. One to watch.





11) Jungle - Just Busy Earnin'
All we know about Jungle is that there's two of them, they come from Shepherd's Bush and they are to be called "T" and "J" (for "The Jungle," presumably). Oh, and we also know that they've released a brace of clever, funky dance tracks with eye-popping videos (the one with the 8-year-old B-Girl and the one with the dudes on rollerskates).

Their new song, which sounds like Passion Pit covering Jungle Boogie, is an absolute blast. Zane Lowe made it the hottest record in the world last night, having reached Planck Temperature at about 19:22 GMT.






12) The Saturdays - Not Giving Up
God bless The Saturdays, whose latest single is apparently named after the band's mission statement. As you can imagine, this is a clubby-dancey-poppy track that will fill four minutes on the radio, without ever entering your conciousness.

I'm only mentioning it at all because of Una Healey's profound and compelling column about the making of the video, written in this week's Hello Magazine. "I was quite proud as I danced in the highest heels I've ever danced in," she wrote. "I think heels were necessary because the video is very glamorous. I especially liked the effect from all the wind machines."

You can read it here. It will change your life.

Blimey - that went on a bit. Congratulations to anyone who got this far. Now put your feet up and have a cuppa.

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Honeyblood tie on a choker

"Being noisy must just come naturally to us."

Glasgow's Honeyblood have been making my Batsenses tingle for a couple of months now, thanks to their jangly, catchy indiepop single Bud, which came out late last year.

They are Shona McVicar (drums) and Stina Tweeddale (guitar and vocals, pictured above), veterans of the Scottish rock scene, who quit their former, male-dominated bands to form a sort of Testosterone-free White Stripes. "We'd been in bands with boys before and wanted to do it on our own," Stina told MTV last year. "There's definitely a solidarity amongst female bands because there aren't many of us around really! But at the same time it's totally about what kind of music they're playing; if they're good, that's all that matters at the end of the day."

Luckily their music is the good sort of music - grungy and lo-fi but decorated with actual tunes. Exactly the sort of thing, in fact, most rock bands lost the knack of doing somewhere around 2004.

Their new single, Choker, is inspired by Angela Carter's macabre short story collection The Bloody Chambers - where all the chapters are dark, violent retellings of children's fairy tales (in Red Riding Hood, the grandmother turns out to be a werewolf and is stoned to death). See if you can spot the influences, below:



Bonus content: Here's a captivating live rendition of Bud recorded in one of the BBC's many cupboards.

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Video: Angel Haze - Battle Cry

Angel Haze's debut album only sold 875 copies in its first week of release in the UK, but it really is worth listening to. She's emerging as one of the most talented, fearless voices in hip-hop and her new single is no exception.

The video for Battle Cry is not an easy watch - depicting child molestation, religious fundamentalism and self-harm, all of which Angel has faced in her brief 22 years on Earth. But the song is ultimately an uplifting rallying call, and a testament to the rapper's personal strength as she rises above it all.

Featuring the talents of one-woman hit machine Sia, let's hope this single reverses the album's fortunes, because it deserves to be heard.

Angel Haze - Battle Cry (ft Sia)

PS: If you haven't already seen it, this 2012 Zane Lowe session gives you a real insight into how skillful Haze is. It's filmed in a single close-up, locked off shot but you'll want to watch right to the end...

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Friday afternoon cover version frenzy

The cover version has become a rite of passage for any band dragged into a radio studio for a "session" and, for some reason, there are dozens of them knocking about at the moment.

Unusually, they all deserve a listen. So here they are, lumped together for your convenience.

Chvrches - Do I Wanna Know


Bastille - Earth Song / Common People


Lauryn Hill - Something


London Grammar - Pure Shores

bonus points for needing a lyric sheet

Lorde - Retrograde

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Five facts about SOHN, whom you should know

Singer, songwriter, producer, facial hair enthusiast: SOHN is the shadowy figure behind some of my favourite records of the last year (most notably Banks's slinky Waiting Game).

He's got a solo album coming out in April, and the doleful first single, Artifice, got the official Zane Lowe "hottest record" klaxon last night. But don't let that put you off, because it's a thoroughly classy, quietly adventurous slice of electro-soul.

SOHN - Artifice

But who is SOHN? Here are five facts I've culled from Google which you can use to impress Guardian readers at dinner parties.

1) No-one knows his name
Perhaps because he's based in Vienna, SOHN has managed to maintain an air of mystery. His Facebook page has been deleted, and his Twitter bio simply states: "English not Austrian, solo not a band. Also not a girl.". In fact, if the lyrics of Artifice are anything to go by, even SOHN himself might not know his true identity: "Somebody better let me know my name / before I give myself away," he warbles. Perhaps SOHN is Jason Bourne.

2) His first remix wasn't very credible
After learning to play drums at school, SOHN decided he'd like to be a DJ, so he picked up a Now That's What I Call Music compilation and tried to scratch one of the songs on his dad's turntable. "I think it was Barcelona by Freddie Mercury," he told Aritzia. "It didn't go so well. It didn't sound like it did on the telly."

3) He used to be embarrassed by his voice
"When I was at school, I stopped singing," he told Billboard last year. "It was embarrassing. Nobody wanted to hear a guy with a really high voice."

4) Radiohead were his inspiration
After falling in and out of a series of "terrible bands" at school, SOHN discovered his true calling while listening to a copy of Kid A. "It was really inspiring hearing an indie band create music from sounds that I had access to," he informed London In Stereo. "Also, I’m a bit of a megalomaniac and I quickly realised it’s a lot easier to make the computer do what you want than it is people."

5) He has really deep thoughts about life and stuff
"Darkness goes hand in hand with depth, both in music and in people," he philosophised in an interview with Fake DIY. If people don't feel or show any signs of darkness, I find it hard to trust them - darkness is 50% of life, right? For me the darker side of life is the most interesting part, it's where we find out who we are."

"I don't like The Darkness, though," he added, correctly.

So there you have it. Artifice is taken from SOHN's debut album, Tremors, which is out on 4 April via 4AD. It will also include some of the following very good SOHN tracks.

SOHN - Bloodflows




SOHN - Lessons

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Here is a new song by Clean Bandit

With Rather Be apparently staging an Occupy protest at the top of the charts, Clean Bandit are getting on with the business of promoting their debut album.

To that end, they've just bunged a new song on the internet. Heart On Fire is more sparse and club-centric than the current single, although there's still a little string quartet moment in the middle 8 "for the fans".

It's a free download when you pre-order their album. And here is what the band's cellist(!) Grace Chatto has to say about that:

"Our first album is finally here and it feels so good to draw everything together into one piece of work. The deluxe edition of the album has seven self-produced music videos [could try harder - Beyonce Ed] and 15 songs that we've made together with various incredible vocalists.

The title track New Eyes was written in a special place in France called Nouailles, but no one was quite sure how to pronounce it and our manager nicknamed it as New Eyes, which stuck... It's the most personal song on the album, so we gave the album the same title."

You'll have to wait until 12 May to hear New Eyes, but you can listen to Heart On Fire now via Soundcloud's subtle, unassuming new audio player.



Bonus content: Here are Clean Bandit in the Radio 1 Live Lounge playing a doesn't-quite-work mash up of Royals and Walking In The Air.

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Paolo Nutini pulls it* out of the bag

* a new song

Paolo Nutini. Remember him? Floppy fringe, impenetrable Scottish accent, sings like he's swallowed a cup of razor blades.

His first two albums each sold more than a million copies in the UK, much to the surprise of his record label, who signed him as a sort of Jack Johnson / James Morrison hybrid, then dropped their jaws, aghast, when his second record turned out to be a hybrid of old-time reggae, folk and ragtime, all delivered in a faux-Jamaican accent.

He's been away for a couple of years, missing several deadlines for his third album, but last night he popped up in Camden to preview a bunch of new material, including a song about his mum and another one called Fashion, performed as a duet with Angel Haze.

The new album is called Caustic Love - he wisely ditched the original title, Numpty - and it's served with generous lashings of Hot Buttered Soul. Inspired by the trunk-funkin' R&B of Atlantic Stax, it's packed with cast-iron grooves and at least three bona fide radio hits. Better still, on the recorded version of Fashion, Angel Haze is replaced by Janelle Monaé (no disrespect to Angel but, come on, it's Janelle bloody Monaé).

The first single is a big old gospel stomper called Scream (Funk My Life Up), and it popped onto YouTube last night to coincide with Paolo's comeback gig. Amusingly, when I first heard it, the song's subtitle was "Don't Fuck Me Up", but that's not going to get you on Ken Bruce's show, is it?

Paolo Nutini - Scream (Funk My Life Up)

PS: Five years ago, Paolo Nutini gave me a memorable interview in which we discussed President Obama's bowling alley and deep frying Maltesers. It's worth a read if you have two minutes to spare.

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Seven things we want from Lana Del Rey's new record

Over the weekend, Lana Del Rey met some fans on the street and told them her new album Ultraviolence would be out on 1st May. Then she realised she was being filmed and started adding disclaimers like "I think" and "I don’t know". But you do know don't you, Lana?


The first of May is excitingly soon, isn't it? It basically means the album is finished, and the record label are having long, boring meetings about the font on the artwork and which song to leak first give to Zane Lowe.

While there's still time for a few last-minute tweaks, here are seven things I'd like from a new LDR album

1) A song about a red dress
"I put my red dress on", "I take my red dress off", "I recycle my red dress in the local Oxfam". Lana Del Rey's best songs all have a red dress in them. So how about an entire song about a red dress? It could be called Red Dress.


2) Absolutely no spoken word intros
Lana's videos (sorry, "short films") are littered with excruciating monologues. "And the spirit of John moved upon the face of the waters," begins one. "My dreams were dashed and divided like a million stars in the night sky that I wished upon," goes another. Not to put too fine a point on it, they are fucking drivel. Any spoken word passage on UltraViolence will be swiftly dropped in the iTunes scrapyard.


3) A song about her lips
Remember when "real" music sites suddenly turned on Lana Del Rey and said her debut album was dreary and a letdown? And then they gave up any pretence of impartiality or decorum and attacked her for having lips that aren't the shape of normal lips? I hope there's a really angry song about that. But funny and smart. Not like a Jessie J song.


4) Young and Beautiful
The track Lana recorded for The Great Gatsby ranks among her best, but if she thinks I'm going to buy a soundtrack CD that also contains Will.i.am's Bang Bang she doesn't know me at all (she doesn't know me at all, but that's beside the point). If she could bung it on the deluxe edition, that would be fantastic. A blubsome cover of It's My Party would be good, too.




5) Song titles featuring oxymorons
Born to Die; Summertime Sadness; Dark Paradise. Lana likes contrasting happy words with sad words, and so do I. Here are some new song suggestions: Jolly Nice Monsters; Cupcake Holocaust; Kiss My Rabies.

NB: Any permutation of "Love to Hate You" is unacceptable.


6) For the love of God, no rapping
Born To Die's biggest virtue was that it was completely self-contained. Even when the poor-little-princess routine verged on self-parody ("my pussy tastes like Pepsi-Cola" indeed) Lana got away with it because she inhabited that smoky B-movie universe completely.

Any time a rapper jumped on a remix, though, the songs were instantly diminished. Need proof? Here's Azealia Banks ruining Blue Jeans.




7) Ten great pop songs
Frankly, it doesn't matter what Lana Del Rey does. She could record a concept album about boiled mutton sandwiches and, if the songs were amazing, I'd let it pass. So this whole article has been a waste of time, hasn't it? Oh dear.

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Back in business: What did I miss?

HELLO THERE EVERYONE!

As you can see, I'm back from the Caribbean - where the sun was shiny, the sea was wavy, and the music was Corinne Bailey Rae-y (seriously, there seems to be a law requiring all bands to play Put Your Records On at least twice during their set).

I missed the Grammys and I missed the Super Bowl - but I did manage to catch Prince's appearance on New Girl, where he proved his acting "chops" hadn't improved since Under The Cherry Moon *frowny face emoticon*.


We've only just got back to the UK, so I haven't had time to catch up on all the exciting Conor Maynard and Laura Mvula announcements clogging up my inbox, but here's a quick rundown of the videos I've prioritised to watch on YouTube tonight.

1) Kylie Minogue - Into The Blue
Controversially shot in 4:3, aspect ratio fans.




2) Rudimental ft Becky Hill - Powerless
Becky Hill was on the first series of The Voice, you know.




3) Shakira ft Rihanna - Can't Remember To Forget You
The song doesn't get any better but [insert sexist comment about Shakira's bottom here].




4) Foster The People - Coming Of Age
It's like a three-minute John Hughes movie, only with new music on top. What sophistry is this?




5) Villagers - Occupy Your Mind
Recorded with James Ford (Klaxons, Arctic Monkeys) this song was premiered last week as a gesture of solidarity with Russia's gay population ahead of the Winter Olympics.




6) St Vincent - Digital Witness
Still disorientating, still brilliant.




7) 5 Seconds of Silence - She Looks So Perfect
It's like McBusted split up, fell down a rabbit hole, landed in Australia 10 years younger and started all over again.




8) Klaxons - There Is No Other Time
"A return to form" - every music journalist, everywhere.




9) MØ - Don't Wanna Dance
Who doesn't love a music video set in a scrap yard? Nobody, that's who.



10) The Pierces - Kings
If Tim Burton drew a girl group it would look like Allison and Catherine Pierce. Later this year, they'll be following up 2010's achingly beautiful goth-pop album You & I... and this is the first bite of their newly-plucked forbidden fruit. Yummy.


11) Prince - PretzelBodyLogic (preview)
Apparently he's playing Shepherd's Bush again tonight (Monday)... Anyone care to confirm?

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