Beyonce goes 50 Shades of Grey and nine other songs you may have missed

It's that time again. Ten songs from the last seven days, all worth a click if you have 30 minutes to spare.

This week's bumper crop includes.

1) Beyonce - Crazy In Love (Fifty Shades version)
For a film about BDSM, the trailer for Fifty Shades of Grey is pretty tame. In fact, Beyonce's throaty,



2) Charli XCX - Boom Clap (live)
HUGE congratulations to Charli XCX, whose new single is number three in the midweek chart, meaning she's all but guaranteed at top 10 hit this Sunday - and about bloody time, too.

I managed to catch her set at Glastonbury earlier this month and it was genuinely one of my highlights - with an all-female band that were essentially a punka-pop Josie and the Pussycats. Here's the proof, via an MTV thingummy.




3) SBTRKT - New Drop, New York
"It's a funny tune in a way, but it's quite exciting," said SBTRKT as he handed Annie Mac his new single for its first ever radio play earlier this week.

Featuring a pitch-shifted Ezra Koenig rapping about gargoyles, it's not exactly your standard pop banger. But it's a superb, dark groove - like an elastic dub reworking Felix Da Housecat's Silver Screen.




4) The Pierces - Ordinary World
Allison and Catherine Pierce have suffered a few delays in the release of their fifth album, Creation. In fact, I interviewed them about it back in March, when it was due in June... but now it's been pushed back to September.

The band have been filling the spare time by learning a few cover versions. You can hear them doing Lorde's Team by pressing this blue text, but I prefer this acoustic rendering of Duran Duran's Ordinary World. Such exquisite harmonies.




5) SVE - Riot
Unsigned Brooklyn artist SVE somehow manages to turn Riot into a seven-syllable word in the chorus to this moody synthpop masterpiece. Expect a record contract to be waved in her face any second now...





6) Teleman - Skeleton Dance
Scrummy retro indie janglefest. That is all.




7) Clear Soul Forces - Solar Heat
When Radio 1's head of music posts a song on twitter and asks "Future of hip hop?" you can guarantee you'll be hearing more from the band in question.

In this case, it's Detroit quartet Clear Soul Forces, who style themselves as "the answer to everything that you ever questioned about hip hop". In other words, they're a jazzy antidote to the aggressive posturing of 21st Century rap - and an obvious throwback to the jazzy grooves of the Jungle Brothers, Stetsasonic and Tribe Called Quest.




8) Katy Perry - This Is How We Do (lyric video)
Inventive lyric video for below par album track.




9) Royal Blood - Figure It Out
A terrific video, despite the unnecessary red/blue filter stuff. Really looking forward to Royal Blood's debut album in three weeks' time.




10) Janet Jackson - Escapade (remix by Nick*)
It's 25 years since Janet released this song - inspired equally by Nowhere To Run and Raspberry Beret, but sounding like neither.

Still one of the best summer anthems ever committed to tape, this bleepy-bloopy remix should be played loud in the park to annoy sunbathers.

And that, as they say, is a wrap. Have a smashing weekend.

Tweet