Four songs for Friday night

It's been a busy couple of days, so apologies for the gap in updates. To make up for it, here are four songs you should sample before the weekend is through...

1) Prince - Stare
Released exclusively on Spotify, just a couple of weeks after Prince pulled his music from every streaming service except Tidal? Well, if there's one thing Prince fans have come to expect it's a lack of consistency.

This starts brilliantly, with a killer bassline and a lyrical reference to Prince's Controversy-era breakthrough: "First things first, we like you to stare / We used to go on stage in our underwear". But it goes downhill quickly from there. This is very much Prince on funky autopilot.





2) One Direction - Drag me Down
"I got a river for a soul, and baby, you’re a boat."

To be honest, this is anonymous, if likeable, europop until the chorus makes an unexpected u-turn and breaks out the guitars. Designed for stadiums and, presumably, an imminent greatest hits collection.




3) Duke Dumont - Ocean Drive
Thankfully not a cover of the Lighthouse Family track, this is a return to form by Sir Duke after the underwhelming, underperforming The Giver.

Featuring legendary Chicago house vocalist Robert Owens, it's from the first in a series of 4-track EPs Dumont intends to release in lieu of what he calls "the old format of the LP" (ask your dad).



4) Alicia Keys - 28 Thousand Days
An intruiging mix of hard beats and hippy dippy optimism, heralding Alicia Keys' first album in five years.

"I'm back from hell, with my angel wings," sings Alicia, sounding more like she's just come back from Waitrose.

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