New music Friday comes up trumps

Imagine how narked Låpsley must be this morning. She spent two years slaving over her debut album, Long Way Home, slowly building her profile, eventually making the Radio 1 playlist and scoring an all-important Live Lounge slot the day before her record hit the shelves.

The stars were aligning perfectly, then Kendrick Lamar pops up out of nowhere, releases an album of cast-offs and steals all the headlines. Damn you, Lamar. Damn you to heck.

Of course, in the era of streaming, no-one needs to decide between Låpsley and Kendrick's albums. We all have them both. And while they couldn't be more different musically, both artists have a lot in common DNA - attention to detail, a flair for drama and a unique voice. Oh, and they're both fans of the oboe (Låpsley used to play one in Liverpool’s Sefton Youth Orchestra, Kendrick put an oboe solo on To Pimp A Butterfly).

If you need a primer, here's Låpsley's heartwrenching new video, Love Is Blind:


Amd her stately cover of Zayn's Pillowtalk (I love those 1990s Steve Silk Hurley synth strings):


And Kendrick's entire Untitled Unmastered album:


And if that wasn't enough new music for you, Years & Years have released a sexed-up version of the former number 22 "hit", Desire. This one features Tove Lo, and there's a lot of heavy petting in the video. Good grief.

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