Songs you may have missed: Christmas release schedule special

This is the part where a dozen songs are gathered into a list and presented for your listening pleasure.

With Q4 in full swing, this week's selection is jam-packed with songs from major artists hoping to make you part ways with your Christmas pay packet. Starting with...

1) Taylor Swift - Out Of The Woods
"To all my wonderful UK fans, I realize that you are not able to get Out of the Woods due to a new strategy my record label is working on in the UK," said Taylor Swift on Tumblr, after her single was released in every other country except Britain.

Britain, coincidentally, was where she'd spent the previous week on a huge promotional tour, talking animatedly about the single she was releasing next week, suggesting the label hadn't bothered to explain their new strategy to her, and had simultaneously failed to mention that the new strategy was pulled from a big red folder called "how to entirely balls up your biggest artist's release schedule and piss everyone off in the process".

Still, thanks to the internet, you can hear it anyway. Well done, everyone.





2) Take That - These Days
The newly slimmed down Take That take a detour back to their boyband roots with this discoriffic Get Lucky tribute.

The best bit of this release was a knife-twisting Radio 2 interview where Howard brushed off the "tragic" loss of Jason Orange, saying: "Jason is the better break dancer, he's always been fantastic, but if I was gay I could never be his boyfriend because he's a bit annoying, and a bit too deep for me."

Ouch.





3) Calvin Harris - Slow Acid
A worrying sign that Calvin wants to be taken seriously. Luckily, this is only a pre-order wish fulfilment track and not an actual single. About as exciting as a damp flannel.




4) McBusted - Air Guitar
It's hard to hate a song that so clearly states: "Don't take me seriously, I'm just having a laugh" - but it's equally hard to love it.

That said, McBusted have turned in a solid fanbase pleaser that tips its hat to Crazy In Love (yay) and Brian May (hmm). Destined to enter the charts at number one and drop to 23 the next week, but in the best possible way.





5) David Bowie - Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime)
Indebted somewhat to Scott Walker, this seven minute epic is the first track (!) on Bowie's 89th greatest hits collection, which comes out in time for Christmas. If James Bond caught Ebola, this would play over the title sequence.





6) Alesso ft Tove Lo - Heroes (We Could Be)
It feels cruel to put a song called Heroes under the previous entry. Nothing is going to fare well by comparison to Zavid Bowie's masterpiece, but that's pop for you.

This song, an entirely perfunctory EDM track, is presumably the reason why Tove Lo's debut album has been delayed in the UK. Which is fair enough, I suppose. In all likelihood, this'll creep onto the Radio 1 playlist and give her profile a boost while she's off in the US doing promo.

But if 2015 isn't Tove Lo's year in the UK I am going miffed. Miffed, I tell you.





7) Mary J Blige and Disclosure - Right Here
As previously raved about on these very pages, this collaboration is an absolute belter.

It now comes with a video that makes a huge deal about Mary J Blige actually deigning to visit London. Come on, Mary, it's hardly Aleppo.





8) Jess Glynne - Real Love
While we're on the topic of Mary J Blige, Rather Be hitmaker covered one of Mary's oldest and best songs in the Live Lounge earlier this week. She's really giving it some welly in the YouTube player freeze-frame, isn't she?





9) Jessie Ware - 12
To celebrate the release of her brilliant, downbeat, second album this week, Jessie Ware gave everyone the gift of a free download. 12 is a demo, recorded with Rhye's Robin Hannibal, that didn't make Tough Love's final tracklisting.

"This is a song for my [husband] Sam and I hope you like it," she wrote. "Play it late and go kiss someone x"





10) Embody ft A*M*E - Give Me Your Love
Everybody's favourite asterisked artist pops up on this topical deep house track. OK, it's not as slap-you-in-the-face terrific as Need U (100%) but if you can't dance to this your soul is dead. Oh, and it's a free download.





11) Paperwhite - Pieces
Naming yourself after one of Amazon's Kindle devices isn't going to help your search engine results, but you really should delve deep into Google to hear more from this Brooklyn dream-pop act.

Brother and sister Katie and Ben Marshall sound like they've digested the first 20 volumes of Now... That's What I Call Music to conjure up this blissful 80s throwback anthem. That bubbling marimba line is lifted directly from Lionel Richie's All Night Long, and the chord changes and the harmonies sound like vintage Scritti Politti.

If you only listen to one of the songs on this list, make it this one.





12) Will.i.am and Jimmy Fallon - Ew!
There's a recurring segment on Jimmy Fallon's US chat show, in which he and a guest dress up as teenage girls and lists the things that make them sick. Fallon plays Sara ("and if you're wondering, that's S-A-R-A, with no H, because H's are ew!") while guest stars have included Michelle Obama, Taylor Swift and Lindsay Lohan.

It's ridiculously silly - the sort of thing Trev and Simon would have done on Going Live 20 years ago - but it's gained a Wayne's World-esque cult following. And so there is now a novelty single, produced by Mir.i.am, the teenage alter-ego of will.i.am. Naturally, it's the best thing he's done for years.

BLIMEY - that was quite a list. Hope you found one new favourite in amongst there. More again next week.

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Discopop Directory: Top 10 Singles of 2013

Right then: The best singles of the year. And what a year it's been. The singles chart was as vibrant and exciting as the albums one was disappointing and lacklustre. There was a lot of "mid-tempo" and a lot of twerking, but you won't see any of that here. As usual, the top 10 is compiled from my iTunes playcount because, otherwise, I simply can’t be trusted to tell the truth. So, here we go in reverse order:

10) Vampire Weekend – Diane Young

In which Ezra Koenig - a man whose name represents the worst Scrabble rack of all time - does his best Buddy Holly impression over a frenetic surf guitar line. With a vocoder. Fast, thrilling, and utterly, utterly undanceable, it is nonetheless a great song.

Koenig claimed the real Diane Young was "about 5 foot 10" and "fairly attractive". But she's really just a homonym for "dying young", which was the song's original title until the band decided it was too gloomy.

9) Demi Lovato – Heart Attack

It takes a brave composer to write lyrics in 72-point bold type capitals; and it takes an even braver singer to perform them that way. But Demi "Tomato" Lovato pulls it off – conveying a sense of frailty at the same time as she bellows out the chorus with the sort of force that could capsize a battleship.

Yes, it might be pop by numbers - but the maths is flawless.

8) Justin Timberlake – Mirrors

Great song, but I still don’t understand what he's doing with a pocket full of soap.

7) Arctic Monkeys – Do I Wanna Know?

Sleazier than Robin Thicke frantically rubbing himself through an overcoat, Alex Turner's ode to obsession marked a stunning return to form for the Arctics. Built around a swampy guitar riff Do I Wanna Know was lascivious, sordid and constantly on the cusp of... well, you get the picture.

6) Katy Perry – Roar

With a chorus two times bigger than an elephant (and thrice as nimble) Perry was the leopard-print victor of the year's biggest pop battle (turns out that obedient Applause is no match for a feral Roar). It's just a shame the rest of Katy's album was such a dreary therapy-speak borefest.

5) Little Mix – Move

All great pop songs should pull the rug out from under your feet and, on Move, Little Mix sent carpets flying like Aladdin [please stop – tortured metaphor ed].

It's all there: The stomach drop when the first bridge fails to resolve into a chorus; the "iknowthatyouwannastaycoolinthecorner" mid-section, the bum-rattling bass. A clever, brave single by a manufactured pop band that, for once, are in complete control of what they’re doing.

4) Haim – The Wire

Danielle Haim sings like she's got the hiccups and it's glorious. But on The Wire all three Haim sisters got the chance to shine. Each of them admits they bottled it when some guy told them "I love you". Poor some guy.

3) Zedd ft Foxes – Clarity

A tidal wave. A supernova. A bloody great pop song. Yeah, so the lyrics are mostly nonsense ("A clock ticks 'til it breaks your glass and I drown in you again??") but, oh my God, that chorus is a force of nature.

2) Lorde – Royals

They say a genius is just the first person who dares to say something everyone else is thinking. By that token, Lorde's decision to write a lyric that said: "Hold on, every single bloody recording artist on the planet, I've suddenly realised I don't care about how many diamond chains you own, ok bye" made her the biggest pop genius in 2013.

1) Duke Dumont ft A*M*E - Need U (100%)

It sounded like a classic the first time I heard it, and it still sounds like a classic now. An snappy, irresistible nugget of handbag house it was arguably responsible for a major 1990s revival in 2013, so we can hold Duke Dumont responsible for next year's inevitable Whigfield comeback. Until then, I defy you not to dance to this.

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Sound the amazing tune klaxon for A*M*E

Saucer-eyed songstress A*M*E has teamed up with Francophone DJ type Monsieur Adi to make a song called What's Going On.

Lyrically, the song's no match for its Marvin Gaye namesake. "Don't punish me with brutality" kind of shits all over "Steady are you ready what's going on". (On the other hand, it's a quintillion times better than "hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey I said hey what's going on").

Anyway, the song is an orchestrally-scored disco monster, incorporating elements of Soul II Soul's Back To Life and generally being incredible. There's no information on when you can buy it, but you can just set this soundcloud player on repeat until that day arrives.

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A*M*E and the fine art of "video face"

One of the most important weapons in a pop star's arsenal is the ability to pull stupid faces in music videos. Here are my top 10 all-time favourites.

10) David Bowie and Mick Jagger

"...Bet you can't catch this Malteser in your mouth."


9) The Edge

"For the last time, Bono, I am certain you don't have verrucas."


8) Britney Spears

"Does anyone remember how to take this coat off?"


7) Dave Grohl

"I don't want to freak you out, but I think I'm beginning to lactate."


6) Elton John

"I feel awesome. I look awesome. I am awesome."


5) Erica Mena

"Honestly, I'm as surprised as you are that my shirt popped open when I lay down in this bath."


4) George Michael

"I wonder if she knows I borrowed her hair spray?"

3) Prince

"OK, guys, who farted?"


2) Nicki Minaj

"Seriously, though, who farted?"


1) Timbaland

"Er... Sorry, everyone."

It would appear that A*M*E has been paying close attention to this aspect of her burgeoning musical career, because the video for her new single Heartless has approximately 17 "Rita Hayworth gave good face" moments.

She hasn't quite settled on her signature look yet, but I reckon it's only a matter of time before she elbows her way into that top 10.

A*M*E - Heartless

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A*M*E follows up 100% and five other songs you may have missed

Good afternoon, Friday. Here's this week's round-up of songs you may have missed. Think of it as a tiny weekend playlist, or a brief radio programme with a skip button. Enjoy!

1) A*M*E - Heartless / 100% Skreamix
18-year-old pop princess Aminata Kabba, otherwise known as A*M*E, is currently at number one with Need U (100%) - and deservedly so. Her next solo single is called Heartless, and although the final radio mix has yet to be officially revealed, it doesn't really sound any different to the demo which has been circulating for a while. Think David Guetta and Sia covering Nicki Minaj's Starships and you get the idea. Something's missing right at the end - the climax doesn't quite... well, climax - but it's a decent summer singalong.



Meanwhile, if you haven't already bought 100%, you absolutely have to check out this 80s-tastic remix, which could be mistaken for a lost Control-era Janet Jackson track. It is seriously that good.





2) Thunderbird Gerard - Trouble
Gerard wasn't one of the better-known Thunderbirds. He mostly did the admin on Tracy Island - making sure they didn't run out of staples and teabags. But he's also an up-and-coming US rap artist, based in Berlin, who's been dubbed "the Kerouac of Hip-Hop" (because he's On The Road a lot - groan). "Interesting" naming conventions aside, his latest single Trouble is superb: A lolloping, irresistible piano groove, that's refreshingly low on bombast.




3) Rdgrngld - Million Fans
That's pronounced Red, Green, Gold. Another band harking back to the days of old-skool hip-hop, this makes me want to dig out all my old Jurassic Five albums and have a block party. The band hail from Washington DC, and they managed to get Dave Grohl to play all the drum loops on their debut album... But not this track, which uses an authentically dusty breakbeat sample. One to watch at this summer's festivals.




4) Paramore - Still Into You
"Interesting" fact: I can totally ace Paramore's Misery Business on Guitar Hero. Five stars every time, even on expert level wearing a blindfold, after half a bottle of port, with all my finger glued together so I have to play the notes with my eyelashes. I'll prove it to you one day.

Will I ever be as good at their new single Still Into You? Who knows, but one can live in hope. Hayley told the BBC the song was "a big love anthem". I say it's a bubbly punk-pop track that wouldn't sound out of place at the end of a pre-rehab Lindsay Lohan film. The video, by the way, is inspired by the fantastical technicolor photographs of British artist Tim Walker. You can read more about those on the New Yorker site.




5) The National - Don't Swallow The Cap
What exactly do you want from The National? Swirling atmospherics? Swelling strings? Heart-tugging vocals? An overwhelming sense of loneliness and anxiety? Then you're in luck! Don't Swallow The Cap, the second song to be released from their eagerly-anticipated new album Trouble Will Find Me. It's one of those songs that's totally miserable, but whose inherent beauty ends up making you feel at peace with the world. Lovely stuff.




6) CHVRCHES - Game Of Thrones
"Should we cover the Game of Thrones theme song?" asked CHVRCHES on their Twitter feed last Sunday. "I kinda feel like we should. I might be on my own here tho". Less than 24 hours later, this appeared on YouTube. I love how Lauren starts singing along 30" into the song - and how their arrangement basically turns the song into the theme from Knightmare.

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The Brits, a tragic love story and One Direction larking about with the PM

Hello! If it's Friday, it must be the weekly round-up of videos you "may have missed" (ie completely ignored) over the last seven days. Let's start here:

1) Taylor Swift - I Knew You Were Trouble: Live at the Brits

It really shouldn't have been this easy for Taylor Swift to steal the show at the Brits, but she was truly the Goldilocks in an arena full of dozing bears. I mean, it really was awful, wasn't it? Hideously, offensively dull. I've eaten chips with more personality than Tom Odell. None of the winners had anything to say, none of the performances had any spark, and anyone who dared raise the tempo above "snail in a headwind" was basically banned for life. Did the industry look at the Olympics and think, "we've had enough exposure for one year, let's just pretend we're running the b-stage at Latitude?" Because that's what it felt like.

Holy Moly posted a great analysis piece yesterday (headline "Emeli Sande is not the best at anything") which explained Ben 'Ken' Howard's mystifying double win: "If you have a vote where second choices are counted then you tend to end up with a winner who no one hated, rather than the best in their category." Meanwhile, I had a go at making sense of the whole night in a slightly less grumpy, BBC-approved format over here.

So, here's Taylor Swift, an American country music singer playing a dubstep rave track - thereby making her the most relevant act of the show. Well played, everybody.




2) Kodaline - High Hopes

Kodaline have been dubbed "the Irish Coldplay" but before you go and suffocate yourself with a damp towel, give this song a chance. Yes, it's a sorrowful, romantic power ballad. But the video will stay with you all weekend.




3) One Direction - One Way Or Another

There are two ways of looking at this video by perma-quiffed bumfluff pop band One Direction.

A: What a bunch of irritating little shitbags.
B: If I was in One Direction, I would be an smug little scrote, too.

Basically, it's five young boys who've hit the jackpot, making the most of their 15 minutes and looking like they're having incredible fun while they do it. It's all for charity, anyway, so you're not allowed to complain.




4) Duke Dumont ft A*M*E - 100%

Duke Dumont was previously best known for his DJ sets and remixes for the likes of Bat For Lashes and Metronomy. 110% is, as far as I can tell, his debut solo single and it's a fab calling card, with a pumping retro house vibe. I featured the audio in last week's "songs you may have missed" column, now it has a video to go with it. There's a cute little conceit about a man who's swallowed a cassette recorder (ask your dad) and a lot of very silly dancing. I like the guy with the blonde afro best.

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Rihanna takes a bath and six more pop moments you may have misssed

Here begins the weekly clearout of the pop music stockpile. Some great music follows in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

1) Rihanna ft Mikky Ekko - Stay
Oh look, Rihanna's taking a bath and singing a song all in the nudey buff. (Phwoar, right?) Would be better if she was singing into a bottle of Mr Matey.




2) Marina and the Diamonds - E.V.O.L.
"It only takes two lonely people, to fuck up love and make it evil". AMAZING.
(And a free download to boot).





3) Lana Del Rey - Burning Desire
Surely this, the 9,236th video from Lana's debut album, must be the last? If you haven't heard it yet, Burning Desire is one of the broody, carnal bonus tracks from the expanded edition ("I have to touch myself to pretend you're there," she croons, the perv). The video takes the album campaign full circle, recycling the "Lana and some tigers" motif from the Born To Die video.





4) The Strokes - All The Time
Much more "on message" than the electropop teaser track One Way Trigger, this is the first proper release from The Strokes' fifth album, Comedown Machine. The lyrics are utter rubbish ("no-one talks about the war / on my block or on the shore") but Julian Casablancas' facility with a catchy melody is undiminished.





5) Duke Dumont ft A*M*E - Need U (100%)
I'm a big fan of wide-eyed pop spangler A*M*E, and I'm a big fan of the resurgence of 1990s deep house. This track combines them both in one great hedonistic, glowsticks aloft, baggy pants, bring-back-Whigfield, dance frenzy. 100% approved.





6) Pixie Lott and Rowan Atkinson - Goodness Gracious Me
This might be for a good cause - encouraging more people to sign up as organ donors - but it is quite honestly the worst thing I have ever seen in my life.





7) Jessie Ware - Diamonds
By contrast, this is sublime. A cover from the Radio 1 Live Lounge that genuinely improves on the original. Can Jessie Ware do no wrong? No, she cannot do no wrong. Wait, is that right? Too many negatives? I'm confused.

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A*M*E and an ode to Nintendo

Judging by the number of times A*M*E says "play the gameboy" in this video, I suspect that her mum's been kidnapped by Bowser.

But before we get to the song (which is a bloody good pop tune) here is your cut out and keep guide to A*M*E and how she got to be where she is now, which is on this blog.

A*M*E - Play The Game Boy


That's out on Guy Fawkes Day, fact fans.

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Big tune: A*M*E - Find A Boy

What's that rumbling noise? Oh, it's the new single from A*M*E and, once you've secured any breakable items in your near vicinity, you are going to like it a lot. Here is all the information that is germane.

1) A*M*E is pronounced "Amy"

2) That's her above, wearing a horse on her head.

3) She is just 17 (if you know what I mean).

4) A*M*E was born Aminata Kabba in Sierra Leone, but was forced to leave because of the brutal and bloody civil war.

5) That's not really relevant to the music - it is just a FACT for you to DIGEST.

6) A*M*E's new song is called Find A Boy. The extended mix has been banging about the internet for a couple of days but the newly-released radio edit is much, much better.

7) Find A Boy was co-written by Emeli "your mum probably likes her" Sande.

8) A*M*E's music is what I would call "dark pop" - IE you can sing along to it, but it might leave you feeling a bit spooked if you are on your own in a bad neighbourhood at night and you are being followed by a weird cat-pig on the devil's motorbike.

9) A*M*E says "90% of my inspirations are from the 90s". Cowabunga, dude.

10) I saw A*M*E play a club show in London's trendy London last month. To say that she is spectacularly charismatic would be like saying Danny from The Script is somewhat annoying.

Got the picture? Good. Then, without further ado, allow me to present Find A Boy "in full".

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She's a lady who A*M*E's to please

Sound the trumpets. Popjustice has just posted a video from spanking new pop act and one woman Googlewhack A*M*E.

As you can see above, A*M*E loves Stockholm, but that's one of the few things we actually know about her. Even her real name is a mystery. Luckily, our completely-made-up facts department has informed us that A*M*E stands for Anne-Marie Ectoplasm.

You can see why she went with the acronym.

Born in Sierra Leone and raised in London, 17-year-old A*M*E is influenced by the grime scene, but has a chart-friendly pop sensibility "to boot". Think of her as a less offensive Azealia Banks, or a less broken-up Mis-Teeq. In other words, she is bloody good.

That video I mentioned in the first paragraph? Here it is.

A*M*E - City Lights

Now, if you pop over to A*M*E's website, you will see the following quote: "Some people call me a singer, others a songwriter. I see myself as a composer."

Once you've stopped going "ooh, get her" and put down your handbag, you may wish to investigate this claim further. Luckily, A*M*E has written a fanzine which contains some of her top songwriting tips, including the essential advice: "draw a spider diagram" and "write your lyrics".

The fanzine also includes an eye-opening journalistic investigation of the 1990s when "you had pop legends like Debbi Harry [sic] and Bob Marley". Here is what A*M*E has to say about those artists and the music they created. In the 1990s, in case you forgot.

"The music of the 90s had structures… Versus, a mid eight, you knew one section from the other, melodies were on point. It was good honest mysic. We cheat a lot now… Special effects, auto tune. A lot of songs are like one big chorus lately. Whereas pop used to be lyrically hard hitting - not in a depressing way - it was pop music with meaning. It's not just about stepping into a rave, throwing your hands up and moving to a chick."

Wait a minute, wasn't all music in the 1990s about stepping into a rave and throwing your hands up? (except for the music by Jon Secada and The "Smashing" Pumpkins, obviously). Oh dear.

Luckily, we do not have to rely on A*M*E to teach us valuable lessons about the music of yore. We only rely on her to write catchy pop tunes and to rap a bit, and she does both of these things excellently. Here is the conclusive proof.

A*M*E - Play The Game Boy


A*M*E - Hold Me Back


Find out more
:: Official website - http://www.ameofficial.com
:: Twitter - @theofficialame

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