Songs you may have missed

Back once again like a renegade master. Here are 12 songs you might have missed if this blog is your only source of new music in the universe.

1) Father John Misty - Real Love Baby
Harmonies abound on this one-off single from Father John Misty, which includes the unforgettable couplet: "I've got real love baby / Wait until you taste me."




2) Major Lazer - Cold Water (feat. Justin Bieber & MØ)
Apparently this will be number one on Friday, making Justin Bieber the Whigfield to Drake's Wet Wet Wet.




3) Blossoms - Charlemagne
The best indie-pop single of 2016 is actually a re-release, but that's the sorry state of guitar music in the second decade of the 21st Century.





4) Regina Spektor - Bleeding Heart
After a few years off to start a family, Regina Spektor is back... and it was worth the wait. Bleeding Heart reflects on an awkward childhood, sitting at the back of the bus and avoiding the school dance - and how, even as a confident, successful adult, those feelings are never far from the surface.

By turns a bubbly pop song, a raucous rock banger and a plaintive piano ballad, it's an expectedly unexpected pleasure.




5) Britney Spears - Make Me (feat. G-Eazy)
Pedestrian verses, beatific choruses. Not too shabby.




6) Katy Perry - Rise
Pedestrian verses, pedestrian choruses. Pretty shabby. (Although the "oh ye of little faith" line is a masterstroke).




7) SG Lewis - Holding Back (feat. Gallant)
Smooth, funky house from Liverpool's SG Lewis - endorsed by Pharrell as a "white boy with soul". The vocals from R&B wunderkind Gallant are the icing on this particularly sticky cake. Yum.





8) The Divine Comedy - Catherine The Great
Any song that includes the lyric "she looked so bloody good on a horse" is alright with me.





9) Glass Animals - Youth
A quietly political song, about a family torn apart by war - sung from the perspective of a mother who sent her child away in the hope of a happier life.

Frontman Dave Bayley says the track was inspired by a conversation with a stranger. "It was one of the saddest things I'd ever heard, and she was on the verge of crying," he told NPR, "but she also had a sense of optimism and calm. Something in her face said she'd found a way to be happy again."





10) Opia - Shadow Dances
Staccato guitar lines and shimmering harmonies propel this smart, summery pop song from Yale University students Jacob and Cole, aka Opia. Reminds me of Friendly Fires and Passion Pit, back from the golden era of music blogs.




11) Jagwar Ma - OB1
A swirling, psychedelic masterpiece - which the band describe as being "designed for nocturnal road trips and foraging through forests for morning fresh champignons." Er, ok then.




12) Enrique Iglesias - Duele El Corazon (feat. Tinashe, Javada)
Every so often, Enrique Iglesias appears out of nowhere with an above-average pop smash (I'm not talking about Hero). This is one of those occasions. Just try to ignore the lecherous lyrical content.

That's your lot. I didn't include the new 5SOS single. Apols.

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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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Charlotte Gainsbourg covers Hendrix and nine other songs you may have missed

A semi-regular round-up of music I haven't quite got round to writing about yet. Sometimes for very good reason, but not this week...

1) Charlotte Gainsbourg - Hey Joe
Charlotte Gainsbourg stars in Lars Von Trier's new, definitely-not-porn film Nymphomaniac. Her character is called Joe, and that prompted her to record a cover of Jimi Hendrix's finest moment. Produced by Beck, it's breathy, ominous and delicious.




2) MØ - Don't Wanna Dance
Danish singer MØ was cruelly omitted from the BBC's Sound Of list, but somehow I don't think it matters.

Don't Wanna Dance - a sort of alt-pop riposte to Whitney Houston's I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) - was Zane Lowe's Hottest Record In The World last night, and MØ's forthcoming album No Mythologies To Follow looks set to be one of the year's strongest debuts.






3) Lily Allen - Air Balloon
"She's back, with her words" wrote the Guardian when this song "dropped" on Monday.

Honestly, I don't understand why the press insists on Lily Allen being a 21st Century Dorothy Parker. Her lyrics are consistently puerile. Case in point, her anti-Bush protest song 'Fuck You Very Much', which displays all the intellectual sophistication of a drunken Big Brother contestant.

Still, she makes exceedingly catchy pop songs and this is one of them.




4) Raleigh Ritchie - Stronger Than Ever
Raleigh Ritchie is probably best known as Grey Worm in TV nerdgasm Game Of Thrones. But the Bristolian has been making music since he was 14 and, in the tradition of Massive Attack and Portishead, he combines widescreen hip-hop with mournful soul melodies. If you ignore all the ACTING in this video, Stronger Than Ever is gorgeous.





5) Johnny Cash - She Used To Love Me A Lot
The 1980s weren't kind to Johnny Cash - he stooped so low as to record a novelty song about having his brain transplanted into a chicken - but this previously unreleased track is just gorgeous.

Johnny's son, John Carter Cash, told the BBC this week there's more where this came from. "There are some great recordings - but we don't want to release something unless it means something." Good lad.




6) Bombay Two Bicycle Club - Luna
Why do Bombay Bicycle Club and Two Door Cinema Club always release music at the same time? I have enough trouble telling them apart as it is...

Whichever one is responsible Luna, they've done a good job - starting off with a lilting tabla loop before settling comfortably into 80s indie, with gorgeous harmonies from Rae Morris.




7) Le Youth - Dance With Me
Following last year's C O O L, which sampled Cassie's minor R&B hit Me and U, Wes James's new single lifts its vocals from TLC's No Scrubs. The man's got taste.




8) Sam Smith - Money On My Mind
Unlike MØ, Sam Smith did make it onto the Sound of 2014 list. In fact, he won the blasted thing and this is his victory single.

Compared to last autumn's stunning, soulful Nirvana EP, it's a little screechy for my taste - but you can't deny he's got a stunning set of pipes. And a pretty good singing voice, too.




9)Charli XCX - Allergic To Love
The best song about sneezing since The Pop Singer's Fear Of The Pollen Count, Allergic To Love is a snappy burst of punk, recorded and released in the space of 24 hours.

Charli XCX is basically amazing, isn't she?






10) Pixie Lott - Nasty
Oh dear.

PHEW! That's all for this week... Have a splendiferous weekend.

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