Sometimes it Snows...

What a week. What an awful week.

As you know by now, Prince died at the age of 57, alone in a lift in his Paisley Park home and recording studio. I've written all I can on the BBC News website, a lot of it without the chance to reflect. But I think I expressed what he meant to me, musically and personally, as well as I could. Here are the links.

• Prince: No-one in the whole universe will ever compare
  
• Prince: Sixteen pivotal songs

Meanwhile, over on YouTube, there's a copyright infringement free for all as Prince's fans eulogise him by uploading rare footage and unreleased songs. Here's one of the best. Who, in 2016, would allow a timbale sole in the middle of a televised awards performance?
Normal service on the blog will resume shortly. But it will never be the same.

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Must listen: Eryn Allen Kane - Aviary: Act II

Imagine this. You're a struggling musician posting demos on Soundcloud when one day, out of the blue, Prince gets in touch. He likes your stuff. He wants you to come to Paisley Park. He wants you on his new song. A song that's his personal response to the killing of Freddie Gray. Oh, and he'd like to you perform it on stage with him in Baltimore.

Well, that's what happened to Eryn Allen Kane.

"He [Prince] really wants to see young talented artists thrive," she told Essence. "He tells me to stay true to myself even though my music isn’t the type of music that’s being played on the radio all the time it’s important for people to hear it. He’s like, it’s up to you to be authentic and stay true to who you are at all costs because that is going to give you a long career."


Eryn isn't working with Prince on her solo material - perhaps realising that his obsessive studio etiquette frequently suffocates collaborators - but he would undoubtedly approve of the results. Her new EP, Aviary II, is real soul, with real passion, played by real musicians on real instruments.

The 26-year-old, who once enrolled at the Detroit School of the Arts because Aaliyah went there, wears her influences on her sleeve. You can hear Marvin, Erykah, Mariah and, naturally, Prince in her phrasing and orchestration. And the political overtones are still there on How Many Times - pointedly released on Martin Luther King day - which expresses her frustration at America's cycle of violence: "How many lives do we have to give up?" she asks over a portentous piano phrase.

But the real highlight is her voice - persistently incredible, whether she's angry, lovelorn or full of fiery passion (listen to the last 30 seconds of Honey - it's like Aretha never went away).

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Prince eases ban on his cover of Radiohead's Creep

Prince’s Cover of Radiohead’s ‘Creep’ Will Haunt You In The Best Way Possible -- https://t.co/5P6EhxogxI pic.twitter.com/dOjX5lKTja

— Prince3EG (@Prince3EG) December 9, 2015

When Prince headlined Coachella in 2008, one of the highlights of his set was a slow, mournful version of Radiohead's Creep.

Despite fans' appetite for the song, it's been tough to track down, as Prince's legal time demanded that YouTube deleted any clip featuring the cover version. Even Thom Yorke was frustrated, commenting to the Associated Press: "He's blocked it? Well, tell him to unblock it. It's song!"

Now the ban seems to have been lifted, after Prince discovered a new upload of the track and tweeted the link from his @Prince3EG Twitter account.

But don't expect it to be there forever. Prince's PR team have just issued an enigmatic statement saying "get it while it lasts".

Watch it below. It's been worth the wait.

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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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Prince would rather you listened to his new stuff, thankyouverymuch

By now, we just have to accept the fact that Prince loves fucking with us.

Over the last 20 years he's retired and come back; changed his name at least three times (Prince, Victor, and squiggle); stopped playing his hits then resurrected them; deleted and reinstated his social media accounts; and he's now a YEAR LATE with the promised Purple Rain anniversary album.

Last night, he threw a strop and pulled his music off all the major subscription streaming services (except Tidal and Deezer, as far as I can work out). But simultaneously, he uploaded a storming new single called HARDROCKLOVER which is one of the riffiest things he's done in years.

"Turn my guitar up/ So I can make this woman scream," Prince proclaims priapically. "Ain’t no rapper trying to be a singer... R&B ain't got no place / But put some hard rock on, you'd better cover your ears/ 'Cause you’re about to hear a woman just scream."

The implicit message seems to be "forget Purple Rain, I am not my past." And while this is a great late-period Prince track, I'm pretty glad he can't come round to the house and steal my 12" of Little Red Corvette.

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The return of Leona Lewis and 10 more songs you may have missed

A semi-regular round-up of songs I've been too busy, lazy, stupid or myopic to blog about in the last week or so.

Today's page sees the long overdue comeback of Leona Lewis, a high school gem from Mark Ronson and a heart-warming performance by the Blur.

Enjoy!

1) Leona Lewis - Fire Under My Feet
It's as if Leona Lewis, owner of the world's most pointless umbrella, downloaded the blueprint for Adele's Rolling In The Deep and ran it through a cheap 3D printer.

The results are good - this is a perfectly-rousing slab of gospel pop - but you can't escape the nagging feeling that you've heard it, better, before.

The lyrics are bound to earn a few tabloid inches, given that Leona's new material has been very publicly trailed as a sideswipe at Simon Cowell, whose label she left last year. "Moving on to bigger things, I begin to spread my wings," she sings. "No longer in chains, I'm dancing over these graves."

A return to form, yes. But there's better to come on her new album.





2) Prince - Baltimore
A call for gun control in the US is the centrepiece of Prince's protest song, Baltimore - inspired by the death of youngster Freddie Gray in police custody.

"If there ain't no justice then there ain't no peace," chants the purple one over the sound of marching feet. It's a stirring, timely tune.





3) Lunchmoney Lewis - Bills
Lunchmoney, as well as holding a Guinness record for the worst stage name ever, has worked with both Nicki Minaj and Jessie J. This song sounds more like 1990s novelty abomination Scatman John, though.

A contender for song of the summer, with all the dumb joie de vivre that implies. You are never going to hear the end of it.





4) Mark Ronson and Mystikal - Feel Right
Set in a school talent show, and starring a marvellous mini-Mystikal, this video is a riot.





5) Chemical Brothers ft Q Tip - Go
It's unreasonable to expect the Chemicals to match the lunatic brilliance of Push The Button on this, their latest collaboration with Q-Tip. And so it turns out - Go has a brilliantly nagging bassline, and the duo still know how to build a crescendo, but the chorus falls sadly flat.

It's not helped by an abnormally uninspired Michel Gondry video.





6) Rachel Jane- Awaken
Born in Bristol and raised in Bath, 19-year-old singer/songwriter Rachel Jane is shaping up to be one to watch this year.

Awaken is one of the most surprising, rhythmically complex songs I've heard in ages. Beatboxing, tribal percussion, and drum and bass loops all get referenced in this primal, chanting track that rips up Florence's template and rearranges the pieces into something altogether more lissome.







7) Ed Sheeran - Photograph
Ed Sheeran raids the family archives for this touching little ditty.

Following the singer (who looks adorably like the Milky Bar kid) from cradle to stardom, it ends with the young Ed climbing on a rock and being asked by his father, "Are you at the top of the mountain?" - before cutting to Sheeran on stage saluting a festival crowd. Lucky bastard.






8) Lianne La Havas - Unbreakable (Jungle remix)
Jungle's shimmering, summery funk snuggles up to the supple new single from Lianne La Havas. A clever, thoughtful remix that elevates the original.






9) BenZel - Waiting.... ft Ben Abraham
Jessie Ware collaborators BenZel are in fact super-producers Benny Blanco and Two Inch Punch. Their new single is a stuttering, chaotic electro banger, drenched in pitch-shifted vocals.

Worth sticking around to the end to hear a sample of the common-or-garden soul track the duo ripped apart to make their record.







10) Lyza Jane - If It Hurts
Alt-pop singer Lyza Jane describes this video as "looking like Barbie's bad trip". She's not wrong.





11) Blur - Tender (acoustic with Jimmy Fallon)
You can't help but be buoyed by the irrepressible grins on Graham Coxon and Damon Albarn's faces during this performance. It's nice to know the band - whose Magic Whip album is much better than it has any right to be - are properly enjoying their reunion. Or this bit of it, at least.

And that's your lot for this week. More as soon as I can muster, I promise!

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New Prince: What If?

Pint-sized pop polyglot Prince has premiered a new song, shortly after announcing that his Hit and Run tour is coming to America.

What If is a cover of a plodding AOR ballad by contemporary Christian songwriter Nichole Nordeman. Prince, of course, lights a firecracker under its arse and turns it into a ridiculous rock opera full of frantic soloing, while he trades lines with 3rdEyeGirl drummer Hannah Welton.

Their back-and-forth elevates the song's lyric - a theological debate about the existence of Jesus - turning a sermon into a spirited argument between a believer and a doubter.

"What if you're right and he was just another nice guy?" asks Prince, prompting Welton's reply: "But what if you're wrong? What if there's more?"

Listen below.

Upload Audio - Download Music - Prince & 3EYEGIRL what-if

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Eleven songs you may have missed (and one you definitely haven't)

This is the first "songs you may have missed" post since Christmas so in all likelihood these are songs you may not have missed. But there's always time for a good music megapost so let's begin, with...

1) Rihanna - FourFiveSeconds
About bloody time, pop's most elusive pop star is back, collaborating with Kanye West and Sir Fab Macca Wacky Thumbs Aloft on a surprisingly attitude-free, stripped back acoustic pop "number".

It's good. So good, in fact, that it's going to appear on both Kanye and Rihanna's new album. Which is going to cause havoc with my iTunes library. HAVOC.




2) Sia - Salted Wound
The 50 Shades of Grey soundtrack is shaping up to be superb, even if the film looks like a turkey. We've already heard Ellie Goulding's saucy Love Me Like You Do and The Weeknd's even saucier Earned It, now it's the turn of Sia - who takes a different tack altogether.

Her harp-assisted ballad Salted Wound is full of remorse and doubt. "Give your heart, and say come take it," sings Sia, "and she will see you're a good man." It should be a fitting accompaniment to Christian Grey's more introspective scenes.






3) Kelly Clarkson - Heartbeat Song
Is it me, or does this sound like Shania Twain?





4) Shura - Indecision
Feather-light synth pop from London's hotly tipped Aleksandra Denton. This would make a perfect Track 7, Side B on an "I like you" mixtape.






5) Prince & 3rdEyeGirl - Marz
Prince apparently thinks this throwaway rock track is dynamite. He's following up an SNL performance of the song with this YouTube video - which appeared days after he deleted his YouTube account. Strange chap.





6) Alex Winston - We Got Nothing
Alex Winston's wonky pop curio Sister Wife is one of my all-time favourite under-rated tracks. Catchy as all heck, with a killer lyric about polygamy and jealousy, I have played it to death over the last four years.

She's been in limbo for a while, but this sumptuous new single - on the influential Neon Gold label - hints at a slightly more mainstream, but no less hook-laden direction.







7) Jessie Ware - Jealous (Labrinth cover)
Stick around for the bit where she chucks in the chorus to Chaka Khan's Through The Fire. Beautiful.





8) Bearson - Pink Medicine
Bearson is a Norwegian producer who works in the "tropical house" genre (no, me neither). This hypnotic little song is a little too glitchy to be chill-out and a little too chilled out to be danceable. But I like it, for some reason. There's a free download available here if you like it, too.







9) Lana Del Rey - Brooklyn Baby (Yuksek remix)
WARNING: If you or your family are sensitive to the effects of synthesized saxophones, please seek advice before streaming this song.





10) U2 - Every Breaking Wave (single remix)
I wonder if anyone actually listened to Songs of Innocence when it gatecrashed our phones last year? I certainly couldn't be bothered... but it turns out that at least one of the songs is worth four minutes of your time.

Ranking it as the third best song of 2014 (!!) Rolling Stone called Every Breaking Wave the "emotional centrepiece" of U2's 13th album, saying it's "stark, shimmering" melody recalled With Or Without You.

To be honest, Joey Tribiani's not going to be staring out a fake window to this one any time soon... But this stripped-back radio remix of the song is surprisingly affecting.






11) Tobias Jesso Jr - How Could You Babe?
Officially endorsed by Adele, this is about as old-school as pop gets in 2015. Tailor made for Radio 2 and fans of sweaters, it recalls Elton John back in the Yellow Brick Road days.





12) Rae Morris - Love Again
As previously noted on these pages, Rae Morris is rather brilliant - with a husky voice like Ellie Goulding and a percussive thump worthy of Florence and the Machine. I interviewed her last week and, pleasingly, she let slip that her first ever gig was S Club 7.

If that's not enough to recommend her, try out this song: Love Again, one of the standout tracks from her debut album, Unguarded, which came out on Monday.

And that's a wrap. What an oddly diverse bunch of songs, eh?

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Discopop Directory: Top 10 singles of 2014

When I sat down and totted up my iTunes play counts for this year's Top 10, I had to double check my numbers. I had fully expected Clean Bandit's Rather Be and Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud to be among my most-listened-to songs of 2014 and, while both came close, the data doesn't lie.

So, the following singles are the ones I've compulsively added to iTunes playlists over the last 12 months and they represent the soundtrack to my year, free of self-censorship, editorialising and Sam Smith.

10) Charli XCX - Boom Clap
It's safe to say Charli XCX had low expectations for Boom Clap. She sent it to Hilary Duff. She bunged it onto a film soundtrack. She wrote the lyric "the beat goes on and on and on" and couldn't be arsed to change it.

But the track sparkles - partly because, for once, Charli isn't trying so hard to come across as a teen rebel. From the masterfully concise intro to the honey-drop "la la las" in the final chorus, it's a great big hug of a song.

Oh, and the lyric "you're the glitter and the darkness in my world" couldn't be a better fit for The Fault In Our Stars and its skewered tale of young love.




9) SBTRKT ft Ezra Koenig - New Dorp, New York
The best-sounding single of the year, throbbing with mystery and possibility - even though it's just a bass drum, an elemental bassline and a few sound effects.

Ezra Koenig delivers a dream-state vocal, listing the sights of Staten Island and "flag slappin' Manhattan", although what he's actually on about is anyone's guess.

It's just a shame the rest of SBTRKT's album didn't live up to this promise.



8) Katy B - Crying For No Reason
AKA Katy B's secret weapon. A Guy Chambers co-write, Crying For No Reason is a "proper" ballad about the damage caused by buried emotions, with a hat-tip to Madonna's Frozen in its clattering drum fills.

Katy's delivery makes the song indispensable. "I never faced all the pain I caused," she sings with tangible anguish. "Now that pain is hitting me full force".



7) Prince - Breakdown
Twelve months ago, I would never have expected a Prince single to feature in this Top 10. But here he is, reinvigorated by those hit-and-run London concerts, delivering his most devastating ballad since The Beautiful Ones.

Apparently an autobiographical account of his former excesses - "I used to throw the party every New Year's Eve / First one intoxicated, last one to leave" - it's also a love letter to the person (higher power?) who set him free.

If Frank Ocean had released this, it would have been everywhere. But Frank Ocean could never have hit those high notes in the coda.



6) Mark Ronson ft Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk
Speaking of Prince, here's a tribute act.




5) Lorde - Yellow Flicker Beat
By Lorde's standards, Yellow Flicker Beat is a minor single but there's something about her performance that draws me in. Maybe it's the killer hook, maybe I'm hypnotised by the frail hum that runs through the entire song - either way, it's murderously addictive.

As with Boom Clap, Lorde's song is a perfect marriage between lyric and source material (in this case, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay). If you can't imagine Katniss Everdeen singing "I made a little prison and I'm locking up everyone who ever laid a finger on me," then you're doing it wrong.




4) The Staves - Blood I Bled
The Staves really raise their game on this Bon Iver-produced song, the immaculate layering of their harmonies matched by the steady build of instrumentation from a single, hand-picked guitar to the soaring, astral strings of the closing moments.

Truly exceptional.




3) Jessie Ware - Tough Love
"Sophisticated" and "tasteful" are dirty words in pop but Jessie Ware proves they don't have to be. Tough Love has a surface layer of calm, but listen closer and you'll hear the strain in Jessie's voice as she confronts a no-good lover - "so you want to be a man about it, do you?" We never find out exactly what he's done, but the cheeky lift from Prince's Little Red Corvette suggests it's not just his eye that's been wandering.

Repressed anger has never sounded so beautiful.



2) Tove Lo - Truth Serum EP
Rarely does a pop act arrive as fully-formed as Tove Lo, whose dispatches from the front line of love are catastrophically honest.

The Truth Serum EP is an X-rated Mills and Boon potboiler, chronicling a relationship from the first heady rush of love to a devastated, drug-fuelled break-up.

Every track hits you like a hurricane - the pop hooks deployed like rock riffs as Tove excavates her darkest secrets. No wonder her mother was worried about her when she heard it.



1) Taylor Swift - Shake It Off
Let's face it, Shake It Off was more calculated than Fermat's Last Theorem. Co-written with not one, but two of Sweden's biggest hitmakers, it was stuffed with heard-it-before hooks, yawnsome self-empowerment clichés ("haters gonna hate") and employed the phrase "this sick beat" without any apparent irony.

But if Taylor's ambition was to write a stone-cold pop classic, she hit the nail on the head. Squarely. With a fucking jackhammer.

The melody is indelible, and the urge to dance like a dork is irresistible, thanks to that infectious drumbeat. Oh, sick beat. I get it now.

PS: The song would still be better if she sang "bakers gonna bake, bake, bake, bake, bake". And that's a fact.

And, because it's been a great year for singles, the next 11 would have been:

11) Banks - Beggin' For Thread
12) Tove Stryke - Even If I'm Loud It Doesn't Mean I'm Talking To You
13) Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence
14) Gorgon City ft MNEK - Ready For Your Love
15) Clean Bandit - Rather Be
16) Ed Sheeran - Thinking Out Loud
17) Beyonce - Partition
18) Kelis - Rumble
19) Ed Sheeran - Sing
20) Katy Perry - Dark Horse
21) The Veronicas - You Ruin Me

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Prince tore up the textbook on SNL

Instead of two four-minute performances, which has been the standard since the 70s, Prince was handed an uninterrupted eight minute slot on this weekend's Saturday Night Live, and he didn't waste a second.

Along with his 3rdEyeGirl band and guest vocalist Liane La Havas, he performed a medley of songs from his recent albums Art Official Age and PlectrumElectrum. And, for someone who's not accustomed to the idea of quality control, he actually did a good job of picking which songs to play - so we got boudoir ballad Clouds, guitar workout PlectrumElectrum, some straight-up rock'n'roll on Marz, and the ethereal set closer Another Love.

OK, it wasn't as hit laden as his pyrotechnic SuperBowl performance in 2007 but, as adverts for new material go, this was up with the best.

A poor-quality video follows, until the lawyers rip it down. US viewers can see the whole thing properly on Rolling Stone.

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Soporific R&B special

Some days, all you want to hear is music that makes you go arms akimbo la la bananas; other days you'd rather have music that wraps you up like a warm blanket. Today is one of the latter days.

So, without any fuss, let's get on with a short playlist of new R&B slow jams. The sort of music you'd expect to hear at the end of a Janet Jackson album, but one of the early good ones before she started singing about her moist lady parts.

1) Tiann - Oh My
Australian born, LA-based singer Tiann is currently doing one of those "new song every month" things and September's track is a beauty. Muted but melodic, subtle but seductive, I need a third example to go here.





2) Jhene Aiko - The Pressure
Directed by Childish Gambino, this video finds Jhene experiencing situations that make her feel pressured (raising a child, attending red carpet events, having a right old barney in front of a coffee table) over one of the most relaxing grooves ever committed to tape, or whatever it is YouTube videos are made out of.




3) Jessie Ware - Want Your Feeling
This is a little more uptempo - but uptempo for Jessie Ware is what most musicians would call "funereal". That's not a criticism, mind you. Like Tough Love and Say You Love me before it, Want Your Feeling indicates that Jessie's second album is going to be hard to beat when it comes to the end-of-year polls.

Happily, it's also a free download if you pre-order that album today (it's not out in the UK til 6 October). "I swear you will have half the record before it's even out with these instant grat things," notes Jessie, in a slightly narked message to her mailing list.





4) Prince - U Know
Supple, lean and sexy as hell - and the song's not bad either.

A surprisingly modern-sounding groove from Mr Rogers Nelson, lifted from his forthcoming solo album Art Official Age, which is coming out on the same day as the long-awaited 3rdEyeGirl record, Plectrum Electrum. For the first time in a long time, I'm excited by a new Prince record. Fingers crossed!!

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Review: Prince at the Roundhouse (set II)

Four months into his Hit and Run tour, Prince is on a roll. And when Prince is on a roll, he's untouchable. That's why, with 36 hours notice, he can summon 7,000 people to two consecutive shows at London's Roundhouse. 

I made it into the second of those - a rib-shaking, house-quaking, curfew-breaking spectacular that ended long after the last tube. Not that anyone seemed to mind. 

Prince took the stage at 10:30, just an hour after he'd wrapped up the first show, but he was fresh as a Paisley daisy, ripping into a grinding Let's Go Crazy before reeling off Raspberry Beret, U Got The Look, Kiss, When Doves Cry and Sign O The Times. No breaks, no pauses, no sweat, no problems. 

It's easy to forget Prince has been playing this material for 30 years now. The music is so effortless it seems like it's just occurred to him in the moment. His face contorts with every note of every guitar solo. He exudes passion and joy. And 3rdEyeGirl - his dazzlingly versatile band - can turn on a dime, bending the music to his whim with nothing more than a nod of a head. 

"How many hits have we just played?" Prince grinned at the 45-minute mark. At a rough estimate, I'd have said two thousand zero zero - but the party still wasn't over (sorry, couldn't resist).

So on it went: Controversy gained a funky, polytonal guitar lick; Little Red Corvette was slowed down and drawn out; and Purple Rain blossomed into a 10-minute singalong with three false endings. It was so good, the couple next to me disobeyed the "no cameras" rule and got their phones out. They were forcibly removed by a bouncer.

They must be kicking themselves today, because they missed almost an entire hour of music. Having dispensed with the hits up-front, Prince plucked hidden gems, album cuts and semi-improvised blues jams out of his lustrous afro, trading riffs happily with Donna Grantis (guitar) and Ida Nelson (bass). 

The highlight was a 15-minute run-through of Something In The Water (Does Not Compute), from the album 1999. "Take it to church," Prince directed keyboard player Cassandra O'Neal, who laid down some chunky gospel chords while he led the audience in an extended dance of call-and-response vocals. 

Almost as good was the set-closer - an early-90s cast-off called What's My Name, which Prince originally released on a telephone hotline (yes, really). Rarely played live, it turned the Roundhouse into a heaving midnight moshpit. 

"We've all got families," Prince said as the show closed, "but tonight I'm putting 3rdEyeGirl up for adoption". 

"If you promise to look after them from now on, you'll get me half-price."

It's a deal. Where do I sign?

SETLIST

Let's Go Crazy File

Take Me With U 

Raspberry Beret 

U Got The Look 

Cool (The Time cover)

Kiss

[Sampler Set]

When Doves Cry

Sign O' The Times

Hot Thing 

Controversy 

1999 

Little Red Corvette  

Nothing Compares 2U

[Solo piano set]        

Diamonds And Pearls

The Beautiful Ones

Under The Cherry Moon (instrumental)    

Do Me, Baby    

I Wanna Be Your Lover    

Electric Intercourse

Purple Rain

Encore 1

The Ride / Butterface

Guitar

Plectrumelectrum

Fixurlifeup

Something In The Water (Does Not Compute)

Encore 2

Funknroll

Encore 3

Stratus (Billy Cobham cover)

What's My Name

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John Mayer covers Beyonce's XO and 10 other songs you may have missed

This is the bit where I round up all the songs I didn't have time to write about over the last week (and it's been a busy week - with trips to Leeds and Bradford and Manchester - so I didn't have time to write about much).

So, without any further ado, our cover stars are...

1) John Mayer - XO
XO is the most songy song on Beyonce's Beyonce, so this strummed acoustic cover was guaranteed to work from the off. Beautifully understated, with none of the bombastic grandstanding of the original.





2) Sam Smith (or is it?) - Stay With Me
My erstwhile colleague, Radio 1's Sinead Garvan, had a shocker while interviewing Sam Smith at Radio 1's Big Weekend last week. If you haven't seen it already - here's the video. Sam's face is priceless.


Maybe that's why he's smiling from ear-to-ear when he takes to the stage. Or maybe it's the incredible reaction. Either way, it's a lovely, inclusive performance.




3) Ed Sheeran - Thinking Out Loud (Live on Later...)
"Playing a brand new never before heard song on jools tonight," tweeted Ed Sheeran last Friday. "It's my favourite track on the album."

It's easy to see why. This is a superbly-crafted, heart-on-sleeve love song. The sort of thing you'd have expected from Tracy Chapman or Paul McCartney at the peak of their powers.

Yes, it's really that good. Even Jools's boogie-woogie piano can't ruin it.





4) Broods - Bridges

Not-entirely-unattractive pop duo Broods (see above) first released this single as a free download in 2013. But now that the New Zealanders have got a "proper" record deal in the States, the song's been given an expensively hazy Instagram-style video.

Shot around the Castaic Lake in the Sierra Pelona Mountains, it's a perfect fit for the song's moody electronic swoosh.




5) La Roux - Uptight Downtown
So, basically, the La Roux song that came out a fortnight ago was a "hey, we're back" kind of thing and this is the proper single that you'll hear on your radiogram this summer.

As many people have already noted, it sounds a lot like David Bowie's Let's Dance. But while Bowie was all "heyyy, let's party," Ellie Jackson is having really deep thoughts about her generation and stuff.

"It's kind of very loosely based on the London Riots," she told Triple J radio. "I grew up in Brixton where the first riots happened... It was interesting to see people of my generation try to at least get up and stand up for what they believed in.

"I think it's just the energy people would have liked to have seen from those riots and I kind of tried to turn a negative into a positive."







6) Foster The People - Best Friend
Foster The People's second album, Supermodel, hasn't exactly set the charts on fire in the UK, but they made the Top 10 in the US. Which is good news, because it means the band keep getting to make their excellent videos.

Directors Ben and Alex Brewer helm the latest clip, which takes a B-Movie look at fashion week. The models may be stick thin, but they have a voracious appetite... FOR HUMAN FLESH!





7) Miguel - Simplethings
Displaying the expert timing of a blacmange, Miguel has just released a video for a song he debuted in January.

But we can forgive his tardiness when the song, originally featured in Series 3 of Lena Dunham's Girls, is so gorgeous. "Laugh with me baby," he croons over an indistinct, sawtooth bassline, "I just want the simple things."





8) Katy Perry - Dark Horse (live at Radio 1's Big Weekend)
What does she sphinx she's playing at, etcetera...




9) The Pierces - Kings

The Pierces' new album, Creation, has just been given a highly-justified four-star review in Q Magazine, while the lead single, Kings, is on Radio 2's A-list... So things are looking up for the Alabama sisters.

The video, shot in the Los Angeles desert, has a tribal theme with Allison and Catherine slapping on the warpaint and going to battle. But this is no Braveheart - no-one's head gets chopped off and everyone stops fighting at sundown to have a nice bonfire.



10) Lana Del Rey - Shades of Cool
A little teaser for Lana's Ultraviolence album, which arrives in a fortnight.

All twangy steel guitars and brushed drums it shows more clearly than West Coast how she's moved away from the trip-hop trappings of her debut. The mid-point guitar solo (!) is hair-raising.



11) Prince - The Breakdown (teaser)
I finally got to see Prince play one of his Hit and Run shows in Leeds last week - and was utterly blown away. Thanks to his muscular, compact new band 3rdEyeGirl, he's ditched the Vegas vamp that's characterised his live shows since the Musicology tour ten years ago.

"If you haven't noticed there's been a turn towards the guitar these days," he said, as his fingers blurred over the neck of his Telecaster. He even nabbed Ida Nielsen's bass for an impromptu bass solo during a rendition of Alphabet Street - just one of half-a-dozen songs I've never heard him play before (I nearly died when he played the opening chords to Sometimes It Snows In April).

My official review is on the BBC site, and here's the peerless setlist. Surprisingly, one of the highlights was his newest song, The Breakdown.

Still no word on a UK release, but the song just got a teaser video on the 3rdEyeGirl Youtube channel.

And that's a wrap. Have a great weekend!

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Easter round-up: Kylie, Prince, Lana and more

Because they're all servants of Satan, pop stars don't take Easter off. So while we were all lazing around and enjoying the bank holiday weekend, tons of new music started cropping up online. Here's a selection of the best...

1) Prince - Breakdown
Actually, this song of pentinence is quite in keeping with the Easter theme.

"I used to throw the party every New Year’s Eve / first one intoxicated, last one to leave," sings Prince, who catalogues the material things he used to crave, and how they left him feeling empty.

The first release from his freshly-inked Warner Bros deal, Breakdown is also his best ballad since Gold. Sadly, it's only available in the US.


PS: Prince just tweeted a link to a video for Breakdown, where the song is played over a scene from Analyze This, in which Robert DeNiro bursts into tears during a television commercial. Most odd.




2) Lana Del Rey - West Coast (radio mix)
Producer Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys has tweaked Lana's new single to make it stand out amidst the Aviciis and Calvin Harrisses of daytime radio. It's not vastly different, just a little crisper and forthright.





3) Jack White - Lazaretto
Warning: Contains violin solo.




4) First Aid Kit - My Silver Lining
Swedish folk duo First Aid Kit were one of the surprise hits of last summer's Glastonbury - easing everyone into Sunday morning with a set full of lilting harmonies and astutely-judged covers of Bob Dylan's One More Cup Of Coffee and America by Simon & Garfunkel.

Backed by the Omaha Symphony Orchestra, their new single My Silver Lining is a rolling station wagon, ploughing through the dusty plains of, er... Stockholm. This week's record of the week on 6 Music, it's taken from Johanna and Klara Söderberg's forthcoming album Stay Gold.




5) Kylie Minogue - Golden Boy
An off-cut from Kylie's Kiss Me Once album, released on vinyl for Record Store Day. It's good b-side material, basically.




6) Coldplay - Magic (Giorgio Moroder remix)
This wouldn't sound out of place on a Pet Shop Boys album. And I mean that as a compliment.




7) Lily Allen - Sheezus
This is all going so well until Lily starts singing about her period.




8) Janet Jackson - Untitled new project
Legendary producer Jimmy Jam popped up on Twitter this weekend to hint he'd been back in the studio with his longterm muse, Janet "Ms Jackson if you're nasty" Jackson.

In anticipation of some exciting @JanetJackson news let's refresh our memories of her greatness. http://t.co/r68jnNl4gf

— Jimmy Jam (@flytetymejam) April 17, 2014

I'm not sure anyone but her hardcore fans are going to be excited by this news BUT as one of those hardcore fans, I'm dying to know what they've been up to. Janet's career took a nosedive after the SuperBowl incident - but the scandal was only part of it. She'd largely cut off her relationship with Jam & Lewis, who co-wrote all of her biggest hits, and her last three albums just weren't good enough for people to forget that nipple piercing.

So, in the hope that's she's rediscovered her mojo, let's remind ourselves of Janet and Jam and Lewis's finest moment - onstage at the 1987 Grammys. Trenchcoats at the ready!

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Songs you may have missed: Easter edition

It's been a pretty busy week on the blog - with excellent new songs from Lana Del Rey, and Sky Ferreira, and OneRepublic and Robyn in the mix. But here are some of the ones I didn't get round to writing about...

1) Clean Bandit - Rather Be (Live on Jools)
This is the first time I've ever seen Clean Bandit in the flesh. There are about 80 of them. Who knew?




2) Iggy Azalea ft Rita Ora - Black Widow
If you haven't latched onto the Iggy Azalea bandwagon so far, this could be the song to turns you around. Like Katy Perry's Dark Horse, it weds a sparse, minor-key verse to a soaring chorus that gets clipped just before you get to the good bit. It's a cruel tease, but it leaves you wanting more every time.

Clever writing, then, and a good trailer for Iggy's debut album, The New Classic, which "drops" (is released) on Monday.




3) Prince - Computer Blue (full version)
The news that Prince has kissed and made up with Warner Bros means my wallet's going to get much, much lighter.

For a start, it means albums like Parade and Sign O The Times will be remastered and re-released (and believe me, they need it - the original CD masters are woefully tinny and quiet). But the deluxe, 30th Anniversary edition of Purple Rain also promises a bunch of rarities from the Vault. Let's hope it includes an official release for this long-cherished, 14-minute bootleg of Computer Blue.

Sadly, that track can't be embedded - so here's Mr Rogers Nelson performing Purple Rain at the Brits instead.





4) Paolo Nutini - Recover
The mumbling Scotsman covers Chvrches, with spine-tingling results.





5) MNEK - Every Little Thing
It's pronounced Em-En-Ee-Kay, and he's the biggest UK pop star you've never heard of.

He wrote Need U (100%) with Duke Dumont. He plays the spoons on Rudimental's Spoons. That was his voice on Gorgon City's Ready For Your Love. Little Mix's Wings? He produced that one. And he's working with Florence + The Machine, too.

Somehow, in the middle of all that productivity, he's been making his own solo record. Every Little Thing is the 100% not bollocks first single.






6) AlunaGeorge - Kaleidoscope Love (Kaytranada Remix)
Montreal DJ/Remixer Kaytranada has taken one of the least-loved tracks on AlunaGeorge's debut album and turned it into a deep, dark house cut. The backing suits Aluna's ethereal vocals so well, it should give the band a hint of where to take their second album.






7) Future ft Andre 3000 - Benz Friendz (Watchutola)
The stand-out track on Future's new album is a two-hander with Outkast's Andre 3000, with both rappers insisting they do not care for a girl and her choice of automotive transport. Andre goes so far as to declare he'd rather ride his bike or walk. God knows why, but this is one the catchiest beats you'll hear all Easter.





8) Lulu James - Beautiful People
21-year-old Lulu James has been bubbling under for a year or so. Born in Tanzania, raised in South Shields, she's Jessie Ware with a harder edge and a voice that'd make Aretha Franklin jealous.

Beautiful People is the first track from her new, as-yet-untitled, EP. It starts quietly but builds and builds until your walls start vibrating. Spellbinding stuff.





9) Culann - All Reverie
I wrote an article for the BBC News site this week on "the return of rock" - based on the fact that, finally, the UK is producing some guitar bands good enough to be played on daytime radio.

Afterwards, I got no end of abuse on Twitter from hardcore rock fans who said I didn't know what I was talking about. Maybe, but the article wasn't targeted at Metal Hammer readers and, to the majority of Radio One and Two listeners, new guitar bands have been pretty thin on the ground for the last few years.

Anyway, the positive result of the piece was that lots of guitar bands sent their videos at me. Here's one I liked, from Scottish five-piece Culann. Singer PJ Kelly's Celtic lilt has a touch of the Biffy Clyros, while his band are clearly accomplished musicians - this single makes a lot of unexpected detours on its way to the chorus without ever descending into fretwanking. (Unsurprisingly, Culann say they're fans of prog bands like Yes and Rush).

The video, meanwhile, stars Rab Affleck, who you might recognise from his hard-man roles in Layer Cake and Gangs of New York.




10) Nas - It Ain't Hard To Tell (Stink Mix)
A parping jazz remix to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Nas's debut album Illmatic. You've got to love a rap song with a flute loop.



11) Pawws - Sugar
"Upsetting disco" says the bio on Pawws Twitter page, and I couldn't have put it better myself.

She's a London-based electro singer, with shades of Little Boots and St Etienne in her sugar-spun 80s pop. The cascading synth lines in her debut single are sweeter than Canderel. Just the thing for Easter.

That's all for this week, then. Happy Festival of the Chocolate Jesus!

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Arcade Fire cover Prince's Controversy

The first leg of Arcade Fire's Reflektor tour has seen the band cover The Rolling Stones' The Last Time; The Black Eyed Peas' I Gotta Feeling; Lady Gaga's Do What U Want and Aerosmith's I Don't Want To Miss A Thing. All of which sounds like the worst mixtape of all time, but you've got to give them credit for attempting Prince's Controversy when they stopped off in his home town of Minneapolis last night.

They even have a go at the "I wish we all were nude" spoken-word section. And they pull it off. Top marks.


As you can see from the picture above, the band played the song while wearing LCD screens on their heads displaying the faces of the Purple Perv and (for some reason) local Tea Party politician Michelle Bachman.

While we're on the subject of Prince, he seems to have disappeared back to America, appearing on the Arsenio Show, then playing an impromptu show at the Palladium in LA for $100 a pop. Let's hope he comes back for the much-rumoured Hyde Park headline shows. If not, at least he's left a few souvenirs on YouTube.

Prince - Let's Go Crazy reloaded (Manchester, Feb 22)

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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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Songs you may have missed: Two weeks off edition

Hello... and also goodbye. We're heading off for a bit of summer sun, so unfortunately the blog will be out of action for a fortnight. (It's a one man show, and that man is quite tired). However, I have a bountiful spread of pop goodies to sustain you over the next 14 days. Try not to gorge yourself on them all at once.

1) Katy B - Crying For No Reason (live on Graham Norton)
People always get a little anxious when a record is pushed back but - hooray! - Katy B's Little Red is a triumph. (One song in particular, All My Lovin', sounds like it could have come from Neneh Cherry's Raw Like Sushi. It's that good.)

The album arrives on 10th February, so until then, here's a live performance of the current single Crying For No Reason. As Popjustice has already noted, "it's the best chatshow-based single performance in years". Katy doesn't move around much, but her vocals are mesmerising.

And when a song is this good, that's all you need.




2) NONONO - Hungry Eyes
Nonono, the Swedish band who aren't named after a Dawn Penn song, have released Hungry Eyes, a single that isn't named after the Dirty Dancing song. Ah well.




3) Lorde - Team (Panic City Remix)
I didn't think it'd be possible to dance to a Lorde single, unless you count that creepy Poltergeist thing she does on every TV performance. But San Franciscan DJ/Producer Panic City has taken Team's minimal, spidery beat, shot it with a tazer and dragged it onto the dancefloor.

You won't be able to resist (but if you can, could you keep an eye on my coat?)





4) Little Mix - Word Up!
I wrote about this last week when the audio wasn't available. Now the audio is available. Here is the audio.




5) Ibibio Sound Machine - Let's Dance
Mary Anne Hobbs played this on her peerless 6 Music show this weekend (there is literally no better way to wake up on a Saturday morning) and it gave me a greater jolt awake than the hot jug of coffee I was pouring down my throat.

Ibibio Sound Machine are an eight-piece London collective, fronted by British-Nigerian vocalist Eno Williams, who combine elements of West African highlife, disco, post-punk and psychedelic electro soul. This sprawling, funky single is their debut after signing to Soundway Records at the tail end of 2013. It sounds like The Tom Tom Club got swallowed by Botswana, and it is incredible.






6) Jhené Aiko - Bed Peace
2014 is shaping up to be the year R&B came back from the grave, with Solange, Banks, SOHN, Kwabs and Sampha among the artists hailed as saviours of the genre. Now you can add Jhené Aiko to that list, too.

Jhené's USP is her girlish falsetto - all playful and sensual compared to her contemporaries, who wither sound bored, depressed or stoned.

Her Sail Away EP came out last year, but is starting to get some mainstream pick-up (mostly on 1Xtra). The lead track is the woozy, sexy Bed Peace, which features Childish Gambino on co-lead vocals. The video sees them recreate John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "bed-in" protest against the Vietnam War because... oh, I don't know. You work it out.




7) iamamiwhoami - Fountain
I haven't really bought in to the whole iamamiwhoami "thing". The project, created by Swedish singer Jonna Lee, has consistently sent dozens of blogs spiralling into a frothing whirl of delight, mainly because Jonna wouldn't tell them who she was and everyone convinced themselves it was Christina Aguilera for some reason.

Anyway, now that we know it's not Christina Aguilera, the music suddenly seems more focused and tuneful. Fountain is a beautiful, icy pop ballad with a particularly arresting (ie pretentious) video.




8) Prince - U Got The Look
With his tiny royal purpleness making an impromptu visit to Britain on 3rd February, I will be spending my entire holiday listening to Purple Rain and Sign O The Times and Batman (yes, even Batman) and wishing I was back at home.

If you haven't seen him before, sell your kidneys on the black market to get a ticket. Because even when he doesn't play the hits, Prince is still the best performer alive today.

With the set-list changing every night, I really hope he hauls this one out of the vault. U Got The Look is one of the best-constructed pop duets of all time. Try and deny it.

Right, that's it... The out-of-office is on, and the sunglasses are packed.

If you see anything that should go into a "Songs I have missed" round-up when I get back, put the link in the comments, or send me a tweet @mrdiscopop. I'll put the best ones up here on 10th Feb.

Cheers,
mrdiscopop

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Three fantastic future soul songs (and one old school one)

I have four tabs open on my browser, three of which contain a sophisticated, innovative slice of futuristic soul. The other one has a new song by Prince. They're all worth a listen...

1) Solange Knowles - Cash In
A slinky, soaring love song, this is Solange's first new material since last year's groundbreaking True EP. It takes a while to get going, but when the harmonies kick in at the 2-minute mark, all the hairs on the back of your neck will go "ping".

Cash In is the last track on Saint Heron, the alt-R&B compilation Solange has curated for Saint records. For some reason, it's not available on iTunes or Amazon in the UK - but you can download it from Fairshare Music, which gives all of its profits to charity, so you can feel good about spending your £7.99 even if the rest of the album is rubbish (NB: it isn't).




2) Mapei - Don't Wait
Stockholm's Mapei mixes Djembe drums with sitars and doo-wop finger clicks on this propulsive love song ("if it wasn't for you, I would be on my own"). For the first three minutes her voice is fed through a vocoder (sounding very much like Imogen Heap's Hide And Seek) and then, suddenly, she breaks into a Double Dutch skipping chant.

On paper, it shouldn't work. In your ears, it sounds incredible.




3) Neneh Cheery - Blank Project
After 16 years away, Neneh Cherry is readying a new solo album for next year. One track features Robyn - but sadly we can't hear that yet. Instead, this is the title track. Produced by FourTet, you're in for some simmering electrojazz and a chorus that seems really slight, then sticks in your head for the rest of the day.

OK, it's not quite Manchild but then what is?





4) Prince - Da Bourgeosie
Prince isn't kicking the ball as far forward as the other artists on this post - but this is a fantastically funky old-skool studio jam, nonetheless. Reminiscent of goofy, spontaneous Vault tracks like Cloreen Bacon Skin and Movie Star, Prince seems to be making it up as he goes along - riffing a lyric that about a "bearded girl at the 'caba-ray charles'" over a delicious Paisley guitar riff.

"No mammals were harmed during the recording of this track," noted Prince on his 3rdEyeGirl Twitter account, shortly after giving the song away as a free download. What a nice chap.

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New from Prince and Janelle Monae

I'm still waiting for Janelle Monae and Prince to give their sublime duet, Givin 'Em What They Love, a proper release - just for the thrill of seeing them perform together. Until then, I have to content myself with their respective solo singles. (Which is totally fine, by the way.)

Prince continues his pattern of one-off releases with Breakfast Can Wait, a jazzy ballad that recalls his Rainbow Children album (musically) and his predilection with doing sex on ladies (lyrically).

He's hired a female impersonator to play his role in the video because... well, he's Prince.

Prince - Breakfast Can Wait

Janelle, meanwhile, releases the other big duet from her Electric Lady album. Primetime is a sumptuous love tussle with Miguel, with a fantastic line about being so infatuated they "won't even write a song".

The track – and the guitar solo in particular – are VERY Princely. He's not credited with playing on the song but it's either him or someone is doing an incredible impression. Superb stuff.

Janelle Monae - Primetime (ft Miguel)

PS: Janelle's interview on collaborating with Prince is worth a quick read. "He's a mentor to me," she told Billboard. "He took me on tour with him. It was very organic for us to work together, but I know he does not collaborate with everybody that he performs with, and I don't take that for granted."

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