It's a while since a performance on Jools Holland stopped me in my tracks - but that's what Rag 'N' Bone Man did last night.
He was there to perform Human, his first single on Columbia Records, released back in July. It's a swampy, broken ballad, co-written by Jamie Hartman, whose previous credits include Westlife and Emma Bunton. Don't hold it against him, though, this is a singularly moving piece of music.
The reason? That voice. As smooth as peanut butter and just as indulgent. In fact, the acoustic version of Human performed on Jools last night is vastly superior to the sturm und drast of the original.
Interestingly, the song is already "big in Europe", residing at number six in the German top 40, and climbing up the Spotify charts in Austria, Denmark and The Netherlands.
Catch up on what our neighbours already know by clicking the big "play" button below.
PS If you think you've heard of Rag 'N' Bone Man before, you're right. The singer, who was born Rory Graham had a previous life as a drum & bass MC, performing under the name Rag 'n' Bonez.
With 11 Grammy nominations to his name, Kendrick Lamar has hit the campaign trail with a few well-judged stops on the US talk show circuit.
Last night, he was the guest of Jimmy Fallon, who pointed out Lamar had come within spitting distance of Michael Jackson's Grammy record (he got 12 nominations for Thriller in 1983). "I wouldn't want to go past that," Lamar said. "I can't fathom being as great as Michael. Eleven is perfect."
Later, he whipped out a brand new track (so new it was called "Untitled 2") and performed it with The Roots. A complex, constantly-shifting jazz concoction, it's mesmerising to watch.
This Saturday, BBC Radio 4 is broadcasting a documentary called "The Lost Art of the TV Theme". Presented by Rich Morton - a comedian who makes his own pastiche TV themes - it posits that today's programmes are blighted by "generic music which would defy most people's attempts to hum it".
According to the blurb: "His suspicion is that programme-makers in the 1980s - perhaps as a result of squeezed budgets - stopped commissioning specially-written music and turned instead to cheaper alternatives, such as adapting instrumental extracts from pre-existing pop records."
Never mind that the entire programme is based on a "suspicion" (never a great start for a documentary), the premise is obviously ridiculous. Restricting myself to the 21st Century, here are just eight instantly memorable (and original) pieces of TV themery.
And let's not forget The Wire, Mad Men, Big Brother, Game of Thrones, True Blood, Firefly, Downton Abbey, Veronica Mars, 24, QI, Brooklyn Nine Nine... The list goes on.
The one thing I'll concede is that (BBC and Netflix shows aside) theme tunes have been drastically shortened since the heyday of Dallas and Dynasty - thanks to increased advertising minutes eating into the shows' running times. But there's something fantastic about the brevity of (for example) the 30 Rock theme, which telegraphs everything you need to know about the programme's quirky, quickfire wit in a brief 18 seconds.
It's not often that lyrics website Rap Genius gets to deploy the phrase "Saxophone interlude" - but there it is, bold as day, in the middle of the write-up for Kendrick Lamar's new song, Untitled.
Premiered on The Colbert Report last night (where Lamar was the last-ever musical guest before Colbert departs to take over David Letterman's Late Show), the song is a sublime, jazz-inflected reflection on all the advice he's been given since becoming famous - buy property, chase women, abandon your core audience and get rich.
Watch below - and don't skip Colbert's interview, in which he quizzes the rapper on his stage pseudonym: "Why did you decide to name yourself after Anna Kendrick and Senator Lamar Alexander?"
From Gandalf in a George Ezra video to Harry Potter perfectly performing one of the trickiest, fastest (and best) rap songs of all time... The blog has gone all fantasy role-play today.
This performance is lifted from last night's Jimmy Fallon show in the US - where Daniel Radcliffe joined The Roots to show off his rap skills on a 100% live cover of Alphabet Aerobics, originally a collaboration between Blackalicious and Jurassic 5's Cut Chemist in 1999.
I didn't see this coming, but (wizard) hats off - it's amazing.
Banks' new single, Beggin' For Thread, is something of a monster; particularly the Middle 8, where she plumbs the very depths of her vocal range before rising a full octave to a throaty scream of "my tracks are better".
It's spine-tingling stuff - and she more than does it justice in this live performance (and her first ever TV spot) from Jimmy Kimmel's chat show on Friday.
Bonus points for continuing despite almost swallowing a mouthful of hair.
In case you missed it last week, Banks broke her social media silence to post a statement about British girlband Neon Jungle, who've covered her single Waiting Game on their new album...
People keep asking why I let Neon Jungle put my song "Waiting Game" on their album when my album has yet to come out. The answer is I was never asked. I was as shocked as you to see this song made up of my own heartbeats on their album. A song that was born from my real life, my real heartache, my real fingertips when I was at one of the most confusing times in my life. How strange it is to see it used on someone else's album before it even comes out on mine. It makes me feel very uncomfortable. Like my own thoughts were stolen from me and sold as someone elses. I am a new artist and new to this business and I am told it is legal. But it feels really icky. I guess I can only hope Waiting Game means as much to Neon Jungle as it did to me when I wrote it....... BANKS
Ouch. To be fair, Waiting Game has been available to buy for over a year now, so it's not like Neon Jungle have snatched the prize from under Banks's nose. But their version is a poor imitation of the original - the band's over-produced vocals simply don't convey the desolation and desperation of Banks' performance. Compare and contrast below.
Standing under a flickering light-bulb, Kanye West performed a medley of his biggest hits (and Mercy) on Seth Meyers freshly-minted US chat show last night. The a capella verse of Stronger is the obvious highlight, but the whole thing is exceptional.
It makes you imagine how good a Kanye Hits album would be. He could call it Yeezus Talks. Or The Kanye Westboro Baptist Church Hymnal and Psalmery. Or maybe even "Your Apartment Is Too Nice To Listen To Rap In."
Here's the performance in full, plus a couple of interview clips, in which Kanye talks about having synaesthesia, writing a sketch for SNL, and wanting to make marble sculptures (because why not?). Despite your expectations and preconceptions, he actually comes across as funny and personable and definitely not daft as a brush.
Hankies at the ready, here's the John Lewis Christmas advert, soundtracked by Lily "retired? me?" Allen.
Hand-animated by some of the artists who worked on Disney's The Lion King, it's a tale of the Bear Who Had Never Seen Christmas. The music is a piano cover of Keane's Somewhere Only We Know - which is 100% as dreary as it sounds.
There's a great write-up on the advert in today's Telegraph, which features Lily saying such inspiring things as "it's a sensible way of stepping back into the marketplace".
What was the last song to send chills up your spine? For me, it was probably Jessie Ware's Taking In Water - and before that Marina and the Diamond's I Am Not A Robot. What I'm saying is, they don't come around often. But if you've been watching BBC One recently, you might have felt a shiver running up and down your back every time the trail for What Remains played.
The song, of course, is Olive's You're Not Alone, so recently ruined by Tinchy Stryder (he rhymes "choosing" with "fuming"). But this fluttering, heart-stopping version comes from Arlissa, a 20-year-old singer from Crystal Palace.
You might remember her single Sticks And Stones from earlier this year. A darkly-sung break-up tale over urgent, tribal drums it was (rightly) compared to Florence Welch, and this cover could be Arlissa's You Got The Love - pencil-shading a perky dance song to reveal its shadowy contours.
The singer has just put the full version up on YouTube, along with a homemade video. Draw the curtains and turn up the volume - it's going to give you goosebumps.
The one thing people forget about Top Of The Pops is that, for every heart-stopping performance by The KLF or Destiny’s Child, you had to sit through half-a-dozen dismal efforts by Eiffel 65 or Jive Bunny. Yes, it’s bad that primetime TV continues to snub the music industry, but maybe the people who gave us Peter Andre got what they deserved.
Anyway, thanks to the beauty of YouTube, you can now curate your own Top Of The Pops with the added benefit of zero Fearne Cotton. For instance, if you trawl through the last seven days of chat shows and Jools Hollands, you could compile an episode featuring Vampire Weekend, Rudimental, Thom Yorke, Marina and the Diamonds, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Phoenix. But we kick off the show with the biggest song in the world right now...
But Rita Ora killed it on last Friday's show, where she was a last-minute replacement for Sinead O'Connor. Her performance is proof that pop artists don't have to be intimidated by the presence of "poper" musicians, so long as they can turn up and kick some ass.
I've been meaning to post these videos all week - but I've got a renewed excuse, as it looks like Rita's debut single RIP will be number one on Sunday. Not a bad result for someone who lost out to Jade Ewen in the selection process for Eurovision 2009.
Ever since Top Of The Pops went tits up six (six!) years ago, there's been a lot of hand-wringing about TV's attitude to music. Jools Holland is too exclusive, X Factor is too vulgar, MTV doesn't show any music videos, and the Album Chart Show audience consists solely of people who fell asleep during 8 Out Of 10 Cats.
Music TV is broken and no-one knows how to fix it. The generally-accepted point of view is that TOTP peaked in the 1970s, when families watched programmes together. Now, I spend more time tweeting stupid things my wife says to me about what's on TV than actually watching the TV.
So what can music shows do? The obvious answer is "find a niche". That's why Jools Holland thrives, despite his astonishing inability to conduct a halfway competent interview: His programme appeals to the sort of music fan who likes to be in-the-know. But these are the sort of people who spend hours debating which of the 42 guitar solos David Gilmour recorded for Comfortably Numb should be considered the definitive take. What about mainstream music fans?
Well, I think I might have discovered the answer. Flicking through the channels at the weekend, I stumbled across a programme called Friday Download. It's not exactly cutting edge (one of the presenters is Tyger Drew-Honey from Outnumbered) but it's made a genuine attempt to reflect how the kids consume pop music.
Produced by CBBC, it's free from the crippling need to be "authentic" or "edgy". Each week, there'll be a performance by a Wanted or a One Direction in front of a couple of dozen braying, hysterical girls. But the similarities to pop shows of the past ends there.
In the most impressive segment, the audience are asked to film themselves lip-syncing to a current chart hit. Then a professional BBC editor cuts that footage together with the original video to make a sort of "You've Been Framed Goes Pop" montage. Here's an example from last summer, featuring Martin Solveig and Dragonette's Hello.
In another regular feature, Dionne "I'm Amy Winehouse's goddaughter but I don't like to mention it" Bromfield performs a top 40 hit with the studio audience. As she warbles, the words pop up along the bottom of the screen, SingStar-style, to encourage participation at home.
And then there's the old music show standby of reviewing the week's new videos. It doesn't have the bitchy frisson of Mel C and Louis Walsh's bust-ups on CD:UK (last week's review of Noah And The Whale contained the baffling observation: "I think they are going to be even bigger than they actually were") but it gets the job done.
The show, which also has segments on fashion, film and video games, may not be perfect but, by embracing fan participation, it reflects children's relationship with and excitement about pop music without the increasingly-irrelevant prop of a Top 40 countdown. Best of all, the tone is genuine enthusiasm, rather than the sneering disdain that's become Channel 4's default position.
Now, if someone could raise the pyrotechnics budget, throw in a song or two "for the dads" and schedule it on BBC One at teatime, I reckon we could have a genuine hit on our hands.
I was lucky enough to catch up with Michael Kiwanuka for a quick chat yesterday, just before he made his debut performance on Later... With Jools Holland. His biggest concern was not the performance, or the pressure of appearing after Bjork (who was suitably mental). No, he was worried that Jools would get his name wrong. Apparently, teachers used to call him all sorts of things, from Michael Kawasaki to Michael Kenkenkenken.
Luckily, Jools had been practising in his dressing room and the public were correctly introduced to an incredible young artist. I swear, he is practising actual magic in this performance. Simply stunning.
If you tune in to the main edition of Later, this Friday night, Michael will pop up again doing an entirely different tune. My advice: record it and skip through the Red Hot Chili Peppers to get to the good bit.
Here's something I stumbled across while channel surfing yesterday - a surprisingly pretty acoustic version of Cher Lloyd's With Ur Love, performed on time-honoured children's show Blue Peter.
I like how Cher has jettisoned her usual look (child kidnapped for an Eastern European circus) for a very sober black top and blazer. It's like she equates being on Blue Peter with meeting The Queen.
In an interview in today's Metro, Justin Timberlake lists his idols as: Paul Newman, Peter Sellers, Audrey Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Fred Astaire, Clark Gable, Frank Sinatra and James Dean. If anyone was still holding out hope for a third album from the frizzy-haired pop genius, that list pretty much kills it stone dead.
Still, we can at least take comfort in his frequent appearances on Jimmy Fallon's US chat show. Instead of promoting his latest film (some awful sci-fi nonsense called In Time) JT gave us the third in his series of "history of rap" medleys.
Among the gems were Young MC's Bust A Move, Ice Cube's Today Was A Good Day, De La Soul's Me Myself & I, Coolio's Gangsta's Paradise and, best of all, Naughty By Nature's Hip Hop Hooray.
Video Games is oficially the second-best piano ballad of the year, after Adele's inescapable Someone Like You.
Its owner, Lana Del Rey, will be performing the track on Later... With Jools Holland tonight, alongside The Horrors (spooky goth bollocks), Ghostpoet (inner city poetry), Noah And The Whale (you'll like them, despite yourself) and Peter Gabriel with a 46-piece orchestra (switch over to Babestation during this bit).
As a taster, here's Lana performing the song live to the nation on Later's midweek preview show. There's a strange hesitancy to her delivery - and she's clearly struggling to keep her eyes open under the weight of those false lashes - but there's still something mesmerising about the way her voice flits between sultry ennui and a naive, almost babyish falsetto.
Will the taped show provide a more polished performance? We'll find out at 11:50pm tonight...
Proof that UK hip-hop and soul is properly coming of age... The new generation of artists can genuinely "cut it" live (see also: Tinie Tempah, Labrinth and Jessie J). Here's a sublime selection of clips from Jools Holland's current series.
Thanks for your patience while I've been off in Africa for a month... It was an incredible trip. Heartbreaking and breathtaking. Beautiful and desolate. As you can see above, the school we visited in the remote village of Kongwa was bursting with exuberance despite the shortcomings in food and finance and elementary learning materials. Hopefully we'll be back before long.
So, what have I missed? A quick scan of my favourite internet websites suggests the music industry didn't take August off for once... Here's the best stuff I've seen so far.
1) LADY FINALLY LAYS THOSE PENIS RUMOURS TO REST
The gender-bending video for Yoü & I is what experts would term a "return to form" for pop's premier pixel pervert. A country and western version of Frankenstein's Bride, it continues Gaga's theme of beauty and decay. As well as dressing as a slack-jawed yokel, she poses in a fabulous hat, transforms into a mermaid in a bathtub and a sets up a terriffic reverse dolly shot at 3'30". Well done.
2) THE RETURN OF THE AMPERSANDS
Florence and Marina and the Machine and the Diamonds are back to trouble your eardrums. Hooray!
Marina has added new layers of confusing nomenclature by channelling her new songs through Electra Heart. Her bleach blonde heroine is not an alter ego but a character in a modern Greek tragedy, as she explained to Popjustice. The new single is called Radioactive, which is an excellent song masquerading as a moronic radio hit. And that's the really clever bit.
Marina released another Electra Heart video last week, called Fear And Loathing. It acts as a scene-setter for the single and is, I suspect, the better song.
Florence Welch, meanwhile, unveiled the first track from the follow-up to her multi-million-seller Lungs on Tuesday. It's something of a slow burner, but the final minute is the best psychedelic rock wig-out you'll hear this side of Christmas. The video also reveals Florence's hitherto unacknowledged debt to Miranda Hart's choreography.
Gary Lightbody shows off his comedy chops in the video for Called Out In The Dark - which also stars Jack "Pirates Of The Caribbean" Davenport. The escalation of the storyline is beautifully done, and the song's not bad either.
6) NICOLA ROBERTS DANCES IN THE STREET Beat Of My Drum didn't quite set the charts on fire. In fact, it barely produced enough heat to warm a crumpet. That didn't stop it being brilliant, though. Nicola's follow-up, Lucky Day, is more obviously radio friendly but a much weaker song. Radio 1 have passed on it, and mrsdiscopop described it as "Kylie crossed with Cilla Black". Oh dear.
I might be a BBC man now, but as a child it was ITV all the way. This was largely due to the anarchism of programmes like Tiswas and The Sooty Show (to a six-year-old, shooting a water pistol at a grown adult with a beard is the ultimate expression of violent, uncurbed anarchy). But I also found myself drawn to Benny Hill, The Goodies, Danger Mouse and Rainbow.
Most importantly of all, ITV taught me about jingles. The Thames TV theme - eight notes in five seconds - is embedded as deep in my memory as my own mother's name. When I am in the psychiatric ward, eating my own poo, I will be doing so to the constant soundtrack of the Salute To Thames. And I will enjoy it. (Well, maybe not the bit with the poo, but there's bound to be a sexy young nurse I can impress with my knowledge of regional television idents of the 70 and early 80s, right?)
As someone who would later go on to write TV themes as an actual, paid job (more of which later), the discovery of the Thames jingle was a watershed moment. Or should that be water pistol moment?
Sound Bank is a series of blog posts I'm running in August while I'm on holiday. If you want to know more about it, there's an explanation on this page. Normal pop blog service will be resumed around 25th August
You may recall that Justin Timberlake turned up on Jimmy Fallon's chat show last September to give us a potted history of hip-hop. Snoop Dogg, 2Pac, Sugarhill Gang, Missy, Eminem, Digital Underground... It was all there.
Last night, Timberlake was back on Fallon, and they broke out a Part Two. Oh, and did I mention that the backing band is the motherflippin' Roots? Yeaaaah, boyeee.
(In the likely event that spoilsport legal teams remove these videos, you can find Part 2 in its entirety on the NBC website - but only for thirty days or something ridiculous.)
