Coldplay, Demi Lovato and the rest of the best of new music Friday

Obviously the new Lorde album is the only new release you need today, but here's a few other tracks worth checking out once you get bored of it on Wednesday afternoon.

1) Coldplay - All I Can Think About Is You
Coldplay are uncharacteristically mellow and muffled in this love song, taken from their new Kaleidoscope EP. It's hardly Chris Martin's finest lyric (he compares himself to a shoe), but Guy Berryman's sinewy, agile bassline is worth the price of admission alone.




2) Jax Jones - Instruction (ft Demi Lovato & Steflon Don)
"If you're the supreme, then I'm Diana Ross," is the best worst lyric since Selena Gomez and "like the battle of Troy, there's nothing subtle here". But this song has such a massive grin plastered all over it's face that it's easy to forgive.

Musically, it's practically a carbon copy of Jax Jones' previous single, You Don't Know Me (especially in the rap-sung prechorus) but why tweak a perfect formula? A strong contender for song of the summer.




3) Arcade Fire - Creature Comfort
I admit, I was really prepared to hate this... After five albums of whining about modern things, Win Butler's "instinct that something isn't right with the human condition" is starting to look less like concern and more like misanthropy.

This song, a sort of electro nursery rhyme about suicide, contains what seems to be a particularly self-serving line about a girl who "filled up the bathtub and put on our first record". But towards the end of the song, Win clarified: "It's not painless. She was a friend of mine, a friend of mine" - and, all of a sudden, my own cyncism was punctured.

I thought Arcade Fire might have lost the power to move me. Turns out I was wrong.





4) George Ezra - Don't Matter Now
A distinctly odd comeback from George Ezra, he of the deep voice and the album inspired by a Eurorail ticket.

It's all mariachi horns and big, dopey backing vocals - as George recites a mantra about switching off from the big, bad world that Arcade Fire live in and having a nice old shindig at his place.

Maybe, given the horrors of the last month, this is just the song we need - like an Agadoo for the Trump era.




5) DJ Khaled - Wild Thoughts (ft Rihanna)
"I know you want to see me naked," sings Rihanna, in a video where she appears with her baps right out. How thoughtful of her to consider our desires in such a forthright manner. I wonder if her next song will also contain the line, "I know you'd like me to put them away once in a while and get on with the job of making incredible pop music."

Because make no mistake, this is not incredible pop music. Sure, it wears the clothes of incredible pop music - the beat from Busta Rhymes' Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See, and the guitar riff from Santana's Maria Maria - but the garments are as threadbare as Rihanna's blouse in the video.




6) Tove Styrke - Say My Name (acoustic)
Still an absolute tune.





7) Calvin Harris - Feels (ft Pharrell and Katy Perry)
This probably won't give Katy Perry the number one she so desperately needs right now, but Calvin's bouncy brand of diet funk is always welcome around here.





8) Hey Violet - Break My Heart
This actually came out two months ago, but Hey Violet's album was released today and contains at least five totally brilliant pop song; including one gallantly called Fuqboi.

The young band have quite an interesting back story: They were once a punk-rock project called Cherri Bomb, before they ditched their singer and signing to 5 Seconds of Summer's record label. There, they started working with Julian Bunetta, who co-wrote and produced all the good One Direction songs, and "went pop".

You can read more about the transformation on Stereogum, or just forget all that nonsense and enjoy the music. Bands are whatever you want them to be, and that's why pop music is great.




9) Jorja Smith - Teenage Fantasy
This was actually out last week, during one of my increasingly frequent lapses in blogging, but the video came out on Monday, giving me the perfect excuse to wang the song into this week's round-up.

Simply a perfect summer soul jam.




10) Dizzee Rascal - Space
As grime emerges as a full-blooded force, Dizzee comes back into the fold with this sparse and tough rap track.

"Can't find enough time to dine on rappers, all of these MCs are looking like tapas," he chides the competition. "Ain't no point in playin' it safe." Well, quite.

There you go, then. And now it is time to go back to the Lorde album. See you next week...

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Arcade Fire make a powerful return

On their last album, Arcade Fire played with the rhythms of dance and disco while retaining their quivering, apocalyptic approach to stadium rock. But their new single is a total surrender to "the funk".

Over a dark pulse, Win Butler trades lines with gospel star and Prince acolyte Mavis Staples. "I give you power, over me. / I give you power, now I gotta be free," is their mantra... hypnotic, repetitive and, as the song reaches it's climax, increasingly desperate. (You can also sing the hook to Gold Digger over the top, which is a benefit).

It's an intriguing departure. Can't wait to see how their fifth album builds on the template.

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Arcade Fire's Will Butler goes solo

Will Butler - aka the insane one out of Arcade Fire - has broken ranks and recorded a solo record, called Policy.

The first single, Take My Side, is a stomping rock'n'roll tune in the vein of White Stripes or even The Stooges. Butler sounds like he's having a punch-up with his guitar, while screaming gleefully abrasive lyrics like: "If I could fly, you know I'd beat the shit out of some birds".

It's loud and scratchy and a world apart from the post-millenial angst of his usual band.



Take My Side will be the opening track on Butler's new album, Policy, which is out in March. According to a press release, the album was recorded in Jimi Hendrix's old living room at Electric Lady Studios in New York.

Butler has created an album trailer that's clearly inspired by dangerous quantities of "special wine". And it's all the better for it.

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An important announcement & eight songs you may have missed

Alright then... This might be the last regular post in a while, as mrsdiscopop and I are about to become parents. I'll check in to the blog as often as I can over the next couple of months, but you'll understand if updates are a little patchy.

That aside, there's still plenty of quality music knocking about. For example...

1) Charli XCX - Break The Rules
"Going to the discotheque / getting high and getting wrecked." Marvellous.





2) David Guetta - Lovers on the Sun (ft Sam Martin)
Guetta, now officially in his late 40s, has clearly been listening to Avicii and making a few notes. This new single is cut from the same cloth as Avicii's adventures in country music - although the French maestro adds a few b-movie flourishes of his own. Surprisingly effective, and a welcome break from his well-worn template.




3) Ella Eyre - Comeback
WARNING: These vocal stunts were performed by a professional Ella Eyre. Do not attempt them at home.





4) Arcade Fire - Afterlife (Flume Mix)
The phrases "Arcade Fire" and "dance remix" go together like "emotion" and "Nicole Kidman's face" - but this 10-minute epic is the exception that proves the rule that lives in the house that jack built.





5) Michael Jackson - A Place With No Name
Top YouTube comment: "I thought he was dead?"




6) Stacy Clark - Figured it Out
One of those rare, unsolicited songs that pings into my inbox and isn't utter rubbish.

Stacy Clark brings a refreshing singer-songwriter sound to electro pop. Imagine Katy Perry as written by Ingrid Michaelson and you'll have a fair idea of where this is heading.






7) The Spinners - Rubberband Man
Huey Morgan played this on his incomparable 6 Music show two weeks ago and it's my new favourite song in the world, not least because of this ridiculously 1970s TV performance (I won't spoil the surprise but you must stick around to the three minute point).

The 70s funk song, from the same band who sang It's A Shame, was written for their producer's son who was being teased about his weight at school.

Now, I'm only just starting down the road to parenthood but I'm not convinced the lyric: "He's a big fat man who moves real good" would have helped.



8) Ella Henderson - Glow
Following up the almighty Ghost with a slower, but no less catchy single, here's the best singer ever to escape the clutches of X Factor.

And that's a wrap. Hope to keep this going amidst the madness... Mrdiscopop xx

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Video: Arcade Fire - You Already Know

Directed and filmed by frontman Win Butler, the video for Arcade Fire's uncharacteristically chirpy You Already Know is the epitome of charm.

Arcade Fire - You Already Know

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Review: Arcade Fire at Earl's Court

"We'd like to play this song for Earls Court," says Win Butler, as he plays the opening chords of The Suburbs. "Before they tear it down and turn it into condos. Get your bids in now. Hope they're cheap."

Butler might be sentimental about the venue - but, for me, they can't demolish it enough. Earl's Court is undoubtedly the worst concert venue in London. An ugly, reverberant warehouse with all the soul and personality of a damp towel.

Arcade Fire are helped by the fact their songs gain a scale and majesty from the sonorous echo (after all, they recorded their second album in a cathedral). The early material - Neighborhood #3 (Power Out), Ready To Start, Rebellion (Lies) - sounds particularly grand; but the finessed basslines of last year's Reflektor album get lost in the rafters.

The sprawling 12-piece band aren't going to let the night be spoiled by dodgy acoustics, though.

There's always been a chaotic energy to an Arcade Fire show - William Butler, in particular, plays with the demented fervour of a tiny puppy who's just heard the word "walkies" - and on this arena tour, they've extended the dramatics to the audience. Fans were asked to turn up in fancy dress, and we saw sequins, skeletons, facepaints, ball gowns, bow ties and one brave man in full-on fishnet-stockinged drag.

In return, the audience got their own lighting rig, as well as glitter cannons, steel drums, fake palm trees, and a full dance troupe on a hydraulic platform. Regine also appeared on the b-stage later in the show, performing the back-and-forth vocals of It's Never Over (Oh Orpheus) facing her husband across the arena.

What else? Ian McCullough made a guest appearance, playing Echo And The Bunnymen's The Cutter; a man in a full mirror suit became a human disco ball; while a mariachi band in bobblehead masks played a wobbly version of Bittersweet Symphony.

The three-track encore was undoubtedly the highlight - starting with the moshpit-inciting Normal People, followed by the supple groove of Here Comes The Night Time and finishing with a truly anthemic, air-punching Wake Up (strangely uplifting for a song that bgins "something filled up my heart with nothing").

"We only put out a record every four years or so it feels really special to be here," said Win as the show ended. "You guys have been amazing."

The feeling was mutual. And if Arcade Fire can turn the cold, cavernous Earl's Court into a full-on Haitian carnival, Glastonbury is going to be a doddle.

SETLIST
Reflektor
Flashbulb Eyes
Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
Rebellion (Lies)
Joan Of Arc
Rococo
The Suburbs
Ready To Start
Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
The Cutter - with Ian McCullough
Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
No Cars Go
Haiti
We Exist
Afterlife
It's Never Over (Oh Orpheus)
Sprawl II

Encore
Bittersweet Symphony - fake band cover
Normal Person
Here Comes The Night Time
Wake Up
Read more at http://www.nme.com/news/arcade-fire/77766/?recache=2&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=arcadefire#AIsQRwwRGhW1Yh48.99

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Andrew Garfield joins Arcade Fire and 10 other songs you may have missed

A semi-regular round-up of songs I didn't quite get round to blogging over the last week... Lots of A-listers in this selection, plus a song about an elephant.

1) Arcade Fire - We Exist
We Exist contains one of the stand-out lyrics on Arcade Fire's Reflection - telling the story of a gay kid talking to his dad: "Daddy, it's true, I'm different from you. But tell me why they treat me like this?"

The video stars Spider-Man's Andrew Garfield as a victimised, alienated transvestite, who finally finds acceptance during Arcade Fire's set at Coachella earlier this year.

It's also got an amazing, Footloose-inspired "angry dance" sequence.


2) Michael Jackson ft Justin Timberlake - Love Never Felt So Good
The concept for this Michael Jackson video is: Michael Jackson is dead, so let's get a load of grinning imbeciles to dance around while we piss on his grave.

At least Justin Timberlake has the decency to look embarrassed by the whole thing.



3) Coldplay - Always In My Head
The songs on Coldplay's new album are the most direct and heartfelt they've recorded since their debut. Chris Martin sounds smaller and humbler, and the delicate arrangements frame his voice with negative space.

A case in point is the softly mesmerising album opener Always In My Head - which got a live outing on Jimmy Fallon's show earlier this week.



4) Charli XCX - Boom Boom Clap

I wrote about this song, from the soundtrack to The Fault In Our Stars, a couple of weeks ago. Now it now looks like it'll be set free from the movie and released as a single in its own right.

A video was shot in Amsterdam a week ago but, for now, we have to make do with the lyric video.



5) Iggy Azaelea ft Charli XCX - Fancy
Speaking of Charli XCX, she popped along to the Jimmy Kimmel's chat show this week to perform the teen rebel anthem Fancy with Leggy Azalea. I like how she sits out the verses on the steps, looking moody, instead of dancing around aimlessly.



6) Damon Albarn - Mr Tembo
The sole moment of levity on Damon's mid-life-crisis of a solo album, Mr Tembo is a song about an elephant he wrote for an unrealised children's album.

Apparently, the first time the elephant heard the song, it shit itself.




7) Nonono - Hungry Eyes
Nonono's industrially adhesive Pumpin' Blood never charted over here (partly due to the record label dicking around with the release date until everyone lost interest) - but their debut album is selling faster than pickled herring in Sweden.

Hence this remix, by fellow Swede Kleerup, which is something of a triumph.





8) Nero - Satisfy
It's four years since Nero's debut album but they've lost none of their power. With vocals from Alana Watson, Satisfy is more intense than two days in a human centrifuge.




9) Naomi Pilgrim - House of DreamsNormally, I hate the continuous play function on Soundcloud... If I want to listen to another song, I will bloody well click on it myself, thank you very much.

But when this song by Naomi Pilgrim popped up after La Roux's new track earlier this week, I was transfixed. Swedish-Barbadian singer Naomi Pilgrim may have got her start singing backing vocals for Lykke Li, but her own music is an altogether sunnier affair.

"This is my palace, this is how I live. I'm staying here all day," she sings, in a soulful ode to duvet days. Beautiful.




10) Nick Mulvey - We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
Shock news: An indie artist has played a minor-key cover of pop song in the Live Lounge. Still, this reworking of Taylor Swift's break-up anthem is a cut above the rest: Not least for the intricate fretboard work.

Nick will be on Jools Holland next week, if you like this sort of thing.




11) Gorgon City - Never Too Far (ft Laura Welsh)
Just added to Radio 1's playlist, this Gorgon City's follow-up to the excellent Ready For Your Love.

Lots of sub-bass here, as you might expect.

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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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Discopop Directory: Top 10 albums of 2013

Squeaking in at the last possible moment, here's my countdown of the Top 10 albums of 2013 (as played in our house). The usual terms and conditions apply: It's all based on iTunes playcount, so Kanye West's brilliant-but-abrasive Yeezus album doesn't get a look-in, while Lissie's happy-days rock opus Back To Forever does. It's as simple as that.

So, in reverse order....

10) Chvrches - The Bones Of What You Believe

And on the seventh day, Chvrches built a gleaming Jenga tower of emotive synth-pop. And verily, it began to wobble every time the beardy bloke wrestled the microphone out of Lauren Mayberry's hands. (Seriously, dude, let it go.)

Putting aside the po-faced muso moments, The Bones Of What You Believe is a gargantuan collection of anthemic pop. It even went to number 12 in the US, meaning Mayberry had to employ a "hamster carer" while she was off on tour. And they said success wouldn't change them...



9) Everything Everything - Arc

Dialling down the annoying vocal somersaults of their debut seemed to lose Everything Everything a few fans, but to me Arc is the far superior record.

Take Duet, for example, which appears to be a love song between 007 and a Bond Villain ("of all the dead volcanoes on Earth you just happened to retch and roll through mine"). Armourland, meanwhile, is the sound of Timbaland's interrupted dreams fed through a ZX Spectrum. But, crucially, the melodies are more coherent and the songs more songy.

It was all intentional, too. After hearing their debut one too many times, singer Jonathan Higgs thought to himself: "I wish I'd shut up. Every song was kind of 'woo-ah-woo' and I got tired of it."



8) Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

When many would have settled for Get Lucky x12, the Francobots went conceptual. Random Access Memories is an eccentric labour of love. A tribute to the men who inspired them: From Giorgio Moroder, narrating the story of how he invented disco, to Nile Rodgers, whose choppy guitar lines give the album every ounce of its soul.

But the masterstroke was employing Paul "So You Wanna Be A Boxer" Williams, to write and perform Touch. Inspired by a book about life-after-death experiences, the song is purportedly about a robot that's becoming human. But I defy you to hear a man who survived chronic, crippling alcoholism singing, "If love is the answer, you're home" without tearing up just a little.


7) Lissie - Back To Forever

Free-wheeling, open-chord rock with – YES! – guitar solos aplenty, Back To Forever is a great big sloppy kiss of a record.

Packed with mammoth choruses (Further Away) and rock-solid radio hits (Sleepwalking) it made a virtue of Lissie's easygoing southern charm, even when she was furiously ranting about US environmental policy on Mountaintop Removal (better than it sounds, I promise).

Radio 2 quite rightly played the crap out of it... And so should you.


6) Janelle Monae - The Electric Lady

Janelle Monae sheds pop songs like the rest of us shed skin flakes. The Electric Lady is every bit as audacious and inventive as her debut, its impact only slightly dulled by familiarity.

Eagerly cherry-picking from R&B, hip-hop, doo-wop, film scores and swooping torch songs, Monae's ambition and control of her material can be summed up with one fact: She got Prince to agree to a duet then relegated him to backing vocals. Astonishing.


5) Justin Timberlake - The 20/20 Experience (Part One)

"You could liken my chemistry with Timbaland to Marty Scorsese and Robert De Niro," said Justin Timberlake, taking self-importance to epic proportions as he promoted his 20/20 "Experience". Like Scorsese, he struggled with brevity, turning in an album stuffed full of seriousface 8-minute "jams" about his luxuriant sex life.

So I set about it with a pair of electronic scissors and created a pared-down 42-minute edit. Suddenly, the sprawling R&Boreathon became a taut pop classic (if I do say so myself).

The best bits: Timberlake channelling Lionel Ritchie's All Night Long on Let The Groove Get In, and the vocal hat-tip to N'Sync's Dirty Pop on Strawberry Bubblegum.


4) Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires Of The City

Giddy and playful, Vampire Weekend's third album saw them ditch the collegiate robes and grow up a little. But only a little.

Unbelievers is an utterly daft, summery pop song about going to hell at the hands of Christian fundamentalists; while Diane Young finds Ezra Koenig mucking about with an autotune to create the unlikeliest hook of the year.

Musically, it was more reflective without straying too far from the Vampire Weekend "upper west side Soweto" formula (they've never met a harpsichord they didn't love) but Koenig also hinted it was the "end of a trilogy". 

At the Q Awards, he told me the band hadn't worked out "phase two" yet "but whatever comes next, I'm sure it's gonna be different." 

I can't wait.

3) Beyoncé - Beyoncé

No matter how brilliant your record, there's always someone waiting to pour a bucket of scorn on it. In Beyonce's case, it was second-rate gossip website Mediatakeout, who claimed her whole "surprise album" plan was hatched because Sony thought the record was a dud and wanted to bury it. How wrong they were.

Instead, Beyonce got the best reviews of her career with a suite of slow, complex, introspective songs that rely on atmospherics as often as they do killer hooks. And, for once, a self-titled album kept it's promise of revealing the person behind the persona: Beyonce sings about marital difficulties and miscarriage with the same startling honesty she uses to describe her "pink skittles". (Don't ask).

Oh, and did I mention there were 17 videos? 17 VIDEOS!


2) Haim - Days Are Gone

The hardest-working band of 2013, Haim had to piece together their debut album while honouring a never-ending schedule of tours, TV shows and festival appearances. Not that they minded too much: "What's a day off? I don't give a fuck," Este told Rolling Stone. "I will do this until my tits are at my knees."

Days Are Gone finally arrived in September and it is something of a triumph - all hair-tossed pop hooks and nimble-fingered bass guitar. 

Someone recently described it to me as "Fleetwood Mac welded to Phil Collins' 1980s drum machine". I couldn't have put it better myself.


1) Arcade Fire - Reflektor

Pre-release, I was allowed to listen to Reflektor once, in the basement of a posh London club, while I was force fed parma ham. Regular readers may recall it didn't go well – I described the record as an "awful, trebly mess".

Turns out it was nothing of the sort. Unexpectedly lithe and funky, Reflektor has more hidden depths than a subterranean volcano. At times, the band don't quite seem in control of what they're doing – there's a scrappy tempo-change on Here Comes The Night that sounds like they're freewheeling down a hill on an unfamiliar bike - and it's all the more thrilling for it.

The album's dancefloor undercurrents were inspired by the Haitian carnival, midwifed by James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem and endorsed by pop royalty. "There was this amazing day when I was working on the lyrics to the song Reflektor [and] I met Grace Jones," singer Win Butler told Mojo. "She was on the beach playing with her grand-daughter. I played her an early version of Reflektor and she started dancing immediately.

"I'm like, 'All right! Grace Jones is dancing to our song – we’re definitely doing something right!'"

Recommendations don't come any stronger than that.

So that's this year's countdown. I've put a playlist of tracks from the Top 10 below which should keep any New Year's Eve Party in good spirits for an hour or two... See you in 2014!



UPDATE - JANUARY 2014: I belatedly realised that I'd forgotten to count Charli XCX's True Romance when I was compiling the chart. You can find out where she would have come in the Top 10 by visiting this page.

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Songs you may have missed - Saturday style

Sorry for the lack of posts this week - it's been a busy one at work (mostly working on this piece, about the first 1,000 albums to reach number one in the UK). Here's what I missed along the way.

1) Pharrell Williams - Happy
As you may have heard, Pharrell's swinging new song (from the Despicable Me soundtrack) comes with a 24-hour music video. You can see that on 24hoursofhappy.com, or you can watch the TV edit right here. Your choice, but both will bring a big stupid grin to your face.




2) Arcade Fire - Afterlife
If Pharrell made you smile, this might be a bit of a comedown. Beautifully cinematic but eerie with melancholy, Emily Kai Bock's video adds an emotional wallop to Arcade Fire's rumination on life after death.




3) Lizzo - Batches and Cookies
I have no idea what this song is about - but Detroit-via-Houston-via-Minneapolis rapper Lizzo sounds like she's having a lot of fun anyway. Brimming with energy, this is what it would sound like if Nicki Minaj covered Salt-N-Pepa's greatest hits.




4) U2 - Ordinary Love
The first new material from Bono & co in three years, Ordinary Love is taken from the Nelson Mandela biopic Long Road To Freedom. Bono sounds like he's straining for the high notes these days, but there's a rush of nostalgia when The Edge's chiming, reverb-soaked guitar kicks in. The gospel-infused chorus is rather special, too.

The lyric video, unveiled on Facebook on Thursday, is the opening salvo in the band's return. Bassist Adam Clayton recently told Ireland's 98FM: "We're in the studio. We're trying to get these 12 songs absolutely right and get them finished by the end of November, and then we can kind of enjoy Christmas,"




5) Eminem - Stan (Radio 1 Live Lounge)
Eminem turned up for his chat with Zane Lowe after watching Kanye West's bizarre mad-man-at-the-back-of-the-bus performance on the show earlier in the year.

"I was trying to figure out how I was going to top the publicity of yours and Kanye's interview," he said, "so I decided I was gonna walk in here, and just pee on the floor and leave." He then held Zane's gaze with an icy glare for what must have seemed like hours, before he deadpanned: "I'm peeing right now".

The massive, four-part interview is well worth dipping into (here's the link for the first segment) but it was Eminem's performance with a live band at the end that really made it appointment listening. Here's Stan, sounding as fresh as it did 14 (!) years ago.




6) Tinashe - Vulnerable
After waxing lyrical about the new wave of dark&b earlier this week, this song zinged into my inbox. 20-year-old Tinashe is every bit as captivating and seductive as Banks and Solange and her peers. Vulnerable is possibly the sexiest new song you'll hear this week. Although it could do without the "asses" and "bitches" of Travi$ Scott's predictably banal rap.




7) Sophie Ellis Bextor - Young Blood
If you've been watching Strictly, you'll know that Sophie Ellis is turning out to be quite the dancer. Her Argentine Tango literally gave me shivers (admittedly, the heating was up the left that day). But she's also hard at work on the day job, making big old pop songs with PROPER ENUNCIATION.

Her forthcoming new album, Wanderlust, is a real labour of love - written with Ed Harcourt, and eschewing the frothy disco of her earlier records. The first single, Young Blood, is a gorgeous, dramatic ballad aimed right at the top of the Radio 2 playlist. It's the best thing she's done since Groovejet.

And that's your lot. If you're still after something to listen to, I'd really recommend Bret Easton Ellis's first podcast - in which he has a big old chin-wag with Kanye West about movies, lacking maturity and binge-watching Breaking Bad. You can download it here.

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Mini review: Arcade Fire at the Roundhouse

I'm not sure Arcade Fire have quite grasped the concept of pseudonyms.

"We're the Reflektors," announces Win Butler on stage at the Roundhouse. "That's our fake band name. We've been a fake band since 19-fakety-fake."

Not that anyone is fooled. Even when the musicians emerge on stage wearing tiger masks, we're all pretty certain this is Arcade Fire. After all, what are the chances that two bands would make such a compelling noise whilst looking like a multi-instrumental version of The Addams Family?

But Butler (dressed in a black and white inkblot tuxedo and what can only be described as pajama bottoms) insists on keeping the artifice alive. He introduces Power Out (from their first album) as an Arcade Fire cover, and later improvises the lyrics "People from art school playing in a fake band. People from art school pretending to do art" over a strummed guitar.

But for all the costumes and smokescreens, the band are playing their most emotionally honest and open-hearted music to date. And it shows.

Augmented by fantastic Haitian percussion duo Diol and Twill, they fulfill the rock + disco + carnival ambitions of their new album much more successfully than on the record itself. There's a giddy party vibe, with the audience largely sporting face paints and costumes, from black tie and gold suits to, in one case, a crocodile onesie. What's more, everyone is on their feet. Beside me, a wonderful, spontaneous dance breaks out during Here Comes The Night Time, as everyone starts bobbing up and down in time to the lolloping, reggae-inspired rhythms.

And it turns out this is exactly what the band were hoping for. "We wanted to translate the spirit of something we'd experienced at carnival in Haiti to a way people back home would understand it," Butler recently told Time Out. "It was the first time I enjoyed dancing as part of a huge crowd."

He's definitely bowled over by the fans' willingness to join in at Monday's show. "Everyone that embraced the fancy dress, you look great and we love you," he says. "To everyone who felt uncomfortable... I'm not sorry.

"The percentage of people getting laid tonight is up like 10,000% on a normal show. As long as you shower. That's the secret, boys".

By the end of the set, the band are even promising to come out and dance with the fans in the auditorium (Much as I'd have loved to, I'm afraid I didn't stick around for the Arcade Fire dance throwdown - but any video evidence would be most welcome.)

It'll be interesting to see how this party atmosphere translates to the inevitable arena dates and festival appearances next year. Let's hope they manage it because, on last night's evidence, Arcade Fire - who always seemed to be having a private party on stage - have finally found a way to get everyone involved.

9/10


Setlist
Reflektor
Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
Flashbulb Eyes
Joan of Arc
You Already Know
We Exist
It's Never Over (Oh Orpheus)
My Body Is a Cage (a capella)
Afterlife
Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
Normal Person
Uncontrollable Urge (Devo cover)
Here Comes the Night Time

Encore:
Crown of Love
Haiti

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A shoddy review of Arcade Fire's new album

Many moons ago, when the weather was clement, I was invited to a plush subterranean room where I was fed with parma ham and black coffee. Then, a very nice record company lady played me the new Arcade Fire album, and told me reviews were VERY STRICTLY EMBARGOED PLEASE.

I can't remember when the embargo lifted but, to be frank, my notes were utter bollocks, so a proper review was never on the cards. Also, I panicked and left before the album finished.

But, so what? I'm not able to pass judgment on a record after listening to it once on the wall-mounted speakers of an "exclusive" members' club - even if that's the way the band intended it to be heard. (NB: It clearly isn't).

Trying to decipher my scribblings today, it seems I was largely unmoved by Reflektor. Phrases like "reverb frenzy" and "awful, trebly thrash" crop up fairly frequently - although that could conceivably have been the fault of the sound system.

I seemed to like We Exist's "swirling dub disco coda" and Normal Person, whose chopped-up soundclash brought to mind John Lennon's razor blade experiments on the White Album.

Less impressive was You May Already Know, which prompted the comment: "Like Radiohead's Electioneering, this is the sound of an artful band trying and failing to play a big, dumb rock song."

But here's the rub: Arcade Fire albums are never going to make you scream, "stop the press, they've reinvented all of music". They're subtle, intricate suites that unfold their mysteries over repeated plays.

So why ask people to judge Reflektor in one sitting? I understand the label's desire to stop leaks. I even understand why websites (even the BBC website) get worse access than the print media. But why not scrap the idea of reviews altogether?

By the time Reflektor comes out on Monday, fans will have had the chance to hear more than half of the 13 tracks online. Here's the latest, Afterlife, in the form of a lyric video. It's time to make up your own mind.

Arcade Fire - Afterlife

PS: Several websites did post reviews based on this playback. What do you make of that? Bad practice, or necessary evil?

PPS I should be clear that I wasn't expected to file a review after this event & wouldn't have agreed to it if that had been a condition. I made notes in case they came in useful later - and was genuinely interested to hear the record. But other journalists had to accept the scenario, and that struck me as odd. 

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"They dream about being Mumford and Sons"

Odder than a teapot full of spam balls, here's a 22-minute performance video from Arcade Fire.

Shot by Roman Coppola in Montreal's tiny Salsatheque venue, it features three new songs as well as a lounge version of Wake Up, for which the band dress up as Duran Duran. No, really.

Superbad star Michael Cera cameos as the venue's barman, who'd rather be watching Michael Buble and says Arcade Fire will never be as good as Mumford And Sons.

There are further guest spots from James Franco, Ben Stiller, Bono and an irate Zach Galifianakis. "I went to one of your first shows," he shouts at Win Butler in a video link from 'outer space'.

"There were more people on stage than there were in the audience. YOU DON'T NEED THREE DRUMMERS."

Well, quite.

Incidentally, the new songs - Here Comes The Night Time, We Exist and Normal Person - sound fantastic, incorporating new styles (reggae! new wave!) into the band's arsenal of anthemic indie rock.

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Big tune - Arcade Fire: Reflektor

You know what you're getting with Arcade Fire, right? An overwhelming sense of angst and doom, a madman rending his garments in an on-stage maelstrom, screams, shouts, tunes that won't leave your brain for days, something about sinister small-town life and plentiful acreage of forehead.

Wrong (except the forehead bit, that's a given).

Their new single, Reflektor, is taut and sharp - with more than a hint of disco-era Blondie, especially in its Francophone verses ("entre le nuit," coos Regine Chassagne). Its closest relative is The Sprawl II, an album track from The Suburbs which the band said was inspired by Depeche Mode.

But it goes further than that slight pop melody ever did - with shimmering Moroder synth sweeps and an unmistakable David Bowie cameo on the lines: "Thought you were praying to the resurrector / turns out it was just a Reflektor". (The lyrics were generated by putting Justin Timberlake's Mirrors into Google Translate and selecting the "Arcade Fire" option).

Produced by James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, Reflektor cautiously adds a few dance flourishes to the band's traditional sound, but also reigns in their more grandiose tendencies, giving the track room to breathe and build over an expansive seven minutes.

It's superb stuff - and available via an interactive video on the band's website justareflektor.com. If you don't have time for that, play the trailer below, and imagine it all in your mind.

Update: The official video is below.

Arcade Fire - Reflektor

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Five songs about pets

I couldn't find any new music worth writing about today, so here are five songs written about a pet dog or cat. I don't know why.

1) The Beatles - Martha, My Dear
Yes, famous vegetarian Paul McCartney loves animals. Who'd have thought?

On the surface, Martha, My Dear sounds like a love song, and many have presumed it was written for McCartney's then-girlfriend Jane Asher and her wonderful party cakes. But no. Sir Fab Macca wrote it for a sheepdog, Martha, who was his first ever pet. Here he is banging on about it:

"She was a dear pet of mine. I remember John being amazed to see me being so loving to an animal. He said, 'I've never seen you like that before.' I've since thought, you know, he wouldn't have. It's only when you're cuddling around with a dog that you're in that mode, and she was a very cuddly dog."

Noted Beatles' scholar Ian MacDonald said of Martha, My Dear: "Scintillatingly gifted as this song is, it's also virtually devoid of meaning." Ouch.



2) Queen - Delilah
Legend has it that Freddy Mercury wrote "You're My Best Friend" about his pet dog. The problem is that bassist John Deacon wrote that song, and he's said on several occasions it was about his wife Veronica Tetzlaff (mind you, you would say that, wouldn't you?)

But Queen did have a song about a cat - Delilah. Peculiar even for them, this album track from the Innuendo sessions was a tribute to Freddy Mercury's favourite pet, a tortoise-shell tabby. It contains the memorable couplet: "You make me slightly mad /
When you pee all over my Chippendale suite."

Roger Taylor hated it.




3) Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
OK, not strictly about a pet - but about the first canine cosmonaut, a stray dog called Laika.

"It's a great story about a dog being the first living creature in space," Win Butler told Minneapolis magazine The Pulse. "Doing this spectacular thing, but not having food and watching itself fall back into the earth."

The dog's intergalactic journey is also (apparently) a metaphor for the life of Alexander Supertramp - the man whose journey into solitude in the Alaskan wilderness was told in Sean Penn's film Into The Wild.




4) Norah Jones - Man Of The Hour

This is by far my favourite song on the list. Jones' boyfriend has given her an "it's him or me" ultimatum - and she chooses her pet dog, as any sensible woman would.

The meaning of the song becomes clearer as the song goes on - eventually making sense of the slightly barmy first verse.

I can't choose
Between a vegan and a pot head
So I chose you, because you're sweet
And you give me lots of lovin'
And you eat meat

You might think that's Norah's pet dog sitting next to her on the cover of The Fall (see right) but it's not. It's a stunt dog, called Ben, who was brought in by the photographer. Talk about betrayal.




5) Henry Gross - Shannon
I'm ending with a weepie. Shannon was written about the death of Beach Boy star Carl Wilson's Irish Setter. Awwww.

The story goes that Henry met Carl on tour in 1975, and they got to talking about dogs. Henry mentioned his wife's pet, Shannon, "an uncannily human dog whose ability to manipulate her human counterparts cannot be understated". To his surprise, Carl nearly burst into tears - having recently lost an Irish Setter of the same name in a car accident.

Back at home, with his pet dog on his lap, Henry wrote the song while imagining "the indescribable sadness that losing such a beloved partner" must cause. Played in a pseudo-Beach Boys style, Henry had hoped to have Carl sing backing vocals, but scheduling conflicts meant it was not to be.

Either way, the treacly, mawkish ballad shot to number one in the US and is played at uncomfortably sentimental pet funerals to this day.

Warning: The following video will either bring a lump to your throat or make you do a sick in your tea cup.



So, that's my lot... Any other suggestions? NB: Michael Jackson's Ben was actually written for a film, not a pet rat, and Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars (sadly) isn't about pretending you're a dog.

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As if by magic, an Arcade Fire video appeared

I thought Arcade Fire had disappeared deep into the Rocky Mountains to ponder the follow-up to their magnificent Suburbs album. But no...

In a typically untypical act of scheduling madness, the Canucks have just released a video for The Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) - just a brief two months after they wrapped up their world tour.

If you haven't listened to the album for a while, this is the one where Régine Chassagne gets a shot at lead vocals. It sounds like a whimsical remix of Blondie's Heart Of Glass and the video features that quirky Arcade Fire "humour" that results in terrifying night visions.

Watch at your peril...

Arcade Fire - The Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains


PS: If you're feeling energetic, there's a webcam-enhanced interactive version of the video at the end of this link.

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Welcome to the remixatron

Friday night is party night. Actually, Friday night is collapsing on the sofa with a bottle of wine night. But I always like to end the working week with a few remixes, which is some sort of hangover from listening to Radio One's Big Beat with Jeff Young in the late 80s.

Here's what I'm putting on tonight's playlist.

1) Beastie Boys - Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win (Major Lazer Remix)
With Switch and Diplo at the controls, this Beastie Boys album track gets a dancehall makeover that propels Santigold's contribution to the forefront. Which is exactly how it should be.




2) Kelly Rowland - Motivation (Remix)
Hands up who thought Kelly Rowland had given up on R&B? If she's not collaborating with David Guetta or Alex Gaudino on some abysmal Magaluf "anthem", she's practically invisible. So this track, which also features Busta Rhymes and Trey Songz, is a revelation. A slow, seductive soul jam - it's sexy in a way Rihanna could only ever hope to be.




3) Arcade Fire - We Used To Wait (acoustic version)
Technically not a remix, but who cares? It's brilliant.

Arcade Fire - We Used To Wait



4) Adele - Set Fire To The Rain (Thomas Gold Remix)
Remixing Adele is about as pointless as putting a coat on a dog. Nonetheless, this arms-aloft retwizzle is so cheesy it almost works. Hang around til 3'45" for the drop. Amazing!

Adele - Set Fire To The Rain (Thomas Gold Remix)



5) Alex Winston - Sister Wife (Ladyhawke Remix)
Ladyhawke has never done a remix before, so she must have been really impressed with Alex Winston to get involved. Or maybe she thought the song was broken and only a Ladyhawke remix could fix it. Or maybe she needed a bit of extra money to finish her second album. Either way, GET ON WITH IT LADYHAWKE.




6) Ronika - Wiyoo (Ronika 'own you' Remix)
I'd be lying if I said I hadn't listened to Ronika's Wiyoo EP every day this week. This remix isn't as good as the original, but it has bits of the original in it, and as such is brilliant on toast.



Hope you enjoy... Have a great weekend!

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The Grammys in four video clips

The Grammys, eh? The world's premiere 14-and-a-half-hour-long award ceremony. Lots of thanking God, interspersed with performances by Muse and a country band you've never heard of. You certainly wouldn't want to sit through them. Unless you were tied to a chair in one of those Saw films and getting up would result in being cut in half with an axegrinder.

Anyway, I've sifted through the haystack to bring you the needles. Mind your fingers.

1) THE LADY GAGA
Came out of an egg, you know. Truly the Kinder Surprise of Pop.

Lady Gaga - Born This Way


2) THE CEE-LO
This is a tribute to Elton John's Muppet Show performance of Crocodile Rock, back in "the day". Gwyneth Paltrow plays Miss Piggy.

Cee-Lo Green + The Muppets - Forget You

3) THE ADDAMS FAMILY
Who deservedly won the Album Of The Year prize for The Suburbs. This performance was essentially their acceptance speech. I think we're supposed to believe it was impromptu and unscripted, but no-one seems the slightest bit flustered.

Arcade Fire - Ready To Start


4) THE B.O.B. AND THE BRUNO MARS AND THE JANELLE MONAE
For my money, this is the standout performance of the night - a soul revue pulled straight from the video for Hey Ya! Bruno Mars steals the show with his terrifying assault on a ride cymbal during Cold War.

B.O.B. / Bruno Mars / Janelle Monae


Inevitably, these videos will all disappear as soon as I hit the publish button. Here's the relevant Google searches in case you need 'em.
Lady Gaga :: Cee-Lo :: Arcade Fire :: Bruno, BOB and Janelle

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Top 10 albums of 2010

A little belated, but here they are. Enjoy!


1) Lissie - Catching A Tiger

In a year of grandiose 'masterpieces', this unassuming little record quietly became my go-to album. Illinois hippy-chick Lissie Maurus inhabits her material completely. Her ad-libs are so perfectly delivered that they become inseparable from the body of the songs. And what great songs: Torn from the Californian country-rock handbook, drawing on the best of The Byrds and Fleetwood Mac, and moulded for the 21st Century by Kings Of Leon producer Jacquire King. Stand-out tracks When I'm Alone and In Sleep could never claim to be original, but they were drenched in melody and so alive they had a pulse. A stunning debut.


2) Robyn - Body Talk

Six months, three albums, one Grammy nomination, dozens of five star reviews and only one bad song. It was the project that had everything except an audience. Still, those who sought out Robyn Carlsson's Swedish pop odyssey fell utterly in love with it. And who could blame them?


3) Scissor Sisters - Night Work

A glance through the tracklisting tells you what to expect from Scissor Sisters' third album: Sex And Violence, Skin Tight, Harder You Get. Back on filthy form after the vaudeville tripe of Ta-Dah!, Night Work is an album of sleek, hard, sexy disco. A celebration of the freaks who come out to play after dark, it allowed Jake Shears the chance to roleplay dozens of seedy characters, the timbre and cadence of his voice changing on every track like a method actor. Perfectly sequenced and eminently danceworthy, it also contained - on Whole New Way - the year's least subtle metaphor for anal sex. So that was nice.


4) Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

Like Scissor Sisters, Arcade Fire escaped the drab surroundings of their upbringing through music. But while the New Yorkers ran off to an "opiate utopia", the Canucks prodded and poked at their past, trying to make sense of it all. The Suburbs is about the geography of suburbia, and the impermanence of modern life. "All of the houses they built in the Seventies finally fall... It meant nothing at all," pines Win Butler on the title track.

The Suburbs is also the record where Arcade Fire discovered the spaces between the notes, the claustrophobic bombast of their first two records giving way to something more expansive and thoughtful. Having all that space to think gave the lyrics greater impact, too.

The top of most critics' end-of-year lists, it would have done the same here if it was just 10 minutes shorter.


5) Marina And The Diamonds - The Family Jewels

Its a tricky thing to be a pop singer with artistic aspirations. Too much of the throaty yelping and people steer clear of you like the shouty racist lady at the back of the bus. Too little, and people dismiss you as a disposable pop confection. Marina never quite got the balance right, veering wildly between bonkers balladry (I Am Not A Robot) and balls-out chartbusters (Oh No!). It didn't help that her lyrics often read like they'd been lifted straight out of "Opinions For Teenage Girls - For Dummies". Regardless, those who persevered - and thank goodness there were thousands of us - were rewarded with an album rich in melodic invention, musical dexterity and surprising vulnerability. The Family Jewels, indeed.


6) Vampire Weekend - Contra

Less direct than their debut, Vampire Weekend's sophomore album nonetheless had more heart. At least, I think it did. It's hard to be sure what Ezra Koenig is on about half the time ("fake Philly cheesecake but you use real toothpaste" - eh?). Still, the melodies, the trickling guitar riffs and - above all - the frenetic, polyrhythmic drumming are like nothing else. When they inevitably grow up and turn into Sting, let's remember them like this.


7) Sarah Blasko - As Day Follows Night

My heart, already a bit gooey from listening to Australian singer Sarah Blasko's third album, completely melted when I met her in May. Charming but fragile, awkward but funny - she's everything you'd expect from listening to this most intimate of heartbreak records. Captured in a secluded studio in the heart of the Swedish winter, it's an all-too-real exploration of the end of a love affair. What makes it poignant is that the break-up came in Blasko's mid-30s, raising the spectre of spinsterhood. What stops it being utterly depressing is the nimble arrangements, the delicate beauty of her voice and, ultimately, an all-pervasive sense of hope.


8) Tinie Tempah - Disc-Overy

Tinie Tempah delivered an entire Top 10 of best lyrics this year, from "I got so many clothes I keeps 'em in my aunt's house", through to "would you risk it for a chocolate biscuit?" Musically, he was no slacker, either. His morphing breakbeats lifted grime out of the loop-it-and-leave-it quagmire, as frequently as his lyrics showed up the dumb avarice of his contemporaries (Taio Cruz marked a new low for the genre this year when he sang: "I'm wearing all my favourite brands, brands, brands, brands, brands"). Stuffed full of ideas, Tinie's album equalled, but sadly never bettered, the promise of it's singles. Oh, and it earned an extra demerit for that AWFUL title.


9) John Legend & The Roots - Wake Up!

Inspired by Barack Obama's "yes, we can" campaign, and revisiting the classic ghetto protest songs of the 1970s, this was the best band of their generation, allied to the smoothest singer of his, making a rallying call to socially-concious America. Mmm-hmm. Whatever. Simply the best covers album of the year.


10) Kid Sister - Ultraviolet

Putting the fun back in funky and the rap back in... er, "not crap", Chicago's Kid Sister delivered a spritely party album for her long-gestating debut. It didn't set the world on fire, but it did heat up my living room by a couple of degrees. Inspired by electro, handbag house, rave and "boxes of doughnuts", it left me with a big, daft grin all over my face every time I heard it. OK, it probably doesn't deserve to be considered a classic, but it was either this or Kanye banging on about intense personal issues and and his penis. I rest my case.

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This would be the new Arcade Fire video, then

Last year, Arcade Fire re-recorded Wake Up for Spike Jonze's movie adaptation of Where The Wild Things Are. Now, he's repaid the favour by shooting a video for The Suburbs. Only this is like giving someone a lift into work and them buying you Papua New Guinea in return.

Arcade Fire- The Suburbs

Beautiful, disturbing, brilliant.

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