It's less than a week to Christmas Day - so here's a quick round-up of this year's new Christmas songs and festive cover versions. Presented in a big long list with next to no commentary because I'm drunk on eggnog.
Frizzy of hair and breathy of vocal, Rae Morris is being tipped as one of pop music's NEXT BIG THINGS. So, before the Brits unveil their Critic's Choice shortlist (Thursday) and the BBC reveal their Sound of 2015 longlist (Monday), here are 11 exciting facts about the singer, which I have Googled for you.
You're welcome.
1) Rachel Anne Morris was born in Blackpool in 1992. [Wikipedia]
2) Rae is short for Raymond, which was her grandfather's name. [Leadmill]
3) Atlantic Records signed her in 2011, when she was just 18, then gave her space to "grow as an artist", whatever that means. [Line of Best Fit]
4) You may have heard her voice on Bombay Bicycle Club's rather lovely single Luna earlier this year.
6) She realised she could be a proper songwriter when she saw fellow Blackpool singer Karima Francis on Jools Holland. She later got to sing with Clean Bandit on the very same programme, which she described as "the scariest thing I've ever done". [DIY mag]
7) If she had a million pounds, she would probably buy some books. [For Folk's Sake]
9) Her debut album, Unguarded, has been recorded with Ariel Rechtschaid, of Haim and Charli XCX "fame". It's out next year. [When the Gramophone Rings]
10) The most famous person she's met is Barry Chuckle. [London In Stereo]
11) She is not trying to be cool. "I'm not trying to be cool," she says, "because, well, I'm not cool. I'm just really not cool." [Teen Vogue]
So now you can impress all of your Facebook friends with your insightful and encyclopaedic knowledge of current pop trends.
You can also tell them you've heard Rae's new single, Under The Shadows. Be sure to use words like "haunting", "dramatic" and "supple" so you can sound totally up your own arse.
A semi-regular round-up of music I haven't quite got round to writing about yet. Sometimes for very good reason, but not this week...
1) Charlotte Gainsbourg - Hey Joe
Charlotte Gainsbourg stars in Lars Von Trier's new, definitely-not-porn film Nymphomaniac. Her character is called Joe, and that prompted her to record a cover of Jimi Hendrix's finest moment. Produced by Beck, it's breathy, ominous and delicious.
2) MØ - Don't Wanna Dance
Danish singer MØ was cruelly omitted from the BBC's Sound Of list, but somehow I don't think it matters.
Don't Wanna Dance - a sort of alt-pop riposte to Whitney Houston's I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) - was Zane Lowe's Hottest Record In The World last night, and MØ's forthcoming album No Mythologies To Follow looks set to be one of the year's strongest debuts.
Honestly, I don't understand why the press insists on Lily Allen being a 21st Century Dorothy Parker. Her lyrics are consistently puerile. Case in point, her anti-Bush protest song 'Fuck You Very Much', which displays all the intellectual sophistication of a drunken Big Brother contestant.
Still, she makes exceedingly catchy pop songs and this is one of them.
4) Raleigh Ritchie - Stronger Than Ever
Raleigh Ritchie is probably best known as Grey Worm in TV nerdgasm Game Of Thrones. But the Bristolian has been making music since he was 14 and, in the tradition of Massive Attack and Portishead, he combines widescreen hip-hop with mournful soul melodies. If you ignore all the ACTING in this video, Stronger Than Ever is gorgeous.
5) Johnny Cash - She Used To Love Me A Lot
The 1980s weren't kind to Johnny Cash - he stooped so low as to record a novelty song about having his brain transplanted into a chicken - but this previously unreleased track is just gorgeous.
Johnny's son, John Carter Cash, told the BBC this week there's more where this came from. "There are some great recordings - but we don't want to release something unless it means something." Good lad.
6) Bombay Two Bicycle Club - Luna
Why do Bombay Bicycle Club and Two Door Cinema Club always release music at the same time? I have enough trouble telling them apart as it is...
Whichever one is responsible Luna, they've done a good job - starting off with a lilting tabla loop before settling comfortably into 80s indie, with gorgeous harmonies from Rae Morris.
Compared to last autumn's stunning, soulful Nirvana EP, it's a little screechy for my taste - but you can't deny he's got a stunning set of pipes. And a pretty good singing voice, too.
Bombay Bicycle Club's polychromatic guitar phrases always seemed to possess an hypnotic, hallucinogenic quality. So it's fitting that their latest video, How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep, is a stop-motion dream sequence in which a man in his pyjamas climbs a ladder to the moon.
Painstakingly pieced together over six months by the band's school-friend Anna Ginsberg (that's her above), it's a beautiful, lyrical companion piece to the song. Take a look.
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.
