Songs you may have missed megapost

Oh man, it's been ages since I did one a "songs you may have missed" post, and the backlog is ridiculous...

For the uninitiated, this is a dumping ground treasure trove of songs I've liked, but failed to write about on the blog. That failure is a personal one, not a comment on their quality.

So saddle up. There are 12 songs to get through here and I've kept the write-ups short because, frankly, who reads this crap anyway?

1) Foals - What Went Down
Heavy like cadmium. Best thing they've done since Inhaler.




2) Miguel - Coffee (ft WALE)
Coffee is a metaphor for sex, you know.



3) Selena Gomez - Good For You (ft A$AP Rocky)
Recorded in 45 minutes. Will remain in your in your head for 45 days.




4) Nero - Two Minds
In which Nero finally realise that dubstep is a musical dead end.




5) Carly Rae Jepsen - E·MO·TION
Carly Rae Jepsen's new album is shaping up to be a masterpiece. Who;d have thought?




6) Mark Ronson - I Can't Lose (ft Keyone Starr)
All the melody of Snoop Dogg's Ain't No Fun (If the Homies Can' Have None) with none of the misogyny. Result.





7) Years & Years - Foundation
In 2020, we're all going to look back on Years & Years' time in the spotlight and wonder "what was going on there?"




8) Fassine - Sunshine
Doomsday disco, darker than a House of Cards box set.




9) Shura - White Light
The video edit isn't as good as the full 7-minute masterpiece.




10) Rudimental - Rumour Mill (ft Anne-Marie & Will Heard)
Slinky and subtle. Sorely needed proof that Rudimental can make good songs without shoehorning in a drum-and-bass drop.




11) Gabrielle Aplin - Light Up The Dark
Recently added to the Radio 1 playlist, and a world away from her mawkish John Lewis advert. Like KT Tunstall and Sheryl Crow got together and cancelled out each other's most boring tendencies.




12) Meghan Trainor - Like I'm Going To Lose You (ft John Legend)
Gimmick-free balladry that suggests a longevity most of us never suspected Meghan Trainor had in her.

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Katy Perry's birthday suit and seven other songs you may have missed

This week's groundbreaking installment of songs-you-may-have-missed contains several songs you may have missed. It's a revolution.

1) Katy Perry - Birthday (lyric video)
La Perry's lyric videos have a bigger budget than most artists get for their actual promos. And what does Katy do with all that extra cash? Spends it on cake. Amazing.




2) Calvin Harris - Summer
Calvin Harris has also been handed a sizeable promo budget, but he's spent it all on bikini girls and sports cars. Watch out, Harris, or you'll turn into Jamiroquai.




3) Jamie xx - Sleep Sound
Now, this is more like it: A dance video, starring 13 members of the Manchester Deaf Centre, set to a hypnotic new song by Jamie xx.

Director Sofia Mattioli says the video was inspired by a train journey: "I was listening to music, getting deep into it, and this girl started staring at me. After a while I took my headphones off and she came up to me, started signing and then wrote me a note to say that she was deaf but could almost feel the music by my movement."

Captivating and mesmerising.



4) Say Lou Lou - Everything We Touch (Yannis Foals mix)
Sexy, euphoric, Swedish pop. There's something special about Say Lou Lou and Yannis Philippakis from "intellectual" rock band Foals clearly agrees.

He's run his feather duster all over their new single Everything We Touch and given it a sparkling, heavenly sheen. Damned-near perfect.




5) Tove Lo - Stay High (Hippie Sabotage remix)
I prefer the original version of Tove Lo's Habits but Radio One have playlisted this trancey remix for complicated music 'biz' reasons we'll never fully understand. On the downside, the remix has bumped the superior Love Ballad off her Truth Serum EP (otherwise it wouldn't be chart eligible in the UK). On the plus side, Tove is now number seven in the iTunes chart.

A remix video has been hastily cobbled together and looks like this.


NB - my interview with Tove went up on the BBC News site today. You can read it here.


6) Foxes - Holding On To Heaven
Foxes is gradually turning into a genuine pop star. Photogenic, witty, fond of tempo changes, with a constant hint of melancholy in her voice.

Holding On To Heaven follows up the top 10 hits Youth and Let Go For Tonight (although it's also been a free download in the past which is very confusing). Taken from her forthcoming album Glorious, it's power ballad o'clock.



7) Nightbox - Burning
"Hi Mark, I'm Andrew Keyes, the bassist in Nightbox," said an email in my inbox earlier this week. "I'd appreciate if you'd lend me your ears for a moment to check out my band's upcoming release."

After a complex and painful surgical procedure, I did lend Andrew my ears and, contrary to expectations the "upcoming release" was 100% not shit.

Recorded in the band's living room ("we've got wooden floors", says Andrew, "far easier to clean up") but given the once over by MSTRKRFT and Sebastien Grainger of DFA 1979, their EP is propulsive, rhythmic indiepop.

The EP's out on 22 April, with Burning as the lead track - but you can check out their other material on Soundcloud.



8) Klaxons - There Is No Other Time
A return to form if ever there was one.

That's your lot. There's also a Kylie lyric video doing the rounds, but I couldn't think of anything to say about it.

See you again on Monday when apparently there'll be a new Lana Del Rey single to discuss. Exciting.

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An explosion in a wig factory, and five other songs you may have missed

*MUTED FANFARE* This week's new music round-up is a bit of a mixed bag - which presumably means we're heading headfirst into the summer song drought. Nonetheless, there are a few sparkling gems knocking about if you're prepared to look hard enough. And these are they.

1) Breach - Jack
The most bonkers video of the week is this wig-tastic clip from Breach, aka UK house music producer Ben Westbeech. Everything in the video is made out of hair, from the furniture to the dancer who looks like, but probably isn't, Lady Gaga. The song's not bad either - a minimalist, repetitive, but exceedingly catchy, club track.




2) Liz - U Over Them
This is my favourite new track of the week. Liz is an singer from Tarzana, California, whose style harks back to the late 90s robo-R&B of Brandy and Aaliyah. In fact, she sounds so much like Aaliyah, I had to pinch myself. As if to reinforce those millennial reference points, her biggest social media presence is on MySpace. One to watch.





3) Chvrches - The Mother We Share (live)
If Chvrches were suffering nerves on their US television debut they certainly didn't show. This is more down to Lauren's awesome vocals than the band's Chris Lowe double act (note to accountants: one Chris Lowe is usually enough). NB: Spot the radio edit - "fucks up" becomes "stuffs up". Controversial.




4) M.I.A. - Bring The Noize
Never has a song title been more appropriate. This is what happens when you load up a sampler with 82 random noises and push it down the stairs. Invigorating and rubbish all at once.





5) Foals - Bad Habit
I interviewed Yannis Philippakis yesterday for a BBC Glastonbury thing. "Do you get a rider," I asked. "OF COURSE I get a rider," he replied, indignantly. And what's on it? "Oh, just scotch. Lots and lots of scotch".

I have sneaking suspicion Foals' set is going to be one of the festival's unexpected highlights. The band have just come back from a four-month tour of the US, leaner, hungrier, and ready for a home crowd. Their new single is bound to be on the setlist - but it'll be the almighty Inhaler that really sets things off...




6) Alex Metric & Jacques Lu Cont feat Malin off Niki & The Dove – Safe With You
That band name needs a bit of work, but this is a gorgeous and surprisingly soulful slab of Euro House music. A word of warning, though: No matter how great the singer's boyfriend is, I'm not sure it's wise to promise "I'd break my back for you". Just a thought.

That's your lot for now... As ever, send any more tips and suggestions to editor@discopop.co.uk. Cheers!

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Foals: My Number video

Reverb enthusiasts Foals have been chatting away to Digital Spy about their new album and "the state of music" (urgh).

It turns out Yannis Philippakis is not a fan of club music kingpin David "Dave" Guetta: "David Guetta is basically... it's not even something that really makes my blood boil because it is just bullshit," he seethes. "It is an abomination but there needs to be bad music around."

You might disagree with his taste, but I like the point he's making. What are Solange and Jessie Ware and AlunaGeorge, if not a kickback against the dancification of R&B?

People (and by people I mean the NME and Pitchfork) keep hoping for a comparable indie insurrection - but Yannis gives that idea short shrift, too. "The most exciting moments in guitar music are when there's no attention on it," he reckons. "When people say, 'It's the reign of the guitar band', that's when the worst records get put out."

The current shortage of decent guitar music certainly means Foals are large horses in a small paddock - but their new single would deserve attention in the midst of a full-on indie revival. My Number is constructed from nimble, interlocking guitar lines and - heavens above - a proper chorus.

Video-wise, we're in "live performance" territory. But, in a neat twist, the director shows what's going on around the venue - snogging in the toilets, breakdancing at the fire escape, and some heroic moshing (although not as heroic as this).

Foals - My Number

Foasl' new album, Holy Fire, is out on 11 February.

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Foals return with a perv-tastic video

Indie bands are their own worst enemies. How do you tell a Django from a Maccabee? Why are the Mystery Jets shrouded in... er, mystery? Which one is Noah and which one is the whale? Neither of them. What?!

Let's face it, if you want people to know who you are, you have to have a "thing". Mick Jagger has stupid lips. John Lydon a grisly snarl. The Arcade Fire look like a crack den Addams Family. It all helps.

I know what the indie mafia will say. "We're not trying to be Lady Gaga," and "we just want the music to speak for itself, dudes". Well, bollocks to that. I want a band to have a consistent visual identity, and I don't want that identity to be "here are some skinny jeans and a t-shirt I found in a cupboard".

Case in point: The Foals. That's them standing in some dustbins at the top of the page. Over the years they've made some excellent music (Miami, Cassius) but I couldn't pick them out of a line-up, even if the line-up comprised of the band and four actual foals.

As part of their continuing quest for anonymity, the band barely feature in their latest video - Inhaler. Instead, they have brought in some street dancers (the video director's cliche of choice in 2012) and some gratuitous nudity.

The song, however, is magnificent. Tight, rhythmical and funky, it suddenly rips into an ALMIGHTY RIFF after the first chorus.

You might even remember who they are by the end of it.

Foals - Inhaler

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Foal-some Prison Blues

I am about to embed the video for The Foals' new single, Miami, which is out this week. However, in a change to normal procedure, I suggest you take the following steps.

1) Press "play".
2) Quickly open a new tab in your internet browser (CTRL+T)
3) Read an interesting article while enjoying the lithesome music.
4) I suggest this piece on Lady Gaga and the Illuminati.
5) Or this one about how the internet is destroying our attention sp...
6) You'll probably end up looking at animals with their tongues out instead.
7) Whatever you do, don't click back to this page until the music ends.

Ready? Here we go...

Foals - Miami


If you do choose to watch the video, you may recognise famed transgender campaigners Calpernia Addams and Glamourous Monique. And some oil. And some blue powder paint.

If that's what Miami is really like, I'm staying in Brentford.

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Acceptable indiebloke noise

Here are The Foals with a song that you might like, and a video you will not.

The Foals - Spanish Sahara


EXCITING NEWS: If you go to Foals' official website and register for a mailing list (urgh), you get a free copy of the single in remixed format (double urgh).

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