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

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

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

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





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


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




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

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

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





4) Broods - Bridges

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

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




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

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

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

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







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

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





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

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





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




9) The Pierces - Kings

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

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



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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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Back in business: What did I miss?

HELLO THERE EVERYONE!

As you can see, I'm back from the Caribbean - where the sun was shiny, the sea was wavy, and the music was Corinne Bailey Rae-y (seriously, there seems to be a law requiring all bands to play Put Your Records On at least twice during their set).

I missed the Grammys and I missed the Super Bowl - but I did manage to catch Prince's appearance on New Girl, where he proved his acting "chops" hadn't improved since Under The Cherry Moon *frowny face emoticon*.


We've only just got back to the UK, so I haven't had time to catch up on all the exciting Conor Maynard and Laura Mvula announcements clogging up my inbox, but here's a quick rundown of the videos I've prioritised to watch on YouTube tonight.

1) Kylie Minogue - Into The Blue
Controversially shot in 4:3, aspect ratio fans.




2) Rudimental ft Becky Hill - Powerless
Becky Hill was on the first series of The Voice, you know.




3) Shakira ft Rihanna - Can't Remember To Forget You
The song doesn't get any better but [insert sexist comment about Shakira's bottom here].




4) Foster The People - Coming Of Age
It's like a three-minute John Hughes movie, only with new music on top. What sophistry is this?




5) Villagers - Occupy Your Mind
Recorded with James Ford (Klaxons, Arctic Monkeys) this song was premiered last week as a gesture of solidarity with Russia's gay population ahead of the Winter Olympics.




6) St Vincent - Digital Witness
Still disorientating, still brilliant.




7) 5 Seconds of Silence - She Looks So Perfect
It's like McBusted split up, fell down a rabbit hole, landed in Australia 10 years younger and started all over again.




8) Klaxons - There Is No Other Time
"A return to form" - every music journalist, everywhere.




9) MØ - Don't Wanna Dance
Who doesn't love a music video set in a scrap yard? Nobody, that's who.



10) The Pierces - Kings
If Tim Burton drew a girl group it would look like Allison and Catherine Pierce. Later this year, they'll be following up 2010's achingly beautiful goth-pop album You & I... and this is the first bite of their newly-plucked forbidden fruit. Yummy.


11) Prince - PretzelBodyLogic (preview)
Apparently he's playing Shepherd's Bush again tonight (Monday)... Anyone care to confirm?

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Foster The People: Coming of Age

Foster The People: Stupid name, great band.

You may remember them for Pumped Up Kicks and Call It What You Want - spiky, percussive pop songs with killer hooks.

Led by Mark Foster, the trio took a two-year break after the success of their debut album Torches in 2011, but luckily they haven't spent the time off "working on their sound" (always a euphamism for "making our sound worse"). Their comeback single Coming Of Age is as summery and celebratory as its predecessors, with a guitar riff that would have made Duran Duran proud (in 1984).

The band always make brilliant videos - my favourite being Houdini, where the band die in a tragic lighting rig accident, and the record label replaces them with robots - but we'll have to wait and see what they produce for this song. In the meantime, here's a still-impressive timelapse of a giant mural being painted on the side of a building in their hometown of Los Angeles.

Foster The People - Coming Of Age

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Songs you may have missed: New Year hangover edition

Like the rest of us, Planet Pop has taken most of the last two weeks off, so there isn't much to catch up on. But the few videos that did trickle onto the internet all herald VERY EXCITING THINGS for 2014. Here they are, in all their multifaceted glory.

1) Katy B - Crying For No Reason
FACT: Katy B's new album is going to be excellent.

FACT: Her red jumper is very festive.

FACT: This video contains more lasers than a Bond Villain's toolshed.



2) Foster The People - Feels Like Coming Of Age
FACT: Foster The People have been working with Paul Epworth of "good music (and Adele)" fame.

FACT: Their song Pumped Up Kicks is the "sixth-largest selling alternative digital song of all time" whatever that means.

FACT: Feels Like Coming Of Age already sounds like an indie disco classic, based on this 45 second preview.


BONUS FACT: Here's a video of the full song in a live environment. It's pretty damned good.



3) Sky Ferreira and Ariel Pink - My Molly
FACT: Sky Ferreira's debut album Night Time, My Time is getting a proper release in the UK later this year.

FACT: It's been four years in the making. FOUR YEARS! "You have to go through a lot of hardship before you get what you want," she noted presciently on these very pages back in 2010.

FACT: This song, a cover of Ariel Pink's My Molly, isn't on it. But it should be.



4) SBTRKT ft Sampha and Jessie Ware - Runaway
FACT: All three of these artists are releasing new music in 2014.

FACT: SBTRKT played this at the end of his set at a New Years' Eve party in Mexico.

FACT: It only lasts a minute which, after all the self-indulgent eighteen-minute "jams" of 2014 (I'm looking at you, Justin Timberlake), would be a welcome new trend for 2014.




5) Boots - Haunted
FACT: Boots is the mysterious writer/producer who cropped up on the credits to Beyonce's album, contributing to 8 of the 14 tracks.

FACT: He signed to Jay-Z's Roc Nation label last June.

FACT: The reference tracks for Beyoncé's album used to appear on his Soundcloud (including his guide vocals).

FACT: All that's there now is this gorgeous, minor key ballad. I wonder if he'll keep it for himself?





6) Bounce - New Year's Eve Fireworks mix
FACT: OK, this isn't really about an exciting artist to look out for in 2014.

FACT: But the Fireworks mix was superb... Even the bit where they mixed Another One Bites The Dust and Blurred Lines.

FACT: You can listen to it "sans explosions" below, or go over to YouTube to see the pretty lights.

And that's not a bad haul so early in the year. Let's just hope Coldplay and U2 don't turn the year into one great yawnfest, eh?

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Foster The People are record label puppets

LA's Foster The People have created some of the best music videos of the last 12 months. Their new one, for the re-release of former single Houdini, is a brilliantly macabre satire on the music industry. In the opening scenes, the band are killed in a horrific stage accident, but their management conspire to keep the money rolling in by turning their corpses into puppets.

Conceptually, it's reminiscent of Peter Serafinowicz's video for Hot Chip's I Feel Better - but Foster The People play it for laughs. They've even included an enthusiastic bumming scene for the band's burgeoning gay fanbase.

Well, I never.

The full video is below, and if you haven't already invested in it, Foster The People's excellent debut album, Torches, is a bargainacious £5 on Amazon this week.

Foster The People - Houdini

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Discopop Directory Top 10 albums of 2011

Let's get this out of the way now: PJ Harvey does not feature in this Top 10 (which is actually a top 11, because I miscounted). Let England Shake topped everyone else's polls and is, on an intellectual level, a brilliant treatise on war and history. But I never woke up singing lyrics like "What if I take my problems to the United Nations?".

So these are the albums that embedded earworms in my brain. The ones I cued up on every car journey. The ones I actually listened to...

11) Lady Gaga - Born This Way

On the face of it, Born This Way is a deeply unlovable album. The production is harsh, the artwork is horrible and the tunes simply aren't there. But if you carefully select the highlights (Edge Of Glory's sax solo, Sheiße's pomposity-pricking humour and the title track's towering chorus) it's a hell of a lot of fun.


10) The Pierces - You & I

The cover of The Pierces' fourth album is designed to look like an care-worn old record, with a ghostly imprint of the vinyl visible on the sleeve. The music is a similarly faithful recreation of a bygone era - lush with harmony and classic, timeless melodies. When the polished perfection threatens to become too winsome, the band flash a glimpse of their darker side, as on the possessive growl of Love You More. Tailor-made for radio, this didn't do as well as it deserved.


9) Katy B - On A Mission

Kathleen Brien wrote songs about going to the club, her plans to go to the club, picking up boys at the club and the aftermath of having been to the club. Thankfully, it wasn't as soul-sappingly tedious as that sounds. A night out with Ms B sounds thrilling and magical, everyone clamouring for one more dance before catching the night bus home. One reviewer described On A Mission as "a glowstick Alice in Wonderland" and, frankly, I can't do better than that.


8) Noah And The Whale - Last Night On Earth

A big old FM rock album, directly inspired by Tom Petty, with choruses bigger than mountains. It's almost as if Noah and the Whale were bored of pining after Laura Marling and wanted to have some fun...


7) Beyoncé - 4

"Apparently", Beyoncé is a secret math nerd. Her album was called 4, it featured one song called 1+1 and another, Countdown, which was a tribute to Carol Vorderman's mental arithmetic skills [subs - please check].

Less edgy than her previous albums, 4 is steeped in classic soul - from the Randy Crawford-isms of Love On Top, to the Purple Rain grandstanding of 1+1's guitar solo. It all adds up (ha!) to become Beyoncé's most consistent album to date, even though it was apparently sequenced by a monkey stabbing pins into a dartboard.

6) Foster The People - Torches

You might have noticed that this top 10 is a bit oestrogen-y. Well, this is the antidote: A trio of California dudes who aren't shy of a pop hook. They may have been fêted by the indie kids because of their disturbing lyrics and quirky production techniques (he's singing through a megaphone, LOL) - but Foster The People were as shamelessly mainstream as Russell Grant being fired out of a cannon.

5) Metronomy - The English Riviera

The English Riviera opens with the sound of seagulls and a string quartet and ends with a woozy techno ode to Jill Scott. In between, it references Serge Gainsbourg, Ace Of Bass and end-of-pier Wurlitzers. It sounds bonkers - it is bonkers - but it's also a superbly-crafted record, with more musical twists and turns than a bowl of spaghetti.

4) Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes

She's a cheery sort, Lykke Li, declaring "sadness is my boyfriend" and singing wistfully of being "kicked 'til I drown". You have to hope she's seeking professional help... but would a happy, well-adjusted Lykke Li make music as mesmerising as this? From the depraved sexual pounding of Get Some, to the echo-drenched Sadness Is A Blessing, this is the most exciting album about loneliness and depression ever made.

3) Florence and the Machine - Ceremonials

Listening to Florence and the Machine is a bit like standing in a wind tunnel full of kettles - invigorating but painful. Once you get past the bluster and chaos of this over-produced album, however, you might notice that it's rammed full of tunes. Shake It Out is the best song about a horse since Father Ted, while Spectrum showcases Florence's surprisingly versatile vocal range. If there had been a few extra moments of levity - like the frothy Breaking Down - this would have been a contender for number one.

2) Nicola Roberts - Cinderella's Eyes

"I had to call the fireman, my hair was burning bridges.
I'm shooting bullets from my chest. I'm Superwoman, bitches.
And if my balls of steel have got stuck half-way down your pipe,
I brought some KY, time to open, open, open wide."

Dear all other pop stars, you have been served your notice.

Nicola Roberts - Gladiator



1) Adele - 21

Yes, that's right: It's a team ginger triumph in the top three...

She turned up out of the blue, univited, and conquered the planet. 21 is not cool, it is not original, it is not remotely contemporary - but Adele Laurie Blue Adkins' 11 tales of heartbreak, revenge, and more heartbreak and revenge touched millions. It's inspired by soul, gospel and country, but the album is defined by that voice. Adele has a clarity of tone so pure you suspect that, somewhere in the fiery depths of hell, the devil has a tiny leather box with her soul in it. Good album, though.

Adele - Set Fire To The Rain

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Rizzle Kicks vs Foster The People

Those cheeky scamps Rizzle Kicks have been scribbling all over Foster The People's piano-boogie-shout-along Call It What You Want and the results are actually brilliant.

Jordan (he's Rizzle) scatters a cheeky, self-deprecating rap over the top: "My love life's generally crap / I'm a magnet for girls who are mental and mad." While Harley (whose nickname is not Kicks but, er, Sylvester) adds a new counter-melody to the chorus which proves hard to forget when you go back to the original.

Nice work, everyone. Nice work indeed.

Foster The People - Call It What You Want (Rizzle Kicks remix)


Rizzle Kicks went into the top 20 yesterday with their latest single, Mama Do The Hump. If you haven't seen the video yet, you should check it out: The boys' mums do all the lip-syncing duties, and there's a celebrity cameo towards the end.

I won't spoil the surprise but when you see it you're reaction will undoubtedly be: "Oh, him. Of course it would be him."

Rizzle Kicks - Mama Do The Hump

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Foster The People take Gabourey Sidibe for a driving lesson

Foster The People have been turning out great music videos all year - from the "head in a fishbowl" antics of Call It What You Want to the Lord Of The Flies chamber of horror in Helena Beat.

Their latest is no exception. I won't spoil the storyline, but you could say that the clip for Don't Stop (Colour On The Walls) was inspired by Quentin Tarantino's Deathproof.

Ultimately, it distracts you from the song it's supposed to be selling - but, if I had a band, this is exactly the sort of thing I'd be doing with my promo budget.


Foster The People - Don't Stop (Colour On The Walls)

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Foster The People mucking about in a mansion

Warning: Today's video contains scenes of a man ramming his giant fist into a cavernous opening.

Foster The People look like they had a lot of fun making the video for Call It What You Want. Filmed in a stately home and featuring a number of comfortable-looking dressing gowns, it sees singer Mark Foster firing paint at a group of scantily-clad models, drummer Mark Pontius getting fruity with a crimson lipstick, and bassist Cubbie Fink (not his real name, I'd wager) being dragged across a patio by a butler.

There is also a stop-motion sequence where an English breakfast sings the chorus.

It's all rather brilliantly unhinged, in keeping with the title card's statement that "idle minds are the devil's workshop". The song is pretty good, too. Watcg / listen / enjoy / buy.

Foster The People - Call It What You Want

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Foster The People go feral

Foster The People are, according to one of my colleagues, "officially hot". The drummer (left) is hottest, then the guy on bass (middle). But the lead singer (right) hasn't exactly been hit in the face with an ugly stick, either.

Those are actual facts from a journalist.

Anyway, the LA band were bundled into 6 Music Towers today for an acoustic session on Lauren Laverne's show - drawing a crowd of mainly women to see them play tracks from their terrific debut album, Torches. The sanctity of my contract of employment prevents me from posting a video of the event, but luckily they did the exact same set for Sirius XM in the States two months ago. Here's Pumped Up Kicks.

Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks (acoustic)


But that song's old news. We want the new single.

Luckily Flopster The Peephole, as no-one is calling them, have complied by uploading Helena Beat, to YouTube. If the insanely catchy chorus to Pumped Up Kicks drove you... well, insane, you'll be pleased to hear this is slightly more subtle. The melody, stuffed with gratuitous yeah yeah's, is perfectly memorable - it's just that you won't wake up at three in the morning singing it at full volume into your pillow.

Video director Ace Norton (LCD Soundsystem, Santigold) picks up on the song's vaguely sinister lyrics ("I tie my hands up to a chair") with an equally disturbing video. "It's post-apocalyptic," Marcus Foster told MTV. "Lord of the Flies meets Mad Max. So, it's a bunch of kids, and they kidnap us and take us into this warehouse, and there's a really crazy twist at the end...."

WARNING: Contains shots of saggy old man breasts.

Foster The People - Helena Beat

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Superlative "indie pop"

Today's featured tracks, from Lykke Li and Foster The People keep getting described as "indie pop" or "alternative pop". This seems to be hipster code for "songs with big choruses that it's ok to like without being laughed out of the common room". Previous exponents of the genre include MGMT and Peter, Bjorn and John.

I hate this sort of pseudo-scientific categorisation of music into cool and uncool. It's the sort of approach that explains why rock music has just suffered its worst year on the top 40 since 1960. The Beatles, The Kinks, The Smiths, Oasis, Blur - none of them were afraid of a gallumphing great hook. Even venerable indie band template The Velvet Underground had their sights set on the charts (it's just that their aim was a bit wonky).

Looking cool is no subsitute for a great tune. The Kings Of Leon admitted as much recently, when Caleb said the band had nearly erased Use Somebody after realising the chord progression was the same as Joe Cocker's Up Where We Belong. Eventually, they decided the song was too good to lose and - hey presto! - world domination.

In their defence, the current crop of rock bands are probably a direct reaction to the cheeky chappy indie landfill "scene" of 2005-8. No-one wants to be the next Scouting For Girls (and I don't know many people who'd volunteer to be the first). But with new records on the horizon from Franz Ferdinand and the Arctic Monkeys, I'm sure rock will sort itself out by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, we have two new singles to discuss, regardless of their classification.

Swedish popstrudel Lykke Li previews her second album, Wounded Rhymes, with the excellent I Follow Rivers. Already available on iTunes in some countries, it ramps up the percussion of the lascivious Get Some, released as a free download last year. It also adds MASSIVE HANDCLAPS. Have I mentioned before that every song in the history of song would benefit from massive handclaps? Even Candle In The Wind.

Lykke Li - I Follow Rivers


Next we have Foster The People, a quartet from LA who impressed us last year with their catchy summer groove Pumped Up Kicks. This new single, Helena Beat, has a similarly carefree chorus, aligned to a sinister lyric about drinking poison. You may be surprised to learn that the vocals are sung by a man. Do they put oestrogen in California's water supply, or what?

Helena Beat // Foster The People

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