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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A song I like by Gabrielle Aplin

About 18 months ago, a PR spent several weeks politely pestering me about Gabrielle Aplin. The "USP" was that she 16-year-old Gabrielle had recorded some of her favourite songs on YouTube and people quite liked them (This was long before Birdy and Conor Maynard and Charlene Soraia turned breathy, twee YouTube cover versions into a hateful subgenre all of its own).

I passed up the opportunity to write something about Gabrielle that summer. The music was pretty enough, but it felt incomplete. Weirdly, though, I was visiting Bath a couple of weeks later and saw Gabrielle's face plastered all over the town's phone boxes. It turns out she was studying for a diploma in the city and had become something of a big deal on the local music scene. I made a mental note to remember her name.

Fast forward to today, and Gabrielle has just released her first proper single, Home. It's a huge step forward: Her voice is stronger, the instrumentation is more confident, the lyrics are mature. If you're a fan of Emmy The Great or Laura Marling, this might make you go all gooey inside, like a Tunnock's Teacake. The video is below, and the EP is out on 9th January.

Gabrielle Aplin - Home

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