Video: Grimes & Janelle Monae - Venus Fly

"Why are you looking at me?" sings Grimes, dressed as a dayglo cyberpunk Egyptian angel-peacock, while playing a flaming violin. The answer is in the question.

Seriously, though, What a video. What. A. Video.

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Discopop Directory: Top 10 singles of 2016

Hello strangers!

I'm emerging from blog hibernation to post my annual Top 10 list. Hopefully this will prompt a bit more posting in the new year... Fingers crossed.

As usual, my Top 10 is compiled using the play counts in my iTunes library, keeping me honest about the songs I actually listened to, rather than the ones that sound cool. So here they are, in reverse order...

10) Muna - I Know A Place
Brand new girlband Muna put on one of the best shows I saw this year, deep underground in London's Notting Hill - and this was the highlight: A great big exuberant hug for the LGBTQ community (lead singer Katie Gavin wrote a moving essay about the lyrics in Time Magazine, which is well worth a read).

Played live, it's one of those coming together moments, where the whole club - from the cloakroom to the drum riser - jumps up and down in unison. The recorded version loses some of that energy, but emerges as a terrific singalong, nonetheless.




9) Zara Larsson - Lush Life
When I first heard Lush Life, I thought it was Rihanna. But apparently she only does life-affirming pop songs for Calvin Harris these days, leaving an open goal of Zara Larsson to score one of the year's biggest breakthrough hits. Looking forward to the album next year...




8) Shura - What's It Gonna Be?
This would have made it into the Top 10 for the John Hughes-inspired video alone. But luckily What's It Going To Be is also a perfect happysad pop banger in its own right, so everybody wins.




7) Ariana Grande - Into You
I wished Ariana Grande's Dangerous Woman album had been a little bit more... well, dangerous. Imagine if she'd fully committed to the promise of the title track, recording a dozen dusky showtunes, draped over a piano like Michelle Pfieffer in The Fabulous Baker Brothers. It could have been a classic. But then we'd never have gotten this - a sexy, synthy prelude to an historic romp under the sheets.

For once, old cat ears sounded like she just might start purring.




6) Selena Gomez - Hands To Myself
"I mean I could, but why would I want to." It's the sort of line Lauren Bacall would have said to Humphrey Bogart in the 1940s, but in a pop song. Amazing.




5) Drake ft Kyla and WizKid - One Dance
Confession time: I can't stand Drake. His drowsy, monotonous voice is my own personal chloroform. And yet... and yet... One Dance is just so deliciously moreish.

Maybe it's Kyla's coy, come-hither hook; maybe it's that outer space piano; or maybe it's the sinewy, arabesque guitar line. But it gets me every time.



4) Grimes - Kill v Maim
According to Grimes, "Kill v Maim is written from the perspective of Al Pacino in The Godfather Pt II. Except he’s a vampire who can switch gender and travel through space."

Amazingly, it comes close to matching that description; while the visuals look like a Manga cartoon and a sweet shop threw up over Michael Jackson's Bad video. A signpost for the future of pop. In 2187.



3) Christine & The Queens - Tilted
A dance track about being so awkward, your feet won't do what you tell them. A work of genius in both the English and original French versions.




2) Justin Timberlake - Can't Stop The Feeling
Total fluff. A flimsy song for a flimsy film. But put Justin Timberlake in the same room as Max Martin and you're guaranteed some pop magic. Listen to the playful way JT elongates the word "aaaaaaand" in the chorus; Or the casual way they throw in a gargantuan sing-along hook in the last 20 seconds, forcing you to rewind and start again, just to get more of that exquisite sugar rush.




1) Solange - Cranes In The Sky
My favourite single of 2016 was, in fact, written in a hotel room in 2008. An essay on depression and escapism, it was kept in a drawer for eight years, until Solange dusted it off and used it as a template for A Seat At The Table. Like the rest of the album, it's an elegant, dignified response to harrowing experiences, and a truly exceptional song.

I couldn't resist it - and nor could my kids (which might explain the higher-than-expected placing in this countdown, to be fair).

It was a good year for singles. So, if you're interested, the next 10 would have been:

11) Beyoncé - Hold Up
12) Radiohead - Burn The Witch
13) Ariana Grande - Dangerous Woman
14) The Chainsmokers ft Halsey - Closer
15) Rag N Bone Man - Human
16) Lady Gaga - Million Reasons
17) The Weeknd ft Daft Punk - Starboy
18) All Saints - One Strike
19) Lissie - Don't You Give Up On Me
20) Glass Animals - Life Itself

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Video: Grimes - California

"The things they see in me, I cannot see myself
When you get bored of me, I'll be back on the shelf.."
California is a disconcertingly upbeat song that functions as a "hate track" about the music industry. In particular, it's aimed at the indie music blogs who, Grimes told Sirius Radio, constantly mis-represent her as "sad" and "insecure" and not in control of her own career.



So let's be clear. This is not a sad song. It's defiant and angry and resilient - even if it's wrapped up in a sugar-sweet melody and lilting dancehall beat.

"It’s sonically as uncool as I could make it. Kind of a hoedown vibe," Grimes told The New Yorker. "Kind of a hoedown vibe.

"I took a couple of shots of tequila and did it—and ended up crying, alone, later in the night."

The video, which premiered last night, conveys none of that angst - with Grimes dancing in a sculptor's studio, performing on stage in Rhinestones and frolicking in a dayglo gymnasium. It also features a re-recorded version of the song, which takes a more circuitous route to the climax than the original but is all the better for it.

Grimes explained on Twitter that the footage was "dissonant" with the original track, forcing her to record an alternate version. Now that's dedication.

had to re do track because when I looked at the footage it was dissonant w the original song, song elicits no visuals in my mind naturally

— Grimes (@Grimezsz) May 9, 2016

And after all that waffle, here is the video itself.

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Songs you may have missed... Bumper edition

Hello, I have woken from my slumber and discovered a sackful (technical term) of brand new music waiting for me. Here's what you (I) missed during the last three weeks of inactivity.

1) Little Mix - Hair
In which we discover that Little Mix wear slinky lingerie and full make-up for a girls' night in. Of course they do.




2) Roisin Murphy - Mastermind
When she said there was a ton of material left over from last year's Hairless Toys, it turns out she wasn't lying. This is the first single from a new album called, intriguingly, Take Her Up To Monto.





3) Taylor Swift - New Romantics
Accompanied by a video that is the dictionary definition of "will this do?"




4) Carly Rae Jepsen - Boy Problems
Nice mullet.




5) Grimes - A full gig by Grimes
This is amazing. A complete half-hour live set, direct from the BBC's Maida Vale studios.




6) DNCE - Cake By The Ocean
I'm sure you're aware of this one by now - but the video version is much more sweary.




7) Honne and Izzy Bizu - Someone That Loves You
Dreamy electro-soul, with an undercurrent of unrequited lust. This is sublime.




8) Slowolf ft Kimbra - White Feathers
Danish producer Slowolf is a drummer - and it really shows on this jittery, polyrhythmic potboiler. Kimbra provides an impassioned vocal, and it's all recorded live in a scrapyard for some reason.




9) Michael Kiwanuka - Black Man In A White World
The BBC's Sound of 2012 is back, still sounding like the sound of 1971. I still maintain he's found a vault of unreleased Bill Withers tracks and is pretending they're his own material.




10) Will.i.am ft Pia Mia - Girls & Boys
If you put 1,000,000 will.i.am's in front of 1,000,000 laptops, one of them will eventually write an above average pop song. And here it is.




11) Broods - Free
New Zealand brother-sister duo Broods have upped the ante with this, the first single from their second album. Free is strident, powerful and ever-so-slightly abrasive - the sort of thing that would have been perfect on The Hunger Games soundtrack.




12) Blossoms - Getaway
Blossoms are the indie band most likely to cross over in 2016, and for good reason. Never shy of a melody, and fortuitously telegenic, they're a music programmer's dream. Getaway is their catchiest single yet, and it comes with a video that appears to be a lost episode of 1980s spookfest Dramarama.



13) Rihanna - Kiss It Better
The director says this is inspired by "surrealism and dadaism" - which is funny, because I don't remember either of those previously being associated with soft porn.



14) El El - Animal
This slice of summery, feel-good indiepop reminds me of MGMT (when they were good) Phoenix (when they were good) and Empire of the Sun (when they were good). So check out this eight-piece Nashville band before they go completely off the boil.

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PJ Harvey returns and 13 other songs you may have missed

A long-delayed return for a regular discopop feature, rounding up songs that have slipped under the radar in the last seven (or in this case 21) days.

Here we go, here we go, here we go now.

1) PJ Harvey - The Wheel
Four years after Let England Shake, PJ Harvey is still looking into the effects of war. This track was inspired by a visit to Kosovo, and references the thousands of children who disappeared during the conflict there. It opens with a squall of guitar and saxophone, but gives way to a lithe melody, underpinned by handclaps and a tribal drumbeat. Truly brilliant.




2) Grimes - Hate v Maim
Frankly, Grimes's squad looks a hell of a lot more intimidating than Taylor Swift's.




3) Spring King - Who Are You?
Manchester's Spring King were the first band to be played on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 show - and you can see why. This infectious, spritely indie-pop is the opening first track if you're making someone a mixtape this weekend.

Fun fact: The saxophone solo is played by the bassist's dad.




4) Laura Mvula - Overcome (ft Nile Rodgers)
Simply stunning. I can't recommend this highly enough.





5) Omarion - I Ain't Even Done (ft Ghostface Killah)
Silky rhymes and a laid-back flutestramental - this is a perfect throwback to the Wu Tang sound. Omarion calls it "high level vernacular" and "a generational victory". Well, quite.






6) Selena Gomez - Can't Keep My Hands To Myself
I mean I could but why would I want to?




7) Bryson Tiller - Don't
Kentucky-born Bryson Tiller recorded this bruising R&B jam in his living room, then watched it rack up 17 million Soundcloud plays in 10 months. Soon, Timbaland and Drake got on the phone and co-signed him to a record deal; and now the song is starting to get play on mainstream radio.

The lyrics see Bryson make an impassioned plea for a girl to leave an abusive relationship and settle down with him - but he rather undermines the gesture by singing about her "pussy" in the second verse.




8) Natalie Merchant - Tiny Desk Concert
A great big warm hug of a performance.





9) Låpsley - Love Is Blind
19-year-old Låpsley sounds older than her years on this mournful song "about someone being blind to the inevitability of a relationship ending". A gorgeous ballad, it showcases her husky contralto - and could easily be her breakout hit.




10) Rationale - Something For Nothing (Radio 1 Future Festival)
JUST LISTEN TO THAT VOICE.





11) Ekkah - Small Talk
I've been following Birmingham's Rebecca Wilson and Rebekah Pennington for a while now - and this vibrant synthpop banger is their first single after being signed to Sony / RCA. The video gives off a distinct Bananarama vibe - but the early, cool Bananarama, rather than the SAW-era cheese.





12) Ellie Goulding - Army
A touching ode to Ellie's best friend (and PA) Hannah. "The person who has seen me at my lowest and the first person I call in muffled sobs when something bad happens. We've been deliriously happy together, deliriously tired and deliriously sad together. I wanted to show our friendship for what it really is- honest, real, electric." Aw, bless.





13) The 1975 - The Sound
It's always a worry when a rock group "goes pop". Like dramatic actors trying their hand at comedy, they usually discover it's not as easy as it looks. (A case in point is Coldplay's new album - which is an excruciating exercise in forced jollity.) Luckily, The 1975 get it just right. The chunky 1990s piano sound and the ebullient arms-aloft chorus are designed to kick off at a hundred festivals this summer.




14) Adele - Carpool Karaoke
OK, you've probably seen this already - the YouTube count has reached 50 million in the space of a week - but it remains an absolute joy.

And that's your lot. Have a fantastic weekend!

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Lots of people released surprise songs for Christmas

It wasn't just The Beatles who had a Christmas surprise up their sleeves. All your favourite artists (and Green Day) sent out free gifts over the festive break. Here they are, for anyone who wasn't using Twitter to avoid their relatives...

LCD Soundsystem - Christmas Will Break Your Heart
James Murphy says: "'Christmas Will Break Your Heart," is another one of those songs which had about 75 lines of lyrics, though we've knocked down to 8 to keep the suicide rate in check."




Tove Lo - Influence
Tove says: "2015 started off in silence with my vocal chord operation and slowly gaining back my voice. I wanna thank you for being so supportive and giving me so much love during this time... by giving you a little taste of what’s coming. Enjoy my new song "INFLUENCE" [she means Influence]. First song I wrote this year after the surgery. Let’s get ready for 2016 together."






Radiohead - Spectre
Thom Yorke says:

Last year we were asked to write a tune for Bond movie Spectre. Yes we were ...........

— Thom Yorke (@thomyorke) December 25, 2015

... It didn't work out ... but became something of our own which we love very much ....

— Thom Yorke (@thomyorke) December 25, 2015

.. As the year closes we thought you might like to hear it. Merry Christmas. May the force be with you ... https://t.co/BXN8MQKJyQ

— Thom Yorke (@thomyorke) December 25, 2015

The Weeknd + Future - Low Life
The Weeknd says: "Merry Xmas"





Miley Cyrus - My Sad Christmas Song
Miley says: "Out nowwwwww on SoundCloud!!!"




Timbaland - King Stays King mixtape
Timbo says: "Aaliyah.. This is for you baby." [NB: This features an actually fantastic, unreleased Aaliyah song called Shakin']




Grimes - Fifteen Minutes To
Grimes says: "We have found this song long time ago but we had decided to keep it hidden till now, cuz someone else found it and kindly share it to us."

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Two sides of the artpop coin

So, two big names in the "alt pop" game have released new videos this week. One is waifish electro pixie Grimes, whose gossamer-thin melodies and hypnotic, polychromatic arrangements have won her fans from Rihanna to Lena Dunham. The other is shapeshifting Danish songstress MØ, riding high off the success of Lean On, her global smash collaboration with Major Lazer.

Both songs are pristine examples of gusty, cutting-edge, outsider pop. But the videos - which are ostensibly similar - have polar opposite effects on me. Each is heavily-stylised, with the singers and their friends dancing through surreal dreamscapes. The costumes and scenarios mix high fashion and dark nightmares. In Kamikaze, MØ is pictured atop a throne made of golden car tyres in a derelict Ukrainian high rise; In Flesh Without Blood, Grimes, dressed as Marie Antoinette, spends half of her video bleeding to death on a tennis court.

The difference is small, but crucial. MØ looks like she's posing for a shoot in iD, the video aggressively screaming, "this is cool and if you watch it you will be cool too." Grimes, on the other hand, lets a smile play across her face throughout the whole thing, in a way that says, "everyone is welcome at this party, but could you please wear a powdered wig 'for the lols?'"

You might disagree (maybe you really, really want to be cool - who am I to judge?) So watch below and make your own mind up.

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REALiTi bites

Grimes is pulling off a tricky balancing act at the moment. Beloved of blogs everywhere for her off-kilter cyborg pop, she's edging ever closer towards mainstream melodies and song structures. But, crucially, she's retaining that un-pindownable magic that makes her songs so beguiling.

Last year, she released the excellent Go, her most commercial-sounding record to date, with the caveat that it had been written for (and rejected by) Rihanna. Her newest release, REALiTi, shows that she's still working in that vein - with a hook-laden top line and (mostly) decipherable lyrics. The chorus: "Every morning there are mountains to climb," seems particularly apt for a Monday morning.

According to the singer's website, this isn't an official single - but a "special thank you" to everyone who went to see her 2013 Asian tour, which kicked off two years ago today.

"This song was never finished," she says. "It's a demo from ~ the lost album ~ recorded early 2013. "I lost the ableton file, so it's not mixed or mastered. I tried to doctor the mp3 into a listenable state, but it was poorly recorded in the first place and never meant to be heard by anyone, so it's a bit of a mess haha."

Nonsense. This is lovely.

Grimes - REALiTi

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Grimes recorded a big daft Christmas song on Christmas Day

"My dad is making me watch a Bowie documentary and is standing directly in front of the TV singing along to it," tweeted pop singer (and part-time Christmas decoration) Grimes the other day.

So it's no small wonder that every year, she and her stepbrother Jay Worthy excuse themselves from Christmas dinner to make new music.

A previous attempt, Christmas Song, showed up as an iTunes bonus track on Grimes' 2012 LP Visions and she uploaded this year's effort, Christmas Song II (Grinch), to YouTube on Saturday.

"This is NOT a single from the upcoming album, not a serious piece of art in any capacity and not an official grimes release," she noted. Also — made this song in prob less than 2 hours so please excuse my terrible production, + it is not mixed or mastered."

Caveats aside, this is unspeakably cute, if rather sweary.

Grimes - Christmas Song II (Grinch)

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Video of the week: Grimes - Go

If you boiled BBC Four's excellent Kate Bush documentary down to a sentence, it was this: "Kate Bush is really rather good, and here are lots of musicians we found who were prepared to say so".

But the progamme's other big point was that Kate Bush succeeded because she cut her own path. Those swooping, hollering vocals; the bizarre key changes; the adventurous instrumentation - no-one else had ever sounded like that before. That's why she was the first woman to score a self-penned number one in the UK, and that's why her comeback concerts have been so enthusiastically reviewed, despite sounding like an excruciating evening of utter bollocks experimental theatre.

Near the beginning of the documentary Elton John is interviewed about Wuthering Heights. "It was not your normal song," he says, "but that's why it was so brilliant. It was great to hear something out of the norm. Things like that don't come along very often. I mean, when has the next Kate Bush come along after Kate Bush? There hasn't been one."

I don't quite agree - Bjork redefined pop in the 1990s with the same cavalier disregard for the rules; and you could argue Kanye West did the same thing for rap in the 2000s. But those sorts of talents are truly once-in-a-generation.

Someone who could manage it for the 2010s is Grimes: A sonic innovator, with a preternaturally assured approach to the way she presents herself and her music. She hasn't quite crossed over to the mainstream yet but, as her new single shows, she has the pop nous to have a go... Assuming that's what she wants.

As noted here before, Go was written for and rejected by Rihanna. But it works better with Grimes' wispy, waspy vocals. The video, coincidentally, looks like something Kate Bush might put together if she was 19-years-old in 2014.

Grimes - Go (ft Blood Diamonds)

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Grimes is Go and 14 other songs you may have missed

After a week away and a major music festival, there's plenty of great music to catch up with in this edition of "songs you may have missed". 

I've included a few clips from Glastonbury, mixed up with songs that premiered during my self-imposed blog absence.

It all begins with the welcome return of the artist currently known to her parents as Claire Boucher.

1) Grimes - Go (ft Blood Dragon)
Written for (and rejected by) Rihanna, this is the most straightforward, bubbly pop song Grimes has ever released. She describes it as a "summer jam" and she's not wrong. It's available as a free download from her website right now.




2) Ellie Goulding - I Need Your Love (acoustic at Glastonbury)
Yes, she's a fully-fledged dance diva these days but I still maintain Ellie's voice is best suited to this sort of musical arrangement. Bring on the 2018 acoustic album.




3) Usher - Good Kisser (Disclosure remix)
Better than the original. Try not to think about the lyrics.





4) Craig David - Cold
Is it time for a Craig David revival? Are you missing the Flava? Are the crowd saying Bo Selecta? Who knows, but this song is 100% not shit.

5) Amy Milner - Have It All
Newcomer Amy Milner took my breath away with this luscious, dreamy piano ballad. It's simple - almost predictably so - but there's a moment where the backing vocals kick in that indicates a compositional genius at work.

Amy is unsigned right now but she's getting some support from BBC Intriducing in her native Sussex. One to watch.






6) Becky G - Shower
This sounds like a monster hit to me. Co-written by Dr Luke, it's got a "why did no-one think of this before" lyric ('you got me singing in the shower') and a "la-da-dee" vocal hook that will burrow into your grey matter and establish an independent republic. You have been warned.





7) Jurassic 5 - Improvise (live at Glastonbury)
Gutted I missed this one... Taking four MCs and make 'em sound like one.





8) Cate Le Bon - Sisters (live at Glastonbury)
Isn't it strange how the Welsh accent occasionally sounds French when you're singing?

9) Broods - LAF
It stands for "Loose As Fuck", and it contains a Spice Girls reference in the second verse. What's not to love?





10) Kelis - Friday Fish Fry (live at Glastonbury)
One of the few performances I actually got to see at Glastonbury this year was Kelis's feel-good, big band soul revue. A highlight in the sunlight.




11) Tiann - Devil's Touch
Subtle, melodious R&B that is - praise the lord - not at all dark and depressing. An refreshing antidote to the mopey soul of Banks and Drake and their "ilk".






12) Kiesza - Giant In My Heart
A companion piece to Arcade Fire's We Exist video, with a deep house soundtrack. Heartwarming.

13) Manic Street Preachers - Motorcycle Emptiness (live at Glastonbury)
This is magnificent. Why they were below Jake Bugg on the bill is a mystery and a crime.





14) Sam Smith - How Will I Know (Whitney Houston cover)
Thanks, Sam, for stripping every ounce of joy and vibrancy out of this song. Thanks a bundle.





15) Wolf Alice - Radio 1 Rocks, full set
London grunge-rock revivalists Wolf Alice recorded this blistering session for Radio 1's Rock week last month, but I've only just caught up with it.

All five songs in the set are magnificent but fast forward to the end for a brand new, untitled track which is a full-throated screamathon of brilliance.

PHEW! That was a lot to get through. Well done if you persevered to the bitter end!

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Discopop Directory: Top 10 albums of 2012

Happy New Year!

As 2012 disappears in the rear view mirror, I've tackled my iTunes library to see which albums I listened to most. There are a few surprises (I don't remember listening to this much Michael Kiwanuka) and some glaring omissions (Emeli Sande - presumably because she was on TV so often it rendered the album redundant).

But I am glad to say the Frank Ocean album didn't make the top 10 because, let's be honest, it's patchy and inconsistent and that Forrest Gump song is utter balls.


10) Jack White - Blunderbuss

Where would rock be without failed relationships? From Fleetwood Mac's Rumours to Amy Winehouse's Back To Black, other people's tragedies have inspired some of pop's best songs. Jack White is no exception - his break-up from Karen Elson fuelling his first solo album. It is by no means a coincidence that it's his best work since The White Stripes' Elephant.

"When they tell you that they just can't live without you," he sings at one point. "They ain't lyin', they'll take pieces of you". The lyrics on this album prompted one newspaper to write a hysterical rant about White's supposed misogyny. Admittedly, it seems cruel that he made his ex-wife sing the backing vocals, but there's more to this album than a crude hatred of women. Blunderbuss is blistering with hurt, fury and cynicism - and it's all the better for it.



9) Scissor Sisters - Magic Hour

"You may not hear this on MTV," sings Jake Shears on Best In Me. "No big deal. Fine by me." Sadly, he was right - programmers on radio and TV never really threw their weight behind this album, leading the band to announce they were going on "indefinite hiatus" at the end of the year. If Magic Hour proves to be their swansong, at least it was a good one. Highlights included the Neptunes-produced Inevitable and the sleazy Shady Love, featuring Azealia Banks.



8) Alt-J - An Awesome Wave

Proving that singing like Kermit The Frog needn't necessarily be a handicap, Alt-J walked away with the Mercury Prize in November. An Awesome Wave is one of those records that makes awards committees feel smart, with its intricate pararhythms, lyrics about maths, and a capella interludes. But it wears it lightly, burying all the trickery beneath some gorgeous tunes, in particular the hit single Tessellate. Which is about interlocking body parts, of course.





7) Michael Kiwanuka - Home Again

Poor old Michael Kiwanuka. A winner of numerous hyperbolic "sound of" polls in January, his profile seemed to flatline around Valentine's Day. He probably prefers it that way, though. Home Again is shot through with a sunny spirituality that megastardom would have destroyed... Listening back to the album this morning, I was struck by how the sepia-tinged Al Green grooves would have been the perfect soundtrack to the summer. If only we'd had one.



6) Grimes - Visions

Grimes is Canada's Claire Boucher, and Visions is her third album. It sounds so completely unlike anything else that critics all seemed to come unstuck trying to review it. "The sound of an internal war," said the NME. Pitchfork described it as "post-internet" and if you can work out what this reviewer (who actually uses the vomit-inducing phrase "wet dream pop") is on about, I will give you £10.

The Onion's AV Club got it right for me, calling the album "a cryptic blur of impressions" - capturing the way Boucher's floaty, ephemeral vocals and echo-drenched electro beats slowly coalesced into a work of sublime, unhinged genius.



5) Marina & The Diamonds - Electra Heart

Marina went off to LA to construct this album with top-flight songwriters like Greg Kurstin and Rick "Belinda Carlisle" Nowles and, by God, did it produce results. The first 30 minutes of the album are flawless - the best "side one" of the year.

Electra Heart was initially touted as a "concept" - something to do with American femme fatale archetypes - but, as Marina later confessed, all it's really about is "being young and being in love with someone who doesn't love you". It's the female counterpart to Jack White's break-up album - but with monstrous godzilla pop hooks destroying everything in their path. Awesome.



4) The Staves - Dead and Born and Grown

The Staves were my bandcrush of the year, even if everyone else ignored them (this album crept into the charts at number 42 for a single week). Three sisters from Watford, they perform bluegrass-inspired folk harmonies with unnerving clarity and beauty. Their debut album was produced by Ethan Johns (Laura Marling) and his dad Glyn (The Beatles) but all these veteran knob-twiddlers really had to do was sit back and let Staveley siblings sing. Uncluttered and beguiling, Dead And Born And Grown is like snuggling up under a warm duvet on a stormy night.



3) Regina Spektor - What We Saw From The Cheap Seats

At first it seemed underwhelming - Regina retreading old ground and even recycling old tunes (Ne Me Quitte Pas first appeared, in a very different guise, on 2002's Songs). But What We Saw From The Cheap Seats was one of those albums that kept calling me back. In particular, the heartbreaking ballad How, about fading memories of love, and All The Rowboats, written from the point of view of a painting in a museum. It's a subtle record, refining rather than reinventing Regina's style, but it will take root in your soul.





2) Jessie Ware - Devotion

People compared her to Sade. That was unfair. Jessie Ware's album had more blood and grit than anything Sade ever produced - from its rumbling sub bass, to the self-sacrifice in Taking In Water. The sensual Wildest Moments was my single of the year, while 110% is the best song about dancing on your own since Robyn's... Dancing On My Own.

One of the few R&B albums of the year to make any kind of attempt at melody, Devotion rivals Solange's Losing You in signposting where the genre should head in 2013.




1) Lana Del Rey - Paradise

What the top three albums on this list have in common is that the artist has carved out a sound that is instantly, undeniably their own. Lana Del Rey's debut album is equal parts 1950s torch songs, hip-hop insouciance, and the car crash scene from Great Gatsby. Half of the songs here wouldn't work if they were sung by a pitch-perfect X Factor melisma-meister - they need that louche, knowing wink that Lana delivers in her ridiculously affected drawl.

All the brouhaha about her "authenticity" seems ridiculous with the benefit of hindsight. In fact, the confidence and self-belief it took to construct Born To Die's noir pop aesthetic is more authentic than a million Jake Bugg albums. Oh, and the songs are amazing: Video Games, Off To The Races, National Anthem, Blue Jeans, Summertime Sadness. Brilliant work that reveals new secrets even on the 50th listen.

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Muse briefly stop being rubbish, and three other songs you may havemissed

... And you'd better enjoy them because I'm off on holiday for an ENTIRE WEEK.

Due to time constraints, the summaries of the following songs have been provided by the internet, in its infinite, illiterate wisdom.

1) Muse - Madness
"Devastatingly, arrestingly beautiful." (Music City Post)

"More hints of Queen." (Shaved Tuna)

"Excuse me for sounding a little behind the times, but what the fuck is Dubstep anyway?" (Kingoftheorient - YouTube)




2) Leona Lewis ft Childish Gambino - Trouble
"Trouble was co-written with Emeli Sandé and bears a slight resemblance to her debut hit, Heaven." (Michael Cragg - The Guardian)

"OMG LEONA AND CHILDISH GAMBINO. OMG OMG OMG I CANT." (Lx3 - Twitter)

"Her hair is a mess." (DiEEnE - Popjustice forum)




3) Little Mix - We Are Young
"I couldn't believe what I was watching." (BodyElectric - Digital Spy)

"The first girl the camera focuses on looks like she does not have a single thought in her head." (wotyougot)

"I've eaten one dog biscuit in my life, but who hasn't eaten a dog biscuit?" (Perrie from Little Mix)




4) Grimes - Genesis
"A bit weird" (Addict Music)
"Balls-out crazy." (Idolator)
"Fucking nuts." (Stereogum)

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We're off on a Grimes spree

Here is the sum total of what we know about much-hyped electronic musician Grimes.

:: She is really called Clare Boucher.

:: Clare comes from Montreal. Montreal's most famous resident is currently Peter "voice of Optimus Prime" Cullen.

:: She describes her sound as "post-internet" which is a fancy way of saying "a bit weird".

:: Grimes also admits that the soundtrack to Disney's Pocahontas was a big influence on her songwriting.

Just Around The River Bend from Pocahontas


:: She has signed a deal with record label 4AD which, since her music has certain sonic similarities to the Cocteau Twins, is very fitting.

:: Her debut album Visions is due out this year. She says it is "the best work I've ever done. The only work I'm actually proud of and not embarrassed to show people".

:: Before all of that, there is the matter of a new single, which she has called Genesis in a probably-not-really tribute to Phil Collins.

:: When you hear this song, you will think, "this is one of those broody, loopy electronic tracks that passes the time quite nicely but is otherwise totally forgettable".

:: By the time it finishes, you will have changed your mind.

Grimes - Genesis

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