14 songs you may have missed: Demi Lovato falls over edition

A semi-regular round-up of noteworthy songs, videos, and musical ephemera from the blog's "to do" list.

Lots of great new songs here, proving that 2015 isn't going to be quite the dud it seemed two months ago.

1) Demi Lovato - Cool For The Summer (lyric video)
In pop, the smallest details matter. Here, it's the portamento on the phrase "body type" that transforms the chorus from predictable to phenomenal.

After you watch the lyric video, you may also wish to see this out-take, in which Demi takes a nasty fall then totally styles it out by diving into a pool. Classy.

#NOTCoolForTheSummer #FuckIt 😂😂😂😂

A video posted by Demi Lovato (@ddlovato) on Jul 5, 2015 at 2:16pm PDT

2) Example - Whisky Town
For those of you who don't live in London, this is what the morning commute is like EVERY DAY.






3) Kwabs - Fight For Love
I thought this was going to be a yawnsomely earnest electro-soul track - but then the hop-skip chorus came along and swept me off my feet. Delightful stuff.






4) Jess Glynne - Don't Be So Hard On Yourself
And stop comfort eating, too, you're looking fat.





5) Melissa Steel - You Love Me (ft Wretch 32)
A year after Melissa Steel scored a top 10 hit with Kisses For Breakfast, she returns with this irrepresible Rodney Jerkins-produced track. Would sound perfect while dancing under a sprinkler on a scorching hot summer day.






6) Little Mix - Black Magic (acoustic)
Damn, those girls can sing.






7) Sigala - Easy Love
I'm not sold on this - but it sounds like it'll be massive. A balls-out Balearic anthem that chops up Michael Jackson's vocals from ABC to impressive effect.







8) Janet Jackson - No Sleeep (lyric video)
A "glimpse into our creative space" or "a surprisingly low budget lyric video". You decide.





9) Leon Bridges - Smooth Sailin'
In lesser hands, Leon Bridges' retro-fitted soul would be a kitsch curiosity. But that voice. Man, that voice.






10) Eden XO - Torn / Don't Stop Believin'
It's Natalie Imbruglia's Torn! It's Journey's Don't Stop Believing! It's a new song in its own right! It's better than it could have been!






11) Rob Madin - Amnesia Du Soleil
AKA The bloke of Brett Domino, who's surprisingly joke-averse solo material is worth a listen. Also, the video stars Legs & Co.





12) Hudson Mohawke - Warriors (ft. Ruckazoid & Devaeux)
Kanye's right-hand man. Large on hooks, low on subtlety.




13) SVE - BLKNBL
The title stands for Black and Blue, fact fans.





14) Iris Gold - Goldmine
One to watch. More importantly, one to listen to.

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Video: Tinie Tempah - Not Letting Go

The sun is out and London looks stunning in Tinie Tempah's new single, Not Letting Go.

Speaking to 1Xtra earlier this month, Mr Tempah said the track was recorded "a while ago" before guest vocalist Jess Glynne became a bankable star in her own right.

"I was doing the session with Bless Beats and Jess Glynne was there," he told Mistajam. "I was like, 'if you like it, put a hook down'. And now we have this record!"

The rapper also confessed the song was about "a romance I had last summer. Summertime in London is the best time in the world."

Apart from cocktail hour in Anguilla, obviously.

Tinie Tempah - Not Letting Go (ft Jess Glynne)

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Drake, Beyonce and 13 other songs you may have missed

A semi-regular round-up of tracks I overlooked over the last week - some good, some bad, some unusual.

This week's star guests include:

1) Drake and Beyonce - Can I
Described perfectly by Vice as "a fat drizzle of maple syrup over an already delicious pancake stack".



2) Little Mix - Pretty Girls
Wondering what the Iggy / Britney song would have sounded like if Little Mix (who wrote the flipping thing) actually recorded it?

Well, wonder no more because The band performed an a capella snippet on Capital FM the other day, evidence of which is below.

Note that they need lyric sheets. Tsk. The youth of today, etc, etc.

New queens! Soooo flipping cute @LittleMix do #PrettyGirls #Instaoki @britneyspears @IGGYAZALEA 👏👏👏😜❤️ pic.twitter.com/H79ujXTUAG

— MAX (@ThisIsMax) May 24, 2015

3) Sigma ft Ella Henderson - Glitterball
More chilled than Sigma's standard sound, but a perfect fit for Ella's liquid vocals.





4) Wolf Alice - Bros
Echoing the lyrics, this is an Instagram-filtered tribute to childhood friends.

It's all a bit Dramarama (ask your dad) but the song brilliant.





5) Walk The Moon - Shut Up and Dance
A big, dumb pop song by a big, dumb rock band. It's going to be everywhere this summer.





6) Kendrick Lamar - These Walls (live on Ellen)
Kendrick turned up on Ellen's chat show for this faultless performance of To Pimp A Butterfly's most melodic moment (accompanied, for no discernible reason, by a portrait artist painting a dancing couple).

Afterwards, the rapper talked "fascinatingly" about his collaboration with Taylor Swift. "I've always been a fan of hers, and she was a fan of my music and she reached out and we got it done."

You can see both below.





7) D.R.A.M. - Cha Cha
Namedrop aleert: This was recommended to me by Lucas from Lionbabe, during an interview for the Beeb (it goes up tomorrow, I think).

It's one of those songs that succeeds despite itself. You'll find yourself involuntarily smiling as D.R.A.M. raps drowsily over an elevator-grade mariachi song and samples from Super Mario Bros.

D.R.A.M. stands for "Does Real Ass Music", by the way. Of course it does.






8) Bonnie McKee - Bombastic
"It’s a summer banger and the video is hopefully going to break the internet," Bonnie McKee told Billboard shortly before this song was released.

The internet remains unaffected in the 48 hours since it premiered, but if you ever wondered what an Avril Lavigne / Lady Gaga duet would sound like, you've found the song you're looking for.




9) Aston Merrygold - Get Stupid
Aiming for: Bruno Mars.
Achieving: Peter Andre.






10) Mark Ronson - I Can't Lose (Duke Dumont mix)
The story behind I Can't Lose is great. Mark Ronson co-wrote it with Jeff Bhasker (Alicia Keys' Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart) but they didn't have anyone to sing it. Instead of trawling Soundcloud, they went on a roadtrip in an Astro Van, driving up the Mississippi and stopping in Baton Rouge, Jackson, Memphis, Little Rock, St Louis and Chicago.

They heard "a few hundred amazing singers but we had a very specific vocalist in mind," he told The Guardian, "and when Keyone [Starr] came in the room in Jackson, MI and started singing, we realised she was the one."

Now the song has some added donk from Duke Dumont. And who amongst us can argue with added donk?







11) Asha - We Can Do This
Former street dance teacher and current vocalist Asha has released this kick-ass soul jam as her debut single.

With a coy, tremulous vocal she delivers the hackneyed line "can't nobody love you like me" in a way that makes it believable. Classy stuff.






12) Alesha Dixon - The Way We Are
Better than it has any right to be, Alesha's comeback slots nicely into the deep house revival while failing to stand out on its own merits.

Great dancing in the video, though.






13) Jess Glynne - Hold My Hand (live at the Big Weekend)
Worth it just to see the two kids, pressed up against the barrier at their first ever concert, gustily singing the wrong words.




14) Blur - Girls & Boys (live du Grand Journal)
"So apparently it was requested, this song," says Damon Albarn, looking for all the world like he'd rather be singing backup for Olly Murs.

Well, screw him. This is excellent.

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Tinie Tempah: Not Letting Go

He's back! And he's remembered how to make a catchy single again!

It's everyone's favourite London MC Tinie Tempah, with a shiny, upbeat love song - a refreshing change from the hand-wringing "I'm famous and it's horrible" lyrics on his last album.

With a sample from James Brown's Funky Drummer, a hook from Jess Glynne, and a reliably tongue-in-cheek verse from Mr Tempah ("I hope I'm still with you when your hair gets thinner") Never Letting Go a refreshingly summery track. Which was the intention all along, apparently.

"I've been a fan of Jess since I heard her song Home," said Tinie in a press release announcing the single. "We met properly at the Brits last year and spoke about doing something together. Both being Londoners, I wanted to make a song that captured that London summertime feeling which is always the best time of the year for me and the time where I've had my most romantic experience. So it's an ode to a girl I met and our experiences in this amazing city we call home - London!"

Listen below. Never Letting Go is out in the summer.

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Songs you may have missed: Making up for lost time edition

Hello, and apologies for the temporary hiatus - which was mostly self-enforced due to half term and the Oscars, and partly actually enforced by nasty bout of Norovirus.

BUT ENOUGH ABOUT ME HERE IS SOME MUSIC.

1) Rihanna - Towards The Sun
Nice to hear a more optimistic Rihanna on this track - taken from the soundtrack to the DreamWorks animation Home (which seems like it might be Jim Parson's Aladdin).

Turn your face towards the sun," she sings. "Let the shadows fall behind you." It's a midtempo banger that's crying out for a dreamy Penguin Prison remix.






2) Ed Sheeran - Dirrrty (live lounge cover)
I will personally give Ed Sheeran £500 if he plays this at tomorrow night's Brits wearing Christina Aguilera's ass chaps.





3) George The Poet - Cat D
George The Poet has noticed something. Certain people are damaged - but you don't notice because they project an aura of confidence.

He's noticed something else, too. Some second hand cars aren't as good as they're made out to be. AND THAT'S A BIT LIKE PEOPLE, ISN'T IT?

At first, you think he's going to stretch this tortured metaphor to breaking point. Then he goes way beyond that. And then, somehow, it comes full circle and becomes rather touching. Odd, but brilliant.





4) Calvin Harris ft Haim - Pray To God
I am firmly of the belief that Haim can do no wrong.





5) Clare Maguire - Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?
I naturally recoil from anything recorded "especially for Burberry" - but, oh hell, Clare's voice on this could melt the icecaps. Astonishing work on the Carole King / Gerry Goffin classic.

And note that this is a live vocal. Fucking hell.






6) Blur - Go Out
Oh, I do wish Damon Albarn would stop singing in that "won't someone please just give me a hug" whine. But, hey, it's nice to hear his increasingly polite melodies being scuzzed up by Graham Coxon's deliberately atonal guitar lines, even if it's just for old times' sake.

This is from the band's first new album in 12 years, The Magic Whip, which is a great title.





7) Kanye West - Wolves (ft Sia and Vic Mensa)
Imagine if Kanye just turned up at the Brits, played this, then dropped a new album on iTunes. It won't happen. But imagine if it did. (It won't).

(But imagine).





8) Jess Glynne - Hold My Hand
I'm as much a fan of the handbag house revival as the next man, but it's nice to hear Jess Glynne drawing inspiration from Shanice's I Love Your Smile, too.





9) U2 - Every Breaking Wave
The one Noel Gallagher called "a fucking tune". The one you shouldn't have deleted from iTunes in a fit of pique because Bono is a twerp. The one that's about "the troubles".

The video is awesome, too: Shot by Belfast-born director Aoife McArdle, it video depicts a Catholic boy who falls in love with a Protestant girl at a punk show in 1980s Northern Ireland until (you guessed it) their burgeoning romance is torn apart by the realities of the troubles.




10) Hozier - Problem (Ariana Grande cover)
It's a cover that makes you realise how astonishing Ariana Grande's tonsils are... Nice switch into Warren G's Regulate at the end, too.





11) Lennon and Maisy - Boom Clap
Lennon and Maisy are the singing siblings who play Maddie and Daphne in country music soap opera Nashville. Their Charli XCX cover was uploaded to YouTube just before the show returned from a mid-season hiatus in the US - and the lush, folky harmonies give the song new life.





12) Ariana Grande - One Last Time
We're definitely in fourth single from a hit album territory here, but the apocalyptic video is something of a surprise.




13) Chvrches - Cry Me A River (live lounge cover)
Taking a break from recording their second album, Chvrches popped into Radio 1's Live Lounge to play their Drive: Rescored track "Get Away" and this masterful take on Justin Timberlake's breakout ballad. It somehow manages to be vulnerable and menacing at the same time - like one of those terrifying dolls in Toy Story.

Incidentally, an album of Chvrches cover versions would be a welcome thing. Remember this version of The Arctics' Do I Wanna Know last year?

Phew! Well done if you stuck around to the end (the Chvrches thing was your reward for not closing the tab as soon as I mentioned U2).

Normal service should return to the blog in the next couple of days once awards season dies down. I've missed you guys. All eight of you.

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Jess Glynne's good single is good

Poor old Jess Glynne, My Love has just become the first video eliminated from the Brits "best video" category, after receiving the fewest shout-outs on Twitter (yes, you read that right - the Brits are now awarded to people with the most vocal Twitter fanbase, rather than for any artistic merit).

Still, Jess can console herself with the fact that (a) the best video prize is utterly pointless; and (b) her new single is utterly brilliant.

Hold My Hand is a rollicking dancefloor smash, with a ridiculously sunny chorus. The chances of anyone holding hands while listening to it are perilously slim, as they'll be too busy being enthusiastically thrust in the air.

A solid 8/10.

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Songs you may have missed: Christmas release schedule special

This is the part where a dozen songs are gathered into a list and presented for your listening pleasure.

With Q4 in full swing, this week's selection is jam-packed with songs from major artists hoping to make you part ways with your Christmas pay packet. Starting with...

1) Taylor Swift - Out Of The Woods
"To all my wonderful UK fans, I realize that you are not able to get Out of the Woods due to a new strategy my record label is working on in the UK," said Taylor Swift on Tumblr, after her single was released in every other country except Britain.

Britain, coincidentally, was where she'd spent the previous week on a huge promotional tour, talking animatedly about the single she was releasing next week, suggesting the label hadn't bothered to explain their new strategy to her, and had simultaneously failed to mention that the new strategy was pulled from a big red folder called "how to entirely balls up your biggest artist's release schedule and piss everyone off in the process".

Still, thanks to the internet, you can hear it anyway. Well done, everyone.





2) Take That - These Days
The newly slimmed down Take That take a detour back to their boyband roots with this discoriffic Get Lucky tribute.

The best bit of this release was a knife-twisting Radio 2 interview where Howard brushed off the "tragic" loss of Jason Orange, saying: "Jason is the better break dancer, he's always been fantastic, but if I was gay I could never be his boyfriend because he's a bit annoying, and a bit too deep for me."

Ouch.





3) Calvin Harris - Slow Acid
A worrying sign that Calvin wants to be taken seriously. Luckily, this is only a pre-order wish fulfilment track and not an actual single. About as exciting as a damp flannel.




4) McBusted - Air Guitar
It's hard to hate a song that so clearly states: "Don't take me seriously, I'm just having a laugh" - but it's equally hard to love it.

That said, McBusted have turned in a solid fanbase pleaser that tips its hat to Crazy In Love (yay) and Brian May (hmm). Destined to enter the charts at number one and drop to 23 the next week, but in the best possible way.





5) David Bowie - Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime)
Indebted somewhat to Scott Walker, this seven minute epic is the first track (!) on Bowie's 89th greatest hits collection, which comes out in time for Christmas. If James Bond caught Ebola, this would play over the title sequence.





6) Alesso ft Tove Lo - Heroes (We Could Be)
It feels cruel to put a song called Heroes under the previous entry. Nothing is going to fare well by comparison to Zavid Bowie's masterpiece, but that's pop for you.

This song, an entirely perfunctory EDM track, is presumably the reason why Tove Lo's debut album has been delayed in the UK. Which is fair enough, I suppose. In all likelihood, this'll creep onto the Radio 1 playlist and give her profile a boost while she's off in the US doing promo.

But if 2015 isn't Tove Lo's year in the UK I am going miffed. Miffed, I tell you.





7) Mary J Blige and Disclosure - Right Here
As previously raved about on these very pages, this collaboration is an absolute belter.

It now comes with a video that makes a huge deal about Mary J Blige actually deigning to visit London. Come on, Mary, it's hardly Aleppo.





8) Jess Glynne - Real Love
While we're on the topic of Mary J Blige, Rather Be hitmaker covered one of Mary's oldest and best songs in the Live Lounge earlier this week. She's really giving it some welly in the YouTube player freeze-frame, isn't she?





9) Jessie Ware - 12
To celebrate the release of her brilliant, downbeat, second album this week, Jessie Ware gave everyone the gift of a free download. 12 is a demo, recorded with Rhye's Robin Hannibal, that didn't make Tough Love's final tracklisting.

"This is a song for my [husband] Sam and I hope you like it," she wrote. "Play it late and go kiss someone x"





10) Embody ft A*M*E - Give Me Your Love
Everybody's favourite asterisked artist pops up on this topical deep house track. OK, it's not as slap-you-in-the-face terrific as Need U (100%) but if you can't dance to this your soul is dead. Oh, and it's a free download.





11) Paperwhite - Pieces
Naming yourself after one of Amazon's Kindle devices isn't going to help your search engine results, but you really should delve deep into Google to hear more from this Brooklyn dream-pop act.

Brother and sister Katie and Ben Marshall sound like they've digested the first 20 volumes of Now... That's What I Call Music to conjure up this blissful 80s throwback anthem. That bubbling marimba line is lifted directly from Lionel Richie's All Night Long, and the chord changes and the harmonies sound like vintage Scritti Politti.

If you only listen to one of the songs on this list, make it this one.





12) Will.i.am and Jimmy Fallon - Ew!
There's a recurring segment on Jimmy Fallon's US chat show, in which he and a guest dress up as teenage girls and lists the things that make them sick. Fallon plays Sara ("and if you're wondering, that's S-A-R-A, with no H, because H's are ew!") while guest stars have included Michelle Obama, Taylor Swift and Lindsay Lohan.

It's ridiculously silly - the sort of thing Trev and Simon would have done on Going Live 20 years ago - but it's gained a Wayne's World-esque cult following. And so there is now a novelty single, produced by Mir.i.am, the teenage alter-ego of will.i.am. Naturally, it's the best thing he's done for years.

BLIMEY - that was quite a list. Hope you found one new favourite in amongst there. More again next week.

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Songs you may have missed: Time pressure edition

Hey there... I'm knee-deep in Glastonbury preparations right now. Interviews to transcribe, features to write, schedules to be finalised, wellies to be de-stinkified. So this week's "songs you may have missed" column comes with the bare minimum of commentary. 

But that's not to say I don't have some corking tunes to embed. So here they are:

1) The one where Alt-J sample Miley Cyrus
Not as bad as it sounds.




2) The one where OK Go play tricks with perspective
If only they wrote songs as well as they made music videos.



3) The one where Coldplay pretend to be buskers while clearly miming to a backing track
Try to watch this without cringing.



4) The one where Sinead O'Connor sounds reinvigorated
Unexpectedly brilliant.



5) The one where Duke Dumont hopes to score a third successive number one
He's got more bangers than a butcher.




6) The one with Beth Ditto and some Belgian guy
Key lyric: "I'm over-thinking everything. I'm drinking everything."




7) The one where Tove Lo makes her US TV debut
Bare of foot, husky of voice, tousled of hair. I love her.




8) The one by an artist called "Potato Potato"
Clicked on it for the name, stayed for the song.





9) The one with Jess Glynne in the back of a pick-up truck
She's lucky she didn't break her neck.




10) The one with Lana Del Rey and an awesome guitar solo
One of the six good songs on Lana's new album.

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The debut single from Jess Glynne is now on the internet

Jess Glynne has already scored two number one singles this year, thanks to her guest spots on Clean Bandit's Rather Be, and Route 94's My Love (where, if I'm not mistaken, her voice has been pitched down).

If you like those songs, you'll like Right Here too. It continues 2014's astonishing deep house revival, adding a smidgen of swirly brass over Glynne's sumptuous, soulful vocals.

If I had a criticism, it's that the Gorgon City-produced track doesn't have the immediacy of her earlier collaborations. Even so, Right Here will sound gorgeous as you lie on your back and watch the clouds roll past during this weekend's heatwave.


According to her official biog, Jessica Hannah Glynne was inspired to sing after her parents saw Amy Winehouse perform at a branch of Pizza Express, of all places.

They brought back a signed copy of Winehouse's debut CD Frank which had "a profoundly immediate effect on me," Jess says.

"I'd always loved the big pop vocals of Mariah, Beyonce and Whitney, but hearing a woman's voice that was basically a jazz vocal, so full of individuality? Then realising she was British and still a teenager? That was the moment I knew I wanted to be as singer too."

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