Songs you may have missed: The Drake dance-off edition

So, I started a new job last week - accounting for (yet another) gap in the blog posts. Here's my penance - everything I heard in the last seven days and thought "I really should write something about that," before being dragged into another meeting.

Enjoy!

1) Drake - Hotline Bling
As the entire internet has noticed, Drake has let his drunken aunt choreograph his latest video. Still, nice turtleneck.





2) Frances - I Care (ft Pomo)
I'm calling it now: Frances is going to be on all of the "Sound Of 2016" lists, or I'll eat one of James Bay's hats.




3) Hot Chip - Dancing In The Dark
Hot Chip have been covering Bruce Springsteen's rock'n'roll classic in their festival sets all summer. Now there's an (impeccable) studio verison, complete with a preposterous 1980s public access television video. Why? Who knows? Who cares?




4) Jones - Indulge
The cleanest filthy song you'll hear all year, Jones's Indulge is all about surrendering yourself to a night of passion. "I know that it's wrong, but I want to indulge in you," the London-born singer purrs over a crepescular synth wave.

Indulge has been around since April but, spurred on by her wave-making Jools Holland appearance a couple of weeks ago, the song now has a video. Simple but effective.




5) Ben Haenow - Second Hand Heart (ft Kelly Clarkson)
The first "proper" single from last year's X Factor winner comes with a rare Kelly Clarkson "feature". It's low on subtlety (the pounding, Ryan Tedder-esque beat and the singers' powerhouse performances don't leave much space for nuance) but it's the first time in a while that a male X Factor star has recorded anything worth listening to.

Interestingly, it started out in life as a country song. I'd prefer to hear that version but, for now, this is perfectly acceptable radio filler.




6) Will Young - Brave Man
A remarkable video, in which a transgender man sheds his clothes and walks into the street, suffering abuse, violence and bullying until, finally, a woman offers her coat and - most importantly - acceptance.

"This video isn't about selling records or my personal benefit," said Will. "This video is about taking a moment in time to explore a section of society who stand up for themselves. To tell a story and offer a window through music into someone's life.​"




7) Five Seconds of Summer - Hey Everybody
I only mention this because no-one seems to have noticed the verse is entirely ripped off from Duran Duran's Hungry Like The Wolf. Surely it's not just me?





8) Jack Garratt - Breathe
I'm calling it now: Jack Garratt is going to be on all of the "Sound Of 2016" lists, or I'll eat another one of James Bay's hats.



9) Eska - Shades of Blue
Every year, the Mercury Prize list has one head-scratcher: An artist I've overlooked but instantly fall in love with.

This year it's Eska. Born in Zimbabwe, raised in London, she has been a session singer and vocal arranger for years, appearing on albums by the likes of Zero 7 and Grace Jones. Her debut is the sound of all those years of frustrated musicianship being unleashed. It melds soul, jazz, folk, reggae and Western African rhythms without sounding opulent or overblown. And it's all held together by the most stunning, precise, soulful vocals you'll hear this side of Erykah Badu.

Here's her most recent single.




10) Alice Olivia - Lovers
A YouTube sensation (16 million views!) and a BBC Introducing finalist, Cambridge-born Alice Olivia recently signed a deal with boutique pop label Soko Records.

Her first single is called Lovers - "about watching someone you love remain in a destructive, poisonous relationship and helplessly watching from a distance."

Dark and gnarly, this is a great introduction to an interesting singer-songwriter.



11) Anne-Marie - Boy
Quirky, streetwise pop from another up-and-comer (it's that time of year, isn't it?). Anne-Marie is going to be on all of the "Sound of 2016" lists or I'll eat a casserole of The Edge's beanies.




12) TĀLĀ - Wolfpack (with Banks)
TĀLĀ was inspired to make music by her British mother's love of Tom Jones, and her Iranian father's obsession with uber-diva Googoosh (think Madonna crossed Celine Dion, if you dare). Thankfully, her charcoal-coloured electric pop sounds nothing like either.

Her latest single sees her team up with another R&B temptress - the magnificent BANKS - for an anthem to sisterhood that would have Beyonce running for the hills.

And that's your lot!

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Eleven songs you may have missed (and one you definitely haven't)

This is the first "songs you may have missed" post since Christmas so in all likelihood these are songs you may not have missed. But there's always time for a good music megapost so let's begin, with...

1) Rihanna - FourFiveSeconds
About bloody time, pop's most elusive pop star is back, collaborating with Kanye West and Sir Fab Macca Wacky Thumbs Aloft on a surprisingly attitude-free, stripped back acoustic pop "number".

It's good. So good, in fact, that it's going to appear on both Kanye and Rihanna's new album. Which is going to cause havoc with my iTunes library. HAVOC.




2) Sia - Salted Wound
The 50 Shades of Grey soundtrack is shaping up to be superb, even if the film looks like a turkey. We've already heard Ellie Goulding's saucy Love Me Like You Do and The Weeknd's even saucier Earned It, now it's the turn of Sia - who takes a different tack altogether.

Her harp-assisted ballad Salted Wound is full of remorse and doubt. "Give your heart, and say come take it," sings Sia, "and she will see you're a good man." It should be a fitting accompaniment to Christian Grey's more introspective scenes.






3) Kelly Clarkson - Heartbeat Song
Is it me, or does this sound like Shania Twain?





4) Shura - Indecision
Feather-light synth pop from London's hotly tipped Aleksandra Denton. This would make a perfect Track 7, Side B on an "I like you" mixtape.






5) Prince & 3rdEyeGirl - Marz
Prince apparently thinks this throwaway rock track is dynamite. He's following up an SNL performance of the song with this YouTube video - which appeared days after he deleted his YouTube account. Strange chap.





6) Alex Winston - We Got Nothing
Alex Winston's wonky pop curio Sister Wife is one of my all-time favourite under-rated tracks. Catchy as all heck, with a killer lyric about polygamy and jealousy, I have played it to death over the last four years.

She's been in limbo for a while, but this sumptuous new single - on the influential Neon Gold label - hints at a slightly more mainstream, but no less hook-laden direction.







7) Jessie Ware - Jealous (Labrinth cover)
Stick around for the bit where she chucks in the chorus to Chaka Khan's Through The Fire. Beautiful.





8) Bearson - Pink Medicine
Bearson is a Norwegian producer who works in the "tropical house" genre (no, me neither). This hypnotic little song is a little too glitchy to be chill-out and a little too chilled out to be danceable. But I like it, for some reason. There's a free download available here if you like it, too.







9) Lana Del Rey - Brooklyn Baby (Yuksek remix)
WARNING: If you or your family are sensitive to the effects of synthesized saxophones, please seek advice before streaming this song.





10) U2 - Every Breaking Wave (single remix)
I wonder if anyone actually listened to Songs of Innocence when it gatecrashed our phones last year? I certainly couldn't be bothered... but it turns out that at least one of the songs is worth four minutes of your time.

Ranking it as the third best song of 2014 (!!) Rolling Stone called Every Breaking Wave the "emotional centrepiece" of U2's 13th album, saying it's "stark, shimmering" melody recalled With Or Without You.

To be honest, Joey Tribiani's not going to be staring out a fake window to this one any time soon... But this stripped-back radio remix of the song is surprisingly affecting.






11) Tobias Jesso Jr - How Could You Babe?
Officially endorsed by Adele, this is about as old-school as pop gets in 2015. Tailor made for Radio 2 and fans of sweaters, it recalls Elton John back in the Yellow Brick Road days.





12) Rae Morris - Love Again
As previously noted on these pages, Rae Morris is rather brilliant - with a husky voice like Ellie Goulding and a percussive thump worthy of Florence and the Machine. I interviewed her last week and, pleasingly, she let slip that her first ever gig was S Club 7.

If that's not enough to recommend her, try out this song: Love Again, one of the standout tracks from her debut album, Unguarded, which came out on Monday.

And that's a wrap. What an oddly diverse bunch of songs, eh?

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Fab Macca's celebrity friends and five other songs you may have missed

It's that time again: A bunch of songs from the last seven days that you may not have seen, or that you have seen but I forgot to blog about along the way. Either way, here's this week's Bo Selection.

1) Paul McCartney - Queenie Eye
Meryl Streep, Jude Law, Johnny Depp, Kate Moss, Jeremy Irons, Tom Ford, Sean Penn, Chris Pine: All of them dancing awkwardly to Paul McCartney's new single.

Like the title track of Sir Paul's new album, New, this is a pleasant return to a sort of Beatlesy instrumentation and chord progression - although the production by Paul "turn up the drums" Epworth is strangely neutered.




2) M.I.A - Yala
I was very excited to interview musical provocateur M.I.A. earlier this week (the interview is going up on the BBC soon) - and she didn't disappoint. The interview covered the NSA, Wikileaks, the SuperBowl, Hindu mysticism and the wonders of Sade's farm - from which M.I.A. borrowed a cow for her Bring The Noize video (no, really).

MIA went on from our interview to speak to Zane Lowe and premiere her new song YALA - You Always Live Again. It's been interpreted as an attack on Drake's YOLO, but she told me that was nonsense. "It's not an anti-Drake song, it's just an alternative concept," she sighed. "People find offense in anything."




3) Kelly Clarkson - Underneath The Tree
Today is officially 2 months before Christmas Day, so what better time to enjoy Kelly Clarkson's first ever Yuletide single? It fits snugly into Phil Spector's sleighbell-tastic template, although it's no All I Want For Christmas Is You.




4) The Internet - Dontcha
Fancy some mid-90s acid jazz vibes? The here are Odd Future-offshoot The Internet to help you out. Equal parts Brand New Heavies and Solange, Dontcha has one hell of a slinky bassline. Niiiice.




5) Svē - Talking To The Walls
Svē is an unsigned artist from Brooklyn, who majored in songwriting at college and recorded this single "in bedrooms and closets". It doesn't sound like it. Talking To The Walls is a stunning, slow-burning pop ballad, whose chorus will fling you out of your socks. Very, very impressive.




6) Jungle - The Heat
Mysterious London duo Jungle were recently named NME's New Band Of The Week - but don't let that put you off. The group don't let anyone see their faces, but the music can do the talking just fine, thankyouverymuch.

Their new single is a slippery twist of funk, and the video is sublime. Expect big things.

That's it for this week. Congratulations if you got this far.

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Kelly Clarkson - please don't spoil this song

When I hear new Kelly Clarkson material, it's always with a sense of trepidation. Although her voice is always supple and powerful, she's too often let down by mediocre material and tinny, blustering production.

However, this new song - You Still Won't Know What It's Like - sounds like it could be a good'un. First mentioned on her twitter account in October, Clarkson wrote it with her long-time musical director Jason Halbert - someone who should surely know his way around a Clarkson vocal by now.

As performed last week at the A Night For Hope Benefit Concert in the States, it's a low-key, acoustic ballad. Over brushed drums and a mournful muted trumpet, Clarkson recounts an unspecified, life-changing trauma that she needed "a year to recover" from. The opening lines are typically cheery: "When you hit the bottom, when you're left with nothing, when you can't tell the difference, you still won't know what it's like." It's relentlessy, remorselessly downbeat.

If the finished track retains this arrangement, it could be her Everybody Hurts. The danger is that it'll suddenly gain a thudding RAWK guitar line that tears Clarkson's nuanced, tender performance to shreds.

Let's cross our fingers for a bit of restraint, then, eh?

Kelly Clarkson - You Still Don't Know What It's Like

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Kelly Clarkson sings about sucking

Aside from the terriffic title, I don't care much for Kelly Clarkson's new single, My Life Would Suck Without You. But I'm clearly in the minority, as the mid-week charts suggest she's getting her first UK number one on Sunday...

Anyway, La Clarkson was in Radio 1's Live Lounge on Tuesday, showing off her amazing set of pipes. And she did some singing, too (har-de-har). It turns out that, performed acoustically, her song is exactly 8.4 times better.

It's up in video on the Radio One website, along with the obligatory cover (heresy alert: she did one of her own songs). But if you're too lazy to click the link, there's an mp3 of the track coming up.


Kelly Clarkson - My Life Would Suck Without You (live lounge)

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Kelly "Jelly" Clarkson's new single

Guess what? She's still banging on about her ex-boyfriend.

Kelly Clarkson - My Life Would Suck Without You

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Collating the things that people say

So, the MTV awards went ahead in Miami - despite the Hurricane, and people getting shot, and the obvious dearth of decent acts willing to take part. It speaks volumes when the only vaguely interesting picture from the event is of Shakira. (Oh, okay, and this one of Nelly Tomato, but only because we love her).

Frankly, we couldn't be bothered to watch, but here's what the people of the interweb had to say:

Eva Longoria is dressed as a giant cameltoe. Viewers with HDTV are treated to a topographic map of Eva's vulva. (fluxblog)

Alicia Keys, once again, failed to disappoint those expecting her to look like shit. (goldenfiddle)

I'm still convinced that Ciara is a man. (clever titles are so last summer)

Apparently white guys can only be on MTV now if they wear eyeliner. (fluxblog)

For a minute there I was asking myself, "Why, exactly, is P. Diddy famous?" Then they showed the Notorious B.I.G. thing and I remembered: he had a friend once who like, died. We should give the guy a fucking medal. (stereogum)

Kelly Clarkson took a random friend up on stage to accept her award and said, 'Sorry, I don't have an entourage so I decided to bring up my friend Ashley.' I LOVE HER. (popjustice boards)

We wept. More importantly, we turned off the TV and listened to some actual music. (gawker)

Watch the trailer for the new Harry Potter film

Charlotte Church gains our respect for telling the truth about all the other pop stars. Bob Dylan "sounds like a freak", Beyoncé is "so out of tune that it does my head in", and Chris Martin is "a bit wimpy". Only a bit?

Is this wrong?

Cats in sinks

Idiot Toys brings a much-needed sense of perspective to coverage of gadgets and toys. Why would you ever need a chair you can plug your ipod into, anyway?

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