Seven Songs You May Have Missed

Like it says above... Here are seven songs you may have missed over the last seven days (and one for luck).

Gorge yourself silly on half an hour of quality pop.

1) Zara Larsson - Lush Life (live)
The song Rihanna should have released as her comeback single gets the Live Lounge treatment.



2) Cassius - Action (ft Mike D and Cat Power)
Daft Punk take a long time between albums but it's nothing compared to their contemporaries, Cassius, who return from a 10-year break with this fiesty firecracker, featuring a real-life Beastie Boy.





3) Zayn - Like I Would
"Talking about it's not my style," declares Zayn, who proceeds to spend the next three minutes talking about it. "It" being "sex", in case that wasn't clear. He's very good at the sex, apparently, but is his assessment really objective?

Still, nice to see his debut album raises the tempo above "moribund" every so often.






4) Kygo - Carry Me
This track by Norwegian DJ and producer Kygo leaked a couple of weeks ago, but now we finally get an HQ version, trailing the release of his debut album Cloud Nine. It continues in the vein of his previous, tropically-flavoured house tracks, confirming him the as the Lilt of dance music.





5) Denzel Curry - Knotty Head (ft Rick Ross)
Florida's Denzel Curry released his "sophomore" (second) album, Imperial, this week describing it as an attempt "to reach my ultimate form", like he's a character from Street Fighter. Still, you can't argue with his ferocious, hardcore raps - and this track is one of the album's stand-outs.




6) Ladyhawke - Sweet Fascination
Remember 2008, when every other post on this blog was about Ladyhawke? Well, on the basis of this new single, prepare for a second onslaught. Superlative synthpop. And the best lyric video of the year.




7) Gallant - Weight In Gold (ft Seal)
As previously noted on these pages, Gallant is a major new talent; and Weight In Gold is a stunning calling card. It now comes with added Seal (and a saxophone solo). How can you resist?




Hidden Bonus Track) Iris Gold - Steve McQueen
Raised on a commune and inspired by 70s psychedelia, Iris Gold turned heads with last year's gauzy R&B jam Goldmine. Some of those heads included Taylor Swift, Robbie Williams and Blur - all of whom have booked her as a support act. Her debut album is shaping up for a summer release, and the latest single should be saved up for your first picnic of 2016.

So there you go... Have a nice weekend.

Tweet

The new Ladyhawke video is a disaster

It is very disappointing to have to report that the new Ladyhawke video is awful. Not just boring or average - but stilted, cheap, awkward, amateur, tacky, pointless and a total distraction from the song.

Nothing about this makes sense. What about the song suggested the theme "Ladyhawke is a photographer on the worst ever episode of America's Next Top Model"? Why do all the men have comedy 70s moustaches? Isn't there a better way to illustrate someone's slow descent into madness than putting a red gel over the camera lens?

Apparently not.

Last week, the Robot Pigeon blog made a good point about the Ladyhawke campaign: While everyone in the real world can see she's a proper pop star, the record label are desperately trying to insist she's some sort of indie maverick.

The video for Black And White And Blue is the direct result of that idiotic mindset. Websites like Pitchfork and Line Of Best Fit will probably declare it a kitsch triumph. Everyone else is just thinking "what a wasted opportunity".

At least the song is still brilliant. And Pip's new hairdo is very glamorous.

Ladyhawke - Black And White And Blue


Update: Apparently it's based on the 1978 movie Eyes of Laura Mars.

No, me neither.

Tweet

Ladyhawke's new single: What happens when?

00:00 Static, hiss and crackle from a "vinyl record" (ask your dad).
00:01 A Vibraphone.
00:04 A cowbell. Some sticks that go clickety-clack.
00:08 "Time is never easy when you’re alone"
00:13 "Uh, oh, oh".
00:15 Amazing drum fill.
00:25 The bridge.
00:38 The chorus.
00:40 Fans of Abba's On And On may find themselves in familiar territory here.
01:22 "Your slow descent to madness has just begun"
01:27 "Uh, oh, oh".
01:44 Open hi-hat heralds the arrival of the second chorus.
02:27 Flamenco guitars - this must be the middle 8.
02:56 It's the freakin' axe solo, yo.
03:14 Final appearance of the chorus.
03:45 Digital watch has nervous breakdown.
03:50 The end.

Ladyhawke - Black, White & Blue

Tweet

At last - new music from Ladyhawke!

Instead of chucking out any old nonsense and calling it "my best work yet" (I'm looking at you, Rihanna) New Zealand pop savant Ladyhawke has been slaving away at her second album for three years. That's a fucking long time, so it had better be incredible.

Luckily, the auspices are good. She's just released the first official snippet of material - from a song called Sunday Drive. The intro is reassuringly familiar, Pip Brown's breathy vocals framed by a strutting bassline and wonky barrel piano riff. If anything, it sounds like Goldfrapp's Satin Chic punching La Roux in the face. Then, as the bridge kicks in, you start to realise that the second Ladyhawke album won't just be a retread of her first. Listen up:



ARRRGH for the video cutting off before the chorus -- but you can get an idea of what comes next by watching this shaky video of the song being played live at the 100 Club last month.

Ladyhawke - Sunday Drive


If you're a fan of crash zooms and tinny audio, you can watch practically the entire Ladyhawke concert - which is stuffed full of new material - on YouTube. The excellent HardCandy blog has put together a playlist, which you can see by clicking this highlighted text which acts as a hyperlink to an external site.

Ladyhawke's album will be called Anxiety and you can buy it next March. That's the artwork at the top of the post, by the way.

Tweet

Welcome to the remixatron

Friday night is party night. Actually, Friday night is collapsing on the sofa with a bottle of wine night. But I always like to end the working week with a few remixes, which is some sort of hangover from listening to Radio One's Big Beat with Jeff Young in the late 80s.

Here's what I'm putting on tonight's playlist.

1) Beastie Boys - Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win (Major Lazer Remix)
With Switch and Diplo at the controls, this Beastie Boys album track gets a dancehall makeover that propels Santigold's contribution to the forefront. Which is exactly how it should be.




2) Kelly Rowland - Motivation (Remix)
Hands up who thought Kelly Rowland had given up on R&B? If she's not collaborating with David Guetta or Alex Gaudino on some abysmal Magaluf "anthem", she's practically invisible. So this track, which also features Busta Rhymes and Trey Songz, is a revelation. A slow, seductive soul jam - it's sexy in a way Rihanna could only ever hope to be.




3) Arcade Fire - We Used To Wait (acoustic version)
Technically not a remix, but who cares? It's brilliant.

Arcade Fire - We Used To Wait



4) Adele - Set Fire To The Rain (Thomas Gold Remix)
Remixing Adele is about as pointless as putting a coat on a dog. Nonetheless, this arms-aloft retwizzle is so cheesy it almost works. Hang around til 3'45" for the drop. Amazing!

Adele - Set Fire To The Rain (Thomas Gold Remix)



5) Alex Winston - Sister Wife (Ladyhawke Remix)
Ladyhawke has never done a remix before, so she must have been really impressed with Alex Winston to get involved. Or maybe she thought the song was broken and only a Ladyhawke remix could fix it. Or maybe she needed a bit of extra money to finish her second album. Either way, GET ON WITH IT LADYHAWKE.




6) Ronika - Wiyoo (Ronika 'own you' Remix)
I'd be lying if I said I hadn't listened to Ronika's Wiyoo EP every day this week. This remix isn't as good as the original, but it has bits of the original in it, and as such is brilliant on toast.



Hope you enjoy... Have a great weekend!

Tweet

Alex Winston - Sister Wife video

I was blabbing on about Alex Winston's Sister Wife a couple of weeks ago, since when the hook has lodged in my head like an axe. A great alt-pop song, with a novel subject matter: The bedroom-based jealousy of two wives in a polygamous marriage.

Hey there sister wife
Get the hell out - it's my night
You don't know the way to his heart
Like I do

The video has just come out and it's curates egg, to say the least. Key scenes include slices of bread flying out of a toilet, and a cat spewing blood into Alex's face.

Nice legs, though.

Alex Winston - Sister Wife

Alex is touring the UK in June (details here), and she's made a Ladyhawke remix of the single available on SoundCloud:

Sister Wife (Ladyhawke Remix)

Tweet

Ladyhawke is Magic

When Ladyhawke's record label suggested releasing yet another single frmo her (magnificent) Ladyhawke album, we can imagine the conversation went like this.

Label: Hey, Pip, we want to put out Magic as the next single.
Ladyhawke (for it is she): The next single? Haven't we released everything off the album twice already?
Label: Yes, but we have to capitalise on your summer festival performances. This could be the track to finally push you into the mainstream. So will you do it?
Ladyhawke: Erm... I suppose. But only if we can have a video.
Label: A video. Oh. Let me just consult with Brad [whispers furiously]. Yes, Brad says we can have a video.
Ladyhawke: Okay, but I want to have a forest, and loads of bats and an African man playing a drum.
Label: Yes, I think we can do that.
Ladyhawke: Really?
Label: Uh-huh
Ladyhawke: Ah... Well in that case, I also want to have a pirate and a man with one eye and a bit where I'm flying on a carpet.
Label: That would probably be do-able within the budget.
Ladyhawke: And A DONKEY!
Label: ... *click*
Ladyhawke: Hello? Are you still there?
Label: Sorry, yes. I was just calling the horse wrangler. He can do it as long as we provide the hay and a carrot.
Ladyhawke: Did I mention the bit where I land my flying carpet on a pirate ship in the middle of a stormy foreboding ocean?
Label: No, but we'll get onto the effects guys asap. This single is going to be massive.
Ladyhawke: Oh dear. What have I done?

Ladyhawke - Magic

Tweet

Gig review: Ladyhawke at Koko, London

Ladyhawke's debut album was my favourite pop record of last year - an encyclopaedia of 1980s melodies, Human League synth lines, cool-as-ice attitudes, even-cooler-than-ice hooks and great big jouyous handclaps. But I was interested in what her live show would be like, because the artist otherwise known as Pip Brown has Asperger's Syndrome - a mild form of autism that can cause communicative and emotional problems.

Growing up in New Zealand, she says, "I was so solitary. Other kids thought I was a weirdo". But interviewers have remakred that Brown exhibits few of the characteristic traits of Aperger's - "chatty, warm and sincere", is how the Independent put it.

In concert, she's certainly shy - head bowed, eyes obscured by her immaculately feathered fringe, and emitting a nervous giggle every time she addresses the audience. But whether this is a hallmark of her medical condition is up for debate. She's more communicative and dynamic than, say, Liam Gallagher...

Still, Ladyhawke's apologetic awkwardness means that her gig stands or falls on the quality of the music. At first, the signs aren't good. The pounding rhythms of set-opener Magic are marred by a sound mix muddier than a swamp in the Serengeti, and Brown's vocals are barely audible for the first fifteen minutes of the sshow.

Worse still, a specially-ordered mini orchestra (string quartet, brass section and baby grand piano) seem not to have been plugged into the mixing desk. All night long, they're bowing, plucking, blowing and puffing to no discernible effect.

But things slowly start to improve as the crowd pick up the pop baton and run with it, chanting along to the buoyant choruses of Better Than Sunday, Dusk Til Dawn and Paris Is Burning. The energy gets beamed back to the stage, where a Tango-fied cover of Britney's Womanizer and b-side Danny and Jenny bring the band, and Ladyhawke herself, to life.

By the encore, even the sound man has woken up. We get our only chance to hear the orchestra on a grimy rendition of Patti Smith's Horses, before the night closes with My Delirium - and a thousand fists punching the air with every exuberant "hey!" the chorus throws up.

But we wanted more - a performer who could lob all that energy back into the crowd and set off some kind of musical adrenaline riot. Ladyhawke simply couldn't do that last night - but several gig veterans told me she'd improved tenfold since her last London date. So there's hope yet that she'll grow into a showwoman worthy of her gargantuan tunes.

Fingers (in sequinned gloves) crossed.

Tweet

Top 10 Discopop albums of 2008

Happy New Year! Here's what happened on my stereo in the old one...

1) Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree

Goldfrapp's detour into folksy acoustic ballads may have lost them a few fans, but Seventh Tree is a near-perfect album - from the muted opening bars of Clowns to the hazy coda of Monster Love. One of my musical highlights of the year was simply lying back and listening to this album in the middle of a field in Devon - it's truly the perfect soundtrack to a lazy rural day. As long, that is, as you ignore the (excellent) lyrics about brainwashing cults, suicide attempts and boob jobs.

2) Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke

Maybe its down to the fact that she has Aspergers Syndrome, but New Zealander Pip Brown recreated the very best bits of 1980s synth-rock with unnerving precision on her debut album. On Oh My she sounds like Stevie Nicks, on Another Runaway she is Pat Benatar, on Better Than Sunday she channels Debbie Harry... it really is that good. Only one of the four singles (My Delirium) was a hit, struggling into the top 40 at the end of 2008, but this atmospheric, ballsy pop record deserved more recognition.

3) Lykke Li - Youth Novels

Like fellow Swedish starlet Robyn in 2007, Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson rewrote the rules on what a pop album could sound like. Rather than slapping you about the face with a broken toilet seat going "this is catchy, goddamnit", Youth Novels worked its way into your heart with a series of subtle, genteel ditties. Produced by Björn Yttling (of Peter, Bjorn & John) it is almost entirely acoustic, even down to the inventive, skittering drum lines composed from hand claps, wooden blocks and mallets. Lead single Little Bit was the most affecting love song of the year, while the driving I'm Good, I'm Gone paired sinister, percussive verses with a sweet release of a chorus. Don't believe me? Listen to this acoustic perfomance of the song:



4) Elbow - Seldom Seen Kid

Here are some adjectives that have been used to describe Elbow's fourth album: stunning, lush, bittersweet, exquisite, epic, majestic, uplifting, poetic, impeccable, tender, wondrous, unbearably lovely. Get the picture? The Seldom Seen Kid is a modern masterpiece. It opens with Starlings - two minutes of hushed harmonies and muted marimbas that suddenly explodes into a cacophony of trumpets. It's designed to make you sit up and pay attention to the following suite of lovingly-crafted ballads. Guy Garvey is unapologetically romantic throughout - "I was looking for someone to complete me. Not anymore, dear, everything has changed. You make the moon a mirrorball" is just one lyrical flourish in an album full of poetry. Simply perfect.

5) Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

Who'd have thought a beardy five-piece vocal harmony group from Seattle would produce one of the best albums of the year? Not me. But Fleet Foxes produced an instant classic with their debut CD - full of haunting choral lullabies, which took as their inspiration starlings, swallows, mountains, snow falls and river banks. The music owed a clear debt to the 1960s folk-rock of Simon and Garfunkel, or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - but its presence in the hustle, bustle and bombast of 2008 provided a reassuring oasis of serenity.

6) Duffy - Rockferry

Possessor of the wildest vibrato since Snow White, Duffy owned 2008 - selling more than 4m records around the world by the simple act of combining Amy Winehouse with the girl next door. Her album is rather unfairly derided as boring in some quarters, but Rockferry is stuffed full of heart-rending ballads, seductive pop hooks and stirring choruses. As the Welsh 24-year-old's confidence grew throughout the year, she transformed from a sweater-wearing wallflower into a slinky seductress pouring herself into Jessica Rabbit strapless dresses. Maybe she's not just a cuddly Winehouse after all...

7) Camille - Music Hole

Painstakingly constructed from samples and loops of her own voice, Camille's album is probably the most audaciously ambitious record on this list. With the exception of a lone piano, every sound is produced by a human using one of their many "music holes", according to the blurb. It could have been a tedious intellectual experiment, but France's Camille Dalmais possesses a great big vat of soul - which lifts her songs above mere gimmickry. Highlights include the playful Gospel With No Lord, the (literally) barking Cats & Dogs, and the Mariah Carey-baiting single, Money Note. Mental in the good way.

8) Ting Tings - We Started Nothing

The Ting Tings broke America when Shut Up And Let Me Go was chosen to soundtrack an iPod advert - but there couldn't be a worse device to listen to their album on. Those massive drums and growling bass lines need a hefty pair of nerdtastic hi-fi speakers before they really come to life. The shouty party songs - We Walk, Great DJ, That's Not My Name - are the best, but Katie's sweetly melodic turns on Traffic Light and Be The One show that the band's got more than one trick up it's sleeve.

9) Girls Aloud - Out Of Control

Out Of Control, or A Drop In Quality Control? Girls Aloud's fifth album seemed a bit rushed - with precious little of Xenomania's usual sonic invention and off-the-wall song structures. But there were still five or six stand-outs: The Pet Shop Boys-penned The Loving Kind is a four-minute slab of moody synth genius, while Miss You Bow Wow is the sort of deranged throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks pop gem that the band probably think they've outgrown. Not their finest hour, but still head and shoulders above anything else a mainstream pop act produced in 2008. Five heads and ten shoulders, to be precise.

10) Emiliana Torrini - Me and Armini / Kings Of Leon - Only By The Night / MGMT - Oracular Spectacular / Santogold - Santogold

Bloody hell, I can't decide between these ones... Emiliana Torrini wins points for combining acoustic rock (like Sara Bareilles) and being utterly bonkers (like Bjork). MGMT did the student disco party anthems, with three absolutely stonking singles and a shockingly poor live act. Kings Of Leon were the only band who really rocked in 2008, while Santogold took MIA's trademark soundclash and made it listenable. And I haven't even mentioned Laura Marling, or Kanye West, or Vampire Weekend, or Q-Tip - it really was a vintage year, wasn't it?

Postscript: Not albums of the year
1) Madonna - Hard Candy
Madge opened a sweet shop but it only sold aniseed balls - hard and indigestible with a horrible aftertaste.

2) Various Artists - Mamma Mia! OST
Abba karaoke. Literally my worst nightmare.

3) Britney Spears - Circus
Is this really the best music money can buy? Cripes.

4) Portishead - Third
When the end of the world comes, this will be the soundtrack.

5) Jonas Brothers - A Little Bit Longer
Actually, I take that last comment back. This will be the soundtrack to armageddon.

Tweet

New Ladyhawke: My Delirium

Ladyhawke - My Delirium

Tweet

Here be monsters

It's no Thriller, but Ladyhawke's new video makes effective use of zombies and werewolves.

Ladyhawke - Dusk Til Dawn

This effectively dates the current 80s pop revival at 1984, which means it's only five years 'til someone remakes Ride On Time. I literally can't wait.

Tweet

Here is Ladyhawke with her record

Ladyhawke is a new artist with a single she would like you to listen to.

While you fire up the video, here are some facts to ingest and regurgitate during a future conversation about Ladyhawke.

1) Her real name is Pip Brown.
2) She splits her time between New Zealand, Australia and the UK.
3) In her official biography, Ladyhawke uses the word "rad" without irony.
4) The Liverpool Echo (an esteemed journal of note) likened her to "a relic from the past".
5) That's a bit harsh, given that her only crime is to make slightly retro 1980s pop music. And who can't say they're making slightly retro 1980s pop these days?
6) Except The Kooks, of course. And Sting.
7) Some blogger said she sounded like Stevie Nicks "though Ladyhawke sounds much more like the lead singer of the Motels". Que?
8) Meanwhile, Popjustice said her video was "a post-millennial update on The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony, except it has got a good soundtrack".
9) Post-millenial means "made after the year 2000", fact fans.
10) Courtney Love thinks Ladyhawke is great, but don't let that put you off.

Ladyhawke - Paris Is Burning

Tweet