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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Laura Mvula teams up with Nile Rodgers for Overcome

Last October, disco legend Nile Rodgers sent Laura Mvula a message on Twitter.

@lauramvula I want to be in your universe where #angels live. I worship you! We must work together ~@nilerodgers http://t.co/ognnsb8GgT

— Nile Rodgers (@nilerodgers) October 4, 2015

Quick as a flash, she replied:

@nilerodgers 😍 let's make it happen soon please x

— Laura Mvula (@lauramvula) October 4, 2015

Rodgers then asked Mvula to send him a demo of "the biggest track" on her new album, The Dreaming Room. A week later, they were recording in New York with Troy Miller whose previous credits include Amy Winehouse, Gregory Porter, John Newman and Mark Ronson.

Meanwhile, the mutual love affair between Rodgers and Mvula continued to grow.

Playing with you is amazing!!!!!!!!!!!! @nilerodgers There I said it. xxxx https://t.co/AhoZEnFe2Q

— Nile Rodgers (@nilerodgers) October 11, 2015

We're making music together for my new album #thedreamingroom so privileged to get to know this legend @nilerodgers

A photo posted by @lauramvula on Oct 30, 2015 at 6:03pm PDT

Today, we get to hear the results... Overcome is a stirring call for unity, with Rodgers' muted guitar licks dancing nimbly around Mvula's voice. It ends with an extended, spiralling coda scored by the London Symphony Orchestra - and is, quite simply, wonderful.

A match made in gospel-soul-disco-funk heaven.

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She She She Shine On

Laura Mvula produced the first proper "Glastonbury moment" of 2013 when she segued from her album track I Can't Make You Love Me into a sun-drenched cover of Bob Marley's One Love.

"That’s the clever idea of my musical director Troy Miler," she told me afterwards, "whose last appearance here at Glastonbury was with Amy Winehouse, so he knows what he’s talking about."

Mvula clearly surrounds herself with talented people - her manager is the man who discovered Shola Ama on a train platform in Hammersmith, and she co-wrote her album with Steve Brown, who's played with and produced music for Elton John, The Sex Pistols and George Michael. YouTube doesn't say who directed the video for the singer's latest single, She, but they're obviously pretty accomplished, too.

Laura Mvula - She

That's not to take anything away from Mvula herself - her music is singularly original, incorporating elements of soul, spirituals, R&B, pop and chamber music to produce something instantly familiar, but totally unrecognisable. Not for nothing did NPR describe her album as "songs that sound like the whole world at once". I'd say she's a shoo-in for the Mercury shortlist later this year.

PS: Is it just me, or did you come away from that video singing The Circle Of Life?

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Justin's suit, Laura's garden and some other songs you may have missed

I'm popping off to Scotland for a week, so the blog will be as blank as Olly Murs' manuscript in a maths exam. To tide you over to the 4th of February, here are a few songs I would have blogged about if there'd been more time.

1) Justin Timberlake - Suit and Tie
This is the lyric video to the audio track that was teased in a Youtube clip spawned from a tweet. All this faffing about would be worth it if the song was slap-you-on-the-tits amazing, but sadly it's still just a 5/10. *sigh*




2) Laura Mvula - Green Garden
Of all the artists on this year's Sound Of 2013 predictapolls, Laura Mvula is the one with the most potential to do an Adele. Hip enough for Radio 1, edgy enough for 6 Music and soothing enough for Radio 2, she's got what I like to call "potential". She also has an incredible voice and amazing songs. Green Garden takes a while to get going, but you'll be swooning by the final, exuberant chorus.




3) Zedd ft Foxes - Clarity
Zedd is a German producer who's been working on Lady Gaga's new album.
Foxes is British songstress Louisa Rose Allen, who we like a lot.
Together they are "Zedd ft Foxes".
And this song is fucking great. Sand dunes ahoy!




4) Jessie Ware - If You're Never Gonna Move (Two Inch Punch remix)
This song used to be called 110% but, for some reason, it's been renamed If You're Never Gonna Move for the US release. Clearly, the new name is a line from the chorus, which is useful for the sort of person who goes into a record shop and says "I heard this song on the radio and it sort of went duh duh duh duh If You're Never something a-a-ah. Do you have it?" Except the only line anyone can ever remember from 110% is "Dancing On My Own" which is a completely different but equally brilliant song. And anyway, the record shops are all closed nowadays and you can just Shazam the song off the radio, so why bother changing the name in the first place? Gah!

The remix, by the way, is excellent: All ambient and spookified. And only available in the US. Double gah!





5) Lana Del Rey - Summertime Sadness (Monsieur Adi remix)
Do you think Lana approves of this? She spends ages cultivating her doe-eyed, pouty-lipped pop vixen persona, then someone waps her vocals on top of a honking bassline and makes her sound like the queen of the carnival. A carnival populated by the cast of Glee and 10,000 other people with the permanently startled expression of Scooby Doo with a jack-in-the-box.

But who cares what she thinks? It's big, dumb, mindless, and infuriatingly catchy.





6) REM - Losing My Religion
Major Scaled is a project whereby songs in a "sad" minor key are digitally tweaked so they're in a "cheerful" major key. The results are quite startling. You can recognise and follow the songs, but something's not quite right. They've posted a bunch of examples on their Facebook page - but REM's Losing My Religion (recast as Rediscovering My Religion) is the best of the bunch.


That's it - have a lovely snowy week. See you in a bit.
Mrdiscopop

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I like to Mvula, Mvula*

The Brits announced their Critics' Choice shortlist this morning - with Discopop heroes AlunaGeorge sitting at the top... Alphabetically, at least. The actual winner doesn't get announced until 20 December, and they will join the likes of Emeli Sande, Adele and Jessie J in collecting a big trophy for a record they have yet to release. The modern world, eh?

AlunaGeorge's competition comes from floppy-fringed balladeer Tom Odell, and 26-year-old Laura Mvula who, I have to admit, had totally passed me by until today.

Formally trained in composition at the Birmingham Conservatoire, Laura later worked (as a receptionist) for the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. She is now signed to RCA where she is being fast-tracked as a "priority act" for 2013.

In a year with no shortage of female singer-songwriters, she stands apart from the crowd by putting those years of classical training to good use. Her songs have a choral feel - with complex, layered harmonies breathing new life into well-worn soul sounds. Over the top comes Laura's voice, all smoky and resonant, lagging behind the beat like a modern Billie Holiday.

Apparently, she's already been Fearne Cotton's "Big Thing", so I'm hardly racing ahead of the pack here. But if you're new to Laura, too, here are two of the tracks she's released so far. I can't recommend them highly enough.

Laura Mvuala - She



* Sorry

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