The best and the rest of #NewMusicFriday

It's a fairly quiet week overall, but here are some songs that were released today (or maybe two days ago, depending on the stature of the artist and their willingness to adhere to record industry convention).

1) LCD Soundsystem - Call The Police
It's like NWA never happened.




2) Loote - High Without Your Love
Hailing from New York, Loote are Emma Lov and Jackson Foote (so you can see how they got that name). Their new single is reminiscent of The Chainsmokers, with all traces of douche removed. A lovely little pop song.




3) J Hus - Common Sense
Love, love, love this.




4) Niall Horan - Slow Hand
The Pointer Sisters' prayers have been answered.




5) Sigrid - Fake Friends
Norway's Sigrid Raabe only started writing songs four years ago, when her brother (also a musician) told her he needed a new track for a gig that was taking place 24 hours later. She's a quick learner, though. This caustic call out to two-faced friends is a hugely arresting piece of Scandipop.

FYI: Sigrid's debut EP is out today and you should buy it.




6) Emily Warren - Hurt By You
Emily Warren is The Chainsmokers' secret weapon - the voice behind some of their best hooks, and the writer behind several more. Her debut single is nothing like that, though - a slinky, soulful affair with a cunning twist in the chorus.




7) Hoops - Sun's Out
This is a song that appears to be a lost cassette demo by Echo and the Bunnymen, circa 1985 - but which turns out to be one of several shimmering indie gems on the debut EP by Indiana-based band Hoops. How queer.




8) Haim - Want You Back
Getting better with every listen...




9) TLC - Haters
Declaration of interest: I put £10 towards TLC's new album on Kickstarter, giving me a 0.003% stake in this song. Sounds a bit like Charli XCX at 33rpm, which is neither praise nor a criticism.




10) Halsey - Eyes Closed
Halsey manages to sound both menacing and drowsy at the same time on this track, a sort of "emos with synths" pop dirge. It came as no surprise to learn that The Weeknd was involved in some capacity.

And that's your lot. The Blondie album is out today, as well, and deserves a quick spin even if you have no recollection of Debbie Harry & co in their 1970s heyday.

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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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Miles Davis vs LCD Soundsystem and four other songs you may have missed

A semi-regular round-up of songs that I didn't have the chance to write about over the last seven days. This week's also-rans include...

1) LCD Soundsystem vs Miles Davis - New York
Allegedly created on-the-fly with no editing magic or time-stretch trickery, this is arguably the best mash-up of all time.




2) DJ Fresh Direct - Mary-Kate and Ashley
Not to be confused with "Hot Right Now" hitmaker DJ Fresh, the similarly-monikered DJ Fresh Direct is a crate digger and remixer from New York. This track, built around a sample from Jay-Z and Kanye's N****s In Paris, is a triumph of deep groove.





3) Little Mix - I Will Wait
Ever wondered what Mumford & Sons would sound like if their songs were turned into John Lewis adverts? Well, wonder no more - because Little Mix have done all the legwork for you, turning I Will Wait into a soporific, string-soaked yawnfest. NB: A good antidote to this tedious Live Lounge performance is the instrumental version of the girls' new single DNA, which was circulated heavily online earlier this week (it's also available on iTunes). A masterclass in 21st Century machinepop production.




4) Jamie Lidell - What A Shame
English musician Lidell is a cohort of Beck, Feist and Chilly Gonzales, and achieved fleeting fame with the infectiously catchy soul track Multiply in 2005. Signed to Warp Records, he's an uncommonly straightforward artist for the headache-inducing dance label. That said, his new single scores 8/10 on the weird noise-ometer before settling into a syncopated, colourful melody in the chorus. Imagine Mark Ronson fed through a paper shredder and you'll get the idea.




5) Dot Rotten - Karmageddon
This is a little more reflective and, dare I say, more gospel than Dot Rotten's previous singles. A potential crossover hit? It's just been added to the Radio One playlist, so it's entirely possible.

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Gorillaz: Damon Albarn is literally making this stuff up

The new Gorillaz single hit the airwaves last night - a collaboration between Damon Albarn, James Murphy and André 3000. Do Your Thang splutters into life with a meandering organ pattern, the sort of thing Albarn could knock off in his sleep. Principally because it sounds like someone rolling over top of a keyboard in the middle of the night.

Things really kick off with André 3000's stream-of-consciousness rap, one of the most exciting things you'll hear this side of lunchtime, and potentially the first time the word onomatopoeia has been used so prominently in a pop song.

"André just wouldn't stop," Albarn told Zane Lowe last night. "It literally just took off and we just ran with it. He's fantastic."

Apparently, the Outkast rapper then sent Damon off to try a bit of freestyling of his own. "My bit at the beginning was the last thing that came on," he said. "It just was whatever came out of my head. One take, just done." Damon's bit isn't quite as thrilling as André's but you have to give him credit. If I'd been challenged to record a verse under those circumstances it would have ended up going:

"I'm doing a rap.
On a song.
Something something.
Mic-ro-phone.

Rap. Rap. Rap. Rap.
Rapping!
(Word to your mother.)"

In summary: Do Your Thang is better than Blur's under-rehearsed Brits performance by approximately one gazillion percent.

Gorillaz - Do Your Thang (Radio Edit)


The song is available as a free download on the Converse website right now.

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Free download from the Holy Ghost

Who says the devil gets all the best tunes? New York disco punk duo Holy Ghost! have been floating around for the last couple of years doing remixes for the likes of Phoenix, MGMT and Cut Copy. Last summer, they put out an excellent EP which featured the following nugget of new-wave magnificence.

Holy Ghost! - Static On The Wire


If you think Static On The Wire sounds like a more melodic LCD Soundsystem, it's no coincidence. LCD's main man James Murphy produced it, and he's releasing Holy Ghost's debut album on his DFA label. Details are scant at the moment, but we do know the CD's got vocals from former Doobie Brother Michael McDonald and the title track sounds like this:

Holy Ghost - Do It Again by DFA Records


Do It Again (the album) isn't out til April, but you can download Do It Again (the song) in exchange for an email address on the band's official website. Phantasmic.

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BAD PANDAS

I imagine the new LCD Soundsystem video sounded a lot more fun at the planning stage than it turned out to be once the cameras started rolling.

The bit where a giant panda dude rugby tackles James Murphy to the ground (around 2'30") looks really, really painful.

LCD Soundsystem - Drunk Girls


In the interests of impartiality, I am also posting this video of a cute, pacifist baby panda sneezing.



That is all.

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Play it loud: New LCD Soundsystem

Here's one I missed in yesterday's roundup of the music I missed during my holiday - LCD Soundsystem's swingorilliant new single, Drunk Girls.

The backing vocals call to mind Bowie's When You're A Boy - while frontman James Murphy sneers over a typically twisty disco drone. Superb stuff.

LCD Soundsystem - Drunk Girls

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Gig review: O2 Wirless Festival

James Murphy, lead singer of LCD Soundsystem, is annoyed. It's 20 minutes into his set at the 02 Wireless Festival in London and he's still not happy with the way he sounds. He's constanrtly gesticulating to an off-stage sound man, trying to tweak something - his monitors, his microphone, a portuguese prostitute's nipple… we're not sure, but it's clearly irrirtating him.

By the end of the set, one of his band's keyboards has failed and Murphy storms off the stage in a huff. Someone rushes after him to see what's happening (clearly, the instruments that are working can just play themselves) before returning to the stage and telling the band to wind things up, shrugging her shoulders by way of explanation.

It was a pathetic showbiz strop. LCD Soundsystem actually sounded fine, and Murphy committed the cardinal sin of being so wrapped up in his own muso world that he forgot about the audience.

He would have done well to watch New Young Pony Club earlier in the day. They, too, had a few sound issues (lead singer Ty Bulmer drifted in and out of key seemingly at random) but the London five-piece threw themselves into the show with what can only be called gay abandon. They'd even dressed up for the occasion - keyboardist Lou Hayter had on her best blue party frock - and the crowd responded to their energy by bouncing up and down like over-inflated space hoppers. "When you react like that, it's almost like you've heard of us," remarked Bulmer.

Plan B was up next, rapping like a child who has just discovered the word "fuck". I went off to the beer tent.

For CSS, however, I was right up at the front and they were an absolute riot - of noise, of colour, of fun, of gleeful lunacy. Lovefoxxx appeared in a sequinned catsuit, which she later stripped off to reveal… erm, another jumpsuit (thus achieving levels of genius hitherto uncomprehendable by womankind). Bounding around the stage like a multicoloured bunny rabbit, she paused only to show off her patting-your-head-while-rubbing-your-tummy skills, and to sing a song while inhaling helium from a balloon. My new favourite band.

Rounding off the night were Daft Punk. I really don't get Daft Punk. They came out dressed in robot suits and stood in a "pyramid" for an hour-and-a-half while a ropey display from B&Q's lighting department blinked on and off around them.

The crowd went wild, but it could have been anyone in those suits. There weren't even any instruments on display, so who's to say it wasn't two out-of-work plumbers bopping around to a mix CD? All told, a massive and particularly crap practical joke.

CSS performing Let's Make Love at One Big Weekend

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