A tiny Jessie Ware concert, and other songs you may have missed.

A semi-regular round-up of all the music I couldn't squeeze onto the blog in the last seven days.

Here's this week's selection...

1) Jessie Ware - Tiny Desk Concert
The brilliant Tiny Desk series on US radio network NPR requires musicians to play a no bells and even fewer whistles acoustic set in their offices.

Jessie Ware is the perfect artist for this sort of thing. Her gorgeous, complex alto is enough to keep you captivated, even when the backing track disappears.

She performs Say You Love Me, Wildest Moments and Champagne Kisses. The best 15 minutes you'll spend all week.





2) Rihanna - James Joint
Released in celebration of cannabis enthusiasm day 20 April (420 in American calendar-speak) this is a brief interlude from Rihanna's forthcoming LP.

Suitably laid back and hazy, it's easily the best thing she's released this year.






3) Raury - Fly
Written immediately after news broke that police officer Darren Wilson was not being indicted for murdering unarmed teenager Mike Brown, Raury's heartfelt, complicated plea for a peaceful revolution was a sucker punch to the gut when it premiered in January.

It's even more powerful now that it has a video, which takes an animated trip through the highs and lows of black history in America.





4) Wolf Alice - Bros
Sadly not a tribute to Matt, Luke and Ken, the new single by Wolf Alice is instead a sentimental ode to childhood best friends.

It's been re-recorded since the 2013 original, much to the anger of fans, who seethed on Soundcloud: "Another great song completly ruined by the record business".

I think both versions approach perfection.







5) Natalie Imbruglia - Instant Crush
A Mad Men-inspired video for Imbruglia's acoustic take on the Daft Punk / Julian Casablancas track. What's not to love?





6) Hudson Mohawke - Ryderz
Hudson Mohawke sounds like a Hoxton clothing brand, but actually it's Scottish producer Ross Birchard. He's the backroom boffin behind many of Kanye West's more sonically adventurous productions. In fact, it was to his studio that West fled after this year's Brits to finish off All Day.

He's got his own album, Latern, coming out very soon and this song - which samples D.J. Rogers' Watch Out For The Riders - is one of its many highlights.







7) Chemical Brothers - Sometimes I Feel So Deserted
Back after a break of five years and sounding exactly the same as they did in 1998, here are the Chemical Brothers doing a song that goes bleep and bloop with the sort of computer generated visuals that make stoned people think they're in hyperspace.

Their eighth album, Born In The Echoes, will feature vocals from St Vincent (hooray!), Q-Tip (huzzah!) and Beck (Beck!).




8) The Go Team! - Ya Ya Yamaha
This Record Store Day exclusive is described as "a French girl on a motorcycle song," whatever that means.

All I know is that it's bloody racket, and all the better for it.





9) Sia - Fire Meet Gasoline
Starring Heidi Klum and Game of Thrones' star Pedro Pascal, this video tells an age-old story: Boy meets girl, boy falls in love, boy murders someone with a rock, boy shows girl the murder weapon, boy and girl have sex, boy and girl burn a house down.

Don't say it hasn't happened to you, too.




10) Tove Lo - Elastic Heart
Earlier year, Tove Lo had to cancel a bunch of performances to have vocal surgery - and doctors warned her she may never sing again.

After coming round from the anaesthetic she "couldn't say anything for five days," the singer told Billboard. "I almost choked on a spring roll because I wasn't supposed to cough! My voice started coming back a little; it sounded very different at first, which is scary."

But judging by this Sia cover, her voice is better than ever. Welcome back, Tove!





11) Young Wonder - Sweet Dreaming
Irish electro-pop duo Young Wonder have been biding their time while they piece together their debut LP. Rather than rush out a half-finished record to capitalise on the success of their eponymous 2013 EP, they've spent 24 months getting it just right.

The delicate production buoys Rachel Koeman's overlapping vocals to create something people are going to be very, very fond of.






12) Jones - Indluge
A gentle love song that's as wickedly indulgent as clotted cream.






13) Adam Lambert - Ghost Town
I've never warmed to Adam Lambert's music - whose lack of originality runs in direct proportion to the intensity of his eyeliner.

But teaming up with Max Martin seems to have solved all of that. Ghost Town is unexpected and unusual, combining guitar-pop and house beats with a surprisingly catchy whistled hook.





14) K Stewart - Keeping You Up
KStewart says she's influenced by Mariah, Whitney and Christina - but thankfully it's only the restrained, pop-centric moments she's interested in, as evidenced on this bubbly, 90s-style slice of harmonic pop.

Self-released on her own imprint Cherry Jam Records, it is one amazing remix away from being the sound of the summer.

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Here's Natalie Imbruglia covering Daft Punk

It's been six years since we last had new material from Natalie Imbruglia.

Then, after her fourth album, Come To Life, was pulled from release schedules in the UK, she went off to mentor contestants on the X Factor and appear in Alan Ayckbourn plays.

She didn't seem bothered that her musical career had fizzled out, telling the Telegraph last year: "I'm not a careerist. I don't think like that. I've never been trying to have a number one single. That happened to me. I'm about happiness, enjoying my life. I'm the laziest artist I've ever known.”

And yet here we are, 12 months on, with a brand new Natalie Imbruglia song. OK, so it's a cover - but she's got a great history with other people's songs (I prefer her version of Crowded House's Pineapple Head to the original).

The song she's chosen is Instant Crush, which originally featured on Daft Punk's Random Access Memories. Imbruglia ditches Julian Casablancas's's's's vocodered vocal for a more honest, emotional performance, over an chiming acoustic background.

"On the original version, you can't really hear what the song is about because of the effect that Julian's voice has, which I love, by the way," she told Stereogum. "However, it is such a beautiful story that I want people to hear it and connect with the words. I'm really proud of the way it turned out."

Listen below. It teeters on being bland - but I find myself charmed.


Instant Crush is taken from Imbruglia's forthcoming covers album, Male, which sees her reinterpret traditionally masculine songs by the likes of The Cure, Neil Young, Damian Rice, Tom Petty, and Cat Stevens.

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Pervs pay attention

Natalie Imbruglia's new video is no Justify My Love but by crikey it's steamy.



You can watch the whole thing on the Mirror website, assuming your sweaty palms can grip the mouse long enough to click on this link.

This will be the last Natalie Imbruglia post this week.

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Good Natalie Imbruglia remix is good

Oh no! All of Natalie Imbruglia's leg bones have dropped out.

Maybe this (excellent) remix of her (average) new single, Want, will help her back onto her feet. We can also recommend milk and vitamin C. Failing that, orthapedic calipers.



An mp3 of the whole eight-and-a-half-minutes trancegasm is available at the following link.

LINK

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Natalie Imbruglia - live at the Lexington

The gorgeous Natalie Imbruglia played a short set in a tiny pub last night - mostly featuring new material from her fourth album, Come To Life, which is due out in October.

We asked a primary school teacher to review the concert. This is what she sent us.

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What does Natalie Imbruglia want?

She wants you to listen to her new single. A-hahahahaaa-ha-ha-hahaaaaa.

Natalie Imbruglia - Want


Sorry.

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The return of Natalie Imbruglia

The following is not her new single... it's a "buzz track", whatever that means.

Things to note:
1) Natalie's "I ♥ NI" tattoo. Who knew she loved the people of Ulster so much?

2) A dance routine! In a Natalie Imbruglia video!

3) Despite the promise that her new material boasts a "slightly electronic Kate Bush" sound, this song isexactly like every other Natalie Imbruglia song you have ever heard.

4) Which is a good thing, obviously.

Natalie Imbruglia - Wild About It


The "proper" first single Want is out September 28th, followed by the album Come to Life on the 5th of October. It features (Oh dear God, no) three collaborations with Coldplay.

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New Natalie Imbruglia: Apologise

Amazingly, Natalie Imbruglia still has a recording contract, despite her proven inability to sell records. This is officially a good thing, however, as those unloved records are, to coin a phrase, "quite good".

Here, then, is a quite good new song from the quite good Natalie Imbruglia.

Natalie Imrbuglia - Apologise


If you can tell me where she's nicked the chorus from, I'd be very grateful. It's driving me mad.

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MP3 Frenzy: Natalie Imbruglia B-Sides

Natalie Imbruglia's Greatest Hits album is out this week and, judging by the midweek charts, its going to go top 10 on Sunday. Which is good news, considering the single stiffed at number 24.

The album comes with a DVD (swoon), and four largely useless "bonus" tracks. Because a 10-song best of would be a bit of a rip-off, but the addition of a few songs you will never listen to again in your life makes it all better.

If you ask me (and I can't understand why Sony didn't call), Imbruglia should have included some of her B-sides instead of the new tunes. There are several surprisingly good off-cuts from her three albums so far, many of which deserve further listening… So, here they are:

Download Natalie Imbruglia: B-Sides, which comes in a mixture of MP3 and M4a (iTunes) formats.

Tracklisting:
1) Something Better
2) I've Been Watching You
3) Shikaiya (For Billy)
4) Cold Air
5) Hide Behind The Sun
6) That Girl
7) Identify
8) Why
9) Diving In The Deep End
10) Tomorrow Morning

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Natalie Imbruglia: Glorious

Natalie Imbruglia's Torn came out at the same time as I moved to London ten years ago, and soundtracked my first year in the big city. It remains one of my favourite pop songs of all time in the world ever in perpetuity ad infinitum. With or without the video (but preferably with - *sigh*).

I can't quite believe it's been an entire decade (or that Natalie is the same age as me - surely she's been around for donkey's years?) but it looks like Sony have noticed, and are trying to flog a few more copies of her biggest hit by sticking it on a "singles collection", due out next month.

Now, I'm a bit of an Imbruglia buff - with a B-sides playlist on my iPod and everything - but I think most other people would find it easier to remember what her character was called in Neighbours than to name one of her other hits (Shiver, Big Mistake and Wrong Impression are the biggest ones - fact fans).

That aside, I hope she gets a profile boost from the retrospective. Natalie's actually quite an interesting songwriter and she has a new album scheduled for next year. I'd hate to see it canned if the singles compilation stiffs.

The obligatory new single is called Glorious, and she premiered it - along with a new haircut - on the Graham Norton show last week. It has one of those shimmering monsters of a chorus that are Nat's stock in trade and will almost certainly be inescapable if you're the sort of person who listens to Radio 2. Here's the performance in all its badly-lip-synced, second-verse-omitted glory:

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Natalie Imbruglia news

Fantastically / bizarrely Natalie Imbruglia hasn't been dropped by her record label, despite her nasty habit of releasing one massive hit single and then disappearing without a trace (All Saints need to hire her manager, I reckon). She's currently in the studio recording new material in preparation for a summer release, and she has put this video up on "the" internet to give us a fascinating peak into the creative process.



For those of you too lazy to press play, here's a summary of the main events:



PS On Natalie's myspace profile she lists her influences as "The Cure". Is that it? Surely she owes a bigger debt to Alanis Morisette, Garbage, Joni Mitchell and Holly Valance (erm, are you sure about that last one? Ed)

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The funniest thing you'll see today*

Johann Lippowitz is Austria's foremost interpretive dance artiste, if you're the sort of person who believes the first three results you get when you search for someone's name on Google.

But the crazy dancer in a beanie hat is actually the comic creation of David Armand, a contemporary of Peep Show stars Mitchell and Webb at Cambridge - although, unlike those two, he never made it into the legenday Footlights crew.

As Lippowitz, he's been performing an hilarious mimed version of Natalie Imbruglia's Torn in comedy clubs around the world for the past couple of years -- and last month he got the chance to perform the song on stage with the pint-sized Australian songstrel herself as part of Amnesty International's Secret Policeman's Ball. Lucky bastard.

It was shown on the telly earlier this week, which means it has finally made its way onto Youtube, which means you can watch it below - but only if you promise to support Amnesty by buying the DVD for Christmas.

Make sure to stick with it to the bitter end - it just keeps getting better.


I think my crush on Natalie Imbruglia has just got a little bit worse.

*Unless you see someone slip over on a banana peel. That's pretty fucking funny.

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Shock news! Extra Imbruglia!

Did you know that Natalie Imbruglia has siblings? Nor did I until I came across her little sister's myspace page

Laura, for that is her name, is also a recording artist and she's about to release a new single. It goes I want a magical washing machine that doubles as a jukebox. I kid you not, dear readers.

It seems Laura is one of those people who is either endearingly quirky or dangerously psychotic depending on your point of view. Take, for example, her latest blog entry:

Did I sign some dude's chest last night and draw arrows pointing to his nipples and then write 'Nipples!' excitedly? I think I did.
New rule- Laura doesn't sign skin. It's un-ladylike. And Lord knows I am VERY ladylike normally.

Really, all this needs to push her over the line into Shahbaz* territory is for her to sign off AND I LOVE CRISPS! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

The song's quite catchy, though.

* For those of you who aren't following Big Brother 7, Shahbaz is a housemate who is so very deeply unwell he believes he is Joan Crawford, when in fact he is a prancing Scottish queen who is so many sandwhiches short of a picnic he's in danger of being half of a (very theatrical) Cream Cracker. This is no word of a lie.

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Nat's the ticket

We've always believed that concerts are better when the performer is enjoying themselves. It's hardly a mind-blowing observation, but you'd be surprised how much of a difference it makes.

Tonight, for example, Natalie Imbruglia set the stage on fire (not literally) with a joyous enthusiasm in London's Shepherd's Bush. Clearly in her element, the face of L'oreal was bounding around like a bobcat, play-acting lyrics, flirting with the audience and posing for cameras.

And, boy, were there a lot of cameras. We're starting to think they should be banned, along with mobile phones, from any concert venue. Several times, our view was obscured by some amateur photographer trying to capture the moment - without a flash - and tutting as they got a useless, blurred image. Before trying again, like Sisyphus in the seventh circle of gadget hell.

One guy stood next to us who basically watched the entire show via the 2" LCD screen on the back of his Canon Powershot. We felt like shaking him and screaming "What are you doing? She's right in front of you!"

The only thing outnumbering the idiots with cameras tonight was testosterone. We have never seen so many men ogling the stage with a sense of undying devotion. And we've been at a Madonna concert.

But we're better than all of them. For Natalie looked right at us, wiggled her eyebrows and sang "drown our souls in sensory pleasure." Well, it could have been the tall bloke behind us, but we prefer to think otherwise.

Oh, and there was a superb acoustic section where Imbruglia performed a song called "I've Been Watching You". Any idea where we can get it?

Live photo via Natalie Island

Set list via Some website in the Czech Republic

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Bits and pieces

Season three publicity photos for The O.C. cast have just been posted over at Justjared.com. As expected, everyone looks suitably airbrushed and hot. Except, that is, for poor old Sandy Cohen, who appears to have Bell's Palsy.

PLAY WITH RADIOHEAD!!! screams the NME. On closer inspection, it turns out you can attend a 'drum workshop' with Phil Selway for the grand sum of £15.

The workshop will consist of a five minute lecture entitled "What to do when your band replaces you with a randomly generated series of clicks and bleeps", followed by the video for My Iron Lung.

Guaranteed to keep you entertained for a whole minute:
Porn Star or Pop Star

After seven years, Natalie Imbruglia is touring again in the autumn. Bizarrely, there are only two dates - Norwich on October 31st and Shepherd's Bush on November 21st. Perhaps someone lost the rest of the itinerary in Natalie's lank, greasy hair (L'oreal evidently don't think she's worth it any more).

Anyway, we saw her last gig at the Camden Forum in 1998, and it was superb - particularly the 15 minute acoustic set, stuffed with songs that have never been released. So we can recommend this one, too. She clearly needs to get out of the house more.

File under "Utter Bollocks": An Indonesian airliner landed in a deserted airport after a passenger's mobile disrupted the navigation system, says The Jakarta Post. Because Air traffic control wouldn't have been concerned when the plane deviated from its flight plan, and the control tower staff in deserted airports can be so friendly.

Oh yeah, and Britney had a baby.

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News burp

Kevin Federline is having a ...Baby one more time.

Ironic headline of the day: Paris Hilton designs jewellery for dogs

Natalie Imbruglia won't be returning to Neighbours for the 20th anniversary specials. Perhaps she's worried Brad will try to boff her in the back of a construction van again...

Oh so sad nerd webzine IGN lists the DVDs with naughty bits in them. We'll all be rushing out to buy "Old School" now that we know the DVD contains "a nice shot of Elisha Cuthbert's bottom in hot pants."

Defamer reassures us that the Celebrity Rehab Equilibrium is being maintained

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Big Mistake

The royalties for "Torn" just don't pay like they used to, and Thames water have cut the supply to Natalie Imbruglia's house.

That's the only reasonable explanation for the state of Nat's hair. Don't L'oreal do conditioner any more?

Luckily, her fine new album is in your shops today (and heavily discounted everywhere, for some reason). It's your duty to buy it before Mrs Dan Silverchair turns into Howard from Take That.

Meanwhile, take a look at this picture on the left. What on earth is going on there? The hair's a bit better, but someone's sandpapered the poor woman's cheeks off! It's so bad, her breasts have decided to escape.

Memo to Natalie: I've got some shampoo, a pair of scissors and some free time. Give me a call before Top of the Pops.

Natalie Imbruglia: The 0fficial Site

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Old News!!!

It's like someone pressed 'pause' on the news when I left the country. Two weeks off work and the headlines are all the same: "Government debates ridiculous infringement of our human rights", "Boring Prince will marry boring lady", "Pope still not dead".

Has the music news been any more entertaining? Frankly, yes.

This is what I missed:

Joss Stone tells Robbie to shove it.
"I liked you when I was eight, but I've grown out of it", the twirly-barneted diva told Robbie. Haven't we all, love?

Michael Stipe has blue snot
It's true, I tells ya.

Neptunes: The honeymoon is finally over
They are to take production credits on Jamie Cullum's new album, tentatively titled "Slap my fat, self-satisfied, tit-face"

Alanis - Go USA!
Always one to be contrary, Alanis Morissette has become an US citizen just as thousands of forward-thinking citizens flee in the other direction.

Phwoar!
Natalie Imbruglia's new website has 'gone live', as they used to say in 1987. Lots of gorgeous new pictures samples from her fantastic new album, which is out next month.

Normal service is now resumed.

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Brit Awards Picture Special

Natalie Imbruglia: Shocked!


Heidi & Keisha Sugababe:
Suck in those stomachs!


Girls Aloud: Windswept!


Gwen Stefani: Sunburnt!


Kelly Osbourne: Oh, the humanity!

Brit Awards

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