Andrew Garfield joins Arcade Fire and 10 other songs you may have missed

A semi-regular round-up of songs I didn't quite get round to blogging over the last week... Lots of A-listers in this selection, plus a song about an elephant.

1) Arcade Fire - We Exist
We Exist contains one of the stand-out lyrics on Arcade Fire's Reflection - telling the story of a gay kid talking to his dad: "Daddy, it's true, I'm different from you. But tell me why they treat me like this?"

The video stars Spider-Man's Andrew Garfield as a victimised, alienated transvestite, who finally finds acceptance during Arcade Fire's set at Coachella earlier this year.

It's also got an amazing, Footloose-inspired "angry dance" sequence.


2) Michael Jackson ft Justin Timberlake - Love Never Felt So Good
The concept for this Michael Jackson video is: Michael Jackson is dead, so let's get a load of grinning imbeciles to dance around while we piss on his grave.

At least Justin Timberlake has the decency to look embarrassed by the whole thing.



3) Coldplay - Always In My Head
The songs on Coldplay's new album are the most direct and heartfelt they've recorded since their debut. Chris Martin sounds smaller and humbler, and the delicate arrangements frame his voice with negative space.

A case in point is the softly mesmerising album opener Always In My Head - which got a live outing on Jimmy Fallon's show earlier this week.



4) Charli XCX - Boom Boom Clap

I wrote about this song, from the soundtrack to The Fault In Our Stars, a couple of weeks ago. Now it now looks like it'll be set free from the movie and released as a single in its own right.

A video was shot in Amsterdam a week ago but, for now, we have to make do with the lyric video.



5) Iggy Azaelea ft Charli XCX - Fancy
Speaking of Charli XCX, she popped along to the Jimmy Kimmel's chat show this week to perform the teen rebel anthem Fancy with Leggy Azalea. I like how she sits out the verses on the steps, looking moody, instead of dancing around aimlessly.



6) Damon Albarn - Mr Tembo
The sole moment of levity on Damon's mid-life-crisis of a solo album, Mr Tembo is a song about an elephant he wrote for an unrealised children's album.

Apparently, the first time the elephant heard the song, it shit itself.




7) Nonono - Hungry Eyes
Nonono's industrially adhesive Pumpin' Blood never charted over here (partly due to the record label dicking around with the release date until everyone lost interest) - but their debut album is selling faster than pickled herring in Sweden.

Hence this remix, by fellow Swede Kleerup, which is something of a triumph.





8) Nero - Satisfy
It's four years since Nero's debut album but they've lost none of their power. With vocals from Alana Watson, Satisfy is more intense than two days in a human centrifuge.




9) Naomi Pilgrim - House of DreamsNormally, I hate the continuous play function on Soundcloud... If I want to listen to another song, I will bloody well click on it myself, thank you very much.

But when this song by Naomi Pilgrim popped up after La Roux's new track earlier this week, I was transfixed. Swedish-Barbadian singer Naomi Pilgrim may have got her start singing backing vocals for Lykke Li, but her own music is an altogether sunnier affair.

"This is my palace, this is how I live. I'm staying here all day," she sings, in a soulful ode to duvet days. Beautiful.




10) Nick Mulvey - We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
Shock news: An indie artist has played a minor-key cover of pop song in the Live Lounge. Still, this reworking of Taylor Swift's break-up anthem is a cut above the rest: Not least for the intricate fretboard work.

Nick will be on Jools Holland next week, if you like this sort of thing.




11) Gorgon City - Never Too Far (ft Laura Welsh)
Just added to Radio 1's playlist, this Gorgon City's follow-up to the excellent Ready For Your Love.

Lots of sub-bass here, as you might expect.

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Songs you may have missed: Two weeks off edition

Hello... and also goodbye. We're heading off for a bit of summer sun, so unfortunately the blog will be out of action for a fortnight. (It's a one man show, and that man is quite tired). However, I have a bountiful spread of pop goodies to sustain you over the next 14 days. Try not to gorge yourself on them all at once.

1) Katy B - Crying For No Reason (live on Graham Norton)
People always get a little anxious when a record is pushed back but - hooray! - Katy B's Little Red is a triumph. (One song in particular, All My Lovin', sounds like it could have come from Neneh Cherry's Raw Like Sushi. It's that good.)

The album arrives on 10th February, so until then, here's a live performance of the current single Crying For No Reason. As Popjustice has already noted, "it's the best chatshow-based single performance in years". Katy doesn't move around much, but her vocals are mesmerising.

And when a song is this good, that's all you need.




2) NONONO - Hungry Eyes
Nonono, the Swedish band who aren't named after a Dawn Penn song, have released Hungry Eyes, a single that isn't named after the Dirty Dancing song. Ah well.




3) Lorde - Team (Panic City Remix)
I didn't think it'd be possible to dance to a Lorde single, unless you count that creepy Poltergeist thing she does on every TV performance. But San Franciscan DJ/Producer Panic City has taken Team's minimal, spidery beat, shot it with a tazer and dragged it onto the dancefloor.

You won't be able to resist (but if you can, could you keep an eye on my coat?)





4) Little Mix - Word Up!
I wrote about this last week when the audio wasn't available. Now the audio is available. Here is the audio.




5) Ibibio Sound Machine - Let's Dance
Mary Anne Hobbs played this on her peerless 6 Music show this weekend (there is literally no better way to wake up on a Saturday morning) and it gave me a greater jolt awake than the hot jug of coffee I was pouring down my throat.

Ibibio Sound Machine are an eight-piece London collective, fronted by British-Nigerian vocalist Eno Williams, who combine elements of West African highlife, disco, post-punk and psychedelic electro soul. This sprawling, funky single is their debut after signing to Soundway Records at the tail end of 2013. It sounds like The Tom Tom Club got swallowed by Botswana, and it is incredible.






6) Jhené Aiko - Bed Peace
2014 is shaping up to be the year R&B came back from the grave, with Solange, Banks, SOHN, Kwabs and Sampha among the artists hailed as saviours of the genre. Now you can add Jhené Aiko to that list, too.

Jhené's USP is her girlish falsetto - all playful and sensual compared to her contemporaries, who wither sound bored, depressed or stoned.

Her Sail Away EP came out last year, but is starting to get some mainstream pick-up (mostly on 1Xtra). The lead track is the woozy, sexy Bed Peace, which features Childish Gambino on co-lead vocals. The video sees them recreate John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "bed-in" protest against the Vietnam War because... oh, I don't know. You work it out.




7) iamamiwhoami - Fountain
I haven't really bought in to the whole iamamiwhoami "thing". The project, created by Swedish singer Jonna Lee, has consistently sent dozens of blogs spiralling into a frothing whirl of delight, mainly because Jonna wouldn't tell them who she was and everyone convinced themselves it was Christina Aguilera for some reason.

Anyway, now that we know it's not Christina Aguilera, the music suddenly seems more focused and tuneful. Fountain is a beautiful, icy pop ballad with a particularly arresting (ie pretentious) video.




8) Prince - U Got The Look
With his tiny royal purpleness making an impromptu visit to Britain on 3rd February, I will be spending my entire holiday listening to Purple Rain and Sign O The Times and Batman (yes, even Batman) and wishing I was back at home.

If you haven't seen him before, sell your kidneys on the black market to get a ticket. Because even when he doesn't play the hits, Prince is still the best performer alive today.

With the set-list changing every night, I really hope he hauls this one out of the vault. U Got The Look is one of the best-constructed pop duets of all time. Try and deny it.

Right, that's it... The out-of-office is on, and the sunglasses are packed.

If you see anything that should go into a "Songs I have missed" round-up when I get back, put the link in the comments, or send me a tweet @mrdiscopop. I'll put the best ones up here on 10th Feb.

Cheers,
mrdiscopop

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Little Mix throw some shapes and seven other songs you may have missed

A semi-regular round-up of songs and videos that didn't make the blog in the last seven (or, in this case, 10) days. It's a veritable treasure chest of quality pop.

1) Little Mix - Move (X Factor rehearsal)
Jade, Jesy, Perrie and Leigh-Anne bunged this footage up on YouTube last Friday, while they were rehearsing the routine for Sunday's X Factor.

Filmed on a fixed camera in an anonymous dance studio, it's far superior to the televised version, which dropped some of the choreography, and (frustratingly) cut away to cavernous wide shots during all the best bits. They paid for that ridiculous set, so they're damn well going to make the most of it.

If you like this, you'll be pleased to hear the girls are releasing a dance-only edit of the proper video to Move at some point in the next few days.





2) Blood Orange - You're Not Good Enough
We love Dev Hynes for his stellar work on Solange's jaw-dropping True EP and MKS's un-loved but sublime Flatlines.

You're Not Good Enough is a new single under his "Blood Orange" moniker, featuring the vocal talents of Samantha Urbani of US indie-poppers Friends. As subtle and sexy as any of the Solange material, it's the roller-coaster bassline that really makes my stomach drop.






3) Avicii - Hey Brother
You know what? I think Avicii's hit on something with his ridiculous "House Music x Bluegrass" formula. Two of the world's biggest-selling musical genres, side by side in unholy matrimony (with apologies to Stevie Wonder).

After scoring a number one with the Aloe Blacc-featuring You Make Me, his new single ropes in Dan Tyminski (literally, with a lassoo) - who you might know as the man who sang Man Of Constant Sorrow on the O Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack.

It shouldn't work, but it kind of does.




4) Ella Eyre - Deeper
19-year-old Ella has already scored a number one this year, as the featured vocalist on Rudimental's Waiting All Night.

Deeper is her debut single, and a stunning showcase for her slightly blurry, soulful vocals. The tempo comes down a couple of notches from Waiting All Night, but she sounds just as urgent and exciting as ever.






5) Laurel - Fire Breather
Urgh, another insanely talented 19-year-old. How about a nice middle-aged pop star with an achy knee for once?

Anyway, we can't complain about Laurel, who styles herself as "London's last sweetheart trying to set the world to rights with love songs." She comes recommended by Ms Nicola Roberts (aka the only member of Girls Aloud with musical taste) and her debut EP is a Delicious Del Rey Delight.

The A-side is Fire Breather, which thuds with lust like a palpitating heart; while the B-Side is a slow-burning ballad called The Desert. Both are free to download right now.





6) Angel Haze - Summertime Sadness
Angel Haze's 30 Gold series continues "apace" with this yummy strummy cover of Summertime Sadness. The girl can sing, I'll give her that.






7) NoNoNo - Scared
I'm not really sure what happened to NoNoNo's single Pumpin' Blood. It got delayed and delayed in the UK because it was due to be featured in a major TV commercial - but the wait apparently killed the song's momentum. It's out now, but radio never quite got on the bandwagon despite lots of early support.

Still, the band are doing incredibly well in the rest of Europe, so they'll have to remain our little secret for now. Scared is their latest track, recorded for a Kitsune Maison compilation, and its got hooks that'll stick in you for days.





8) Charli XCX - I Want Candy
I don't normally post videos from gigs because (a) the quality is awful and (b) the people that make them are awful.

But I'm making an exception because this encore, from Charli XCX's recent show in San Francisco, is utterly brilliant (if boringly faithful to the original). It should be a single.

And that's your lot. If you have any suggestions for next week's list, drop me a line using the address at the bottom of the page.

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Congratulations, the record-buying public

Well done, everyone. By the looks of this afternoon's iTunes chart, it looks like the inexplicable 14-month delay has done nothing to harm the chances of Icona Pop's shouty pop monster, I Love It.

(We'll just ignore that the sex-pest anthem of the summer is still number one, shall we?)

But now that we've got that out of our system, we need a new cause célèbre. To which end, allow me to nominate Icona Pop's countrymen NONONO. Fronted by Stina Wäppling (amazing name) and backed by Astma and Rockwell (whose credits include Icona Pop, natch) they describe themselves as urban-indie, which essentially means they make pop music for bloggists.

It is also worth noting that Stina has not exactly been hit with the ugly stick.

In the normal course of things, NONONO would make it onto the B-list at 6 Music and sell about 34 records. But if we can make Icona Pop proper chart stars, we can do anything. ANYTHING! (maniacal laugh)

Their latest single is called Pumping Blood - but you could take your pick from any of the songs they've uploaded to Soundcloud.

NONONO - Pumping Blood

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