Kylie covers Bette Davis Eyes and 11 other songs you may have missed

Here you go - 11 songs that Discopop Directory forgot from the first week of October.

There are some real gems in this female-heavy edition... but I'm a little pushed for time, so its one-paragraph synopses only.

1) Kylie - Bette Davis Eyes
Recorded for Radio 2's Sound of the 80s, it's hard to imagine a better-judged cover version.






2) David Guetta ft Sam Martin - Dangerous
David Guetta is responsible for so many identikit Eurodance musical obscenities that it's easy to forget he also made Titanium and I Gotta Feeling. This new single sees him plunder the Daft Punk sample bank, and it's really rather magnificent.





3) Beyonce and Nicki Minaj - Flawless (live)
Amateur (ie shit) footage of this live collaboration has been floating around for a while, but Beyonce uploaded a professional version two nights ago. It's quite something.






4) Fiona Apple - The Container
An unreleased track dusted down for the opening titles to new US drama The Affair (starring Dominic West and Maura Tierney) this is the best adult pop theme song since Regina Spektor's You've Got Time.

6) Tove Styrke - Borderline
"I'm borderline happy and I'm borderline sad, I'm borderline good and I'm borderline bad" - a bubbling, scandipop gem from music's second-best Tove. Warning: May cause earworms.






6) Charli XCX - London Girls
Equal parts Toto Coleo, Joan Jett and Girls Aloud's theme song for Freaky Friday, this is a riotous teaser for Charli's forthcoming album, Sucker. Oi!





7) Jessie J - Burnin' Up (fr 2 Chainz)
"It's an uptempo love song that uses fire as a metaphor for lust," explains lyric website Popgenius, with unprecedented levels of insight. Personally, I'm more intrigued by Jessie's reference to "subliminal sex".

And by intrigued I mean repulsed.





8) Karen Harding - Say Something
Getting kicked out of the X Factor at the judges' houses stage last year was the best thing that ever happened to her. Co-written by MNEK, like everything else these days.





9) Oh Land - Head Up High
First single from the cheekbonally blessed Danish singer's forthcoming album, Earth Sick. Synthalicious.

10) Ibeyi - River
Signed by XL Recordings, nu-soul group Ibeyi consists of French-Cuban twin sisters Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi Díaz, daugthers of the Cuban percussionist and Buena Vista Social Club member Anga Díaz. (I copied this directly from Stereogum, spelling mistakes and all, so blame them if the facts are wrong).

Judging by this Google image search, the twins were tragically born with conjoined hair, which much make their concerts interesting to watch.




11) RKCB - Elision
Fans of Jungle will get a familiar thrill from the hushed electro-funk of this track, courtesy of LA production duo RKCB. Lovely late-night stuff with impressive use of the "stereo field", for music nerds.




12) Cheryl - Only Human
I haven't been bowled over by the singles from Cheryl's fourth album but this - a pre-order giveaway - is a vast improvement. Spiralling of melody and fulsome of bass, it's one of the best things she's done across her entire solo career.

OK - that's your lot. More of the same next week.

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Lady Gaga has Sex Dreams in Camden, and six other songs you may have missed

"When I'm without you, I can't live," bleated Lady Gaga at the iTunes festival last night, buttering up her fans like hot muffins. "When were in this space together we make the most beautiful thing in the world," she added. "We belong, don't we?"

OH GOOD GOD, WOMAN, GIVE IT A REST. Gaga's fawning nonsense wasted approximately a quarter of her 60-minute set at the Roundhouse. Is there a more sickening pop star vice than naked narcissism? Gaga dresses up this "mother monster" thing as a mutual relationship but, let's be clear, she's the one getting her ego stroked. At great length.

But when she finally got around to playing some music, you could (almost) forgive her. Manicure and Artpop sounded better, conceptually and melodically, than anything on Born This Way. My favourite was Sex Dreams, which sounded like the sort of thing Prince would have given Vanity 6 back in 1984. Here's some rehearsal footage:



But Gaga wasn't the only pop star unveiling new songs this weekend. Here's a quick round-up.

1) Arctic Monkeys - Stop The World I Wanna Get Off With You
Lord knows what's gotten into Alex Turner but his new songs all sound like they were written by a randy teenager ("I'm constantly on the cusp of trying to kiss you").

Stop The World... is a non-album b-side but it's as lurid and licentious as Do I Wanna Know? In other words: it's bloody good.




2) Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball
I always suspected the next track from Miley's new album (hilariously named BANGERZ) would be a little more palatable than the "look at me being all growed up" antics of We Can't Stop. And so it proves to be: Wrecking Ball is a stonking mega-ballad that will soundtrack X Factor winner montages for weeks to come.




3) Skream - Rollercoaster feat Sam Frank
You see the name Skream and you think "ah yes, the man who threw ball bearings in a dustbin and called it Dubstep". Well, this is nothing of the sort: A happy, slinky disco groove which veers dangerously close to Jamiroquai territory, but will win you over anyway.




4) Anna Calvi- Eliza
"Anna Calvi runs through the forest and the elements," says the YouTube description for Anna Calvi's new single. It means "Anna gets wet in the rain", rather than "Anna bursts through solid plates of magnesium and calcium" - which is either disappointing or magnificent, depending on how much phwoarr Anna generates in your loins.




5) Cher Lloyd - I Wish fest TI
Stealing Riffing on the chorus from Skee-Lo's I Wish, this is the first song from Cher Lloyd's second album. It's catchy enough, if you like that sort of thing.



6) Oh Land - Renaissance Girls (Nick Zinner remix)
I must have watched Oh Land's video for Renaissance Girls 100 times by now, and the choreography still makes me grin like a dolphin. Now it's been remixed by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Nick Zimmerman, who gives the song a more strident, military beat but does nothing to diminish it's kooky charm. Move forward, move forward.

Now... what on earth am I going to blog about for the rest of the week?

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Oh Land - Renaissance Girls is the best video you will see this week

Oh Land is not, it turns out, a small principality off the coast of Poland. No, it's the stage name of Danish-born New York girl Nina Øland Fabricius.

She's about to put out her third album, Wish Bone, produced by credible pop kingpin Dave Sitek. And the first single is a sinewy electro gem.

Renaissance Girls is Beyonce's Run The World, told from the point of view of a regular girl next door, instead of an Amazonian Wolf Woman. "I'm a real independent, doing the laundry," she sings, while dancing around a cement truck and doing some knitting.

I love this video.
I love this song.

Oh Land - Renaissance Girls

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