Here are two very good live videos

I'm not going to muck about here... Let's get straight to the videos.

First up, here's Paolo Nutini playing Let Me Down Easy live at Abbey Road (and filmed through Instagram's Earlybird filter, apparently). This is the official video for his next single, the cheapskate.

Paolo Nutini - Let Me Down Easy

Second up, dance collective Jungle give it some cowbell on Jimmy Kimmel's US chat show. Surprised to discover they're basically Disclosure after hiring a funk band - but what a great sound they make. 

Jungle - Busy Earnin'

And that is all I have to say about that.

Tweet

Songs you may have missed: Easter edition

It's been a pretty busy week on the blog - with excellent new songs from Lana Del Rey, and Sky Ferreira, and OneRepublic and Robyn in the mix. But here are some of the ones I didn't get round to writing about...

1) Clean Bandit - Rather Be (Live on Jools)
This is the first time I've ever seen Clean Bandit in the flesh. There are about 80 of them. Who knew?




2) Iggy Azalea ft Rita Ora - Black Widow
If you haven't latched onto the Iggy Azalea bandwagon so far, this could be the song to turns you around. Like Katy Perry's Dark Horse, it weds a sparse, minor-key verse to a soaring chorus that gets clipped just before you get to the good bit. It's a cruel tease, but it leaves you wanting more every time.

Clever writing, then, and a good trailer for Iggy's debut album, The New Classic, which "drops" (is released) on Monday.




3) Prince - Computer Blue (full version)
The news that Prince has kissed and made up with Warner Bros means my wallet's going to get much, much lighter.

For a start, it means albums like Parade and Sign O The Times will be remastered and re-released (and believe me, they need it - the original CD masters are woefully tinny and quiet). But the deluxe, 30th Anniversary edition of Purple Rain also promises a bunch of rarities from the Vault. Let's hope it includes an official release for this long-cherished, 14-minute bootleg of Computer Blue.

Sadly, that track can't be embedded - so here's Mr Rogers Nelson performing Purple Rain at the Brits instead.





4) Paolo Nutini - Recover
The mumbling Scotsman covers Chvrches, with spine-tingling results.





5) MNEK - Every Little Thing
It's pronounced Em-En-Ee-Kay, and he's the biggest UK pop star you've never heard of.

He wrote Need U (100%) with Duke Dumont. He plays the spoons on Rudimental's Spoons. That was his voice on Gorgon City's Ready For Your Love. Little Mix's Wings? He produced that one. And he's working with Florence + The Machine, too.

Somehow, in the middle of all that productivity, he's been making his own solo record. Every Little Thing is the 100% not bollocks first single.






6) AlunaGeorge - Kaleidoscope Love (Kaytranada Remix)
Montreal DJ/Remixer Kaytranada has taken one of the least-loved tracks on AlunaGeorge's debut album and turned it into a deep, dark house cut. The backing suits Aluna's ethereal vocals so well, it should give the band a hint of where to take their second album.






7) Future ft Andre 3000 - Benz Friendz (Watchutola)
The stand-out track on Future's new album is a two-hander with Outkast's Andre 3000, with both rappers insisting they do not care for a girl and her choice of automotive transport. Andre goes so far as to declare he'd rather ride his bike or walk. God knows why, but this is one the catchiest beats you'll hear all Easter.





8) Lulu James - Beautiful People
21-year-old Lulu James has been bubbling under for a year or so. Born in Tanzania, raised in South Shields, she's Jessie Ware with a harder edge and a voice that'd make Aretha Franklin jealous.

Beautiful People is the first track from her new, as-yet-untitled, EP. It starts quietly but builds and builds until your walls start vibrating. Spellbinding stuff.





9) Culann - All Reverie
I wrote an article for the BBC News site this week on "the return of rock" - based on the fact that, finally, the UK is producing some guitar bands good enough to be played on daytime radio.

Afterwards, I got no end of abuse on Twitter from hardcore rock fans who said I didn't know what I was talking about. Maybe, but the article wasn't targeted at Metal Hammer readers and, to the majority of Radio One and Two listeners, new guitar bands have been pretty thin on the ground for the last few years.

Anyway, the positive result of the piece was that lots of guitar bands sent their videos at me. Here's one I liked, from Scottish five-piece Culann. Singer PJ Kelly's Celtic lilt has a touch of the Biffy Clyros, while his band are clearly accomplished musicians - this single makes a lot of unexpected detours on its way to the chorus without ever descending into fretwanking. (Unsurprisingly, Culann say they're fans of prog bands like Yes and Rush).

The video, meanwhile, stars Rab Affleck, who you might recognise from his hard-man roles in Layer Cake and Gangs of New York.




10) Nas - It Ain't Hard To Tell (Stink Mix)
A parping jazz remix to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Nas's debut album Illmatic. You've got to love a rap song with a flute loop.



11) Pawws - Sugar
"Upsetting disco" says the bio on Pawws Twitter page, and I couldn't have put it better myself.

She's a London-based electro singer, with shades of Little Boots and St Etienne in her sugar-spun 80s pop. The cascading synth lines in her debut single are sweeter than Canderel. Just the thing for Easter.

That's all for this week, then. Happy Festival of the Chocolate Jesus!

Tweet

Songs you may have missed: Dadrock corner

Hello! It's not all platinum-plated pop around these parts. Every so often, I like to relax beside the fire with a nice cuppa and a suitable biscuit while I "have a Lamacq" (stop sniggering at the back). Here's some of the videos I'd put on if my Dad was round for dinner.

1) Damon Albarn - Lonely Press Play / Mr Tembo
If you missed Damon Albarn's recent Culture Show special, you missed something really special. The BBC followed Mr Blur back to his childhood home, where he got all misty-eyed at the sweet shops, dustbins and church halls.

The walk down memory lane was in aid of his first solo album, Everyday Robots, which is a proper who am I and what have I done mid-life crisis project, as Damon readily admitted. "For those who give a shit, and I'm not assuming anyone does, hopefully there's a bit of an insight into who I am," he said. "Otherwise it's just a neurotic, left-handed, middle-aged man talking nonsense out there into the void".

Here's Damon on the Tonight Show performing the gorgeous Lonely Press Play, and the playful Mr Tembo - which is genuinely about an Elephant.

Recommended biscuit accompaniment: Jammie Dodger.






2) Amber Run - Spark
Amber Run are a new band from Nottingham, who've been getting a lot of love from their local BBC Introducing programme. The Independent compared them to Coldplay, and they're about to support Kodaline on tour - but don't let that put you off. The chorus on this track is going to drill into your skull like an alt-pop woodpecker.

Recommended biscuit: Tracker bar.





3) Beck - Say Goodbye
He's a chameleon in a sheep's clothing. He's got a razorblade overcoat. He's a loser, baby.

He's also produced an album, Morning Phase, of uncommon quality. A companion piece to his big break-up record, Sea Change, it's gentle and affecting without slipping into syrupy mawkishness.

Beck turned up to perform the stand-out track, Say Goodbye on Jimmy Fallon's show the other night and, despite the banjos, it's really rather lovely.

Recommended biscuit: Rich Tea.




4) Paolo Nutini - Scream (Funk My Life Up)
Awful title, brilliant song. All sticky and swampy, Paolo's Delta Blues reinvention is a perfect fit for a man who's always dabbled in the soulful side of pop.

A crueller soul might say he's starting to sound like Terence Trent D'Arby covering Movin' On Up, but I wouldn't dream of such a thing.

Recommended biscuit: Tunnock's Caramel.





5) Team Me - With My Hands...
"From the deep woods of Elverum, a small city not far a way from Oslo and even closer to Lillehammer, comes young six-piece indie pop band Team Me," says the official website of Team Me's record label.

They're being touted as ones to watch at SXSW, for what that's worth, but the two songs they've put online so far are uplifting, rambunctious and full of youthful sparkle.

My favourite is the splendidly-titled "With My Hands Covering Both of My Eyes I Am Too Scared to Have A Look At You Now", which features the damning couplet: "Mediocre band, perform your mediocre songs for us / Mediocre band, dance for us, dance for us."

One for the cool dads.

Recommended biscuit: Party Rings.

Tweet

Pharrell, Coldplay and other songs you may have missed

Hello, and welcome to another instalment of "songs you may have missed", aka "songs I have forgotten to write about".

There's a bumper crop this week, kicking off with...

1) Pharrell Williams - Happy (at the Oscars)
Guaranteed to slap a grin on your face, here's an ebullient performance from man-of-the-moment Pharrell Williams. So what if the song didn't win an Oscar, who else can say they got Lupita Nyong'o, Meryl Streep and Amy Adams to dance with them on Sunday night, despite wearing the worst pair of shoes ever seen by humankind? No-one, that's who.




2) Coldplay - Magic
True story: In 2011, one of my 6 Music colleagues ended up sitting next to Chris Martin at an awards show. All night long, she badgered him for an interview. All night long, he refused.

"You probably don't even like Coldplay," he said, trying to shut the situation down.

"I do!" she protested. "I really love your first album."

Eyebrow raised, Martin asked: "And you hate all the others?"

"No, no. It's not that," she protested. "It's just I never bought any of them, so I wouldn't know."

Coldplay apparently took the exchange to heart, because their new single sounds closer to that debut album, Parachutes, than anything they've recorded since. It's called Magic and it goes like this.




3) Arctic Monkeys - Arabella
Four singles in, and AM continues to deliver the goods. Arabella is the moody one, and comes with a video by in-demand director Jake Nava (Kanye's Monster, Beyonce's Single Ladies). Disappointingly, we don't get Alex Turner doing a dance routine in a leotard, but he delivers the song with one almighty swagger.




4) Moonboots ft Kyiki - Don't Ask Why
"I encountered the mysterious undiscovered star @kyiki on a winter night spacewalk," writes producer Moonboots on his Soundcloud page. "We came back with this song."

Not to ruin a fun story, but Kyiki is actually Crystal Fighters' frontwoman Ellie Fletcher, whose vocals caress this feel-good dance track into a dizzy swoon. It's a free download, too. So that's nice.





5) Shakira - Empire
Christing Jesus on a Hotdog, she's not holding anything back, is she?




6) Kate Miller - Collar Up
Don't let the unassuming name fool you, Kate Miller is one heck of a singer. A 19-year-old who is (I think) still unsigned, she sounds like Florence + The Machine, if Florence + The Machine discovered restraint. Her debut single Collar Up is a jagged shard of noir pop, with a chorus that'll stick to you like velcro.




7) Janelle Monae and Charli XCX - Simply Irresistible
Sadly not a duet, but R&B oddball Janelle Monae and pop's best-kept secret Charli XCX have separately recorded versions of Robert Palmer's Simply Irresistible.

The tracks were made for TV channel E! and played during their Oscars red carpet show on Sunday (although I watched it, and failed to hear either of them).

8) Paolo Nutini - Iron Sky (live at Abbey Road)
This one's a slow-burner, so stick with it. Taken from Paolo's forthcoming third album, Iron Sky is a powerful, passionately delivered protest song, which samples Charlie Chaplin's speech from the 1940 anti-Nazi movie The Great Dictator. Adele is a fan:

Fuck!!! This is one of the best things I've ever seen in my life hands down http://t.co/D47sRGtni1

— Adele (@OfficialAdele) February 27, 2014

And that's a wrap. More "fun" and "mayhem" (music videos) tomorrow.

Tweet

Paolo Nutini pulls it* out of the bag

* a new song

Paolo Nutini. Remember him? Floppy fringe, impenetrable Scottish accent, sings like he's swallowed a cup of razor blades.

His first two albums each sold more than a million copies in the UK, much to the surprise of his record label, who signed him as a sort of Jack Johnson / James Morrison hybrid, then dropped their jaws, aghast, when his second record turned out to be a hybrid of old-time reggae, folk and ragtime, all delivered in a faux-Jamaican accent.

He's been away for a couple of years, missing several deadlines for his third album, but last night he popped up in Camden to preview a bunch of new material, including a song about his mum and another one called Fashion, performed as a duet with Angel Haze.

The new album is called Caustic Love - he wisely ditched the original title, Numpty - and it's served with generous lashings of Hot Buttered Soul. Inspired by the trunk-funkin' R&B of Atlantic Stax, it's packed with cast-iron grooves and at least three bona fide radio hits. Better still, on the recorded version of Fashion, Angel Haze is replaced by Janelle Monaé (no disrespect to Angel but, come on, it's Janelle bloody Monaé).

The first single is a big old gospel stomper called Scream (Funk My Life Up), and it popped onto YouTube last night to coincide with Paolo's comeback gig. Amusingly, when I first heard it, the song's subtitle was "Don't Fuck Me Up", but that's not going to get you on Ken Bruce's show, is it?

Paolo Nutini - Scream (Funk My Life Up)

PS: Five years ago, Paolo Nutini gave me a memorable interview in which we discussed President Obama's bowling alley and deep frying Maltesers. It's worth a read if you have two minutes to spare.

Tweet