Coldplay, Demi Lovato and the rest of the best of new music Friday

Obviously the new Lorde album is the only new release you need today, but here's a few other tracks worth checking out once you get bored of it on Wednesday afternoon.

1) Coldplay - All I Can Think About Is You
Coldplay are uncharacteristically mellow and muffled in this love song, taken from their new Kaleidoscope EP. It's hardly Chris Martin's finest lyric (he compares himself to a shoe), but Guy Berryman's sinewy, agile bassline is worth the price of admission alone.




2) Jax Jones - Instruction (ft Demi Lovato & Steflon Don)
"If you're the supreme, then I'm Diana Ross," is the best worst lyric since Selena Gomez and "like the battle of Troy, there's nothing subtle here". But this song has such a massive grin plastered all over it's face that it's easy to forgive.

Musically, it's practically a carbon copy of Jax Jones' previous single, You Don't Know Me (especially in the rap-sung prechorus) but why tweak a perfect formula? A strong contender for song of the summer.




3) Arcade Fire - Creature Comfort
I admit, I was really prepared to hate this... After five albums of whining about modern things, Win Butler's "instinct that something isn't right with the human condition" is starting to look less like concern and more like misanthropy.

This song, a sort of electro nursery rhyme about suicide, contains what seems to be a particularly self-serving line about a girl who "filled up the bathtub and put on our first record". But towards the end of the song, Win clarified: "It's not painless. She was a friend of mine, a friend of mine" - and, all of a sudden, my own cyncism was punctured.

I thought Arcade Fire might have lost the power to move me. Turns out I was wrong.





4) George Ezra - Don't Matter Now
A distinctly odd comeback from George Ezra, he of the deep voice and the album inspired by a Eurorail ticket.

It's all mariachi horns and big, dopey backing vocals - as George recites a mantra about switching off from the big, bad world that Arcade Fire live in and having a nice old shindig at his place.

Maybe, given the horrors of the last month, this is just the song we need - like an Agadoo for the Trump era.




5) DJ Khaled - Wild Thoughts (ft Rihanna)
"I know you want to see me naked," sings Rihanna, in a video where she appears with her baps right out. How thoughtful of her to consider our desires in such a forthright manner. I wonder if her next song will also contain the line, "I know you'd like me to put them away once in a while and get on with the job of making incredible pop music."

Because make no mistake, this is not incredible pop music. Sure, it wears the clothes of incredible pop music - the beat from Busta Rhymes' Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See, and the guitar riff from Santana's Maria Maria - but the garments are as threadbare as Rihanna's blouse in the video.




6) Tove Styrke - Say My Name (acoustic)
Still an absolute tune.





7) Calvin Harris - Feels (ft Pharrell and Katy Perry)
This probably won't give Katy Perry the number one she so desperately needs right now, but Calvin's bouncy brand of diet funk is always welcome around here.





8) Hey Violet - Break My Heart
This actually came out two months ago, but Hey Violet's album was released today and contains at least five totally brilliant pop song; including one gallantly called Fuqboi.

The young band have quite an interesting back story: They were once a punk-rock project called Cherri Bomb, before they ditched their singer and signing to 5 Seconds of Summer's record label. There, they started working with Julian Bunetta, who co-wrote and produced all the good One Direction songs, and "went pop".

You can read more about the transformation on Stereogum, or just forget all that nonsense and enjoy the music. Bands are whatever you want them to be, and that's why pop music is great.




9) Jorja Smith - Teenage Fantasy
This was actually out last week, during one of my increasingly frequent lapses in blogging, but the video came out on Monday, giving me the perfect excuse to wang the song into this week's round-up.

Simply a perfect summer soul jam.




10) Dizzee Rascal - Space
As grime emerges as a full-blooded force, Dizzee comes back into the fold with this sparse and tough rap track.

"Can't find enough time to dine on rappers, all of these MCs are looking like tapas," he chides the competition. "Ain't no point in playin' it safe." Well, quite.

There you go, then. And now it is time to go back to the Lorde album. See you next week...

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Kendrick, Calvin, Selena and the rest of #NewMusicFriday

Last week's New Music Friday was so underwhelming I didn't bother writing a post (memo to Zayn and Drake: stop mumbling). This week, however, things have turned around completely. There's stonking new tunes from Kendrick Lamar, Selena Gomez and Oh Wonder, to mention just a few. Scroll down for the best - and worst - of the week's new releases.

Kendrick Lamar - Humble
"Wicked or weakness, you gotta see this," raps Kendrick on this, the first proper single from his fourth album. He's not wrong.

The track, which attacks some of hip-hop's most tiresome tropes (bragging about money, improbably proportioned video girls) while asserting Kendrick's position as the best rapper in the game. "Sit down, bitch, be humble," he says, while sitting in Jesus' position at The Last Supper. Well, quite.




A Tribe Called Quest - Dis Generation
The best track on ATCQ's recent album (it samples Pass The Dutchie!!) gets a proper single release, with a gorgeous black-and-white video that shows Q-Tip, Jarobi and Busta Rhymes trading lines, and dancing whenever the voice of the late Phife Dawg pops up. Brilliant stuff.




Calvin Harris - Heatwave (ft Pharrell, Ariana Grande and Young Thug)
Less than the sum of its parts, this star-studded single feels a bit aimless - but the loping groove and Ariana's sugar-sweet B chorus provide enough highlights to keep your attention.




Bleachers - Don't Take The Money
Jack Antonoff helped Lorde put together her new album, and she's repaid the favour by co-writing this single for his band, Bleachers (she also sings backing vocals, deep, deep down in the mix). Radio 1 are going to be all over this one.




Selena Gomez - Only You
A hauntingly sombre cover of the Yazoo classic, taken from the soundtrack to the new Netflix series 13 Reasons Why. I like this a lot.




Kwaye - Cool Kids
I was amazed to discover this caramel-smooth soul jam emanated from London - but there it is, Kwaye is a 22-year-old, Zimbabwe-born, London-based singer-songwriter. His debut video is a celebration and declaration of diversity. Highly recommended.




British Sea Power - International Space Station
British Sea Power said their sixth album (out today) would be their most musically direct record - and they certainly keep that promise. International Space Station is my personal highlight, with a soaring chorus and what can only be described as an indie musician's version of a cheerleader chant in the middle 8.




Becky Hill - Rude Love
Written with MNEK, this is a distinctly odd and deliberately obtuse pop single. Naturally, it is quite excellent.




Oh Wonder - Ultralife
A welcome return for DIY alt-pop duo Josephine Vander Gucht and Anthony West. Their doubled-up vocals are instantly recognisable on this joyous, uplifting single. Not a massive progression from their debut, but just different enough to raise interest for the new album.




Alt-J - In Cold Blood
Intricate but accessible; awkward but danceable. Alt-J at their best. Will sound great in a field near you this summer.




Billie Eilish - Bored
Another scene-grabbing slice of pop melodrama from the precociously talented teenager. An ode to boredom that manages to be anything but.




Vanessa White - Running Wild
The former Saturday has had her attempts at launching a solo career frustrated by legal problems with her old management. But with those hurdles overcome, she's back with EP2 (three years after EP1), which further exemplifies her deft touch with a classic R&B harmony. Beguiling stuff.



Catherine McGrath - When I'm Older
Imagine if Natalie Imbruglia did a country makeover of Torn, and you have a good idea of how Catherine McGrath's new single sounds. The 19-year-old, who hails from the rural outskirts of Belfast (NB: All the outskirts of Belfast are rural), grew up surrounded by music - her parents run the Fiddler's Green Festival - and cites Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift as her influences.

This song captures the joys of youth ("these are going to be the good old days some day"), with an earnest, uplifting acoustic strum. A total breath of fresh air.



Mary J Blige - Love Yourself (feat Kanye West)
After flirting with UK house on her last album, Mary J Blige's latest sees her retreating to safe ground. You've heard a hundred variations of this song before.





Cheat Codes - No Promises (feat Demi Lovato)
Totally generic Primark pop.



The Chainsmokers - The One
Not the one.

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Hear the song that blew Pharrell's socks off

... Not that he wears socks. But if he did, they would have been vapourised.

The singer was hosting a masterclass for music students at a New York university, when a student called Maggie Rogers was given the opportunity to play him one of her songs.

"I grew up as a banjo player and always loved folk music," she explained. "I came to school here to make folk music... very straight-ahead folk music. But I stopped making music for a couple of years in the middle of school. [I] went through some things and developed and learned some more about myself, and I studied abroad in France and had a really spiritual experience with dance music there.

"And suddenly this thing that had always been the most unnatural and the most artificial, I understood the release of it. That since there was a fire, people have been beating sticks together. So I just started making music again a couple of months ago, and I can't make enough. All I want to do is combine that folk imagery and harmony and natural samples that I've been picking up while hiking with the backbone and energy of dance music.

"We'll see if I'm successful..."

She then cued up her track, called Alaska, and sat squirming while Pharrell listened to it in the chair next to her. As the first chorus kicks in, his eyes grow wider and wider... The reaction is priceless.

"Wow," he says as it ends. "I have zero notes. Your whole story, I can hear it in the music."

Here's the video in full. Maggie's segment starts at 18'14".


The clip has slowly gone viral since it was uploaded to YouTube in March. Now Maggie has put the finished track up on her Soundcloud page. It really is worth three minutes of your time. Totally beautiful and utterly unique - a star is born.

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Missy Elliot returns with an almighty crash

Pop that, pop that, cock and reload
This another hit, I got an ace in the hole

If you're going to leave seven years between singles, then you'd better come back with something incredible to make people sit up and listen. And that's exactly what Missy Elliot has done with this irresistible, bass-heavy club banger. WTF (Where They From) encapsulates everything you've missed about Misdemeanour: Cheeky wordplay, bait-and-switch production and a stunning video.

Even Pharrell - not the world's most accomplished rapper - comes out on top, with the so-ridiculous-its-brilliant line: "Lyrically I'm / Optimus Prime".

And who doesn't want their very own Missy marionette for Christmas?

In other words 10/10. Welcome back!

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Is Freedom Pharrell's very own Earth Song?

You've been able to watch the video for Pharrell's new single Freedom for about three weeks on Apple Music, but here it is on the proper internet complete with a cast of thousands, stunning HD photography and a beret.

Possibly inspired by the Iranian teenagers who were arrested for making a Happy tribute video, it's a plea for compassion and an ode to the human spirit (which also crams in a lyrical reference to The Jungle Book's I Wanna Be Like You).

Strangely, then, the video paints Pharrell as a megalomaniac, gesticulating and pontificating in front of "the oppressed" like a multi-millionaire with a Messiah complex.

In many ways, it's his own personal Earth Song, from Pharrell's guttural howl right down to the bizarre wildlife lyrics ("Cheetahs needto eat, so run, antelope").

I look forward to next year's Brit Awards performance with interest.

Pharrell - Freedom

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Pharrell's new song is a Zane Lowe EXCLUSIVE (but Annie Mac has it too)

Maybe you've heard that Apple is launching a new music service, and that Zane Lowe is on it? You're forgiven if you haven't. They kept pretty quiet about it. But it really happened.

Zane presented (shouted) his first show today and the BIG EXCLUSIVE was Pharrell's new song, Freedom. It features the wide open gospel chords and gratuitous handclaps of Happy, but adopts a much more sombre tone. It's really, really good.

But Pharrell didn't get to be Pharrell by putting all his eggs in one basket (he keeps at least three eggs under his hat). He knew that, even though the world's media would tune in to Zane's show, nobody in the real world was paying the blindest bit of attention. So he let a real radio station have the single, too. And, with no small irony, he chose Zane's old stomping ground - Radio 1.

Even more ironic is that Apple - a company at the forefront of technology - hasn't worked out how to let users share it's content, so you can't hear Zane's first play. Nor can you see the video, or even listen to the song, outside Apple's walled-off app.

Whereas Radio 1 - a lumbering, ancient, publicly-funded broadcaster (also my employer) - bunged Pharrell's song up on the internet as soon as Annie Mac came off air.

So here it is in all its glory.


It's worth listening to the Pharrell interview that follows - just to hear him shut down Annie Mac's question about working with Adele.

Oh, and the song got a live outing at Glastonbury on Saturday, where it sounded like this.

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What's Pharrell up to this week?

It's been a week of ups and downs for pop music's very own Mr Hat, Pharrell Williams.

On one hand, he lost £4m to Marvin Gaye's family for stealing inadvertently borrowing portions of Got To Give It Up for Robin Thicke's sex pest anthem Blurred Lines. On the other, he was named fashion icon of the year by the clunkily-named Council of Fashion Designers America.

He also found time to make some new music, producing the new single by Snoop Dogg (who has given up being a reggae artist, apparently) and a shape-shifting EP by New York duo Lion Babe.

You can hear the results below.

They sound, as you might expect, like Pharrell produced them.

Snoop Dogg ft Charlie Wilson - Peaches and Cream

Lion Babe - Wonder Woman

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10 must-see moments from the Grammys

Rihanna killed it vocally, Katy Perry brought the tears and AC/DC were about the only band who didn't bore everyone off with a ballad.

These are the Grammy highlights, and the tweets that best explain them.

Get them while they're hot. And by hot I mean still available.

1) Rihanna, Kanye and Macca - FourFiveSeconds

Paul McCartney did you forget the words? #GRAMMYs

— Danielle Zimmerman (@Danielekincaid) February 9, 2015

2) Sia - Chandelier (with Kristen Wiig and Maddy Ziegler)

Kristin Wiig just perfectly summed up how us normals look when we sing Sia songs into the mirror alone at home. #GRAMMYS

— Rosemary Hallmark (@rohallma) February 9, 2015

3) Madonna - Living For Love

Taylor Swift was SO into Madonna at the #GRAMMYs: http://t.co/4K0kkYGDIt pic.twitter.com/EcdOSGFt6c

— Us Weekly (@usweekly) February 9, 2015

4) AC/DC - Rock or Bust / Highway To Hell

AC/DC gets a Teleprompter assist at #GRAMMYs. “It’s rock or bust.” http://t.co/Bc1xixvqat pic.twitter.com/F8yHQBD32Q

— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) February 9, 2015

5) Katy Perry - By The Grace of God
Katy Perry's performance was preceded by a speech about domestic abuse by Brooke Axtell, from Austin, Texas (sadly clipped out of this video).

She spoke about her "romance with a handsome, charismatic man".

"I was stunned when he began to abuse me," she continued. "Authentic love does not devalue another human being. Authentic love does not silence, shame or abuse."

Brooke Axtell's is the most important voice we're gonna hear tonight. #GRAMMYs

— Emma Gray (@emmaladyrose) February 9, 2015

6) Kanye invades the stage



7) While Jay-Z and Beyonce watch




8) ELO and Ed Sheeran - Evil Woman / Mr. Blue Sky

Paul McCartney dances like nobody Is watching, notices somebody watching #Grammys http://t.co/qRSmMuLIvi

— Gawker (@Gawker) February 9, 2015

9) Ed Sheeran - Thinking Out Loud (with John Mayer)

So far the biggest thing I've learned tonight is that Ed Sheeran's album X is pronounced "multiply" and not "ex"

— daniel. (@dandal1on) February 9, 2015

10) Pharrell - Happy (with Hans Zimmer and Lang Lang)

Ah, we knew Pharrell's outfit looked familiar... http://t.co/0eOeNPwSbF #GRAMMYs pic.twitter.com/L7Eb0ZdkoS

— Us Weekly (@usweekly) February 9, 2015

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Here's that BBC Music thing "in full"

Lorde, One Direction and Alison Balsom - together at last!

That's the pitch for the BBC's spectacularly lavish, star-studded music video / charity single / promotional campaign, which was unveiled a couple of hours ago on every BBC channel except Radio Three and BBC Parliament, which are much too posh to entertain this sort of hoi polloi.

Ostensibly, it's this year's Children In Need single - a cover of The Beach Boys' God Only Knows, performed en masse by an ensemble of en vogue superstars, from Pharrell to Dave Grohl and, somewhat inevitably, Emeli Sande. But it's also a huge flag in the sand for the new "BBC Music" brand, which aims to give the corporation's musical output equal footing to BBC News and BBC Sport. And that is the reason you get pianist (and BBC Young Musician of the Year) Martin James Bartlett rubbing shoulders with the A-list pop stars.

You might be asking why the BBC needs a brand to promote its musical endeavours? Surely everyone knows the Beeb does music exceptionally well from The Proms, to BBC Introducing to Glastonbury and even creaky old Jools Holland and his boogie woogie pianola. But no, politicians don't.

Even in an era when David Cameron loves The Smiths and Gordon Brown plays air guitar to Arctic Monkeys, MPs are endearingly clueless about "how music works" - and why Britain's pivotal role in the worlds of classical, jazz and pop can often be traced back to BBC music champions like (deep breath) Zane Lowe, Huw Stephens, Lauren Laverne, Alison Howe, Max Reinhardt and Roger Wright.

Now, it just so happens that "BBC Music" in general, and this advert in particular, are being launched as the broadcaster heads into what's rather grandly called Charter Renewal - which is basically the government telling the corporation what it can and can't do for the next decade. In previous negotiations, BBC music has often been seen as an easy target compared to news and sport. There's always someone, from any of the major parties, willing to declare, "you don't need Radio 1 when we have Magic FM," despite never listening to either.

So this sort of branding exercise is a way of neutering that message before the starting pistol is fired. And funnily enough the BBC have done it once before, with this song:


God Only Knows has a much higher budget than Perfect Day. In fact, the three-minute promo was shot over two years at Alexandra Palace (there's a great behind-the-scenes report in Creative Review, which reveals the original song choice was Iron Maiden's Phantom Of The Opera).

But where Perfect Day succeeds, and God Only Knows falters, is that it gave the singers space to put their stamp on the song.

Bono's "you just keep me hanging on" was full of Catholic remorse; Heather Small brought the gospel; and Ronan Keating's reading of "It's just a perfect day" was so deadened and bleak it completely nailed the song's underlying sarcasm (by accident, presumably). Even more satisfying were the jarring juxtapositions - in particular Tammy Wynette handing over to wizened old Shane McGowan.

The 2014 version doesn't take pleasure in those moments. Chrissie Hynde and Paloma Faith trade lines, but they're over so briefly you'd be hard pressed to tell which was which without the video. Lorde and Chris Martin both shine, but their voices are surprisingly similar side-by-side. Jake Bugg, meanwhile, gets handed a couple of desultory "la las", stretching his charisma beyond breaking point.

It's still brilliant and audacious (and the BBC employee in me wants the lobbying to work) but imagine what it could have been.

Especially if they'd done the Iron Maiden track.


PS: Some of the observations on Perfect Day are indebted to Tom Ewing's excellent review on his Popular blog - possibly the best music site on the internet.

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Robbie goes EDM and 10 other songs you may have missed

A semi-regular round-up of songs that I didn't have time to blog about this week because I was pushing swings and watching In The Night Garden. Quality guaranteed.

1) Avicii ft Robbie Williams - The Days
The first lead single from Avicii's second album Stories, this is excellent - like ELO remixed by, well, Avicii.

It was accidentally uploaded to the Swedish DJ's YouTube channel for a couple of hours earlier this week. But it stuck around long enough for people to grab the audio and upload it elsewhere. Et voila.




2) Odesza - Say My Name (RAC Mix)
The original version of Say My Name is pleasant enough but RAC - as they so often do - track down the song's sweet spot and exploit it ruthlessly. This is brilliant.






3) Aretha Franklin - Rolling In The Deep (The Aretha Version)
The parenthesised subtitle is audacious, but if anyone's earned the right to plant a flag in Adele's song and declare it their own, it's Ms Franklin. (Although, with the greatest r-e-s-p-e-c-t, the original is about 20 times better).





4) Kendrick Lamar - i
Over in America, the hip-hop heads are having a heated debate about Kendrick Lamar's new single, accusing the so-called "Savior (Saviour) of hip-hop" of selling out. Why? Because the song is a radio-friendly, Isley Brother-sampling, freewheeling juggernaut of positivity.

To which I say: Your loss.




5) Pharrell Williams - It Girl
In a further effort to rehabilitate his image, Pharrell spends this video chatting up a pre-teen manga character with unfeasibly large breasts. Oh, hang on...






6) Billie Black - I Don't Need Another Lover
Nineteen-year-old Londoner Billie Black really impresses on this slinky soul track. Her voice will remind you of Jessie Ware, but that's not a criticism. This is pure pleasure.






7) Becky Hill - Losing
The voice behind Oliver Helden's Gecko (Overdrive) and Rudimental's Powerless, and a former contestant on The Voice-although-we-don't-talk-about-that, Becky Hill is one to watch for 2015. This MNEK-produced single is further proof that she possesses a healthy serving of special sauce.





8) Clean Bandit - Real Love (ft Jess Glynne)
A fantastic treat from the Clean Bandit crew - a new, unreleased track with Rather Be vocalist Jess Glynne. Their Facebook page says its a co-release, suggesting its from Jess's forthcoming solo album, but Clean Bandit get top billing. How odd.

Real Love is one of those songs that tricks you into thinking it's going to be a lighters-aloft ballad before exploding like a bejewelled kitten. And we all love bejwelled kittens, right?





9) Chromeo - Old 45s
The lyrics are an ode to the singles of your youth, and the video stars Haim and Napoleon Dynamite. I couldn't resist.




10) Ben Howard - Hideaway (Kiesza cover)
I'm not usually a fan of the "slow down a dance song and reveal untold depths" school of Live Lounge covers, because dance songs always have untold depths and only music snobs think otherwise. But this beautiful, solemn take on Kiesza's future classic is so beautiful it gets a free pass.

That's this week's pick. What was your favourite? Let me know in the comments or on the Twitter "sphere".

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Usher is singing about his sexual prowess for a change (ft Nicki Minaj)

Let's face it, if Usher's last single, Good Kisser, had had a catchier tune, it would have been this year's Blurred Lines. A five-minute ode to oral sex, containing the line "you pull it out, then you open wide" - if it didn't make you wretch, you were listening to it wrong.

So the news that he'd teamed up with noted feminist Pharrell Williams for the follow-up didn't fill me with hope. Nor did the title - She Came To Give It To You (we can assume "it" is not a toy train or a birthday card, although it might be a subpoena for a sexual harassment trial).

But actually, the lyrics are not that bad - they're just lazy R&B clichė (from the man who once spent an entire night making love in the club, we should expect nothing less). And the groove is a solid gold Pharrell classic.

Stick around to the end of the video for a Christopher Nolan-style mindbender.

Usher - She Came To Give It To You (ft Nicki Minaj)

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Miley Cyrus gatecrashes Pharrell's Come Get It Bae video

Miley Cyrus is an uncredited vocalist on Pharrell's Come Get It Bae - but the song's new video completely blows her cover.

She pops up in the middle of the clip, prancing around with a cup of tea and sticking her tongue out like Buster Bloodvessel in hotpants (dear brain, please erase this image).

The rest of the video is a by-numbers affair, with lots of buxom girls dancing for Pharrell, while he films them for his "personal stash". I guess he's forgotten about that post-Blurred Lines attempt to "eliminate what he sees as an understandable degree of uncertainty over what his attitude to women actually is" now that everyone likes him again.

Pharrell - Come Get It Bae

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Lykke Li riddled with bullets and 10 other songs you may have missed

Here you go: A semi-regular round-up of songs I didn't have time to write about during the week, including tasty morsels by this load of reprobates.

1) Lykke Li - Gunshot
Let's start with the most disturbing video of the week, in which Lykke "laugh-a-minute" Li stumbles round the world's oddest car park, being shot by invisible bullets. A lighthearted romp.





2) Cam'Ron ft Nicki Minaj - So Bad
The video is hilariously low-budget (hello, green screen!) but the doo-wop indebted duet is damned catchy. Plus, Cam'ron makes the world's worst Angry Birds pun, so well done on that front.





3) Haim - Oh Well (live at T In The Park)
Always a highlight of their live shows, this Fleetwood Mac cover lets Danielle Haim let fly with her crazy axe skills. One of the highlights of the TV coverage of T in the Park.





4) DJ Fresh ft Ellie Goulding - Flashlight
Originally a bonus track on Ellie's Halcyon Days re-release last year, this has been given a fresh lick of paint and turned into DJ Fresh's new single. As they said in the 70s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.





5) Moko - Your Love
Produced by Chase & Status (for whom Moko sang Count On Me last year) this chiming soul-house track is a guaranteed floor-filler. Nice pigtails, too.





6) Alt-J - Hunger of the Pine
A simply stunning video.





7) Pharrell - Get Lucky (live at T In The Park)
Great performance from Pharrell on last year's song of the summer. I'm not sure "make it rain" means the same in Scotland as it does in his native Virginia, though.





8) Marina and the Diamonds - Untitled new song
This brief snippet, posted on Instagram during the week, is the first taster of Marina's forthcoming third album.

A simple piano/vocal, with shades of Lana Del Rey (or anyone else who sings over a piano, to be honest) it sounds extremely promising: "There's no rush anymore, time's on my side," sings Marina, "All my worries are gone, I'm enjoying the ride."





9) Mike Mago & Dragonette - Outlines
Pop's best kept secret (that's Dragonette) team up with some Dutch guy (that's Mike Mago) for this dreamy dance track. Too deep to match the chart success of Dragonette's previous collaboration - Martin Solveig's Hello - this is a welcome addition to my summer playlist nonetheless.






10) Indiana - Heart on Fire
I meant to post this two weeks ago when it came out, then my brain went fzzrt.

Better late than never, though, here's Nottingham-born newcomer Indiana (aka Lauren Henson) with a great big "sobbing over a drum machine" popballad. Fans of Robyn will like this quite a lot.




11) Sigma ft Paloma Faith - Changing
As fresh and exciting today as it was on Monday, when I first wrote about it - even though, as Don't Falter hitmaker Mint Royale pointed out, it's "obviously based on a Lana sample which they've then replaced with 'something similar'".

Interesting choice of outfit from Paloma, as ever.

And that's that. Enjoy the sunny weekend!

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Is Pharrell Williams incapable of writing intros?

As well as being the owner of a magnificent hat, Pharrell Williams is a brilliant and prolific songwriter. In fact, he's one of the most consistent producers/composers in the business, racking up hits for everyone from Beyonce to Britney to Justin to Jay-Z and, more recently, himself.

But here's the thing: He's rubbish at writing intros. Take a listen to his new album, GIRL, and seven of the 10 tracks start exactly the same way. He takes the first beat of the first bar, loops it four times, then goes straight into the song.

It's not a bad technique - for one thing, you get to the melody quicker, and that is a sure-fire way of making your song memorable and radio friendly - but when it's used to such a ridiculous extent, it starts to lose its effect.

Looking back through Pharrell's production catalogue, both by himself and with the Neptunes, it turns out he's been employing the trick since his first hit in 1993 - SWV's Right Here. Here's a short mix that proves it.


The 13 songs in the mix are:

1) SWV - Right Here
2) Jay-Z - Frontin'
3) Kelis - Milkshake
4) Snoop Dogg - Drop It Like Its Hot
5) Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines
6) Shakira - Why Wait
7) Frank Ocean - Sweet Life (this one is especially lazy)
8) Pharrell Williams - Brand New
9) Paloma Faith - Can't Rely On You
10) Pharrell Williams - Happy
11) Pharrell Williams - Hunter
12) Jay-Z - I Wish
13) Pharrell Williams - Gust Of Wind

And once you notice, it's impossible to un-hear it, so I apologise in advance for ruining all future enjoyment of Pharrell's music.

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Foxes pulls off an astonishing Live Lounge

Some performances just stop you dead in your tracks - and this is one of them.

Pop newcomer Foxes was in Radio 1's Live Lounge today and sang a version of Pharrell's Happy mixed up with the piano-drenched melancholoy of Massive Attack's Teardrop. It shouldn't have worked, but it really, really did.

It was so good that it made me agree with Fearne Cotton, who called the performance "sumptuous and delicious".

Foxes - Happy


Foxes also played her current top 10 smasheroo Let Go For Tonight, singing it so heartily you could see her actual tonsils. That's not on YouTube yet, so here's an acoustic version from something called "Vevo Lift" instead.

Foxes - Let Go For Tonight (acoustic)

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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.

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Pharrell's done another song with Daft Punk

Gust Of Wind, from Pharell's forthcoming solo album G I R L, is his third collaboration with Daft Punk in a row, and it's another bona-fide retro disco smash, complete with a vocodered hook from the Francophone Robots.

But let's face it, you don't care what I've got to say about it, you're just reaching for the "play" button. And who could blame you?

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The Brits' best bits and eight other songs you may have missed

At this moment in time, I feel like a walking bucket of snot - so I dread to think how many pop stars I infected with the lurgy at last night's Brits. Poor old Katy B...

From a reporting point of view, though, it was a great night with lots of access to proper A-list stars. We spoke to Kylie ("There should be a David Bowie award. He should get an award just for being Bowie"), One Direction ("we're a bit drunk"), Haim ("we owe our lives to the UK") and Pharrell ("Yes, I understand why Blurred Lines was controversial").

The ceremony itself was an odd affair. James Corden's "hilarious" prison rape jokes were, presumably, a desperate attempt to recapture the Brits edgy reputation; and he had the temerity to announce Bruno Mars as "the finest showman performing anywhere in the world right now" while standing in the same room as Prince.

On the other hand, the performances (Bruno's included) were actually very good for once. Beyoncé, who was in London for approximately an hour, stole the show despite being dressed as the Little Mermaid. She didn't give The Brits permission to put her performance on YouTube, but lots of other artists did... So here are my picks, alongside the regular "songs you may have missed" selection.

1) Nile Rodgers and Pharrell - Get Lucky / Good Times / Happy
Unbridled positivity from the two nicest men on the red carpet. Pharrell even scolded a reporter who asked him whether the Brit Awards needed American stars to remain relevant, saying he wasn't fit to walk in Freddie Mercury's footsteps.




2) Disclosure and Lorde and AlunaGeorge - Royals / White Noise
Strangely odd. Oddly compelling.




3) Katy Perry - Dark Horse
"Katy Perry is reenacting a period of historic slavery in dayglo," whinged half a dozen killjoys on Twitter. I'm sure they'll raise the same objections when the RSC next stages a production of Anthony and Cleopatra. Or maybe they're just twats.

Anyway, this was the most visually-arresting performance of the night. All it lacked was Katy singing: "All the old paintings on the tombs / They do the sand dance don't you know..."





4) Arctic Monkeys - RU Mine
How Matt Helders manages to pull of those drum fills while maintaining a perfect falsetto, I will never know.




5) London Grammar - Hey Now
Interesting discovery at the Brits: London Grammar are really tiny. Like, smaller than Kylie. I wasn't expecting that.

Anyway, they've just unveiled a mesmerising stop-motion video for Hey Now, one of my favourite tracks from their debut album, If You Wait. If you like this, you should also check out the awesomely atmospheric club mix by Russia's Artyom Stolyarov.





6) Shakira - Nunca Me Acuerdo de Olvidarte
It's the Spanish language, Rihanna-free version of Can't Remember To Forget You and, as is often the case, Shakira's lyrics scan better before translation.

I still find the video slightly disturbing, though. Shakira's not being sexy, just making herself available. There are moments where she presents her posterior to the viewer like a dog in heat. Is that healthy? Am I just getting old? Answers on a postcard.





7) The Chainsmokers - #Selfie
This is the most aggressively terrible song since whatever will.i.am's last single was called. Truly, grotesquely, shamelessly awful. [Breaks a Kit-Kat in half] It's going to go a long way.





8) Lana Del Rey - Behind Closed Doors
Leaked Lana Del Rey songs are about as common as Malaria (and often just as infectious) but this one's particularly interesting, because it seems to be the first track to have emerged from the sessions for her upcoming album UltraViolence.

It has a slightly more contemporary, Britney Spears vibe to the production, but Lana's voice is as alluringly gauche as ever. Worth a listen.





9) Chvrches - Recover
Prior to the release of their debut album, Chvrches' Recover was widely considered to be their weakest single - but time has been forgiving, and it has set up a little camp site in my brain where, once a week, it toasts marshmallows and hosts a little singalong around the fire.

It's not getting an official re-release, as far as I know, but this tour video has just appeared on YouTube as a sort of travel diary / album promo.





10) Alexa Starr - Famous
For fans of Kelly Clarkson and Avril Lavigne, here's an unsigned young Londoner who's attracting interest for her brand of shiny guitar-pop. Her strongest song, Famous, could be an early Gaga demo with a couple of nice lyrical flourishes ("life is a stage but I need an arena").

The production could do with a bit of a polish, but the melody and the energy are there. One to watch.





11) Jungle - Just Busy Earnin'
All we know about Jungle is that there's two of them, they come from Shepherd's Bush and they are to be called "T" and "J" (for "The Jungle," presumably). Oh, and we also know that they've released a brace of clever, funky dance tracks with eye-popping videos (the one with the 8-year-old B-Girl and the one with the dudes on rollerskates).

Their new song, which sounds like Passion Pit covering Jungle Boogie, is an absolute blast. Zane Lowe made it the hottest record in the world last night, having reached Planck Temperature at about 19:22 GMT.






12) The Saturdays - Not Giving Up
God bless The Saturdays, whose latest single is apparently named after the band's mission statement. As you can imagine, this is a clubby-dancey-poppy track that will fill four minutes on the radio, without ever entering your conciousness.

I'm only mentioning it at all because of Una Healey's profound and compelling column about the making of the video, written in this week's Hello Magazine. "I was quite proud as I danced in the highest heels I've ever danced in," she wrote. "I think heels were necessary because the video is very glamorous. I especially liked the effect from all the wind machines."

You can read it here. It will change your life.

Blimey - that went on a bit. Congratulations to anyone who got this far. Now put your feet up and have a cuppa.

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New from Paloma Faith: Can't Rely On You

Our broadband has gone kaput so I'll have to keep this brief...

Paloma Faith has a new single, co-written and produced by Pharrell (see above -- he's getting about a bit at the moment, isn't he?). A striking departure from the grand, sweeping ballads of her last album, Can't Rely On You finds Ms Faith in full-on screeching diva mode. 

A cross between Aretha Franklin's Think and Beyoncé's Work It Out (and, less happily, Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines), it's a bold comeback. 

Paloma's also been in the studio with Diane Warren, Raphael Siddiq and John Legend: I can't wait to hear the rest of her third album later this year...

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Songs you may have missed - Saturday style

Sorry for the lack of posts this week - it's been a busy one at work (mostly working on this piece, about the first 1,000 albums to reach number one in the UK). Here's what I missed along the way.

1) Pharrell Williams - Happy
As you may have heard, Pharrell's swinging new song (from the Despicable Me soundtrack) comes with a 24-hour music video. You can see that on 24hoursofhappy.com, or you can watch the TV edit right here. Your choice, but both will bring a big stupid grin to your face.




2) Arcade Fire - Afterlife
If Pharrell made you smile, this might be a bit of a comedown. Beautifully cinematic but eerie with melancholy, Emily Kai Bock's video adds an emotional wallop to Arcade Fire's rumination on life after death.




3) Lizzo - Batches and Cookies
I have no idea what this song is about - but Detroit-via-Houston-via-Minneapolis rapper Lizzo sounds like she's having a lot of fun anyway. Brimming with energy, this is what it would sound like if Nicki Minaj covered Salt-N-Pepa's greatest hits.




4) U2 - Ordinary Love
The first new material from Bono & co in three years, Ordinary Love is taken from the Nelson Mandela biopic Long Road To Freedom. Bono sounds like he's straining for the high notes these days, but there's a rush of nostalgia when The Edge's chiming, reverb-soaked guitar kicks in. The gospel-infused chorus is rather special, too.

The lyric video, unveiled on Facebook on Thursday, is the opening salvo in the band's return. Bassist Adam Clayton recently told Ireland's 98FM: "We're in the studio. We're trying to get these 12 songs absolutely right and get them finished by the end of November, and then we can kind of enjoy Christmas,"




5) Eminem - Stan (Radio 1 Live Lounge)
Eminem turned up for his chat with Zane Lowe after watching Kanye West's bizarre mad-man-at-the-back-of-the-bus performance on the show earlier in the year.

"I was trying to figure out how I was going to top the publicity of yours and Kanye's interview," he said, "so I decided I was gonna walk in here, and just pee on the floor and leave." He then held Zane's gaze with an icy glare for what must have seemed like hours, before he deadpanned: "I'm peeing right now".

The massive, four-part interview is well worth dipping into (here's the link for the first segment) but it was Eminem's performance with a live band at the end that really made it appointment listening. Here's Stan, sounding as fresh as it did 14 (!) years ago.




6) Tinashe - Vulnerable
After waxing lyrical about the new wave of dark&b earlier this week, this song zinged into my inbox. 20-year-old Tinashe is every bit as captivating and seductive as Banks and Solange and her peers. Vulnerable is possibly the sexiest new song you'll hear this week. Although it could do without the "asses" and "bitches" of Travi$ Scott's predictably banal rap.




7) Sophie Ellis Bextor - Young Blood
If you've been watching Strictly, you'll know that Sophie Ellis is turning out to be quite the dancer. Her Argentine Tango literally gave me shivers (admittedly, the heating was up the left that day). But she's also hard at work on the day job, making big old pop songs with PROPER ENUNCIATION.

Her forthcoming new album, Wanderlust, is a real labour of love - written with Ed Harcourt, and eschewing the frothy disco of her earlier records. The first single, Young Blood, is a gorgeous, dramatic ballad aimed right at the top of the Radio 2 playlist. It's the best thing she's done since Groovejet.

And that's your lot. If you're still after something to listen to, I'd really recommend Bret Easton Ellis's first podcast - in which he has a big old chin-wag with Kanye West about movies, lacking maturity and binge-watching Breaking Bad. You can download it here.

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