Songs you may have missed: Songs I may have missed edition

Oh lordy. Two weeks off and so much good music to catch up with. Here are some of the highlights, accompanied by a desultory 5-word review.

1) Lana Del Rey - High By The Beach
The template has been refined.




2) Chvrches - Leave A Trace
The creation of a star.




3) Hailee Steinfield - Love Myself
Amazing songs deserve better visuals.





4) Disclosure ft Kwabs - Willing & Able
One to sink into deeply.





5) Dmitri Vegas & Like Mike ft Ne-Yo - Higher Place
Luscious, lilting late night anthem.





6) Calvin Harris & Disciples - How Deep Is Your Love
Generic dance music video ahoy.




7) Duran Duran - You Kill Me
Spot the clunky Bowie reference




8) Krept & Konan - So Long
Samples SWV's Rain. Is good.






9) Robin Thicke - Back Together (ft Nicki Minaj)
He's still going? Sadly, yes.




10) FKA Twigs - In Time
Uncompromising but compelling but bonkers.





11) Odesza - Light (ft Little Dragon)
Wispy, hypnotic and bloody brilliant.





12) Little Mix - Black Magic (live on the Late Show)
Bring back TOTP. Tomorrow, preferably.




13) The Dead Weather - I Feel Love (Every Million Miles)
Potential new TOTP theme song.

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The MTV awards in gifs, pics, a vine, a soundbite and a video

Justin Timberlake was the big winner at last night's VMAs but nobody watches it for the awards, do they? Here are the best bits in "this video has been removed due to a copyright claim from Viacom Ltd" form.


Lady Gaga glued her eyes open by accident.


But her multi-wigged performance of "Applause" was a triumph.


Even if the dancers looked a little confused at the end of it.


Pharrell cycled to work.


The rest of Daft Punk probably arrived on a spaceship -
but they failed to perform or win any awards :(


In fact, Get Lucky inexplicably lost best song of the summer to One Direction.


Taylor "shut the fuck up" Swift was not amused. And she wasn't the only one...

One Direction were loudly booed as they took their prize.
Which led to Lady Gaga giving them an exceptionally cute pep talk backstage.



Meanwhile, Miley Cyrus did this sort of thing a lot.


And showed how she failed her interview to be a London 2012 Games Maker.


The Smith family were distinctly unimpressed by the hoedown throwdown.


Robin Thicke managed to be an even bigger sleaze than ever.


Rihanna looked thrilled just to be part of it all.


Kanye West performed in the dark.


TLC reunion!!


Justin Timberlake basically got to perform his own concert.


Which included this incredible N*Sync moment.


...As well as this one.


Taylor Swift seemed to enjoy this one.


Katy Perry closed the show by skipping under the Brooklyn Bridge.


It was the most traditional performance of the night...


...But it chose a theme, stuck to it, and didn't fall back on gimmicks or nudity.
Well done, Katy.


THE END.

So that's the awards "in full". They're on MTV UK later tonight, and pretty much every other night until the end of the month. If you don't have time to sit through it all (there's a performance from Drake, FYI) the best bit is Justin's mind-blowing 15-minute hits medley, which incorporates Led Zeppelin's Kashmir and Rapper's Delight, amongst other thing. It's incredible.

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Songs you may have missed: Glastonbury edition

So, a few new tunes cropped up during Glastonbury - which means that at least two music industry PRs weren't in Somerset over the weekend. Or maybe that the interns got left in charge of the YouTube password for a couple of days. Either way, here's what we missed.

1) Franz Ferdinand - Right Action
Franz Ferdinand are a band who seem chronically incapable of finding a new sound. Right Action has the same scratchy riffs and laconic lyrics of Holiday from the band's first album. But, after four years away, it sounds fresh again. Expect to see them relegated from Radio 1 to 6 Music, though.




2) Robin Thicke - Give It 2 U
Hey, ladies, here's the follow-up to the sex pest anthem of the summer. Robin is no more enlightened than last time round. "Girl, I got a big dick for you," he sings. What a charmer.




3) AlunaGeorge - Bad Idea
At the end of this radio rip, Lauren Laverne says of AlunaGeorge: "I remember we had them in for a session after just releasing one single. I was like, 'how hard can it be? Just do that 10 times and then you've got your album'. I said it ironically, but they sort of have just done that".

Well, that's massively uncharitable, given how adventurous the band have been with their R&B template. This song, a b-side to the re-released I Know You Like It, ups the tempo and goes for a more frothy vibe than the band have pursued in the past. I really like it.




4) Britney Spears - Ooh La La
A song from the Smurfs 2 soundtrack. Every bit as terrible as you'd imagine.




5) The Staves - Icarus
Look, I'm not going to stop droning on about how brilliant The Staves are until you all agree with me. So why not just submit to their charms now and get it over with? Icarus is taken from the special edition of their album Dead And Born And Grown, which comes out on 15th July. And this video finds the Stavely-Taylor sisters traipsing around the world with an acoustic guitar and a lot of hair, doing singing and stuff. Gorgeous.




6) Duke Dumont ft MNEK - Hold On
The follow-up to chart-bothering club classic 100% is an altogether darker affair. Guest vocalist MNEK drowns in echo as he pleads "don't let go of what we had" over a late-night house groove with spooky "WooOOOooOOooh it's a ghost" backing vocals. It's absolutely gorgeous.





7) Gallant - If It Hurts
NYC Newcomer Gallant has the sugar-sweet vocals of D'Angelo, but backs them up with muted indie guitars and scrunched up drum loops. He's been working with William Orbit and Felix Snow - who handles production duties on his new single, If It Hurts. If you like this, you should also check out his magnificent cover of Ke$ha's Die Young on Youtube.

Phew! That's quite the run-down. Stay tuned for more.

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