Songs you may have missed: Surprise Coldplay edition

Songs You May Have Missed is a semi-regular depository of music I've omitted to write about. This week kicks off with one of the world's biggest bands going heavy on the cowbell. The results are surprisingly good.

1) Coldplay - Adventure of a Lifetime
The colourful, upbeat Adventure of a Lifetime was stealth released on Friday morning, with the simultaneous announcement that Coldplay's new album A Head Full of Dreams was due in four weeks.

Even their biggest detractors surely have to admit that, seven records into their career, Coldplay are going to have an amazing greatest hits collection. This does nothing to detract from that.




2) Pia Mia - Touch
19-year-old singer-songwriter and model Pia Mia ditches Chris Brown for the follow-up to the worldwide smash Do It Again. A seductive serving of R&B, this features a pan pipe solo for some reason.




3) Lissie - Hero
The first taster of Lissie's third album, My Wild West, Hero is a languorous country-rock daydream. Not her strongest song... but the mariachi trumpets are a nice touch.




4) Adele - Hello (live)
A sneak peak at Adele's BBC One special, with footage of the first live performance of Hello. Apparently she'll do a full 45 minutes of material in the primetime show, which is due to broadcast on 20 December.




5) SNBRN - Beat The Sunrise (ft Andrew Watt)
LA-based house producer Kevin Chapman, aka SNBRN, has remixed everything from Sexual Healing to Need You (100%) but this original track is a sign of bigger ambitions. A sunset house groove with an excitable bassline, it'll make you nostalgic for August.





6) Dua Lipa - Be The One
London's Dua Lipa stands out from her contemporaries thanks to a smoky voice that's a world away from the thin and auto-tuned sound of most radio-bound pop. Whether that's a help or hindrance only time will tell - but I suspect we'll be hearing a lot from this 19-year-old once the new year rolls around.




7) Fleur East - Sax
A perfect reminder of what happened in the 1980s when British artists tried to copy the Minneapolis funk sound: It's overly fussy production makes it a pale imitation of the Prince's pared-down arrangements, but Fleur has just enough sass to stop it being embarrassing.





8) Rudimental - Lay It All On Me (Ft Ed Sheeran)
A grainy, experimental clip accompanies this uplifting Lean On Me-alike from Rudimental and an unknown newcomer called Ed Sheeran.

According to the press release, the video portrays some of the things the Rudimental boys experience on their path to fame - "freedom, peace, struggle, frustration, brotherhood, family, love and life."

And ballet.



9) Shura - Touch
I'm always nervous when artists I love make their TV debut on Later... With Jools. Can they cut it live in a room full of their peers - or are they studio creatures, totally devoid of charisma or charm?

Shura falls somewhere between the two extremes. She spends most of the performance hiding behind her fringe, but the music is captivating enough that you can forgive her... I think.



10) Sia - Alive
Sia's first video in a long time not to feature Maddie Ziegler is still pretty powerful - with a young martial artist matching the song's bombastic "I survived against the odds" narrative beat for beat.




11) Sia - Bird Set Free
As you may know, Alive was co-wrotten by with Adele and Tobias Jesso Jr. during sessions for Adele's 25. Earlier this week, Sia released another off-cut from those sessions, the stirringly dramatic Bird Set Free.

Despite rejecting (at least) two of Sia's songs, Adele has been effusive about working with the Australian singer-songwriter, telling Rolling Stone: "I actually enjoy the dynamic of us both being in there and just fucking being bossy. And it's all these male producers, and they're all fucking shitting themselves 'cause we're in there."




12) Blueyes - Ain't Gonna Love You
Blueyes is the brainchild of Belfast native Bronagh Monaghan, who's been messaging me about her music for a year or so, now. Her new track, Ain't Gonna Love You is the sort of flickering, late-night seduction jam you could imagine Jessie Ware finds herself singing when she sleepwalks. One to watch.

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Songs you may have missed megapost

Oh man, it's been ages since I did one a "songs you may have missed" post, and the backlog is ridiculous...

For the uninitiated, this is a dumping ground treasure trove of songs I've liked, but failed to write about on the blog. That failure is a personal one, not a comment on their quality.

So saddle up. There are 12 songs to get through here and I've kept the write-ups short because, frankly, who reads this crap anyway?

1) Foals - What Went Down
Heavy like cadmium. Best thing they've done since Inhaler.




2) Miguel - Coffee (ft WALE)
Coffee is a metaphor for sex, you know.



3) Selena Gomez - Good For You (ft A$AP Rocky)
Recorded in 45 minutes. Will remain in your in your head for 45 days.




4) Nero - Two Minds
In which Nero finally realise that dubstep is a musical dead end.




5) Carly Rae Jepsen - E·MO·TION
Carly Rae Jepsen's new album is shaping up to be a masterpiece. Who;d have thought?




6) Mark Ronson - I Can't Lose (ft Keyone Starr)
All the melody of Snoop Dogg's Ain't No Fun (If the Homies Can' Have None) with none of the misogyny. Result.





7) Years & Years - Foundation
In 2020, we're all going to look back on Years & Years' time in the spotlight and wonder "what was going on there?"




8) Fassine - Sunshine
Doomsday disco, darker than a House of Cards box set.




9) Shura - White Light
The video edit isn't as good as the full 7-minute masterpiece.




10) Rudimental - Rumour Mill (ft Anne-Marie & Will Heard)
Slinky and subtle. Sorely needed proof that Rudimental can make good songs without shoehorning in a drum-and-bass drop.




11) Gabrielle Aplin - Light Up The Dark
Recently added to the Radio 1 playlist, and a world away from her mawkish John Lewis advert. Like KT Tunstall and Sheryl Crow got together and cancelled out each other's most boring tendencies.




12) Meghan Trainor - Like I'm Going To Lose You (ft John Legend)
Gimmick-free balladry that suggests a longevity most of us never suspected Meghan Trainor had in her.

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What do you make of the new Rudimental single?

Premiered last night on Annie Mac's increasingly brilliant Radio 1 show, here's the first single from Rudimental's new album.

Called Never Let You Go, it's more of a mood piece than Waiting All Night or Feel The Love. Where those songs were 100% crescendo this seems content to ride a groove, with a telescoping vocal hook and an occasional splatter of drum and bass.

I'm not saying that's a bad thing - it's just not the balls-out barnstormer I was expecting.

Currently filed under undecided. What do you reckon?

Rudimental - Never Let You Go

UPDATE: Here's what people have been saying in reaction to this post over on Twitter.

@mrdiscopop It feels like the third single from an album rather than the lead one

— Michael Cragg (@MichaelCragg) April 28, 2015

@mrdiscopop 👎👎👎

— PressPLAY (@pressplayok) April 28, 2015

@mrdiscopop It's only a slight departure from before but I'm quite enjoying it. I can't see them doing anything other than this sound.

— The Gizzle Review (@ed_nights) April 28, 2015

@mrdiscopop The intro does something interesting, but the chorus is business as usual - will be interesting to see how radio reacts to it.

— Laurence Green (@LaurenceTGreen) April 28, 2015

@LaurenceTGreen @mrdiscopop Brilliantly familiar. Rudimental do the 'Rudimental sound' better than anyone else.

— Sam Atkins (@Atkins_Sam) April 28, 2015

Let's call that "a mixed response".

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Brandon Flowers is back and nine other songs you may have missed

So many good songs, so little time to write a blog. That's what the semi-regular "songs you may have missed" feature is all about...

In the words of Will Smith: "Here we go, here we go, here we here we go, yo."

1) Brandon Flowers - Can't Deny My Love
Working with Haim producer Ariel Rechtshaid, Brandon has produced a single that could have come from the soundtrack to St Elmo's Fire or Top Gun. It's that good.




2) Ed Sheeran and Rudimental - Bloodstream
In which Ray Liotta plays the washed-up frontman of hair metal band Black Glove (a nod to Spinal Tap's Smell The Glove?) He stumbles around his mansion, shooting bottles with a rifle, jumping off balconies and getting rather too friendly with his horse. It sounds more fun than it looks, unfortunately.




3) Charli XCX - Famous
Like Ed's video above, this was created for the YouTube Music Awards - which is odd, as it viciously rips into selfie-obsessed internet culture.

It starts innocently enough, with a Charli XCX wannabe dancing to Famous in her bedroom. But when her battery dies, she gets sucked into a nightmarish netherworld populated by grotesque, faded pop stars (including a scabbed-up version of Charli herself) all preening and posing into their phones.

It's like an episode of Black Mirror with a really perky soundtrack..





4) Florence + The Machine - St Jude
Florence's last video culminated with the singer crawling through the broken glass and twisted metal of a car wreck. This picks up the narrative, with Florence walking through the afterlife.

Musically, this is a much more subdued, hymnal track than we're used to from Ms Welch. I kind of prefer it to the empty bluster of the first single, What Kind Of Man.





5) Teleman - Strange Combinations
Teleman are a London three-piece that formed out of the ashes of indie band Pete and the Pirates, but don't hold that against them.

This song - recorded in one day as part of the Speedy Wunderground series, sounds like Alt-J have been eaten by Kraftwerk. It even has (what sounds like) a stylophone solo.

You can pre-order it on vinyl if that is your "scene".




6) Marian Hill - Lips / Wasted
This came via recommendation from Heat Radio's head honcho Talia Kraines, who saw the band at SXSW - a festival I am either too uncool or too nerdy to attend.

The upstart Philadelphia duo make the kind of twisted, harmonic R&B that made AlunaGeorge so exciting three years ago. I'm not sure these songs, from the band's new Sway EP, have a similar chart potential but they make a great listen.







7) Nero - The Thrill
When was dubstep the big new thing? Three years ago? Four? Now that every song incorporates its one signature sound ("wub-wub") that it was once fresh enough to be considered a genre of its own.

Anyway, here are prime wub-wub exponents Nero, who have wisely gone for an expansive, festival-friendly breakbeat banger to announce their comeback. Rave klaxons at the ready...




8) Shamir - Call It Off
Shamir's daffy On The Regular rightly earned him places on the various "Sound of 2015" polls at the start of the year. But I was intrigued to see how he'd follow it up... It was one of those records that was so unique, so individual that it whiffed of being a one-off.

Well, the whiff was wrong. Shamir's new single much less self-concious and a little more straightforward, without shedding the androgynous originality of his previous work. He also gets turned into a puppet for the video, for which he earns 10 extra points.




9) Rhodes - Turning Back Around
Because what the music industry is lacking right now is an earnest young man singing about his feelings.

Still, if that sort of thing is your bag, this is a really high-quality bag.




10) Sinkane - Young Trouble
I'd never really paid much attention to Sinkane - now on his third album - until this supple reggae track turned up on the 6 Music Playlist last week. Although it sits right in that Bob Marley groove, it also incorporates pedal steel guitar from Jonny Lam, making it sound fresh and dusty at the same time.

Very likeable and immensely listenable... I've just ordered his album.

And that's your lot for this week. Hope you found one new favourite in there.

As ever, send any tips to the email at the bottom of the screen, or track me down on Twitter.

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Ed Sheeran + Rudimental = Sheermental

Rudimental have literally put a donk on Ed Sheeran's album track Blood Stream, and it is great.

Ed told MTV it was "sort of" the first single off Rudimental's second album - which seems like a daft idea, but what do I know?

Rudimental, on the other hand, told The Sun: "The song is so sick, so insane. We can't wait to show it to people."

Sadly, you can't see it yet. But here is a handy audio stream.

Ed Sheeran / Rudimental - Blood Stream

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Back in business: What did I miss?

HELLO THERE EVERYONE!

As you can see, I'm back from the Caribbean - where the sun was shiny, the sea was wavy, and the music was Corinne Bailey Rae-y (seriously, there seems to be a law requiring all bands to play Put Your Records On at least twice during their set).

I missed the Grammys and I missed the Super Bowl - but I did manage to catch Prince's appearance on New Girl, where he proved his acting "chops" hadn't improved since Under The Cherry Moon *frowny face emoticon*.


We've only just got back to the UK, so I haven't had time to catch up on all the exciting Conor Maynard and Laura Mvula announcements clogging up my inbox, but here's a quick rundown of the videos I've prioritised to watch on YouTube tonight.

1) Kylie Minogue - Into The Blue
Controversially shot in 4:3, aspect ratio fans.




2) Rudimental ft Becky Hill - Powerless
Becky Hill was on the first series of The Voice, you know.




3) Shakira ft Rihanna - Can't Remember To Forget You
The song doesn't get any better but [insert sexist comment about Shakira's bottom here].




4) Foster The People - Coming Of Age
It's like a three-minute John Hughes movie, only with new music on top. What sophistry is this?




5) Villagers - Occupy Your Mind
Recorded with James Ford (Klaxons, Arctic Monkeys) this song was premiered last week as a gesture of solidarity with Russia's gay population ahead of the Winter Olympics.




6) St Vincent - Digital Witness
Still disorientating, still brilliant.




7) 5 Seconds of Silence - She Looks So Perfect
It's like McBusted split up, fell down a rabbit hole, landed in Australia 10 years younger and started all over again.




8) Klaxons - There Is No Other Time
"A return to form" - every music journalist, everywhere.




9) MØ - Don't Wanna Dance
Who doesn't love a music video set in a scrap yard? Nobody, that's who.



10) The Pierces - Kings
If Tim Burton drew a girl group it would look like Allison and Catherine Pierce. Later this year, they'll be following up 2010's achingly beautiful goth-pop album You & I... and this is the first bite of their newly-plucked forbidden fruit. Yummy.


11) Prince - PretzelBodyLogic (preview)
Apparently he's playing Shepherd's Bush again tonight (Monday)... Anyone care to confirm?

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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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Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Try and watch the last minute of the new video by Rudimental without gripping the edge of your desk and going "oh shit, oh shit, oh shiiiit..."

Just try.

Rudimental - Free ft Emeli Sande

Pretty amazing, right? According to the press release it was "shot around the deadly Eiger mountain in the Alps" and "there was no post-production... A guy by the name of Jokke Sommer actually does everything you see."

Insane.

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Rudimental + Tigers + Foxes = A great video

They might be a dynamite live act, but Rudimental have shied away from appearing in their own videos. Every single so far has had it's own international mini-movie - following slum kids, BMX bandits and and an urban horse community (yes, really).

For fifth single Right Here, we're off to Thailand's Tiger Temple. The video is an unusual, but exceptional, mixture of martial arts and nature documentary, revolving around the illegal international tiger trade. Sounds very worthy, but it's beautifully shot and totally kick-ass.

Rudimental ft Foxes - Right Here

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Glastonbury 2013: A top 10 from behind the scenes

Let's face it, there are worse jobs in the world than reporting on Glastonbury. Saturday may have been a 22-hour slog that combined mud, blisters and sunburn with a 4:30am start and 11 interviews - but I had an absolute blast.

So, here are my top 10 (and a half) moments from a busy weekend. I even got to watch some music.

10) Liam Gallagher liked my t-shirt.
Thanks, Liam, but Beady Eye are still shit.


9) A never-ending supply of Haribo.
Seriously, they were everywhere: Scattered in the dressing rooms, littering the production offices, propping up the catering tents. On Saturday, when the sun came out, they all started to melt and coalesce into one giant mecha-Haribo. I have come to the conclusion that the festival is secretly run by Gummy Bears.

8) Catching Aluna "AlunaGeorge" Francis scoffing a bag of crisps just before the band's inaugural Glastonbury set (but after she'd joined Dizzee Rascal - aka "the grime Black Lace" - on Friday evening).





7) Rudimental, whose tiggerish levels of bounciness led to one of the best shows of the festival. Imagine a Basement Jaxx gig played by James Brown's band. They're that good.


6.5) This slurry tank.

6) Hastily applying sun cream and running out the door to speak to Two Door Cinema Club. As the interview progressed, the cream started to melt and run into my eyes. Ever the professional, I kept the recording going for 10 minutes as my face streamed with tears. "Are you ok?" asked Alex Trimble after we finished. "Sorry," I replied, wiping my eyes. "It's just that I'm your biggest fan."




5) Watching Bruce Forsyth take over the Avalon field ("if you're good I'll play for two hours. If you're bad, I'll do four-and-a-half") then recording the best vox pop of all time.



Actually, I'm lying. That's only the second-best vox pop of all time. On Saturday afternoon, Colin Paterson was interviewing people on 5 Live when a woman walked past with the lyrics to Wild Horses tattooed on her arm.

"You must be going to see the Rolling Stones," he said.
"No, I'm gonna see Chase and Status."
"But you have their lyrics tattooed on your arm?"
"No, mate, that's the Susan Boyle version".



4) Speaking of The Strolling Bones - I've never been a big fan, and I would never have paid real money to see them, but they totally won me over. Music aside, the most amazing thing about their set was that almost everyone put their cameraphone away.

It also became clear why the band were reluctant to let the BBC broadcast their performance: The Stones' live show is designed for a stadium audience, low on subtlety and high on arm-waving, gurny-faced aerobics. Shrunk down to TV size, they were ridiculous and camp. In person they were spectacular.





3) The inestimable Lizo Mzimba, BBC Entertainment Reporter, former Newsround anchor, all-round gentleman and semi-professional Howard-from-the-Halifax-adverts impersonator. As the Rolling Stones took to the stage, he was broadcasting to News 24 from a platform overlooking the Pyramid Stage. 10 minutes later, the final chord to Paint It Black rang out and the audience erupted. But not for the Stones. No, they were chanting "Li-zo, Li-zo, Li-zo".

Lizo's notoriety produced another incredible moment later that night, when a slightly "refreshed" Dan from Bastille came across him interviewing the Stones' fans.

Right of the photo, BBC News today = my reaction from seeing childhood news idol @lizo_mzimba behind the camera pic.twitter.com/1tShSDAtnv
— BASTILLE (@BASTILLEdan) June 30, 2013

2) The Staves. Not only do they have the voices of angels, but they are bloody lovely people. My task for the weekend (self-imposed) was to follow them band around and document their Glastonbury experience for the BBC website.

It wasn't a difficult job - they're funny and friendly and supremely talented. Crouching next to them, holding a microphone to Jess's guitar as they performed In The Long Run in perfect three-part harmony for Radio 4 was literally breath-taking.



The sisters were originally at Glastonbury for three low-key shows across three days - but then they got a call from Ben Mumford, who wanted them to do this.


Watching that from the crowd, I felt like a proud uncle at the biggest nativity play of all time. They were justifiably over-the-moon afterwards - and it couldn't have happened to three nicer people.

1) ISLANDS IN THE STREAM.
THAT IS WHAT WE ARE.
NO-ONE IN BETWEEN.
HOW CAN WE BE WRONG?
SAIL AWAY WITH ME.
TO ANOTHER WORLD.
AND WE RELY ON EACH OTHER.
A-HA.
FROM ONE LOVER TO ANOTHER
A-HA.

A-ha-mazing.

There were plenty of other memorable moments: Jessie Ware threatening to climb the rafters; meeting Kenny Rogers in his dressing room; Haim being mobbed everywhere they went; Chris O'Dowd actually running away when I approached him with a microphone; and the shower in my caravan running out of water, which left me with no choice but to rinse off the soap suds with a bottle of mineral water straight from the fridge.

There's nowhere on earth like it, and nowhere I would rather have been.

Next year, we've worked out the headliners will be Kanye West, Fleetwood Mac and Prince, with Billy Joel doing the Sunday Afternoon "legend" slot. See you there.

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A DIY TOTP FOR W/C 06/05/2013

The one thing people forget about Top Of The Pops is that, for every heart-stopping performance by The KLF or Destiny’s Child, you had to sit through half-a-dozen dismal efforts by Eiffel 65 or Jive Bunny. Yes, it’s bad that primetime TV continues to snub the music industry, but maybe the people who gave us Peter Andre got what they deserved.

Anyway, thanks to the beauty of YouTube, you can now curate your own Top Of The Pops with the added benefit of zero Fearne Cotton. For instance, if you trawl through the last seven days of chat shows and Jools Hollands, you could compile an episode featuring Vampire Weekend, Rudimental, Thom Yorke, Marina and the Diamonds, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Phoenix. But we kick off the show with the biggest song in the world right now...



Icona Pop - I Love It


Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Sacriliege


Rudimental ft Ella Eyre - Waiting All Night (acoustic)


Vampire Weekend - Diane Young


Phoenix - Trying To Be Cool


Thom Yorke - Ingenue


Marina and the Diamonds - Lies


Not bad, eh? And of course we'd play out with the UK's Number One. And of course we would cut it off half way through, in true TOTP tradition.

Daft Punk - Get Lucky (Peter Serafinowicz video edit)

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Songs you may have missed: Dutch edition

Sorry for the lack of updates this week - I was off in Amsterdam working on the BBC's coverage of the Rijksmuseum relaunch (here's an example), which turned out to be a lot busier than I anticipated. Still, the music industry took an extended Easter break, so there wasn't much to catch up with on my return. Apart from these:

1) Chris Malinchak - So Good To Me
The press release calls Chris Malinchak a "legendary New York deep house producer" but I've never heard of him. Have you? No matter, because his new single is a hazy summer daydream that sent ripples through the Miami Winter Music Conference. A warm, casual groove with a nimble Marvin Gaye sample, maybe it can convince the sun to come out of hiding when it's released on 5th May.




2) Little Mix ft Missy Elliot - How Ya Doin?
Little Mix have been sponsored by something called "Live Colour XXL", which explains the ridiculous hair colours in this video.

Nothing can explain, however, this godawful single, which manages to tarnish the legacy of De La Soul* and Missy Elliot in a single, three-minute burst of crap.

*Yes, I'm aware the original was by Curiosity Killed The Cat



3) Wretch 32 - Blackout
It's not every day a rapper declares: "my vocabulary is shit", but Wretch 32 is not an every day rap star. Featuring vocals from Shakka, and truck-load of marimbas, Blackout is practically guaranteed for the Top 10 when it comes out next month.

If you like the studio version, you should also check out the super-cute acoustic version on SBTV, where Wretch can't hide his ever-increasing smile.




4) Florrie - Live A Little
Florrie is a graduate of songwriting powerhouse Xenomania, who played drums on Girls Aloud's The Promise. She's been self-releasing music - tons of it - ever since, to almost universal indifference (except in Spain, where one of her EPs went to number three).

But last year she took a couple of months off, signed to a major label and started work on a proper album. It's not clear whether this new track - a promo for Sony earphones - is part of that project, but it's a real step up from her earlier material - catchy, compact and swollen with attitude. The intro could do with an edit, though.




5) Snoop Lion ft Miley Cyrus - Ashtrays and Heartbreaks
This reggae-tinged new track from the artists formerly known as Snoop Dogg and Hannah Montana is simultaneously better and worse than you'd expect. With time, I think it'll become a guilty pleasure. Or maybe we'll pretend it never happened. History, as always, will be the judge.





6) Tussilago - Farewell
This is new from Lykke Li's little brother. Like Sigur Ros without the histrionics, it'll sound amazing with a cup of cocoa.




7) Rudimental ft Ella Eyre - Waiting All Night
All of Rudimental's videos seem to come with the tag "The following events are based on a true story". They're like the Channel 5 of riotous dance music.

Last time, we followed the career of B-Boy Mouse, who rose from the slums to become a dance champion. For the new single, Waiting All Night, the video chronicles the life and rehabilitation of BMX champion Kurt Yaeger, who lost a limb after a motorcycle collision in 2006. It's both thrilling and uplifting - if you only watch one video on this page, make it this one.

And that's your lot. Normal service will be resumed next week.

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Rudimental's striking new video

Wow. Brilliant. You don't expect to see a furious polemic about the children of the third world slums when you sit down to watch a music video with your 11 o'clock eccles cake, but it's just happened to me.

Now, don't be put off - because the video, for Rudimental's new single Not Giving In, is a superb piece of work: Slumdog Millionaire meets Oliver Twist via... erm, Step Up 2 The Streets.

Directed by British photographer Josh Cole, it tells the story of two brothers, raised by a drug addict father who abuses their mother. After they flee for the streets of Manila, the sibling's stories are told in parallel: One escapes by joining a street dance crew, but his brother follows a much darker path.

Rudimental - Not Giving In (ft John Newman and Alex Clare)

The video is loosely based on the story of global B-boy champion Mouse, whose mother abandoned him to hustle on the streets the Philippines when he was just eight years old. He became involved in the local dance scene, while his brother sank into addiction. Eventually, when he was 16, his mother sought him out and brought him to live with her in Birmingham, where he was able to pursue a professional career as a breakdancer.

Mouse has a cameo in the Rudimental video, but here he is in "real life".


Ouch.

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Bat For Lashes covers Rihanna and five other songs you might have missed

A semi-regular round-up of songs I haven't blogged about this week because time is precious and some of us have proper jobs to do, ok?

This week's line-up starts here.


1) Bat For Lashes - We Found Love

In which Natasha Khan takes Rihanna's global smash hit and gives it a makeover. A fucking miserable makeover. Crikey, love, cheer up.





2) Rudimental - Not Giving In

"I'm not giving in," sings John Newman on the follow-up to Feel The Love. Which is odd, because he's apparently caved in to the demand to feature every musical instrument and genre on planet earth in this four minute gospel-soul-dance-dubstep-reggae-rave bangathon. If it doesn't go straight into the top 10, I'll eat my trombone.

Apologies for the presence of Zane Lowe at the start of this clip.




3) Misha B - Do You Think Of Me?

Dungarees, Misha? Really?

Also this is excellent, in a rave Alicia Keys kind of way.




4) I Am Kloot - Hold Back The Night

A beautiful lullaby from Manchester's I Am Kloot, produced by Elbow's Guy Garvey and Craig Potter. "Fill up your day, and your pockets, with plenty, 'cos soon they'll be empty," emotes Johnny Bramwell over swooshing string flourishes lifted straight from I Am The Walrus. Lovely stuff.




5) Lana Del Rey - Ride

After that "clipmix" video for Yayo earlier this week, this is a proper big-budget video for Lana's proper big-budget new single, Ride. A rootin'-tootin' country ballad, it comes with gracefully forlorn Rick Rubin production, which turns out to be a perfect foil for Lana's sombre vocal.

Shame the video is such a pretentious mess, then. Seriously, has any three-minute spoken-word prelude ever been worth sitting through? This is the usual diaphanous guff parading as highbrow philosophy. "My dreams were dashed and divided like a million stars in the night sky that I wished upon" - that sort of thing.

Skip forward to 3'36" and you'll be fine.




6) Arthur Beatrice - Charity

Imagine Mumford and Sons without the banjos, and this is what you get. Slow-burning verses that spiral into joyous, open choruses.

I am informed that the band are comprised of the fantastically-monikered Orlando Leopard (!!) and his cohorts Ella Girardot, Hamish Barnes and Elliot Barnes - surely making them the poshest pop line-up since Kula Shaker?

Incidentally, the band insist they were unaware of Golden Girls star Bea Arthur until after they got their recording contract. Shame on them.

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