Songs you may have missed: New Year hangover edition

Like the rest of us, Planet Pop has taken most of the last two weeks off, so there isn't much to catch up on. But the few videos that did trickle onto the internet all herald VERY EXCITING THINGS for 2014. Here they are, in all their multifaceted glory.

1) Katy B - Crying For No Reason
FACT: Katy B's new album is going to be excellent.

FACT: Her red jumper is very festive.

FACT: This video contains more lasers than a Bond Villain's toolshed.



2) Foster The People - Feels Like Coming Of Age
FACT: Foster The People have been working with Paul Epworth of "good music (and Adele)" fame.

FACT: Their song Pumped Up Kicks is the "sixth-largest selling alternative digital song of all time" whatever that means.

FACT: Feels Like Coming Of Age already sounds like an indie disco classic, based on this 45 second preview.


BONUS FACT: Here's a video of the full song in a live environment. It's pretty damned good.



3) Sky Ferreira and Ariel Pink - My Molly
FACT: Sky Ferreira's debut album Night Time, My Time is getting a proper release in the UK later this year.

FACT: It's been four years in the making. FOUR YEARS! "You have to go through a lot of hardship before you get what you want," she noted presciently on these very pages back in 2010.

FACT: This song, a cover of Ariel Pink's My Molly, isn't on it. But it should be.



4) SBTRKT ft Sampha and Jessie Ware - Runaway
FACT: All three of these artists are releasing new music in 2014.

FACT: SBTRKT played this at the end of his set at a New Years' Eve party in Mexico.

FACT: It only lasts a minute which, after all the self-indulgent eighteen-minute "jams" of 2014 (I'm looking at you, Justin Timberlake), would be a welcome new trend for 2014.




5) Boots - Haunted
FACT: Boots is the mysterious writer/producer who cropped up on the credits to Beyonce's album, contributing to 8 of the 14 tracks.

FACT: He signed to Jay-Z's Roc Nation label last June.

FACT: The reference tracks for Beyoncé's album used to appear on his Soundcloud (including his guide vocals).

FACT: All that's there now is this gorgeous, minor key ballad. I wonder if he'll keep it for himself?





6) Bounce - New Year's Eve Fireworks mix
FACT: OK, this isn't really about an exciting artist to look out for in 2014.

FACT: But the Fireworks mix was superb... Even the bit where they mixed Another One Bites The Dust and Blurred Lines.

FACT: You can listen to it "sans explosions" below, or go over to YouTube to see the pretty lights.

And that's not a bad haul so early in the year. Let's just hope Coldplay and U2 don't turn the year into one great yawnfest, eh?

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Gary Barlow goes Mumford and six other songs you may have missed

This has been a pretty good week for music - we had a polished video from a re-energised Britney, a mini-movie from The Arcade Fire and a tear-jerker from John Legend, not to mention (great) new albums from Justin Timberlake and Haim. So this week's strays and leftovers are pretty high quality. Have a gander...

1) Gary Barlow - Let Me Go
Gaz breaks out the banjos for his first solo record in 14 years. Let Me Go, basically a speeded-up Hey There Delilah, is precision-targetted at Radio 2 mums.

That's not a dig, by the way - Gary knows his market. He's even booked an advertising space on the bus stop in Coronation Street. Clever boy.




2) Goldfrapp - Annabel (live on Jools Holland)
Looking like Bad Romance-era Lady Gaga, singing like a fallen angel, Alison Goldfrapp graces Later... with her tranquil beauty.




3) Honeyblood - Bud
I picked out this catchy indie-pop gem a last week, and now it's been given a green-fingered video, shot in a stately garden near Herefordshire. It's no Ground Force, though, having been based on the influential, surrealist Czech movie Daisies (which you can watch in full here).




4) Lupa - The Creature
Move over, Lorde, here's a new antipodean singer in town, and this one's only 15.

Lupa is the stage name of Imogen Jones, a classically-trained violinist who's branched out into pop. Her home demos, published on Soundcloud two weeks ago, have already been picked up by influential Aussie radio station Triple J. And rightly so - Lupa's electronically-scored harmonies have a subtlety and sophistication beyond her years.





5) JLS - Billion Lights
The title of JLS's farewell single makes you think it'll be a weepie uber-ballad - but no! Billion Lights thumps like a Hitler's fist on a sturdy lectern.

The video is a three-minute potted history of everyone's favourite colour-coded boyband - their X Factor audition, their first number one, their first arena tour. You'll feel nostalgic, then you'll remember you never really liked them after Beat Again.




6) Wardell - Opossum
OK - this one's two years old, but you should keep your eye on Wardell. Otherwise known as Stasha and Stephen Spielberg, their dad is literally the man who made ET; and Jay-Z has just signed them to Roc Nation.

There's no indication of what their new material sounds like, but this 2011 track, Opossum, has a pleasing bluegrass vibe that reminds me of the Edward Sharpe song on those Peugeot adverts (the one that goes "Alabama, Arkansas - I do love my Ma & Pa").





7) Sampha - Indecision
You've probably heard this all over the radio recently - it's the one with the chorus that goes "let it all work out" over a glitchy, melancholy piano sample.

Sampha is best known for his work with Jessie Ware and SBTRKT, and has just appeared on the new Drake album. This track is from his solo EP Dual, which came out in July. It wears its complexity lightly, letting Sampha's gorgeous voice draw you into its mournful tale of shattered hearts.

Hope those tracks tide you over for the weekend... I'll be back with more on Monday morning.

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