Ellie Goulding gains the power of telekinesis and 12 other songs you may have missed

Songs You May Have Missed is a semi-regular round-up of songs I didn't manage to post about in a timely manner. It includes new discoveries, songs that took a while to appreciate and videos I simply missed.

This week's selection is particularly strong, for some reason. Enjoy below.

1) Major Lazer - Powerful (ft Ellie Goulding and Taurus Riley)
Ellie Goulding recently sparked speculation she was recording the new James Bond theme with the following tweet.

Live and let die

— Ellie Goulding (@elliegoulding) July 9, 2015

Of course, she could just have been marking her appreciation for the best Geri Halliwell b-side of all time. But while we wait for confirmation on the Bond thing, here she is bending forks like a sexy Uri Geller in the new Major Lazer video.




2) Disclosure - Omen (ft Sam Smith)
"It just would have felt wrong to not have him on the record," Howard Lawrence said of Sam Smith. "We speak to Sam everyday. He's our best mate. And he's the best singer in the world. Why would we not put him on the record?"

One answer would be "because it will inevitably suffer in comparison to Latch". But this track just about escapes that fate. Although it could do with being about 30bpm faster.






3) Tove Styrke - ...Baby One More Time
"Britney Spears - she's fierce," sings Tove Styrke on her current single, Number One.

As if to prove it, she's covered the pop star's debut single, smattering it with ice cold synths and building up to a Bjork-ish conclusion.





4) George Ezra - Barcelona
The sixth (sixth!) single from George Ezra's million-selling Wanted On Voyage album, is accompanied by a video shot deep in the rainforest. By which I mean Cornwall's Eden Project, which is why George has to wear that fetching mustard-colour jacket.





5) Gatlantis - Peanut Butter Jelly
The feel-good hit of the summer now has a feel-good video to go with it. It's about as infectious as you'd expect from Christian Karlsson and Linus Eklöw - whose credits include Britney's Toxic and Icona Pop's I Love It.





6) Shura - White Light (extended version)
A disturbing video for Shura's shimmering, space disco epic - which is released today.

The Manchester singer is currently in the studio putting the finishing touches to her debut EP for later this year.





7) George The Poet - Sorry Love, It's You Not Me (ft Lucy Rose)
Just added to the 6 Music playlist, this is a great piece of narrative rap, detailing the end of a relationship - with a devastating hook: "It's just you're forgettable. I think that's the issue".

Things to love: George's languorous delivery, and that infectious bassline.





8) Carly Rae Jepsen - Run Away With Me
The first track from Carly's new album, Emotion, comes with a fly-on-the-wall video, following the singer around a promotional trip to Japan, New York and Paris.

"I didn't even know we were making a music video until about halfway through it," Jepsen said in a statement. "David [Kalani Larkins - director] always has a camera in his hand and he has a way about him that makes you forget that it's there. I can remember watching over his shoulder as he uploaded the footage, recounting memories of the trip that I had almost already forgotten."






9) Izzy Bizu - Give Me Love
Seeing the name Izzy Bizu, readers of a certain age will inevitably be reminded of Sooty and Sweep.

For everyone else, here's a rollicking, drum-powered pop stomper from Barnes, in South-west London.





10) Lianne La Havas - Green and Gold
Described as "kind of an autobiography," Green & Gold sees Lianne La Havas narrate her life story, from a six-year-old "trying to watch cartoons through the static" to a "star in the city", feted by Prince and Stevie Wonder.

This is the third taster from her "sophomore" (second) album, which is shaping up to be one of the best soul records of the year.




11) Sarah Harding - Threads
"It's quite rocky - but it's also got pop and dubstep influences as well," says Sarah 'Girls Aloud' Harding. "There's a real mish-mash of different styles."

Mish-mash is probably the politest way to describe this, to be honest. *sad face emoticon*




12) Kira Puru - All Dulled Out
The debut single from Melbourne doom-pop singer Kira Puru is a little rough around the edges, but the balance between vulnerability and raw emotion is subtly captivating.





13) Cyril Hahn - Inferno ft Say Lou Lou
An aching, wistful summer jam that feels ripped from the soundtrack of a John Hughes movie.

"You know I'd hurt and suffer just to be with you," sing Say Lou Lou over Cyril Hahn's twinkling synths. "Pull me underground, never let me down, my inferno".

And that's the lot. Loads more musical goodies to come on the blog this week. If you're new, say hello on @mrdiscopop or in the comments field below.

Tweet

Katy Perry's birthday suit and seven other songs you may have missed

This week's groundbreaking installment of songs-you-may-have-missed contains several songs you may have missed. It's a revolution.

1) Katy Perry - Birthday (lyric video)
La Perry's lyric videos have a bigger budget than most artists get for their actual promos. And what does Katy do with all that extra cash? Spends it on cake. Amazing.




2) Calvin Harris - Summer
Calvin Harris has also been handed a sizeable promo budget, but he's spent it all on bikini girls and sports cars. Watch out, Harris, or you'll turn into Jamiroquai.




3) Jamie xx - Sleep Sound
Now, this is more like it: A dance video, starring 13 members of the Manchester Deaf Centre, set to a hypnotic new song by Jamie xx.

Director Sofia Mattioli says the video was inspired by a train journey: "I was listening to music, getting deep into it, and this girl started staring at me. After a while I took my headphones off and she came up to me, started signing and then wrote me a note to say that she was deaf but could almost feel the music by my movement."

Captivating and mesmerising.



4) Say Lou Lou - Everything We Touch (Yannis Foals mix)
Sexy, euphoric, Swedish pop. There's something special about Say Lou Lou and Yannis Philippakis from "intellectual" rock band Foals clearly agrees.

He's run his feather duster all over their new single Everything We Touch and given it a sparkling, heavenly sheen. Damned-near perfect.




5) Tove Lo - Stay High (Hippie Sabotage remix)
I prefer the original version of Tove Lo's Habits but Radio One have playlisted this trancey remix for complicated music 'biz' reasons we'll never fully understand. On the downside, the remix has bumped the superior Love Ballad off her Truth Serum EP (otherwise it wouldn't be chart eligible in the UK). On the plus side, Tove is now number seven in the iTunes chart.

A remix video has been hastily cobbled together and looks like this.


NB - my interview with Tove went up on the BBC News site today. You can read it here.


6) Foxes - Holding On To Heaven
Foxes is gradually turning into a genuine pop star. Photogenic, witty, fond of tempo changes, with a constant hint of melancholy in her voice.

Holding On To Heaven follows up the top 10 hits Youth and Let Go For Tonight (although it's also been a free download in the past which is very confusing). Taken from her forthcoming album Glorious, it's power ballad o'clock.



7) Nightbox - Burning
"Hi Mark, I'm Andrew Keyes, the bassist in Nightbox," said an email in my inbox earlier this week. "I'd appreciate if you'd lend me your ears for a moment to check out my band's upcoming release."

After a complex and painful surgical procedure, I did lend Andrew my ears and, contrary to expectations the "upcoming release" was 100% not shit.

Recorded in the band's living room ("we've got wooden floors", says Andrew, "far easier to clean up") but given the once over by MSTRKRFT and Sebastien Grainger of DFA 1979, their EP is propulsive, rhythmic indiepop.

The EP's out on 22 April, with Burning as the lead track - but you can check out their other material on Soundcloud.



8) Klaxons - There Is No Other Time
A return to form if ever there was one.

That's your lot. There's also a Kylie lyric video doing the rounds, but I couldn't think of anything to say about it.

See you again on Monday when apparently there'll be a new Lana Del Rey single to discuss. Exciting.

Tweet

Say Lou Lou have made a stunning video for Better In The Dark

I mentioned Say Lou Lou and their epic Scandipop single Better In The Dark last month. Now, with the 30th December release date fast approaching, they have made a video to go with it.

According to the press release says, the clip "explores the bands' darker side and comes across like a fantastically stylish b-movie". Ignoring the misplaced apostrophe, the sentence translates as: "We took lingering shots of people draped across each other in the aftermath of an epic party. Plus mirrors. Lots and lots of mirrors".

I'm pretty sure hangovers aren't as glamorous as the band are making out, but the gorgeous photography perfectly evokes their single's aching melancholy: "It feels better in the dark / I feel closer to your heart, nothing can come between us".

Top marks all round.

Say Lou Lou - Better In The Dark

Tweet

Say 'hello' to Say Lou Lou

Say Lou Lou are a pop group from (where else?) Sweden, with a touch of the ABBA about them (ie they look like a bit like Agnetha and Frida).

They've been bubbling under for a while now, but their new EP is so good I couldn't ignore it. For the uninitiated, here's Google tells us about them.

:: Say Lou Lou are twin sisters Miranda and Elektra Kilbey, who shared a bedroom until they were 16.

:: They were born in 1991, around the time Donnie NKOTB was arrested for setting fire to a hotel room.

:: Miranda is the older sister, by four minutes.

:: "I'm a bit scrawnier," Miranda told Vogue. "Elektra is a bit more curvy."

:: More importantly for identification purposes, Miranda is the brunette and Elektra is the blonde.

:: Do you think they resemble Agnetha and Frida from Abba, only with a better wardrobe? (Hint: yes, you do).

:: Their dad is Steve Kilbey, from Aussie rock group The Church.

:: No, us neither.

:: Steve divorced the girls' mother when they were young, and they were shuttled between Sweden and Australia as they grew up.

:: Consequently, their music is "not one hundred percent Scandi-pop, and it's not one hundred percent acoustic Australian," they told Soma Magazine. "We draw inspiration from the dynamic differences, such as the different cultures, and the lightness and darkness in both." Blimey.

:: They named their band after their "mean old aunt", according to Interview magazine.

:: Originally, though, they were called Saint Lou Lou, until some pesky copyright lawyers got involved.

:: Alternative names they may have considered* include Sane Lou Lou; Seine Lou Lou; Cyan Lou Lou; Stain Lou Lou; Sit Ubu Sit and Primal Scream.

:: Their debut single Maybe You came out earlier this year on dance label Kitsune and caused all of Tumblr to have a swoon, like delicate ladies in a Jane Austen novel.


:: Critics call this sound "dream pop".

:: According to the girls, that means "the layering of sweet, harmonious pop with a dreamy and spacey soundscape".

:: Since Maybe You came out, the twins have set up their own label and started working with top drawer pop merchants Hannah Robinson and Richard X. "He is a pop genius!" they note, wisely.

:: The girls "think of their songs as narratives" and approach them "like writing the script for a film", whatever that means.

:: They have also invented a drinking game around The Police's Roxanne.

:: Say Lou Lou's new EP is called Better In The Dark. It comes with a great "A-side" (track one) and an equally great "B-side" (track two) called Beloved.

:: It is out on 25 November, but you can hear both tracks now, with your ears, by pressing the triangular shaped buttons on the embedded media players placed directly below this passage of text.

* Did not actually consider

Tweet