Top 10 singles of 2017

So it's been... er, five long months since I last updated the blog. But I couldn't resist compiling my Top 10 singles of the year.

This year's list is extremely pop heavy, even for me, but the choices are determined by my iTunes play counts, which means they represent the songs I actually listened to over the last 12 months.

So here we go... in reverse order, with a playlist of the videos at the bottom of the post.


10) Lorde - Green Light

Max Martin called Lorde's comeback single "incorrect songwriting" but to my mind, that's a compliment. Green Light's awkward lurch from verse to pre-chorus encapsulates everything that's brilliant about Lorde - a pop star who's not afraid to embrace her weirdness (cf her performance at this year's MTV Awards).

Green Light isn't the best song on Melodrama, but there's something graceful about its clumsiness that kept me coming back for more.



9) Don't Kill My Vibe - Sigrid

Rae Morris made it into my Top 20 with the sublime Do It, a song about falling in love with her producer. Don't Kill My Vibe tells the opposite story - of how pop-star-in-waiting Sigrid Raabe was patronised and demoralised by an obnoxious studio boffin. Working with more sympathetic collaborators, Sigrid poured her scorn into this undeniable pop banger - and unwittingly set the scene for the song at number eight.



8) Praying - Kesha

Kesha could have come back swinging - she'd spent years in legal limbo, fighting her boss and mentor Dr Luke, who she accused of psychological and sexual abuse. But her response was much more compassionate than anyone expected.

The star doesn't hide her anger ("we both know all the truth I could tell") but turns it into a plea for redemption. "I hope you find your peace, falling on your knees, praying," she sings. If only we could all be so forgiving.



7) Little Of Your Love - Haim

AKA the song that saved Haim's second album. As Este confessed earlier this year, "There was a time where I was like, 'OK, why is every song I’m writing sounding like the theme from ‘Jurassic Park’?'"

Little Of Your Love broke that curse. Commissioned for (but not used in) the Amy Schumer movie Trainwreck, it relieved Haim of the pressure of following up their first album, allowing them to write a joyous, freewheeling True Blue tribute that's become a highlight of their live set. It also has one of the best videos of the year, which you can see at the bottom of this post.



6) Mistakes - Tove Styrke
Tove Styrke released two absolute corkers this year: Say My Name and Mistakes are cunningly detailed songs, employing multiple vocal layers and pixel-perfect production to embellish Tove's seemingly straightforward pop melodies.

Mistakes is my favourite of the two, thanks to that slap-back snare drum and a delicious portamento in the vocoder refrain. But it would be remiss of me not to mention Say My Name's "wear it out like a sweater that you love" lyric.


5) Lust For Life - Lana Del Rey ft The Weeknd
"My boyfriend's back and he's cooler than ever". Lust For Life is Lana's most radio-friendly single since Summer Sadness, and one in which she invites The Weeknd through the airlock of her interplanetary spacecraft.

It's a curious duet. Despite the chorus's demand to "take off all your clothes" the singers perpetually circle one other - mesmerised, rather than ravenous. But there's something beguiling about their soft-focus sensuality that keeps me coming back for more.



4) Hard Times - Paramore

A fluorescent, upbeat pop song about plumbing the depths of depression. "All that I want / Is a hole in the ground," sings Hayley Williams. "You can tell me when it's alright /For me to come out."

The counterpoint is the point. Taylor York's triangular, new wave guitar hooks and Zac Farro's creative drum fills make the bleakness of Williams' lyrics all the more stark. Radiohead, take note.


3) Bellyache - Billie Eilish
The best debut of the year? 15-year-old Billie Eilish fantasises about killing all her friends and going on the run - only to get an ulcer from the guilt.

Reviews rightly focus on the lyrics, but the music is equally ambitious - switching from peppy acoustic balladry to the gut-churning bass drop of the chorus. Billie Eilish is going places in 2018, and not just to escape the law.


2) New Rules - Dua Lipa

How often does someone come up with a new lyrical conceit for a break-up song? Almost never, that's how often. But Dua Lipa found a new angle with her step-by-step guide to avoiding your ex - and it became her proper breakout hit.

New Rules was the first single to really capture the star's witty, approachable Twitter persona ("It's so cold outside my nipples could key a car rn") but it also benefitted from a super-smart video; which saw Dua being supported by her girlfriends as she struggled to stick to the four-point programme.

The video rightly became a viral success... and not just for its gif-tastic choreography and themes of female solidarity. Someone "in the know" told me the pastel palette was deliberately chosen to reflect the most popular colour schemes on Instagram. How 2017 can you get?


1) Bad Liar - Selena Gomez
The way it interpolates Talking Heads' Psycho Killer. The way the lyrics spill out like an infatuated teenager's love letter. The line "just like the Battle of Troy there's nothing subtle here." The nuance in Selena Gomez's delivery - alternately awe-struck and assertive. The way she tries to deny her feelings ("you're taking up a fraction of my mind"). The melody in the chorus. The counter-melody in the chorus. The line "every time I watch you, serpentine".

The whole damn thing is perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect.

FYI: The next 10 would have been:
11) St Vincent - Los Ageless
12) St Vincent - New York
13) The Killers - The Man
14) Kendrick Lamar - Humble
15) Laura Marling - Wild Fire
16) Tove Lo - Disco Tits
17) Dagny - Love You Like That
18) Foo Fighters - Sky Is A Neighbourhood
19) Camila Cabello - Havana
20) Rae Morris - Do It

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Selena Gomez - Fetish

With Bad Liar finally climbing up the UK charts, Selena Gomez has decided to kill its momentum by releasing another single. Pop music, eh?

Anyway, Fetish is a worthy replacement. It doesn't have the quirky wordplay or musical slinkitude of its predecessor, but the chorus is a humdinger.

"You got a festoon for my love," sings La Gomez. "I push you out and you come right back."

"Don't see no point in blaming you," she continues. "If I were you I'd do me too."

The video, meanwhile, is fetishistic in its own way. A lingering, borderline intrusive, close-up of Gomez's lips, it also gives you an appreciation for the clinical excellence of American dentistry.

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Stop everything and watch this

Haim playing Selena Gomez's Bad Liar with a fork and a spoon, in Radio 1's Live Lounge, is the only video you need to watch today.


They also did a passable version of their own single, Want You Back, without the aid of kitchen utensils. If you have time for a second video, this is also a 10/10.

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Selena Gomez goes full Eddie Murphy in the Bad Liar video

Bad Liar is a song about trying and failing to suppress your desires (specifically romantic desires, although it works equally well as an account of the emotions I encounter when passing a Krispy Kreme store).

So it makes sense that the video puts the lust in clusterfuck - as a schoolgirl catches her father flirting with her teacher, for whom she also holds a torch, while navigating her hastily-fracturing family life. It has the makings of a pretty good film... except Selena has opted to play all four main characters, with the unfortunate result that her "father" looks like a six-year-old in a trenchcoat. It's a distraction that spoils what could have been a clever, witty video.

Fortunately, the song is still a supple and slyly catchy pop gem.

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Katy Perry, Liam Payne and Camilla Cabello: The best and worst of New Music Friday

A mixed bag this week. There's a lot of "third buzz track before the album" activity, with the drop in quality that implies. But some gems are hidden in the mix, so stick around.

Katy Perry ft Nicki Minaj - Swish Swish
Stoking the flames of the Katy Perry / Taylor Swift feud, this is a no-holds-barred diss track. Sample lyric: "Karma’s not a liar, she keeps receipts."

But like Bad Blood before it, the red mist has blinded Katy to her better pop instincts. This is a depressingly pedestrian house groove with neither the bark nor the bite promised by the premise.

It's left to Nicki Minaj to give us some perspective: "Silly rap beefs just give me more cheques".




Selena Gomez - Bad Liar
As previously discussed, this is perfect.





Muse - Dig Down
Which finally answers the question, "What if Muse sounded like Take That?" The answer, as it turns out, is bloody brilliant.





Liam Payne - Strip That Down
Just what we needed: A British Jason Derulo.




RAYE - The Line
I saw RAYE perform this acoustically the other day, and was really impressed. But the single is itchy and over-produced, which smothers the song. It's a strange treatment for a song that discusses the boredom of waiting in line for a club ("yeah, we look like sickness, barely moving inches").




Pumarosa - Lion's Den
A hugely ambitious, six-minute single from doom-laden indie quintent Pumarosa. Like a heavier version of Radiohead's Pyramid Song (which is a recommendation, in case you were wondering).






Danger Mouse ft Run The Jewels and Big Boi - Chase Me
Built around samples from the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's Bellbottoms and taken from Edgar "Hot Fuzz" Wright's new film Baby Driver, this explodes out of the speakers like a molotov cocktail of awesome.




Royal Blood - Hook, Line & Sinker
A retreat to safe ground after James Bondian thrills of Lights Out. It probably "works better live".




Cigarettes After Sex - Each Time You Fall In Love
This woozy, hazy ballad about doomed love in LA sounds like an unholy union between St Etienne and Lana Del Rey.




Camilla Cabello - Crying In The Club
Interpolates Genie In A Bottle but otherwise sounds like a composite of every pop trope of the last five years. Disappointing, given the buzz about the former Fifth Harmony singer's supposedly flawless pop instincts.




Plan B - In The Name Of Man
"All the soap in the world won't wash away the blood that's on your hands." A song about the religious certitude that sent the UK and US into Iraq 14 years ago. It's safe to say Plan B is not a fan of Tony Blair.




Bebe Rexha ft Lil' Wayne - The Way I Are
"I'll never sing like Whitney but I still want to dance with somebody."

The week's best lyric squandered on the week's worst song.




Oh Wonder - Heavy
A real treat, this. Oh Wonder really flex their vocal muscles, darting around mushrooming synth lines that mirror the heart-bursting love-struck lyrics: "I could hold you endlessly," they swoon. "Stop the world, it's only you." Beautiful.

Well, that's quite enough of that. See you next week!

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Selena Gomez may be a bad liar, but she's a great pop star

There is so much to love about Selena Gomez's new song, Bad Liar: The way the lyrics trip over themselves like a lovestruck teenager; the brazen lift of Talking Heads' Psycho Killer; the borderline ridiculousness of the lyric: "like the battle of Troy, there's nothing subtle here."

Oh, and the post-chorus hook "all my feelings on fire, guess I'm a bad liar," is an early contender for pop moment of 2017.

Selena has never been a big belter in the vocal department but, like Janet Jackson before her, she's turned that into an asset. This subtle, sultry groove has an whispered intimacy that, say, Adele could never hope to achieve.

It's great to have her back.

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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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Selena Gomez has done a song with Kygo and it's pretty good

Selena Gomez has given us brief respite from the slow, agonising wait for the follow-up to Revival with It Ain't Me, a new collaboration with topical house maestro Kygo.

The single - AVAILABLE NOW - can only be described as a gentlebanger; loping of beat and anthemic of chorus. There's a particularly pleasing chord change at the 55" mark. It is a solid 7/10.

Some of the internet's more excitable "news" sources say the song is definitely about Justin Bieber, because everything a successful woman does has to be framed through their relationships, right?

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Discopop Directory: Top 10 singles of 2016

Hello strangers!

I'm emerging from blog hibernation to post my annual Top 10 list. Hopefully this will prompt a bit more posting in the new year... Fingers crossed.

As usual, my Top 10 is compiled using the play counts in my iTunes library, keeping me honest about the songs I actually listened to, rather than the ones that sound cool. So here they are, in reverse order...

10) Muna - I Know A Place
Brand new girlband Muna put on one of the best shows I saw this year, deep underground in London's Notting Hill - and this was the highlight: A great big exuberant hug for the LGBTQ community (lead singer Katie Gavin wrote a moving essay about the lyrics in Time Magazine, which is well worth a read).

Played live, it's one of those coming together moments, where the whole club - from the cloakroom to the drum riser - jumps up and down in unison. The recorded version loses some of that energy, but emerges as a terrific singalong, nonetheless.




9) Zara Larsson - Lush Life
When I first heard Lush Life, I thought it was Rihanna. But apparently she only does life-affirming pop songs for Calvin Harris these days, leaving an open goal of Zara Larsson to score one of the year's biggest breakthrough hits. Looking forward to the album next year...




8) Shura - What's It Gonna Be?
This would have made it into the Top 10 for the John Hughes-inspired video alone. But luckily What's It Going To Be is also a perfect happysad pop banger in its own right, so everybody wins.




7) Ariana Grande - Into You
I wished Ariana Grande's Dangerous Woman album had been a little bit more... well, dangerous. Imagine if she'd fully committed to the promise of the title track, recording a dozen dusky showtunes, draped over a piano like Michelle Pfieffer in The Fabulous Baker Brothers. It could have been a classic. But then we'd never have gotten this - a sexy, synthy prelude to an historic romp under the sheets.

For once, old cat ears sounded like she just might start purring.




6) Selena Gomez - Hands To Myself
"I mean I could, but why would I want to." It's the sort of line Lauren Bacall would have said to Humphrey Bogart in the 1940s, but in a pop song. Amazing.




5) Drake ft Kyla and WizKid - One Dance
Confession time: I can't stand Drake. His drowsy, monotonous voice is my own personal chloroform. And yet... and yet... One Dance is just so deliciously moreish.

Maybe it's Kyla's coy, come-hither hook; maybe it's that outer space piano; or maybe it's the sinewy, arabesque guitar line. But it gets me every time.



4) Grimes - Kill v Maim
According to Grimes, "Kill v Maim is written from the perspective of Al Pacino in The Godfather Pt II. Except he’s a vampire who can switch gender and travel through space."

Amazingly, it comes close to matching that description; while the visuals look like a Manga cartoon and a sweet shop threw up over Michael Jackson's Bad video. A signpost for the future of pop. In 2187.



3) Christine & The Queens - Tilted
A dance track about being so awkward, your feet won't do what you tell them. A work of genius in both the English and original French versions.




2) Justin Timberlake - Can't Stop The Feeling
Total fluff. A flimsy song for a flimsy film. But put Justin Timberlake in the same room as Max Martin and you're guaranteed some pop magic. Listen to the playful way JT elongates the word "aaaaaaand" in the chorus; Or the casual way they throw in a gargantuan sing-along hook in the last 20 seconds, forcing you to rewind and start again, just to get more of that exquisite sugar rush.




1) Solange - Cranes In The Sky
My favourite single of 2016 was, in fact, written in a hotel room in 2008. An essay on depression and escapism, it was kept in a drawer for eight years, until Solange dusted it off and used it as a template for A Seat At The Table. Like the rest of the album, it's an elegant, dignified response to harrowing experiences, and a truly exceptional song.

I couldn't resist it - and nor could my kids (which might explain the higher-than-expected placing in this countdown, to be fair).

It was a good year for singles. So, if you're interested, the next 10 would have been:

11) Beyoncé - Hold Up
12) Radiohead - Burn The Witch
13) Ariana Grande - Dangerous Woman
14) The Chainsmokers ft Halsey - Closer
15) Rag N Bone Man - Human
16) Lady Gaga - Million Reasons
17) The Weeknd ft Daft Punk - Starboy
18) All Saints - One Strike
19) Lissie - Don't You Give Up On Me
20) Glass Animals - Life Itself

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Ten more Songs You May Have Missed

Half-term is over and I've survived more episodes of Thomas The Tank Engine than any is permissible under the human rights act. But there was music - there's always music - to soothe away the sound of the steam engines.

Here are some of the tracks I've been listening to. Maybe you'll find a new favourite.

1) Selena Gomez - Kill Em With Kindness
In which the director's treatment simply read: "Selena Gomez has a pretty face. Let's point the camera at her pretty face. She's so pretty." It turned out well.




2) Shura - What's It Gonna Be?
A tribute to the films of John Hughes, this is an absolute delight. The song is also excellent.




3) Rationale - Palms
Futuristic funk from London's very own Tinashé Fazakerly. Taken from his debut album, Rationale, which is due in September.



4) Matidla - Ghost
Norways' Matilda joins the swelling ranks of really rather good Scandipop singers with this shimmering, Ellie Goulding-style pop banger.




5) The Avalanches - Frankie Sinatra
Memorable, in the worst way.




6) Ariana Grande - Into You
There's a lot of implied snogging in this video but, if you look closely, the camera consistently cuts away just before Ariana's mouth reaches that of her generic video boyfriend. Those lips are just for donuts, ok?




7) Jurassic 5 - Customer Service
The rap collective release their first new song in a decade, and it's a scorcher. Based on a classic funk loop (The Spirit of Doo... Do by Edwin Birdsong), the track sees the MCs trading lines with familiar funky freshness.




8) Beck - Wow
Remember when Beck's Morning Phase won a Grammy and perennial sore loser Kanye West protested he'd never heard of him? Well it seems Beck is going out of his way to rectify that, with the surreal bedroom trap-funk of his new single. Not so much a change in direction as a complete artistic shedding of the skin.




9) Wild Beasts - Get My Bang
No, Wild Beasts, you go and get your own bang. I'm not your mum.




10) Bat For Lashes - Sunday Love
Bat For Lashes' new album, The Bride, is easily the highlight of her career. A concept album about a woman left at the altar, the record is dramatic, haunting and thought-provoking. Few musicians are brave enough to explore grief but on this evidence, more should.

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PJ Harvey returns and 13 other songs you may have missed

A long-delayed return for a regular discopop feature, rounding up songs that have slipped under the radar in the last seven (or in this case 21) days.

Here we go, here we go, here we go now.

1) PJ Harvey - The Wheel
Four years after Let England Shake, PJ Harvey is still looking into the effects of war. This track was inspired by a visit to Kosovo, and references the thousands of children who disappeared during the conflict there. It opens with a squall of guitar and saxophone, but gives way to a lithe melody, underpinned by handclaps and a tribal drumbeat. Truly brilliant.




2) Grimes - Hate v Maim
Frankly, Grimes's squad looks a hell of a lot more intimidating than Taylor Swift's.




3) Spring King - Who Are You?
Manchester's Spring King were the first band to be played on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 show - and you can see why. This infectious, spritely indie-pop is the opening first track if you're making someone a mixtape this weekend.

Fun fact: The saxophone solo is played by the bassist's dad.




4) Laura Mvula - Overcome (ft Nile Rodgers)
Simply stunning. I can't recommend this highly enough.





5) Omarion - I Ain't Even Done (ft Ghostface Killah)
Silky rhymes and a laid-back flutestramental - this is a perfect throwback to the Wu Tang sound. Omarion calls it "high level vernacular" and "a generational victory". Well, quite.






6) Selena Gomez - Can't Keep My Hands To Myself
I mean I could but why would I want to?




7) Bryson Tiller - Don't
Kentucky-born Bryson Tiller recorded this bruising R&B jam in his living room, then watched it rack up 17 million Soundcloud plays in 10 months. Soon, Timbaland and Drake got on the phone and co-signed him to a record deal; and now the song is starting to get play on mainstream radio.

The lyrics see Bryson make an impassioned plea for a girl to leave an abusive relationship and settle down with him - but he rather undermines the gesture by singing about her "pussy" in the second verse.




8) Natalie Merchant - Tiny Desk Concert
A great big warm hug of a performance.





9) Låpsley - Love Is Blind
19-year-old Låpsley sounds older than her years on this mournful song "about someone being blind to the inevitability of a relationship ending". A gorgeous ballad, it showcases her husky contralto - and could easily be her breakout hit.




10) Rationale - Something For Nothing (Radio 1 Future Festival)
JUST LISTEN TO THAT VOICE.





11) Ekkah - Small Talk
I've been following Birmingham's Rebecca Wilson and Rebekah Pennington for a while now - and this vibrant synthpop banger is their first single after being signed to Sony / RCA. The video gives off a distinct Bananarama vibe - but the early, cool Bananarama, rather than the SAW-era cheese.





12) Ellie Goulding - Army
A touching ode to Ellie's best friend (and PA) Hannah. "The person who has seen me at my lowest and the first person I call in muffled sobs when something bad happens. We've been deliriously happy together, deliriously tired and deliriously sad together. I wanted to show our friendship for what it really is- honest, real, electric." Aw, bless.





13) The 1975 - The Sound
It's always a worry when a rock group "goes pop". Like dramatic actors trying their hand at comedy, they usually discover it's not as easy as it looks. (A case in point is Coldplay's new album - which is an excruciating exercise in forced jollity.) Luckily, The 1975 get it just right. The chunky 1990s piano sound and the ebullient arms-aloft chorus are designed to kick off at a hundred festivals this summer.




14) Adele - Carpool Karaoke
OK, you've probably seen this already - the YouTube count has reached 50 million in the space of a week - but it remains an absolute joy.

And that's your lot. Have a fantastic weekend!

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Twelve songs you may have missed

It's been a long time. I shouldn't have left you. Without a dope beat to step to.

So, yeah. With apologies (yet again) for an unplanned break in service, here are the songs I should have been writing about over the last seven days.

1) Robyn & La Bagatelle Magique - Love Is Free
Arriving a brisk five months after the single, the video for Love Is Free is actually worth the wait. It sees Robyn and Dominican rapper Maluca breaking the fourth wall in a video-about-a-video with some stunning, Technicolor set-ups. VG.



2) Fleur East - Sax
My eyes! My eyes!




3) Honne - Gone Are The Days
When the Sound of 2016 longlist came out on Monday, lots of people were surprised that London duo Honne hadn't made the cut. James Hatcher and Andy Clutterbuck (great name) met on the first day of university and have been making smooth, romantic electronic pop. Their new single comes from a 7-track EP that's due out in January.




4) Foxes - If You Leave Me Now
A bit of a tear-jerker this one - and undoubtedly the best vocal performance of Foxes' career so far.

She says: "This is a really personal song to me so I wanted the video to reflect that. I took a camera on the road with me for a couple of days, check it out."




5) Tinie Tempah - We Don't Play No Games
Interesting to hear Tinie going for a harder, bass-heavy track after the breezy summer anthem, Not Letting Go. This is the first track from his much-anticipated Uunk Food mixtape, which features cameos from Wretch 32, JME, J Hus and, essentially, everyone you've ever heard of in Grime.




6) A Tribe Called Quest - Can I Kick It (live on Fallon)
Back together to promote the newly-reissued People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm. This song never gets old.

7) The Staves - Make It Holy
Brrrrrrr....





8) The Palms - Push Off
Two of the members of Terraplane Sun are now performing as The Palms (I'm assuming this might mean something to somebody). Their debut single, Push Off, is a subtly groovy indie jangle that sounds like Jake Bugg and Foster The People slammed into each other.




9) Sofia de la Torres - Colorblind Cruisin'
Spanish songstress Sofia de la Torres has been on the verge of major success for a couple of years. Will this song be the one to push her over the top? Who knows - but it's a pop song so steamy it's de-crease your dungarees.





10) Selena Gomez - Hands To Myself
This is a weird video-advertorial, in which Selena and various Victoria's Secret models lip-sync to one of her songs. Everyone looks lovely, but the video is a bit of a dud. Still, nice song.




11) Dave Grohl vs Animal - Drum Battle
YES! YES! YES!



12) Jones - Hoops
Fans of Jessie Ware: Here is your new favourite artist.

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Five of the best performances from the American Music Awards

The American Music Awards took place last night, with lots of people winning trophies like "best country lady" and "most votes for One Direction". It was all very exciting, I'm sure, but the main draw was the spectacle of pop's toppermost stars playing their songs in a live environment.

There were a patience-testing 19 performances - including a weird a capella rendition of the Star Wars theme. But some of them were actually worth watching. These are they.

Ariana Grande - Focus
The best vocal performance of the night - on a cabaret version of Grande's hit single. Bonus points for her grandmother Marjorie, who can be seen dancing in the audience.




Coldplay - Adventure of a Lifetime
In which Chris Martin is surrounded by dancing gorillas.




Selena Gomez - Same Old Love
The dancers do all the heavy lifting here, but the song is still a corker.




Alanis Morissette and Demi Lovato - You Oughta Know
Giving the censors kittens, here are two of pop's fiercest ladysingers with a gutsier version of Adele's Someone Like You.



Justin Bieber - Justin Bieber Medley
Thankfully, it's only a medley of the recent, good stuff. The acoustic version of What Do You Mean is superb, and then you get the chance to see Bieber being waterboarded. Bonus!

PS: Sorry for the Coldplay video auto-playing. If anyone knows how to fix that, message me on twitter.

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Video: Selena Gomez - Same Old Love

As previously noted, the new Selena Gomez single sounds like Charli XCX covering Gotye's Somebody That I Used To Know - ie very good.

Now Same Old Love has a strangely uneventful video to go with it... It features Selena's journey to a gig (traditionally the least exciting part of any gig) before absconding for a bit of a walkabout, then playing the gig anyway.

The gig bit - which last approximately 32 seconds - is the only time it gets interesting. What a shame.


In case you were wondering, Same Old Love isn't a love song in the traditional sense. "The first people you love in your life are your parents," she told Radio Disney. "So for me, my dad is the first male figure I had in my life. And [the song is about] how much it means to respect your parents and have a healthy relationship with them because it trails on into your relationships when you’re older."

So now you know.

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Songs you may have missed: The Duffy comeback edition

Songs You May Have Missed is a semi-regular round-up of music that's slipped through my fingers over the last seven days. This week's candidates include Duffy (yes, that Duffy) and all these other goodies:

1) Selena Gomez - Same Old Love
This Charli XCX cast off riffs on Gotye's Somebody That I Used To Know, and was apparently intended for Rihanna before Selena nabbed it. It's Rihanna's loss. And Charli's. Gotye will be seeing the lot of them in court.





2) ZHU ft AlunaGeorge - Automatic
You might not recognise the name, but Zhu's Faded was one of the biggest club crossovers of last year (you'll probably recognise the hook - "baby, I'm wasted, all I wanna do is drive home to you...").

His new track enlists the Aluna half of AlunaGeorge for a similarly dark take on deep house. Stick around for the sax solo at the end. Very INXS.




3) Hailee Stanfield - Love Myself (acoustic)
A competently delivered performance of one of the year's toppermost pop songs.





4) Roman GianArthur - No Surprises (ft Janelle Monae)
Roman GianArthur is a member of Janelle Monee's Wondaland Arts Society, whatever that means. He's just released an EP of Radiohead covers (listen here) of which this is the absolute standout.

It takes the original's depiction of anaesthetised suburban life and turns it into an irresistible nu-soul duet. Radiohead fans may hate it but - judging by the time I saw Thom Yorke grooving away to Mary J Blige - he'd give it the seal of approval.





5) Aquilo - Good Girl
Aquilo are Ben Fletcher and Tom Higham, two neighbours from the Lake District who have previously specialised in tasetful, ambient electronica. But they seem to have found the emergency chorus button on their laptop, with this slinky little single, which is out on Island records imminently.





6) Rachel Platten - Stand By You
I was surprised to find out that Rachel Platten was 34. Not that there's anything wrong with that - it's just that I can't remember the last time a record label signed a pop artist who predated YouTube.

This song follows up to the UK number one Fight Song, and is a similarly percussion-driven arms-akimbo pop stomper. "It's a love song at its core," says Rachel "and it's about being the hands to catch someone if they need to fall. I'm honestly obsessed with this song. Is that okay to say?"





7) XY Constant - Do It Well ft Tom Aspaul
Falmouth-based producer XY Constant plays out the summer with this chiming and catchy - if somewhat undemanding - tropical dance track. As every blog under the sun has noted, it sounds exactly like Years & Years.






8) Duffy - Whole Lot of Love
Eagle-eyed cinemagoers may have spotted Duffy popping up in the new Tom Hardy movie, Legend, when it came out last weekend. The Welsh warbler cameos as US singer Timi Yuro in the Kray twins biopic - and this tambourine-tanged track is one of the soundtrack's standouts.

It'll be interesting to see if Duffy can orchestrate a proper comeback off the back of it... And if you're wondering where the Rockferry singer has been for the last six years, this article on Music Business Worldwide tells a cautionary tale for anyone entering the music business.





9) Halsey - Maida Vale session
Pop's shootingest star descended on the BBC's legendary Maida Vale studios last night to perform a couple of songs from her 4-star debut album, Badlands. You can hear Hurricane and New Americana at the start of this 28-minute segment - but stick around to the end for a rather astonishing mash-up of three songs: Her own Young God, The Weekend’s Often, and Justin Bieber's What Do You Mean?




10) Kendrick Lamar - Album medley (live on Stephen Colbert)
Kendrick Lamar was the final performer on Comedy Central's Colbert Report last December. On Wednesday night, he became the first musical guest on Stephen Colberts new show - The Late Show - on CBS.

It's a masterclass in how to perform rap live. Energetic but controlled, with a pin-sharp live band, Lamar runs through four tracks from his To Pimp A Butterfly album in just six minutes.

If you watch nothing else in this megapost, make it this.

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This Selena Gomez will make anyone over the age of 20 feel uncomfortable

Selena Gomez's epic pervo romp Good For You is one of the more questionable singles of 2015.

On the one hand it's intimate and alluring - I got a touch, so good, so good," Selena coaxes in a barely-there vocal. On the other hand, the song's hook - "I just wanna look good for you" - is creepily subservient.

On balance, it works. The track teases and seduces without ever giving the upper hand to Selena's suitor. The video, however, tips the scales the other way. There's something about seeing the singer (a human incarnation of a Bratz doll) writhing around in her underpants that makes me feel grubby.

It's probably my problem - at almost twice her age, I'm hardly the target market - but there's something about the clip that screams exploitation rather than empowerment.

What do you think?

Selena Gomez - Good For You

PS: What on earth does it mean to "syncopate my skin to how you're breathing"?

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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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Songs you may have missed: Haiku edition

A round-up of songs that escaped the full glare of the Discopop Directory spotlight - but are still worthy of note.

For some reason, I decided to write Haikus about each of this week's entries. The results are poor, to say the least.

1) Royal Blood - Happy
When Pharrell hears this
He might well reconsider
His entire career




2) Selena Gomez - The Heart Wants What It Wants
The spoken intro's
Excruciating candour
Will make your skin crawl





3) Take That - These Days
Truncated trio
Should have called up Nile Rodgers
For this turgid song





4) LoneLady - Groove It Out
The next six minutes
Should be irresistible
In toe-tapping terms





5) Lorde - Yellow Flicker Beat (from The Hunger Games)
Armageddon still
Has the best theme song, but this
Is acceptable





6) Ekkah - Last Chance To Dance
Strap on your hotpants
And sashay to the dancefloor
Before it's too late




7) The Pierces - Devil Is A Lonely Night
Belinda Carlisle
It's almost like you never
Went away at all





8) Kendrick Lamar - I
Kendrick did a great
Freestyle over Shake It Off
But this isn't it




9) Ella Henderson - Yours
Ella, oh Ella
Wrote an ode to her fella
The song is stella(r)




10) McBusted - Air Guitar
Danny, Dougie, Tom
Harry, James and Matt. Looking
Quite old now, frankly





11) Jose Gonzalez - Every Age
Existential angst
Is one way to describe this
Although hard to spell




12) Ludacris - Good Lovin' (ft Miguel)
Butter smooth slow jam
Too good to spoil with bad jokes
Like all the above

Well, that was unedifying. At least the songs were good, eh?

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Revealed: Selena Gomez video treatment

SCENE ONE:
FADE FROM BLACK
A low, sustained cello note.

We are in the wilderness. A lone eagle surveys the land.

His head turns, startled by a noise off camera.

Lightning strikes. The sky darkens.

A human form is seen from a distance.
It lies twisted and abandoned on the ground.

CUT TO: A tribal ritual.
Faces, obscured by flames flicker in and out of frame.

What dark magic is being practiced here?

FADE TO BLACK

----

SCENE TWO:
A single by pop singer Selena Gomez plays.

Selena Gomez writhes around in her pants for three minutes.

Selena Gomez smudges a perfectly good mirror.

As the song draws to a close, a fierce wind blows across the landscape.
CUT TO: An aerial shot of the prairie.

The corpse was was Selena all along, and it's ok because she can stand up now.

Fade out to record label copyright notice.

THE END.


Selena Gomez - Come And Get It

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New Selena Gomez: Come And Get It

The cover for Selena Gomez's new single is really quite something, isn't it? It's just a shame the song isn't quite as charismatic (ie 100% cuckoo bananas).

Come And Get It was hastily posted on YouTube over the weekend, after it leaked on SoundCloud. Certain types of website are frothing at the lyrics, which can be interpreted as an offer to reconcile with her ex-boyfriend Justin "absolutely not a twat" Bieber. Other websites have called it "world music with a twist of Selena" – by which they mean the producer has discovered the Tabla loop in Garage Band.

Is it worth the hype? I don’t know... Come And Get It is written by Stargate, so you're guaranteed a certain level of quality. But Selena sounds kind of bored by the whole thing. It's less "Come and get it" than "Oh God, not tonight. Do we have to?"

Audio ahoy.

Selena Gomez - Come And Get It

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