Tears For Fears cover Arcade Fire and seven other songs you may have missed

A semi-regular round-up of songs on the internet, of which there are many. These are a mere few that caught my eye (ear?) this week.

1) Tears For Fears - And I Was A Boy From School
1980s sweater enthusiasts Tears For Fears were best known for big pop moments like Shout and The Seeds Of Love, but their music was generally more experimental (and pompous) than those stadium-sized choruses would suggest. After an acrimonious break-up in the 1990s, the band reformed in 2005, and are currently back in the studio.

They're limbering up with a few covers, and their taste is impeccable. Here's Hot Chip's ...Boy From School, and Arcade Fire's Ready To Start, like you've never heard them before.







2) Lorde - Everybody Wants To Rule The World
And, in an act of synchronistic reciprocity, Lorde has covered Tears For Fears' Everybody Wants To Rule The World for the Hunger Games soundtrack. Bombastic doesn't begin to describe it. Volcanoes have erupted with less fuss.




3) Sia - Elastic Heart
Pop's most in-demand songwriter is clearly keeping all the best material back for herself. This song, a duet with The Weeknd, is punch-the-air fantastic. Shame the video's so pointlessly lacklustre.




4) The Killers - When You Were Young (live on Later)
The Killers' Direct Hits is a perfect Christmas present for your mum. To persuade you to part with that tenner, the band played their second-best song on Later... With Jools this week. 

After all these years, the minor shift into the last chorus still gives me shivers.




5) Madonna - Ray Of Light (LEAF remix)
Forget Britney's new album, William Orbit's finest moment will always be his work on Madonna's Ray Of Light album. The man formerly (and ill-advisedly) known as "Willy-O" made a new mix of the title track for last weekend's London Electronic Arts Festival, and he has generously put it on Soundcloud for everyone to enjoy.

Less generously, he's disabled embedding - so you'll need to click on the above link to hear it. In the meantime, here's an outtake from Mario Testino's cover shoot for the album. Sadly, they've photoshopped out the burger Madonna was enjoying at the time. 

6) Charlotte OC - Hangover
Manchester's Charlotte "OC" O'Connor describes her music as "spooky gospel". The 22-year-old was discovered by the team who snapped up Lana Del Rey (Stranger Records), and she's equally intriguing. 

Hangover is my favourite track from her forthcoming Colour My Heart EP, although you should check out the title track, too.




7) Little Mix - Move (dance version)
This "dance edit" of Little Mix's video is a curate's egg. The choreography is great - but the editing is all over the place. They're singing! Now they're not singing! Now they're singing the wrong bit! And now they're in the dark for no good reason! Weird. 

Oh, and if you haven't read it, here's my interview with the band, which went up on the BBC earlier this week. 




8) Metronomy - I'm Aquarius
I'm Aquarius is a low-key launch for Metronomy's fourth album, Love Letters, which is due next March. 

Available through a star-gazing iOS app, you have to scan the night sky for the constellation of Aquarius to make the song magically appear on your phone. Or you could just, er, stream it below.

Right, that's quite enough for one week - and I didn't even have time to mention Rebecca Ferguson's ferocious cover of Roar, or Haim teaming up with Lorde to do Sheryl Crow's Strong Enough. There literally aren't enough hours in the day.

Have a great weekend.
mrdiscopop

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Take a good look at this man

That, ladies and gentlemen, is William Orbit, the famed producer behind Nadine Coyle's Unbroken and Ricky Martin's Cuidado Con Mi Corazón.

He may not be instantly recognisable from a photo, but you'd know his music if you stumbled across it: There will be beeps and bloops, there will be synth washes, there will be a tremulous guitar tremulating tremulously.

Perhaps you know this song, or this one, or (best of all) this one. They have been on the radio.

This week, a couple of Orbit's unfinished and unreleased tracks surfaced online. They're rather good, so I thought I'd flag them up for you.

First up we have three (three!) versions of a song called Liquid Love, originally recorded for Madonna's Music album in 2000. It contains a lot of the same psychedelic sonic signatures as the previous year's Beautiful Stranger, which maybe explains why it was dropped.

Bootlegs have been circling the internet for years - but these new versions got Orbit's seal of approval on his Facebook page the other day. My favourite take is the second one...



The second leaked track was also intended for Madonna but it has a much more interesting provenance. Baby was written and demoed by MIA for this year's MDNA album. It's slower and more melodic than the rapper's usual abrasive polemics - partly thanks to Orbit's sticky fingered remix.

MIA is predictably unhappy about her demo being tampered with. "Who ever LEAKED THAT BABY song should know that ive never heard this version B4 it sounds crazy different 2 wht i worte for madonna." she said, semi-illegibly.

Whatever she thinks, I reckon it turned out rather well.

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Shockingly good Katie Melua thing

Seriously, this William Orbit-produced single is a triumph from beginning to end.

Katie Melua - The Flood


That rather came out of the blue, didn't it?

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