Covered up: Billie Jean & Coldplay

Just a quick post today with a couple of superlative cover versions I've stumbled across this this week.

First up, Aloe Blacc, who might not be the one-hit wonder I'd assumed. His string quartet rendition of Billie Jean is oh so classy, if a little down in the dumps.

Aloe Blacc - Billie Jean


Next, we have pop newcomer Neon Hitch. She's a British singer/rapper, formerly signed to Mike Skinner's label and, unvbelievably, Neon Hitch is her actual name. She's been popping up as a background vocalist on songs by Ke$ha and 3OH!3, and this cover of Wiz Khalifa's On My Level is an attention-grabbing calling card for her forthcoming solo material.

Neon Hitch - On My Level


Finally, and on the most shaky ground, is Robyn - who has unforgiveably chosen to cover Coldplay's Every Teradrop Is A Precious Resource So Please Save Them In A Jar And End The Minor Drought In East Anglia.

The Swedish starlet improves on the original, by virtue of a trickling synth line that builds to an arms aloft robo-tronic climax. Robyn also has the decency to mumble the year's most awful lyric: "I'd rather be a comma than a full stop" (if we're expressing punctuation preferences, I'd rather have a colon than a semi-colon).

Here it is, in all its Live Lounge glory.

Robyn - Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall (Live Lounge)

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Jessie J version 2.0

When I first came across Jessie J - or Jessica Cornish, as she was then known, she seemed raw and exciting. A diamond in the rough. Her early YouTube efforts, filmed candidly in her bedroom revealed a humungous voice and, on occasion, a hoover. Here's Big White Room.

Jessie J - Big White Room


When Do It Like A Dude came out it was, quite rightly, given a huge amount of coverage. The Labrinth remix was spectacular, and Jessie rode the wave of hype right to the top of the Sound Of 2011 poll.

Then, well... I don't know. Her album, and the subsequent singles were all a little bland. The Essex girl with the detachable jaw was overwhelmed by her super-slick producers and their production line material. In March, her third single Nobody's Perfect limped to number 9 in the charts. About 21 places higher than it deserved.

Jessie J - Nobody's Pefect


You can't argue that Jessie's career is floundering, though. If thousands people gather to see a pop artist perform, immobile with a broken foot, at Glastonbury, they've got to be connecting on some level. The album, Who You Are, has hardly disgraced itself by dipping in and out of the Top 10 for the last couple of months, either.

Yet I'm not surprised to find out that Island is already lining up new material for Jessie. Dr Luke - who previously co-wrote and produced Price Tag - posted a new snippet, called Domino, on Soundcloud yesterday.



So, if this is the launch of the second stage of project J, what do you reckon? Admittedly, the track sounds great - but can you distinguish it from Katy Perry, or Ke$ha, or any one of Dr Luke's other protegés? Will Domino give Jessie's career a well-deserved fillip? Or does it steer her further away from megastar motorway and straight into also-ran alley?

These questions are of almost no importance or consequence.

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Laura Marling beckons in the autumn

There is no point in watching Laura Marling at a festival. Her music is not made for huge audiences on sunny days or muddy fields. It is precision-targetted at headphone listeners on autumnal evenings, as the browning leaves congregate on the windowsill and the dust of the summer is scorched by the central heating.

Her new single Sophia premiered online today. It's pretty good. But when it's released in September, it will sound 100 times better.

Laura Marling - Sophia

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Yacht to like this*

I have a sneaking suspicion that Yacht, an electropunk duo from New York, might be insufferable idiotbags.

Their name stands for “Young Americans Challenging High Technology". Their official biography contains such passages as:

"Strictly speaking, YACHT does not 'perform music'. YACHT provides inspiring Teachings of constantly changing elements: PowerPoint presentations, immersive audio, live audience audits, and shamanistic video environments"

They have press photos that look like this.

So, hands up. Who wants to punch the teeth out of Yacht's stupid art student faces?

Well, hold on a moment... because hidden amidst the Niagra Falls of bullshit is a tiny nugget of golden electropop. Dystopia is its name, and it is catchier than the measles.

Typically, Yacht have hidden this gem at the end of another track. That one's called Utopia, and it's the sort of thing Hot Chip would make if Hot Chip were (a) flamboyantly homosexual, like Chris Tucker in Fifth Element and (b) really, really bad. Someone described it to me earlier as "the wrong end of La Roux" which is an image I will never be able to shake.

I think I've managed to gerrymander the YouTube code so you can jump straight to the good part. If not, fast forward to 3'04". You'll regret it if you don't.



Yacht - Dystopia


* You ought to like this. "You ought" to like this. YOU OUGHT. YACHT. YOU OUGHT. 
Oh, never mind.

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Michael Kiwanuka - simply lovely

Adele's support act Michael Kiwanuka had me drawing wild comparisons to Marvin Gaye and Al Green with his last single Tell Me A Tale. For once, the hyperbole was justified - the song has been on permanent rotation in Discopop Towers for three months. Better still, Michael's next single is equally sublime.

Here's I'm Getting Ready, out in September on Communion Records. Its finger-plucked beauty will ease any pain you feel with no harmful side effects.

Michael Kiwanuka - I'm Getting Ready

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Love Is A Losing Game

It's been a long, shocking, emotionally draining weekend. I've already said everything I wanted (and could bring myself) to say about Amy Winehouse's untimely death on the BBC both on air and online.

Now, as Popjustice commented, I just want to hear the music. I certainly don't want to redefine her work as a shallow eulogy to drugs, which is what some of my newsgathering colleagues seem to be determined to do. Amy's lyrics were informed by romance and heartbreak above anything else. As her father appositely commented this morning: "Amy was about one thing and that was love."

So here's a song that I love, from a time when Amy's live vocals could still make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. Just listen to her range and phrasing. Unforgettable.


Amy Winehouse - Tears Dry On Their Own (live)


Out of all the articles I've read this weekend, the following ones stand out as being the least sensational and most insightful pieces of writing:

:: Alexis Petridis' superlative tribute in The Guardian [link]
:: Russell Brand reminiscing about "that twerp dithering up Chalk Farm Road" [link]
:: Guy Interrupted on the nature of addiction [link]
:: And it's worth re-reading Claire Hoffman's article from Rolling Stone three years ago, which exposed the fragile humanity behind Amy's tabloid notoriety [link]

Finally, here's Prince's tribute - a scratchy, acoustic cover version of Love Is A Losing Game, sung beautifully with NPG band member Andy Allo. It sounds like it was recorded on the fly - but just the change in tense ("love was a losing game") is enough to bring a lump to your throat.



The track was posted on Andy Allo's Facebook page, as was thisdownload link.

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