Muse briefly stop being rubbish, and three other songs you may havemissed

... And you'd better enjoy them because I'm off on holiday for an ENTIRE WEEK.

Due to time constraints, the summaries of the following songs have been provided by the internet, in its infinite, illiterate wisdom.

1) Muse - Madness
"Devastatingly, arrestingly beautiful." (Music City Post)

"More hints of Queen." (Shaved Tuna)

"Excuse me for sounding a little behind the times, but what the fuck is Dubstep anyway?" (Kingoftheorient - YouTube)




2) Leona Lewis ft Childish Gambino - Trouble
"Trouble was co-written with Emeli Sandé and bears a slight resemblance to her debut hit, Heaven." (Michael Cragg - The Guardian)

"OMG LEONA AND CHILDISH GAMBINO. OMG OMG OMG I CANT." (Lx3 - Twitter)

"Her hair is a mess." (DiEEnE - Popjustice forum)




3) Little Mix - We Are Young
"I couldn't believe what I was watching." (BodyElectric - Digital Spy)

"The first girl the camera focuses on looks like she does not have a single thought in her head." (wotyougot)

"I've eaten one dog biscuit in my life, but who hasn't eaten a dog biscuit?" (Perrie from Little Mix)




4) Grimes - Genesis
"A bit weird" (Addict Music)
"Balls-out crazy." (Idolator)
"Fucking nuts." (Stereogum)

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"Got my headphones on, my hand in my pocket"

She describes herself as "Eminem meets Sade" and declares "I'd love to work with Madonna. That would be like having sex with chocolate." Her name is Anjulie, and she's an aspiring pop star with a brand new record deal from Universal Music.

Raised in Canada by Guyanese parents, Anjulie went to a performing arts school as a child, but quit "because it was too cheesy". She spent the next couple of years watching Janet Jackson's Velvet Rope Tour DVD in slow-motion so she could learn the dance moves, an endeavour of which I heartily approve.

Although the ink is barely dry on her major label contract, she's been knocking around on smaller imprints for a few years. In fact, her seductive, jazzy single Boom got a nomination for an MTV breakthrough award in 2009.

Anjulie - Boom

I don't know what's happened in the intervening three years, but Anjulie seems to have suddenly become (a) Rihanna and (b) utterly filthy. [surely these are the same thing? Ed]

Last year's taster single Brand New Bitch was a pre-watershed Nicki Minaj dance track, co-written with Michael Zitron (Avicii, Swedish House Mafia).

But her new single Headphones is the one that promises to turn her into an international star. Fusing Alanis Morisette's Hand In My Pocket to a lurid club beat, it's a censor-baiting anthem to hedonism. Check out the video below.

Anjulie - Headphones

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A belated sound of the summer

The last person I expected to jump on the europop bandwagon was cybertronic r&b sexbot Ciara. But here she is with Livin' It Up a super-catchy summer jam, written by Wynter Gordon. If we're having an Indian Summer this year, then I demand this be the soundtrack.

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Beyonce makes a low-key appearance at the United Nations

Beyoncé is standing in the iconic, wood-lined hall of the United Nations General Assembly. Isn't she beautiful? Such poise. And what an amazing fig... OH MY GOD THE WALLS HAVE COLLAPSED. Seriously, this is like the good bits of Inception. AND NOW BEYONCÉ LITERALLY IS HURTLING THROUGH SPACE and here are a million Beyoncés in an exploding supernova kaleidoscope of Beyoncés.

Why is this happening to me?

Ah... well, it turns out that Beyoncé is raising the profile of the UN's World Humanitarian Day. The global campaign aims to "recognize those who face danger and adversity in order to help others". Accordingly, as Beyoncé's performs at the organisation's New York HQ, a stunning, panoramic video projection shows a few of those people working in war zones and disaster areas to help their fellow man.

The soundtrack is Beyoncé's Diane Warren-penned ballad I Was Here (which was literally rushed onto her album at the very last minute). On its own, the torch song risks sounding vain – "I want to leave my footprints on the sands of time" - but coupled with those images, it becomes a message of sincerity, hope and humanity.

After her performance, Beyoncé put out the following statement: "We all see the headlines and we think, 'What can I really do to help?' World Humanitarian Day is an opportunity for all of us to work together to make a difference. This is our time to leave our mark on the world and show that we were here and we care."

This could easily have been syrupy nonsense but something about the performance and the visuals just clicks. You would be forgiven if you had a tiny tear in your eye by the end...

Beyoncé - I Was Here (at the UN)

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AlunaGeorge continue along the path of utter brilliance

According to this Newsbeat article, Aluna Francis from AlunaGeorge used to be a reflexologist - so it's no wonder their songs sound so supple.

Their latest offering, Your Drums, Your Love has similar ingredients to You Know You Like It and Just A Touch - brooding vocals, creepy slow-attack synths and beats that bounce and scatter like thumb tacks pins dropped on the floor.

Lyrically, it's a tale of unrequited love - with Aluna singing: "I've been treading water for your love / Whether I sink or swim, it's you I'm thinking of".

More importantly, it's the shimmering, sparkling sound of the future. Can't wait for their debut album next year.


Your Drums, Your Love is due out in October. Until then, you can bide your time with this luscious acoustic version of You Know You Like It on the Guardian website.

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Beck's video game soundtrack and five other songs you may have missed

A semi-regular round-up of the songs and videos I haven't had the chance to blog during the week... Some excellent tracks this time round, starting with:

1) Beck - Cities
This is one of three tracks Beck has written for a Playstation game called Sound Shapes. Less linear than Guitar Hero or Rock Band, the song takes shape according to your skill at the game - a relatively simple 2D platformer. Cities (below) is probably the best of the bunch but the game also comes packaged with songs from Deadmau5, Jim Guthrie and I Am Robot and Proud.



2) A thousand million people singing Somebody That I Used To Know
Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but there are literally hundreds of cover versions of Gotye's megahit on YouTube. And, as a thank you to fans, he's taken all of those covers and stitched them together into a Somebody That I Used To Know megajam. It's much more enticing than it sounds - rather than a note-by-note recreation of the original, the Aussie singer has re-sampled all of the covers to create a trippy, Avalanches-esque sound montage. Just a shame you can't download it!



3) Jade Alston - Sober
Indie and R&B aren't two words that normally go together, but Philly girl Jade Alston is an soul diva who's independently releasing her own material. Funky and fresh, she's been working with Claude Kelly (Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson, Jessie J) and Chuck Harmony (Mary J Blige, Rihanna). Her mixtape, Single On A Saturday Night, was released for free last December - but she's just got round to making a video to the cheeky, body-popping single Sober. Definitely worth a look.



4) Regina Spektor - How
One of the most sincere, straightforward songs on Regina's latest LP, How is a heart-rending break-up ballad. "How can I begin again? How can I try to love someone new? Someone who isn’t you..." pleads the New Yorker, dispensing with her usual "hic dong Wallop plop!" vocal tics. This performance, from Jay Leno's show last night, will bring a lump to your throat.


5) Alison Valentine - Peanut Butter
Florist by day, singer by night, Alison Valentine once spent an entire summer following Prince around Europe. There's basically no higher recommendation in my book - and she delivers on that promise with Peanut Butter, a crunchy summer jam with more hooks than a meat locker. It is also - TA-DA - free to download.




6) The Darkness - Street Spirit (Fade Out)
The Darkness have been covering this as their encore for years. But that doesn't make this awful, karaoke-bar cover version any more acceptable. If Ben Elton ever writes a Radiohead musical, it will sound like this.



And that's all... Hope you have a great weekend!

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