New musical obsession: Brooke Fraser

Taylor Swift isn't the only multi-platinum artist who's ditching her old musical overcoat and pulling on a spandex bodysuit.

Brooke Fraser, one New Zealand's best-selling singer-songwriters, has abandoned the gentle indie folk of her first three albums and "gone electric" on her new record, Brutal Romantic.

Released in her home country last November, it's produced by David Kosten (Bat For Lashes, Everything Everything, Marina and the Diamonds) and presents a thrillingly dark take on modern pop. The moody single Kings and Queens is worth a spin for its arms-akimbo chorus, while teaser track Psychosocial is just... well, odd.

But it's her next release that's got me excited. In Magical Machine, Fraser presents herself as a parade of technological innovations - "I'm your telescope", "I'm your ATM" - all building to the euphoric chorus: "Power me on, control and command / I'm your magical machine / We can dream digital dreams".

Reflecting the subject matter, the music flirts and flutters with bleeping synths until the final, humanising chorus where a spiralling string section lifts you above the electronic thrum.

Given all of that, I'd assumed the song was about people's increasingly intimate relationships with their phone, but Brooke explains otherwise:

"Magical Machine is about how there is usually more to us than meets the eye and how sometimes people see us as the roles we represent in our lives; parent, child, boss, teacher before they see us as people."

So there you go. I've listened to Magical Machine about 12 times while writing this post and, honestly, it just keeps getting better. Have a listen below.

Brooke Fraser - Magical Machine

You'll be pleased to hear that Brooke can also "cut it" live, as this acoustic(ish) performance of the Magical Machine on Radio New Zealand proves.

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Marina and the Diamonds - I'm A Ruin

'Shampain' hitmaker Marina and the Diamonds had a minor catastrophe last week when her new single, I'm A Ruin, popped up online two weeks ahead of schedule.

Ever the trooper, though, Ms Diamandis shrugged it all off in an admirably balanced series of tweets.

So… Some of you may have heard snippets of 'I'm A Ruin' floating round the web. It leaked because my 7" vinyl shipped this week

— Marina Diamandis (@MarinasDiamonds) January 23, 2015

If you can’t wait, that’s ok.

— Marina Diamandis (@MarinasDiamonds) January 23, 2015

If you CAN wait, my friend @HuwStephens will be premiering the real version next Tuesday on his show on Radio 1...

— Marina Diamandis (@MarinasDiamonds) January 23, 2015

How pragmatic. How empathetic. How unlike Madonna and her toys-out-of-the-pram comments about "artistic rape".

Anyway, Tuesday has rolled around and, as promised. Huw "Heugh" Stephens has played I'm A Ruin on his radio show and it is exceptionally good - in the subtle, emotional way that most of the pre-release tracks from Marina's new album have already proved to be.

This one sees our heroine admit she's a nightmare in relationships, but she just can't help herself. "I know I'm playing with your heart," she sings, "And I could treat you better but I'm not that smart".

As in all her best work, Marina balances the psychobabble with a catchy hook. Here, it's in a post-chorus "yeah-yeah, uh-huh" bit that's 24-carat pop gold.


Marina and the Diamonds - I'm A Ruin

I'm A Ruin is the first official single from Marina's third album Froot, which is out on 22 March. The singer helpfully posted the lyrics and the artwork for the song online after the Radio 1 premiere. There's a video coming soon, too...

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Eleven songs you may have missed (and one you definitely haven't)

This is the first "songs you may have missed" post since Christmas so in all likelihood these are songs you may not have missed. But there's always time for a good music megapost so let's begin, with...

1) Rihanna - FourFiveSeconds
About bloody time, pop's most elusive pop star is back, collaborating with Kanye West and Sir Fab Macca Wacky Thumbs Aloft on a surprisingly attitude-free, stripped back acoustic pop "number".

It's good. So good, in fact, that it's going to appear on both Kanye and Rihanna's new album. Which is going to cause havoc with my iTunes library. HAVOC.




2) Sia - Salted Wound
The 50 Shades of Grey soundtrack is shaping up to be superb, even if the film looks like a turkey. We've already heard Ellie Goulding's saucy Love Me Like You Do and The Weeknd's even saucier Earned It, now it's the turn of Sia - who takes a different tack altogether.

Her harp-assisted ballad Salted Wound is full of remorse and doubt. "Give your heart, and say come take it," sings Sia, "and she will see you're a good man." It should be a fitting accompaniment to Christian Grey's more introspective scenes.






3) Kelly Clarkson - Heartbeat Song
Is it me, or does this sound like Shania Twain?





4) Shura - Indecision
Feather-light synth pop from London's hotly tipped Aleksandra Denton. This would make a perfect Track 7, Side B on an "I like you" mixtape.






5) Prince & 3rdEyeGirl - Marz
Prince apparently thinks this throwaway rock track is dynamite. He's following up an SNL performance of the song with this YouTube video - which appeared days after he deleted his YouTube account. Strange chap.





6) Alex Winston - We Got Nothing
Alex Winston's wonky pop curio Sister Wife is one of my all-time favourite under-rated tracks. Catchy as all heck, with a killer lyric about polygamy and jealousy, I have played it to death over the last four years.

She's been in limbo for a while, but this sumptuous new single - on the influential Neon Gold label - hints at a slightly more mainstream, but no less hook-laden direction.







7) Jessie Ware - Jealous (Labrinth cover)
Stick around for the bit where she chucks in the chorus to Chaka Khan's Through The Fire. Beautiful.





8) Bearson - Pink Medicine
Bearson is a Norwegian producer who works in the "tropical house" genre (no, me neither). This hypnotic little song is a little too glitchy to be chill-out and a little too chilled out to be danceable. But I like it, for some reason. There's a free download available here if you like it, too.







9) Lana Del Rey - Brooklyn Baby (Yuksek remix)
WARNING: If you or your family are sensitive to the effects of synthesized saxophones, please seek advice before streaming this song.





10) U2 - Every Breaking Wave (single remix)
I wonder if anyone actually listened to Songs of Innocence when it gatecrashed our phones last year? I certainly couldn't be bothered... but it turns out that at least one of the songs is worth four minutes of your time.

Ranking it as the third best song of 2014 (!!) Rolling Stone called Every Breaking Wave the "emotional centrepiece" of U2's 13th album, saying it's "stark, shimmering" melody recalled With Or Without You.

To be honest, Joey Tribiani's not going to be staring out a fake window to this one any time soon... But this stripped-back radio remix of the song is surprisingly affecting.






11) Tobias Jesso Jr - How Could You Babe?
Officially endorsed by Adele, this is about as old-school as pop gets in 2015. Tailor made for Radio 2 and fans of sweaters, it recalls Elton John back in the Yellow Brick Road days.





12) Rae Morris - Love Again
As previously noted on these pages, Rae Morris is rather brilliant - with a husky voice like Ellie Goulding and a percussive thump worthy of Florence and the Machine. I interviewed her last week and, pleasingly, she let slip that her first ever gig was S Club 7.

If that's not enough to recommend her, try out this song: Love Again, one of the standout tracks from her debut album, Unguarded, which came out on Monday.

And that's a wrap. What an oddly diverse bunch of songs, eh?

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Jess Glynne's good single is good

Poor old Jess Glynne, My Love has just become the first video eliminated from the Brits "best video" category, after receiving the fewest shout-outs on Twitter (yes, you read that right - the Brits are now awarded to people with the most vocal Twitter fanbase, rather than for any artistic merit).

Still, Jess can console herself with the fact that (a) the best video prize is utterly pointless; and (b) her new single is utterly brilliant.

Hold My Hand is a rollicking dancefloor smash, with a ridiculously sunny chorus. The chances of anyone holding hands while listening to it are perilously slim, as they'll be too busy being enthusiastically thrust in the air.

A solid 8/10.

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Stryke alight

Tove Styrke has been building up her pop profile with the unusual tactic of releasing a string of bloody great singles. Even If I'm Loud It Doesn't Mean I'm Talking To You was a bracing culture-clash between acid house and swing jazz. Borderline was a lilting Swedish reggae ballad. Neither of them was as bad as my descriptions make them sound.

Her new single, Ego, is another change of direction, albeit a more mainstream one. Powered by chugging marimba line, it has a delicately sugarspun chorus, that belies the furious lyric: "I want to hold you but you're untouchable... You're too tied up in your ego."

It goes a little something like this.



Ego is from Kiddo, Tove's first album since signing to RCA. According to the singer, the title is inspired by her favorite movie character, Kill Bill’s Beatrix Kiddo.

"I like the word 'kiddo.' It's playful, it's the name of my favorite movie character and I've been called it for ever and ever for better and for worse.

"If I were to describe the album in one sentence I'd say that it’s playful, inspired by movies (especially Kill Bill) and that the songs are very personal to me."

If you're a regular listener to Heat Radio (and who isn't?) you might be hearing this single more often than you'd expect. Their programme manager explains why in this blog...

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Great debut single alert: SNBRN

Here's a great new song from LA-based dance producer SNBRN and his musical BFF Kerli.

SNBRN (I'm assuming it's pronounced Sunburn, rather than Sinbarn) been bumping around for a while, turning out shiny house mixes Ace Of Base's All That She Wants and Mark Morrison's Return Of The Mack, amongst others, but this is his first solo effort.

Called Raindrops, it's an irresistible, piano-driven house track with seductive vocal lines that cascade over each other like... well, Raindrops.

Imagine Disclosure were raised on Venice Beach instead of Reigate and you'll get the idea.

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