I don't know about you, but my most eagerly-anticipated albums of 2013 are the debuts by Disclosure and AlunaGeorge. Both bands are tugging furiously at the fraying seams of UK dance and soul, and the material they're unraveling is a whip-smart weave of chart-bound melodies and throbbing sonic experimentation.
The wait isn't quite over yet - Disclosure's album, Settle, is out in June and AlunaGeorge release Body Music a month later. Until then, we're left scrabbling for the tasty little morsels they've been scattering around the internet.
So here's hotpant enthusiast Eliza Doolittle duetting with Disclosure on the brand new track You & Me, followed by AlunaGeorge's first big TV appearance, performing their current single Attracting Flies on Jools Holland last night. Good work, everyone.
It's turning into a week of classic soul. Off the back of Janelle Monae's stunning comeback yesterday, here's New Orleans native Jackson Breit with a gorgeous, brassy R&B jam called It's On Tonight. Yes, he's pulling a "hilarious" goofy face in the photo, but this seductive groove is exactly what Justin Timberlake was aiming for with Suit And Tie, before he made it really boring.
As John Legend said last week, "the overwhelming majority of soul music is about the pursuit of intercourse," and this is no exception. "We could take it anywhere - there's an alley at the back if you want to take it there," Jackson purrs in the chorus.
Mmmm... sex against the dustbins. That's romance right there, folks.
Oh, this is fantastic. Janelle Monae is back with the first single from her new album, The Electric Lady. Called Q.U.E.E.N. it features vocals from Erykah Badu, cheddar-splendent Paisley Park synths, and an extended string-laden coda that's like a Frank Ocean track without the po-faced "I've got, like, really deep emotions" attitude.
In fact, Janelle is so far removed from introspective navel-gazing, she's having an out-of-body experience. "Will you be electric sheep? Electric ladies will you sleep Or will you preach?" she asks, convinced (correctly) that being batshit crazy is the best way to approach a pop song. It's likely that the song is part of the continuing story of Cindi Mayweather, the fictional time-travelling fembot Monae played on her last album. But honestly, who cares about thematically confused dystopian sci-fi when the music is this good?
As Janelle tweeted last night: "Q.U.E.E.N. was inspired by private discussions between Erykah and me. It is meant to make you JAM. DANCE. FUNK OUT. and dialogue later..."
Here we go, folks: Daft Punk have finally unleashed the full version of their new single Get Lucky. After the 5-second tease, the 15-second preview, the 90-second Coachella video, a couple of fan-made remixes, several dozen fakes and a ridiculous hour-long loop, this is the big reveal. The moment of majesty. The day music changed forever. The second coming of Christ. The best thing since sliced bread. The second best thing since Krispy Kremes. Or, rather, the unveiling of the Wizard behind the curtain.
Because, after two months of breathless hype, Get Lucky is only ok.
It starts so well. The legendary guitar chops of Chic's Nile Rodgers promise four minutes of undiluted disco hedonism. But a loop is a loop is a loop - and Get Lucky never builds or deviates from those supple opening bars. And the less said about Pharrell's lifeless vocals the better. Did someone forget to inflate him?
Admittedly, if Thomas and Guy turned up at Glastonbury with Nile Rodgers and their cyborg helmets and played this song, the Pyramid Stage would probably blast off. But on record, sterile and dated, it sounds like a belated and unnecessary tribute to Modjo's Lady (Hear Me Tonight).
Tellingly, the best bit of Get Lucky is the moment the vocoder kicks in and Daft Punk reconnect with their cold, dead, robot souls. And they must have known it all along - because that was the same section they snipped out for the song's very first TV teaser eight weeks ago. If only they'd listened to their instincts.
Ronika, who we love, has made a video for her new single Rough And Sooth, which we also love.
It's all a bit murky - like our hero is trying to escape, Poltergeist-style, from inside a TV set. Only it's a dayglo 1980s TV set, not the creepy possessed-by-Satan kind.
Stop it with your filthy mind. This is as pure and innocent as the driven snow.
When high-school comedy Pitch Perfect came out last year, no-one expected it to spawn a major US chart hit. But one song, performed by Anna Kendrick's character while auditioning for a college choir, spent 11 weeks in the Billboard hot 100, shifting half a million downloads. Pretty impressive for a modest, minute-long melody accompanied by a paper cup.
Interestingly, When I'm Gone (aka The Cups Song) wasn't originally in the script for the cult smash.
"I saw this video on Reddit," Kendrick told David Letterman. "And because I'm a huge loser, I thought the best way to spend an entire afternoon would be watching the video, like, 50 times, and teaching myself how to do it. So when they found out I could do it, they wanted me to do it in the movie."
I don't know exactly which clip inspired the actress, who you may recognise from Up In The Air, but as far as I can work out, the original was by English duo Lulu And The Lampshades, who uploaded their version in June 2009.
The song itself dates back to 1937, when it was performed by the fiddle-tastic JE Mainer's Mountaineers. Now, 76 years later, Kendrick has recorded a full studio version to accompany Pitch Perfect's DVD release. To be honest, the radio-friendly mix dilutes the charm of the a capella version somewhat, but the video is a whole ton of cute.
GUYS! GUYS! This is a music video we made for "Cups!" (I know! It's weird! But it happened! You should watch it!!!) vevo.ly/123c5Wp
