Yoga, the new track by Janelle Monae and her protege Jidenna, has been on repeat ever since I put it on last week's "songs you may have missed" list.
A proper grower, it finds Janelle in relaxed (and saucy) humanoid mode. It's refreshing to see her cutting loose from all the high concept Cyndi Merriweather stuff ... And it's a theme that's thankfully continued in the sprightly video.
Happy Easter, everyone! The sun is out and spring has sprung - and we all need new songs to sung. Hark a listen at this week's round-up of newbies.
1) Jamie xx - Loud Places
Taken from Jamie's first solo album, Loud Places begins with the downbeat cool of an xx track (not least because it features his bandmate Romy on voals). But the majestic, gospel-inspired chorus takes you to unexpected places. Lovely stuff.
2) Madeon - You're On (ft Kyan) - live session
Madeon makes the process of hitting buttons on a samplepad seem like the most exciting form of live performance ever invented, even though it's just... well, pressing some buttons on a samplepad. How does he do that?
3) Girlpool - Chinatown
Girlpool are Harmony Tividad and Cleo Tucker, two musicians from Philadelphia whose main selling point is that they make punk music without feeling the need for drums.
Their new single is a bit of a departure, though: A bluesy, meandering ballad that borrows the riff from Sheryl Crow's Leaving Las Vegas, it's shot through with a hesitant vulnerability most punks would sniff (glue) at.
4) Beyonce - Die With You
Sitting behind a piano, her hair braided and tucked into a baseball cap, here's pop megastar Beyonce singing a ballad for her husband on their seventh wedding anniversary.
I don't know about you - but if my wife had done this for me, I'd have taken her straight to the bedroom for a jolly big smooch. Jay Z just filmed it and put it on his new streaming site for some reason (money).
5) Rihanna - American Oxygen
A surprisingly mournful hymn to the American dream, Rihanna's latest song is a soulful antidote to the obnoxious (and obnoxiously catchy) Bitch Better Have My Money.
You have to sign up to Tidal to hear it properly - but here's a live version, performed at the March Madness concert over the weekend.
6) Janelle Monáe, Jidenna - Yoga
Ever wondered what Janelle Monae would sound like if she stopped pretending to be an anti-establishment robot from the future? Well, you're in luck.
The R&B star cuts loose on Yoga, a new track with rising MC Jidenna that will appear on The Eephus, a compilation EP starring the artists she's signed to her Wondaland label.
And it's pure filth... as Janelle Monae repeatedly instructs her lover: "Baby bend over, let me see you do that yoga."
The track also contains the best / weirdest lyric of the year: "You cannot police me, so get off my areola." Crikey.
7) Alesso - Cool (ft Roy English)
Perfectly acceptable Radio 1 daytime fodder, this is only notable for the video, in which Alesso plays a nerdy schoolkid who seduces his teacher. Wish fulfilment much?
8) George The Poet - Wotless
Another thought-provoking rap-poem from George The Poet, who charts his evolution from prodigal schoolboy to successful musician. It's an unflinching sketch of how black kids (especially those in a predominantly white, middle class environment) can feel pressured into becoming stereotypes.
Compelling stuff.
9) Mirror Talk - 1/M/T
Posted by the ever-reliable Nicola Roberts on her Tumblr page, this is shimmering, 80s-inspired synth pop from LA quartet Mirror Talk.
Produced by Tony Hoffer (M83, Beck), the title stands for One More Time.
10) Wax Tailor - Que Sera
I fell in love this sampladelic cut-up as soon as I heard it yesterday. Then I discovered it's a decade old... But what the hell. This post isn't called "songs you may have missed" for nothing.
11) Brandon Flowers - Can't Deny My Love
The only video you'll see this week that's based on the Puritan short story Young Goodman Brown, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1835. And that's a guarantee.
So there you go. Hope you haven't overdosed on chocolate during the course of this blog post.
Oh, and I'm taking the rest of the week off. See you on April 13th.
Carly Rae Jepsen popped up on SNL last night, playing the second single from her upcoming third album. All That, which is its name, starts boldly by stealing the fractured drumbeat from the intro to Prince's The Beautiful Ones.
It never reaches the histrionic heights of that Purple Rain track (and Prince would never countenance a lyric as cheesy as "I'll be your lighthouse when you're lost at sea") but it's such an accurate pastiche of 80s pop ballads you can imagine it playing while Kelly LeBrock gets her perm tangled with Matthew Broderick. In slow motion. On the bonnet of a DeLorean.
Listen to the official audio and watch the (very good) SNL performance below.
Wow. By the end of that list, everyone's just given up haven't they?
"Look, here's a new song. We know you're going to skip the write-up and go straight to the video, so we could literally put anything here. Hmm, let's see what we can get away with. I once ate Alabama trouser meat. Lady Gaga's right nipple resembles a porcupine of dandelions. Your best friend is an octagonal Ted Danson. Blah blah blah blah lemon bollock custard blah blah blah sock rotation blah blah I coughed my foot off. You didn't see any of that, did you? The clip was directed by Shynola. Watch it below."
Over the last year, 12-year-old dancer Maddie Ziegler has become the public face of Sia, appearing in the singer's trademark blonde bob in the videos for Chandelier and Elastic Heart.
The pair's collaboration began when Sia reached out to the youngster on Twitter, having seen her on the reality TV show Dance Moms.
"She said she wanted to meet me and she wanted me to dance to her song," Ziegler told Pigeons and Planes. "She was pretty much telling me how she doesn't want to be famous. She wants to be known for her songs, but she doesn't want to really show her face anymore... It was so cool."
Ziegler's stage directions for that first video were "to be overdramatic," she recalled. "So there I am crazy eyes and everything." The clip for Chandelier is certainly unnerving, and Ziegler took the crazy up a notch when she starred alongside Shia LeBeouf in Elastic Heart.
"It was such a big change for me, because I’m not used to doing that style in normal dance competitions," Zeigler told EW. "It was definitely very different for me, but I love being able to do that kind of style."
Now she's at it again, in the video for Big Girls Cry - which is being billed as the final act in her Sia trilogy. This time, the camera is (mostly) locked off on Ziegler's face - which once again conveys the turmoil of Sia's inner monologue in deranged, demented detail.
Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly is a confounding album. Profound and puerile in equal measure, it finds the rapper tackling poverty, depression and race relations while still finding time to eulogise his girlfriend’s vagina. Not that I’m judging. Who hasn’t written a Valentine’s card like that?
Throughout the album, Kendrick stakes his claim to Kanye’s throne by becoming his negative image. Where Kanye is all ego, Kendrick is wracked with self-doubt. Where West pushes the boundaries of music, Lamar delves into its past, co-opting jazz, funk and psychedelia into his restless, constantly-evolving songs. Never before has a hip-hop album contained so much clarinet.
It’s not an easy record to digest. And it’s at least 20 minutes too long. But one of the most accessible tracks is King Kunta, accurately described by Pitchfork as “G-Funk with the screws loosened”.
On first impression, it’s a swaggering “I'm top dog” diss track - as Lamar drawls “I was gonna kill a couple rappers, but they did it to themselves." But there’s a tension in the lyrics, as the star questions whether he even wants to be hip-hop's top talent.
Even the title, King Kunta, is an oxymoron. Kendrick is calling himself dominant, like a king, while comparing himself to Kunta Kinte - an heroic 18th Century slave, who fought to maintain a sense of freedom and cultural identity despite having his foot cut off to prevent him escaping the plantations. It’s a theme that’s echoed throughout the album – as a successful black man in America, Lamar is simultaneously powerful and powerless.
Anyway, this is turning into a thesis rather than a preamble to a music video. So let’s get on with it. The promo clip finds Lamar back in his hometown of Compton, sitting atop a gold throne in the driveway of his home, and hanging out at famous landmarks in the LA suburb with his “crew”.
At times, it looks like the whole city has turned out to watch, as Lamar declares: “Stuck a flag in my city, everybody's screamin' ‘Compton’ / I should probably run for Mayor when I'm done, to be honest.”
With apposite timing, the video for King Kunta went live at the same time as the trailer for Straight Outta Compton, the forthcoming biopic of Gangsta Rap godfathers NWA.
Despite the incendiary soundtrack, it looks like the film will stick to the bog-standard rock drama template, only with added guns and Paul Giamatti in a terrible wig.
