Big song: Shura - 2 Shy

Despite my reputation as a finger-on-the-pulse pop scavenger, occasionally a song will slip through the cracks. Which is why it's so useful to have a sister watching my back.

"I heard this today and it made me think of you," she emails, "because it sounds like Janet (I think so anyway)".

She's right, too. London newcomer Shura has a breathy, delicate delivery that sounds just like Janet as she quivers through the emotional turmoil of Again (rather than the angrier, funkier "Ms Jackson if you're nasty" of 1986).

Her song, 2 Shy is dedicated to all the wallflowers who sit on the sidelines at parties, secretly crushing on an unsuspecting friend.

"Let’s go find a corner we can sit in
And talk about that film instead of us
Even though throughout it, I was thinking
I was gonna say I love you afterwards."

It's rather lovely.



If you're interested in Shura, there's a nice piece on the BBC's Sound of 2015 website (she was longlisted, but didn't make the top five).

Amongst the revelations on that page are the fact that she was "born in Moscow to a Russian actress" and honed her sound by "walking pumas round The Amazon".

Tweet

Lessons in live performance, pt 227

Nothing says "self-sabotage" more than agreeing to perform a song live on television to an audience of millions.

Think about it. Have you ever seen a transformative, spiritual gig - then watched it back on TV to discover a squall of bum notes and missed cues? Live music is messy and spontaneous. Television demands perfection.

And so we find ourselves at last night's iHeartRadio awards (whatever they are) witnessing Rihanna perform her underwhelming new single Bitch Better Have My Money; and Madonna, wisely sitting down for once, as she duets with Taylor Swift on Ghosttown - aka the best song she's released since Sorry.

Guess which one is a thrilling, pulchritudinous showstopper, and which one sounds like a school assembly cover band?



Poor Madonna.

Tweet

Will Young and the sound of 1964

Will Young is back, with a new record label (Island) and more reverb than a thunderclap in a canyon.

His new single, Love Revolution, is the sort of 1960s Northern Soul pastiche that was all the rage in 2007. Enough time has elapsed that it feels fresh again - particularly as avoids trumpets in favour of a clattering old tambourine - and his voice is perfectly tailored to the restrained retro vibe.

Interestingly, the track is based around Andrea Martin's R&B track Share The Love - better known for being sampled on Tomcraft's Loneliness. The darkly-delivered lyrics ("loneliness filled my world") work in contrast to the uplifting backing, giving the whole enterprise a sense of creeping unease.

The vibe is captured perfectly in the brightly-hued video which, as ever with Will Young, is a masterpiece of kitsch.

Will Young - Love Revolution

Tweet

Christ, this Rihanna song's a bit of a mess

Rihanna recently told MTV she was making an album that "felt real, that felt soulful, that felt forever".

"I wanted songs that I could perform in fifteen years," she continued, "not any songs that were burnt out".

So how on earth have we ended up with this? Bitch Better Have My Money is a ropey old diss track, with all the keyboards on default settings and some of the most inane lyrics of Rihanna's career. And that's say something for the woman who brought Cockiness (I Love It).

The song's only saving grace is that it takes it's title from a depressingly misogynistic 1992 rap song ("pussy ain't nothing but a game to me") and turns it into an anthem of female empowerment. Or Rihanna empowerment, to be more precise.

Produced by Deputy and Kanye West - who could also do better - you can stream it below.


Bitches who have money can buy Bitch Better Have My Money by visiting iTunes now.

Tweet

Lion Babe have got their marketing sorted

There's a theory in animation that every successful character has a unique silhouette. Mickey Mouse isn't a mouse who wears red shorts. Our brain remembers him as a circle with two smaller circles on top. Dress him in any clothes or colours you like, but you would never mistake him for anyone else.

With that in mind, Lion Babe are going to be the most recognisable band in the world. Just look at singer Jillian Harvey's silhouette.

The picture is a screengrab from the band's Pharrell-produced new video, Wonder Woman. It's a minor entry in Pharrell's discography - like a sedated version of Beyonce's Work It Out - but as the lead track from an EP preceding the band's "proper" launch, it is very serviceable indeed.

Lion Babe - Wonder Woman

By the way, if you really want to test the cartoon silhoutte theory, here's a brilliant quiz I've hijacked from the Creative Juices blog. Can you name all 36 characters? (Click to enlarge).

Tweet

James Bay: Let It Go

James Bay's new single is, disappointingly, not a cover of the song from Frozen. Instead, it's a gently strummed "maybe its best if we go back to being friends" sadballad.

It is also a big favourite of Taylor Swift, who accosted James Bay backstage at a Hozier concert to quiz him on the song last year. He told me this anecdote at great length last December when I interviewed him for the BBC's Sound of 2015 list. Here's the transcript.

"I'd just been around America supporting Hozier and she [Taylor] had come to see him – because I believe she knows him. Her entourage was bringing her backstage to meet him but he was going on stage for the encore. My dressing room at this venue was the hallway, so we stepped back as she came by but she stopped and said, 'are you James Bay?'. Obviously I was like, 'well, yeah' but thinking 'how would you even know?'

"And she sort of went into this whole thing about how she has a regular playlist she listens to, and she's got a couple of my songs on there. So my song, Let It Go, she was dissecting the lyrics in front of me. Telling me about her favourite lines in the verses. People usually only know the chorus, but she was reciting the lyrics. It was bizarre.

"But she seems to have carried on listening and she’s obviously an enormous pop star, so it’s a really amazing bit of appreciation. I guess it’s not the norm, but some crazy stuff seems to go on in this music business."

Yes, James. The music industry is crazy. All these people listening to other people's music. Oh, unknowable universe.

Next you'll be telling us Bono owns a guitar! And Beyonce sleeps in a double bed with Jay-Z! And Ellie Goulding once borrowed a sweater from her sister without asking but her sister said it was ok anyway! Mental.

Anyway, here's the video.

James Bay - Let It Go

Tweet