Single reviews...

The good, the bad, and the downright terrible. It's time to have a look of some of the new music floating around the airwaves and pass judgement... oh yes.

LAZY HABITS ~ STARTING FIRES


This London based 8 piece band are a force to be reckoned with on stage, quickly gaining recognition as one of the best underground (real) hip-hop outfits on the UK scene, having raised the roof off every tent at every festival they play. This is the first look at long awaited new material from their forthcoming debut full length album and promises that none of their energy has been lost. The vocal delivery is razorsharp and the instrumentation is slick as usual, with a darkly graceful slow motion video that serves to remind me why I don't really go out in the town that much anymore! The single is out to buy on July 30th and check out more of their stuff here.
Brilliant.


BJORK ~ CRYSTALLINE


Still no official video for this yet although it shouldn't be long before Michel Gondry's clip for the song is revealed. I've already mentioned this one on here before but had to give it another big up, it's just so good. It's got all the things you might expect for a Bjork song, yet at the same time, sounds like nothing else you've ever heard. Quite how Bjork manages to pull this stunt off each time she releases a new album is beyond me, and testament to her uniqueness, that she can have such an instantly distinctive sound despite never really doing the same thing twice. Here she emulates the hidden growth of crystals deep in the earth with some oblique and fractured musical extremes. From the sparkling chimes of the 'Gameleste' arrangements and hollow earthy throb of the basslines to her ecstatic vocals and even a glitched out explosive breakcore finale, it shouldn't work, but it does. Shiny!

BEASTIE BOYS ~ MAKE SOME NOISE


Featuring more celebrity cameos in five minutes than are seen in an entire year of Saturday Night Live, the beastie's new video is so cool it hurts. Thier new album, Hot Sauce Committee Part Two is a fabulous return to form and this track is an epic booming piece of old skool hip-hop rawk, with a squelching vintage synth bassline and those sort of vast echoey beats that sound like they were recorded under Brooklyn bridge. A bit of a corker really, and the sight of Elijah Wood aggressively rapping is genius.

SBTRKT FT. LITTLE DRAGON


After gaining fame as a prolific remixer for the likes of M.I.A. and Basement Jaxx, SBTRKT has finally gathered an army of respected guest vocalists to produce his first proper album and has managed to ride the wave of hype safely all the way to the beach. The album is a bit good really and this song displays why quite perfectly. Angular synth arrangements and skittering beats slide effortlessly around the beautiful vocal to create something which is edgy enough to retain underground grimey edge yet will probably make him a fair few bob without selling out to boot! Tying elements of UK sub culture to soulful pop vocals is definitely a la mode this year, and this can join the ranks along side Jamie Woon, James Blake, Katy B and others of a brilliant exercise in restrained and subtle crossover music, which has as much for a party playlist as it does for just chilling out.

JESON DERULO ~ DON'T WANNA GO HOME


Sadly it can't all be fun and games, there's always someone who has to spoil it for everyone else. Now I can't say I follow Jason Derulo closely, but it's hard to escape his music and it seems to me he has carved a career out of carving up other people's songs with all the subtlety of an epileptic butcher in a strobe exhibition. As if breaking into Imogen Heap's home in the night, kidnapping her signature song 'Hide and Seek' and then violently raping it in the soul wasn't bad enough, he's at it again here. Instead this time he's chosen the timeless classic calypso song "Banana Boat' by the now 84 year old legendary singer Harry Belafonte, and brutally grafted its still flailing mutilated corpse to the horrified and spasming body of Robin S's 90s house anthem "Show me Love", human centipede style. Now, perhaps a more gifted team of musicians and lyricists would be able to do something wonderful with such a combination, but seeing as Jason here evidently has nothing to say, he just starts things off by saying his own name a few times, before going into an autotuned nightmare of inconsequential banality about wanting to dance and get drunk. It's going to be absolutely massive isn't it? Dreadful.

MANN FT. SNOOP DOGG ~ THE MACK


Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, along comes another bastardised cover version that genuinely begs belief. Quite how anyone anywhere stops and thinks that this is a good idea, let alone proceeds to then get lots and lots of money to make a painfully cliched video with which to promote it , is quite unbelievable. Here someone called Mann and someone called Iyaz say some stuff over the classic single 'Return of the Mack' by Mark Morrison, which itself was sampled from 'Genius of Love' by Tom Tom Club (watch the original here) and then Snoop comes on and says some stuff too. Then it's over and we can all go back to our lives and pretend it never happened.
Snoop Dogg joins the likes of Bjork, Damon Albarn and Marina Abramavicz this month at The Manchester International Festival where he will be performing his classic debut album Doggystyle in its entirety, now that's a show that would be worth seeing!

CHER LLOYD ~ SWAGGER JAGGER


The waif-like emotional brat from last year's X Factor has launched her solo career at long last. Oh goody. She brazenly 'raps' the verses and then 'sings' the chorus (which sounds a lot like Phoebe Bouffet's untouchable classic 'Smelly Cat' crossed with 'Oh My Darling Clementine) while dancing and throwing all her pint sized attitude in your face leaving you feeling like you've just been assaulted by a child in the street. She looks worryingly like Cheryl Cole's as yet under-developed clone and quite frankly one is enough. Then again, the track itself is is not quite as offensive as I expected it to be and has enough ballsy bleeps and squelches and 'banging' beats to make it highly enjoyable to dance to when you're smashed on Kopparbergs at the local meat market. However, the whole thing is just ultimately baffling.
(P.S. The screenshot on the video is amazing non?)

CHRIS BROWN AND JUSTIN BIEBER ~ NEXT TO YOU


Despite the brief lived redemption of the brilliant Benny Benassi produced club hit 'Beautiful People', Chris Brown is back to unloading the kind of over-wrought, faux-sincere, wishy washy wank that is enough to turn even the most pious individuals into mass murdering psychopaths, and this time he's enlisted the help of one of the few human beings on the planet capable of matching up to this level of emotionally bereft mediocrity. With more clenched fists and furrowed brows than a night of bare knuckle fighting, the pre-teen swoon factor is through the roof here, as Brown and Bieber perform some of the most ludicrously over the top and frankly ridiculous dance moves ever seen, while the city around them collapses and their pretty love interests wander around in a confused daze looking weak and crying. Big old shite.

BEYONCE ~ THE BEST THING I NEVER HAD


It sounds like the Baywatch theme tune. Take this as either positive or negative. Nuff said.

ZED BIAS FT. OMAR ~ DANCING

Now we can't leave on a sad note, so here's a happy ending!
Been hyping this for weeks and it's FINALLY been released on iTunes. A right summer anthem. African styled percussive tones cascade down a UK funky rhythm and the result is undeniably infectious. I challenge you not to shake your bums. Awesome.

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I think that's enough for now...