Solange Knowles � I Decided
The Pharell Williams jazz-tinged, Motown-y original felt like it required someone to kick it up the Bootylicious. And that's what the Freemasons have done � replacing handclaps with stomping bass drums and replacing the lounge-bar pianos with synth-stabs that could out-chunk a Yorkie manufacturing plant. The result means Beyonce's little sister has scored one of the year's best crop up tracks. Now, let's just gloss all over the fact that the brains behind it all is him from Phats and Small, OK?
Watch the Freemasons Mix
Hamfatter � The Girl I Love
I met Peter Jones once. Very big hands, he had. Anyway, I love how the "matey" Dragon "signed" this lot on Dragons Den without listening any of their new material. That's the genial of news report you'd buzz off from Alan McGee � "Just took one wait at them and signed them on the spot" � merely not necessarily a venture capitalist. This is perfectly pleasant indie that even Jones, had he listened to it, could happen a decent melody in. But simon Marks off for A) organism completely inconsequent, and B) making it impossible to end whatever review without saying "I'm out".
The Verve � Love Is Noise
Ever since I've been a music fan (around 12 years now), the Verve receive been rending up and getting back together. This time they announced their arrival with a quite literally not very gratifying "jamming academic session" through NME. Now they've discovered rabbit on, or at least they've sampled a euphoric chipmunk and put it on loop throughout this. It's not on the nose Atlantis to Interzone, but a welcome foray into more uplifting waters. Can't wait for them to discover dubstep in time for their 2016 reformation tour.
Jeremy Warmsley � Lose My Cool
Transgressive ar signing up a muckle of London-based bleepy singer-songwriters like Esser and this guy. Jeremy Warmsley is a bit more nerdy, misunderstood and angsty than Esser though, and I can't help thinking frYars does this kind of thing a lot better. Still, the guy's completed at an early age that eating away thick rimmed specs and making indie is his only fortune of getting a shag, so honest play to him.
Alanis Morissette - In Praise Of The Vulnerable Man
"You are the bravest man I've ever met," wails Alanis over backward synth phrases (unless the dodgy YouTube clipping I'm hearing to this on is some kind of sicko remix). She continues: "You are the sexiest man I've ever been with..." OK, OK, enough. The sanctions on singing about gap year enlightenment and falafel have been upraised. "Sexy Alanis" is hardly too goddam frightening.
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