EOIN BUTLER'sguide to downloads, singles and free audiostreams
VILLAGERS
The WavesDomino ****
The first single from Conor J O’Brien’s second album is quite a departure from Becoming a Jackal, with synths, maracas and Morse code bleeps all working themselves into an elongated nervous breakdown at about the five-minute mark. Villagers tour Europe with Grizzly Bear during the month of October.
RIHANNA ft A$AP ROCKY
CockinessDef Jam **
“Suck my cockiness. Lick my persuasion,” sings Rihanna, employing the kind of subtle innuendo that would have kept code-breakers at Bletchley Park occupied for months. This new version of the Talk That Talk album track features a verse by New York rapper A$AP Rocky.
DAFT BEATLES
Eleanoround the World***
London-based mash-up artist Jonas C has earned praise from the likes of Dave Stewart and Kelly Rowland, and this crossover pairing of The Beatles' Eleanor Rigby with Daft Punk's Around the World is typical of his output: the poignancy of Paul McCartney's meditation on loneliness and death rather hilariously undermined by Daft Punk's jaunty bassline. It's good, clean (pointless) fun. soundcloud.com/daft-beatles
CHAD VALLEY ft GLASSER
Fall 4 UCascine ***
On first listen, this duet between wobbly-voiced Hugo Manuel and US singer Cameron Mesirow sounds like a bad Spandau Ballet B-side from the mid-1980s. But its appeal has rather grown on me after repeated listens.
ALANIS MORISSETTE
GuardianMaverick *
“I’ll be your keeper for life,” sings Alanis Morissette, in what I cannot help but interpret as a veiled personal threat. Seventeen years after the colossal success of her godawful Jagged Little Pill, the Canadian retains an uncanny ability to irritate the hell out of me with virtually every syllable she utters. Her eighth album, Havoc and Bright Lights, is in shops now.
