Eoin Butler's guide to downloads, singles and free audiostreams
LADY GAGA
Born This Way
Interscope
***
The release of a new single by the chameleonic 21st- century icon is a event of cultural and historic significance, on a par with the moon landings and the painting of the Sistine Chapel. Yes, throw all your old CDs in the fire and go live in a cave, this is Pop Music: Day One. [Reviewer presses play . . . ]Or just another thinly disguised Madonna rip-off. Bah!
CAT POWER
Untitled
Matador
****
Five years after her last album of original material (the aptly titled The Greatest) Chan Marshall recently debuted this intriguing but as yet untitled new song at San Francisco’s Fillmore Auditorium. Her new back-up band, The Dirty Delta Blues Band, is comprised of The Dirty Three’s Jim White, The Delta 72’s Gregg Foreman and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s Judah Bauer. youtube.com
BOB DYLAN ft AVETT BROTHERS, MUMFORD SONS
Maggie’s Farm
**
I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more,” snarled Dylan on this anti-authoritarian anthem from 1965, which recounts a manual labourer’s refusal to perform the demeaning tasks asked of him by his employer. Forty-six years later, the voice of his generation is persuaded to perform this song as a duet with faux-folk nonentities the Avett Brothers and Mumford Sons. Irony anyone? youtube.com
VOTE FOR JOHN DILLON
Dillon’s Gonna Win
*
“I’ve lost my job and I’m on the dole/The bank man says I’m out on my hole.” The spokesman for a generation’s near namesake – Limerick independent candidate John Dillion – hasn’t quite the same way with words, alas.“
NICKI MINAJ ft DRAKE
Moment 4 Life
Cash Money Records
**
The third single from Minaj’s Pink Friday album is not a particularly effective showcase for the rapper’s formidable talent. Her leading man, Canadian rapper Drake, bears an unfortunate resemblance to Sky Sports’ loveable but gaffe-prone soccer pundit Chris Kamara.
