Music

Songs of the Week: M83, Jack White, Charlie XCX and Richard Ashcroft

Featuring Europop pastiche, a bizarre Stevie Wonder cover, a posh delivery and the man who was once, briefly, the biggest rock star on the planet

A cross between a mop and a bucket: Jack White on The Muppet Show

Eoin Butler's face
Eoin Butler
Thu Mar 3 2016 - 15:30

M83
Do It, Try It ★★★★
Mute
M83's new album Junk is the long-awaited follow-up to their 2011 breakthrough Hurry Up, We're Dreaming. Fans of that record will be pleased to know that this comeback single picks up exactly where it left off. Do It, Try It is a dark, atmospheric car ride through some late night French cityscape, with copy/paste Europop lyrics ("We dance on repeat / A trance of a heartbeat") that are as infectious as they are meaningless.

JACK WHITE & THE MUPPETS
You Are The Sunshine of My Life ★★★

Third Man

On the season finale of The Muppets’ latest TV series, in a bid to rekindle the love between Kermit and Miss Piggy, Jack White is prevailed upon to perform this old Stevie Wonder classic. The former White Stripes man must have enjoyed the experience, because he’s just released it as a 7” single. Hmm, if I didn’t know better, Jack, I’d say you were losing your edge.

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CHARLIE XCX
Vroom Vroom ★★★ 
Vroom Vroom Recordings
"Bitches know they can't catch me," brags Charlie XCX on the title track from her new EP. "Cute, sexy and my ride's sporty." Unfortunately, the accent she delivers those lines is so posh, it makes her sound more entitled than badass.

RICHARD ASHCROFT
This Is How It Feels ★★★   
Cooking Vinyl
If David Schwimmer and Cuba Gooding Jr in The People Vs OJ Simpson haven't sated your appetite for 1990s nostalgia, make way for the man who for about 10 months, between autumn 1997 and summer 1998, was briefly the biggest rock star on the planet. Truthfully, as a solo artist, Richard Ashcroft has mostly failed to set the world on fire. His latest album is a response to the war in Syria - recorded, he says, because "to do nothing would be a crime". So cheer up, people of Syria. There's another Richard Ashcroft solo album to look forward to.