TRACK OF THE WEEK
Beth Ditto
Fire
Singe when you’re winning: the Gossip goddess declares her solo intentions with a very different kind of torch song: a sexy mega-thumper enhanced by mournful melodica toots. It feels hellish in the best kind of way, with Ditto ramping up the blues huskiness to match a swaggering, zombie-Zep riff. The video features cowboys having a lowdown throwdown at a hoedown and is therefore totally worth seeking out.
Kid Ink ft Ty Dolla $ign
F With U
With a title like that – the F does not stand for flower-arranging – you might expect the latest from Kid Ink to be a typically boastful sex jam. Instead, it’s something much woozier, as the most heavily-tatted bloke in hip-hop and his cash-obsessed sidekick Ty swap befuddled verses over a summery DJ Mustard marimba hook, trying to figure out why they can’t get over an intoxicating ex. Surprisingly sweet.
Dreamcar
Kill for Candy
When Gwen Stefani went solo, it seemed akin to yanking the nuclear power cell out of a Terminator , leaving nothing behind but a heap of spare parts. But the No Doubt engine room are back, having recruited Davey Havok of emo journeymen AFI to front their new Dreamcar project – which, if Kill for Candy is anything to go by, deals exclusively in gleaming, gloomy atmospherics.
The Kooks
Be Who You Are
With a greatest hits collection looming, here’s an instant-grat stopgap from the wombling Brighton boys who, admittedly, have always had a way with a tune. In this case, it’s She’s Electric by Oasis. Everything rattles along pleasantly enough until two minutes in, at which point Be Who You Are downshifts into a frankly unearned lighters-aloft piano slowdown. Textbook Kooks, in other words.
Ludacris ft Ty Dolla $ign
Vitamin D
Fun fact: the jaunty strings that underpin Sisqó’s Thong Song were inspired by Eleanor Rigby. Genius begets genius, as Chris “Ludacris” Bridges has now sampled Sisqó’s deathless classic to jazz up this daft comeback track. It’s a parade of Carry On Nurse nonsense co-starring tireless wingman Ty, all based on the dubious central conceit that Luda’s penis – his D, if you will – could plausibly be a nutritional supplement. Final grade: F.
