Jack U
Take U There Feat Kiesza (OWSLA/Mad Decent)
Remember when Mick Jagger, Joss Stone, Damien Marley and Dave Stewart formed a supergroup? Well this EDM dream-team of Skrillex, Diplo and Kiesza is the opposite of that, ie lots of fun. Sure, its playlist-friendly trap sound is mildly panic-inducing, like taking speed and then being told you have to go on live TV and explain the intricacies of Middle Eastern politics RIGHT NOW and is it OK if you do it in just your pants? But in the midst of it all, Kiesza’s lovely calming voice is a welcome surprise. Hey, it’s going to be OK! Just breathe.
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
Febueder
Brazilia (Melodic)
Remember your gap year? The fisherman’s trousers, the experimentation with personal hygiene, the ginger men with dreadlocks. Days spent really absorbing the culture (getting stoned) and nights spent drinking vodka cocktails that cost 30p until you vomited in a hammock. You were basically living The Motorcycle Diaries, if Che Guevara had come from Hampshire and had funded his trip through a generous donation from Dad. Brazillia is the echo pedal-heavy Alt-J-lite world music you would have made if you hadn’t had to get a job and grow up.
Whyte Horses
The Snowfalls (CRC Recordings)
The Snowfalls sounds like the 70s – the good bit with the flares and ridiculous hair and not the bad bit with the children’s TV presenters or the economic crisis. Listening to it evokes the embarrassment you feel when your dad recalls how him and his friends “smoked a bit of wacky baccy” at a house party in 1971. Basically, it’s hard to believe this is being released in actual 2014, but here we are and let’s make the best of it, eh?
Big Ups
Rash (Tough Love)
This song is a terrifying amount of noises, all happening at the same time. When anyone goes to a scary punk gig in an early 00s horror film, this is exactly like the song the band on the stage are playing. Don’t go into the loos, don’t go near anyone in a hockey mask, and always shoot the killer in the head. Twice.
Alexa Goddard
So There (Roc Nation)
I can’t tell if Alexa Goddard is taking the piss out of us or not. She used to sing with prog rock band Trans-Siberian Orchestra, she’s collaborated with Wiley and she’s signed to Roc Nation, yet So There is the most generic pop single of 2014. There have been better songs on sanitary towel adverts. You could listen to it five times in a row yet still not hum the chorus with a gun to your head. Alexa herself probably couldn’t sing it to you without a backing track giving her clues. “Is it the one that… no, I’ve lost it again,” she’d say, while you slowly back towards the door, wondering why you’re in a room with Alexa Goddard.
