TRACK OF THE WEEK
Liam Gallagher
Wall of Glass
I mean, honestly, what would we all do if Liam Gallagher came out with his first solo single and brought with it a complete change in musical direction? Birds would fall out of the sky. Dogs would forget how to bark. And so here’s Wall of Glass: a video, predictably, of Liam Gallagher in a series of jackets shouting into mirrors as if he’s practicing at home about how best to start on bouncers; the sound, inevitably, of Tim Lovejoy pumping himself up for five-a-side. If you still say “our kid” a lot and have to explain to your barber to leave those long bits over your ears but trim the rest, this one’s for you.
Rita Ora
Your Song
Rita Ora is in love, only in this case love seems to express itself by climbing on to rooftops a lot and having sex on people’s sofas. I can’t stop thinking about why you would have sex on your supposed best friend’s couch. Where is the friend in all of this? Are they out? How did you get in? Do you Febreze it afterwards, or does someone else have to deal with your giddy mess? Anyway: Rita Ora is back, causing just as much trouble as ever.
Future ft Kendrick Lamar
Mask Off (Remix)
I like the original Mask Off because it sounds like the fevered whisperings of a Victorian dandy, dying alone in an opium den; plus also it finally puts that most revered of school-band instruments, the flute, front and centre. Anyway, Kendrick Lamar is here to change all that with lyrics that sound as if they were written by cutting all the words out of an A-level philosophy essay and rearranging them in a Zodiac Killer-style letter. What I’m saying is: it goes a little hard, to be honest.
Carly Rae Jepsen
Cut to the Feeling
Carly Rae Jepsen, the your-mum’s-friend’s-daughter-who-is-doing-much-better-than-you of pop, is back with a dreamy classic that invokes the high-like teenage euphoria of falling in love. Jepsen has really cracked the formula for making pop that sounds light and flyaway; this is the guaranteed wedding-reception floorfiller the summer was crying out for.
Katy Perry ft Nicki Minaj
Swish Swish
Katy Perry is still having a go, bringing with her the exact sound of the lights coming up in the nightclub while a lad in a polo shirt gets bundled out by the police, only with Nicki Minaj rapping over the top. You do rather get the feeling that Perry’s brand of pop frivolity has evolved from “genuinely tongue-in-cheek joyful” to “embarrassing aunt trying to high-five her nephew at a wedding”, but I don’t think that’s going to stop her, somehow.
Little Mix ft Stormzy
Power
It’s hard to be critical of this because Little Mix are Objectively Good and Stormzy is also Objectively Good. That said, Power sounds like four different songs engaged in a battle royale in which they all somehow conspire to die. Assorted failings: Stormzy’s verse being very “inspirational speaker in assembly”; the sub-Chainsmokers post-verse breakdown; the fact they cut the bits where Jesy says “motorbike” a lot from the album version. It’s not for me.
