Puppy
Entombed
If you’ve watched as many Nirvana docs as I have, you’ll know that grunge was a scuzzy reaction to pompous 80s hair metal. But what if those genres hadn’t fought, but merged? London three-piece Puppy answer the question, combining big, processed metal riffs and noodly fretwork with shoegazey can’t-be-arsed vocals. It’s a spectacular truce between metal pomp and grungy nonchalance, making every trite observation about 1992 obsolete.
Tough Love ft Arlissa
Touch
I interviewed Arlissa when she was in the BBC Sound Of 2013, and she had a lot of chat about her unease with the identikit dance model of the charts. Three years later, things haven’t gone as planned, and here’s a chart dance song so basic I wouldn’t be surprised if it was produced by boohoo.com. So while you might hear a serviceable track for Greg James to play, all I hear are crushed dreams.
Will.I.Am
Boys And Girls
Do you remember when Obama was running for president and Will.I.Am emerged as his sort of cultural ambassador, creating that Yes We Can song around one of his speeches? Flash-forward eight years and Guantánamo Bay still isn’t closed and the lyrics to this song are “Baby we don’t stop and we don’t quit, in the club like we own it, too too legit”. Hope can disappoint you.
Sigala ft John Newman & Nile Rodgers
Give Me Your Love
John, you’re back? Didn’t realise it was today; thought you were still out on “personal leave”. Let me just work where you can go, because Sam Smith is where you used to sit and Ed Sheeran’s been promoted, so he has the glass office. Hmm, actually quite low on desk space since we hired Zayn Malik, Charlie Puth and Years & Years. Ummm, I guess you can go at the end of that table near Sigala and Nile Rodgers, see if you can make something that doesn’t sound like a Rudimental cast-off. Oh, wait…
Drake ft Wizkid & Kyla
One Dance
I remember when Otis by Kanye and Jay Z came out and my dad was so mad. “They’ve just taken that one bit from Try A Little Tenderness and looped the soul out. They’ve ruined Otis Redding.” Chill, daddio, I told him, it’s just sampling. But now Drake has taken my beloved Do You Mind by UK funky pioneers Crazy Cousinz and vocalist Kyla, slowed it to half tempo, and sung his usual “reply to my texts straight away” shtick over it. It’s a desecration. Dad you were right, it’s not creativity, it’s just pilfering.
