Melody’s Echo Chamber
Breathe In, Breathe Out
After the release of her second album was unexpectedly derailed by serious injury last year, Melody Prochet is finally back with a shaggy Stereolabrador of a song that showcases her playful psychedelic hopscotching. Despite the abundance of springy synths, Prochet’s breathy vocals and some high-quality whistling, it all somehow clocks in at under three minutes. An animated video that finds the cosmic middle ground between Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings and Barbapapa is just the chef’s kiss on top.
Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa
One Kiss
A team-up between veteran banger blacksmith Harris and the convincingly over-it Lipa feels as if it should be a route one smasheroo. But there’s a lacquer of late-night sophistication to One Kiss that makes it surprisingly moreish. Rather than a bumptious look-at-me floorfiller, it’s a minor-key come-on ghosting the party with a loaded glance.
Friendly Fires
Love Like Waves
Good news for lovers of the sun-kissed cyan skies of the old Out Run arcade cabinet: after a long furlough, St Albans pool party-starters Friendly Fires have belatedly inserted another coin and reactivated their synth-and-steel-drum calypso-pop without, seemingly, changing a thing. Fans of Lilt ad indie will presumably be thrilled that Love Like Waves sounds as if they’ve never been away.
Charlie Puth ft Kehlani
Done For Me
You can’t beat a good he said/she said pop duet picking through the wreckage of a detonated relationship and, despite its nocturnal-disco groove, the knives are definitely out in Done For Me. However, by recruiting R&B firecracker Kehlani as his duelling partner, the drippy Puth starts out on the back foot and never really recovers. Like, how did she end up with him in the first place? Did she just really love his Fast and Furious song? (Admittedly, that is a great song.)
Bon Jovi
Walls
Amid the geopolitical turbulence of 2018, one band bravely take a stand against opportunistic politicians who seek to divide us with a solemn anthem stating that Walls Are Bad. Unfortunately, the Jovi’s bulletproof stadium-rock sound has all gone a bit Imagine Dragons. While it might seem churlish to take potshots at such a well-meaning track, it’s no In These Arms, is it?
