Yasmin
Finish Line (Ministry Of Sound)
While it's lovely to see Yasmin strolling about in her underwear in the video for the excellent Finish Line, she should have been sporting "The Rachel" and playing on her Tamagotchi, such is the song's mid-90s slant. If trip-hop is ready for an update then this Labrinth-produced tale of a relationship spluttering to a standstill, complete with sweetly crooned vocals and that guy from Mortal Kombat intoning "finish him" (OK, it might be "finish line"), is a very good place to start.
Bruno Mars
The Lazy Song (Elektra)
Like me, you probably find Olly Murs's blend of reggae-lite musicality and smug slapability a little grating. Well, why not try Bruno Mars, who, on The Lazy Song takes that summery strumalong "vibe" and runs with it. Unfortunately he runs with it down an alleyway laden with dog faeces, which he then treads into your carpet before helping himself to that Solero you'd been saving for after dinner. It's this mix of "summery" and "annoying" that Bruno does so well. Be warned: this song also features the lines "some real nice sex" and, more realistically, "throw my hand in my pants".
Brother
Still Here (Geffen)
When Slough's finest, Brother, appeared on the cover of the NME, all snarly lipped and tilted of head, they were hailed as representing a return to good old guitar music. So it's weird that Still Here is basically a glitchy re-imagining of a witch house remix of some post-dubstep house banger. Only it isn't, of course: it's a pleasant enough acoustic singalong that sounds a bit like Cast, but not as good, the video to which features the singer sitting cross-legged on a pool table (WITH HIS SHOES ON!) and the lyric "I've got no pension plan". In your face, society and rules.
Austra
Lose It (Domino)
This is a fairly new sound for Florence Welch … oh, what? This is actually a Canadian-based trio fronted by a lady named Katie Stelmanis? Well, Katie Stelmanis, your voice has that same tremulous feel as our Florence and to these ears that's no bad thing. Lose It is a brilliant pop song – complete with a deliriously catchy "ah, ha, oh, ha, oh, oh, oh" chorus – dressed up in all the tropes of your typical blog band: vaguely NSFW video, face-obscuring artwork, mildly disappointing album tracks to come. For 270 seconds, though, Kate and pals had me in the palm of their hands.
Wideboys Feat Sway & McLean
Shopaholic (World Wide Phonographics)
When the economy finally shrivels to the size of a burnt raisin and we're living in the hollowed out shell of a Westfield mall, it will be this song that will play on a loop. The central message of the woeful Shopaholic is clear: men confuse money with love and so get into debt, and women shop in La Senza when they should be buying pants from M&S to help stabilise the economy. That the video looks like it was filmed on the set of TOWIE is appropriate seeing as when it all ends only Joey Essex and his Day-Glo Ugg boots will survive.
