PICK OF THE WEEK
Poliça
Tiff (Memphis)
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As he accepted his Grammy last year, Bon Iver told the world that Poliça were the best band he’d ever heard. It’s nice for him, then, to be able to duet with singer Channy Leaneagh on the Minneapolis outfit’s new single. Tiff has the slow groove of Rose Royce’s mellow disco ditty Love Don’t Live Here Anymore and shares a similarly desolate mood. It’s less “Breakfast At Tiff’s” and more “Tiff’s just been run over in EastEnders”, but the song is a lesson in ghostly gorgeousness.
Mark Owen
Stars (Polydor)
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Take That’s resident love rat Mark Owen returns with his first solo material in eight years. It’s been difficult for the humble housewife’s favourite to market himself now that he’s an older, waistcoat-sporting indie gent, but Owen has enlisted the help of some hefty production and a space theme to ease his way into your hearts. Loud noises! Look up at space! Definitely do not Google my name and the year 2010! This song sounds like Hurts Like Heaven-era Coldplay: artificial symphonies and monumental-sounding everything. Owen’s gone Eno and it’s kind of OK. Pristine. Unnatural. Like a clinically anxious person’s kitchen surfaces.
Thumpers
Unkinder (A Tougher Love) (Trangressive)
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“What up, boi? I haven’t seen you since Verbier. Want to see this hot new band with me?” “Yes, my man!” That there, was the phone conversation someone from Made In Chelsea might make after Thumpers’ ebullient indie pop penetrates his wax-free ears for the first time. While Thumpers certainly craft a good chorus, Unkinder’s sun-kissed melodies are totes perf for a champagne-fuelled mash-up. It’s so agreeable that I fear posh people will proclaim it their official summer anthem. Nevertheless, this is great.
Alicia Keys
New Day (RCA)
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This is 2013 in music, where eclecticism is top of the menu and power divas are the chef’s special. New Day has everything a modern young music lover should desire: the oft-solemn Keys lets her hair down for some reggae-tinted vocals, hands-in-the-air house piano stabs, military beats and production from Dr Dre and Key’s husband, Swizz Beatz. It already sounds like a hit, mainly because the chorus was featured in 50 Cent’s version of the single last year. But if it means I never have to hear her track Girl On Fire on the radio ever again, then recycle away, AK.
Bon Jovi
What About Now (Island)
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Depression? Heartache? Flaky scalp? Bon Jovi will sort you out. In What About Now, Jon Bon sits you down and offers some wisdom, probably while sporting a terrible jacket. Big Bon Jovi guitars go b2b with big Bon Jovi drums, which elevate big Bon Jovi lyrics such as, “You’ve gotta get behind the wheel if you’re ever gonna drive that car”. The soundtrack to serious life restoration. Or maybe just a Tena Lady advert.
