The Playlist: pop

Listen to pop's latest and greatest, from 5 Seconds Of Summer's euphemism riddled romp, Mikky Ekko's Michael Jackson impersonation and a remix of Beatrice Eli's coming out anthem

• Listen to last month's pop playlist

5 Seconds Of Summer – Don't Stop

While One Direction slowly morph into Mumford & Sons, Australian boy-band-with-instruments - 5 Seconds Of Summer- recall the cheeky Blink-182-isms of early Busted. While their first single, She Looks So Perfect, flitted between society's views on the youth of today, to the joys of seeing a lady friend wearing your underwear, new single Don't Stop goes straight for a pop staple in the shape of the knowing euphemism. As the near-perfect chorus steadily ramps up, Michael, Luke, Calum and Ashton (for it is they) shout, “'cause every time you move to the beat it gets harder for me and you know it”. Nudge nudge, wink wink, etc.

Marlene – Indian Summer

Marlene may well be the best new pop star to come from Sweden in quite a while, which is saying quite a lot. Last summer she arrived seemingly out of nowhere with the delicious Bon Voyage, before following that up earlier this year with the R&B-influenced, Stay Awake. On a bit of a roll, she's decided to up her game again with Indian Summer, the title track from her debut EP. More immediately pop than the previous two releases, Indian Summer glides along buffeted by plinky pianos, warm gusts of synths and Marlene's impassioned vocals, the latter injecting the track with just the right amount of melancholia.

Beatrice Eli – Girls (Dante Remix)

Since the release of her debut EP, It's Over - which featured excellent enormo-ballad The Conqueror – Beatrice Eli's been hard at work on her debut album and judging by this single, has been making some pretty big life decisions too: "But I'm sick of hiding my heart," she sings over a marching beat of popping drum beats, "I came to the conclusion I like girls." Surprisingly unsentimental, naggingly catchy and uncompromisingly frank when it comes to going off men (“I've been staring at the ceiling for so long, hoping you would come”), it's a bold statement wrapped up in massive pop melody. Available as a free download, this new Dante remix slows things down slightly, looping the line “I've got the girls on my mind all the time” to hypnotic effect.

Rae Morris feat Fryars – Cold

Sophisticated pop merchant Rae Morris seems to like wallowing in the sadness that comes with trying to maintain relationships. Describing the themes behind her recent Ariel Rechtshaid-produced single Do You Even Know?, she explained it was about “that very familiar and human feeling of solitude,” while new single Cold – produced by and featuring vocals from pop's very own sadface emoticon, Fryars – is an echo-laden, beat-heavy picking over the scraps of a love affair. “Your eyes ain't pretty anymore,” mourns Fryars on the first line, before Morris counters with “You're not the one I adore.”

Chris Malinchak feat Mikky Ekko – Stranger

Pop is littered with people doing Michael Jackson impressions. From the Justins (Bieber and Timberlake) to Usher to, weirdly, Michael Jackson himself (via this slightly terrifying hologram). But perhaps the best mimic is the somewhat unlikely Mikky Ekko, during 's performance on dance producer Chris Malinchak's new single, Stranger. More full-blooded than Malinchak's recent singles So Good To Me and If U Got It, Stranger pushes pop's current disco obsession through a Pharrell-esque filter, with Ekko's deliriously carefree vocals (there's even a “hee hee” at the 2:25 mark) weaving in and out of a chunky bassline and an overall sense of sun-dappled delirium.

Contributor

Michael Cragg

The GuardianTramp

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