MIA’s Go Off: the best of this week’s music

The Paper Planes hitmaker is back with a new track that sounds both familiar and completely unexpected

TRACK OF THE WEEK

MIA
Go Off

The first official single from her upcoming album AIM (which, she claims, is her last one ever), Go Off manages to sound like both classic MIA and something completely surprising. Containing an unexpected reference to Brazilian footballer Neymar, MIA’s cool-girl snarl bounces across Skrillex and Blaqstarr’s Middle Eastern-influenced beats. Possibly the best thing she’s ever done – please don’t @ me on Twitter with the words “Paper Planes” because: no.

Rizzle Kicks
Always Late

Rizzle Kicks’ new track sees Jordan and Harley musing on their inability to run their lives to a schedule. While the repercussions of their tardiness are minimal at first – pissed-off mates, spending too much on taxis – halfway through the song, things take a catastrophic turn: their best friend ends up hating them, one of them misses the birth of their baby, and they get turned away from the gates of heaven and end up in hell. Eternal damnation! All for missing the 27 bus! Pretty harsh that, lads.

DJ Snake ft Justin Bieber
Let Me Love You

Have you noticed that every time the Biebs commits an act of dickishness in real life these days, he sticks out a brilliant EDM-lite club banger and we all like him again? Twitter meltdown? Here’s Sorry. Cheated on a girlfriend? Well, see if you like Cold Water. Upset your 78 million Instagram followers by deleting your account? Here, have Let Me Love You, which sounds like DJ Snake’s on-point impression of a Diplo track. You win again, Bieber.

Angel Olsen
Shut Up Kiss Me

No longer a folkie, Angel Olsen sounds like a husky 60s soul-rock singer on Shut Up Kiss Me; all fuzzy guitars, and anguished pleas that “we could end all this pain right here / we could rewind all of those tears”. It’s music that makes you want to get into an eyeliner-smearing, sobbing, public spectacle of a lover’s tiff… in theory. I mean, don’t get banned from your local or anything. Maybe just stay home and roleplay it.

Youngr 
Out Of My System (Galantis remix) 

What started out as a serviceable electropop song has been given a tropical house remix for its official release, because it’s 2016. Soon, tropical house will be everywhere: brides walking down the aisle to Felix Jaehn, the national anthem given a synth remix, Big Ben’s chimes replaced by steel drums – it’s all going to happen, and there’s nothing you can do about it. So why not just grab a can of Lilt and accept the future.

Contributor

Issy Sampson

The GuardianTramp

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