Selena Gomez
Lose You to Love Me
Some people will tell you this song is only good if you already like Selena Gomez and know about her chequered history with Justin Bieber (they went out and then they didn’t and then they did again and now he’s married to someone else), and her penchant for whispery vocals and heartache. But those people are wrong: this is a good song. From its Very Serious Piano Chords to its This Hurts A Lot Pizzicato Strings and its You Know I Mean Business Choral Backdrop, this song is designed to get you right in the heartstrings. And it does!
Banoffee ft Empress Of
Tennis Fan
There is nothing more suss than dating someone who doesn’t want you to meet their friends and, having been there, I’m quickly becoming obsessed with this wild “hate the player and the game” bop. If there is one thing more annoying than dating an idiot, it is getting peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth – and, whaddya know, Banoffee ft Empress Of have us covered there, too: “And now that it’s in, no, I can’t get it out.”
La Doña
Le Lo Lai
A small part of me suspects this is actually quite a rubbish song but there is something irresistible about this ode to, basically, swiping through Tinder on holiday. Refreshingly, it’s the dude who gets obsessed and wants to get hitched while La Doña is like, er, I’m outta here. With its Spanish lyrics and hula-hook, Le Lo Lai has a strong summer feel; you can’t help wishing it had come out about four months earlier.
Sorry
Right Around the Clock
Anyone of a certain age spent at least a month thinking that Gary Jules’s slow, sad cover of Mad World was the pinnacle of emotion, so it’s a savvy move for Sorry to interpolate their own take on Tears for Fears’s classic. Over an all-over-the-place sax line, they drunkenly dream of fame, although it sounds a lot like a case of being careful what you wish for.
Coldplay
Orphans
It sounds like Chris Martin and the Other Ones hired Apple, Moses, Canesten Duo and the rest of their offspring for the group vocals on this new song railing against the Syrian civil war and dreaming of getting drunk with your mates as a form of escapism. You have to admire Coldplay for at least trying to branch out: this, and its sludgy, proggy co-release Arabesque, are worlds away from things being all yel-low. But it doesn’t really matter what they do, or who they employ for a singsong, they always sound like, well, Coldplay.
