JLS: One Shot.A synth scuttle that’s out to be as imploring as a sad-eyed puppy and will no doubt be aiming at yet another number one. Great if you’re a teenage girl. Not so great if not.They’re now out on their first headline tour.
MUSE: Resistance.Plucked from their album The Resistance which topped the charts in 20 countries from the UK to South Africa and Thailand. This one starts pacey and then becomes a pummelling power-crazed eruption powered by a deep melodic thrust. Resistance is futile.
DAISY DARES YOU: Number One Enemy.Huge synth roller that crashes down then turns into something of a giddyup gallop along the sun-kissed shore. And yet the 16-year-old comes from a sleepy village in Essex. She’s certainly woken up now.
CHARLIE WINSTON: I Love Your Smile.There’s something just so pleasant about a piano and a singer. Call me old-fashioned, but this troubadour knows just how to capture the very essence of something simple, straightforward, honest and spontaneous. Any more laid back and he’d tumble off his piano stool. Wish you could bottle his outlook on life – he says this is “seeing how wonderful life is and sharing that feeling simply with a smile.’’ We could all do with some of that. If you like this, look back at the stuff Randy Newman did.
PLASTICINES: About Love.The all-girl band hail from Paris and have set themselves up as that country’s female punk cutting edge. It’s got all the edgy violence of a poodle and, arguably, less bite. One track even ends up being a lolloping countrified ballad – and punks don’t do lolloping countrified ballads. No way, no how. But, at least they’re less plastic than X Factor wannabees and have gigged alongside the likes of Iggy Pop and The Slits.
MIA HOPE: We Are Just Satellites.This thundering juggernaut screamcore is ripped asunder by vocals that sound all the world like a two-year-old’s ultimate tantrum. Quick, call Supernanny to sort ‘em out before the all-enveloping blackness finishes us off.
LEMAR: The Hits.The velvet-voiced one (below) veers from sugary 80s-sounding soul through Motown-influenced moments to twinkling ballads. He’s taken soul’s rudiments from the last 45 years and bent them to his will. His fifth album since 2003. Four new songs including hits Dance (With You), 50/50, If There’s Any Justice and It’s Not That Easy.
