PICK OF THE WEEK
Mr Oizo ft Charli XCX
Hand In The Fire (Ed Banger)
God, this is huge. This is enormous. This is a song made in an alt-universe, where circa 2005 French dance music never went away, where Justice are approximately as big as U2, and we have Uffie instead of Adele. It makes me want to sit in a beanbag chair and watch someone else play Sonic The Hedgehog and pine after Charli XCX, the living embodiment of your mate’s unattainable older sister, and do long texts on an old Nokia phone. Man, 2005 was great, wasn’t it? Why did the Klaxons have to ruin it?
Idlewild
Utopia (Empty Words)
I have a theory that every song on Earth is at least one person’s favourite song, which means Idlewild’s Utopia is definitely someone’s favourite song, which means someone – and they walk among us, this person – someone’s favourite song is essentially the soundtrack to a scene on an underwatched daytime drama; one where the main character (a young mum, she’s just found happiness after long years of struggle) finds out her uncle is really her dad. I mean, the piano bit is nice, I guess.
Wolf Alice
Freazy (Dirty Hit)
Listening to Wolf Alice just makes you wonder why we ever got rid of meat-and-potatoes indie rock, just a drummer and some guitars, singer doesn’t even have to be good if you’ve got a big enough chorus, everyone in Converse and a striped T-shirt, flat lager in a plastic cup, black-and-white photoshoot in a nearby underpass, everyone still wearing all their festival wristbands from Glasto. What I suppose I am saying is: this catch-all alt-rock makes me nostalgic for my awful youth.
SOPHIE
L.O.V.E. (Numbers)
Are we sure that the PC Music crew isn’t a complex joke being played on the old by the young? If it is real, L.O.V.E. is the exemplar of it. Produced by PC’s best-known affiliate, it’s three minutes of a robot baby speaking over a dentist’s drill. Maybe SOPHIE doesn’t like PC Music, either, and this is just some meta self-parody designed to bring down the movement from the inside. Or not: in the most PC Music move of all time, this song is being released as a digital download or, if you want, a silicon sex toy. We’ll look back at this and laugh.
Shakin’ Stevens
Echoes Of Merry Christmas Everyone (Right Track Distribution)
What is the best Christmas song of all time? You are wrong: it is Merry Christmas Everyone. Do not even try and argue this. Here’s how good it is: it recharts, every single year in December, and has done for 67 years. Anyway, he’s re-recorded it again. Does it bang? Does it have Diplo x Skrillex mash-up production and a bassline drop? No: it’s a bit like that Mumford & Sons tribute band your dad started after the divorce. I mean, there’s a harmonica solo. No one wants a harmonica solo at Christmas, Shakin’.
Mr Oizo ft Charli XCX will now be released on Friday 11 December
