TRACK OF THE WEEK
Jadu Heart & Mura Masa
U Never Call Me
After racking up starry collabs with A$AP Rocky, Charli XCX and Damon Albarn on his debut album, Mura Masa – AKA Guernsey-born production polymath Alex Crossan – pays it forward with Jadu Heart, the masked duo signed to his own label. The resulting team-up is a deluxe tiramisu of accusatory whisperpop that, in the early running at least, seems to incorporate a squeaky toy into its seductive cosmic tropicalia.
Pitbull & Fifth Harmony
Por Favor
After enabling Despacito, we must all weather the deluge of Spanglish pop cobblers in its wake. Now Pitbull – the cueball lounge lizard who, despite his swank suits, somehow always looks like a Stars in Their Eyes version of himself – wants some of the action. Fifth Harmony pour on the honey but Mr Worldwide’s bullfrog pick-up lines actively refute Por Favor’s slinky central thesis: that everything sounds sexier in Spanish.
One Bit & Noah Cyrus
My Way
And now, the end is near. But Miley’s little sis makes a late lunge for 2017’s mega-banger title with this likable floorfiller. Production bods One Bit cheerfully channel the rubberband bounce of Doctor Pressure, the moreish Mylo/Miami Sound Machine mash-up of the mid-2000s, and the whole thing parps along with such brazen impudence that no one is ever likely to confuse it with Sinatra’s signature tune.
Sufjan Stevens
The Greatest Gift
Lifted from a recent odds-and-sods compilation album by the Pitbull of handcrafted indie heartbreak, the Greatest Gift is a gorgeous festive song that breathily argues love is better than pricey presents. Stevens cleverly saved even more cash by breaking out the safety scissors to make the animated video himself. All very charming but let’s just say Hype Williams has nothing to worry about.
Manic Street Preachers
International Blue
Big chug-a-chug guitar riff? Yep. Ambivalent lyrics (“Here’s my gift to you / A soundtrack to the void”) camouflaged by trucker rock uplift? Check. Chorus that goes so high James Dean Bradfield has to break out the shouty falsetto? Aw, yeah! After recent rambles into electronica, the Manics seem to have hard-reset to Everything Must Go-era melancholic maximalism and this chest-thumper bodes well for their imminent 13th album.
