TRACK OF THE WEEK

Merchandise

Flower Of Sex

Merchandise made the best album of 2014 but everyone was too busy shaking it off to notice. Flower Of Sex is unlikely to alter their fortunes: in this summer of tropical house and sporting hyperbole, they’ve delivered a bombastic goth stomper that reeks of crimped hair, army greatcoats and The Killing Moon. It couldn’t be less on-trend if it were strolling into the Met Bar yelling Dom Joly catchphrases. But give it a chance and, like a stubborn patch of toe hair, it might grow on you.

Laurel

San Francisco

Laurel’s fella has run off to San Francisco, which is convenient because you can’t tap into any of that Lana Del Rey glamour when you’re singing about Peterborough. This single surely marks the end of the line for that weird gaspy, swallowy vocal style beloved of James Blake and Låpsley. It’s so affected that you can’t make out a single word Laurel is singing. It just sounds like she’s gagging on a Malteser.

The Stone Roses

Beautiful Thing

Were you honestly expecting more? Since the casual brilliance of their 1989 debut, the Stone Roses have specialised in off-key disappointment. Beautiful Thing at least improves on the beery slog of first comeback single All For One by dint of a deft Reni groove, but if you’ve heard The Second Coming, you’ve heard this. Nothing against middle-aged geezers dusting off the Marshalls for a bit of a jam between reruns of Top Gear on Dave, but there’s no need to inflict it on the rest of us.

Abra

Crybaby

Abra is the Lisa Maffia of Atlanta’s Awful Records crew and the member most likely to achieve solo success – well, as long as de facto group leader Father keeps calling his records things like I’m A Piece A Shit. Anyway, Crybaby is an inspired electro-funk throwdown, its perky Jellybean beat offset by a generous slug of lo-fi psychedelic oddness. As a great man once said: now that’s magic.

Banks & Steelz

Giant

There are so many weird hybrid bands around now that no combination would surprise you. Boy Better Know and Bonnie “Prince” Billy? Sure. Rammstein ft Jess Glynne? Could happen. The Wu-Tang’s RZA and Interpol singer Paul Banks? If you must. But be aware that in randomly shunting them together, as here, you will inevitably sacrifice what makes both of them interesting in pursuit of blundering, poppy compromise. Have fun.