Shuffle

Eoin Butler'sguide to singles, downloads and free audiostreams

THE MAGNETIC FIELDS
Please Stop Dancing
Nonesuch Records
****
Repetitive, wafer-thin duet between Stephin Merrit and Shirley Simms that seems, at first, an odd choice of single from The Magnetic Fields' Distortionalbum. But once it works its way into your brain, you may require advice from the Residential Tenancies Board to help evict it.

ANNIE
I Know UR Girlfriend Hates Me
678 Recordings
****
Ice cool techno pop from Norway. Just throwing this out there, but couldn't it be Annie, the singing orphan from that irritating musical, that this man's girlfriend actually hates? That would make a lot more sense to me.

ALPHABEAT
10,000 Nights of Thunder
Charisma
**
Who on earth called this a "modern pop masterpiece"? Seriously, who? Because someone owes me 99 cent!

GAVIN ROSSDALE
Love Remains the Same
Interscope
*
The first 30 seconds sound like a copy of Fountains of Wayne's All Kinds of Time. The rest is more reminiscent of the contents of my "motion discomfort bag" after a recent rough Dublin-to-Holyhead ferry crossing. Moving on . . .

GUILLEMOTS
Falling Out of Reach
Polydor
**
Downbeat and contemplative here, Fyfe Dangerfield was much more fun when he was twirling around stage like a madman and pounding the keyboards with his elbows, circa Trains to Brazil.

WE SMOKE FAGS
Eastenders
679 Recordings
***
This electro/punk/indie trio from London are presumably none too happy with the recent smoking ban there. WSF make their Irish debut at Dublin's Crawdaddy tomorrow night. Leave it out, Peggy! I do not Adam and Eve it etc etc

LILY ALLEN
I Don't Know
Regal
***
Lines like "I want lots of clothes and f***loads of diamonds/I heard people die while they're trying to find 'em" point up both Lily's crass materialism and a possibly imperfect understanding of the blood diamonds issue. She's still worth a thousand Kate Nashes, mind. www.myspace.com/lilymusic