Shuffle

EOIN BUTLER'Sguide to downloads, singles and free audiostreams

DR DRE, EMINEM SYKLAR GREY

I Need a Doctor Aftermath ***

More than a decade in the works, and with a supporting guest cast tipped to include Jay Z, Lil Wayne, Lady Gaga, R Kelly, La Roux and (quite possibly) Crystal Swing, Dre's Detox album risks becoming hip-hop's answer to Chinese Democracy. Like Axl, Dre returns to a much changed musical landscape. Dissing his critics as "faggots", for example, seems particularly ill-judged, given that the track uses the dramatic conceit of

a coma fantasy as the jumping off point for what is, essentially, a love letter from the staunchly hetrosexual rapper to his younger protégée. Ahh, you guys!

KANYE WEST FT RIHANNA, KID CUDI

All of the Lights Def Jam/Roc-a-Fella *****

In Dre's absence, here's what the competition has been up to. Hype Williams's video is an explosion of sound and colour, opening with a Rocky-esque fanfare and culminating in a sequence so eye-popping it's been apparently causing YouTube viewers to have seizures. Advantage Kanye.

YEA DEADLIES

Disc Jockey Blues Popical Island ***

On which the jangy Popical Islanders tackle the perennial question: who exactly is taking the horse to France? Their debut album, The First Book of Lessons, may (or, indeed, may not) be launched in Dublin's Shebeen Chic on April 1st.

BRIAN MCFADDEN

Just the Way You Are (Drunk at the Bar) *

Over a godawful banjo-meets- techno backing track, the ex-Westlife charmer boasts that he “can’t wait” to take an intoxicated girl home so he can “take advantage” and “do some damage.” If you ask me, this has got “savvy career move” written all over it.

AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR

Search: Party Animal Richter Collective ****

Another pulverising slab of instrumental rock action from a band better known to my neighbours as And So I Hear You From the Far Side of the Partition Wall, Will You Turn That Bloody Thing Down – It’s One O’clock in the Morning!?