EOIN BUTLER's guide to downloads, singles and free audiostreams

LOU REED & METALLICA

The View Universal***

"I really hope this is a joke", "One way to keep people from stealing your music" and "My own personal 9/11" were just some of the ecstatic fan reactions when this track from the forthcoming Lulualbum debuted online last Monday. As a general rule of thumb, anything that pisses meat- headed heavy metal fans off just has to be a good. And so it proves. Lou is as weird and obtuse as you would hope, and Kirk Hammett might be his best backing man since Robert Quine.

RIHANNA

We Found Love Def Jam ***

“We found love in a hopeless place,” coos the Barbadian superstar, on this track from her untitled sixth album. Oh really, Rihanna? And where was that then, the newspaper industry?

KASABIAN

Days Are Forgotten RCA **

Kasabian frontman Tom Meighan recently described U2 fans as "cardboard cutouts." A bit rich coming from a man whose bandmates look like extras from Pirates of the Caribbean. Days may be forgotten, Tom, but Match of the '70shaircuts are risible for all eternity.

JAMES BLUNT

Dangerous Atlantic *

There's a nasty rumour doing the rounds that James Blunt's new single is a blatant rip-off of Chesney Hawkes's cheesy classic The One and Only. Be warned: this is a cunning ruse, intended merely to trick you into listening to James Blunt's new single. Seriously, if anyone is being ripped off here, it's a comatose man bleeding to death in a bathtub.

CHER LLOYD ft MIKE POSNER

With Ur Love Syco ****

First things first, I'll admit it: With Ur Loveis essentially nothing more than MIA's Paper Planeswatered down by Simon Cowell's evil minions and repackaged for a pre-teen audience. Much as it pains me to admit it, however, the result is actually rather insanely catchy.