EOIN BUTLER's guide to singles, downloads and free audiostreams
Artic Monkeys
My PropellerDomino ***
“Have a spin of my propeller,” suggests Alex Turner. “I can’t get it started on my own.” The third single from the Sheffield band’s third album is laced with more thinly veiled innuendo than a Frankie Howerd routine. And to think, they used to be such nice young men. What’s the world coming to?
Lady Gaga ft Beyonce
TelephoneInterscope ****
Murder, masturbation and gratuitous product placement – here's a violent and sexually explicit nine-minute lezz-ploitation romp that makes even Madonna's Justify My Lovevideo look as quaint and innocent as Mary Poppins. What's the point? Nothing, I suspect, except to burnish Lady Gaga's reputation as the most provocative and talked-about popstar of 2010. And, boy, is it working. At the time of writing, less than four days since it debuted on YouTube, Telephonehas already notched up more than 16 million views. Mary, Derek and Dervla: consider yourselves pwnd.
Vengence & The Panther Queen
Keep it on the phone***
More telecommunication- related melodrama. Vengeance the Panther Queen are singer Tara McCormack backed by members of Republic of Loose. Their debut single is available to download from March 21st. See myspace.com/vengeance andthepantherqueen
Alex Gardiner
I'm not MadA&M,
***
Brooding Scottish pop hunk and self-proclaimed sane person (but he would say that, wouldn’t he?), Alex Gardner is the latest protégée of the successful English hit-making team Xenomania. This track is culled from Gardner’s hotly anticipated And I’m Pretty Sure I Don’t Have Any Contagious Diseases album. Okay, the last bit is a lie.
Devendra Banhart
BabyReprise **
The video depicts endlessly irritating hipster goblin Banhart walking around his hipster neighbourhood, meeting up with his hipster friends (The Strokes’ Fabrizio Moretti and MGMT’s Andrew VanWyngarden) and then flying off into space in what looks like a giant earplug.
The noise in the background? Oh, that’s just my teeth grinding.
