Singles

Eoin Butler'sguide to singles, downloads and free audiostreams

FRANZ FERDINAND

No You Girls/ Domino**

A few weeks back, this column accused Oasis of having a more limited artistic palette than any other successful group. It was subsequently inundated with responses (well, one e-mail) fingering some equally-as-bad- or-worse offenders: AC/DC, Westlife, Suede, etc. Perhaps we can add to that list Franz Ferdinand. The Edinburgh quartet, for all of their panache, have essentially been rehashing the same song for the last five years.

LISA HANNIGAN

I Don't Know/ Barp***

In case you missed it, Lisa Hannigan received a massive boost in the US last week when she appeared on Comedy Central's hugely popular Colbert Report. The host even broke character, urging fans to buy her Sea Sew album. If the Colbert Nation are as zealous about following up their idol's music picks as they are about rigging online polls and altering Wikipedia entries, then Hannigan will shortly be a wealthy woman.

SPARKS

Lighten Up Morrissey/ Li'l Beethoven Records

This single from the Mael brother's Exotic Creatures of the Deepalbum isn't dissing the former Smiths singer, but rather relating the story of a hapless guy whose girlfriend constantly compares him to Morrissey and finds that he always comes up short.

LA ROUX

In for the Kill/ Polydor***

There've been all sorts of bitchy stories about La Roux in the press recently: that she's a diva, that she can't sing, that her mother used to be in The Bill. Here she answers her critics. The opening couplet "We can fight our desires/ but will we stop making fires?" is either the greatest or the silliest of the week.

Another contender for best opening line of the week is Weezy’s idiosyncratic “I loved her fancy underwear.” But why exactly is the Best Rapper Alive® doing a rock album with members of Korn? Because he’s completely bonkers, of course.