Singles

EOIN BUTLER'sguide to singles, downloads and free audiostreams

Who Can Say XL   ****

When word filtered out last month that The Horrors had made – whisper it – a pretty decent second album, the amazed reaction was akin to people learning that David Beckham had developed a treatment for swine flu, or Susan Boyle had just swum the English Channel. The pompous spoken word bit in the middle here is mildly risible (“And when I told her I didn’t love her anymore/She cried”) But that aside, the rumours are true. This isn’t bad.

Not Fair Parlophone  ***

“I’m lying on the wet patch in the middle of the bed/I feel pretty hard done by, I’ve spent ages giving . . . ” Lily’s new single is as blunt an assessment of a man’s sexual inadequacies as you’re likely to hear in the charts. Perhaps the funniest bit is that she actually performed the track live, virtually unedited on Ant Dec’s Saturday Night Take Away. Didn’t anyone think of the children?!

At Last Get Down! ****

The Franco-Finnish duo are named after the first and last note on the standard musical scale. The moniker is intended to represent what’s old and new, giving the musicians and artist the latitude and longitude to reinvigorate any musical genre. Well, that’s what their MySpace page says anyway. And their music is as idiosyncratic as their prose. Which is a recommendation, of sorts.

Bulletproof Polydor  ***

It’s not often that the sleeve art on a CD single grabs your attention, but whoever designed the cover for Bulletproof has earned their wages, with an iconic image reminiscent of one of Bowie’s mid-1970s albums. With just one hit single under her belt, 20-year-old Elly Jackson already has a regal air about her.

I Do Not Hook Up RCA **

She doesn’t clasp, lock or lasso either, I’ll wager . . . Okay, I admit it. I haven’t the faintest notion what this song is about.