Eoin Butler's guide to downloads, singles and free audiostreams
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE & JAY-Z
Suit & Tie, RCA ****
In this David Fincher-directed music video, JT and Jay-Z are buddies hangin’ out, shootin’ the shit and passive-aggressively competing to show who has the bigger penis. Chilling in the home they apparently share, Jay starts out sipping cognac and JT eating cereal (advantage Jay). But JT rallies, playing chess with a woman in her underwear (+10 points), before Jay opens his tuxedo jacket to reveal a kickass cummerbund (+20 points). Then, in what can only be described as a Joey Barton-esque “moment of madness”, JT pretends to read sheet music off an iPad and . . . oh God, the humanity!
CASS MCCOMBS
“If You Loved Me Before...”, Famous Class ***
The American singer-songwriter’s County Line was one of the saddest, sweetest tracks of 2011. Here Cass ditches the syrup to wail about the agony of lost love over a tinny keyboard and a guitar that sounds like a malfunctioning washing machine.
ONE DIRECTION
One Way or Another/ Teenage Kicks, Syco *
One Direction’s Blondie/ Undertones mash-up for Red Nose Day is something of a travesty musically. To it’s credit, though, it does come with an accompanying video in which the boys travel to Africa and learn how £5 can prevent a child from joining One Direction . . . sorry, dying. That should have said dying.
KATE NASH
3am, Universal **
“How did it get to 3am?” asks Kate Nash on this single from her Girl Talk album. (Something to do with the linear nature of time, I’d guess.) Quaint as it is to recall now, there was once a time when Nash was actually the most irritating person in pop. Then Ed Sheeran came along and nothing was ever the same again. Man, that kid didn’t just raise the bar, he superglued it to the ceiling.
