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

MADONNA ft M.I.A. & NICKI MINAJ

Give Me All Your Luvin' Interscope ***

The lead single from Madge's MDNAalbum, as performed during her Super Bowl show, is a lightweight piece of bubblegum pop very much in the vein of her earlier Beautiful Stranger.Guest artist Nicki Minaj is brilliant but underutilised, while M.I.A. contributes virtually nothing.

OK GO

Needing/Getting Capitol **

How does an independent- minded band, better known for its exploits on YouTube than for any particular commercial or critical cachet, monetise what they do? By producing a car commercial that masquerades as a music video. There’s a recession on, and it is a rather inventive effort, so we probably shouldn’t rush to judge them.

BENNY SMILES ft BALLZ DEEP

NCAD Girl

“I was about to get my dole on/When I saw this honey stroll on.” An amusing ode to Thomas Street’s finest, narrated by a person who could be described as a Barry White soundalike (if Barry White were actually from Dublin and wont to betray his true identity by slipping up and using words like “anyways” from time to time.)

RENDEZVOUS

The Murph Rough Trade****

Israeli duo Itai Simon and Hagai Izenberg are billed (accurately if not concisely) as "Air meets Jean Michel Jarre meets Kraftwerk, via Pink Floyd." Scott Benson's video treatment, meanwhile, is like an animated retelling of The Tree of Life. Only shorter, and more entertaining.

MAGNETIC FIELDS

Andrew in Drag Domino**

The first single from Magnetic Fields' Love at the Bottom of the Seaalbum is about a straight man who falls in love with his (equally straight) male friend when the latter jokingly dresses in drag. Any hint of pathos is negated by the delivery of Stephin Merritt, who could tell us a meteor was about to wipe out human civilisation and still sound arch and glib about it.