EOIN BUTLER's guide to downloads, singles and free audiostreams
ONE DIRECTION
What Makes You Beautiful
Syco ***
If you’ve been on Twitter anytime lately, two burning questions will likely have been troubling you: who exactly are One Direction, and why the hell have they been trending solidly for about a year now? Well, it turns out (a) One Direction are a pubescent boyband in the Busted/McFly mould and (b) teenage girls have suspect taste in music. As these sorts of acts go, however, One Direction are not the worst.
ADEBISI SHANK
International Dreambeat
Richter Collective ****
The opening track from their second album, recorded live last month by Sean Stout, abseils into view like Seal Team 6 and dumps you in the ocean four minutes later, feeling like your house has just been burgled. That’s a recommendation then. vimeo.com
LANA DEL RAY
Video Games ****
A 24-year-old New Yorker, Lizzy Grant describes herself as the "gangsta Nancy Sinatra" and "the sonic equivalent of a Vincent Gallo film". If that doesnt put you off – and yeah, it probably should – Video Gamesis her gorgeous, smoky debut single.
LECS LUTHER
Luther First
Second Label ***
Sure, it’s basically an Odd Future facsimile: but nonetheless, what an astonishingly accomplished production this is from Dublin-based rapper Alex Chiedu. “Luther’s the name, never needed a fucking nappy” is his appropriately improbable sign off
A SAMUELS
Livin' De Life
Island Def Jam ***
It’s been called the worst rap track of all time and a midlife crisis set to music. But you know what, 55-year-old casino executive Allen Samuels? Even though you clearly have Rebecca Black’s ill-gotten YouTube fortune firmly in your crosshairs, I ain’t mad atcha. Maybe it’s your snow-washed jeans. Maybe it’s your palpable, yet oddly incongruous sincerity. Maybe its the fact that your kids are probably squirming somewhere, mortified by all of this. But I like your style, old man. youtube.com
