Eoin Butler'sguide to singles, downloads and free audiostreams

PLAN B

She Said 679/Atlantic  * * * *

“She said I love you boy, I love you so/She said I love you boy, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.” On paper it reads like about the lamest couplet in pop history. On vinyl, it sings. Ben Drew may look like Wayne Rooney, but he has the voice of David McAlmond, and the courtroom drama video he stars in here is one of the quirkiest and most original things I’ve seen in a long time. (Incidentally, what provocation does it take for that judge to pound his gavel? The jury are performing finger clicks, for God’s sake!)

HOT CHIP

I Feel Better Parlophone  * * *

The second single from Hot Chip's One Life Standfinds the guys replaced by a bunch of boyband clones for what has to be one of the most bizarre videos you'll see this year. At one point the disembodied head of veteran actor Reginald VelJohnson (Sgt Al Powell from Die Hard) appears with lasers shooting from his eyes, and that's not even the weirdest thing in that particular shot. Wonderfully, wonderfully baffling.

GORILLAZ

On Melancholy Hill Parlophone  * * * *

Critics have described On Meloncholy Hill as Damon Albarn’s Waterloo Sunset, which rather ignores the facts that (a) virtually every song Albarn wrote between 1992 and 1995 was his Waterloo Sunset; and (b) if this track borrows a line from any other song, it’s actually The Beatles’ And Your Bird Can Sing. In any case, it is one of the most gorgeous moments from Gorrilaz’s Plastic Beach album.

PASSION PIT

Dreams  * * * *

This cover was performed live at the Big Day Out in Sydney and is a timely reminder of what a killer tune the Cranberries original really was.

BOY GEORGE

Amazing Grace  * * *

Amazing Graceis an up- tempo gospel stomper that's melodically reminiscent of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's The Power of Love.

It puts George on the brink of the most unlikely comeback since Lazarus. See itunes. com