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

TOM WAITS

Bad As Me ANTI- Records****

"A few bad apples and they ruin it for everyone else," grumbled Waits in a video posted to YouTube this week. "Well, I'm going to solve it." He's talking about music piracy. In the seven years since his last studio album, Real Gone, and a lot has changed in the music industry. But Waits is still the same showman growling, cackling enigma he always was. The album Bad As Meis due October 24th.

FLORENCE + THE MACHINE

What the Water Gave Me Island ***

Well, this is already turning into quite a week for epic comeback singles by idiosyncratic singer-songwriters. The title of this track may be taken from a famous painting of a bathtub, but it’s the kitchen sink that gets thrown into the production. Its is an incredibly ambitious recording and one that clearly has its sights set on chart success. The latter will undoubtedly be forthcoming: this has hit single written all over it. But Welch may yet come to cringe at some of the excesses she has permitted herself here.

WHISKEY SHIVERS

Gimme All Your Lovin'***

Whiskey Shivers' Gimme All Your Lovin'is not a ZZ Top cover, but rather a rollicking bluegrass banjo number that came to our attention courtesy of a hilarious video by Rob Wadleigh. Let's just say it gives new meaning to the expression "one man band." www.youtube.com

PATRICK KELLEHER AND HIS COLD DEAD HANDS

Miracle CandleOsaka Recordings ****

The lead single from Kelleher's Golden Syrupalbum is built on what sounds like the synthesizer riff from I Feel Loverecreated on a tinny Casio keyboard. In the video, directed by Sophie Gateau, the Dubliner flails around like a young Stephen Patrick Morrissey bizarrely miscast in the Prodigy's Firestartervideo. It is quite brilliant. Golden Syrupgets its UK release on September 12th.