Michaela May - 1954
★ ★
"Can't live my life stuck in an old cliche," resolves Michaela May on her debut single. In the very next line, she continues "Time to break the mould, time to do things my own way" Hmm. Top marks for effort there, Michaela...
Beyoncé - Formation
★ ★ ★ ★
"I just might be a black Bill Gates in the making," brags Beyoncé on Formation. As if to underscore her intent, two days after this song dropped, the former Destiny's Child star blew Coldplay off the stage at the Super Bowl Halftime Show. Based on the latter's performance, a mild sea breeze might have accomplished the same feat. But Beyoncé went further than that, using the event to showcase not one of her greatest hits, but this same new track that most people in the stadium had never heard before: a power move that might have been considered ballsy even if she were headlining this immense global spectacle, and the song wasn't the most politically outspoken she's ever recorded.
Animal Collective - FloriDada
★ ★ ★ ★
Strictly speaking, this single from Animal Collective's forthcoming Painting With album sneaked out late last year. But it passed me by until I heard it in a cafe recently and thought "Wow, that sounds like Animal Collective meets The Beach Boys on N-Bomb." (Yes, music journos deploy the same hackneyed sentence structure even when we're composing our private thoughts.) I duly Shazam-ed the track and it transpired I was right on one, if not all three, of those counts. Truly, truly bonkers.
The Sherlocks - Last Night
★ ★
The Sherlocks are a Yorkshire four-piece who've just finished supporting The Libertines on a sold-out UK arena tour. "Can you remember last night?" they demand on their new single. Well, if I'm not very much mistaken, I stayed up late listening to mediocre indie music and counting the tiles on my kitchen floor. Elementary, dear boy.
