Shaun Ryder - Close The Dam
Madchester godfather Shaun Ryder has a busy year ahead. First he rejoins Black Grape on tour, with dates scheduled in Dublin, Belfast and Donegal next month. In July, he's off to the Far East with the Happy Mondays, on a separate reunion tour that makes its way to Vicar Street in December. To blunt our appetite for all that, here's some inferior new material his fans will no doubt be anxious not to hear live. "Stanley Kubrick, Biggie Smalls, Paul McKenna (!?)," Ryder rasps, inexplicably. "Fookin' genius!"

Destroyer - Dream Lover
In interviews to promote his 10th album Poison Season, Dan Bejar acknowledges the influence heavyweight artists like Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell and Christian-era Dylan have had on his music. In Dream Lover's horns, slacker vocals and pretty melodies, lighter echoes of The Concretes' self-titled debut album are also heard. "Ah shit, here comes the sun," Bejar grouses at one point, botching the famous George Harrison quotation only very slightly.

Jamie xx ft. Young Thug & Popcaan - I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times)
Hip-hop, dancehall and a sample of The Persuasions' Good Times: Jamie xx fuses all three here to create a laidback club anthem that reeks of summer. The Londoner plays Forbidden Fruit in Dublin on Saturday, May 30th.

Brandon Flowers -  I Can Change
When The Killers emerged in 2004, Brandon Flowers was dismissed by some as a shameless 1980s copyist. A decade later, that charge basically still sticks. (I Can Change samples Bronski Beat's 1984 Smalltown Boy, for God's sake.) His latest solo offering, The Desired Effect, has just earned him a sixth career UK number one album though, so I'm guessing Flowers couldn't care less what the critics think.