KATY PERRY ft. SKIP MARLEY
Chained to the Rhythm ★★
Capitol
Kim Jong Un's (alleged) favourite pop star is back, teaming up with Bob Marley's 20-year-old grandson on this amusement park-themed single. The video features a lobotomised, Edward Scissorhands-esque citizenry queuing to take their turn on a hamster wheel. With lyrics about feeling "happily numb… trapped in our white picket fence", Chained to the Rhythm has been hailed online as a damning indictment of vapid US consumer culture. (I'd have thought Perry's continuing success as a musician was already a pretty big indictment of vapid US consumer culture. But that's neither here nor there…)
LANA DEL REY
Love ★★★
Interscope
Pitchfork's glowing review of Lana Del Rey's latest single claims it contains a "knowing wink" to the classic Beach Boys' track Don't Worry Baby. That knowing wink turns out to be Lana simply uttering the song's title in passing in the lyrics towards the end of this track. Which could be a Beach Boys reference. Or it could, as easily, be her simply telling some dude not to worry. Which is to say, this is not a comeback single on which Lana Del Rey has broadened her artistic palate to any extent. That Mad Men-femme fatale shtick that was her whole act five years ago, remains her whole act today. It's still somewhat seductive. But it just feels a little regressive.
MAGGIE ROGERS
Alaska (Live on Jimmy Fallon) ★★★★
A 22-year-old banjo player from rural Maryland, Maggie Rogers walked off a failed relationship by enlisting as a tour guide in the wilds of the United States's most gigantic and (almost) least populous state. Yet somehow this song, which came out of that experience, is… inexplicably funky. And after her viral video encounter with Pharrell last year, with this network TV debut on the Tonight Show, she's just gone mainstream. New debut EP Now That The Light Is Fading is on Spotify.
