ICEAGE

How Many

Matador

At first I have to check that my laptop isn't having a conniption. This new single from the Danes really does sound like two different Smiths demos playing simultaneously, at the wrong speed. Singer and silver- tongued lyricist Elian Bender Ronnenfelt – "Such a perfect lover I could become/An alliance in body and mind"(!?) – has even mastered Morrissey's trademark "purr", a vocal tic they apparently both now share with Moz's old nemesis the Queen. But How Many rewards more than one airing. Iceage's third album, Ploughing Into the Field of Love, is out October 6th.

DAMIEN RICE

I Don’t Want to Change You

Warner

Tortured middle-of-the-road artist Damien Rice returns from eight years of, presumably, skulking in the woods and conducting advanced experiments with facial hair. His third album, My Favourite Faded Fantasy, was recorded in LA and Iceland with Rick Rubin. "Love is not for fun," he pronounces on this, its first official single. Of course, knowing miserable old Rice cakes, he probably says the same thing about crazy golf.

KENDRICK LAMAR

i

Interscope

Lamar's 2012 major label debut, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, surveyed the realities of life in the Compton ghetto. But on this first track from the rapper's untitled follow-up (constructed around a delicious sample of the Isley Brothers' That Lady), he sounds as though he's cruising up the Pacific Coast Highway with the hood rolled down. Sure, gang violence and police harassment still form the backdrop to some of these lyrics. But this is the sound of a man rising above the past and looking to the future.

SIMI CROWNS

Pressure

Nigeria-born rapper Simi Crowns earned airplay across the country with this anthem about overcoming the odds and achieving success. In the video, filmed at Dublin’s Beau Jack Boxing Club, he get the crap beaten out of him. Swings and roundabouts, eh?