PADDY HANNA
Sunday Milkshake ★★★
Trout Records
Debuting online earlier this week, Sunday Milkshake is an excellent solo single from Grand Pocket Orchestra frontman Paddy Hanna. The Dublin singer-songwriter describes it as "a tale of realisation, of waking up on a dirty couch and realising some mistakes cannot be undone." Granted, there are no easy answers in life, Paddy… but have you ever heard of something called Fabreeze?
JAMES BLAKE
My Willing Heart ★★★
Polydor
"When I see my willing heart, how will I know?" This track, from James Blake's The Colour in Anything album, is over a year old. But the ethereal accompanying video, directed by Anna Rose Holmer, is brand new. In it, a heavily pregnant Natalie Portman is filmed floating underwater. At one point, her unborn kid can be seen kicking through the walls of her swollen stomach. It's a moving image. She gave birth just a few days after this was filmed.
BLONDIE
Long Time ★★★★
BMG
"I can give you a heartbeat," sings Debbie Harry, picking up on an apparent cardio theme in this week's singles. "I can give you a friend." Co-written by Dev Hynes of Blood Orange, this track from Blondie's forthcoming Pollinator album echoes the band's classic 1979 single Heart of Glass in it's opening bars. The New Wave greats will be supporting crappy old Phil Collins at the Aviva Statium in Dublin this summer, as part of his Not Dead Yet tour (aka Blondie's But If We Were, We'd Be Spinning in Our Graves tour.)
CLEAN BANDIT ft. ZARA LARSSON
Symphony ★★★★
Atlantic
"Your song is on repeat," sings Zara Larsson, on the third single from Clean Bandit's forthcoming So Good album. "And I'm dancing to your heartbeat." Okay, the heart references are getting spooky at this point. I'm either about to have a heart attack or Nick Berry is set to launch a TV comeback.
