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Singles column 23 July 2012 - Keane, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Thom Yorke, Rick Ross & more

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Jamie Skey @jamie_skey rounds-up all this week's most significant singles, plus the new songs that have surfaced online in the last seven days that you shouldn't miss...

Singles out today, 23 July 2012


Keane's The Sovereign Light Café was inspired by a diner of the same name situated along the promenade in Bexhill-on-Sea, east Sussex, a destination bestselling author William Boyd, whose novel Any Human Heart inspired the band to write a song, and who in turn wrote a short story for the sleeve notes of their latest album Strangelands, described in the Guardian as "redolent of a form of timeless English holiday." However the song itself, with its breezy atmosphere of traditional British cheeriness and politeness, is too mild mannered to be remembered in a hurry, as Keane re-visit their love of shimmering pianos and candied melodies.
It's rare a nu-metalband can be described as "easy-on-the-eyes", but strangely that does seem to be one of Linkin Park's chief accolades. Musically they remain as overblown as ever, and while Lost In The Echo might revel in state-of-the-art theatricality, it don't be breaking any barriers as by now you either love their cod-rapping and agonisingly over-emotive, wind-machine choruses... or you demise it.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers were always at their best when exploring their subtler, tender side and Brendan's Death Song - one of nine singles to be released over the next few months - finds Kiedis and co again in a gentler, more contemplative mood, although the band's stadium-filling hooks remain AWOL.

You got to hand it to them, The Enemy have balls and can churn out anthems to swill beer to by the dozen, as proven on Like A Dancer. There's little to it, but at least the Coventry trio have heart amidst the crashing cymbals and fist-pumping power chords.

Northern Irish trio Two Door Cinema Club have lightened up on new track Sleep Alone, forthcoming LP Beacon, probably because their new material was recorded in LA, between long, winding drives along the Pacific Coast Highway. This sparkling, blissed-out cut is as breezy as driving with the top down.

Kylie Minogue's clubbing pals Scissor Sisters are back and sounding, well, exactly as they always have, with Baby Come Home, an unabashed slice of floor-filling fun. I defy you to not be humming the chorus gaily after just one spin.

New online

Thom Yorke's side-project Atoms For Peace are back, just in case King Of Limbs hadn't satisfied you enough, with a single which sees them remixing their own track Other Side and Other Live's 'Tamer Animals,' a glimmering, undulating, dilating, droning, writhing piece of downcast electro.

Ex-prison warder Rick Ross teams up with hip-hop legends Dr Dre and Jay-Z on 3 Kings which appeared online (possibly leaked) last week. A laid-back, hip-swishing slice of psychadelia that owes just tiny debt to Notorious BIG's bass-flexing
ways. Classic hip-hop shit, as Dre might say.

Singer-songwriter by royal appointment - she played Will and Kate's reception last year - Ellie Goulding has left her thrummy, acoustic-pop sound on the back burner on Hanging On - former track of the day - a more new-age Enya-cum-dubstep mash-up of the Active Child song, which compellingly echoes Annie Lennox and Imogen Heap. And in a drive to fixing up and looking sharp commercially, she's enlisted the spitting prowess of Tinie Tempah, though he really doesn't do the track any favours at all.

Join us next Monday for more singles and the latest online releases

12:11 PM | 23/07/2012

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Jamie Skey , Singles Column

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  • wow gt nthn to sae m speachless

    Posted by constantine mutemeri at 7:59 PM | 27/07/2012 | Report Abuse

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