Gorillaz (Feat James Murphy & Andre 3000) – DoYaThing
Gorillaz. LCD Soundsystem. Outkast. It’s the kind of collaboration to give cardigan wearing hipsters an erection so epic, it would knock over their bicycles.
“DoYaThing” is exactly what you would expect from the three of them mixed together – stark raving lunacy / genius. It is by no means immediate and probably the most obscure single that any of them had to date. However, while Gorillaz have given us a reliably percussion-heavy melody and James Murphy does what he can with the chorus, the show belongs to Andre 3000. His 85-second frantic rap is undoubtably the most memorable guest spot since Nicki Minaj stole the show on Kanye West’s “Monster.”
In any other set of hands, “DoYaThing” would have been a hot mess. Instead, it’s a smoking hot infusion of about ten different genres of music. Check out the typical Gorillaz video masterpiece below. 4 stars.
Pitbull – Back In Time
Between his Ne-Yo collaboration “Give Me Everything”, J.Lo’s “On The Floor”, Usher’s “DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love” and Enrique’s Iglesias’ ”I Like It”, Pitbull’s reign of terror has been relentless.
There’s good and bad news with his latest track, “Back In Time”, which will be the theme song for the surprisingly decent looking Men In Black 3. The bad news? His global domination continues. The good news? It’s easily his best track to date.
Cashing in on the Aviici/Flo Rida trend of infusing old songs into modern commercial gems, Pitbull samples Mickey & Syliva’s “Love Is Strange” – which featured in Dirty Dancing.
“Back In Time” is effortlessly epic. It’s an all bases covered up-tempo and pulsating jam, where the beat, synthesisers and even a dubstep bridge pummel you until the dancefloor is covered in blood, sweat and tears.
Men In Back might be able to reboot an old franchise, retain the original cast and even dabble in time travel without too much questioning, but most impressively, it made Pitbull listenable. 3 stars.
Marina & The Diamonds – Primadonna
For those of you not fortunate enough to have been exposed, I think Marina – and her diamonds – are one of the most exciting things happening in pop music right now.
Her 2010 debut, The Family Jewels, laid the blueprint for a potential star. Loaded with 80s influenced pop gems and abstract ballads, she was an antithesis of Gaga, or a Kate Bush for people too young to know who Kate Bush was.
Two years later, Marina and her sparkly cohort are back with another album, almost entirely written by Marina, produced by pop genius Dr.Luke, and Lily Allen’s saviour Greg Kurstin. Album teaser Radioactive introduced us a different Marina. She still maintained her gloomy, edgy attitude but it was now on a dance floor at 4am.
Now we have Primadonna, the official single off her sophomore album, which sounds like a continuation of Radioactive, a reassuring sign that the album will be consistent in both theme and quality. It isn’t her strongest single to date, but wedges herself right in-between sounding current and being different.
Radioactive was superior but Primadonna still packs a fair punch. Bring on the album! 3 stars.
