Chlöe Howl
Work
No, nothing to do with Rihanna, Kelly Rowland or, er, Men at Work; rather, the prodigious pop star makes a bold return after a few years out with a song that sounds like the result of an illegal genetic experiment to splice Adele with Robyn. Imagine the former’s Send My Love (To Your New Lover) but with choppy, subtly off-key instrumentation, and lyrics about making someone work for your affection, and you’re probably 99.9% there.
Sharon Van Etten
Comeback Kid
The usually lo-fi US singer makes music to soundtrack life’s most contemplative moments, like when you’re standing in the middle of Tesco trying to remember whether you need more eggs. Well, she used to at least. Van Etten has said she didn’t want her new single to be “pretty”, which explains its brooding yet buoyant synthpop. Excellent comeback, kid.
Mariah Carey
With You
The ultimate diva – the woman you imagine has a member of staff whose sole job it is to open jars, and another to tweet mean things about Jennifer Lopez – of course boasts strong form in diva-ish tracks; her last single, GFTO, was quickly the subject of a meme, thanks to Mimi cooing the words “How ’bout you get the fuck out?”. With You sees a change of pace towards the balladry she does so well, however, and it is really quite great. Although we imagine she probably also has a member of staff whose job it is to come and deal with us should we deign to say otherwise.
Dave ft Fredo
Funky Friday
This stone cold, bass-driven rap banger from the often political UK rapper goes back to basics with its themes of sliding into girls’ DMs and buying designer garms. And yet it doesn’t feel like a dull paean to consumerism, capturing both the grit and the glitz that has made UK rap so exciting in recent times. Well, except for the line “I’m always in Harrods”: someone get this lot on to Mr Porter, stat, and away from those teddy bears wearing union jack T-shirts.
HRVY
I Wish You Were Here
It is almost certainly news to you, but there’s a semi-famous UK pop star called HRVY. Doesn’t ring any bells, does it? And yet the guy is headlining Hammersmith Apollo in December. So, here’s 19-year-old HRVY with his latest single, which could definitely be a Conor Maynard B-side from 2012, but which has almost certainly sold 60,000,000 copies while you were reading this. AMZNG.
