Neu This Week In New Music (9th November 2013)

Scour the entire sodding planet and you’d be unlikely to find three more disparately based bands. All doing completely different things but in turn perfecting their respective craft, they’ve stood out in a busy week that’s witnessed curious debuts, year-defining videos and the odd track to knock every casual passer-by off their tracks.

Here’s what happened this week in new music:

TRACK OF THE WEEK
Royal Blood - Come On Over


First up: The noise. Every bent guitar note being thumped out from Brighton two-piece Royal Blood dives headfirst into a deep abyss. Tasty and tempting, it’s a hellish depth, occupied by grizzly spirits and lone strangers. ‘Come On Over’ and it’s prudent B-side credentials is a sinful dose; less a smattering, more an almighty binge of riotous rock ‘n roll. The Queens of the Stone Age comparisons have some merit. Josh Homme’s probably wondering what these guys have been sipping.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Ballet School - Crush


Next up: The escapism. The trip out to a nostalgia paradise. Cocktails of Cocteau Twins and The Breakfast Club soundtracks are served up in endless supply. There’s the odd beautiful apartment too, like the one inhabited by Rosie Blair, who fronts these retro-obsessives Ballet School and gives them a star to front this excitable pop project. She belongs in the ’80s, does Blair, but this is the kind of video that suggest she could just as equally be a modern phenomenon.


DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK
Jr. Hi


Out of the blue and with absolutely zero warning, a guy named Jr. Hi - who might or might not still be in ‘junior high’, who’s to know? - released his debut song. It featured this bloke called The Weeknd. A few eyebrows were raised, obviously. There’s zero info on Jr. Hi but for the fact that he clearly has connections. This slick dose of R&B is as smooth as a strawberry milkshake. But it’s not so sweet: There’s a dark undercurrent - one perfectly suited to Abel Tesfaye - that swims around ‘Secrets’ like a drenched wasp that could still be alive, could still provide a sting.