News Tracks: AlunaGeorge, Julia Holter And More

It’s been another week of track-filled excitability, where oddball covers went head-to-head with exciting returns from some prized acts. DIY writers recklessly flicked through all the past 7 days’ offerings, picking out their personal favourites for our latest edition of Tracks. Who’d have thought, this time last week, that we’d be presenting to you a Titus Andronicus cover of Scandi-pop chart-topper ‘I Love It’, by Icona Pop? Things just seem to turn out that way.

AlunaGeorge - Bad Idea

AlunaGeorge have been fast on the rise, especially since the massive Disclosure-linked ‘White Noise’, which you’ll likely hear daily these days blasting out of car windows. With their debut album ‘Body Music’ out later this month, ‘Bad Idea’ is another snippet from one of the most anticipated records of the year. Over a bouncing beat, Aluna delivers feisty lyrics with a disarming charm. “You’re a car crash waiting to happen” she states on the chorus. “You’re a bad idea that’s going out of fashion/I’m not even going to put you at the back of the shelf”, letting her subject know that she’s not one to mess with. It’s more understated than their other recent material but this stripped-back 90s R&B sweetness is catchy and empowering. [Aurora Mitchell]

I Break Horses - Denial

“Fade out / cause you are dying”. I Break Horses bathe in bleakness. It’s part of the package. What you get in sweeping electronica you also receive in direct, disarming wordplay. It’s no surprise to find ‘Denial’ dealing with such heavy subjects, especially when it sounds so huge musically. Its forthright, skyscraper style is frighteningly clean, mimicking an army of androids taking flight. Maria Lindén’s vocals run from soft and floating to coarse and jerky, offering beauty within this clouded, dark pit that’s so unintentionally fascinating. [Jamie Milton]

Julia Holter - In The Green Wild

Julia Holter’s music has an undeniable, otherworldly quality, her signature wispy vocals and ambient keys often making you drift into a different state of mind. However, Holter is back and this time there’s little drifting to speak of. With ‘In The Green Wild’ standout, there’s no challenge in picking out all of the slight nuances in her music. Holter’s rapid, almost spoken-word vocals rush through the song, prompting the odd double-take when you hear lyrics like “There’s a flavour to the sound of fucking no one ever noticed before”. If this is anything to go by, Holter’s new album ‘Loud City Song’ couldn’t come any faster. [Aurora Mitchell]

King Krule - Easy Easy

Archy Marshall benefits from taking it easy and keeping things simple. The test over the course of his debut album will be whether he drifts off into jazz-inflected, noodly territory instead of staying true to his course. On arguably his most direct offering to date, the album opener suggests he’s keeping things concise. That’s when King Krule excels, making effective use of gruff and tough vocals, the reverb-flecked guitars that are fast becoming synonymous with Marshall’s music. [Jamie Milton]

Titus Andronicus - I Love It

From the opening seconds of this cover, you know that you’ve got an entirely different beast on your hands. Transforming the slick, dancefloor-ready anthem that once was Icona Pop’s ‘I Love It’ into a sprawling, chaotic but somehow-still-together garage punk jam, this just wouldn’t work if it wasn’t Titus Andronicus.

The repetitive chants from our frontman Patrick Stickles, who sounds fairly truthful with the lyrics he’s singing, are both impassioned yet ironically deadpan and somehow create a perfectly gritty track, which The Ramones themselves would probably have been jealous of. The fact that it manages to last eight minutes on mostly six words is only the start of this cover’s genius. [Sarah Jamieson]

Kanye West - Black Skinhead vs. Tame Impala - Elephant (#1 Mashup Metamix)

The idea of Yeezy drawling ‘Black Skinhead’ all over the top of Tame Impala’s sacred psychadelic-spangled guitar wares should sound like a fatal explosion in a genre factory. Luckily, D.C based producer Nate Belasco has managed to grasp the essence of both songs on this rather smashing mash-up, combining their shared thumping propulsion into something really quite brilliant. Bouncing along complete with howler monkey noises and setting a stomping pace, you’ll never listen to either song in quite the same way again. [El Hunt]