Round-up Tracks: (Calvin Harris, Pale Waves, Lana Del Rey & More)

Remember the baby-faced first incarnation of Calvin Harris? The star-hoody-wearing young’un who - despite being birthed almost halfway through the decade – managed to curry vast amounts of early favour off the back of his electro-minded ditty about hugging people who were born in the eighties, the eighties? Us neither.

These days our Cal has transformed. Currently, he’s best known for making mums utter sentences like ‘what a nice lad he is!’ when they see him in the Armani pants adverts, and mixing with music’s superstars. His new single ‘Slide’ sees him teaming up, as you do, with two thirds of Migos, and the ever elusive Frank Ocean.

Ocean’s saucily warbled chorus - “Do you slide on all your nights like this?” - is a winner from the off. Those helium-trilling melodies, those toastily reverberating piano chords? Just lovely. Stomping, funk-inflected bass-lines, those crispy little side helpings of robotic clappery? Superb. As it stands, between Cal and the gang, this lot might’ve just written the first entry for Pop Bop Banger of the Summer 2017™ (El Hunt)

There’s making a statement with your first single, and then there’s laying down the chorus of the year so far.

Pale Waves, the newest signing to Dirty Hit, have set themselves up for extremely big things with ‘There’s A Honey’, an instantly addictive cut that takes all of the pop punch of labelmates and the track’s producers The 1975 and packs it into a few minutes of limitless ambition.

The track’s lyrical uncertainty - “am I sure that you want me?” vocalist Heather Baron-Gracie admits in the chorus - is at odds with its polished finish. There’s nothing uncertain about where Pale Waves are heading. (Will Richards)

“Look at you kids, you know you’re the coolest,” Lana Del Rey announces on her return, and isolated on the lyric sheet, at least you could be forgiven for dreading the possibility that she’s returned in the guise of yer da trying to emulate Steve Buscemi’s 30 Rock cameo. But then again, ‘Love’ isn’t quite what meets the eye, in many ways.

Isolated plunks, Lana Del Rey’s mournful vocals, and darkened licks of cigarette smoke lead the way, a deceptively straightforward melody cloaking lyrical content that seems to strike a particular chime with current events. “The world is yours and you can’t refuse it,” she says, addressing hordes of anonymous kids, carefree in love, and innocent to all the evils of the world. “That don’t mean that you should abuse it,” she adds, pointedly.

Cast a quick eye across the world, and observe the man-children currently running amock through the White House and Westminster, and it’s clear to see that beneath this song’s initial simplicity, Lana’s giving something of a warning about the consequences of forgetting about ‘Love,’ too. (EH)

Time and space has served Tei Shi – who could’ve very easily rushed headlong into her debut off the back of early hype two years ago – well. To call ‘How Far’ a maturation makes it sound stuffy. Rather, this latest hint of her first full length demonstrates a confident no-filler honing of all that from-the-off promise.

Asking just how far she’s prepared to go in trying to change mean habits before leaving a toxic relationship, Tei Shi grapples with dilemmas over pulsing steps of bass; “how far can it take us, before it forsakes us”. On the strength of all these early glimpses, Valerie Teicher’s debut will be worth every last second of impatient anticipation. (EH)

El Paso punks At The Drive-In burnt out at their peak. Last album, 2000’s ‘Relationship of Command’, almost entirely serves as their legacy, and so it’d be no exaggeration to call the expectations on its follow up to be gargantuan.

First comeback single ‘Governed By Contagions’ was as cynical and gritty as Cedric, Omar and co. have ever been, and its follow-up, ‘Incurably Innocent’, treads the same path. From the needle sharp riff that opens the thunderous cut onwards, it’s a track that doesn’t relent. Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s vocals were never really intelligible, but the vicious babbling used to provide punches of feeling despite its ambiguity, and this connection is slightly lost on the new single.

Musically, ’Incurably Innocent’ undoubtedly makes its claim for hitting as hard as anything from ‘Relationship Of Command’ did, but whether At The Drive-In can remain to be as cutting with their political commentary as they once were is still up for debate. (WR)

Only a fool would doubt Rihanna’s ability to nail a feature (take ‘All of the Lights,’ ‘Live Your Life,’ ‘Run this Town,’ ‘Love the Way You Lie’ and ‘Take Care’ as prime examples) and yet again, ‘Selfish’ – from Future’s brand new record ‘HNDRXX’ – delivers with more panache than an incredibly welcome pizza dispatch from your local.

“Let’s not be alone tonight, let’s be selfish,” RiRi suggests alongside peppy snare-claps and synthetic yelps, Future’s falsetto falling into rank behind her. The stand-out slow-burner on an album of shadowey, gloom-drenched rap, ‘Selfish’ might not be as immediate as Rihanna’s previous guest moments. But still, propelled by the potent darkness of ‘ANTI’ this proves a stand-out moment from ‘HNDRXX’ all the same. (EH)

“It’s about crushing really hard on someone, and finding myself doing fucking ridiculous things to feel like we’ve got some kind of connection,” Girl Ray vocalist Poppy Hankin says about the trio’s latest cut ‘Stupid Things’.

The track is as woozy and unwavered by potential consequences as those first all-encompassing days of an onsetting mega-crush. We wouldn’t trust anyone more than Girl Ray to lay down those feelings into a sweet-as-hell pop song, either. They’re getting a knack for it. (WH)

Tags: Calvin Harris, Lana Del Rey, Pale Waves, Listen, Features