Features Tracks: Frankie & The Heartstrings, Haim, Girls Aloud And More

With your eardrums being literally bombarded with new tracks on a daily basis, it’s easy to get confused about what to listen to. But fear not, dear reader, for our writers and radio presenters have made you this handy guide to the very best new music to hit the interwebs in the last seven days. So here, for your aural pleasure, we give you, this week’s Tracks.

Kendrick Lamar - Backseat Freestyle
The second decade of the twentieth century is becoming a golden one for hip-hop. Among the almost endless wave of impossibly thrilling, experimental and largely DIY rappers who have emerged in the past few years is 25 year old Dr Dre endorsed Compton native Kendrick Lamar. Lamar has the potential to be astronomically huge as he slays almost everyone else effortlessly. The next track to emerge from his forthcoming debut ‘good kid, mAAd city’ crystallises just why he is so exciting. The beat provided by Hit Boy is a thrilling, menacing minimalist judder over which Lamar delivers increasingly unhinged rhymes with a thrilling insouciance. It’s a weird, slightly disorienting piece of peerless idiosyncratic hip-hop. A must listen. (Martyn Young)

Kendrick Lamar - Backseat Freestyle by Interscope Records


Flume - Holdin On
One friend thought I should be hung, drawn and quartered for my choice this week. The other has spent many an hour drooling over it. For those of us who don’t have ‘guitars till I die’ engraved in your genes you’ll appreciate an amazing dance / future music sound that tears up the dancefloor. You’ll be even more impressed when you hear it’s from 19 year-old Sydney based DJ Harley Stretan ata FLUME. Big things for this one. Keep an ear out.(Elise Cobain – Alive and Amplified)



Girls Aloud – Something New
‘We girls gonna take control.’
Too bleedin’ right they are. For too long we’ve been conning ourselves that our favourite fay indie kids could bring the pophits. They can’t, or at least not like this. If a wake up call was due, it’s fitting it comes from the very top.

The greatest homegrown pop act of a generation, Girls Aloud aren’t back with a whimper. ‘Something New’ isn’t a heartfelt ballad. It’s a magpie’s stash of everything that’s amazing about modern pop. There’s the obvious nod to Beyonce, a segment that can’t help but recall Rihanna, and the overarching poppers o’clock euphoria of Gaga’s greatest moments. Some are so obvious they should be a problem, but as a comeback - a statement that, even if it’s for a fleeting moment, Girls Aloud are back - it’s a triumph. A ‘Now…’ album playing every track at once, but in perfect harmony. (Stephen Ackroyd)



Frankie & The Heartstrings - I Still Follow You
It seems like just minutes since Frankie & The Heartstrings bounced on to our stereos with their Top 40 debut ‘Hunger’, and yet they’re already back at it. ‘I Still Follow You’ is the first taster of the band’s work with producer Bernard Butler on their second long-player - and it’s the perfect mixture of ‘more of the same’ and ‘a bit better’. Less immediate, perhaps, than the first record’s singles, the song displays promising buds of a darker edge from the Sunderland quintet. (Emma Swann)




Captain, We’re Sinking! - Montreal
This 7’ serves are a precursor to the stunning forthcoming full length from Scranton PA’s Captain, We’re Sinking. The a-side features the single from the upcoming LP, ‘Montreal’, with the b-side being exclusive to this 7’. Limited to 500 copies total. I have not been able to stop listening to this track. The song is so powerful, with driving guitaring after a great build up and fantastic dynamics from the singer (Bob). Really cheers me up on every listen, hopefully you feel the same. The band are hoping to release the second full length in January. (Cilléin McEvoy)



Haim – Don’t Save Me
There’s nothing quite so good as hearing a track for the first time, and knowing full well that it could have been the soundtrack to your teens. Despite it not existing back then. Knowing that it could slot, easily, into the soundtrack of any John Hughes film ever made; Ducky could easily have danced around that record store to Haim’s latest offering. And yet, somehow, it does all this, without sounding either retro or dated. And that, that’s genius. (Simone Scott Warren)




Razmataz Lorry Excitement – China Town
Razmataz Lorry Excitement has temporarily downed tools playing synths for Field Music and is back with a bang (or should that be banger?). ‘China Town’ - a preview track from forthcoming album ‘If It Takes Me All Night Long’ - is a synth laden, blippy electro-fest; equidistant of SMD-esque tech-house and indie synth-pop. Showcasing luscious vocals from Swedish singer/songwriter, Natalie Stern and a sax cameo from The Lakes Poets’ Martin Longstaff, ‘China Town’ rattles along with foot-tapping aplomb, clocks in at a radio-friendly 3 and a half minutes and wouldn’t feel out of place sharing the airwaves with 2 Bears, TEED and (more specifically) M83. Superb stuff from another unearthed talent; keep your eyes peeled for the album’s launch in early December. Until then, ‘China Town’ should be played loud and on repeat, pausing momentarily to listen to the superb RLE mixtape – ‘Punk is Daft #6’, available as a free download from Soundcloud. Happy times. (Nathan Wood)