Look, we all knew this would happen eventually. Back on July 1st we gave This Week In Records a little revamp with a regular structure and, because it was the summer and I could easily stay up until the early hours listening to a bunch of new music and scouring the web for the best of it, a reliable 9am publishing schedule. 19 weeks on, we’re finally coming in 24 hours late thanks to Thursday night being spent amongst the Surge Radio crew for a successful evening at the Student Radio Awards in which table wine was thoroughly enjoyed by all – but not before I’d sent some emails about the new Childish Gambino track that eventually startled me the next morning. If you’d like to see your upcoming release featured on these pages when we return to our regularly-scheduled Friday-based programming, email us at [email protected].
The xx – ‘On Hold’
Few music-based emails will genuinely make me drop my cutlery in order to hit play. In fact, it’s entirely possible that the last time I was so smitten with a sudden single release was four-plus years ago when The xx previewed ‘Angels‘ from Coexist. Yet, when ‘On Hold’ arrived on Thursday morning, it felt like Jamie, Romy, and Oliver had never left.
Yogi feat. AlunaGeorge & Less Is Moore – ‘Blow You Up’
Just like he did before leaving BBC Radio 1’s Hottest Record slot with Annie Mac, Zane Lowe premieres a big new track 30 minutes into his two hour dose of new music and enthusiastic shouting. Here’s a tweet that plugs one such example.
Fresh ????@zanelowe's #WorldRecord is #BlowYouUp from @yogiofficial (ft. @alunageorge)https://t.co/rAPwDbsSan pic.twitter.com/LOU0tMsTRk
— Beats 1 (@Beats1) June 30, 2016
The observant among you may notice that tweet is older than my now-broken run of Friday roundups – yes, just as it seemed the music industry finally properly implemented a global New Music Friday last summer, killing off pre-orders of singles in favour of bringing that “on air, on sale” promise of 2011 to genuine fruition, a track gets spun on a big station and then gets apparently abandoned for almost five months. I never quite went to the lengths of creating a Ugandan iTunes account to nab a copy of ‘Blow You Up,’ instead catching it on various spots on YouTube before it got taken down, but now we have a video and I’ve handed over my 99p, please, dear OWSLA, let this be the end of such nonsense.
Emeli Sandé – Long Live The Angels
Yesterday, Emeli Sandé’s debut album re-entered the UK album chart at number 72 to claim its 135th week in the top 100. Considering Our Version Of Events sold so heavily throughout 2012 and 2013 – years in which it was respectively the biggest and second-biggest selling record in the country – it’s a wonder that there’s anybody left without a copy. Give this one, prefaced by unalarming yet moderately pleasant singles ‘Hurts’ and ‘Garden’ already, until Christmas and watch it settle in like pop’s other Adele did all too well little less than a year ago.
Childish Gambino – ‘Me And Your Mama’
I have no idea what’s going on here in this song of three parts but it’s bloody good. Welcome back, Mr. Glover.
Vaults – ‘One Day I’ll Fly Away’
Quite aside from the fact that it’s not even mid-November and the world appears to have begun its collective (and ever earlier) swoon into all things festive and merry, the latest John Lewis advert is rather adorable, as is anything with dogs, trampolines, and snow. The pre-requisite dreary cover that they’ve set it to, however, is not. This round’s beneficiary of the copious promo is Vaults, who were last spotted on a Gorgon City single that became quite unbearable the moment I noticed Facebook’s desktop message sound lurking in the chorus.
Selected Other Releases
Albums
Alex Clare – Tail Of Lions
A Tribe Called Quest – We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service
Bibi Bourelly – Free The Real, Pt. 2 EP
Couros – Jupiter EP
Dragonette – Royal Blues
Hudson Mohawke – Dedsec
Nathan Sykes – Unfinished Business
Olly Murs – 24 HRS
Shakka – The Island EP
Shift K3Y – NIT3 TALES, Pt. 2 EP
Sleigh Bells – Jessica Rabbit
The Manor – Weak Days, Strong Nights EP
Tiggs Da Author – Grenville Grove EP
Singles
Aquilo – ‘Sorry’
Belly feat. Young Thug & Zack – ‘Consuela’
Busted – ‘One Of A Kind’
Coldplay – ‘Everglow’
DNCE – ‘Be Mean’
Fergie – ‘Life Goes On’
Giggs – ‘Rap Gustavo’
Giorgio Moroder feat. Karen Harding – ‘Good For Me’
GoldLink feat. Marsha Ambrosius – ‘See I Miss Pt. 2’
Klangkarussell – ‘In The Crowd Alone’
Laurel – ‘Maybe Baby’
Little Mix – ‘Nothing Else Matters’
Mark Johns – ‘Love Letter’
Milky Chance – ‘Cocoon’
Oliver Heldens feat. Ida Corr – ‘Good Life’
Pulled Apart By Horses – ‘The Big What If’
Ravitez & Afrojack feat. Amba Shepherd – ‘The Great Escape’
Skream – ‘You Know, Right?’
Sia feat. Miguel & Queen Latifah – ‘Satisfied’
SOHN – ‘Conrad’
The Weeknd feat. Daft Punk – ‘Starboy’ (Kygo Remix)
Wolfgang Gartner feat. John Oates – ‘Baby Be Real’
XamVolo – ‘Money Store’
Yellow Claw feat. Yade Lauren – ‘Love & War’
Youngr – ‘Too Keen’
Zara Larsson – ‘I Would Like’
