New Musick Monday

It's not a great week when your biggest success is a new entry at number 54. The new Hot Chip single, we hear you cry? No, that missed the top 100 altogether (yeah, no thanks to our Facebook petition, right guys?). Oh, it must have been those ABBA loving LA residents, Music Go Music? Nope, nowhere near. Yep, Caribou was our lone entry in the UK Top 75 and now that we've heard the album we can safely say it's worthy of far more, but then you could have guessed that already. Let's keep the Crystal on ice until we've dealt with these bad boys...

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"Hippies" by Harlem

Harlem are three wasters from Austin, Texas who clearly don't believe in politcal correctness or over-dubs. "Hippies", their second album, is a brilliantly ramshackle collection of bone-dry guitar, sloppy drums and slurred vocals that somehow flesh out some of the catchiest songs this side of The Lemonheads back catalogue. If you're still not convinced, just read some of these track titles; 'Gay Human Bones', Three Legged Dog', 'Stripper Sunset' and 'Pissed'. How can you not love these guys?

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Crystal Castles (II) by Crystal Castles

This isn't out physically until May, but some terrible scamp has uploaded the whole thing onto the interpipe so the band have decided to make it offically available on iTunes. If, like us, you thought their first album sounded like the inner workings of a Dalek's mind, then you might be pleased to hear that the follow-up is slightly more musical. In fact, one song ('Celestica'), is actually really lovely. If something having a melody equals selling out then we can only apologise and suggest you put your head inside a microwave, record the sound and loop it ad infinium to get your kicks.

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'Over' by Drake

This has been about for a little while now, but it's slowly creeping up the UK charts so we thought, given our new found influence (ahem), we'd give it that last shot in the arm it deserves. Drake, for those who don't know, is basically the future of commercial rap music, a protege of Kanye West and the man trusted with flying the flag for Lil Wayne's Young Money records whilst the boss is in the clink. 'Over' is a dramatic, paranoid slice of in your face hip-hop, complete with swooping strings, thumping beats and Drake's impassioned vocals. It's safe to say he's better than Chipmunk.

jjoin the jjoyride

Swedish duo jj were shrouded in the kind of mystery that can only be perpetuated by music blogs, so it's telling that by the time we get round to doing something on them the mystery has vanished (you can see them below) and Pitchfork are calling their new album "not very good" (or something a bit more wordy).

It's hard to describe the music jj make - balearic beat or dream pop seem the most appropriate - and there's an air of dissaffection and general inertia that's quite appealing, as if it's not really terribly important what you think of the music, it's just there. To emphasis the point, all three of their releases so far have just been ascending numbers, so their new 'full-length' (it's 26 minutes long) is called, simply, jj n° 3. The follow-up to the breathtaking, jj n° 2 (obviously), it's not the musical shit heap that Pitchfork makes out, but rather a slightly more formless and downbeat affair. As with recent tour campanions (and fellow fans of letters), The xx, jj's music is simultaneously vaporous and compelling, loaded with emotion but barely breaking a sweat. They also share a love of hip-hop, with jj choosing to seak inspiration from current jailbird Lil Wayne on the opening track, 'My Life'.

Below is the first single from jj n° 3, 'Let Go', and it features a nice dog, the two band members and a recurring visual theme, blood.



jj n° 3 isn't officially out until May but you can buy it from Rough Trade as part of an exclusive deal that also means you get jj n° 2 included. It goes without saying that you should buy these two albums right now!

Over & Over

We're pretty big fans of Canadian hip-hop rookie Drake's debut mini-album, So Far Gone, especially the single, 'Best I Ever Had'. Given his huge success in America, expectations are high for his debut long player, Thank Me Later. As with most young rappers, Drake's got a bit of a chip on his shoulder about how he can't trust anyone anymore because all his friends just want his money and all dem hoes are just trying to knock his swagga, etc. Thankfully, as with Kanye and Lil Wayne, he seems to have that ability to turn a cliche into something exciting and 'Over', complete with urgent strings and off-kilter drum beats, is pretty spectacular.



Rumour has it that Jamie from The xx has also contributed beats to the album. Those pesky kids are everywhere at the moment.

You can download 'Over' from Drake's blog

Badu's the Daddy?

Insanity seems to suit Erykah Badu. As mad as the box of frogs she keeps in her weave, Badu's last album was one of 2008's best and she's back in March with the follow-up, New Amerykah Part II: Return of the Ankh. Below is a video for a brand new track, 'Jump Up In The Air and Stay There', featuring the equally bat shit, Lil Wayne.



Unbelievably, this finger-clicking future soul near-masterpiece will not appear on the album, although there are reportedly seven or eight different versions of it to be released, so you can make your own EP if you so choose.

One track that will be on the album is the more mellow, 'Window Seat', which Badu released via Twitter. Is that the future now? Artists won't even need to sign record deals or make a myspace page, they'll just post a link in 140 characters or less.

Lil bit of a problem

Cough syrup-addicted rapper Lil Wayne is surely one of the most bonkers rappers around. Who else would decide to follow one of rap's best albums, Tha Carter III, with an album of rock-orientated tracks that sound like the kind of things Limp Bizkit would have shunned for being too bland? Rebirth, the album that has already become somewhat of a poisoned chalice, was originally due out in April 2009 and will now (possibly) see the light of day in July of this year. The only saving grace for Lil is that he'll be in prison when the whole debacle finally comes to an end.

This is a new track, 'On Fire', and it is, quite literally, the worst single of 2010 so far.



Guitar aside, how do we know Lil loves rock? He's wearing Converse of course.