TRACK OF THE WEEK

Beck

Wow

Being a stinky little millennial, my first actual encounter with Beck was his cameo appearance in an episode of Futurama, duetting with a mutilated Bender. The cartoon assured me he was a genre-bending auteur, and going by Wow that’s a fair enough approximation. It’s a strange beast: half hip-hop beat in the style of trap lord Baauer, half desert faery folk song. A silly yet great bit of sunny nonsense.

The Avalanches

Frankie Sinatra

There was a time when we all thought snaggle-toothed rapper Danny Brown was the next big thing. But slowly the light has begun to dim, through a series of ill-thought-out collaborations, most recently with forgotten Australian electronic outfit the Avalanches. The track, which would be more at home with Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer atop it, slinks along like a smelly Boomtown rat (the festival and its punters, not the band), and even a verse from MF Doom can’t save it. The past really is a different country.

GIRLI

Too Much Fun

What did we do to deserve the bastard children of PC Music? As if the pseuds-corner bubblegum J-pop theoreticians didn’t do enough wrongs, they’ve spawned a generation of copycats, one of whom is GIRLI. The idea: a posh girl who likes grime and pink clothing and doesn’t take shit from anyone. The result: synthetic dross, dreadful lyrics and… oh, a fairly good chorus. There’s talent hidden in this swamp of glitter but it’s buried by a cheap concept and eye-rolling laziness.

Beyond The Wizards Sleeve

Creation

Hey guys, remember Chairlift? Me neither. Only joking! I liked Chairlift, and I like this song by Beyond The Wizards Sleeve. It sounds like Tennis, Chairlift and a slew of other indie bands consigned to obscurity, featuring a sweet breathy vocal and a joyously skittish underbelly; a “What people thought the future would sound like in the 60s”-type of sound. Dot, the sexy robot from The Jetsons, would pop her titanium backside to this shit.

Alice Jemima

Liquorice

In Liquorice, Alice Jemima basically just lists loads of stuff I hate: popcorn, Queens, men, suits, drumsticks, work – followed by an assurance that she “lives for it”. Well I’ve got some advice for you Ms Jemima: expand your horizons! And also try to do better than this cloud of whispered rubbish wafting over a kooky Ikea ad of a backing track. Profoundly irritating.