- 5 Songs You Need To Hear This Weekend - 2 August, 2013
- 5 Songs You Need To Hear This Weekend - 26 July, 2013
- 5 Songs You Need To Hear This Weekend - 19 July, 2013
FIVE SONGS YOU NEED TO CHECK OUT
1- Joss Stone – The Love We Had (Stays On My Mind)
Last year saw the second Soul Sessions from Joss Stone. An album full of soul covers, the fourth single from it, ‘The Love We Had (Stays On My Mind)’ was announced this week on daytime favourite, Loose Women. The track updates a 70s R&B hit from The Dells. Joss once again demonstrates a phenomenal range through her powerful pipes, on a track that could have been lifted straight from the soundtrack to Dream Girls.
2- Gabrielle Aplin – Home
20 year old, Wiltshire born Gabrielle rose to fame last year when she topped the UK charts thanks to her John Lewis Christmas ad, ‘The Power Of Love’, since then she’s scored a further two top 20 hits and is now ready to release her fourth single, ‘Home’. For me this is the strongest release from her so far, very Radio 2 friendly, a touching little love ballad that shows a maturity beyond her years. A highlight from her debut album English Rain, Aplin’s soft, breathy vocals pronounce every word with care and conviction.
3- Clean Bandit – Dust Clears
British deep house band, Clean Bandit return this week with their third single, Dust Clears. A song which starts with some electronic synth’s and auto-tuned vocals, makes for a nice but unexciting experience, which then bursts into colour when some female vocals join in making the song vibrant and bouncy. ‘Dust Clears’ progresses even further when the vocals are cut for an almost disco style instrumental, fitting right in with the Chic style flavour of the month.
4- Laura Welsh – Cold Front
London singer/songwriter, Laura Welsh is tipped for big things for the second part of the year. Her style nods towards the chilled out R&B sounds of Jessie Ware over a disjointed production, which glides along smoothly, with no gimmicks or fireworks, allowing Laura’s extraordinary voice to carry the song entirely. The song is uplifted by remixes from Russ Chimes and Panda.
5- Sneakbo – Ring A Ling
Last week I touched slightly on a resurge in the Dancehall Caribbean sound that seems to return roughly about every 10 years, from the early 90s sounds of Shaggy’s ‘In The Summertime’ to Sean Paul and Kevin Lyttle around 2003. Now another 10 years on the genre has developed further blending in with another recent favourite in Drum & Bass. Sneakbo’s ‘Ring A Ling’ is one of the hottest dance tracks around at the moment thanks to its fun energetic flow, catchy chorus and all around silliness.
Shane’s Retro Pick
Starting this week I’ll be re-winding back to much loved songs of yesterday, perhaps something you’d forgotten all about or maybe missed out on altogether.
Moby – Go
This week I’m looking right back to 1990 to one of the most important acts in Dance music, Moby and his first big hit, ‘Go’. At the time it must have felt like the 90s was going to be the start of something exciting, as the punk and new-wave era of the 80s all dissolved and colourful pills, alcopops and neon had arrived. Rave music engulfed the early 90s thanks to tracks like ‘Go’, with its progressive electronic sound that can easily be seen as an influence for some of the biggest hits of the decade and beyond. As dance and electro music becomes ever popular today, you can’t help but feel it was tracks like this that allowed that to happen.
