EOIN BUTLER's guide to downloads, singles and free audiostreams
MURDER PLAN
Trouble ***
"There's trouble brewing, I can see it in the distance." Murder Plan's pianist predicts that this track, from the band's Drinkin' With the DevilEP, will turn up on Reeling in the Yearsas the soundtrack to the London riots of 2011. It sounds a little too jaunty for that, but it could accompany a montage of Arsene Wegner's hapless summer transfer dealings. murderplan.com
PULP
Do You Remember the First Time? (Live at Reading 2011) ****
Band reunions are sad, pointless and anticlimactic. Except when the band in question were teenage heroes of mine, in which case band reunions are exciting, relevant and long overdue. Yes, I remember the first time (Point Depot, 1996 – my friend vomited on my shoes) and I’m hoping for better luck this time around. Roll on Sunday night! youtube.com
LIL WAYNE ft DRAKE JADAKISS
It’s Good Young Money ***
When Jay-Z anointed Lil' Wayne his "heir" on Tha Carter III,it seemed like nothing more than a statement of the obvious: Weezy's place on hip-hop's Mount Rushmore (alongside Tupac, Biggie and Hova) was already all but assured. Three years later, the mentor is back on top with Watch the Throne, while his former protege is firing weak potshots in his direction on this track from Tha Carter IV.
JAMES BLAKE & BON IVER
Fall Creek Boys Choir **
Speaking of which, this James Blake/Justin Vernon teaming was unwisely billed in some quarters as the hipster world's answer to Watch the Throne.It sounds more like the hipster world's answer to two drunks arguing outside my window at 3am. itunes.com
ST VINCENT
Cruel 4AD ****
St Vincent's Annie Clark, meanwhile, seems to have placed her own hipster cred in doubt, premiering this video on the Huffington Post website, where it could be found sandwiched between a news item about Pippa Middleton's arse and a pictorial called T he Many Turtlenecks of Steve Jobs.
