EOIN BUTLER'Sguide to singles, downloads and free audiostreams

HAITI RELIEF
Everybody Hurts
Syco Music
**

On which Michael Stipe’s touching meditation on teen angst is reinvented as a glossy, star-studded, no-holds-barred warble-off. Leona Lewis, Mariah Carey, Joe McElderry and James Blunt all duke it out for the most preposterously over-the-top contribution.“It doesn’t matter if you like it or not,” declared Chris Moyles when it premiered on his BBC Radio 1 show. Actually, it does. You can always donate directly to charity and bypass this musical travesty entirely.

HOPE FOR HAITI
We Are the World
Columbia
***

Only a short preview snippet of this (equally star-studded) Haiti charity single is streaming online at the time of writing. But Shuffleis going to stick its neck out and say that Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie's effort is superior to Simon Cowell's. If nothing else, the song features rapper Lil Wayne's heroic attempts to sing. Oh, and am I the only person who finds the line "There are people dying and it's time to lend a hand" slightly sinister?

THE STARGAZERS
My Love
Step Records
***

For any old-fashioned romantics out there this weekend, this Cork guitar/harmony swing trio play the Valentine’s Jazz Weekend in Dungarvan, Co Waterford, tomorrow and Sunday night.

THE COURTEENERS
You Overdid It, Doll
Polydor
***

The Courteeners may resemble your average, run-of-the-mill Oasis clones, but on this, the single from their second album (Falcon), the Mancunian four- piece demonstrate at least a passing acquaintance with “the funk”. There’s a Facebook campaign underway to get this single to No 1 in Britain, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR
Set Guitars to Kill
Smalltown America
****

Belfast's answer to Mogwai cross the Atlantic to play South-by- Southwest in Texas next month, after which they'll commence work on their second album. This is the gnarliest cut from their current EP, The Letters.