EOIN BUTLER'Sguide to downloads, singles and free audiostreams
BRUNO MARS
Just the Way You AreWarner ***
Having contributed lead vocals on one of the biggest pop hits of 2010 (B.o.B.’s Nothin’ On You) and scored co-writing credit on another (Cee Lo Green’s Fuck You), the Hawaiian-born singer is going out on his own now with a solo album, Do Wop and Hooligans. Just the Way You Are is a pretty enough love song, but it lacks the edge of some of his earlier work.
BRAD PITT LIGHT ORCHESTRA
All I WantSilly Goose ***
All the Brad Pitt Light Orchestra want is someone else with whom to share this broken dream. Well, I’m no Julian Assange or anything, but I do think they’re rather underselling themselves here. Can’t argue with those sleigh bells, though.
R.E.M.
DiscovererWarner **
They might be two decades past their prime, but the Georgia veterans show no interest in retiring just yet. Their 15th studio album (Collapse Into Now) is due in March . . .
THE DECEMBERISTS
Down by the WaterCapitol ***
. . . Of course, if you can't wait that long, you could do worse than check out the Decemberists' The King Is Deadalbum, whose debt to Michael Stipe co isn't so much worn on its sleeve as tattooed on its forehead. Peter Buck guests on this track; can't imagine it was too much of a stretch for him.
LIL WAYNE ft CORY GUNZ
Six Foot SevenYoung Money ****
He spent most of 2010 incarcerated in Rikers Island on weapons charges, but Weezy returns in fine style here with this belter of a track that samples the old Jamaican mento favourite The Banana Boat Song. On this evidence, The Carter IV has got to be one of the most eagerly awaited albums of 2011.
