EOIN BUTLER's guide to singles, downloads and free audiostreams

PROFFESOR GREEN FT LILY ALLEN

Just Be Good to GreenVirgin ***

A collaboration that came about as a result of a random Facebook chat, this cover of the old SOS Band hit Just Be Good to Me (see what they’ve done with the title?) finds London’s gobbiest pop princess teaming up with Eminem-wannabe and possible Cluedo murder suspect Professor Green. It’s hardly earth-shattering. Personally, I’m still waiting for those Lily v Crystal Swing basement tapes to surface.

AMY MACDONALD

This Pretty FaceMercury **

Be nice to the people you meet on the way up. That’s the advice from Scottish singer-songwriter Amy MacDonald, because you’ll probably meet them again on your way down. She also reckons that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, that it’s only skin deep to boot, and that it’s what’s inside each of us that’s really important. I’m not sure if this is a pop single, then, or the first draft of some future cliché anthology.

MARK RONSON THE BUSINESS INTL

Bang Bang Bang Columbia ****

Think Garth Marenghi covering Black Eyed Peas, with a pinch of John McEnroe thrown in for good measure. Now imagine that’s a recommendation. Bingo!

THE MATINEE IDLES

Everything **

“There’s no one you need to impress.” Kevin Barry is a husky-voiced Dublin crooner pitched somewhere between the gloomy introspection of Mark Eitzel and the hard- earned wisdom of Tom Waits. It sounds like it could work. You even want it to work, but somehow it just doesn’t. thematineeidles.com

FIGHT LIKE APES

Hoo Hoo HenryModel Citizen Records ***

“Can I spend tomorrow drinking cans with you in bed?” is the medically inadvisable, and gravitationally ambitious, invitation from Fight Like Apes. Their second album, produced by Gang of Four guitarist Andy Gill, is due later this year.