Brian Boyd's guide to singles downloads and free audiostreams

Goodness, this is noisy. It's essentially one looped riff with some arty vocal work on top. Very Jane's Addiction in its relentlessness, the song slowly reveals that it does have something at its core. It's the type of thing that will find favour with kids who dress in black and hang around Temple Bar on Saturdays. Other demographics may feel it sounds like a faulty washing machine with Linda Blair inside. www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-r8HWri41s

The easy-on-the-eye Swedish poppet has ditched vacuous dance-pop for a Goldfrapp-on- Prozac sound. This is burnished electro with a trance undertow and a vocal style so similar to Kate Bush you would think it is a sample. If you're clubbing over the next few months, this will be inescapable. Good on ya Robyn. http://myspace.com/robynmyspace

This is probably as up-tempo as Richard Hawley will ever get. For all the song's manifold charms, you can't help feeling that the time signature doesn't suit him, but he manages to wrestle it down in the end. If anything will get Hawley on daytime radio, it's this song. Imagine a crooner fronting ABC and you'll have this song in one. http://mog.com/1234chainsaw/blog_post/98159

The original version of this song by the daughter of Serge was a breathy Gallic affair written especially for her by Jarvis Cocker and Air. Now they've handed the song over to two very fashionable remixers (Metronomy and Black Ghosts). While they make a good stab at reinventing the song, you can't help feeling that this is a pointless exercise. www.flexx.be/item/6146766

Perhaps the primus inter pares track from Neon Bible, this song works so well because it plays to all the band's strengths: ensemble singing, electro-folky instrumentation and vaguely calamitous lyrics. The video is all American Gothic with a Pied Piper theme but goes a bit Stephen King at the end. www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJDsm1Y4kUk