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Grimes - Flesh Without Blood If the anti-pop purists weren’t into ‘Go’, they should stop now. Claire Boucher hasn’t backtracked one jot. The lead track from ‘Art Angels’, ‘Flesh Without Blood’ is a chaotic but sky-reaching burst of life, like Taylor Swift going gung-ho EDM and keeping the recipe to herself. The tropes of ‘Visions’ - finding unorthodox ways to hit big heights - remain, but this still sounds unlike anything Grimes has put her name to before. Closing section ‘Life in the Vivid Dream’ is a broken and blood-splattered clash of jagged beats and looped acoustics. Again, new territory for her. But on the basis of this bright one-two, she’s ready to take on anything. (Jamie Milton) Adele - Hello A ‘Hello’ is all that was needed to cement Adele’s return. Picking up four years later, the reluctant well-wishing coursing through ‘Someone Like You’ and the angered regret of ‘Rolling in the Deep,‘ are both replaced by more reflective, retrospective sadness. The heart and soul that comes from her voice - painstakingly controlled but flipping out into acrobatics like she’s sitting right on the edge of composure is there, still, as we always knew it would be, and blimey o’reilly, can she still write a heartwrencher. (El Hunt) The 1975 - Love Me “We didn’t necessarily get in a room and put on leather trousers,” claimed The 1975 frontman Matt Healy, speaking to Annie Mac before unveiling new single ‘Love Me’. But Healy and co.’s comeback statement pictures this exact scene - four guys getting engrossed in the hi-glam, neo Hollywood life and loving every second. A Talking Heads and Bowie-channelling funk force, ‘Love Me’
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is 2015’s answer to previous decades’ shine and glitz obsessions. (Jamie Milton) Jack Garratt - Breathe Life Cast Jack Garratt in a different pair of shoes, take away the goofy charm and production knowhow, and his songs would still do big things. Like previous single ‘Weathered’, ‘Breathe Life’ could be a sappy singer-songwriter blubfest if it fancied. It’s hard to argue that his doe-eyed sentiment doesn’t get him places. But on his best track to date, the Londoner exhibits so much more than earnest lyrics. Jack Garratt is the opposite of a one trick pony, and he’s only just beginning to show his hand. (Jamie Milton) Charli XCX - Vroom Vroom Scottish producer SOPHIE likes to play on words and imagery. ‘Lemonade’ sounded like a fizzing drink set to burst. Breakthrough single ‘BIPP’ has a slide for artwork, and it soundtracks a slippery slope of crazed dance. With Charli XCX’s ‘Vroom Vroom’, it’s a foot
on the pedal, all-revving number that ignores the speed limits. It’s also a match made in heaven. Charli’s talk of keeping it “whipped and creamy” causes a stir alongside razor-sharp electronics, and the insanity breaks down for a straight-up pop chorus that puts sense in SOPHIE’s madness. Less a compromise, more a happy marriage of bonkers. (Jamie Milton) MØ - Kamikaze Fun is something that flows through ‘Kamikaze’ to the point where it defines it. Carnival-style horns burst out of the track with absolute glory, abandoning all inhibitions along the way. “Are you never gonna get enough?” Karen Marie Ørsted sings, but ‘Kamikaze’ has everything. MØ said that her and Diplo are “not all about making a hit record, more that we have fun together.” The second aim has clearly been fulfilled, and whether they want it to or not, ‘Kamikaze’ has all the ingredients to achieve the first goal along with it. (Will Richards)