Esperanza Spalding.
10. FOLLY AND THE HUNTER
Funny, they don’t look crazy. Yet the last two things any sane person would think of doing to Tom Cochrane’s fist-pumping Canadian anthem are i) slowing it down and ii) rendering it on piano. Enter this Montreal-based trio, who somehow find a way to make “Life is a highway/I wanna ride it all night long” work as the kind of quiet vow you’d make to yourself rather than as an arena-sized rallying cry for the masses. 9. WHITNEY HOUSTON VS. TOTALLY ENORMOUS EXTINCT DINOSAURS
In retrospect, the vocals on Houston’s penultimate hit of the ’90s, “It’s Not Right But It’s Okay,” already sound like they’re decaying. Mashed up with British DJ Orlando Higginbottom’s thumping “Household Goods,” though, they can simply serve the music rather than having to justify the spotlight all by themselves. At the other end of the scale, “Dancing in Houston” pits Robyn’s “Dancing on My Own” against “How Will I Know,” and forces that voice to fight for every inch of ground it can muster. (Thanks, Garnet.)
8. BIGKids
This exhilarating and veddy, veddy British concoction is the product of Ben Hudson, formerly of Mr. Hudson, who cut an almost-hit three years ago with Kanye West (“Supernova”), and Rose Oddie, best known in Britain as the daughter of comedy star Ben Oddie. The ensuing combination of Hudson’s jittery rapping and Oddie’s girlish vocals sounds like a medley. As soon as you have one part figured out, the other kicks in — cutting in half the probability that you’ll tire of either any time soon. (From Drum in Your Chest, out March 4)
7. MAVERICK SABRE
He’s been saddled with the facile shorthand of “the male Amy Winehouse,” but British/Irish singer Matthew Stafford can’t possibly live up/down to that moniker, largely because there isn’t anything remotely tortured, or jazzy, about his singing. What there is, however, is a vocal style that falls between John Mayer and fellow Brit star Ben Drew, a.k.a. Plan B, and an ear for subtle connections, as this medley of hits by Lana del Rey and Emeli Sande ably demonstrates. 6. LAL
This Toronto collective, which revolves around Bengali singer Rosina Kazi, Barbados-born life partner/producer Nicholas Murray, and Uganda-born bassist Ian De Souza, sounds like the sum of its core components, which ultimately means it doesn’t sound like any of them. Indeed, we could refer to this at once expansive and concise three-minute tune as “world music.” We would, of course, be talking about LAL’s world. (From LAL)
5. TONY WILLIAMS feat. KANYE WEST
This crooner should be familiar to anyone who’s heard West’s College Dropout and Late Registration albums, on which he sang on or co-wrote memorable material such as “I’ll Fly Away” and “Roses.” Here he more than holds his own with Kanye on a hip-hop ballad that evokes the sad, sweet Philly soul of The Delfonics’ “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind).”
4. PUBLIC IMAGE LTD.
“One Drop”
It’s been 20 years since John Lydon’s post-punk outfit released That What Is Not and gave way to spotty solo work and lucrative Sex Pistols reunions. There’s no Keith Levene, Jah Wobble or John McGeoch in this iteration, but there is a pair of members from the mid-’80s incarnation that gave us “Rise:” drummer Bruce Smith and guitarist/keyboardist Lu Edmonds. And while Lydon would no doubt loathe the comparison, when this surprisingly catchy tune rumbles out of the chorus, you could imagine it seguing into Roxy Music’s “Love is the Drug.” (From One Drop vinyl EP, out April 21)
3. ESPERANZA SPALDING
Best known to Justin Bieber fans as that evil nobody who stole the Best New Artist award at last year’s Grammys, Spalding has moved on from the chamber works of her last album to what would qualify, at least to a jazz bassist/vocalist, as “pop songs.” To the rest of us, this painless history lesson is a “pop song” only if you consider, say, Erykah Badu and Floetry’s Marsha Ambrosius pop singers. (From Radio Music Society, out March 20)
2. SINEAD O’CONNOR VS. DRAKE
How natural does the combination of the former’s “4th and Vine” — the heartbreakingly blissful lead-off track from her imminent How About I Be Me (And You Be You)? album — and the latter’s “Headlines” sound? Well, if you happen to hear this mash-up before you’ve listened to O’Connor’s original, the latter will just sound wrong without hip-hop beats behind it.
1. NIKI AND THE DOVE
“DJ, Ease My Mind”/”DJ, Ease My Mind (acoustic)”Before they morphed into an electro outfit, the Swedish duo of Gustaf Karlöf and vocalist Malin Dahlström did time in acoustic pop band The Dora Steins. (They sounded like this). Both of those artistic incarnations are on display here, first on the clattering melancholy of the band’s current single and, in stark contrast, on an intimate solo acoustic take. Rarely has one song seemed more like two.
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