Music Blogs

Welcome to Yahoo! Music's whistle-stop guide to what's happening in music this week. Every seven days in Recommenders we check-out the latest tracks, downloads, leaks, links and video clips from the corners of every genre and let you know whether they're worth getting out of bed for. Today, CHRIS PARKIN puts the microscope up to TINCHY STRYDER, MILEY CYRUS, RIHANNA, THE XX, JAY SEAN and THE DEAD WEATHER.

Whereas Friendly Fires paid warm tribute to Olive's laser-dappled classic "You're Not Alone" with their spine-tingling "Skeleton Boy", TINCHY STRYDER does away with all notion of inflection on his own - yep - "YOU'RE NOT ALONE". Here he raps a tidal wave of slush over what is tantamount to a backing track of the original. Only with the voices left in. We're fond of Tinchy, but with this, live shows that wouldn't sound out of place at Butlins and a tendency towards bizniz over music, he's becoming as dull as a National Treasure.

But National Treasure status, lest we forget, is a little like receiving the key to the charts. Title-holders past and present, from Mr Blobby to Cheryl Cole, have sold many gigabytes-worth of music, even with utter tosh and, in the case of Cole, an inglorious video that sees her prancing about in Primark pyjamas. As telly's sweetheart, it just doesn't matter: salt of the earth, ain't she. The same goes for MILEY CYRUS. The patriotic blast of her "PARTY IN THE USA" - a polished hybrid of Blink182 and Kelly Clarkson - is catchy enough, but scratch that veneer and she and her music are emptier than an old Woolworths.



Thank goodness for the shining beacons of pop, then. They being Lady Gaga, La Roux and RIHANNA, even if the latter's latest, "RUSSIAN ROULETTE", does, at first, sound like a damp flannel of "soul" music that needs wringing out. But in there, among lyrics about the enormity of heartbreak and the sort of plodding, clenched-fist R&B that went out of fashion years ago, are confessional laments about violent relationships and the futility of martyrdom. You won't get that with Sasha Fierce.

For years, bands have bored us to tears with their claims of a wide-ranging music taste, only to sound more conventional than the Kaiser Chiefs. Yet, in THE XX, the seeds of that indie/R&B cross-pollination have been harvested. The surprise is just how lovely it sounds. The XX have ghosted into the mainstream with the stealthy, mysterious sounds that abound on "ISLANDS": sparse, crystal clear electronics, diamond-sharp beats, hushed pillow-talk between Romy and Oliver and, oddly, a cuddly dystopian atmosphere.

Another surprise comes in the form of JAY SEAN. He's undergone the kind of makeover that would impress even a dream team of Trinny, Susannah and Gok Wan. The West London soul boy has signed with Cash Money (Universal's US hip hop imprint), pumped-up his pecks and knocked Black Eyed Peas from the top of the Billboard charts. Sadly, he's done so with "DOWN", which sees him swap charm-laden Southall R&B for auto-tuned synth-pop and a guest natter from Lil' Wayne - a sound so omnipresent that people will laugh about it on TV in years to come.

If you can ignore the fact Jack White's DEAD WEATHER sound like Senser on "CUT LIKE A BUFFALO", then you'll enjoy this video. He might be the drummer in this supergroup, but White's strong presence demands he star in a clip that makes Johnny Depp's Willy Wonka role seem half-hearted. Creepy.