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, DAN GENNOE puts the microscope up to LEONA LEWIS, CALVIN HARRIS, JAY-Z, JULIAN CASABLANCAS, THE HORRORS and WEEZER.

Punched in the face, trapped in a lift full of over-excited fans; LEONA LEWIS (pictured) isn't having the best time right now. And alas, new single, "HAPPY" (oh the irony), is unlikely to cheer her, or anyone else, up. Made for the recently dumped/fired/assaulted in a bookshop to wallow to, its glum keyboards and quivering vocals are the universally recognised sound of tearful self-indulgence. The soaring chorus and triumphant words may imply strength and resolve, but make no mistake, this is a proper boohoo anthem for the broken hearted.

Where Lewis offers surging positivity that's guaranteed to end in tears, CALVIN HARRIS's "FLASHBACK" pulls the same trick in reverse. A post-clubbing comedown of woozy half-time beats and phasing synths, the melancholy is palpable at the start. Come the end, when it's layered with enough bleeps, whooshes and handclaps to start a superclub revival, it's pumping out full-on dancefloor euphoria. Unexpected and invigorating, like a 5am second wind, it's this kind of subtle brilliance that marks Harris as a pop genius in the making.



When it comes to playing with the emotions though, nothing comes close to JAY-Z's "EMPIRE STATE OF MIND". A rousing tribute to his home city, with fellow New York native Alicia Keys wistfully tinkling her ivories and adding vocal love to the chorus, he manages to turn an incredibly sentimental journey through NYC's streets into an inspiring contemplation of the people and places that made him. A colossus, striding to a ‘70s strut and old school breaks, it's a proper Jay-Z track: thoughtful, intelligent and larger than life.

Another NYC success story comes in the form of The Strokes' JULIAN CASABLANCAS, who swaps thrift store rock for vintage electro for the first track from his debut solo album. As clicky, twee and catchy as all the ‘80s pop it rips off and easily as cool as anything he's done in his day job, "11TH DIMENSION" is as unlikely as it is unshakable. Think Bowie's "Rebel Rebel" played on the cheapest, most rubbish synth, with vocals slurred by someone who knows he's just got ‘it' and you'll have a clue to its slack-jawed wonder.

Also making like it's 1984, THE HORRORS don their best Cure t-shirts and go in search of jaunty Goth-pop of the kind favoured by those who rate loneliness and isolation as their favourite fashion accessories. Reinforcing a reputation for looking and sounding like they're trying way to hard, "WHOLE NEW WAY" pairs carefree new wave with Faris Badwan's deep, round declarations of love, in a shuddering and unintentionally comical example of what happens when style and content part company.

Thankfully, WEEZER are on hand to redress the balance like only Weezer can. Slapstick and throwaway, but with honesty and sincerity to spare, "(IF YOU'RE WONDERING IF I WANT YOU TO) I WANT YOU TO" is arguably the pioneers of geek rock's strongest single - and finest video - since "Buddy Holly". An ecstatically bouncy celebration of the highs and lows of love, belting with excitable guitars and elated choruses, there's no mistaking that they for one really are happy.