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 MIKA, MINI VIVA, BEVERLEY KNIGHT, U2, THE BIG PINK and FLORENCE & THE MACHINE.

The world has changed beyond all recognition since last we heard from MIKA (pictured). Mika it would seem has just gotten chirpier. Now bouncing off the walls to eight-part harmonies and enough camp comedy vocals to make even the most excitable pop fan turn to Radiohead, "WE ARE GOLDEN" is sunshine in a time of gloom, delivered just as the world realises substance is what's needed. With none to hand, Mika piles on the Freddie Mercury impressions and "High School Musical" choruses, only to find their charm's worn thin. To say it grates is being polite. Very.

Sticking with dumb fun, it doesn't come much dumber than "LEFT MY HEART IN TOKYO", from gruesome female twosome, MINI VIVA. The joy is that while Frankee & Britt may have been plucked from obscurity by Simon ‘Spice Girls' Fuller and teamed-up with pop mega producers Xenomania for the sole purpose of being one hit wonders, that one hit is a trashily day-glo disco house floorfiller of the kind that made the late ‘90s dance boom. Expect this to be on heavy rotation long after Frankee & Britt's 15 minutes have expired.



One woman with more substance and staying power than most is BEVERLEY KNIGHT. Criminally underrated, she's one of the few true talents British R&B can lay claim to, which is why her sixth album has attracted US production heavyweights including Jam & Lewis. First single "BEAUTIFUL NIGHT", co-written and produced by Amanda Ghost and UK newcomers The Rural, both fresh from working with Beyonce, does proper, mid-tempo, lump in the throat love with a grace, dignity and soaring vocal even a pre-meltdown Whitney couldn't have bettered. Pure class.

Apparently committed to proving themselves criminally overrated, "I'LL GO CRAZY IF I DON'T GO CRAZY TONIGHT" has U2 doing aching love as they've done it so many times before - The Edge whacking the delay up to 10, Bono crouched on the floor, fist clenched to his chest, wry smile on his face. The trouble with having a trademark sound is, eventually, everything sounds the same, only not as good as it did. Another towering stadium anthem then, just not one that'll be heard after the end of the world tour.

Pleasing the crowd with an altogether more engaging kind of stadium euphoria, or at least a churning electro-rock anthem to wave a lighter to, THE BIG PINK's "DOMINOES" is an unlikely source of heart melting beauty. A monotonous grind of mechanical synths, clattering breakbeats and Robbie Furze's emotionless shouting; the sadness of the words, the tenderness of the chords and the sheer size of all of it, really does move in mysterious ways.

For real action and drama though, nothing comes close to the overblown, possessed twitching of Kate Bush worshiper FLORENCE & THE MACHINE's "DRUMMING SONG". On its own it's a work of unhinged piano bashing genius, with Florence complaining that being near the one she loves makes her hear loud noises inside her head. Add the video where she rolls around the floor of a church looking like a candidate for exorcism and suddenly it's an unmissable moment in modern music.