Dan Condon: Sick Tunes, May 31, 2013

Well, it's happened. We've hit the dry spell. Whether it's a post-Daft Punk fatigue (Random Access Memories was way better than most people are reporting, by the way), or just one of those crappy coincidences, it has meant going back and savouring the best songs of the past few months rather than greedily inhale every amazing new track that drops into one's inbox and spitting it out in time for deadline.

But I'm not ready for a mid-year report yet, so here are a few of the best that I could find in the past month or so.

CHVRCHES – Gun

We're quite early on in the hype-cycle for Scottish trio CHVRCHES, so if you're already sick of seeing their name on every second currently operating music blog, you're gonna have to grin and bear it for some time to come. You can't imagine they have a lot of longevity, but if you find them as fun as I do right now then there's quite a lot to look forward to in the coming months.

Their music is probably even more polarising than their name; sugary pop melodies worthy of modern pop charts sung by the squeaky clean Lauren Mayberry, while dirty synths provide a kind of abrasion and darkness that would be the only thing preventing these guys troubling the pop charts worldwide in the future.

JOHN FOGERTY – Mystic Highway

If you are across American mainstream and indie music/entertainment media, you'll know that John Fogerty is celebrating his release week this week, with Wrote A Song For Everyone out Stateside on Tuesday. He's been on Marc Maron's WTF Podcast, he's scored a five star (!!!) review from David Fricke at Rolling Stone and he played a big old LA show to celebrate both the album's release and his birthday.

I haven't heard the album, but it sounds like a pretty risky move from the old Creedence leader. He's teamed up with a whole swag of artists both awesome (Jim James) and fucked (Kid Rock) to record versions of his old hits and done a couple of new tunes. Mystic Highway is one of the new ones and it's a perfectly passable (not five star, by any means) Southern US romp that's slick and full of life. Fogerty's voice sounds a little cleaner than I'd like and the whole thing lacks the stink that made CCR one of the best bands that ever existed.

JANELLE MONAE – Q.U.E.E.N. (ft. Erykah Badu)

I went and saw Erykah Badu supported by Janelle Monae in New York City a couple of years ago and it was a confusing experience. I'd been listening to the latter's The ArchAndroid LP (one of the best albums of the century thus far; there, I said it) non-stop in the weeks leading up to my trip and only found out about the show a day or two before I arrived. Monae came out with some dancers and some dudes playing keyboards and laptops and gave everything she had – it was nowhere nearly enough. The ambitious scope of that LP just couldn't be achieved in a mere support slot; so I was disappointed, but pleased to see her all the same.

Badu is meant to be on at 9pm. We wait and we wait and we wait and we wait. I've barely slept, I've been walking around NYC for 15 hours by this stage and I'm pissed off that Badu is literally pulling a diva act on me. She ends up making it on stage hellishly late and I've already had enough, who does she think she is etcetera etcetera… But she won me over; effortless class, a stunning voice, amazing songs and an attitude that you simply would not fuck with.

Has Badu's attitude rubbed off on a no doubt still kinda impressionable Monae? It's hard to tell from Q.U.E.E.N. but it certainly proves that they can meld brilliantly; the tune would have been pretty great without Monae but it's freaking brilliant thanks to her involvement. It also tells us that Monae's second LP might just be incredible enough to wash the stink of that horrible fun. song away once and for all.

MATTHEW DEAR – She's Just That Way

I guess one of the good things about being in something of a musical dry patch is that you start to pay attention to artists that, for not particular reason, you never have before. Matthew Dear's career has been long and acclaimed, yet it's not one that I've been particularly interested in.

Stumbling across She's Just That Way on the quest for a decent fucking tune was a more than pleasant happenstance, Dear's jittery but chirpy electronic driven pop forward thinking enough to remain interesting but nowhere close to being too wild and esoteric for your average listener.

The tune is lifted from a re-release of his 2012 LP Beams and seeing as this unreleased gem was enough to get me to go back and listen to a record that I barely knew existed, it's clearly done its job pretty well.

FUCK BUTTONS - The Red Wing

As the northern hemisphere gets ready to soak up some warm vibes and artists from all manner of genres set about making the song that will be the hit of the summer, it can sometimes feel a bit lonely on this side of the planet. So it's always nice when a band put together something gloomy for release at this time of year that will somewhat suit our descent into wintertime.

Fuck Buttons aren't the most high-spirited musical act around, the British duo are renowned for kinda bleak, aggressive, loud and abrasive music. Their forthcoming record Slow Focus is said to be a “densely constructed mesh of abrasions and grooves”, which sounds pretty intimidating if I'm being honest, and they've pried a little edited cut of a tune called The Red Wing out as a taster. It's dark and aggressive, with a strong groove and a meandering melody that just makes everything feel so wrong in such a right way. I'm not entirely sure I'll be able to handle the entire LP, but after hearing this I certainly wanna try.