All My Friends Have Turned To Shadows

Girls Aloud “Love Machine” – For a moment there in the first verse, it sounds as though Girls Aloud are advocating some kind of gender war, but then the song goes off in a more conventional pop direction. Well, as conventional as a song can be with references to “gift wrapped kitty-cats” and the joys of being amphibious. This is mega-shiny upbeat British chart pop with the dial set to DOMINATION. If you are even slightly predisposed to enjoying this sort of thing, it will take over your mind and own you. I wasn’t totally feeling their previous single “The Show,” but this is more like it.

M. Craft “Emily Snow” – I fear that this may sound kind of typical and boring in print, but this is a very lovely indie-folk melody set to a bossanova beat, with some nice distorted electric lead guitar thrown in for good measure. It’s twee, but not excessively so, and the tune has enough late-night charm to set itself apart from the legions of post-Belle & Sebastian indie bands trying for the same thing. Simply put, the melody of this song is just too good to ignore. (Click here to buy it from Rough Trade.)