This week's new singles

Liz Green
Displacement Song (Play It Again Sam)

Reviewing new alternative female soloists has not been an easy or particularly welcome task of late, akin to picking out your favourite raisin from an ever-expanding ocean of raisins. A wealth of talent, but a dearth of originality. Not so here. Green effortlessly blends crackled Kath Bloom vocals, smoky 1930s jazz, maudlin oom-pah-pah brass, French chanteusery and kitchen sink lyrics. The resultant noise is a delicate and understated triumph. Wonderful.

Olly Murs
Heart Skips A Beat (Sony)

Olly Murs is back, despite popular demand. This time he's having a crack at hip-hop, bless him. We start off in familiar enough territory. Olly is boinging about a like a freshly shaved Tellytubby with a mouth full of Skittles, howling inanities over a brain-squelching Lily Allen-lite harmony. Then, the beat suddenly comes in, some girls start breakdancing on a hopscotch pitch accompanied by half-arsed loops, glued-on samples and some focus group-approved rapping. Now it's urban! It's edgy! It's bloody awful! It's finished! Phew.

Jo Birchall
Wonderful (Portobello)

This would be a killer track for a game of "Sappy Ballad Cliche Booze Bingo"; one shot for every eyeroll. Ready? Let's go! "I'm walking in a field ? of dreams!" *GLUG* "You're like a Waterfall! Clouds! Mountains!" *Glug-glug-glug* "I'm Juliet! You're my Romeo-o-o!" *Gluuuuug* "Something something, floating." *Slosh* "Breathing you in like air." *Huuurk* "You're in my veins." *Swig* "Wonderful!" *Collapse in a relieved and crumpled heap* In short, bewilderingly awful, but your mum will love it.

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
The Death Of You And Me (Sour Mash)

Big brother's back, and he's evidently got a score to settle with someone. And if the barrage of nonsensical rhyming couplets here is anything to go by, that someone is Dr Seuss. We wanted this to be a blistering declaration of independence; instead what we got was our dad wheezily rocking up for the parent's race at sports day and doing lunges in faded Slazenger short-shorts in a bid to prove that he's "still got it". At the end, all you're left with is the sudden urge to sidle away and get a lift home with someone else's mum and dad.

The Feeling Feat Sophie Ellis Bextor
Leave Me Out Of It (Universal/Island)

Imagine someone sighing into a huge, unremarkable glass jar, over and over again. Not mournful, just entirely flat sighs, borne of mild boredom ? Post Office queue sighs, if you will. Picture them being slowly poured through a Brita filter into another, even plainer jar on the other side, before they're sealed in to stop them escaping. Now, imagine taking that lid off and putting your ear over the hole. There, that sound you're imagining is 15 times more exciting than this song.

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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/aug/20/this-weeks-new-singles

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