Jamie N Commons Reviews The Singles

London singer vets the latest 'hits'...

Now, nobody ever said that being on a track featuring Jay Z meant you’d reached the highest high available to any recording artist. But, such an occasion does warrant some degree of stepping back from, properly acknowledging and gently applauding. So: a little respect for Jamie N Commons, please.

The Londoner saw a remix of his track ‘Jungle’ picked up for an advertising campaign for Beats By Dre – something about cans, or something – as well as about a thousand other things, and the rapper contributed a few lines to the final Beats cut. X Ambassadors played their part, too – but that voice holding everything together, that’s Jamie. It’s been a pretty popular song.

And it’s below, for the slowpokes, albeit in its without-Jigga-guise. (Need that rap? Here.) After that, Jamie reviews this week’s new singles.

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Bipolar Sunshine – ‘Deckchairs On The Moon’



“Not particularly my kind of thing, but overall a quite pleasant poolside electronic ambient pop song. Lyrically I didn’t think it was as trippy as it needed to be. I can see this complementing many a summer playlist, though. Cool video as well.”



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Kelis – ‘Friday Fish Fry’



“I’m always a sucker for some Dave Sitek production. I like this new direction Kelis is going in: a sort of neo-soul electronic vibe. She’s using a very interesting tone of voice on this track – it sounds like she just woke up, so I could see this making onto a good morning playlist.”



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Childish Gambino – ‘Sweatpants’ 



Troy and Abed in the morning! Absolutely love this, fantastic production, really individual lyrics and very playful. Like the way Childish takes on different characters to rap through – he manages to give you a real three-dimensional character by the end of this. Fantastic work.”

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King Creosote – ‘For One Night Only’



“A nice kinetic song, I’d imagine it be very good to drive to. Really like the string arrangement that grows as the song goes on. Good stuff.”

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Slow Club – ‘Suffering You Suffering Me’



“I was worried before listening to this song, as me and Slow Club share the same PR person, and I had been threatened with violence if I didn’t give it a good review. I needn’t have worried though, as it is a very accomplished and catchy tune. I really like the sound Slow Club are making these days, and I would highly recommend the rest of their new record (‘Complete Surrender’).” 



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Ariana Grande – ‘Problem’

“Oh Clash, why did you make me listen to this? I was having a perfectly nice day up until this. Gonna go listen to AC/DC’s first album in an attempt to draw this poison from my ears… Be right back.”

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The Amazing Snakeheads – ‘Nighttime’ 


“Ah, Clash! All is forgiven. This is great! Never heard these guys before, but I immediately just went and bought the album. Like some creepy Scottish Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds thang. Coming to a David Lynch film near you…”

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Find Jamie N Commons online here.

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