A preview to Donnis‘ new mixtape Fashionably Late (due tomorrow), the much-hyped Georgia-born emcee’s “The Kill” swipes the hook from La Roux‘ “In For The Kill” to support bleak-filled rhymes in which he admits to having a pill-popping addiction and realizes that all the people he thought were his friends would rather see him fail in his quest for success in the hip hop game.
Still, refusing to let demons of both the inner and outer breed get the best of him and leaning on La Roux’ singer Elly Jackson’s inner voice-like coaxing as inspiration, Donnis keeps his eye on the prize, brushing off the green-eyed with a menacingly to-the-point “Don’t like me/ I don’t give a four-letter word”.
Shattering the (admittedly, foolish) notion that having one female pop star known for having great hair cover another female pop star known for having great hair would result in something mind-blowingly amazing (yeah sometimes we don’t understand how our mind works either), Kelis becomes the third artist in the past year to take on La Roux’s “In For The Kill” in the BBC Live Lounge studios and the performance ends up being…only decent, greatly paling in comparison to Miike Snow’s trance-y rendition and Daniel Merriweather’s soul-baked re-imagining.
Sigh. Our disappointment is only assuaged by the fact that the release of the new Kelis album, Flesh Tone, is right around the corner (at least in the UK, where it drops May 17th; American and Canadians, unfortunately, have to wait until June).
Grab the “decent” performance below, then afterwards, enjoy a little Kelis/ Neptunes throwback treat: “Cross The Border”, their catchy (and very under-appreciated) 2001 collaboration with short-lived rap duo Philly’s Most Wanted (whatever happened to them?).
This past week, BBC’s Live Lounge was on fire thanks to a handful of blog-beloved acts entering it’s studio doors. Below, peep a rundown of some of the artists that stopped by and how they fared:
The Gossip
Appearing in support of their EXCELLENT new album Music For Men, Beth Ditto & Co. blew the walls off the sucka with a thunderous walk-through of that set’s lead off single “Heavy Cross” (oh how great it is when a band is able to recreate such a dynamite studio recording so impeccably in the live form).
As for their taking on of Kanye West’s tirelessly-covered “Love Lockdown”? Some cool things are captured instrumentally (love the guitar licks on the verses), but, as with their audience-polarizing remakes of Aaliyah’s “Are You That Somebody” and Wham’s “Careless Whisper”, one’s total satisfaction of it will fall on how well Ditto’s unrestrained and often off-key, near-soul diva wails hits the ears.
La Roux
It would have been nice for La Roux to have kept “Bulletproof”‘s kiss-off fun and punchy where it registers best, but we’ll admit to being slightly charmed by the melancholy lullaby they reduced it to in their Lounge spot.
The same can’t be said for their foolish attempt at adapting White Lies’ weighty, Bravery-mock “Farewell To The Fairgrounds” to their chintzy ’80′s pop style, though. Singer Elly Jackson’s needle-thin peep started to get so high-pitched, we feared her head might explode.
Florence and the Machine
With each new gem introduced in advance of the July-set debut Lungs, Florence and The Machine focal Florence Welch has gradually won more and more over as one of today’s most captivating new female musical figures. Her band’s fourth single, “Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)” stands as one their most alluring creations yet, an ambitious onslaught of mythy, New Age grandeur and soul-seasoned indie-folk singing brought to a potent apex by way of a quadruple-tracked chorus.
Unable to cram into the Lounge studio the hundred or so musicians it seemingly took to initially create the record though, a stripped-down live dishing of “Rabbit Heart”, while lovely, doesn’t bear the same magical hold of the original.
When covering Beyonce’s soft rock ballad “Halo”, Flo hits a few vocal bumps when trying to compete with the original singer’s perfected caterwaul; yet when looking beyond the imperfections, there lies some evidence that, given a few practice runs to make her more comfortable with the material, this could end up being a fine future B-side.
On previous cover songs, Daniel Merriweather stuck with old favorites from The Smiths and Paul McCartney and turned them into winning, soul-toned addictions. It turns out he can be as equally impressive when he averts his attention to pop songs more current, as proven by his latest remake, a classy, blue-eyed-textured re-imagining of the La Roux single “In For The Kill”.
Merriweather’s take expertly smooths away the new wave-y bop of the original for another retro-baked arrangement that shades his vocal in tickles of meandering piano, a light 60′s soul groove and dramatic orchestral flourishes.
And his vocal performance? Despite his occasional detours into show-y talent show theatrics, Daniel is no doubt a solid soul crooner, and he doesn’t disappoint here, complimenting “Kill”‘s lyric with a fitting emotional resonance that wasn’t quite achieved in the sometimes hard-to-decipher, via-crummy-telephone-connection-like pipes of Roux’ Elly Jackson.
“I’m Not Your Toy”, the latest leakage from the La Roux camp, continues their promise of a killer debut album as yet another hooky morsel of digi-new wave.
Supported by itchy drum patterns and a whimsical, steel drum-like synth sparkle on the hook, the carnival-esque “Toy” doesn’t take too long to get stuck in your brain, but there’s more to it than it’s sugary musical tricks. It’s sharp-fanged lyric centers on a boyfriend who’s cruelly playing with her heart (“It’s all false love and affection/ You don’t want me, you just want the attention”), and while the ever-blurried-sounding lead singer Elly Jackson can’t help but dream of there being something behind his mystifying touches that hints to some sort of romantic breakthrough, she just as well can’t deny the soul-crushing reality that this is a dead-end union she needs to escape from, noting wistfully: “I wish I could believe in you”.
We would note it as our favorite La Roux joint ever, but we get the feeling that their highly anticipated June-due self-titled LP (pre-order it here) will have a boatload of other 80′s-dipped favorites to share that honor with.
La Roux find another 8-bit digi-White-funk playground to explore inner feelings in on “In For The Kill”, the equally-agreeable follow-up to their much-hyped Fall debut “Quicksand” (which Maestro didn’t realize carried a slight lesbianic tinge until recently, making that record even more hot).
This time around, singer Elly Jackson’s blurred falsetto latches onto a lyric in which she shrugs off all traces of shyness in an effort to take a platonic relationship to that next level. All tumbled words, “full stops and exclamation marks”, Elly nervously lays all her cards on the table, unable to hold back any longer (“I’m going in for the kill/ I’m doing it for a thrill/ I’m hoping you’ll understand/ And not let go of my hand”) as Atari blips and bloops dance jubilantly around her.
Another irresistible, ’80′s-baked tune from the hottest haircut in the music world, look for La Roux’ debut sometime later this year through Polydor. Single is due March 2nd.
As nice as it is to get free music, think of how much better your soul would feel if you purchased it the old-fashioned way.
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A preview to Donnis‘ new mixtape Fashionably Late (due tomorrow), the much-hyped Georgia-born emcee’s “The Kill” swipes the hook from La Roux‘ “In For The Kill” to support bleak-filled rhymes in which he admits to having a pill-popping addiction and realizes that all the people he thought were his friends would rather see him fail in his quest for success in the hip hop game.
This past week, BBC’s 
On previous cover songs, Daniel Merriweather stuck with old favorites from 
“I’m Not Your Toy”, the latest leakage from the 
La Roux
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