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Listen Up!: The Singles Roundup - May 4, 2007

An influx of young blood gets balanced out by a few old classics this week as we trainspot new singles from charming indie-rockers Bishop Allen, a 16-year-old reggae star on the rise, and a vocalist you'll want to keep your eye on—Kevin Michael. Tune in, and turn it up...

Kevin Michael - "We All Want the Same Thing" feat. Lupe Fiasco
Smooth meets smooth as skate-rapper Lupe Fiasco gets together with vocal wunderkind Kevin Michael for this killer track that falls somewhere in the spectrum between Cody Chesnutt's magical team-up with the Roots ("Seed") and one of Prince's funkier cuts.

Land of Talk - "Speak to Me Bones"
This track takes off with a less-talking-more-shredding approach, which makes it all the more amazing when Elizabeth Powell's scratchy, insistent, and incisive vocals come in to cut the rawk. Then, the band kicks it up another notch to close with an irresistibly frenetic guitar crescendo. Wow.

Sean Kingston - "Beautiful Girls"
A curious hybrid of a doo-wop ditty and a reggae jam, 16-year-old, Jamaican-born Kingston's new single is a perfect summer confection in which he somehow manages to sing about being suicidal while remaining sweetly upbeat. We're primed for his full-length.

Fabolous & Swizz Beatz - "Return of the Hustle" [video]
You just have to like this song and video for being so of a piece—the production is as bigger-than-life and gaudy as a showgirl and Fab's laid-back rap is just as, well, fabulously corrupt.

Bishop Allen - "Rain"
This is a sweet little shimmy and shake of a song from the band that will be leading off the roster of the new Dead Oceans label, brought to you by the Secretly Canadian and Jagjaguwar people. Bishop Allen's last release was called Charm School, and it's clear they took their lessons to heart.

Jeff Buckley - "Hallelujah"
Not a new song, "Hallelujah" has been re-released on a new Jeff Buckley comp, So Real. No one can match Buckley's angelic interpretation of Leonard Cohen's classic tune, and this version might well outstrip the original itself. One of the most heartbreaking deliveries ever.

Midnight Movies - "Patient Eye - James Iha Remix"
James Iha re-animates this Midnight Movies song, turning it into an apocalyptic cowboy-goth space jam that's hooky, alluring, and atmospheric all at once—sort of like if Broadcast got in a smash-up with Ennio Morricone.

YoungBloodZ - "U Ain't Know" feat. T-Pain
Hip-hop and R&B artists have moved on from talking about what they're drinking, to just the fact itself. YoungBloodz team up with Mr. "Buy U A Drank" himself here, and ye olde beverages do come up. Still, there's something in the tension between T-Pain's breathily sweet delivery of the chorus and the ominous threat implicit in the verse—"If you knew what I knew, you would get right back in your car"—that redeems the track.

The Walkmen - "Red River"
Not much has changed in the Walkmen's sound with this new single, and that's just fine by us. The guitar sounds like it was recorded in an alleyway, the organ is trilling lovely-like along, and Hamilton Leithauser's vocals are as scratchily heroic as always.

- Jocelyn K. Glei
05.04.07

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