Little Boots - Every Night I Say A Prayer

Earlier this week, a few of our writers gave their views on the new Little Boots single and the result was mixed – to our (editorial – ha) ears, ‘Every Night I Say A Prayer’ sounds like one of the year’s better singles – we This Is My Jam’d it yesterday, if that means anything to  you.

‘Every Night I Say A Prayer’ now has a video and, well, if you heard a fair amount of late ’80s/early ’90s Madonna in the song, prepare to see a lot more of Madge’s influence in the video. And to be honest, if Madonna’s going to insist on being so shit at the moment, then Victoria might as well step in and show her how it’s really done. Belly tops, voguing and lyrca below:

Usher - Climax

A little while ago, a new Usher song leaked – ‘Climax’ is a collaboration with Diplo and features arrangements from Nico Muhly. It’s a beautiful, R&B ballad with electronic flourishes and bodes well for new Usher material – a full album is yet to be announced. Earlier today, the video for ‘Climax’ premiered over on Vevo – it’s wonderfully shot, a little enigmatic and features a fair amount of Usher emoting at the camera and looking serious in his car. Watch it below.

Jessie Ware

We’ve had our eye on Jessie Ware for a while now – she made a number of guest appearances in interesting places last year, featuring on a number of tracks by SBTRKT, while also putting in a stunning vocal on the standout track on Joker’s debut album, ‘The Vision (Let Me Breathe)’ – her appearance during Joker’s Boiler Room set will testify that she has an impressive voice.

‘Running’, her second solo single after last year’s ‘Strangest Feeling’, is an altogether more subtle affair, a bit like a downtempo Madonna number with hints of R&B and soul. The other Jessie wishes she was this classy. Ware is currently working on their debut album with Dave Okumu of The Invisible (hooray!) – it’s due in the summer. Till then, watch the video for ‘Running’ below.

Perfume Genius

We’ve been listening to the new Perfume Genius album, Put Your Back N 2 It, for the last few days and it is stunning, even better than 2010′s heavily praised Learning. ‘Hood’ has already become something of a standout for us, so it’s great to see that Mike Hadreas has released a video for the song – and the first proper Perfume Genius video at that.

The video undercuts the lyrics of the song with a bit of humour – there’s Hadreas in a string vest and some make up alongside gay porn star Arpad Miklos. It’s short, sweet and you can watch it below.

Dot Rotten

Dot Rotten found himself on the BBC Sound Of 2012 the other week – while he didn’t make the top 5, it was still a fairly big achievement for a grime MC, even in a post-Dizzee and Wiley world. In interviews, he seems refreshingly unconcerned with what his underground peers are going to make of his move overground – and the sheer number of mixtapes he released between 2008 and last year is testament to the work he’s been putting in. He’s just released the video for new single ‘Are You Not Entertained’ and its neither a retreat to his roots nor a Tinie Tempah style crossover – plenty of grime MCs have got lost in the space between the underground and the mainstream, and it’ll be interesting to hear where Dot Rotten’s album lands between those two worlds.

Azari & III

Canadian house-revival four-piece Azari & III released on of our favourite albums this year outside of the UK – their self-titled debut has only been available over here on import or limited edition vinyl since earlier this year. The group are lining up a full release on Island Records on February 19, and a ‘Reckless With Your Love’ single will precede the album a week earlier.

‘Reckless With Your Love’ is one of the standouts from the album and now has a suitably camp/odd new video, which you can watch below.

Cass McCombs

Cass McCombs‘ second album of 2011 – Humor Risk – follows April’s WIT’S END on November 7th in the UK, and a day later elsewhere. In an era when our musicians and pop acts share so much of themselves with us, Cass McCombs’ good old-fashioned fondness  for the enigmatic (particularly in interviews) is actually kind of refreshing – it also allows you to focus on his music. You can do just that below – Humor Risk is now available to stream in its entirety. It’s a fuller, more musically-varied LP than the sparse and frail WIT’S END. Additionally, you can also take a look at the video for Humor Risk track ‘The Same Thing’ below.

Cass McCombs – Humor Risk by DominoRecordCo

Rihanna - Talk That Talk

You may have heard a thing or two about Rihanna‘s video for ‘We Found Love’ – a farmer in Northern Ireland didn’t take too kindly to her cavorting around in her pants on his land, as you may recall – and now you can view the finished clip. Click through below to view it. There’s drugs, poor cockney accents and topless frolicking – if this video’s anything to go by, she’s combining the trancey, carefree singles and “Ain’t sex good?” attitude of her previous album, Loud, with some of the “I’m very serious, let’s tackle issues” posturing and imagery of Rated R. Fair enough. Rihanna’s new album, Talk That Talk, is out in November.

Rihanna on WhoSay

Youth Lagoon

Twenty-two year old Trevor Powers, aka Youth Lagoon, is gearing up to release his debut album at the end of this month. Before that, however, we have the video for the beautiful track ‘Montana’. Directed by Tyler T Williams, it could stand up as a short film in its own right – it’s beautifully shot and as poignant as Powers’ song. Youth Lagoon will release his album, entitled The Year Of Hibernation, on Fat Possum Records on September 27th. Watch the video for ‘Montana’ below.

Youth Lagoon – Montana from Tyler T Williams on Vimeo.

Lana Del Rey - Video Games/Blue Jeans

With her retro-inspired songs, homemade videos and self-coined description of the “gangsta Nancy Sinatra”, Lana Del Rey has caught a lot of people’s attention since her track ‘Video Games’ emerged a while ago – numerous critics have tried to unravel her music industry past and just how she’s managed to attract so many plaudits with just one song. At the moment, it’s difficult to separate Lana Del Rey’s obvious vocal talent and own contradictions from the PR myths and occasionally quite sexist speculation that has arisen around her. You can judge for yourself as another track has emerged now – she’s just released a video for the B-side to ‘Video Games’, the smokey and evocative ‘Blue Jeans’. Listen below.