Friday Music

Let’s get to it:

First up: NEW DURAN DURAN. This is a leaked single from their forthcoming album, Red Carpet Massacre, coming in November, and is one of a couple songs on the album written with and featuring Justin Timberlake and Timbaland (Timbaland, in fact, was a producer on the album). Their influence is pretty clear on this track. Could it be that the hottest producer in the biz and pop music’s current reigning king have the added juice to bring DD back into the limelight? Stranger things have happened. Duran Duran – “Nite Runner (feat. Justin Timberlake and Timbaland).”

By now, you’ve all heard the mocking of Britney Spears…ah, less-than-stellar performance at the VMA’s earlier this week (along with the ridiculous and disturbing assertion that a woman who looks like this is “fat.”). Yes, she seemed to stagger aimlessly around the stage. Yes, she gave up even trying to lip-synch. What all of the feeding-frenzy ignores, however, is that the song is pretty damned good. Sure, Spears has never been more than packaged product, but you can’t ignore that the music has always been really slickly produced. The new single is a great dance track — which is exactly what it’s supposed to be. “It’s Britney, bitch….” Britney Spears – “Gimme More.”

Speaking of great dance tracks, here’s another track from Róisín Murphy’s upcoming album Overpowered, coming out in October. This is the second track I’ve heard (the first being the title track, which I posted a few weeks ago), and it sounds like this album is going to be as good as her first. Róisín Murphy – “Let Me Know.”

Actors with bands. Historically, not the best idea. (I’m looking at you, Bruce Willis.) However, everything I’ve heard from Juliette Lewis’ band, Juliette and The Licks, has been pretty good. Nothing earth-shattering, but better-than-average garage-band guitar-rock. Here’s an example: Juliette & The Licks – “Sticky Honey.”

Some International Hip-Hop for , because I haven’t posted any in quite a while. Tang Ren Ti is a Chinese rapper who performs what he calls “Jazz Rap” — delivering rap in the kunming dialect (kunminghua) over jazz compositions. Nice. Tang Ren Ti – “Shanliang De Xin (good heart)”

For those who have enjoyed the recent efforts by Muse (“Knights of Cydonia”, “Supermassive Black Hole”, etc.), I am pleased to report that their earlier work is just as good. Here is a track from their 2001 album, Origin of Symmetry: Muse – “Bliss.”

We began with Duran Duran, and so we’ll close the circle by ending with them….sort of. A great mash-up, featuring DD, The Beatles and a bit of assistance by Erik B. and Rakim. DJ Clive$ter – “Together Undone (Duran Duran vs The Beatles).”

It’s Friday Music, Bitch.