Nneka - Heartbeat

This sounded weirdly familiar, only because I knew it from the Chase and Status remix, which was everywhere a few years ago.

The remix is definitely catchier and cleaner-sounding, but I prefer the original hands down. The live drums are incredible: apparently* people program drum machines to try to make them sound more imperfect and human. They should just hire this guy.

Nneka's vocals are growing on me - it's not the sound that I usually go for, but she murks this track. And she's very cool: I have yet to see her get naked in a video, and she wrote this little stormer. Take that Rihanna.

*according to my friend Jon, who knows about things like this.

Kanye West - All Of The Lights

The intro to this is quite likely to induce seizures, but it's worth it because afterward you get to see almost all of Rihanna's boobs. She's so hot she almost even gets away with plastic hair. Almost.

The song itself is pretty hawt too - Kanye doing his thing of pushing pop to its limits, and sounding totally unique. The lyrics are stupid, apart from Rihanna's hook, which is definitely chat-up-line/marriage proposal of the week. But if you've ever wanted to hear electro marching-band hip-pop, this is your chance. And there's a bit of kuduro flavour to the drums - I'm not the only international bass ambassador.

Hobbie Stuart - What's My Name? (Rihanna Cover)

This is a pretty special cover: he does a bit of harmony on the vocals, and it sounds so much less whiny than the original: Drake's voice is just too nasal for me. I know that's a bit rich, given how much I love Ghetts, who seems to have mastered the art of rapping entirely through his nose, and could probably perform with his mouth duct-taped shut. But Ghetts is a phenomenon lyrically, and Drake is just meh-meh-mediocre.

And I would like Rihanna so much more if she wasn't naked 24/7. Not that I don't like her naked, just that I get a bit dubious as to whether it's necessary to take all your clothes off in order to sing properly. I don't know, I'm no singer, but I just pray that Pavarotti and Susan Boyle don't adopt the Rihanna technique in the hope of improving upon their lovely voices.