We were already mega-excited for Rebecca Ferguson's tour, but after seeing this sublime cover of Drake's Take Care, we're positively counting down the days to the date we're going to. Rebecca's smoky, sultry vocals suit the song perfectly and we love the arrangement of the track she's gone for - very classy indeed!
The anticipation for Drake's Take Care album across the internet has been more than palpable. In this age of instant gratification gratis downloads and On Air/On Sale, it's arrival seemed like an event, a day to indulge in its entirety.
Taken out of the context of the album, Make Me Proud bears less singular appeal than the title track, but boasts an equally star-studded guest vocalist in the form of Nicki Minaj.
Drake spins lyrics of his ideal woman over a choppy, tweaked spool of digital effects and big beats. For a rapper who's made a career out of lush, ambient textures, Make Me Proud sees Drake at his hardest, most biting.
Nicki positively leaks onto the track, cutting across Drake and pulling her usual cod British accent 'thing'. It's no repeat of her magnificent Eminem collab Roman's Revenge, but most crucially, it sees her fitting into the track rather than this being a predictable case of quick in and out guest role. As the track progresses, spiralling vortexes of synth rhythms cascade down over the raps, crafting a rich mix of textures that has come to characterise the classic Drake sound.
With her level of fame, it's key that Nicki doesn't overpower Drake, doesn't become the pinning point of the track - and thankfully, she doesn't; this remains 100% a part of Take Care, with Nicki's role being that of an exciting embellishment.
Drake's Thank Me Later is hands up one of my favourite albums of recent years, a rare example of an album's quality genuinely matching up to every bit of hype floating around the ether about a new artist. Over here in the UK, the reception to the record was middling - a few of the singles received decent-ish airplay, but any overall impression was minimal.
Hence, the buck falls to new single Take Care to propel Drake into the upper echelons of the chart, and the public consciousness. Put simply, this guy is too talented to be ignored. As far as hip-hop goes, Drake exists on another level, and its a deliriously good-sounding place.
Just like the best moments of Thank Me Later, Take Care is dreamy, hazy - the smoke-screen of an all-time best high. With Rihanna carted in for guest vocal duties, and the club-accented thump, thump of the drums, the track's crossover appeal is immense. If any track exists to break Drake to the public at large, it's this one.
RiRi sounds softer than usual, more sultry - it's a nice change from her usual dominatrix stylings and allows her to slide herself more easily around Drake's raps. Take Care is the sound of a lost African jungle, that tribal percussion underpinning a beautifully elusive synth hook. It's quick-silver magic, twisted and beaten to Drake's will.
We got sent Talay Riley's album sampler yonks ago, and we must confess, we were kinda wondering what had happened to him, because pretty much every track on there was brilliant - the kind of snazzy urban pop that should be right up there at the top of the charts.
Riley's credentials are impressive - he featured on the big Chipmunk hit Look For Me as well as touring with N-Dubz. Sounding like a new, rejuventated Taio Cruz or Tinchy Stryder, his specialty is robotic beats and gloriously dirty synth basslines. Previous singles Humanoid and Sergeant Smash were the epitome of this sound, seeing releases towards the end of 2010/start of 2011.
It is Riley's new single Make You Mine, however, that sees him at his best. More mainstream and clean-sounding, if any track is to see him propelled to the top of the charts, it'll be this one.
A strong, piano-driven track, it presents Riley as a kind of British Drake, which makes him Rather Good indeed. The chorus is a towering, wondrously catchy thing - one of those magical moments that sounds like you've known it all your life.
Nicki Minaj's British accent is actually the most amazing thing ever invented. Fact. So a video where a blonde-haired Nicki fairy-godmother appears, speaking in that very accent is by association all kinds of awesome.
