Yasmin feat. Shy FX & Ms Dynamite - Light Up (The World)

Yasmin - the pop shapeshifter, songstress of mystique. Taken side by side, previous single Finish Line and Light Up The World couldn't be more different. The former was the most precise, clinical of pop records, packing a killer hook. But Light Up The World, a collab with veterans Shy FX and Ms Dynamite feels like an unfortunate step backwards.

The hooks are hidden beneath a heap of dubby bass and reggae stabs - they're in there somewhere, glimmering through in the odd moment, but never is there the proud, open glory of Finish Line.

Ultimately, it depends what you want from Yasmin - Light Up The World is definitively the uber-cool hipster track, the dance-inflected 'experimental' number to thrill the DJs. But those that saw the makings of an icy pop princess in Finish Line and On My Own will be left disappointed.

Light Up The World feels like a trippy lapse back into the smoke-clouded past - a snapshot into shisha houses and squalid 90s concrete'n'denim, chemical worlds of a more laid-bare age. In the here and now, for all its merits, it lacks the precision to truly compete.

(That said, the Freemasons mix is exceptional - a thing of real beauty, and with just the right touch of added clubland 'bite')

Light Up The World is released on the 16th January.

The Collective - Teardrop

It was always going to be a tough one. With a track as monumentally iconic as Massive Attack's Teardrop, there's a sense that any new cover version of it would never hope to live up to the towering landmark of a track the original is.

As much as you might seek to take it in its own context - even more so because this version, by Gary Barlow's 'The Collective', is for charity - you can't separate it away. And listening to the rapped verses, you can't help but feel this is another case of when Dizzee Rascal inserted his own raps into Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas?

All things considered - and raps aside - musically, The Collective's version remains pretty faithful to the original; full of hiss and crackle and that wonderful harp-like melody. Bringing the song up to date is a sharp, dubsteppy beat (surely unavoidable these days, right?)

This version stars an immense array of urban stars, including Chipmunk, Dot Rotten, Ed Sheeran, Ms Dynamite,
 Mz Bratt, Rizzle Kicks, Tinchy Stryder and Wretch 32. The real star is undoubtedly Tulisa though, who gets the lion's share of the vocals and video time. A more cynical mind would suggest this is a blatant attempt to cash in on dear Tulisa's newfound X Factor stardom and begin to position her as a massive solo artist in her own right.

With a rather jarring shift from the rapped verses to the sung chorus, Teardrop feels even more like a vehicle for 'solo Tulisa'. One thing's for sure though, she brings a hell of a lot to the song. She makes this cover, and it's a refreshing reminder that she has a brilliant voice on her. If anything, it's here, more than ever that it becomes clear what a massive star she is set to very shortly become.

For more information about this year's Children in Need appeal, visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey

Teardrop is released on November 13th.