Dry The River - No Rest

There's been a lot of buzz surrounding Dry The River of late. Fans of the likes of Fleet Foxes and Noah & The Whale will love their folky, delicate charm - a real rapturous collection of softness and melody sewn together with proper tenderness.

Previous single Deadheads with a beautiful, languid ballad of emotions writ large in lush swathes of guitar and piano. From hushed beginnings it erupted into a sprawling, passionate creature that seemed to be bursting to be let loose on the summer festivals.

And it's there you'll find tha band as they take to Glastonbury this weekend, including a Saturday set on the esteemed John Peel stage.

New track No Rest follows much the same lines as Deadheads; again fuelled on a formula of incredibly fragile openings slowly building into a far more complex creation. What really strikes me most is the way lead singer Peter Liddle's voice can, at a moment, suddenly transform into this fully fledged soaring eagle of a thing as he cries 'I loved you in the best way possible', emploring the recipient of the song's message to just listen, to understand.

It's powerful stuff, and quite rightly, has been driving up much praise for the band from the likes of the NME. These guys are definitely ones to keep an eye out for.

No Rest is available to download from iTunes now.

(Video) Friendly Fires - Hawaiian Air

I've had Friendly Fires' sublime Pala album on non-stop repeat all week, and one thing that strikes me every time I surrender to its heady rush of synths and soaring vocals, is just how 'pop' it is.

The thing is, Friendly Fires came very much from the stable of Radio 1 supported indie acts, but hearing them now, they feel infinitely more glossy, more confident, and fundamentally better because of it.

And that's never more true than on new single Hawaiian Air. A fitting follow-up to the equally catchy Live Those Days Tonight, like its predecessor, it benefits from a truly crystalline chorus; one that catches every inch of the tropical, summery kaleidoscope of emotion and colour that Pala represents.

And with adverts for the video splashed all over video service Vevo at the moment, this looks set to swiftly become another firm favourite - I'm rather envious of anyone seeing these guys live over the next few months - 2011 is without a doubt their year.

(Video) Lady Gaga - The Edge Of Glory

I think, like most people, I'm rather confused by Lady Gaga's current release schedule. Her new single (can we really call it 'new'?) has been out for yonks now, since before the album came out even. It's charted highly already, yet now, weeks later, Gaga puts out a video for it.

What will this do? Sell a few more copies? Maybe a lot more? Probably. But the feeling is that this is more about Gaga doing what's made a career out of, making an 'artistic statement'.

Perhaps it's surprising then that The Edge Of Glory is incredibly straightforward in comparison to her last two videos. In a way it's refreshing, a return to the feel of the Pokerface/Just Dance videos, where Gaga looks relatively normal, and just larks about a bit, dancing around a small set.

In this case, it's a grimy night-time street scene - and it all looks very retro; those house fronts/fire escapes that seemed all the rage in music videos back in the 80s and early 90s. Literally everyone seemed to be busting a move off them.

Personally, I quite like the video. Gaga looks good in it, and the lighting and tone is all rather nice. It suits the song. But what takes away from this video the most though is that you can watch the first minute of it, and in that minute, pretty much see all there is to see here. There is no development, nothing happens later on. And for someone of such grand visions as Gaga, it seems quite surprising.

And to be quite honest, I'm still loving Judas. Now there's a music video and a half.

Metronomy - The Bay

As one of the catchiest tracks from The English Riviera, in many ways The Bay was the logical choice for Metronomy's next single. With that rubbery bass bounce and a classic Joe Mount vocal, the track also proved to be a real live highlight too when I caught the band on tour a couple of months ago.

The video for the track fits so well - opening with a sweeping panoramic shot of the camera surging over the ocean. Indeed, if any track from the album encapsulates in one go the essence of what The English Riviera stands for, it's this one.

With its clever cinematography and glossy montage of shots, the video at times looks more like a TV ad or movie trailer - and that's what makes it so brilliant. It's that glossy 'riviera sheen' nailed down to perfection.

Built on a foundation of inherent Metronomy quirkiness, The Bay remains a standout track by the band - but now with added video delights, we can really see them riding a sleek, streamlined wave to the top of their game.

The Bay is released on the 27th June.

Nicola Roberts - Lucky Day (Live Video)

The place - Metro Radio Live - and Girls Aloud star Nicola Roberts is giving the audience an exclusive performance of the song which will apparently become her second solo single, following Beat Of My Drum.

Entitled Lucky Day, I hear the track was produced in collaboration with electro-poppers Dragonette. From what I can make out in this clip, it sounds far closer to the sound many expected from Nicola when it was first announced she was going solo; those big, epic synth-ballads she did so well as part of Girls Aloud.

We've already had a taste of extra Nicola with Beat Of My Drum's excellent b-side, Porcelain Heart, and judging by Lucky Day, her debut album looks set to be absolutely out-of-this-world-amazing.

(Video) Linkin Park - Iridescent

When you're making a music video for a movie tie-in song, there's always the inclination to fill it with a whole host of exciting clips from the film in question. Nothing wrong in that, it has, after all, become the norm. You need only look at Take That's new single (which fronts the the new X Men film), to see a rather well done example of it. It's all very tasteful and looks cool, but equally, it's not breaking any boundaries.

And then you look at what Linkin Park have done with their Iridescent video, the companion track to the summer's other big blockbuster - Transformers: Dark Of The Moon. Ever the ambitious and innovative ones, Linkin Park have instead incorporated the movie graphics into the video itself, tweaking them so that the film elements become inseparable from the video itself.

Not only does this make everything all the more exciting, but it places the video itself into the Transformers universe; the band becoming characters playing out their own existences in this new, terrifying world. As the video's director and band member Joe Hahn puts it, 'What would it be like to be citizens in a decaying universe?'

There's some lovely mirrored kaleidoscope effects going on and the entire video is treated with this lovely sort of blurred black & white sheen, colour only ever coming through in slight glimpses. There's a whole host of imagery going on here too, from a snake, creepy whited-out eyes and a last-supper tableau.

For a dark, epic, moody track; but one gifted with the most uplifting of choruses, this video manages to act as the perfect mirror. Linkin Park have always been a band with a vision, and Iridescent is just one small part of that vision, but boy does it look good.

(Video) Nicola Roberts - Beat Of My Drum

Allow me to introduce the world's new favourite popstar. Because that, surely, is what Nicola Roberts deserves to become.

With her delicate, model-like beauty and such an effortlessly charming personality, she gets the adorable-factor spot on, and never is it more evident in the video for her debut solo single Beat Of My Drum.

Throwing some moves down in a hall, accompanied by a troupe of dancers and drummers galore, she even finds time to come up with one of the best pop dance routines I've seen in a long time. 'L.O.V.E.' she raps out, spelling the letters out with her arms. I'm in love.

It's plain to see here that this is the moment Nicola has been building to all her life; and for a young singer making her first forays into the solo world after nearly a decade in a band, she carries it incredibly well. The video is fierce, fun and full of that distinct pop essence that we all felt only Nicola would be capable of creating.

Take That - Love Love

I'll admit, I had my initial worries with Love Love - and they were two-fold. Firstly, I was a little disappointed to see the brilliant Happy Now glossed over so quickly, instead of it receiving the full attention and exposure it deserves. But then again, in an increasingly digital world - single releases like that become ever more a reality.

Secondly, on first hearing, Love Love felt just that bit too similar to previous single Kidz. That same marching-band stomp, that same threatening buzz of electronics. But on seeing the track accompanied by its video - all eerie neon glow and the band standing around what looks like a mis-shapen heap of metal off-cuts - the glorious sci-fi swagger of the track hit me.

In a way, the Kidz comparisons aren't a bad thing, chiefly because Kidz was an amazing record. And whereas it was cold, menacing and affected with a dictatorial chill; Love Love is very much the flip side - the same sounds, but this time channelled into a force for positivity and good. The chorus of 'why don't you teach your heart to talk' captures that essence Take That have always managed to strike so sweetly - singing about love with real passion, but never tipping over into that pit of overly-sentimental guff.

It's all suitably epic fare, of the sort Take That always do so well. There's even a hint of Pet Shop Boys Go West anthemic-ness to it all, the kind of rousing tune that is simply made for stadiums. Fitting then that it's this month that sees the TT boys taking to their mind-bogglingly immense UK tour, with those very same Pet Shop Boys in tow.

X Men - First Class is the movie this track accompanies (and a bloody good one it is too - I saw the film earlier this week and had a thoroughly enjoyable time watching it - a real classic bit of big-budget Hollywood action) - and while it didn't seem so at first, this is most definitely another first class track for Take That.

Nicola Roberts 'Beat of my Drum' teaser video

Sometimes, with an artist's album campaign, everything comes together so well, so brilliantly, you start to think it must be fate.

And Nicola Robert's Beat of my Drum looks to be one such case. Just look at the video teaser - tantalisingly short, it still manages to give us a real essence of just how awesome the complete thing is clearly going to be. Because Nicola Roberts is pure awesome. And that's Fact.

A dance routine to rival the famed Biology and Love Machine for sheer pop ingenuity. That super-smart sense of style Nicola has so rightly become famed for of late. The clip has it all. And she just exudes so much Fierce!

It's Nicola Roberts - Actual Nicola off of Girls Aloud - and her solo project is what pop lovers everywhere have been waiting for all their lives.

Parade - Perfume (Wideboys Remix)

Currently compiling a hot summer party playlist? Well, you need to get the Wideboys remix of Parade's new single Perfume on there if you know what's good for you.

Wideboys have always been one of my favourite remixers and have worked with pretty much *everyone* in the pop game, and they've come up trumps again with this frisky re-work of the girls' track.

Even better, unless I'm very much mistaken, there's a whole host of new shots and angles in the tweaked video that accompanies the remix - so you're getting even more Parade. Which is a very good thing indeed.

Perfume is released on the 19th June and is available to pre-order here.