Singles Round Up: Tinie Tempah ft. Ellie Goulding - Wonderman

It's a bumper week for big-name pop singles this week, with Britney, Black Eyed Peas, McFly, Olly Murs and Tinie Tempah all putting forward releases for your consideration. We've picked through that lot, and a few of the smaller name releases to bring you some of the best, and inevitably, some of the worst new singles.

Tinie Tempah ft. Ellie Goulding - Wonderman
Bobble: This song does to Ellie Goulding what Madonna did to Bond themes - she's post-processed to the hilt and mashed up like Monday morning's bubble and squeak, but it works well. Tinie takes the lead with strong vocals but it's a well-balanced partnership and a catchy track. Good effort from both.
» Tinie Tempah ft. Ellie Goulding - Wonderman on iTunes


Britney Spears - Til The World Ends
Dan: A bit of a new direction I suppose for Britney, this is a dirrrty dance floorfiller, with some pretty nice production. You can definitely hear that this song was written by Ke$ha, but Brit does the Brit thing and makes it her own. Her already weird nasal voice is autotuned to breaking point, but overall the song holds together and it's not a bad effort.
» Britney Spears - Till the World Ends on iTunes

McFly - That's The Truth
Bobble: Party popsters McFly have tried to mellow things out for this big-synth ballad. It's not actually that bad, to be fair, but it's a bit generic. Catchy chorus makes up for that a bit.
» McFly - That's The Truth on iTunes

James Blake - The Wilhelm Scream
Dan: One of the highlights of James Blake's debut last month, the Wilhelm Scream is four and a half minutes of spaced out existential angst in audio form. Blake is the poster boy for the achingly cool post-dubstep scene, and singles like this are going to do nothing to cool the hype.
» James Blake - The Wilhelm Scream on iTunes

Olly Murs - Heart On My Sleeve
Dan: I'm not sure why Olly Murs is dressed as the Milk Tray man in this video, but I guess it's because he's gone all serious. Yep, gone is the infectious pop of Please Don't Let Me Go and Thinking Of Me, and in its place is this dreary, by-numbers love ballad. Cram it Murs, just buy the lass some modestly priced chocolates, it'll probably be fine.
» Olly Murs - Heart On My Sleeve on iTunes

Black Eyed Peas - Just Can't Get Enough
Bobble: I just can't seem to 'get' the Black Eyed Peas these days. I'm not sure why, but the retro-synth, cataclysmic-autotuning, rhythm-shifting opuses of self-indulgence they keep producing over, and over, and over again are really starting to annoy me. No doubt this'll be in the top five come next Sunday. Tragic.
» Black Eyed Peas - Just Can’t Get Enough on iTunes

The Naked And Famous - Young Blood
Dan: Really interesting single this one, The Naked & Famous have a great sound that just seems so "now", and I love the boy/girl vocals dynamic. It is no wonder NME have been all over this band, they could be about to have a really big year.
» The Naked And Famous - Young Blood (EP) on iTunes