Listen To The Five Best Song This Week

As the onslaught of British bank holiday weekends begin, we’ve picked out the best new music from the last seven days so you don’t have to.

First up, 19-year-old MNEK unleashed his debut single, “Every Little Word”, and proved the hype was justified. Bad-ass basslines, soulful croons, mishmash electronic gloops and club-ready beats more than make the statement the South Londoner intended - “to change the world one song at a time”, that is. We’re ready and waiting.

Fresh from signing to Best Fit Recordings, Lucy Taylor aka Pawws dropped, “Sugar”, a glistening 80s pop-indebted song. Casting long shadows with shady synths over a fixed beat, Taylor’s quite literally sugared vocals stick to a roof of layered and twisted pop melodies. The title track from her long-awaited debut EP, “Sugar” is peachy pop – file next to Kylie.

It can be frustrating to hear thousands of bands trying and failing to create their own, strong brand of 90s dream pop/shoegaze. There’s nothing wrong with imitation (heck, what would music sound like today without a guiding hand of influences?) but they have to have that special something. Like Anto Dust’s recent spellbinding “1955″, Leigh-on-Sea quartet (fronted by 19-year-old singer-songwriter Samuel Jones) Velvet Morning have made the week feel like a dream with “Barrett Land”: lullaby guitar lines, big harmonic reverb and unhurried Ian Brown-esque vocals. It’s dazzling, in parts drowsy psychedelia, and will most certainly remain on repeat.

Kwabs. is one of the most featured artists in this column, and it’s easy to hear why. On his latest cut, “Something Right” (produced by Vienna-based boardsman/singer SOHN) the thunderous drama of tracks like “Last Stand” once again comes to the fore – all groaning synths and godly harmonies. The London based, Ghana-born singer is undoubtedly the finest solo talent to have emerged out of the back-end of 2013 and “Something Right” is another tick against the sterling soul-pop checklist.

Electronic world-music masters Young Magic released a superb debut last year in Melt and now follow it up with, “Holographic”. A conglomerate of electronic sub-genres – from chillwave to electronica – the track boasts Melati Malay and Isaac Emmanuel’s undeniable talent for writing gorgeous, patchworked music. Oriental flutters, airy vocals and looped bleeps are but a few of the multi-textures found in the five-minute mini epic. Get lost in it now.

Listen to our hand-picked selection of the week’s best new music below: