SHUT UP AND DRIVE

Rihanna

She does like to echo the name of her songs, doesn't she? Not content with singing "Umbrella ella ella", here she sings "Shut up and drive drive drive drive". There's versatility for you, kids. Now, if you've just spent longer at Number One than the entire chart runs of McFly's last two singles, you really ought to release something completely different just to prove you're not a one trick pony. The tune's completely different, which is always a good start. For one thing, it's Blue Monday, but she hasn't sampled the original version, oh no. Not for Rihanna the obvious route, instead she's apparently sampled a little-known cover by an American rock band called Orgy, so it's a fair bit harder. I'm also fairly sure the lyrics are using cars as an excuse to talk about something else entirely, after all why else would she say "You look like you can handle what's under my hood / You keep saying that you will, boy, I wish you would"? Let's be frank here (well, you can, I'm still going to be Simon), this isn't going to win any Best Single Of The Year awards, but it's probably not the worst thing I'm going to hear today, I'm pretty confident of that. Now then, let's see if I'm right.

MAMMOTH

Interpol

Oh dear, this isn't looking too good for Rihanna – this is a great song, and it's better than hers. In fact, I'd go so far as to say this is even better than The Heinrich Maneuver. It goes along at a rattling pace, contains a couple of naughty words (like it was particularly radio-friendly anyway) and for some reason the arrangement reminds me of how New Order used to sound in their very early days – and I mean very early days, the Movement era to be exact. Some people say they didn't get going until Temptation, but I disagree – their earliest stuff has a wonderfully nervy, relentless, drawing-a-line-in-the-sand-and-moving-on feel to it and that's exactly what you get here. This is a band that's still improving, and if that's the case God alone knows what they'll put out next. More of this sort of thing, please.

THE ANGRY MOB

Kaiser Chiefs

I'm a sucker for songs that change direction completely. I can't help it. When it's done right, it can work brilliantly. Franz Ferdinand's Take Me Out is a good example, Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus (the album version) is another. Here, it's done absolutely right. The first three minutes are fairly poppy, but with something of a dark edge to the proceedings – my personal interpretation of it is that this is the band's view of the influence of the tabloid press, specifically the red-tops - but just before the three minute mark the whole outlook changes. The tune suddenly embraces gloom and doom, and instead of going bing, the song starts going bong instead. The tempo slows, the beat becomes more tribal and even the lyrics change from verse-chorus-verse to a repetitive chant that builds up until the end… and that's where the song really scores – the song doesn't return to its previous poppy incarnation, it ends on a very downbeat note indeed… and I love it. Their previous single was a big disappointment, but this is what the Kaiser Chiefs are really capable of. Smashing stuff.

HURRICANE

Athlete

Well, this is the hardest single I think I've ever heard from Athlete. Trouble is, there's something about it that leaves me a little bit underwhelmed. My take is this – and Athlete fans, please don't hate me for saying this – if you gave Keane guitars they could conceivably come up with a tune not a million miles away from this. That's a horrible thing to say I know, but although this goes along at a brisk enough pace, for me it's one of those tunes that's been produced with the safety catch on. However, it does have some life in it, which makes it an encouraging start for the new album and unlike their previous output, I'm actually rather intruiged to hear what they come up with next. So, not great, but not bad either. Let off for Rihanna, then.