A few songs have caught me ear lately, while also capturing the imagination of everyone else!

First up, LIPS. I was lucky enough to meet Steph Brown when staying with a friend in Brooklyn in 2011 and when I asked her what she did, she played me a version of “Everything To Me”. The song went on to win her the Silver Scroll songwriter’s competition last year but it’s her cover of Frank Ocean’s “Super Rich Kids” that I really love, as well as the  chess metaphor in “We don’t have much time”. I’d not really got into Ocean until I heard LIPS’ cover and then went back and listened to the original. In doing so, I found this fun website that unravels rap lyrics for you.

Secondly, and sounding quite similar, is Lorde and her song “Royals”. I first heard it on Nick D’s breakfast show on George FM, where it was Number One for five weeks straight. Lorde is apparently a 16-year-old school girl from the North Shore but this song is nothing like the Katy Perry-style bubblegum you might expect from that description. Listening to the lyrics, you realise it’s actually an astute anti-consumerist ditty – and I hope girls like her really do end up ruling us all.

Last is a song I heard on a Dazed and Confused playlist called “City” by a band called Summer Camp.

Lovely!