Tracks of the week reviewed: Katy J Pearson, Cher Lloyd, the 1975

Katy J Pearson

Take Back the Radio

A softly psychedelic sashay into the first whispers of summer, Take Back the Radio is an addictive whoop of pure joy. Here, the horn-studded Muscle Shoals soul sound is sent on a day trip down the border between Gloucestershire and Somerset before an all-night dance party held in a time before the invention of social distancing. “Switch off the TV / Just sing a song,” squeaks Pearson, and after a sixth episode of Grand Designs, I’m more than happy to follow her lead.

Cher Lloyd

Lost

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It has been a decade since Cher Lloyd stormed on to The X Factor and blasted her way through Soulja Boy’s Turn My Swag On, causing Simon Cowell’s face to morph into a fruit machine that had just hit the jackpot. Although Cher never quite became the Malvern Hills Nicki Minaj that ITV’s smuggest svengali clearly longed for, there is something heartening about this largely harmless return.

The 1975

If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)

Not even a terrifying global emergency can bring an end to the continued rumour that the 1975 are the greatest thing to ever happen to indie pop rather than just a horny Tears for Fears. Anyone looking for the deeper meaning to this track’s fluffy falsetto and powerfully 80s sax solo will sadly be out of luck. “It’s about getting naked on FaceTime,” frontman Matty Healy recently confirmed. Well, that’s one way to ride out lockdown.

Evanescence

Wasted on You

Evanescence’s Amy Lee is still hollering away with all of the operatic gusto of a Meat Loaf backing singer who’s finally found the keys to the castle gates, hotwired the motorbike and got the hell out of the dungeon. A four-minute gothic drama as written by the team behind Too Hot to Handle, Wasted on You is schlocky, unnecessarily dramatic and with absolutely no climax allowed.

Avril Lavigne

We Are Warriors

What can you say about an Avril Lavigne track released to support frontline workers during the Covid-19 crisis apart from: “Oh look, Avril Lavigne’s released a track to support frontline workers during the Covid-19 crisis”?