Download Tracks of the Week

A rash of cracking new singles have come online ahead of the Christmas rush but the return of The Duke Spirit and The Go! Team, plus new arrivals The Naked and Famous, are in particularly impressive form.

The Go! Team, T.O.R.N.A.D.O. Download here.

An award for the most eclectic outfit to surface over the past decade would surely go to Brighton sextet The Go! Team. They draw on indie rock and garage rock with samples nicked from everywhere from Blaxploitation to Bollywood.

They threatened the big time with their debut album Thunder, Lightning, Strike back in 2004 when some of its singles got some belated airplay. Their second album, Proof of Youth, charted slightly better but that final step up didn’t materialise. Anyway, the eccentric ensemble has returned, with a new album set for release early next year. If T.O.R.N.A.D.O. is anything to go by, then we’re in for another ultra-happy dose high-tempo aural optimism.

Listen here:

The Naked And Famous – Punching In A Dream. Download here.

It’s not often that you hear ‘music’ and ‘New Zealand’ in the same sentence. With notable exception of hip-hop monster Script, there has very little coming from the land of the All-Blacks. Anyway, The Naked And Famous are aiming to change all that after releasing their debut album in September.

Rave reviews and a place on the BBC’s Sound of 2011 is now followed by the ultimate honour – a spot on Download Tracks of the Week.

Their place is well deserved and they almost made it with their single, Young Blood. The undeniably catchy Punching in a Dream, however, just couldn’t be ignored.

The Duke Spirit, Everybody's Under Your Spell. Download here.

It’s hard not to be happy about the fact that The Duke Spirit have returned without doing what so many bands do after being together until after their second album – yunno, get shite. Their glamish, dirty alternative rock has been sorely missed and the contrived retroism music has been struggling to get out from under of late is delightfully absent in Everybody’s Under Your Spell. Not a synthesizer in sight.

We’re told the band is working on its third album at present and this will probably be the debut single. The band is currently in the U.K. writing and recording its third album.

Listen here: