The Bonus Track: Valentine's tracks, De La Soul, Lucius, Teodor Currentzis

A sideways look at the world of music

Songs for sinning lovers

In among the usual album releases for Valentine’s Day (Sinatra, With Love; Tina Turner: Love Songs; The World’s Greatest Valentine’s Day Love Songs and so on), the team behind the Twilight film series has just released Forever, “A Lovers’ Album – For the Dark of Heart”. No surprise there, really, except that the compilation of tracks chosen to break emo-teen hearts everywhere is rather excellent, containing as it does songs by James Vincent McMorrow, Lykke Li, Beck with Bat For Lashes and the ever-wonderful Iron & Wine, who provided the song for Edward and Bella’s wedding scene in Breaking Dawn. Hear “Flightless Bird, American Mouth”

25 years old and rising

Good news for lovers of old-school hip-hop with two acts heading to these shores to mark different landmarks. First up, De La Soul celebrate the 25th birthday of their classic debut album 3 Feet High & Rising with six UK dates in May. And then Cypress Hill are scheduled to headline the Nass “Action Sports and Music” festival in Somerset in July. It will be the original line-up’s first UK show for about a decade and a first album together since 2004 is also in the pipeline. Watch De La Soul’s “Get Away”

One to watch

New bands rely on hype and it’s often so much hot air, but when Lucius were recently described as sounding like “the Shirelles singing at CBGBs with Talking Heads and Television”, it would be a derilicition of duty not to at least have a listen. And lo, they are really rather good. The album Wildewoman is out next month and the band – fronted by Brooklyn girls Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig – have a few UK dates in April. Watch “Turn it Around”

Next week’s biggie…

Claudia Pritchard reviews Teodor Currentzis’s take on The Marriage of Figaro. Watch the making-of video