Crumbler

“Islands,” Shakira (XX cover, live at Glastonbury). What looks on paper like an odd fit — the Colombian sex dynamo Shakira covering the pale British minimalists of the XX — turns out to be wonderful. Like XX singer Romy Madley Croft, Shakira knows what it means to burn with desire; “burning with desire” is pretty much Shakira’s reason for existence. But “Islands” is a song in which the singers are “froze by desire” — paralyzed by their lust. What I love is how the She Wolf turns “Islands” into an upbeat pop anthem while retaining its aching sense of unease — the knowledge that to want someone so badly cannot possibly end well. Ahwoooo.