by SHANE SINNOTT

Big news this week, fellows. Portishead’s new album has leaked. It’s called Third, and is surely one of the most anticipated records of 2008, coming a full 10 years after their last album of new material. So far, I’m pleasantly surprised, as decade-long hiatuses don’t always tend to do wonders for a band’s material. If you download the track “We Carry On” at tinyurl.com/3xd3qa, you can hear that singer Beth Gibbons is right where she wants to be, in the middle of a dark hook that has become the band’s (and their U.K. hometown of Bristol’s) signature. For more, you can also download “Hunter” at tinyurl.com/3aa8h7, “Plastic” at tinyurl.com/yr392d and “Deep Water” at tinyurl.com/2b5al6.

If you like your electronic music a little more overwhelming, be sure to check out Fuck Buttons this Sunday, opening for Caribou at la Tulipe. Their song “Sweet Love for Planet Earth” is perfectly inevitable, and has been on heavy rotation at Load-down Headquarters this past week. You can download it at tinyurl.com/2h2etn, and while you’re at it, get some Caribou if you haven’t heard it yet: “Melody Day,” at tinyurl.com/2f8yef.

For whatever reason, a lot of people this week seem to be downloading a cover of Daniel Johnston’s “True Love Will Find You in the End” by Basia Bulat, which you can get at tinyurl.com/2bwery. I don’t get it—Ms. Bulat turns a song that was naively heart-wrenching (Johnston sings like he truly believes—sentiment rules, buzzing guitar strings be damned) into a coldly polished thing, meaningless, and destined for some time on adult-contemporary mixes before being utterly forgotten. Go to tinyurl.com/yusgrh, where the blog Count Me Out has assembled the wonderful original along with all covers the writer could find, including ones from Jeff Tweedy, Beck and Spiritualized, among others.

And finally, because it really has been far, far too long, here’s “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles: tinyurl.com/yuyhs2.