We thought FMF’s plonker was being pulled but, no, Grimes really has gone and recorded a tune originally earmarked for Rihanna. A major departure from the left field electro we’ve come to expect - and love - from Ms. Boucher, it’s a big production number which suggests mainstream pop stardom awaits if she wants it.

Manic Street Preachers whet appetites for their Futurolgy album, out here today, with a fab 23-minute video sampler.
As previously reported, there’s a definite nod towards Kraftwerk and Berlin-era Bowie but, mostly, it’s just classic rabble rousing Manics tunesmithery.

If you like your country seriously alt, look no further than Lydia Loveless, a 23-year-old who has scant regard for Nashville convention but knows her honky tonk inside out.

Another of our favourite Free Music Friday things this week is Landing On A Hundred + B-Sides & Remixes, 17 nuggets of wonderfulness from maverick soulster Cody ChesnuTT.

To the streams now and 3voor12 has newbies from Meridian Brothers, Every Time I Die, Ken Stringfellow, Anushka, Venetian Snares, The Icarus Line, GusGus and Xeno & Oaklander; depending on where you and your device are residing, Album Streams can sort you out with Magic Man, Baauer, Simian Mobile Disco, Bare Rainbow, Black Honey, Wunder Wunder, Favored Nations, Goat, Gulp, The Vacant Lots, Young Jeezy and The Dirty Nil; DJ Dodger Stadium - genius name! - features along with Viet Cong, Fhloston Paradigm, Matt Kivel and The Skygreen Leopards at Pitchfork Advance; Bellowhead and Keaton Henson are this week’s Guardian exclusives and The New York Times is first with John Hiatt’s Terms Of My Surrender.

The good folk at Germany’s Hurricane Festival have archived action from Interpol, The Subways, The Sounds, Flogging Molly, Franz Ferdinand, Bombay Bicycle Club. Pixies, The Wombats and more.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers gift fans a 2012-13 Live EP featuring ‘Breaking The Girl’, ‘Wet Sand’, ‘Snow’, ‘Power Of Equality’ and ‘Strip My Mind’. Bag it at their website

There’s more free five-trackery to be had at Joe Pug Music, Mr. Pug being an American alt. folk man who for once actually deserves the young Dylan comparisons. He’s deadly live, so let’s hope for some Irish shows.

In live action this weekend supporting David Gray at Day Tripper - have fun, Waterford! - local heroes Propeller Palms have premiered the eye-catching video for their bluesy and brassy ‘Liberty’ single.

FMF has long been an admirer of Amano, a young Kerry songstress who, in addition to her own material, does a very mean cover. Here she is tackling Villagers’ ‘Nothing Arrived’ on a sunny Dublin rooftop.

We’re also rather fond of Tenonsaw, Fermoy-based pedlars of sweet/dark melodies who are letting you name your price for their new ‘The Drowned Forest’ single. Don’t be tight-wads, people!

There’s finally a trailer for Jimi: All Is By My Side, the Hendrix biopic that was partially shot two years ago in Dublin and Wicklow and which stars the Electric Picnic-bound Andre 3000.
Directed by 12 Years A Slave man John Ridley, it focuses on 1966-’67 when Jimi gave up playing as an unknown backup guitarist in New York’s Cheetah Club and headed to London.
It has to be said the resemblance is uncanny! The movie hits cinemas in September.

Galway troubadour Daithí continues his summer offensive with the video that accompanies his ‘In Flight’ single.
Guest vocal duties fall to Coronas mainman Danny O’Reilly who sounds like he’s having a ball. We particularly like the Peter Gabriel-esque falsetto in the chorus!
Signed recently to Sony, Mr. Ó Drónaí will be plugging it and the album of the same-name when he continues his run round the summer festival circuit.

Saoirse Ronan, Niall Horan, Robbie Keane, Gordon D'Arcy and Laura Whitmore all get to say what they miss about Ireland in the Brendan O’Carroll commissioned video for Ryan Sheridan’s ‘Home’ single.
Released here on August 8 by Rubyworks, the track features prominently in Mrs. Brown’s Boys: D’Movie and will likely as not be included on the follow-up to his platinum-selling debut album, The Day You Live Forever, which is nearing completion.
In addition to Ireland, Sheridan is big news in Germany where he recently played to 6,000 fans accompanied by a 75-piece orchestra.

That most dynamic of duos, Chris Haze and Bitter Rocc, collaborate again on the video for the former’s new single, ‘Be Free’, which is summer pop of the most superior kind.

And that, dear friends, is where Free Music Friday slings its hook, buys a six-pack and heads home for a night of glorious World Cup football. Keep those links coming to @stuartclark66