Two Door Cinema Club, The Last Shadow Puppets & Alan Partridge star in Free Music Friday

Despite being close to death's door with the Man 'Flu - you ladies just don't understand! - Free Music Friday has assembled its usual rude health mix of downloads, streams, vids and trailers to beat the onset of the winter blues. The aural equivalent of wrapping yourself in a warm duvet, we've pretty much all musical bases covered...

Two Door Cinema Club treated BBC Radio 1 listeners to this cracking cover of Sia and Kendrick Lamar’s ‘The Greatest’ when they swung by the Live Lounge this week. There was also time for ‘Bad Decisions’, one of the standouts from their brand spanking new Gameshow album, which found Alex Trimble hitting some serious high notes!

The Last Shadow Puppets have dropped a surprise video for their cover of ‘Is This What You Wanted’, the track that opens Leonard Cohen’s classic 1974 New Skin For The Old Ceremony album. It’s taken from Messrs. – and, indeed messers – Turner and Kane’s Dream Synopsis EP, which drops on December 2. Recorded over the course of a day in Hudson, New York’s Future-Past Studio where Lisa Hannigan worked on her At Swim LP, it also features new versions of the Puppets’ ‘Aviation’ and ‘The Dream Synopsis’ plus choice Glaxo Babies and The Falls covers. The timing is pretty damn impeccable with the release today of Laughing Lennie’s You Want It Darker album. Talking of which...

Flaming Lips have debuted ‘The Castle’, the first taster from their Oczy Mlody album, which drops on January 13. It's psychedelic business as usual as Wayne and the chaps indulge in their dextrous, but largely unintelligible wordplay.

Flaming Lips new album "Oczy Mlody" to be released January 13thhttps://t.co/s0flt0G4Xo

Preview lead single "The Castle" (and album cover): pic.twitter.com/jbW52texDy

— The Future Heart (@TheFutureHeart) October 20, 2016

Noise Trade want you to meet Brett Newski, a Milwaukee maverick often to be found residing in Saigon who occupies that sweetspot between Beck and Bright Eyes; Before The Breakdown who’ve got a bit of a Californian Florence + The Machine thing going on; Jonny Fritz who’s cut from the same alt. country cloth as Sturgill Simpson, and CLARA-NOVA whose breathy, ethereal pop has us well and truly beguiled.

This week’s seriously bumper crop of streams includes newbies from Aaron Lee Tasjan who sounds like he’s timewarped in from early ‘70s California; the punk and disorderly Mannequin Pussy who get their business done in 17 short, sharp minutes; Lara Downes whose anthology of her piano works makes us feel ever so cultured; UK psychedelic types TOY; Nina Diaz whose day job is fronting Girl In A Coma who are indeed massive Smiths fans, and techno A-Lister Michael Mayer who ropes in such celebrity admirers as Hot Chip, Miss Kittin, Friendly Fires, Hot Chip and The Postal Service.

From the House of NPR also comes this excellent Billy Bragg and Joe Henry Tiny Desk Concert, and Conor Oberst who debuts a trio of treats from his acoustic solo album.

Today finds Alan Partridge hitting the shelves with Nomad, the spin-off book from his critically acclaimed Sky Atlantic Scissored Isle documentary. Following his suspension from North Norfolk Digital for accusing a schoolchild of bestiality, Alan went on an epic road journey with a sizable dog to rediscover the essence of nationhood.Reading below from Nomad, Alan explains why he believes Noel Edmonds to be verging on the Antichrist. His argument is persuasive…

New York-based Irish songstress Sorcha Richardson impresses with new single ‘Ruin Your Night’, which tells a tale of alcohol-related Big Apple woe.

The fab Myles Reilly has shot this live performance video in Berlin for the equally wonderful I Have Tribe.

Kevin Hern Connolly roped in his Mum & Dad and various Midlands locations to shoot this eye-catching vid for 'Lemon Bee' on his phone.

From Carlow (with much love!) comes this jazzy hip hop delight from the Bedroom Experimentalist Also Known As James Strain. Check out the Auxiliary Phoenix Soundcloud for more quality fare including the magnificently titled and incredibly deep 'The Lost Socks Of Stuart Clark'.

He may be 76 but Lisa Hannigan's pal Herbie Hancock shows no signs of slowing down with Brooklyn getting a live jazz hop masterclass the other night from the visiting Chicagoan.

Action Bronson gets to run amok with an axe - Health & Safety here would never have allowed it! - on the promo for the Big Body Bes-assisted 'Durag vs Headband'.

And with that Free Music Friday pops a couple of Strepsils, shoots up a Lemsip and slams a bottle of Lucozade. If the man 'flu doesn't get us we'll be back next week with another action-packed collection of tunes that you can contribute to @stuartclark66