All the songs I’ve ever written that have been considered empowering or uplifting, I’ve written them at my lowest point. Because I needed to remind myself: don’t forget that. | | | | Alicia Keys' "Alicia" is out today on RCA.
(Milan Zrnic/RCA Records) | | | | | | “All the songs I’ve ever written that have been considered empowering or uplifting, I’ve written them at my lowest point. Because I needed to remind myself: don’t forget that.”
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| | rantnrave:// Good morning it's FRIDAY and there's a new album from SAULT. It's the second album in three months and fourth in less than a year and a half from the mysterious British neo-soul/funk/plus band whose nonexistent public profile is the byproduct of "no interviews, no photos, no videos, no live appearances, no WIKIPEDIA entry." The music just kind of arrives, sort of like if BANKSY were BEYONCÉ (or, say, MASSIVE ATTACK). The previous album was UNTITLED (BLACK IS), a resistance masterpiece that may well have soundtracked your summer; this one is UNTITLED (RISE), of which the GUARDIAN's ALEXIS PETRIDIS writes at the above link, "You’d call it the album of the year if its predecessor wasn’t just as good." On "(Rise)," Sault is still resisting but also wants to dance, which of course is its own kind of resistance. Over a rubbery bassline that slinks through a land of missing and kidnapped children, Sault vows to "remuster our strength" and "proclaim our joy" even if it means going to war. The missiles, for now, are indelible R&B choruses that rise like waves out of insistent, minimal grooves. And this is your periodic reminder that while the world may be falling apart all around us, music is not. We're living in a musical moment. More New Music Friday goodies below... This is not about politics, this is about my health and yours and my science and yours: You're an idiot, VAN MORRISON. You're welcome to join me for dinner anytime, DEE SNIDER (masked and socially distanced, obviously)... This is about politics, nonpartisanly: MTV, which has rocked the vote in various ways over the past 30 years, will cover the cost of printing and mailing ballot applications for anyone who requests a ballot through its VOTE FOR YOUR LIFE and VOTE EARLY DAY websites. The campaign, in partnership with the AD COUNCIL and MTV's parent VIACOMCBS, is aimed at young, Black and Latinx voters... LIVE NATION is seeking to convert more than 100 music venues around the US into polling places, and has already confirmed that the BUCKHEAD THEATRE in Atlanta, EMO'S in Austin and the WILTERN and the HOLLYWOOD PALLADIUM in Los Angeles will allow voting in November... ASCAP is sending get-out-the-vote message through artists including JERMAINE DUPRI, the GO-GO'S, the BROTHERS OSBORNE and members of the NATIONAL and TAKING BACK SUNDAY. The performance rights org's ASCAP CITIZEN initiative launches Monday and will include, via HEADCOUNT, links to register... Perspectives on someone's now-public recording contracts: Does he already own some of his master? How does his situation compare with TAYLOR SWIFT's?... TRENT REZNOR and ATTICUS ROSS put the EGO in EGOT... It's Friday, as previously noted, and that also means new music from ALICIA KEYS, ARMANI CAESAR, LIL TECCA, KEITH URBAN, A.G. COOK, THELONIOUS MONK, KAMAIYAH & CAPOLOW, SLY5THAVE, ANJIMILE, NEIL YOUNG (re-recordings of his own protest songs), YUSUF/CAT STEVENS (his classic TEA FOR THE TILLERMAN album, re-recorded), SARAH DAVACHI, THEO PARRISH, STEVE ARRINGTON, DIZZY WRIGHT, SHY GLIZZY, MONEYBAGG YO & BLAC YOUNGSTA, KINGDOM, SUZANNE CIANI, DERADOORIAN, NAPALM DEATH, SUMAC, SPENCER ZAHN, BRAD MEHLDAU (prev. released on limited edition vinyl), JOE FARNSWORTH, MATTHEW SHIPP TRIO, BUTCHER BROWN, CINDY BLACKMAN SANTANA, ZIGGY MARLEY, FENNE LILY, AVA MAX, YELLOW DAYS, MAX, CURREN$Y & HARRY FRAUD, MC EIHT, KRIZZ KALIKO, GILLIAN WELCH (rarities), INTO IT. OVER IT., SHABASON, KRGOVICH & HARRIS, TVII SON, BRIGHT LIGHT BRIGHT LIGHT, NICK CORDERO (RIP), JOAN OSBORNE, the DIRTY KNOBS (featuring ex-HEARTBREAKER MIKE CAMPBELL), ED HARCOURT, CULTS, VATICAN SHADOW and OSEES... RIP "ROY C" HAMMOND, the Southern soul singer/songwriter perhaps best known for writing and producing this much-sampled and currently relevant funk classic, as well as Dallas rapper FXXXXY and country-rock songwriter DOAK SNEAD. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| Having a viral hit can be a gift or a curse, just ask Kreayshawn and Trinidad James. We break down record deals and explain how artists can protect themselves. | | |
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| Conway the Machine does not appear to be a man concerned with criticism. Particularly unwelcome are outside opinions on his soul-baring bars. They don’t bother him, per se, but they do motivate him. | | |
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| The chairman and interim CEO on the importance of supporting musicians through a time of hardship. | | |
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| The city that hosts the University of Georgia exemplifies the most dangerous public policy decisions during the pandemic. | | |
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| Gen Z’s favorite video app is a blessing in a pandemic. But why does so much of it sound the same? | | |
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| On the eve of his 90th birthday, the reigning expert Lewis Lockwood has written a history of Beethoven biographies, a genre he knows from the inside. | | |
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| Both rap veterans and contemporary up-and-comers rely on independent music venues to sustain themselves, but the COVID-19 pandemic could lead to a majority of those venues permanently closing. | | |
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| The Irish innovator has been putting her own spin on glittery music for two decades. In a year full of dance-pop releases, she’s returning to shake things up yet again. | | |
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| NPR Music and The Museum of Pop Culture present the opening keynote session for the 2020 Pop Conference “Forever Young: Popular Music and Youth Across the Ages.” | | |
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| The man behind Guns N' Roses' epic "Use Your Illusion" video trilogy relives life on set with the world's most dangerous band. | | |
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| “What seems to be about to happen is what LeRoi Jones called Unity Music in 1966. It will include the entire range of black music, maybe in one long performance, but pivoting on the drums.” | | |
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| He was supportive of young writers beginning their voyage into the literary dimensions of jazz. | | |
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| The Black creative community stands with you in your fight for equality on the executive side of music. But there is still a lingering question: Are you your brothers'/sisters' keeper? I'm referring to an element barely mentioned in your narratives, the Black creative: Black artists, songwriters, producers, musicians, engineers and more that you represent. | | |
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| Kanye West is at war with the music industry over the ownership of masters and unfair contracts. It's a similar fight as Taylor Swift's. Will it work? | | |
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| With the release of a new album, the singer picks favourite tracks from her back catalogue and talks about the magic of working with Kanye West, surviving the tough streets of New York and her struggles with self-worth. | | |
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| DFSB Kollective President Bernie Cho has 20+ years in the Asian entertainment industry. In this two-part episode of How Music Charts, Bernie pulls the curtain back on K-Pop and the Korean music industry. | | |
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| Charlie Ahearn and Fab 5 Freddy’s documentary-like film became an international cult favorite in the early 1980s. It’s just as fresh today. | | |
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| One of the British jazz scene's rising stars performs a quarantine concert on the River Thames. | | |
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| "Palo Alto," a new release of a previously unissued concert recording of Thelonious Monk and his quartet, from 1968, embodies some of the vexing paradoxes of his majestic artistry and his radically influential career. | | |
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| How interdependent Black and Latinx communities and heritages created hip-hop culture and reggaeton. | | |
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| | | | | | | From "Untitled (Rise)," out today on Forever Living Originals. |
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