British DJ/producer Mark Ronson has a new album due later this year, including contributions from Lykke Li, Camila Cabello, Alicia Keys and others.
Ronson’s last album, 2015’s Uptown Special, featured ‘Uptown Funk,’ the brilliant collaboration with Bruno Mars that dominated charts and is destined to be a dance floor staple for decades to come.
Singer-songwriter-dancer FKA twigs has released her most talked-about single yet, a yearning track titled ‘Cellophane’ which features one of the most visually arresting videos I’ve seen in years.
FKA twigs hasn’t released a full-length album since 2014’s LP1. Since then, she entered into a romance with actor Robert Pattinson, reportedly got engaged, and then went through a painful breakup. Their relationship was a target for Twilight fans who wanted Pattinson to reunite with Kristen Stewart, and they lashed out at twigs with ugly, racist invective. Lovely.
Taylor Swift blew up YouTube last week with the release of her latest song and video, a candy-colored pop duet (with Brendon Urie of Panic! At the Disco) called ‘ME!’
I don’t know if this is the first single from an as-yet-unannounced album, or just a one-off, but what it most resembles is the end credits song from a second-tier animated film (think ‘Can’t Stop the Feeling’ or ‘Happy’). Light, fun, forgettable.
Last week, Bruce Springsteen announced the June 14 release of a new studio album, titled Western Stars, and marked the occasion by dropping one of the album’s tracks, today’s SOTD.
Western Stars is Springsteen’s first album in five years, and his first album of new, original material since 2012’s Wrecking Ball. It’s the Boss’ 19th studio album and comes out the year he turns 70. What an amazing career he has had.
I recently made playlists for each of my daughters, filled with songs I expected (and hoped) they would like. They have different musical sweet spots, overlapping with my own and a little bit with each other.
My younger daughter, Fiona, shares my love for gentle, melancholy songs. Aimee Mann, Simon & Garfunkel, that sort of thing. So I knew she’d be a perfect audience for my beloved Ron Sexsmith, who has made a career out of those kinds of songs.
Meet Me In Montauk 