In a world rife with dating apps and situationships, Stephen Sanchez is repackaging old-school love for a new generation. The young singer-songwriter channels the vintage pop/rock sounds, love-stricken lyricism, and warbly croons of the golden greats (à la Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Nat “King” Cole, and The Platters) and filters it through today’s high-definition lens, producing a style that’s nostalgic without erring on pastiche. After going viral on social media in 2020, Sanchez released his 2021 major-label debut “Until I Found You,” which became an instant and lasting hit, going multiplatinum and amassing over two billion streams. A tender ballad swathed in dreamy, dusty guitar and warm harmonies, the song could almost be one of the many vinyl records he thumbed through in his grandfather’s barn as a child, 7-inch time capsules of the ’50s and ’60s. *Angel Face*, Sanchez’s first full-length, is an extended trip into that world: one of smoke-filled nightclubs and glamour, where candy-colored Cadillacs pack drive-in theaters and couples slow-dance cheek to cheek next to the jukebox. Taking place between 1958 and 1964, the concept album chronicles a love story between a famous crooner (The Troubadour Sanchez) and Evangeline, the girlfriend of a mob boss who owns the club where Sanchez performs. “Something About Her” opens the LP with infatuated musing over plinking keys: “What good is love if not to miss your hands or your eyes/Or the way that yours just look in mine?” he drawls. On the twinkling “Evangeline,” he pleads his case to the titular character with an urgent half-roar, half-falsetto. While the pair find a (premature) happy ending atop the piano crescendo of “Be More,” complications arise across the album’s second act, bringing balance to Sanchez’s loved-up serenades and carrying *Angel Face* to its dramatic finale.
In 2022, d4vd burst onto the alt-pop scene with “Romantic Homicide,” a concentrated dose of melancholia that blended effect-laden guitars and the teenage producer-singer\'s wounded croon, which expanded the vowels of its clipped, poetic lyrics in ways that maximized their impact. His subsequent viral hit, the besotted “Here With Me,” only cemented his status as a pop prodigy. On his debut EP, d4vd (pronounced David) resists the urge to stay in the lane of his first two singles, expanding his sonic palette while remaining true to his emotion-forward songwriting. “I\'m doing jazz, I\'m doing rock, I\'m doing a lot of grunge, I\'m doing a lot of R&B-esque pop,” he tells Zane Lowe. While the project is only nine songs clocking in at under a half hour, it shows how d4vd\'s wide-ranging musical curiosity is given a through line by his clear-eyed passion. The scruffy guitars and echoing vocals of “You and I” are the flip side of the plush “This Is How It Feels,” an old-school duet with the next-generation jazz singer Laufey that frames the two young vocalists\' longing in piano arpeggios and sweeping strings. “I\'d been making songs every day,” d4vd says. “It was like, if you make that much music, how do you know what fits on a project to make it cohesive? I definitely wanted to solidify a certain uniqueness. But it came together super easy. And I was like, ‘This feels like a bigger movie.’” *Petals to Thorns*\' last track, “The Bridge,” is a smoldering guitar ballad that recalls the grunge era and the feelings-forward hard rock of the early 2000s, but with a 2023 spin. It builds and builds before cutting off abruptly, a move that d4vd likens to a cliffhanger ending that\'ll have listeners wondering what happens next. *Petals to Thorns*\' brief runtime is a deliberate move by the Houston native, who\'s hoping to stop and fully take in each segment of his already impressive rise. “This is the testing-the-waters phase,” he says. “This is the warm-up. I don\'t want to give it my all just yet, because I got so much.”
Álbum feito em 4 dias :) um retorno para a banda e aos trabalhos. Que venha 2023!
On her fourth studio album, Malian French superstar Aya Nakamura exchanges the high-octane vibe of 2020’s *AYA* for more relaxed, intimate moments. On *DNK*—her surname, Danioko, sans vowels—the singer-songwriter takes a journey of sonic rediscovery where nothing is off-limits: “I show everything. I tell everything,” she tells Apple Music. “After COVID, I had to find myself again, musically, and here I wanted to show the quiet aspects \[of myself\] too.” For every bit of vulnerability, like the personal and confessional “J’ai mal,” there’s a display of her signature self-confidence on tracks like “Beleck,” the Tiakola-assisted “Cadeau,” and “Baby,” where she revels in knowing she’s worthy of desire.
Tori Kelly’s first release since her 2020 Christmas album is, in part, a love letter to Y2K-era R&B. The singer-songwriter was still young when that genre was in its chart-ruling prime, but this seven-song EP makes it clear that artists like Brandy and Aaliyah left an imprint on her. Kelly’s lithe soprano has always excelled at songs that were R&B-adjacent—one listen to “Time Flies,” from her pandemic EP *Solitude*, makes that evident. But on *tori*, Kelly, working with producer Jon Bellion, honors both early-millennium and current trends with exciting results. *tori* opens with “cut,” which recalls early-’00s Timbaland productions, right down to the “uh-huh” exhortations that punctuate her fluttering soprano. It’s a quick-stepping flirtation, its rapid-fire beats and urgent synth-strings adding to the simmering yet playful vibe. “missin u,” which follows, puts the spotlight on Kelly’s vocal power, her soprano soaring as she recalls “The perfect night/Kissin’ you.” (The R&B edit of “missin u” that closes the album ditches the dance-floor-ready beats that underpin the verses for a slightly more reserved, swaying rhythm.) The Bellion duet “young gun” opens with the two singers, playing ex-lovers, circling each other warily. As the tension increases, so does the fervency of the beat, making the possibility that the other has moved on feel life-or-death. Kelly also dips into Afrobeats on “unbelievable,” a duet with the upstart Nigerian singer Ayra Starr. The song’s perpetual-motion vibe gives extra heft to its central idea of navigating self-respect while being enamored with another. As befits a self-titled EP, *tori* finds Kelly charting new paths in her career: She’s still using her voice to uplift herself and her listeners, but she’s also letting her personal muse shine through a bit more brightly.
In the wake of their acclaimed comeback album 'Figures' (2020), Aksak Maboul took a playful sideways step to create this total work, a 63-minute, continuous suite of fifteen pieces, which could be described as an experimental audio play. The thread running through 'Une aventure de VV (Songspiel)' is Véronique Vincent’s text, an enigmatic philosophical-poetical tale unfolding through monologues and dialogues, spoken and sung by a series of characters, played by Alig Fodder, Laetitia Sadier, Audrey & Benjamin from Aquaserge, Don The Tiger, Blaine L. Reininger, and the members of Aksak Maboul’s current live band: Faustine Hollander, Lucien Fraipont & Erik Heestermans. The music was written & arranged by Marc Hollander and features his characteristic genre-hopping tendencies: strands of electronica, pop, jazz, collage, techno, ambient, improv, krautrock, contemporary classical & systems music are merrily woven together, in the inimitable Aksak Maboul style. The album’s subtitle, 'Songspiel', highlights its theatrical/musical aspect: the work pays oblique homage to the those experimental radio plays that once emerged from the creative workshops of the BBC, the RTF and the RAI, and especially to those German Hörspiels which, at their best, might combine spoken word, instrumental or electronic music, songs and sonic research. Une aventure de VV also modestly alludes to certain stage works written by adventurous composers during the first half of the 20th century, which embraced singing, spoken dialogues and elements inspired by popular music. Those composers sometimes invented genre names to describe their pieces: fantaisie lyrique, mimodrama, or... songspiel).
“I honestly don’t know what else we would do,” Howard Donald tells Apple Music 1’s Rebecca Judd of being in Take That for over three decades and as a trio alongside Gary Barlow and Mark Owen since 2014. “We like making songs together and it doesn’t feel like work. So I don’t know why we wouldn’t be doing it in 30 years unless we have a big fallout.” Still, you can’t help but wonder how Take That keep things fresh after so many years—and several line-up changes—as one of Britain’s most beloved bands. For their ninth record, *This Life*, the answer to that question lay in crossing the Atlantic. Its songs were made largely between Savannah, Nashville, and New York, and with new collaborators including Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, Dolly Parton: “I mean, the list is endless,” says Owen of the producer’s work) and Jennifer Decilveo (Miley Cyrus, Anne-Marie, The Strokes’ Albert Hammond Jr). “It’s really good to keep moving around because I think if you turn up at the same desk every day to do a big job, like doing an album, I think it’s going to sound tired,” says Barlow. “You get to New York, you’re in this amazing studio, it’s like, ‘Right, let’s go again.’” Those American roots also, as Owen puts it, gave the record “a big-sky sound”—and that sense of expansion is palpable across *This Life*. Six years on from the often synth-led pop of 2017’s *Wonderland*,*This Life* more commonly features guitars, pianos, and strings, nods to Americana, and a looser, more wide-screen sound. The songs here are both rousing (“March of the Hopeful”, “We Got All Day”) and soft and reflective (the lovely “Windows,” a song about letting the light in after a turbulent time, or “Brand New Sun”) and, of course, feature the tight harmonies and stadium-sized choruses that have defined Take That’s second act. Producing something that they could imagine playing in front of a crowd was key (Barlow: “Mark said, ‘What you’ve got to imagine is is that we walk out on the stage and we’re waving to everybody. That’s the type of song we’re looking for’”), but they had so much more in mind than just sing-along melodies. “We wanted music that felt organic and we wanted music that felt of our time in life as well,” says Barlow. “Authentic, well-written music.” This album is also about three men who are now in their fifties contemplating both where they are and how far they’ve come, its title a neat encapsulation of its main theme. “It is an album about our lives and where we’re at right now,” says Barlow. “We’re obviously writing at a point of our lives where we’ve experienced a lot and the content is quite dense and interesting. I think it’s a good age to be a songwriter, because a lot of things have happened, good and bad, which is all good for songwriting.” You’ll hear the bad on the title track, which feels like it was written for their younger selves or their children, as they reflect, “This life ain’t no bed of roses/This life will take everything that you’ve got/In this life, there’s no second chances/Make this life yours,” against buoyant pop, and on “Time and Time Again”: “And there’s no life vest/When you’re out of your depth/Trying to keep yourself afloat/Gonna need a bigger boat.” Elsewhere, they admit to feeling “lost” (“Days I Hate Myself”), “a little bit broken” (“The Champion”), and, on “One More Word,” guilty at not being around enough (“I wish I could be everywhere/Be present when you need me there”). But this being Barlow, Donald, and Owen, there is also plenty of the good. Whether in its soaring melodies or uplifting lyricism, this is an album laced with optimism and one which often heralds the power of keeping going, no matter what life throws at you. And by its close, you get the sense that, after 30 years, Take That wouldn’t change a thing. “We’ve walked the line and seen it all/Filled up our beating hearts,” they sing on “Where We Are” in harmonies that recall 2007’s “Rule the World.” “Just look at where we are/The years behind us/ We’ve come so far.”
I wasn't gonna release this but I feel bad about having it lying around after putting so much work into it. I won't be sticking to the yearly releases as strictly as before, if I make more music for this project. If this were a Rain World area it would be Drainage System for several reasons, most poetic, some literal. [This release was made public on February 25th 2023] When I say stång, picture what a bull does.
Since her 2004 debut album *Goodies*, Ciara released a few albums, collaborated with some of the biggest names in the industry, married an NFL superstar, welcomed motherhood, and became an entrepreneur. Throughout her extensive career, she has been learning to balance the many hats she wears while prioritizing joy more. “It\'s a thing for me. I\'m just really committed to that philosophy, and it\'s my go-to in any of my toughest and challenging moments,” she tells Apple Music\'s Nadeska Alexis. “And even when life isn\'t so crazy, I just want to live a life full of joy.” Recorded during the pandemic, *CiCi* focuses on happiness and love and showcases a different side of the singer-songwriter. “It\'s not an alter ego—it\'s me, but when I get a little more gritty,” she says. “And it\'s me, but it\'s like me to the 10th power.” Alongside co-executive producer Theron Thomas, Ciara wanted to be very intentional with the project\'s sound by ensuring that R&B was at its core. “We talked about R&B being super important to us,” she says. “We wanted to make sure we had those core elements with my fans I think they always want from me. And it does have a strong R&B base, but it\'s music for everyone.” On the opener, “How We Roll,” featuring Chris Brown, the pair expresses their affection for each other over a laidback and groovy beat. “BRB” is a nod to the Jersey club bounce scene with its infectious, fast-paced rhythm and kick drums while CiCi delivers lines about missing her significant other. “I couldn\'t stop listening to it, melodically had fun writing the record, and it\'s that feel-good,” she says. “It\'s energy, it\'s joy, it\'s dance, it\'s good times.” Throughout the seven-track EP, Ciara keeps the feel-good vibes flowing, weaving traditional R&B tracks (“Forever,” “Type A Party,” “2 in Luv”) with uptempo beats (“Low Key,” “Winning”). *CiCi* is an evolved version of the artist and a snapshot of where she\'s currently at in her life. “I want for my fans to know I\'m committed to this thing, and I want for my fans to feel the energy of what that means for me,” she says. “And I think they\'re going to get that on this project.”
