For her first full-length project since 2018’s Be the Cowboy, Mitski wrote and recorded the soundtrack to the graphic novel This Is Where We Fall. It’s out May 5th, and as a taste of things to come, the 30-year-old songwriter has shared the new song “The Baddy Man”. Written by Chris Miskiewicz and illustrated by Vincent Kings, This Is Where We Fall combines science fiction and Western tropes to tell a tale of death and the afterlife. It will be available in both softcover and hardcover editions, though the hardcover has the added bonus of coming with Mitski’s soundtrack on cassette. Besides that, 1,000 copies of a deluxe edition will also be released, and that iteration includes her score on vinyl. In a statement to Rolling Stone, Mitski said, “It was exciting to make a...
Kings of Leon have unveiled their first album in five years, When You See Yourself. Stream it below via Apple Music or Spotify. The 11-song effort is the Nashville-bred band’s first full-length since 2016’s WALLS. They previewed the album with three singles — “The Bandit”, “100,000 People”, and “Echoing” — but the most compelling aspect of the rollout process had nothing to do with the sound of the music (which is quite good). Earlier this week, the group announced that they were going to be the first band to ever release an entire album in NFT form — that’s “non-fungible token” for those who aren’t aware. NFT’s are essentially a cryptocurrency for art: images, videos, music, and even items like concert tickets that are sold on an online marketplace like Bitcoin. In add...
Life tastes good when you’re cashing that corporate check. Tyler, the Creator caught the wave when he had the opportunity to create music for a new Coca-Cola commercial. The ad dropped last month, and now the hip-hop artist has released its soundtrack as a standalone recording. Entitled “Tell Me How”, the track itself doesn’t have much lyrical content — “Tell me how it tastes/ Yeah, good good good” gets you through most of it — but it’s the manic energy that really makes it a Tyler original. The track jumps with electric arcs between different moments of impatient peace and wilin’ out. According to Tyler himself, that’s him playing flute on the intro. “Tell Me How” is definitely a frantically fun cut, which fits the Coke ad’s visuals perfectly. The clip sees people from various walks ...
Drake has released his second Scary Hours EP. It serves as a follow-up to his 2018 EP of the same name. Stream it below via Apple Music and Spotify. Like his last Scary Hours release, this new EP only includes a few songs — three to be exact. “What’s Next” opens the EP, followed by “Wants and Needs” featuring Lil Baby and “Lemon Pepper Freestyle” featuring Rick Ross. Chances are Drake is hoping some of these tracks will blow up and can then be tacked onto Certified Lover Boy, his new album due out this year. After all, that plan worked surprisingly well with the last EP when “God’s Plan” became a smash hit and scored a proper spot on Scorpion. Speaking of, Certified Lover Boy was technically supposed to be out in January, but that month has since come and gone. Drake hasn’t updated fans on...
Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats have unleashed their new UNLOCKED 1.5 EP. The project is a reworking of their joint EP, 2020’s UNLOCKED, and can be streamed below via Apple Music and Spotify. The eight-track project features remixed versions of UNLOCKED songs produced by The Alchemist, Jay Versace, Robert Glasper, Charlie Heat, Sango, and more. Joey Bada$$, Smino, Benny the Butcher, Arlo Parks, and Kenny Mason contributed feature verses. Previously released singles include Glasper’s version of “So.Incredible.pkg” featuring Smino, and the Joey Bada$$-assisted “Cosmic’.m4a” remix produced by The Alchemist. Denzel has stayed busy this year with guest appearances. He hopped on J.I.D’s “Bruuuh” remix, was featured on slowthai’s “terms”, and teamed up with Nyck Caution on “Bad Day”. Kenny has ...
Chance the Rapper is back with a new single. It’s called “The Heart and the Tongue” and it comes with an introspective music video filmed during quarantine. Stream it below. In his typical slick delivery over a trip-hop beat, “The Heart and the Tongue” sees Chance the Rapper ruminating on truth as a concept. “My heart and tongue are fighting/ My mind is undecided,” he raps. “It’s not like Trump and Biden/ It’s more like something private/ Like when yo’ cousins are fighting/ One of ’em gets excited/ You can’t just jump the gun and pick a side and jump inside it.” It’s funny hearing him bring up the election considering he supported Kanye West in his presidential run only to perform at a post-inauguration performance for Biden six months later. In the song’s accompanying music video, Ch...
Karl Benjamin has been buzzing in the UK for his smooth vocals and rich blend of R&B and soul. Today, the singer announced his debut EP, DRIST, out on March 26th via Atlantic Records. DRIST stands for Deep Rooted Insecurities and Shy Tendencies. Benjamin further elaborated on the title’s meaning in a press statement: Being trapped in the house with my own thoughts for so long has really shown me how much this word means to me. I’m an antisocial extrovert that’s had the time to analyze their own DRIST, and in doing so, I’m slowly understanding myself and my cerebellum more each day. I wrote this EP with my DRIST in mind. I hope it reaches those with similar thought patterns to mine. To accompany the announcement, Benjamin shared his latest single, “Friends”. Stream it below. Written as ...
After an eight-year hiatus, an impressive new archival release from The Mars Volta is on the horizon. La Realidad De Los Sueños is a staggering 18-LP box set that arrives April 23rd and contains the experimental rockers’ entire studio discography alongside unreleased material. After breaking up in 2013, guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López and singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala focused on their other project At the Drive-In. But earlier today, the band teased a mysterious something-or-other with altered artwork from De-Loused in the Comatorium. This unleashed a frenzy of speculation among fans in places like Reddit, but few imagined anything as robust as an 18-disc deluxe drop. Translating to “the reality of dreams,” La Realidad De Los Sueños takes is name from lyrics in “Concertina...
Yoko Ono Lennon has announced a massive deluxe reissue of John Lennon’s debut solo album, titled John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band – The Ultimate Collection. Ahead of its release on April 16th, preview the collection with “Mother (Ultimate Mix)” below. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band was originally released on December 11th, 1970 following the break-up of The Beatles earlier that year. Influenced by his experiences with primal therapy, it features minimal production with simple and sparse instrumentation. The new box set contains 159 tracks across six CDs and two Blu-ray audio discs, including 87 never-before-heard recordings. There are unreleased and rare demos, rehearsals, outtakes, jams, and studio conversations detailing how the songs came together. All of the tracks have been mixed from scrat...
Charli XCX (photo by Philip Cosores); No Rome and The 1975 (photo via No Rome’s Instagram) Charli XCX has teamed with No Rome and The 1975 for a new song, “Spinning”. Stream it below. London-based Filipino musician No Rome officially announced the collaboration in early February. He revealed the song was already mastered, but the music video was still in the process of being edited. Several weeks later, Charli went a step further, excitedly dubbing the three of them a supergroup. The British singer-songwriter shared her experience of working with No Rome and The 1975 in a tweet. “I think Rome and The 1975 guys are so talented, it’s honestly so cool to have this song with them,” Charli wrote. “I feel like we all speak the same musical language in some way, and that language is stunnin...
Over five years after delivering their last full-length, 2015’s Best Blues, Small Black are set to return next month with a new album called Cheap Dreams. Early singles “Duplex” and “Tampa” arrived over the last few months, and now the chillwave pioneers are back with “The Bridge”. Built off a patiently sanguine piano line, “The Bridge” is an ode to Rockaway Beach, a favorite oasis for New York escapists. For those spending most of their time in the concrete jungle of the boroughs, it’s a magical slice of Atlantic coastline, and the song’s dreamy longing transports listeners right back to those shores. As singer Josh Kolenik explained in a statement, the lyrics are specifically from the point of view of his Uncle Matt, an individual Small Black fans may recognize from the band’s first-ever...