Music

This Friday, Ingrid Michaelson is releasing a deluxe version of her 2018 Christmas album Songs of the Season, with five new tracks. One of them is “Merry Christmas, Happy New Year,” a duet with actress Zooey Deschanel, and Ingrid says she’s got  Twitter to thank for that.

“I love her as an actress,” Ingrid says Zooey, who’s also one-half of the musical duo She & Him. “And Elf is one of my favorite Christmas movies, and so she’s kind of stamped in my brain as a Christmas figure. So I actually wrote on Twitter last year, ‘All I want is to write a Christmas song with Zooey Deschanel.'”

“It was sort of the height of the pandemic…y’know spirits were very low and it just came to me,” she tells ABC Audio. “And she wrote back to me on Twitter, like, ‘Let’s make it happen!'”

“I was blown away that she even knew who I was and we exchanged phone numbers and she’s just, like, she is as lovely as…you would think she is,” raves Ingrid, who describes the duet as “the warm hug that we all desperately need.”

As for the rest of the new tracks, there’s “Winter Wonderland,” “Marshmellow World,” “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” and her 2019 Jason Mraz duet, “Christmas Valentine.” Ingrid says she knew from the day she released the original album that she’d do a deluxe version eventually.

“I wanted to add more [songs], but I didn’t have time,” she says of the original album. “And I knew…John Legend and Gwen Stefani and a lot of other, like, ‘Christmas heads,’ were putting out their deluxes. And so I thought, ‘Well, you know, in a few years, we’ll do a deluxe, and we’ll add some extra stuff then.'”

Mission accomplished.

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Whitesnake recently released the latest installment of its deluxe reissue campaign, a four-CD/DVD set focusing on the band’s 1997 studio album, Restless Heart.

The Restless Heart: Super Deluxe Edition features newly remixed and remastered versions of the album, various unreleased demos and studio outtakes, and a DVD containing official music videos, fan videos, and a short making-of documentary.

Frontman David Coverdale tells ABC Audio that the new collection is “packed solid” with quality, like an “amazing box of chocolates.”

He’s “doubly excited” about the deluxe package’s arrival because the album wasn’t even released initially in the U.S.

Coverdale says he wasn’t happy with the album’s original mix, so the remix was beefed up with added tracks from current Whitesnake guitarist Joel Hoekstra and ex-Dream Theater keyboardist Derek Sherinian.

“They brought in this early Whitesnake vibe,” Coverdale notes. “[And Derek is] almost like the son of [late Deep Purple/Whitesnake keyboardist] Jon Lord, bringing this element…of scorching Hammond organ.”

The new mix also features a different running order than the original Restless Heart, and David explains that’s because he put “a lot more thought [and] a lot more care” into the updated version. He adds, “These things I’m looking upon as my legacy as an artist.”

Restless Heart was a particularly diverse collection of tunes for a Whitesnake album, which Coversale says was because the project originally was intended to be his third studio album.

Besides hard rockers and power ballads, the album included two power blues songs and a cover of the 1966 R&B hit “Stay with Me.”

Meanwhile, another interesting element of the Super Deluxe set is an “Evolutions” disc, which features tracks that show how each song evolved from demos to the studio version.

Visit Whitesnake.com for full details about the reissue.

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Arizona’s baseball-themed Innings Festival is coming to the East Coast next year.

The inaugural Innings Festival Florida will take place March 19-20 in Tampa. Green Day will headline the bill, which also includes The Lumineers, Incubus, 311, Highly Suspect, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Wolf Alice and Jimmy Eat World, among others.

As with the Arizona fest, Innings Florida coincides with the MLB spring training season, and will feature guest appearances by baseball greats including Ozzie Smith, Gary Sheffield, John Kruk and Lou Piniella.

Tickets go on sale this Friday, November 5, at 10 a.m. ET. For the full lineup and all ticket info, visit InningsFestival.com/florida.

If you still prefer your baseball music festival with a side of dry heat instead of humidity, Innings Arizona takes place next year February 26-27 in Tempe. The lineup includes headliners Foo Fighters and Tame Impala, as well as St. Vincent, My Morning Jacket, White Reaper, Black Pumas and Dashboard Confessional.

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Cardi B is not feeling the current state of hip hop, and she’s blasting rappers for having a death wish and making boring, depressing music.

“I feel like we keep hearing the same song over and over and over again. These rappers nowadays, all of them wanna die,” she said Monday during an Instagram Live session. She also declared that rappers “need to stop doing lean and smoking weed, adding, “You know, this the thing about these rappers, right? They got money and they start buying too much motherf***ing weed, and too much lean and they make that slow s***.”

The Grammy winner, who was announced Tuesday as the host of the American Music Awards, says that club DJs need her to drop hot, new tracks.

“They missing me. They missing my music,” she said.

Also on Monday night, the “WAP” rapper displayed a special gift from DJ Khaled, a multi-layered diamond bracelet from Pristine Jewelers that she described as a “chandelier.”

“I am so surprised, so in shock so in awe. I can’t believe it…I am so thankful and so grateful,” she said. “I just want to give DJ Khaled a big hug.

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Summer Walker revealed a star-studded lineup for her upcoming album, Still Over It, Tuesday on Instagram, including Cardi B, Pharrell Williams, SZA and Ciara.

The 20-track project, which will released Friday, also features Omarion, Lil Durk and Ari Lennox, plus JT from City Girls, who teamed with Summer for the first single, “Ex for a Reason.”

Cardi narrates the first song, “Bitterness,” and the album closes with Ciara narrating “Ciara’s Prayer.” Still Over It is the follow-up to Walker’s 2019 number one, RIAA-Platinum debut album, Over It.

This week, the 25-year-old singer, who is a native of the A-T-L, will host an album listening session at the Atlanta University Center, open exclusively to the women of Spelman College and Clark Atlanta University.

 

 

 

 

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For her latest video, “Fallen Fruit,” Lorde returns to the same beach where she filmed the clip for “Solar Power,” but this time, things aren’t quite so idyllic.

The video shows Lorde, wearing a two-piece, strapless beige gown, walking slowly through pathways lined with flowers and fruit, and daytime beach scenes where people seem to be working or playing. That’s intercut with scenes of her in the same outfit, walking through those same scenes at night — except now, everything seems to be wrecked, strewn about or set on fire.

At the end of the clip, Lorde walks down to an empty beach, intercut with her walking on the beach at night. At night, there’s a car waiting for her, and a driver who slips a coat around her shoulders and hands her a bottle of water before driving her away.

It’s all very metaphorical, and in a newsletter to fans, quoted by Uproxx, Lorde explains, “In the ‘Solar Power’ video, you were introduced to the island as a lush paradise — glistening water, blue skies, not a grain of sand out of place…Cut to: humans doing as they do, getting greedy, treating the land with disrespect and stripping it of its beauty. There’ll always another pristine place to start again, right?”

She adds, “The gardens that were once lush and fruitful are now on fire. The fishing boats are busted up and overturned. All that’s left of the peaches are their pits. Amid all that, my character makes a choice.”

“Fallen Fruit” is from Lorde’s latest album, Solar Power.

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Leona Lewis is re-releasing her 2013 holiday album Christmas, with Love, with two new tracks.

Retitled Christmas, with Love Always, the album will be released on November 19. In addition to holiday favorites like “Silent Night,” “White Christmas” and its best-known track, “One More Sleep,” the re-release includes a cover of the 1977 single “If I Can’t Have You,” written and recorded by the Bee Gees and made into a hit by Yvonne Elliman.  Leona has reimagined the disco classic as a ballad with strings and piano.

In addition, the “Bleeding Love” singer has recorded a new song called “Kiss Me It’s Christmas” as a duet with Ne-Yo. That song is out now.  It was co-written by Biff Stannard, who co-wrote all of the Spice Girls‘ hits.

“I’m so happy to share an early Christmas present with you all,” Leona writes on Instagram. “I really felt after the difficult last couple of years that I wanted to share some new songs, get out on the road, spread love and see and feel you all!”

She adds, “I know it’s been tough time and music brings us all together and that’s what I hope I can bring with this special repackaged release of my 2013 studio album…I’m so so excited to make new memories with you this year and as always appreciate all the love and support.”

Here’s the full track listing for Christmas, with Love Always:

“One More Sleep”
“Winter Wonderland”
“White Christmas”
“Your Hallelujah”
“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”
“Mr Right”
“O Holy Night”
“I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday”
“Ave Maria”
“Silent Night”
“Kiss Me It’s Christmas” (feat. Ne-Yo)
“If I Can’t Have You”

 

 

 

 

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Tori Kelly is adding “author” to her resume. 

The Grammy-winning star will release a children’s picture book, The Curly Girl Blues, in January.  Tori incorporated elements of her own childhood, themes and characters from her personal life and lessons she’s learned in her career into the story.

“As someone who always felt like I was different from everyone else growing up I wanted to encourage young kids to embrace their individuality and characteristics that make them unique,” Tori explains. “This book isn’t just about loving yourself, it’s also about celebrating the different cultures around us. My hope is to inspire the next generation and show how beautifully diverse this world is.”

The book’s description declares, “Everybody looks different, and we often get caught in the trap of comparing ourselves to the appearance of others instead of celebrating ourselves. Follow along as Emma comes down with a case of The Curly Girl Blues.”

The book is the first one released by Lumilly, a publishing house dedicated to releasing “meaningful” children’s picture books.

Tori will reprise her role as Meena in Sing 2, the sequel to the 2016 animated hit Sing, which opens December 22. Also in the cast: Halsey and U2‘s Bono.

 

 

 

 

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Jonathan Majors, who stars in Netflix’s critically-acclaimed Black cowboy drama The Harder They Fall, is taking his talents to Saturday Night Live.

NBC announced on Tuesday that they’ve tapped Majors, along with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Simu Liu, for upcoming SNL hosting duties. Majors will host the series on November 13 with Taylor Swift as the musical guest. Meanwhile, Liu will host on November 20, with rapper Saweetie to perform. This will be the SNL hosting debut for both Majors and Liu.

In other news, Gugu Mbatha-Raw is joining Edgar Ramírez for the upcoming romantic drama Nobody’s Heart, Variety has learned. Directed by Isabel Coixet, the film is an adaption of William Boyd’s best-selling short story, Cork, which is based on the life of celebrated Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa. It follows a new widow named Lily, who inherits her husband’s cork factory and begins an unexpected relationship with one of his workers. Nobody’s Heart is set to begin filming in Portugal in January.

Finally, ICYMI, Warner Media has added season two of the Peabody Award–winning drama David Makes Man to its streaming site, HBO Max. This comes after they’ve recently added a new lineup of Black content, including the sitcoms Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper, In the House, The Jamie Foxx Show, Martin and The Parent ’Hood.

 

 

 

 

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