This week’s new music roundup includes new collaborations by Kiana Ledé, Kehlani, Drake, Gunna and more.
Kehlani goes back and forth contemplating the consequences of cheating in a relationship on Kiana Ledé’s R&B jam, “Ur Best Friend.” Both women find themselves singing about infidelity and returning to their male partners after stepping out with each other.
“And he’s almost perfect, and that’s why it hurts / And he calls me family that’s what makes it worse/ ohhhh its wrong but I make you feel right/ You textin’ my phone while right beside him/ Wish it was anyone besides him,” Kehlani sings.
Kehlani also goes back and forth on “Beautiful Lies,” from Yung Bleu’s debut project, Moon Boy, which is out now. This time, the two vocalists discuss their relationship, which revolves around mistakes, apologies, and little white lies.
Moon Boy also features appearances from John Legend, H.E.R., Moneybagg Yo, Kodak Black, Davido, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie and more.
Meanwhile, rising Toronto rapper Smiley links up with Drake and Grammy-nominated producer Tay Keith on his new single, “Over the Top,” while Gunna and Polo G maintain their unique rapping styles and natural chemistry on “Waves,” the latest single off NBA player Kawhi Leonard’s compilation album, Culture Jam.
And lastly, Tinashe has officially dropped the release date for her new album, 333, accompanied by her new single, “I Can See the Future.” 333 arrives Aug. 6 and will include Tinashe’s singles, “Bouncin‘” and the Buddy-assisted track, “Pasadena.”
Jason Aldean and fellow country superstar Carrie Underwood mix high-drama harmonies and powerhouse vocals on their new duet, “If I Didn’t Love You.”
The new song officially arrived Friday, after Jason started teasing it — and his big mystery duet partner — earlier in the week. According to Billboard, Jason says that Carrie’s vocal contributions made the song even better than he’d imagined it could be.
“She did her thing like only Carrie can,” he explains. “And I don’t know how, but she made the song sound even better than what we’d expected. It’s a really special song to start this album.”
“If I Didn’t Love You” is the first single off Jason’s upcoming tenth album. “We were pretty close to finishing up this album, but this song came in and we knew we had to record it. I went ahead and put my vocals down while we asked Carrie in the meantime,” he details.
“Luckily, she loved the song,” Jason adds, “and it was kind of like a rocket from there.”
It’s not Jason’s first time finding musical magic with a turbo-charged male-female duet. His 2010 collaboration with Kelly Clarkson, “Don’t You Wanna Stay,” was a massive hit. Then, in 2018, he and Miranda Lambert topped the country charts with their “Drowns the Whiskey.”
One of Alessia Cara‘s two new songs is called “Shapeshifter,” and in the new video for the track, she takes the song’s title to heart, portraying five different characters.
Alessia portrays a wealthy woman whose husband is cheating on her, as well as the husband, the private detective she hires to find out the truth, and the two women suspected of being the husband’s mistress: the housekeeper and the gardener.
While we don’t find out the characters’ names in the clip, Alessia has named them all, and has been introducing them on her social media for the last week. For example, the husband and wife are named Theodore and Inga Pomodoro, while the private investigator’s name is Melba D’Angelo.
In a twist ending, Melba finds Theodoro making out with someone she thinks is the gardener. But when that person turns around, it’s actually, er…a sheep. A surprised Melba stumbles backward and falls into the pool — and surprise! We cut to Alessia herself emerging from the ocean in a red dress, in a scene from her previous video, “Sweet Dream.”
In other words…it was all a dream. And the hint was the sheep: Alessia’s co-star in the “Sweet Dream” video is a real sheep named Lola.
Yes has given fans the first taste of their forthcoming studio album, The Quest. The prog-rock legends have released the lead track, “The Ice Bridge,” via digital formats, along with a companion lyric video.
The video is a mixed-media clip featuring footage of natural and animated landscapes interspersed with images of artist Roger Dean‘s otherworldly paintings.
“The Ice Bridge” is an epic tune co-written by lead singer Jon Davison and keyboardist Geoff Downes, with enigmatic lyrics focusing on the dangers of climate change. The song features three sections, titled “Eyes East,” “Race Against Time” and “Interaction,” accompanied by an orchestra.
“I’m extremely proud to be a part of this music and believe the video graphics are outstanding,” says Yes drummer Alan White. “A collaboration of many talents coming together to produce ‘The Ice Bridge.’ I hope our fans/audiences will appreciate the creativity put forward.”
Adds Downes, “Jon’s vocals are fantastic. He’s really come into his own as a YES vocalist. This time he’s started to get the writing side together and working with the other musicians has been developmental for him.”
The Quest, which was produced by longtime Yes guitarist Steve Howe, will be released on October 1 and can be pre-ordered now. The 11-track collection is available as a two-CD set featuring eight songs on the main disc and three additional tunes on the second CD. The album also will be issued in additional formats and configurations, including a limited-edition box set boasting two CDs, two vinyl LPs and a Blu-ray disc.
Here’s The Quest‘s full track list:
CD 1
“The Ice Bridge”
“Dare to Know”
“Minus the Man”
“Leave Well Alone”
“The Western Edge”
“Future Memories”
“Music to My Ears”
“A Living Island”
CD 2
“Sister Sleeping Soul”
“Mystery Tour”
“Damaged World”
The new Peacock series Dr. Death may just have you running for a second opinion after your next doctor’s visit.
The drama stars Joshua Jackson as Dr. Christopher Duntsch, a neurosurgeon who repeatedly botched spinal surgeries, killing two patients and maiming at least four others. It’s based on the Wondery true crime podcast of the same name.
AnnaSophia Robb co-stars as Michelle Shughart, the prosecutor who teams up with two other doctors — played by Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater — to put Duntsch away for murder. Robb tells ABC Audio she learned a lot from the real-life Shughart.
“One of my favorite quotes she ever gave me [was], ‘I can be nice to you and still put you in prison,’” Robb says. “And that line just boggles my mind. But it’s true. You can be polite and you can treat everybody equally and be really professional and respectful, but still do your job really well.”
The project also re-teams Robb with Jackson, with whom she co-starred in Little Fires Everywhere though she didn’t have any scenes with him.
“Josh always has a running joke that, you know, in the next [show], I’m going to kill him. Because the first one, it’s a bad marriage. This one, I’m trying to get him in jail. The next one, you know, I’ll off him,” she laughs.
As reported last month, Ewan McGregor‘s daughter Clara was bitten on the face by a dog hours before she appeared at a red carpet premiere of their film The Birthday Cake, but judging by her latest snaps, she’s all healed up.
The UK tabloid The Mirror showed the 25-year-old was all smiles at The Ischia Global Festival, recently held at Italy’s Resort Torre Michelangelo, and nary a trace of the wounds on her cheek and nose could be seen — especially impressive as she was apparently all but makeup free.
The actress and producer clearly isn’t holding grudges against canines. She recently posted to Instagram a shot of herself and a cute little pooch, while she looks lovingly at The Birthday Cake director Jimmy Giannopoulos. “4 years,” Clara wrote with some heart emoji, “I love you.”
The short-lived but beloved performance series From the Basement has found a new home on The Coda Collection.
Amazon Prime Video’s new, music-focused subscription streaming channel will air archival episodes from the program, beginning with Radiohead‘s 2011 appearance on the show.
Additionally, The Coda Collection has premiered a new, exclusive interview with From the Basement curator, frequent Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich.
Other installments to be added at a future date include sets by Red Hot Chili Peppers, The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, Iggy & the Stooges and Gnarls Barkley.
(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., was among 10 demonstrators arrested by U.S. Capitol Police on Thursday in an orchestrated act of civil disobedience outside the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill.
Johnson and voting rights advocates participating in Black Voters Matter Fund’s “Brothers Day of Action,” a protest led by Black men to advocate for voting rights, called on Congress to end the filibuster and pass the For the People Act.
The demonstration was a follow-up to the Black women-led protest on July 15, which ended in nine arrests, including the arrest of Congressional Black Caucus chair Rep. Joyce Beatty.
While the voting rights debate remains largely partisan in Congress, the majority of Americans believe that people who are legally qualified to vote should be able to, according to a survey from Pew Research Center. Data released on Thursday revealed that 57% of Americans view voting more as “a fundamental right” for all eligible U.S. citizens and “should not be restricted in any way.” Less than 42% believe “voting is a privilege that comes with responsibilities and can be limited if adult U.S. citizens don’t meet some requirements,” according to the survey.
The push from Democrats to pass federal voting rights legislation continues to grow as at least 16 Republican-led states have passed laws that restrict voting rights, including measures that tighten rules for absentee and mail-in voting, and impose new voter ID and signature requirements.
Experts say the GOP measures, which have been pushed in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s false allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election, disproportionately impact voter access among minorities groups.
Although Republican state and federal lawmakers maintain that voting restrictions were imposed to make elections secure, President Joe Biden blasted the efforts in a speech on July 13, calling GOP attempts to limit ballot access a “21st century Jim Crow assault.”
While Biden has used his presidential influence to embolden Democrats’ push to pass federal voting rights legislation, he has yet to endorse ending the filibuster. The president has openly supported reforming the rule.
Progressive House Democrats, including Johnson and Reps. Jamal Bowman, D-N.Y., Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, and Al Green, D-Texas, who stood with demonstrators during Thursday’s rally, said that Biden’s speech was not enough.
Bowman urged Biden to take further action to help end the filibuster rule in the Senate, a change he said is needed to pass progressive bills on the Democratic agenda. Ending the filibuster would effectively allow bills to be passed with a simple majority, instead of the 60 needed with it in place.
“These bills, they sit in the Senate, not moving at all. Why? Because of the racist Jim Crow relic called the filibuster,” Bowman said.
“It’s not just about the president giving a speech on racial equity, or writing a press release saying he’s for racial equity. It’s about your policies, it’s about your advocacy, it’s about your budget. So we are calling on the president to be a leader for racial justice and equity — so that the S. 1 bill passes in the Senate, so that the S. 4 bill passes the Senate, so that the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act passes the Senate, and so that we can really evolve into the multiracial democracy that we are,” Bowman continued.
Jackson Lee praised voting rights protesters and vowed that she and other Congressional Black Caucus members will continue demonstrating until federal voting rights legislation passes in Congress.
“We committed that the agitation is not going to stop. We will show up, day after day after day, because we embody the Constitution,” Jackson Lee said.
“Whatever it takes, we’ll be there as nonviolent perpetrators,” she continued. “Civil disobedient persons we are. I leave you in the name of the late John Lewis who said, ‘Carry on.'”
All Good Things has announced a new album called A Hope in Hell.
The record, which will include the band’s hit single, “For the Glory,” featuring Hollywood Undead‘s Johnny 3 Tears and Charlie Scene, is due out August 20.
Along with the album news, All Good Things has also shared another track from A Hope in Hell, “The Comeback,” which features Craig Mabbitt of Escape the Fate. You can download that now via digital outlets.
“For the Glory,” meanwhile, currently sits in the top five on Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.
All Good Things will hit the road in August while opening for P.O.D.‘s 20th anniversary Satellite tour.
Here’s the A Hope in Hell track list:
“Kingdom”
“Hold On”
“For the Glory” feat. Johnny 3 Tears and Charlie Scene
“Sirens”
“Do It Now” feat. Hyro the Hero
“Push Me Down”
“Machines”
“Undefeated”
“Lights Out”
“The Comeback” feat. Craig Mabbitt
“Four Letter Words”
“End of the World”
“A Hope in Hell”
Ava Max has released a surreal new video for her latest single, “EveryTime I Cry.”
In the clip, Ava wake up in a desolate landscape, battered and bruised, but then the sheer power of her tears creates an ocean. We also see her perched in a tree above a waterfall in a lush landscape, and standing on lily pads in a pond, wearing a variety of over-the-top looks.
According to a press release, the clip depicts Ava using her “vulnerability” — represented by her tears — “to become a fairy who saves the planet.”
“This video demonstrates power within vulnerability,” said Ava. “I wanted to tell a story that has the viewer watch me turn weakness into strength.”
Released last month, “EveryTime I Cry” was Ava’s first new music of 2021, but she told fans that it’s not from a new album, but rather is a “continuation” of her 2020 debut album, Heaven & Hell.
