Beyonce Surprises With New Album Release
Well, this kind of turns the whole 'Friday The 13th' thing on its head, huh? Last night, without fanfare or promotion, Beyonce released her fifth full studio album via iTunes. To call it an album is a bit of an understatement. The self-titled project consists of 14 songs released complete with 17 accompanying videos, for something that the First Lady of hip-hop and R&B referred to as a "visual experience."
In a press release, Beyonce described the idea for the new album. "I see music," said Beyoncé. "It's more than just what I hear. When I'm connected to something, I immediately see a visual or a series of images that are tied to a feeling or an emotion, a memory from my childhood, thoughts about life, my dreams or my fantasies. And they're all connected to the music."
The album is a family affair of sorts, with husband Jay-Z and infant child Blue Ivy making appearances on two tracks. I haven't had a chance to hear "Blue" yet, but I'm sure it's meant to melt many a young girl's heart, queue the "awwws". As she is apt to do, Beyonce handpicked the rest of the features, adding to of the top artists in music today to a project that was already sure to be groundbreaking. Drake stops by for "Mine" and Frank Ocean hops on "Superpower", which should be a treat. Pharrell Williams, Timbaland, The-Dream and Noah “40? Shebib handle the bulk of production duties. Taking a page out of the rest of the music world, Beyonce released the album, complete with videos with simply a posting on her Facebook wall. You can check out some of the videos below and pick up the full album on iTunes.
Album tracklist:
01 Pretty Hurts
02 Haunted
03 Drunk in Love (feat. Jay Z)
04 Blow
05 No Angel
06 Partition
07 Jealous
08 Rocket
09 Mine (feat. Drake)
10 XO
11 ***Flawless (feat. Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche)
12 Superpower (feat. Frank Ocean)
13 Heaven
14 Blue (feat. Blue Ivy)
Video tracklist:
01 Pretty Hurts
02 Ghost
03 Haunted
04 Drunk in Love (feat. Jay Z)
05 Blow
06 No Angel
07 Yoncé
08 Partition
09 Jealous
10 Rocket
11 Mine (feat. Drake)
12 XO
13 ***Flawless (feat. Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche)
14 Superpower (feat. Frank Ocean)
15 Heaven
16 Blue (feat. Blue Ivy)
17 Grown Woman
18 Credits
Watch a Mini Documetary that Explains Beyoncé’s Visual Album
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Sampha: "Can’t Get Loose" (Jacques Greene Remix)
Ever since Drake put talented artist Sampha on "Too Much" off his latest album, Nothing Was The Same, it seems that the track is all people have heard from one half of SBTRKT. Well, Jacques Greene went beyond just hearing the one track and remixing it, giving Sampha's solo track, "Can't Get Loose", off his Dual EP, his own special treatment. Sampha has one of those voices you can listen to all day, and Greene deftly adds his unique up-tempo dance vibes that up the ante for the song while not overshadowing the original aesthetic of the track. Check out the track, available courtesy of Audiomack here below.
Grading the Grammy Nominations
As the music industry has evolved over the past decade into the digital world, things have changed quite a bit. Hard copies are hardly ever bought anymore, nor does anyone seem to buy whole albums at all, as the iTunes Store model has taken over and the industry has increasingly become about what the consumer wants as opposed to what the labels want the listeners to hear. While this has resulted in a sort of musical reawakening, creating a culture where listeners can stream, download or play any track they can think of with the touch of a button, music has expanded at a rapid pace, creating new genres and sub-genres and infinite new off-shoots that don't fit cleanly into any one established genre or sound.
Standing behind this industry, bearing the largest prize of all, is the Grammy Awards. This year, the award show enters its 56th installment and, while a dance music category was finally introduced last year, the judging seems more out of touch than ever, but of course this has been an issue for some time. The Grammys are like Social Security. You don't really care about it much until you're too old to get up from the sofa. Generations have rallied against the award for years. In 1991 Sinead O'Connor simply refused to show up and boycotted the show, despite being nominated in four categories. After winning "Best Hard Rock Performance" in 1998, Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder stood onstage perplexed and, staring at the golden trophy, said into the microphone, "I don't know what this means. I don't think it means anything." It's not news that the team behind the Grammy Awards has been out of touch for some time, but at no time in history has it been so blatantly about the money in an industry that today makes significantly less money than it used to. It's macroeconomics of the current American condition played out with celebrities and gold gramophone statues. Plus, Kanye already spoke out. So, for this latest round of Grammy nominations, I figured I would sift through who was chosen and offer up my own choices for the top prizes in music this year.
The Weeknd: "Devil May Cry"
Toronto native The Weeknd dropped his latest single today, releasing "Devil May Cry" as part of the The Hunger Games: Catching Fire official soundtrack. The Weeknd joins Santigold, Ellie Goulding and everyone's favorite young star today: Lorde. The track is a bit of a throwback for The Weeknd, sounding more House of Balloons than Kiss Land, is as falsetto as ever. The movie isn't out until November 22, but you can check out the tracks that will play in the background via iTunes now.
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[Video] Drake: "Worst Behavior"
Following his cinematic "Hold On We're Going Home" video, Drake is back with the official visual for "Worst Behavior". The four-minute single is stretched into a 10 minute clip in which Drizzy heads down to Memphis where he meets up with Juicy J, Project Pat and his father. His OVO crew also makes a cameo for a skit in the middle of the song alongside Three Six Mafia.
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[Video] Sampha: "Too Much"
For many, Sampha's scene-stealing appearance on Drake's Late Night With Jimmy Fallon performance was the first time they had heard from the singer. Nonetheless, since then he has been able to build up a nice buzz and will release the original version of "Too Much" through Young Turks as a single. To push the record, Sampha shot a video which you can peep below.
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Drake: "Come Thru" (James Blake Version)
James Blake making forays into hip-hop has to be one of the things I'm most excited about in music today. Having given his solo album Overgrown time to breath throughout 2013, Blake has been making interesting strides into working with cross-genre collaborations, beginning with his "Life Round Here" track with Chance The Rapper. This time he links up with Drake to add his own flair to the track "Come Thru". Using his signature, highly intensive synth chords to and mono drum hits to back Drake's tender tune, Blake is able to transform the radio track into something wholly more interesting. Check out what Blake did this time in the stream here below.
M.I.A: "Y.A.L.A."
In what be the most periods ever in a title, M.I.A put her own twist on the "YOLO" saying, distorting it into her own renditionof the Drake tune and tweeting "If you only live once why we keep doing the same shit?" It's a taste of her upcoming album, Matangi, due out November 5 through Interscope. For now, listen below.
http://youtu.be/KJ2lsG3I8IU