Elton John is preparing to release his collaborative album The Lockdown Sessions, which features duets with everyone from Stevie Nicks to Eddie Vedder, Young Thug and Nicki Minaj. We’ve already heard tracks with Dua Lipa and Charlie Puth, and now Elton is sharing a gorgeous gospel duet with Stevie Wonder, “Finish Line,” featuring backing vocals from Kanye West’s Sunday Service Choir.
Here’s what Elton had to say about teaming up with Stevie Wonder for their first(!) duet:
“I couldn’t be more proud of ‘Finish Line’ — I’d go as far as to say it’s one of the best records I’ve ever made. Stevie’s voice is as good as I can ever remember hearing him — he sounds like a 17-year-old again, he’s singing with a sheer joy and exuberance in his vocals. Andrew Watt has done an unbelievable job on the production. It was a magical process. I’ve always loved collaborating with Stevie, and I’m delighted that after 50 years of friendship we finally get to do a full blown duet. He has always been so kind and sweet to me, and his talent is beyond ridiculous. When you listen to what he does vocally and instrumentally on ‘Finish Line’ you think, this is a true genius here.”
Listen to “Finish Line” above. The Lockdown Sessions is out 10/22 on Interscope. Pre-order it here.
A few of the artists mentioned here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Lil Nas X expressed his wish to work with Frank Ocean after meeting him at the Met Gala this past month. The younger artist looks up to Frank for obvious reasons and was able to let him know how much he means to Nas when they spoke. Nas also told Frank that he wants to collaborate with him, according to an interview the “Industry Baby” rapper gave to Andy Cohen on his SiriusXM radio show.
“I feel like I’ve met so many great people, but definitely Frank Ocean is top of my list,” Nas enthused. “Because for one, he represents a lot to me, and you’d never see Frank Ocean anywhere. He’s one of those people that are not real, you know? Outside of social media that was the first time we met, like, ever… [He was] giving props and congratulations and whatnot. And I was just saying the same thing to him. And just how much his music has shaped my life and [how I’m] hoping to collaborate with him.”
In a prior interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Nas addressed the impact that performers like Frank Ocean and Tyler The Creator had on him growing up. “I think artists like Frank and Tyler, they made it easier for me to be where I am, comfortably,” he said.
Watch Lil Nas X’s interview with Andy Cohen above.
Katy Perry had an incredible run in the early 2000s, even if that streak ended with the short-sighted Witness. But back in the day, especially with her record-breaking classic album, Teenage Dream, somehow in the middle of all that success she never won the music industry’s biggest award — a Grammy. In a recent issue of Variety, she actually addressed the fact that even with a whopping nine No. 1 hits, she’s never won the oh-so-coveted Grammy.
“In your career, you’ve sold over 48 million adjusted albums and your songs have accumulated 50 billion streams, yet you’ve never won a Grammy?” Variety‘s Shirley Halperin asked. Perry responded: “No, I’ve been nominated 13 times before. … To be honest, I always go by numbers, and they don’t lie. And I’m good with that. Everyone has an opinion and that’s wonderful, but numbers are numbers. Math is sacred.”
That’s very true Katy Perry, math is sacred. But math isn’t quite the same as critical respect from your peers… and though poptimism has come a long way in the last decade, pop wasn’t quite getting the respect back then that it does now. Honestly? I probably would’ve given Teenage Dream the trophy over Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs back in 2011. Everyone knows Funeral is the one in that band’s discography that actually had that kind of impact.
Limp Bizkit haven’t released much in the way of new music this decade, though they have been loudly debated on Music Twitter this year as fans took in HBO’s Woodstock ‘99 documentary. (Limp Bizkit were infamously blamed for inciting crowd violence during their set at the time.) Now, Fred Durst & Co. are back with “Dad Vibes,” a swaggering, upbeat jaunt that has Durst rapping, “Check out your dad with the swag on the floor / Momma gonna brag when I walk in the door / Y’all ain’t ever seen a guerrilla in the mist / Walk the line so fine with a blindfold.” Fans of the band might’ve heard “Dad Vibes” before, as it was playing over the loudspeaker during Limp Bizkit’s recent Lollapalooza set. Likewise, last month the band revealed new music would be “leaked” with a new album to follow soon after.
Limp Bizkit’s last studio album was 2011’s Gold Cobra. Though they were set to tour this year, the band had to cancel, telling Billboard, “In short, the system is still very flawed. Even if the performers, crews, staff, and promoters do their best to ensure safety on and behind the stage, that doesn’t ensure the safety of the audience as a whole. We are all in this together, and we all — individually and as a whole — have to make our best efforts to be as responsible and proactive as possible moving forward to combat and stop spreading COVID.”
Giveon recently offered a first taste of his upcoming debut album with his soulful new track “For Tonight.” Now, Giveon gives all the emotion in a performance of the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
The intimate performance kicked off with an introspective Giveon wistfully staring out of a faux window. The crooner then delivers his touching lyrics, singing romantic verses about spending the night with his lover. In a statement about the brand-new track Giveon said his inspiration came from his vices. “This is the story of a taboo vice that I just can’t seem to stop indulging in,” he said.
It’s been just over a year since prolific R&B crooner Giveon burst onto the scene with his 2020 debut EP When It’s All Said And Done — and he’s come a long way since then. After releasing a second EP in 2020 and following up with his hit track “Heartbreak Anniversary,” Giveon was tapped by none other than Justin Bieber to lend a verse on “Peaches” from his 2021 LP Justice. “Peaches” ended up being one of the most popular tracks on the album, earning millions of streams and debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Thanks to his recent success, Giveon was even awarded the opportunity to walk the Met Gala’s red carpet, which he stunned in a teal trench coat.
Watch Giveon’s “For Tonight” performance on Fallon above.
Grimes has been having a rough couple of weeks; earlier in the month, partner and multi-billionaire Elon Musk confirmed that the two had “semi-separated but still love each other, see each other frequently, and are on great terms.” Now, the alt-pop performer has shared a new song called “Love” that she says is “in response to all the privacy invasion, bad press, online hate and harassment by paparazzis I’ve experienced this week.”
Shared with a two-minute video of Grimes singing into the camera, “Love” is a layered, echoing track, tied together with slow-burning synths. The lyrics definitely take shots at various haters: “It f*cking sucks to be awake,” she sings, “Oh Lord, I pray my soul to take / Nobody understands because / Everything they hate / Is everything I love.”
This is the first time Grimes has seemed to address the separation and ensuing commentary. (If you spend any time on the internet at all, you’ll know that people have OPINIONS about her partnership with Musk, with whom she shares a baby.) The last time Grimes and Musk were seen together in public was at this year’s Met Gala; although Grimes walked the red carpet alone, the two later met up inside. Meanwhile, in a recent TikTok video, she tries to get baby X AE A-XII to say “mama,” and Musk’s voice can be heard in the clip, so it seems the two truly are on good terms as Musk says.
It’s also been about a year and a half since Grimes’ last album, 2020’s Miss Anthropocene, and she’s apparently just about done with her next one, which she told Vogue is “by far” her “greatest work.”
Not too long ago, deadmau5 announced that he would be partnering with the community around the video game Core to create his next music video. This was a really unique and cool opportunity for fans and deadmau5 to do something unique. It was also yet another example of someone in the music space embracing video games.
On Thursday, the music video that deadmau5 and the Core community created was released. It’s a pretty neat video considering how it was made and the efforts that went into it. The music video does a cool job of not only showing what Core is capable of but representing the community aspect that this video is about. We get to see deadmau5 taken across many different landscapes and scenarios and since all of this was made inside the game it feels like the community of Core is showing deadmau5 around so they can see everything they’ve made for him.
“I’ve been experimenting with the confluence of music and tech for a long time, and now with games, I’m able to take it to a whole other level,” said deadmau5. “Typically it takes months and hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of dollars to make a music video. In this case, we were able to pull together a video with stunning 3D worlds in just a couple of months by crowdsourcing the creation to the Core community and deadmau5 fans. The quality of the interactive experiences and the speed with which they were made was unbelievable and demonstrates why more artists are seeking out unique opportunities inside of games to extend new experiences to their audiences.”
It’s incredible that deadmau5 gave everyone from Core an opportunity to contribute to his music video like this. The results of it were even better than expected and maybe this will spark other people in music to do the same. We’ve already seen artists embrace games like Fortnite to host virtual concerts. Maybe now we’ll see a trend of gaming music videos. The potential for creativity has no limit in video games like Core.
After years of court cases, social media movements, and several documentaries, Jamie Spears has been removed as the co-conservator of Britney Spears. The singer had been pushing for her father’s removal for months now, and fans see the court’s decision as a step towards freeing Britney from her conservatorship once and for all. But Jamie doesn’t quite see it that way, instead saying the decision is a “loss for Britney”
Jamie had been the singer’s legal conservator since 2008, but LA Judge Brenda Penny put an end to the arrangement Wednesday evening. Per a report from NME, Jamie released a statement via his lawyer Vivian Thoreen following the judge’s decision. The statement reads that Jamie “loves his daughter Britney unconditionally” and has tried to do what is “in her best interests, whether as a conservator or her father.” The statement details how Jamie helped “revive her career” and “re-establish a relationship with her children” while Britney was “dealing with mental health issues.”
The statement continues that Jamie being suspended from Britney’s conservatorship amounts to a “loss” for the singer:
“These facts make the outcome of yesterday’s hearing all the more disappointing, and frankly, a loss for Britney. Respectfully, the court was wrong to suspend Mr. Spears, put a stranger in his place to manage Britney’s estate, and extend the very conservatorship that Britney begged the court to terminate earlier this summer. Again, it was Mr. Spears who took the initiative to file the petition to terminate the conservatorship when neither Britney’s former court-appointed counsel nor her new privately-retained attorney would do so. It was Mr. Spears who asked the court at yesterday’s hearing to immediately terminate the conservatorship while Britney’s own attorney argued against it. Despite the suspension, Mr. Spears will continue to look out for the best interests of his daughter and work in good faith towards a positive resolution of all matters.”
Anybody who thought the vinyl resurgence was just a fad was mistaken: The industry has experienced a legitimate revival. As a result, music fans are interested in physical media in ways they may not have if the decades-old medium hasn’t made a comeback. That doesn’t mean everybody is listening to just their parents’ old music, though. That’s part of it, sure, thanks to rereleases that present classic albums in new ways. A vital part of the renewed vinyl wave, though, is new projects being released as records, of which there are plenty.
Whatever you might be into, each month brings a new slew of vinyl releases that has something for everybody. Some stand out above the rest, naturally, so check out some of our favorite vinyl releases of September below.
Metallica — Metallica (Remastered) and The Metallica Blacklist
Blackened Recordings
Over the past 40 years, Metallica earned themselves a legion of fans and proved that their appeal spans genres: Their self-titled 1991 album is perhaps their least thrash metal-influenced effort and is their most commercially successful. To celebrate the album’s anniversary, not only did the group release a remastered edition of it, but they also got dozens upon dozens of artists to cover its songs for the massive Metallica Blacklist project.
Get Metallica (Remastered)here. Get The Metallica Blacklisthere.
Cold Cave — Cherish The Light Years
Matador
Cold Cave’s sophomore effort has been out of print for years now, and finally, new physical editions of it are available once again. The occasion is the record’s tenth anniversary. This edition comes with the previously unreleased track “Believe In My Blood” and is pressed in a variety of bright monochrome-colored vinyl, making for a bold complement to the black-and-white cover art.
Buena Vista Social Club — Buena Vista Social Club (25th Anniversary Edition)
World Circuit Records
Buena Vista Social Club’s self-titled (and only) studio album is a landmark release in Cuban music, and for the 25th anniversary of the 1997 album’s recording, we’ve been treated to an expansive reissue. There’s a lot here for fans to sink into, like previously unheard tracks from the 1996 session tapes, new liner notes, art prints, and more.
Vince Guaraldi — It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Craft Recordings
While Charlie Brown having football-related difficulties and Snoopy sleeping on his doghouse are iconic Peanuts elements, of similarly lauded value is the music in the Peanuts TV specials. Just in time for spooky season, the It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown soundtrack has been pressed on orange, pumpkin-shaped vinyl, which will be an aesthetic highlight in any collector’s vinyl library.
As good as My Morning Jacket’s albums are, the band is especially potent as a live force, which makes their new MMJ Live vinyl series all the more appealing. The series begins with Live 2015, which collects 16 previously unreleased recordings from the band’s 2015 tour in support of The Waterfall, all pressed on crisp-looking white vinyl.
Pixies ended their original run with 1991’s Trompe Le Monde, and now that the album is 30 years old, the group is celebrating the record with a gorgeous limited marbled green vinyl reissue. While the band eventually reunited, Trompe Le Monde represents the end of an era, and this new edition of it is one of the best ways to celebrate its legacy.
The Milk Carton Kids — Prologue (10th Anniversary Box Set)
Milk Carton Kids
The Milk Carton Kids earned a Grammy nomination in 2013 for their album The Ash & Clay, but its predecessor, Prologue, set the stage. Prologue celebrates its tenth anniversary this year and the band is marking the occasion with a fancy new rerelease. The 3-LP box set includes the remastered album as well as early demos and live performances. There’s also a fan-pleasing disc that traces the evolution of “Michigan” and “New York,” two of the group’s most beloved tracks.
Elvis Costello’s 1978 album This Year’s Model has gone down as a classic, and now he has taken an interesting approach to celebrating it. Instead of a traditional rerelease, he got a host of Latin pop and rock artists (like Juanes and Luis Donsi) to sing over the original instrumentals for Spanish Model. All in all, it’s a clever way to appreciate and breathe new life into an iconic 40-year-old album. We even chatted with him about it.
Three 6 Mafia — When The Smoke Clears: Sixty 6, Sixty 1
Vinyl Me, Please
Vinyl Me, Please recently announced their slate of monthly vinyl reissues for the rest of 2021, and the October hip-hop release is a great one: Three 6 Mafia’s When The Smoke Clears: Sixty 6, Sixty 1. This 2-LP orange-and-black edition is the first wide vinyl release of the album and it comes freshly remastered, making this an audiophile-preferred way to enjoy the record.
Various Artists — VMP Anthology: The Story Of Philadelphia International Records
Vinyl Me, Please
Speaking of Vinyl Me, Please, aside from their monthly releases, they also bust out larger projects, the latest being a tribute to the influential soul record label Philadelphia International Records. The Story Of Philadelphia International Records is a fantastic historical document, as it features eight premier album’s from the label’s heyday in the ’70s, by artists like The O’Jays and Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes. The goodies included here go beyond the physical, as there’s also a four-episode podcast series that serves as a guide to the albums.
As a Gen X parent, one of my favorite things to do is tell my tween and teen children what it was like to grow up before the internet and smartphones. They have no idea how people got around before Google Maps, listened to the songs they wanted before Spotify and binge-watched shows before streaming services.
I’ve seen all of those big tech changes in my adult life, and I’m in my 40s. People older than me have seen a great deal more and have experienced the acceleration of technological change more intensely than my generation has. It’s a lot, and it can be hard to keep up.
Twitter user Marti Woolford shared a post that perfectly encapsulates the challenges modern tech can pose for our elders—and how endearing it can be when they blend the new with the familiar.
Woolford’s post shows a photo of a piece of paper with a handwritten note and a scanned smartphone with a picture pulled up on the screen. She wrote:
“Today I received in the mail a letter from my mom. It was a photocopy of her phone-she wanted to share a picture that is on her phone with me. A picture that is on her phone. She photocopied her phone and mailed this to me.”
Today I received in the mail a letter from my mom. It was a photocopy of her phone-she wanted to share a picture th… https://t.co/XZxDACpfrl
In a follow-up tweet, Woolford added, “I should mention this is a photo of actress #JanePowell & #GearySteffin from their 1949 wedding. My mom, in her unique cursive writing, was saying that her mom used to tell her she looked like Jane Powell & she can now see the resemblance. Jane Powell passed on 9/16/2021.”
People loved the post.
My mom just informed me that she did not consider any other way to share this photo except to photocopy it and mail it 🤣.
Of course, some older folks manage to adapt to technology without much issue. My 75-year-old mother is a gamer and knows far more about computers than I do, whereas I find myself rolling my eyes when I have to figure out a new app. So I totally get where the elders who struggle with new technologies are coming from.
We are in a narrow window of time where we have humans walking among us who went from rotary phones to smartphones and from no TV to having thousands of movies to stream on-demand on our laptops. Our elders lived full lives before the explosion of the digital age, and it won’t be long before those bridges to the low-tech past disappear altogether. This thread offered a good reminder that even as we chuckle at how they use (or misuse) technology, we should definitely cherish the precious gifts they have to offer while we can.
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