Here’s news usually reserved for The Onion: Pope Francis just released a prog-rock song. He really did. Titled Wake Up! Go! Go! Forward! comes off an upcoming album, similarly titled Wake Up!
The news comes as he embarks on a historical tour of the United States. Considering his progressive remarks about issues like technology and modernity, amongst other topics of contention within the Catholic Church.
It’s not even that bad of a track. After the opening sound (which sounds strangely similar to the opening of San Cisco’s Snow), one might be justified in mistaking Wake Up! Go! Go! Forward! for a new Parkway Drive single from its heavy, dark guitar chords that build and build, layered with an almost ominous sounding harpsichord production. All of this, of course, gives way to a much more appropriate trumpet fanfare as Pope Francis’ voice rings out. “Wake up! Wake up!” he implores, followed by a smattering of applause that fades out.
This style of track is apparently typical of the entire album, which features excerpts of Pope Francis’ most acclaimed and famous speeches and inspirational lyrics in multiple languages, including English, Italian, and Portuguese. “For many years, I’ve been the producer and the artistic director of albums by the Pope. I had the honor to work with John Paul II, Benedict XVI and now Pope Francis,” Don Giulio Neroni (papal artistic director) told Rolling Stone. “As in the past, for this album too, I tried to be strongly faithful to the pastoral and personality of Pope Francis: the Pope of dialogue, open doors, hospitality. For this reason, the voice of Pope Francis in Wake Up! dialogues music. And contemporary music (rock, pop, Latin etc.) dialogues with the Christian tradition of sacred hymns.”
It seems like rock music is no longer the music of the devil anymore, and we’re glad it only took 266 popes to realise this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgnENsoCydY
Cryptic Facebook posts, hidden drawings around the country and more – guerrilla marketing has never been so rife. Australia’s Duchess of Pop, Sia, has been gearing up to release a brand new single – and Alive is now here.
The track is the first we’ve heard from her brand new album This is Acting, due for release later this year. It was co-written alongside Adele and Tobias Jesso Jr., and features production from Chandelier-producer Jesse Shatkin.
Sia’s chair atop music royalty has been waiting for her for some time. Penning tracks for the world’s biggest stars, including Beyonce, Rihanna, Kate Perry, Celine Dion and Carly Rae Jepsen, alongside featured collabs with Eminem and Giorgio Moroder, she finally emerged as an internationally renowned star in her right last year, with the release of her dazzling 1000 Forms of Fear.
In some ways, Alive is different to the heavy, forlorn material she showcased on 1000 Forms, perhaps an indicator of what we’ll be hearing on This Is Acting. It’s an anthem for the misshapen – “I was born in a thunderstorm…I grew up overnight,” she croons in the opening piano chords of the track (a mere example of the lyrical prowess of the song, no doubt helped by Jesso Jr.’s songwriting credits), before moving into almost Gloria Gaynor territory as she cries, “I survived.”
The anthemic quality of Alive is only bolstered by its powerhouse chorus.“I’m still breathing,” she belts over a thunderous drum beat and dramatic strings that swell and oscillate. Well, Sia, we’re certainly not, especially after this song. Have a listen of the track below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xJrcWtM6jQ
At this stage, pretty much nothing that Kanye does phases us anymore – especially not after announcing of his bid for the 2020 US presidency. So when he announces something as special as a two-nights-only performance of 2008’s 808s and Heartbreak at the Hollywood Bowl, we pay attention. There were no calls for political reupheaval, no lectures about fashion, no mention of the Yeezy Boost. Just him, 70-odd backup dancers, a symphony orchestra, and special guests Kid Cudi and Young Jeezy performing the tracks that showed us that Kanye was a mastermind well before Fantasy and Yeezus.
It’s about as minimal as Kanye will ever get, no doubt influenced by the intensely personal nature of the album, detailing his own vulnerability and redemption in light of his mother’s death, and split from his fiancée at the time of the album. He performed tracks which had never been performed live before – like Bad News – with other tracks – Amazing, RoboCop – not having been performed since 2009. It’s refreshing to see Kanye at his rawest (like in the fan-shot videos below), and serves as a reminder to us of his talent when stripped away from the flash of his usual antics (we’re keeping the definition of the term ‘stripped away’ fairly loose here – this is ‘Ye, after all).
Watch fan footage of 808s and Heartbreak here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0An0fyfnuso
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMKNjshrlZo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxNDTvZRGpo
Up-and-coming Sydney hip-hop artist Alexi is no stranger to urban exploration, as proven in this video for his latest single Death of a Friend of a Friend. The bleak clip was shot with director Marshall Whitlock in an abandoned Bangkok skyscraper, and the video’s aesthetic is gritty and glittering all at once; in fact, it’s almost reminiscent of the neo-noir quality of films like Nicolas Winding Refn‘s Only God Forgives (set in the same location and which itself features a stunning soundtrack). The result is a video that’s both laid back and sleek, evoking an atmosphere of youthful freedom and reckless abandon. Whitlock captures it perfectly, through shots of Alexi dancing through empty concrete corridors and on an open balcony, interspersed with montages of the flickering Bangkok skyline.
It’s a real reflection of the song itself, which features Alexi’s lament on modernity – “hashtag your happiness and your Instagram that you play God” – underscored by a unique beat that we can only describe as wispy, and vaguely inspired by the Asian influences of his surroundings. If this is our first taste of Alexi’s work, we can’t wait to see more. Check out the video below, and get excited about this talented, rising star.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a drill. In a turn of events that’s still just as surreal as when he first announced it, Ryan Adams’ 1989 cover album is finally coming out next Monday. We first heard teasers of the record on his Instagram a while ago, and it’s everything we expected – soft and mature, strings-based sounds that lend an almost ethereal quality to Taylor Swift’s pop hits like Shake it Off and Blank Space.
Now, radio megamind Zane Lowe has premiered Adams’ cover of Bad Blood, proving that the entire project isn’t just a weird musical dream. It’s a pretty spot-on matchmaking, all things considered – stripped back and slowed down, underscored by the kind of vaguely doleful acoustic instrumental that Adams does so well. The cover sounds almost mid-2000s in its bittersweet ballad quality, and it’s a nice rendering of Swift’s hardhitting and very aggressive original.
If this is the quality of the songs coming out of Adams’ cover album, we can’t wait for its release in just 4 days. Meanwhile, check out the cover of the album which he ‘grammed with a few teaser details of its release.
In between opening a Haitian restaurant and releasing a trailer for their upcoming feature-length documentary The Reflektor Tapes, Arcade Fire are now set to unveil two previously unheard tracks titled Get Right and Crucified Again. The songs will be released on a limited-edition black 7-inch vinyl that’s sure to be yet another piece of memorabilia for fans of the Canadian six-piece.
Both tracks were recorded during sessions for the band’s most recent album Reflektor, and didn’t make the final cut, but they’ve been performed live multiple times. Check out a fan-recorded Get Right below.
The songs are featured in The Reflektor Tapes and if the first ethereal and throbbing trailer is anything to go by (featuring the groovy and glitchy and very sleek Porno), we’re hoping the studio versions of the tracks will be just as polished. The new documentary, which comes out September 24, is “almost like a remix record, just in its way of thinking about film, thinking about our music,” said Butler in an interview with Billboard.
Meanwhile, Arcade Fire’s new seven-inch release comes out just a day after the doco, and we can’t wait to experience both in all their glory. They last visited Australia at the beginning of 2014, where they headlined Big Day Out.
Ladies and gentlemen, gee up for the SIXTH INSTALMENT in the massive effort that is Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake’s History of Rap. Both entertainers showcase their musical and comedic chops in a collaboration that’s just as good as their other five in a romp through iconic hip-hop tunes ranging from the classic – LL Cool J’s Rock the Bells and Salt-N-Pepa’s Let’s Talk About Sex – to newer (although no less fresh) tracks like Know Yourself by Drake and I Don’t Fuck With You by Big Sean.
More highlights include Fallon spitting out Busta Rhymes’ verse on Look at Me Now like it ain’t no thing (we’re sure it actually was, very much, a thing – just listen to the verse yourself) and a very apt reference to Straight Outta Compton before promptly stopped by an appalled Timberlake. But the highlight of the bromance-fest is probably the segment from 3:20 to 4:20, covering an energetic Ignition (Remix) and Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe (with Fallon doing a very on-point impression of Kendrick’s permanently stoned expression).
Have a listen for yourself below in anticipation for an inevitable History of Rap 7. Meanwhile, Fallon and Timberlake’s bromance continues, the pair having been spotted at the US Open, shimmying to Beyonce’s Single Ladies.
Kanye’s done a lot of things in his time – infamously interrupted Taylor Swift at the VMAs, recently declared his plans to run for President in 2020, oh, and now has a classroom themed after him. Adrian Perez, a fourth-grade teacher at McCabe Elementary school in Mendoza, California makes us wish we were back in fourth grade, having decorated his classroom in an homage to the iconic musician.
“I feel as if I tore walls down and created several opportunities for me to think outside the box, and I encourage my students do the same. I was innovative while designing this classroom. I aspire to be the Kanye West of teaching: Kanye West is one of the most influential people in the world and is the best at what he does. To elaborate, I want to be a positive influence to my students and be the best teacher I can be for them,” Perez said to Good Morning America.
We’ve got to admit it all looks quite clever and punny and even age-appropriate, with sections all based on Kanye songs like Power for students who achieved good reading scores, or Champion for the best assignments. It’s a shame that school administrators had different ideas, instructing Perez to tear down the decor (maybe they were afraid that he was encouraging a culture of college dropouts or that his students wouldn’t make it to graduation?)
Either way, have a look at the decor below and marvel in the educational glory that only Kanye West could influence.
Amidst news of a new album, not to mention powerful comments on misogyny in the industry and online haters, CHVRCHES has released yet another new song, and it’s just as good as their previous teaser singles Never Ending Circles, Every Open Eye and Leave a Trace. This new track – Clearest Blue – is perhaps their most energetic effort out of the three, most reminiscent of their debut record The Bones of What You Believe.
In true CHVRCHES style, Clearest Blue is underscored by glitchy electronic tones, and with a very frenetic beat that induces sweaty palms and shaky legs upon first listen. Despite unwelcome throwbacks to the Black Eyed Peas’ very wailing 2009 hit, vocalist Lauren Mayberry’s impassioned cries of “meet me halfway” add a desperate tension to the track as it continues to crescendo. Indeed, Clearest Blue is a song that builds and builds, finally erupting with explosive vigour at around the 2-minute mark. The rest of the track is a no-holds-barred electronic banger that’s sure to have fans vibing at live performances. Just check out the crowd at their performance of it at Pitchfork Music Festival!
Sadly, we won’t be seeing CHVRCHES anytime soon, as they continue their tour across American for the rest of 2015. Their upcoming album Every Open Eye is released 25 September – it’ll be a long two weeks waiting for it.
Duran Duran has just released their new single Last Night in the City featuring Kiesza, and it’s time like these that one wonders if Duran Duran know how to spell the word SELLOUT. Last Night is, by all counts, a thoroughly disappointing effort from both band and featured singer. It’s almost as if they had actively attempted to pigeon-hole themselves into a framework of generic pop, because this is as generic as it gets.
An all-too-familiar “four on the floor” beat underscores some decidedly mediocre lyrics: “Living like it’s our last night… like there’s no tomorrow,” sings Simon le Bon, but he might as well have been replaced by Ke$ha. It’s a throwaway performance from all, including Kiesza, whose powerhouse vocals are clichéd and awfully derivative. Utilising her upcoming prowess as a featured artist is perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the track, especially when compared to her own solo bangers like the grimy Hideaway.
It’s not the worst song of 2015 – not by a long shot (especially not when Pretty Girls is still fresh on everyone’s collective memory) – but it’s simply bland, and an unwanted reminder of Duran Duran’s continued attempts to produce relevant music, like an ageing father who wants to be ~down with the kids~. Last Night in the City sounds like a checklist of mainstream pop trends, down to the brass production near the end of the song echoing recent hits like Uptown Funk.
Really, it’s just an unfortunate choice from Duran Duran. Excuse us while we revisit their earlier work and bask in their former glory.