When a band says it's over, we've gotten to the point where there's a good chance that's not necessarily a lie, but... it's basically a lie. Every band reunites, even the ones you never knew existed.
Richard D. James loves to clear the vaults. A couple years ago, he sent Aphex Twin fans on a scavenger hunt through a series of anonymous SoundCloud accounts, where he had uploaded 200 old tracks and demos leading up to the release of Syro. Then he deleted them.
It's Bastille Day in France, so what better way to celebrate 1789's violent overthrow of the monarchy than with some French house music — désolé, musique de maison -- arranged for a marching band?
Have you ever done anything for 24 hours straight other than binge-watch Game Of Thrones before a new season starts? This guy spun a fidget spinner for a full day, so you know, the sky's the limit. Endurance tests now just seem like excuses to sit on your butt and get praise for it.
Update: This limited-run stream is over, but you can still clink glasses to the roséwave playlist.
We didn't create roséwave: We merely drank from its stream, the one that already spills pink drink on dance floors and beach blankets to the tune of favorite pop songs being shouted en masse. We didn't invent a genre; we just gave it a name.
Around the NPR Music office we all swear like a twee version of Veep — but on-air and on-website we receive a tiny electric shock every time we try to spell out our favorite dirty words. (That's not true, but it's funny to think about.)
SZA's CTRL is here, a resolutely confident and skillful R&B album that explores the notions of control and honesty, with thoughtful features from Travis Scott ("Love Galore"), Kendrick Lamar ("Doves In The Wind") and Isaiah Rashad ("Pretty Little Birds"). And it almost didn't happen.
I can see it now: Late summer, half-tipsy in the back of a cab at the end of a humid night, awkwardly making eye contact with other passengers in similar or more alcoholically dire situations. (What's that, half-price frosé all night? Better you than me.) Then a droning beat lulls me into that half-awake space? OK, whatever, another pop song on the radio.
Carly Rae Jepsen, the pop star of our hearts, voices Odette in the animated film Leap!, which will see U.S. distribution in September. Her character is a caretaker who coaches a young girl (voiced by Elle Fanning) to become a ballerina in Paris. I sense whimsy and heartfelt speeches are in my future.
Hundred Waters' music tugs like a loose thread, every shifting emotion illuminated by synths and beats that tug just a little harder. The electronic trio has always been on curiosity on OWSLA, the label founded by Skrillex, but a tempering presence.
When the reunited LCD Soundsystem played five nights at Brooklyn Steel in early April, the band brought along two new songs, delighting a legion of dedicated followers who have been clamoring for new material. Well, now James Murphy and company will release those songs at midnight — "and I mean, literally, midnight," he writes in a lengthy post on Facebook (embedded below). "Wherever you are.
Beyonce's year-end favorite, life-encompassing Lemonade will be thoroughly documented in a $300 collector's edition How To Make Lemonade box set. It will feature the album as a double-LP, with additional audio and visual downloads — oh, and a 600-page coffee table book with behind-the-scenes photos, a foreword written by Dr.
