ABBA Return, More ABBA-Esque Than Ever, With ‘Voyage’: Album Review

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorRepublic Records has promoted Wendy Goldstein and Jim Roppo to the roles of co-presidents, the label’s co-founders, Monte Lipman and Avery Lipman, announced Wednesday.Goldstein, one of the top A&R people in the music industry, has served as president of West Coast Creative since 2019 and is based in the Los Angeles office.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorTo the surprise of absolutely no one, Adele’s “30” is now the top-selling album of 2021 — and it achieved that feat in just three days.According to initial reports to MRC Data via Billboard, the album, which was released at 12 a.m.

Mura Masa has announced the release of a new track coming this week called ‘2gether’.The Guernsey-born producer (real name Alex Crossan) took to Instagram this evening (November 22) to inform fans that he’ll be releasing new music on Friday (November 26).“new music on Friday ok?” he captioned a video of a pancake being made in a frying pan along with a pair of pics: a close up shot of a cat, and a pic of his boots.Additionally, he said that he will be teasing snippets of his upcoming third

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIssa Rae has unveiled the soundtrack for the next soundtrack to her Peabody-award-winning HBO series “Insecure,” which features new songs from Saweetie — “Get It Girl,” which dropped earlier this month — Nnena, Thundercat, B.K. Habermehl, TeaMarrr and Amindi, among many others.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorApple Music has released an expanded, exclusive holiday collection with its second annual “Carols Covered” playlist, available in Spatial Audio.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorFive years after the release of the second chapter of his “BlackSummers’Night” trilogy, three-time Grammy-winning R&B singer-songwriter Maxwell has finally revealed plans to release the final installment, “blacksummers’NIGHT,” in the spring — and he’s leading with a new song, “Off,” and the announcement of a long tour, kicking off in TK, that will see fellow R&B vets Anthony Hamilton and Joe opening.The new single is another classic slice of Maxwell-flavored R&B, a

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorJackson Browne and Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna cofounder Jorma Kaukonen will headline a star-packed lineup of artists at a benefit for the non-partisan voters’ rights non-profit Headcount, to be held at the historic Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, N.Y.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAs expected, Kanye West has released a deluxe version of his most recent album, “Donda,” that features more than 20 extra minutes of previously unreleased tracks and alternate versions, including “Life Of The Party” featuring Andre 3000, “Up From The Ashes,” “Never Abandon Your Family,” “Remote Control 2” with Young Thug and a new feature from Kid Cudi, and more.The new edition expands the already long album past the two-hour mark; it’s now 2:11.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorFor the uninitiated, Idles are a monumentally powerful British hard rock band whose music is loaded with punk and hardcore influences, although it’s not accurate to label them as either.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIt might have a core of ultra-rich high-calorie cheese, but the throwback song is a very specific and carefully calibrated art form.It must evoke and transcend the era it’s reviving in an affectionate or hilarious fashion (or both); it has to be a great song as well as a nostalgia trip for those who remember, and a vicarious saunter through a previous decade for those who don’t.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorHouston mayor Sylvester Turner has promised a “thorough review and investigation” of the tragedy at the Travis Scott-headlined festival in the city, where eight people died and more than 300 were injured as crowds surged and stampeded during Scott’s set.

Voyage (★★★★★), the supergroup has exceeded all expectations, triumphantly launching the final act of their careers.One of the most striking things about the album, and especially its lead singles, is just how “ABBA” it sounds. This shouldn’t be surprising, in theory, given this is the exact same group.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAfter a grueling 18 months of pandemic, Live Nation Entertainment posted a strong third quarter of 2021, with the return of festival concerts helping to drive “all our business segments to positive operating income and adjusted operating income for the first time in two years,” according to the report, with a company-wide operating income and AOI of $137 million and $306 million, respectively.The report notes that its results are driven “primarily” by the U.S.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorA murderer’s row of top hip-hop producers including DJ Premier, Swizz Beatz, Mustard, The-Dream, Mike Will Made It, No I.D, Hit-Boy, Take A Daytrip and Tainy will release EPs via Mass Appeal’s “Hip Hop 50 the Soundtrack,” as part of the company’s #HipHop50 campaign in celebration of the genre’s 50th year.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIf, like some of us, you’re not completely caught up on the ongoing dramas within HBO’s popular super-rich family drama “Succession,” have no fear because there’s no spoilers here except to say that in season three, skullduggery continues, and Nirvana’s controversial 1993 song “Rape Me” was used in a pivotal scene last weekend.Cobain’s widow, erstwhile Hole singer Courtney Love, approves Nirvana syncs and, according to an Instagram story post, she seems quite

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBruce Springsteen is in talks to sell the rights to his recorded music to Sony Music as well as his publishing catalog, three sources confirm to Variety. While the album catalog deal is nearly done, some sources say, the publishing catalog remains in play.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorLos Angeles-based jazz saxophonist Terrace Martin, who first rose to prominence with his work on Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 album “To Pimp a Butterfly,” will release a new concept album titles “Drones” on Nov. 5 — this Friday.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorHalloween came a day early to the blocks around New York’s Madison Square Garden, as thousands of angels, devils, cowboys, ghosts, animals, astronauts, unicorns, Britneys and all other types of princesses and queens descended upon the sold-out venue for the first of Harry Styles’ two “Harryween” concerts.Even with a heavy percentage of accompanying parents, at least 65% of the attendees were decked out to the nines, and Styles and his band did not disappoint either,

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIn the decades after ABBA — one of the most popular and influential groups in the history of the world — announced their breakup in 1983, journalists grew so tired of receiving the same skeptical answers about the group reuniting that they largely stopped asking.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIn an understated, very Swedish way, ABBA co-founder and CISAC president Bjorn Ulvaeus is apoplectic.We’re talking about the soaring value of song catalogs — a boom that has seen Bob Dylan sell his catalog for nearly $400 million, and Hipgnosis Songs spending more than $2 billion on acquisitions in just over three years, with another billion-plus on tap.