Giles Martin on Mixing the Beach Boys’ Classic ‘Pet Sounds’ for Dolby Atmos — and Why the General Public Is About to Get Much More Lost in Spatial

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift is setting some high chart benchmarks with the release of her “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” album. Not only has it debuted at No. 1 with the biggest numbers of the year so far for any release, but it’s one of four albums she now has in the top 10 of the album chart. According to Billboard, that’s the first time a woman has done that in the entire six-decade history of there being an album chart — and she’s one of only three artists to ever accomplish the feat. Swift also set a record for the female artist with the most No. 1 albums in history: She now has a dozen, moving ahead of Barbra Streisand, with whom she was formerly tied with 11 each.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic It’s not many tours that take a complete left turn from the style, content and tone of how they started with just a few dates left on the itinerary before everyone heads home. That’s coasting time. Yet that’s exactly what happened with the final six shows on Elvis Costello & the Imposters’ “We’re All Going on a Summer Holiday Tour,” where no one who saw any of the first 17 gigs on the outing would have much recognized how things transpired in the final half-dozen. It was all due to the transformative presence of a three-man horn section, which the advertising had accurately promised would only be showing up for the tour coda. What was unexpected was just how thoroughly Costello retooled the whole show to build it around these new brass arrangements, discarding certain set staples and adding new ones to show just what different flavors could be realized with horns o’ plenty.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Jung Kook launched his first major solo single, “Seven,” at the stroke of midnight ET Friday morning, as promised. It came with a surprise that was unpromised: the appearance of one of the hottest female rappers of our day, Latto, making a featured appearance on the track. The lyrics talk about some hot action that is due to go down between the two, but the music, however, high-energy, feels deeply chill. In other words, it feels designed to be a late entry in the “songs of the summer” derby. In an email interview with Variety, Jung Kook acknowledges the summery vibe but sounds almost surprised to hear a hit-status projection for the tune, as if this crossed his mind about the Andrew Watt/Cirkut co-written and -produced track belatedly. “I honestly didn’t have a huge goal in mind, but since you said that, I’d be ecstatic if it becomes a ‘hit,'” he says.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Music-related films, limited series, specials and documentaries are well-represented in the 2023 Emmy nominations — including projects like “Daisy Jones & the Six” that were shut out by the music branch in actual music categories but did just fine just about everywhere else. Actors playing famous musicians fared well. Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain, who portrayed George Jones and Tammy Wynette in “George & Tammy,” were nominated for best lead actor and actress in a limited series or movie. Also up in those categories, respectively, are Danielle Radcliffe, for his comic turn in the satirical title role of “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” and Riley Keough for her more serious take as a fictional singer-songwriter in “Daisy Jones.”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Will he turn an audience of 2023 theatergoers into screaming bobbysoxxers? That remains to be seen, but a bio-musical about the life of Frank Sinatra, “Sinatra the Musical,” has found an actor to play the late superstar in a premiere production set to open in the U.K. in just over two months. Tony winner Matt Doyle landed the prize role of Ol’ Blue Eyes in the show, opening in Birmingham Sept. 28 for a tryout run of just over a month. The musical is being presented by Birmingham Rep in association with Universal Media Group Theatrical and Frank Sinatra Enterprises, with an eye, obviously, toward a life far beyond England. Michele Anthony, executive VP of Universal Music Group), and Bruce Resnikoff, president-CEO of Universal Music Enterprise, are producing on behalf of Universal Music Group Theatrical.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The Global Citizen Festival will return to Central Park Sept. 23 for another ticketed-but-free concert, with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Ms. Lauryn Hill set as the day’s headliners. Megan Thee Stallion, Conan Gray and Stray Kids are also on the day’s bill.  As always, tickets to the show on the Great Lawn are free, but require fulfilling a task as part of the international advocacy organization Global Citizen’s initiative to raise awareness about hunger, poverty, climate change and inequities facing women around the world, among pressing related concerns. The broadcast component will be produced by Done and Dusted; broadcast partners have not yet been announced. The show is being presented by  by Citi and Cisco. 

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift’s “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” is not just a one-day streaming wonder. Yes, it did hit the highest single-day numbers for Spotify so far this year when it came out Friday. But as of Monday evening, not quite 96 hours into the new album’s release, Swift is so thoroughly dominating the streaming world that she holds 23 of the top 50 slots on the Spotify U.S. Top 50. That includes all 22 of the newly released songs, plus the resurgent “Cruel Summer.” Her domination is nearly that complete globally, too. On Spotify’s Global Top 50 at the same hour Monday night, Swift held down a third of that chart’s 50 spots, with 17 songs represented.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift really went back to December when it came to casting the music video for her just-released song “I Can See You.” Released late Friday night, the video stars an ex-boyfriend of many, many years back, “Twilight” star Taylor Lautner, along with Joey King, Presley Cash and Swift herself. The number of meta reunions happening simultaneously nearly required extra parts of Swifties’ brains to immediate calculate as the multiple surprises unfolded live and on video. King and Cash have their own history with the star, having co-starred in the “Mean” video once upon a time. All three co-stars made a appearance at Swift’s show at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri on Friday, letting the live audience see it right as it was going out into the wider world. Although it had been rumored that Swift was working on something with the three, the surprise premiere marked the first real confirmation that anything between them was afoot.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Ringo Starr, as always, is all about the P&L statements, and that doesn’t mean profit-and-loss. Friday, as is his custom, he took the occasion of his birthday — this year, his 83rd — to lead local friends in a chant of “peace and love” at the stroke of noon PT in a Beverly Hills park, while a worldwide audience of streaming Beatles fans looked on, admiring his youthful looks and demeanor and wondering if there’s any way to have what he’s having. Brother-in-law Joe Walsh joined him for the event, as did their respective wives, sisters Barbara and Marjorie Bach. By coincidence, both Starr and Walsh have been a part of headline news stories in recent days — the former because of a forthcoming Beatles single, the latter because of the announcement of an Eagles farewell tour. The two stars talked with press about those headlines, among other things, before the late-morning party got underway in earnest.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Sorry, Hayley Williams and Fall Out Boy: Marjorie has stolen the show again. Not that Taylor Swift’s beloved grandmother actually puts in a vocal appearance from the great beyond, as she did on the “Evermore” album three years ago. But Marjorie Finlay still manages to be a dominative force in the Vault Tracks for the newly released “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” by having her photos appear throughout the lyric video for the closing track, “Timeless,” and having her relationship with Taylor’s granddad be a focus of the inspirational ballad. Twenty-first-century pop-punk or emo can hardly compete with that emotional a capper. But for those less sentimentally inclined, Paramore’s singer and Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump will be way up there in what Swift fans immediately take away from the six previously unheard compositions that have been appended to the previous 16-track running order of 2010’s “Speak Now.” The duet with Williams, “Castles Crumbling,” is particularly pungent, as a lament that just about could have been an outtake from the more recent “Folklore” or “Evermore” instead of an album that came out a full decade before those. As for the FOB-aided track, it’s the farthest thing from a Swift classic. But — having been written, like the rest of these tracks, when the artist was 18 or 19 — the number does hark back to an era when girls (and Fall Out Boys) could just wanna have fun.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Live music was back, in 2022, but in 2023 it’s really back-back. Taylor Swift is soon to have history’s first billion-dollar-grossing tour, and in an era when music can sometimes feel shunted off to the side in pop-culture conversations, the “Eras Tour” feels bigger than any movie or TV show.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic In “Into the Woods,” the audience laughs at the gluttony of the Little Red Ridinghood character, especially in the earliest, most deliberately cartoony parts of the production. But in a sense, the crowd is getting off on gorging, as well, since this is the ultimate having-your-cake-and-eating-it-too show. Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine weren’t too proud to cook up their 1987 classic with copious amounts of Mad magazine-style spoofery — or Looney Tunes-level laughs, even — and yet you can feel like those seemingly empty calories are justified, knowing you’ll be gulping back salty tears by the end. “Into the Woods” is as overstuffed with characters and ideas as any musical ever has been, but if everyone does their job right, you leave feeling like you’ve just been fed a perfectly balanced meal, and not a morsel more.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The 2024 Grammy race may have just gotten a shakeup. Jon Batiste, who dominated the 2022 awards with his breakout album “We Are,” has announced a followup, “World Music Radio,” set to come out Aug. 18 on Verve/Interscope. Among the guests on the album is Lana Del Rey, returning the favor from Batiste’s recent appearance on two tracks on her “Did You Know There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd” release earlier this year. Their collaboration, “Life Lesson,” is listed as a bonus track wrapping up the 21-song release, but is likely to be the most anticipated track, however it’s billed. Other guests include Lil Wayne on “Uneasy,” Kenny G on “Clair De Lune,” Native Soul on “Raindance,” Leigh-Anne on “Running Away,” Jon Bellion and Fireboy DML on “Drink Water,” Rita Payés on “My Heart,” Heroes on “Movement 18′” and Michael Batiste on “Call Now (504-305-8269).”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic In case anyone is tempted to think of country music as a one-man phenomenon at present with Morgan Wallen’s seemingly indomitable runs atop multiple charts, Luke Combs has come along to remind everyone that this town is big enough for the both of ’em. They’re now forming a two-man roadblock at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as, between them, country owns the top two spots on that all-genre charts for the first time in 42 years. Wallen’s smash “Last Night” remains on top of the Hot 100 — no news there, since this is the song’s 14th week at No. 1. But it is a fresh development to have Combs’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” cruising close up behind it, moving up one spot to No. 2. It’s the first time the genre has claimed Nos. 1-2 on Billboard’s primary chart since March 1981, when Eddie Rabbitt’s “I Love a Rainy Night” and Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” managed the same crossover-success feat.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic It’s difficult to know whether Lainey Wilson would be as big a star as she’s recently become in the field of country music without the visibility boost she’s received from “Yellowstone.” The series began featuring her songs in season 2, a few years before Lainey was cast for a recurring role as a musician in season 5. The most likely answer: She’d probably be almost as big, even without the Taylor Sheridan factor. After all, it’s not a TV show that came up with the combination of country-rock singing chops, irresistible Louisiana accent and gosh-dang gung-ho that have captivated listeners to the point that, in short succession, she’s racked up four No. 1 Mediabase radio singles and been one of the leading winners at the CMA and ACM awards shows.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Who wouldn’t want to sing Kelly-oke to a brand new Kelly Clarkson album? But just be prepared to go to a few darker places, as some of the deeply confessional songs on “Chemistry” come up, many of them prompted by her 2020 divorce from Brandon Blackstock and the events that led up to it. Even if she insists that she put some of the most baldly personal songs she wrote away in a drawer, what’s left is still altogether autobiographical, having been written during some of her darkest days roughly three years ago. Not that it’s entirely daunting stuff; Clarkson made sure to include some songs harking further back in her relationship, before the chemistry went sour, to cover the heat generated in the early stages of a relationship, too. She joined Variety via Zoom to discuss the full arc of what “Chemistry” covers.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic When Bobbie Nelson, longtime pianist for her brother, Willie Nelson, died in March 2022 at age 91, she left behind a recently completed posthumous album, recorded collaboratively with singer Amanda Shires. That record, “Loving You,” is finally seeing the light of day and shedding additional daylight on Nelson’s supreme talent as a player, which wasn’t always the main point of focus in the Nelsons’ family band, for obvious reasons. As a happy byproduct, this beautiful labor of love also casting sunshine on Shires’ skills as a vocal interpreter, as they both take on Willie songs, standards (“Over the Rainbow” and “Summertime,” the latter with a guest vocal from Bobbie’s brother) and other shared favorites.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Kesha and producer Dr. Luke have settled a defamation dispute out of court, both parties announced Thursday, with each releasing a quote related to the settlement that indicated they mutually see this as the end of the road for their lengthy legal disputes. Dr. Luke said in his statement that he “wish(es) Kesha well,” while the singer said that she wishes “nothing but peace to all parties involved” as the court dramas apparently draw to a close. “Only God knows what happened that night,” wrote Kesha. “As I always said, I cannot recount everything that happened. I am looking forward to closing the door on this chapter of my life and beginning a new one. I wish nothing but peace to all parties involved.”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Singer-songwriter Brandy Clark has enjoyed triumphs recently on two fronts. Ten years of work on the score for her first Broadway musical, “Shucked,” paid off with a Tony nomination and a Drama Desk Award win for her and score co-writer Shane McAnally. And the Nashville resident’s self-titled fourth album, which found her friend Brandi Carlile moving into the producer’s chair, got the kind of great reviews that augur for more Grammy nominations (on top of the 10 nods she’s already picked up over the years). While she was making one of her many visits to New York, Variety caught up with her for a Facetime feature to discuss both her new Warner Records album, one of the year’s best, and the hit musical, which has a cast album of its own. The joint timing is coincidental, of course (“Shucked” was originally tagged for a 2020 opening, with an out-of-town run in D.C. that was just about to begin when the pandemic kicked in). That she gets to talk about two home runs at once makes her career seem far from anything that ends in “-ucked,” unless lucked applies.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Musical tag-teaming doesn’t have results much more fruitful than what came about when the showrunners of “A Small Light” picked Ariel Marx to compose the score for the limited series and Este Haim to serve as executive music producer. Neither Haim nor Marx was in a position to take anything about the job lightly, given that the eight-episode series for National Geographic and Disney+ tells the story of a Dutch woman, Miep Gies, who helped hide Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis. Yet, in their very separate roles, both found ways to bring musical light or even levity into a drama that inevitably skews toward tension. Este Haim took on the EMP job for the first time with “A Small Light” after previously scoring or co-composing “Maid” and “Cha Cha Smooth” — on top of her day job as one-third of the rocking sister trio Haim. For “A Small Light,” she produced episode-ending covers of songs from the first half of the 20th century, performed by Angel Olsen, Moses Sumney, Kamasi Washington, Sharon Van Etten with Michael Imperioli, Remi Wolf, Weyes Blood, duet partners Orville Peck and King Princess, and her sister Danielle.