J. Cole Is Very Much On His Game in ‘The Off-Season’: Album Review

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWhether or not you know Justin Tranter the person, if you’ve been near a radio in the past 10 years, you know Justin Tranter the songwriter, who’s had a hand in hits like Justin Bieber’s “Sorry,” DNCE’s “Cake by the Ocean,” Selena Gomez’s “Lose You to Love Me,” Imagine Dragons’ “Believer,” Halsey’s “Bad at Love” and dozens more.

Disney‘s new Cruella starring Emma Stone is rated PG-13, as J.R. Hilton pointed out. And we took all our children to watch it. We’re an adventurous crew! They each share what they think of the film and then we take grandma some food as a surprise. THAT did not work out so well! She nearly hurled her dinner! And it’s hilarious!

EXO have launched a space-themed web mini-game in anticipation of their upcoming special album, ‘Don’t Fight The Feeling’.On June 1 at Midnight KST, the K-pop group unveiled their the retro-inspired pixel game, ‘EXO-SHIP SAGA’. The group have described it as “a space-based game that uses the upcoming special album’s concept”.Players can earn points in ‘EXO-SHIP SAGA’ by firing lasers at an incoming waves of aliens, similar to the scrolling shoot ’em up series Raiden.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIt is no small understatement to say that David Bowie was at a creative crossroads in 1970 — one that was baffling, possibly even to himself.He began the year essentially as a folksinger coming off of his elaborate first hit, “Space Oddity,” releasing a fey love song to his wife-to-be, Angela (“The Prettiest Star”) before making a drastic pivot into the cerebral proto-heavy metal of “The Man Who Sold the World” album; then closed it out with an odd, hippie-inflected

A.D. Amorosi Posthumous albums, especially ones that were all-or-mostly completed before the artist’s death, are nearly always bittersweet, providing a look not only at what was lost but also what might have been.

As pretty much everyone expected, J. Cole's new album The Off-Season debuted at No.

Chris Willman Music WriterBlake Shelton doesn’t seem particularly gaunt at any given time, but weightlessness may be the term that best applies to “Body Language,” his first all-new album in four years.

Age Don’t Mean a Thing and 2017’s critically acclaimed, tongue-in-cheek Goin’ Platinum, seems far from ready to slow down.His latest collection of songs, Sharecropper’s Son (★★★★☆), is steeped in blues and soul tradition, bringing a whole lifetime of performance and love of southern musical tradition to bear on an album that brilliantly showcases all of Finley’s strengths.Sharecropper’s Son is autobiographical in nature, inspired by the musician’s upbringing in the rural Jim Crow South.

How fitting is it that Alex Noyer’s splatter-deafness movie, “Sound of Violence,” comes to us just a week after the release of “Spiral,” the latest chapter in the big bloody book of “Saw?” The two are kindred spirits, or more like first cousins, in improbable grisly violence, where the enterprising slasher ceremoniously slays their victims with immoderately complicated Rube Goldberg machines.

Chris Willman Music WriterChances are that, on the first or second listen, Olivia Rodrigo’s debut album, “Sour,” will remind you of Billie Eilish’s own freshman effort from a little over two years ago. It’s not so much that, at 18, Rodrigo is still young enough to count a 19-year-old as an influence — although you do get the distinct impression at times that she’s taken a few lessons from Eilish to go along with the many, many pieces of homework she’s taken home from Taylor Swift.

Naman Ramachandran Writer Neil Gaiman, actor Hugh Grant and historian and presenter David Olusoga are among 120 well-known British figures who have signed an open letter decrying the threat to public service broadcasters from streamers and government.The letter, from campaign group the British Broadcasting Challenge, chaired by former BBC creative officer Pat Younge, states that PSBs such as the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 are “under severe threat” from “unregulated streaming services and

Hugh Grant, Neil Gaiman, and Michael Sheen are among 120 public figures who have signed an open letter to the UK government attacking plans to reform the BBC and the wider public service broadcasting (PSB) ecology.

Payday 3 developer Starbreeze says that it is not intending to rush out the much-anticipated sequel to 2012’s Payday 2.In an interview with gamesindustry.biz, Starbreeze CEO Tobias Sjögren reiterated the game’s planned launch window of 2023, saying that the long wait is essential to ensure its quality.“That time is what you need to make a game good,” Sjögren said of the long development time.

I May Destroy You.The new show was announced as part of the BBC’s new slate of forthcoming TV projects, but drama controller Piers Wenger said the specifics of Coel’s new project remain very much under wraps.“It’s truly in Michaela’s head and it’s not for me to second guess that too much at this point.

Chris Willman Music WriterA boxed set can include dozens or even hundreds of unreleased tracks, never-before-seen photos and copious historical liner notes, but sometimes it really only needs one raison d’etre to justify its sprawling existence.

Daddy’s Home (★★★☆☆), Annie Clark unpacks the drama of her father’s time in prison through a filter of her own half-imaginary version of New York City in the 1970s, making for an album that is every bit as romantically gritty as its setting.Notwithstanding Jack Antonoff’s returning co-producer credit, Daddy’s Home has a sound that is so markedly different from her last album that she sounds almost reinvented.

Chris Willman Music WriterFor St. Vincent, “home” is a relative thing; she doesn’t often touch exactly the same base, musically, and no one will ever accuse her of making the same album twice.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorShaed are a Washington DC-based trio who scored a massive hit two years ago with “Trampoline,” a song from their second EP that featured Zayn on the remix.

Alan Jackson is disappointed with the current state of country music, and spoke his mind during an appearance with Kelleigh Bannen on Apple Music’s “Today’s Country Radio”.