Taylor Swift Unveils Three More Album Covers for ‘Midnights’

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic It’s practically unheard of for artists in the rock realm to publicly announce their setlists before shows have even gone on sale, but Elvis Costello has taken things a step or two beyond that. In announcing a 10-night stand he’ll be doing in New York City in February, Costello said he would be performing at least 200 unique songs over the run, and revealed partial setlists containing 10 of the 20-plus numbers he plans to perform each night, touching on every famous or obscure part of his career. The 10 shows will take place over a two-week period Feb. 9-22, 2023, at Manhattan’s intimate Gramercy Theatre. Tickets go on sale for Citi card members today and to the general public on Friday. A 10-night pass is being offered on top of tickets for the individual shows.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic LeAnn Rimes has been “Blue” about a few things lately, but not about a boy. On her new album, “God’s Work,” her 19th studio album, the singer deals with the darker sides of religion and the patriarchy —areas in which, for her, there’s some overlap — on top of a general pandemic-induced anxiety informing some of the more shadowy material. But the record is ultimately an upper, with guests like Ziggy Marley, Mickey Guyton, Sheila E., Ben Harper, Robert Randolph and Aloe Blacc contributing a palpable sense of community when she comes around to anthems of univesal love and acceptance. Sitting down with Variety in her home in the hills northwest of L.A., Rimes explored the quarter-century-plus journey from “Blue” — the massive hit that made her a household name when she was just 13 — to the depth she now possesses as a veteran who’s all of 40. Her longtime professional partner, co-writer/producer Darrell Brown, joined in with thoughts about what she’s undertaking in putting occasionally more provocative music out into the world as part of a healing journey she wants to share.

Taylor Swift is back at it, teasing fans ahead of the release of her 10th studio album Midnights. 

Ethan Shanfeld Jack Antonoff, who has produced some of Taylor Swift’s most popular songs, from “Out of the Woods” to “Lover,” and who shared her album of the year Grammy for 2020’s “Folklore,” returns for her upcoming album “Midnights,” out Oct. 21. Antonoff appears prominently in a new behind-the-scenes video posted to Swift’s Instagram, with the caption: “The making of ‘Midnights.'” In the clip, the pair are seen working on music in Antonoff’s studio for Swift’s next record, playing keyboards and MIDI controllers while Swift cuts vocal takes. An uncredited song snippet with the lyric, “It’s just the life you lead, but it’s yours,” soundtracks the video, but it’s unclear whether this is original material being teased, as the voices seems to be male. Meanwhile, a shot of Swift walking through a snowstorm indicates she and her co-pilot have been working on “Midnights” for a while. Another clip showcases test pressings of differently colored vinyl records, presumably the ones Swift put on sale in her web store for a limited time over Labor Day weekend.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic On the eve of AmericanaFest in Nashville, Lucinda Williams was celebrated at BMI’s headquarters as the recipient of the performing rights organization’s annual Troubadour Award, where an invitation-only crowd heard Williams’ songs covered by Jason Isbell, Angel Olsen, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Amos Lee and Madeline Edwards. Other artists saluted Williams via taped congratulations, like Robert Plant and Dwight Yoakam, who called giving Williams the lifetime achievement award “long overdue.” Maybe it wasn’t that long overdue: Williams is only the fourth artist to get the Troubadour honor since it was instituted in 2017, following in the footsteps of John Prine, John Hiatt and Robert Earl Keen.

The upcoming movie Amsterdam has a star-studded cast and 20th Century Studios has shared 15 character posters featuring all of the big names!

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Bad Bunny and Harry Styles are back in the spots it’s been hard to force them out of for the last few months: at No. 1 on Billboard’s album and song charts, respectively. But the real achievement of the week may belong to someone who’s hovering below them: country star Morgan Wallen, who has set a record for his longevity in the top 10 of the Billboard 200. Wallen’s “Dangerous: The Double Album” has just established a new mark for the album by a single artist that has spent the most weeks in the Billboard album chart’s top 10: 86. The previous record-holder (per Billboard) was the debut album by folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, which spent 85 weeks in the top 10 in the early ’60s. He’s also recently passed longevity marks for Adele’s “21” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA,” each of which spent 84 weeks in the top 10.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Freddie Freeman was hitting homers down in San Diego, so it was up to visiting superstar Lady Gaga to keep the on-base percentage exceptionally high Saturday night at Dodger Stadium, site of one of the last stops on her “Chromatica Ball” outing. Surprises were few, this many weeks into a mega-tour whose production values were already known among the legions of Little Monsters who’d long since put curious paws to Googling Gaga’s setlists and setpieces. Anyway, knowing what’s coming doesn’t quash the overpowering effects of a savvy performer who’s determined to look as cold as inhumanly possible while also, conversely, sounding like the warmest superstar you’ve ever encountered. Does that count, in ballplaying terms, as a slider?

The nominations for the 2022 Country Music Association Awards were just revealed!

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic When it comes to coffee-table books that survey the great album covers of the classic rock era, there are generally two kinds: those that include a lot of the work of the 1970s design team called Hipgnosis, and those that consist entirely of Hipgnosis’ work. Virtually any rock superstar who had the cachet to ask his record company to blow hundreds of thousands of dollars on a Hipgnosis cover went for the splurge of commissioning an original piece of art that might join classic LP jackets from Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin in a renaissance of 12’x12′ photographic surrealism. Only Hipgnosis could shoot a photo of a cow against a blue sky, put it on a Floyd cover (“Atom Heart Mother”), and make it look like an act of mysterious profundity on a level with the greatest works of Magritte.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic It’s fair to say that Abbey Road Studios is the most documented recording facility in the world, but only if you count the crosswalk outside. Otherwise, the nine-bedroom mansion turned studio hasn’t really had its day in the cinematic sun, the way that more modest studios like L.A.’s Sound City and Alabama’s Muscle Shoals have. Making up for that with an A-lister-filled movie treatment is “If These Walls Could Sing,” the first feature-length documentary from Mary McCartney, who has a hell of a shared Rolodex to draw upon in gathering the firsthand rock ‘n’ roll anecdotes you expect and want in a film like this. She’s also savvy enough to know that the guy working in the back gluing irreplaceable mid-century microphones back together deserves a few seconds of screen time, too.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift is not the only one re-recording fairly recent albums. Now Brandi Carlile has done it, although with very different reasons than the ones that prompted Swift to revisit her catalog. Carlile has gone back into the studio to redo last year’s “In These Silent Days” in its entirety, in a new, acoustic-focused version that’s been titled “In the Canyon Haze.” The newly recorded album will be out Sept. 28 and is preceded today by “You and Me on the Rock (In the Canyon Haze),” a remake that features her wife, Catherine Carlile, on harmony vocals. Carlile said that the project came about when she was looking at putting out a deluxe edition of “Silent Days” for the album’s upcoming anniversary, with bonus tracks, but settled on a way to make the entire album a bonus. The “canyon” part alludes to how the artist thinks the re-do aims for a vintage Laurel Canyon spirit in the reconfigured arrangements.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Ingrid Andress is, by most measures, one of the most successful upstarts in mainstream country music over the past few years. After her debut album, “Lady Like,” came out in 2020, the Michigan native was nominated for best new artist at the Grammys as well as by the CMAs and ACMs. She’s a thoughtful live-wire and a media darling — those media including the press, late-night shows and, yes, country radio. Her first single, “More Hearts Than Mine,” was a double-platinum breakout hit that went top 5 at country radio, and a recent duet with Sam Hunt, “Wishful Drinking,” went top 10. She lands coveted tour spots, like her current one opening arena shows for Keith Urban all the way into November.

Taylor Swift has revealed details of a new album, titled Midnights, which tells the stories of "13 sleepless nights" from throughout her life. The pop superstar first surprised fans with the announcement during a winner's speech in the closing moments of the MTV Video Music Awards, and later shared details on social media. Confirming the record will be released on 21 October, Swift shared what appears to be a cover photo, as well as a description of the music, writing: "We lie awake in love and in fear, in turmoil and in tears.

Taylor Swift dropped a bombshell at the 2022 MTV VMAs on Sunday - she would be releasing a  "brand new album" on 21 October 2022.MORE: Joe Alwyn opens up about relationship with Taylor Swift in very rare interviewThe news came out of the blue for fans as she shared the details at the end of her acceptance speech for the Video of the Year Award.WATCH: Taylor Swift reveals details of new album"I made up my mind that if you were this generous and give us this, I thought it might be a fun moment to tell you that my brand new album comes out October 21st," she said to screams in the stadium.Taylor then took to social media at midnight east coast time to reveal more information, including confirming that this would be an album of brand new material ,and not a rerecording of her previous work.MORE: Inside Taylor Swift's incredible $81m property portfolio: from New York to Nashville"Midnights, the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life, will be out October 21. Meet me at midnight," she shared on her website.The album will come almost a year after her last release, the rerecording of Grammy nominated album Red.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift surprised fans Sunday night with the announcement of an all-new album set to come out Oct. 26. The reveal came during her climactic speech at the MTV Video Music Awards, as she accepted an award for video of the year. “You guys, I’m just so proud of what we made, and I now that every second of this moment that we wouldn’t have been able to make this short film if it weren’t for you, the fans,” she said, accepting for “All Too Well (10-Minute Version).” “Because I wouldn’t be able to re-record my album [‘Red (Taylor’s Version),’ which included the winning song] if it weren’t for you. You emboldened me to do that. And I had sort of made up my mind that if you were going to be this generous and give us this, I thought it might be a fun moment to tell you that my brand-new album comes out October 21st. And I will tell you more at midnight.”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic If you live in Los Angeles and you sometimes feel the heat, congestion or cost of living making you wonder about greener pastures, you may keep a running checklist in the back of your mind of Reasons Never to Move Away. If you live in L.A. and you’re a fan of roots or Americana music, you may keep the monthly Watkins Family Hour shows at Largo on that checklist of reasons not to check out— because in what other city are you going to find such a reliable monthly gathering of the contemporary folk-rock tribe? For 20 years now (maybe 21 — no one thought to start a count in the early 2000s), Sean Watkins and Sara Watkins have been convening some of the top musicians in Southern California, especially those with an acoustic bent, to join them at Largo for (mostly) monthly shows that bring a sense of community to a town where that’s not always easy to find. The extent to which the small, clubby theater enforces its no-phones policy means that potential fans definitely hear about the shows through word-of-mouth, not word-of-video.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The Nashville Film Festival announced the full lineup Friday for a fall gathering of filmgoers in Music City that will begin with the Brandi Carlile-produced documentary “The Return of Tanya Tucker” as the gala opening on Sept. 29 and end with director Sacha Jenkins’ “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues” for closing night on Oct. 5. The 53rd annual edition of the festival will take place both in-person and virtually, with a selection of more than 150 films that includes 38 full-length features, about 30 of which will be world, North American or U.S. premieres. Although the virtual component continues to be strong for the festival, its leaders note that of the 150 or so films in the festival, more than 50 will screen for audiences in Nashville venues, starting with the Tanya Tucker doc, which will be seen in the historic main auditorium of the city’s beloved Belcourt Theater, one of the original homes of the Grand Ole Opry. Other locations include the Franklin Theater in the nearby city of that name, and the TPAC Andrew Johnson Theater in downtown Nashville.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Stepping into Muse frontman Matt Bellamy’s Los Angeles studio is immediately surreal, on a couple of different fronts. For one thing, there’s the fact that it’s in an unmarked former storefront on a heavily trafficked urban street, so on the other side of the one-way glass, pedestrians are constantly passing by, unaware that they’re about two yards away from a rock star coming up with new songs to potentially join “Madness” or ”Uprising” guy as new KROQ-driven earworms in their heads. But apart from the street scene outside practically brushing up against his console, there’s something else about the place… “I don’t know if you remember the TV show ‘Twin Peaks,’” Bellamy inquires. As a matter of fact, yes. “Do you remember the Red Room? We’re sitting in it, basically,” he says, and sure enough, here in the front room of his studio, there is the black-and-white zig-zag flooring, the wrap-around red drapes, the minimalist lamp, the vaguely retro sitting chair…. Bellamy is a student of fantastical pop culture, so it makes sense that he’s surrounded by a Lynchian throwback space — even if the rock arias he creates here passionately reach for the sky, rather than feeling like they’re stuck in an interdimensional waiting room.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The suspense over which album by the Beatles might be next in line to get a remix and bonus-filled boxed-set treatment is over: It’s officially “Revolver.” Apple Corps and Universal Music have confirmed that a deluxe celebration of the 1966 release — which, like the Beatle boxes that have preceded it, will include a Giles Martin remix — is in the pipeline for this fall. An official announcement of the project is not expected to come until some time in September, at which point details about the deluxe package’s contents and a release date will be forthcoming.