Vonda Shepard Returns With Soul-Searching New Album and a Lasting Appreciation for 25 Years of ‘Ally’

Billie and Greg Shepherd are left speechless on Wednesday's Billie and Greg: The Family Diaries as they see their new kitchen for the first time at their £1.4m Essex mansion. The former The Only Way Is Essex star, 32, and her husband Greg, 37, purchased the property back in 2020 and have had it completely transformed over the past two years.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic If Kid Cudi is indeed retiring his rapper persona, as strongly indicated in recent interviews, Monday night might have served as an early farewell party of sorts.  At a special screening at the Netflix Tudum Theater in Hollywood, the star was all smiles as he answered questions and celebrated the release of “Entergalactic,” the new animated Netflix special that serves as a kind of filmic companion piece to Cudi’s new album of the same name.  “I’m just overwhelmed, you know?” Cudi, who created, starred in, and executive-produced the project, said immediately after the screening, sitting next to the film’s director, Fletcher Moules. “The past week has been really exciting to see the reviews, see the response. We’ve been working on this thing for three years, man.” 

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The word “contested” shows up a lot lately in singer-songwriter Elizabeth Chan’s world, as she made headlines this summer for going to court to try to ensure that Mariah Carey is not legally granted sole possession of the “Queen of Christmas” tag, which has also been applied to her. But there’s at least one aspect of what Chan does that will likely continue to go unchallenged. With her 12th album, “12 Months of Christmas,” coming out this week, Chan further breaks her own record for having the most all-original Christmas albums in circulation of any nationally established pop artist. Although “most Christmas albums” is not the sort of record where Santa is keeping an official list and checking it twice — nor the Guinness Book, for that matter — it seems safe to say that no one else is even close when it comes to self-penned, all-new Yuletide collections, thanks to the one-a-year pace established by Chan, the only nationally recognized artist who does nothing but Christmas albums.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The top spots on the respective U.S. album and singles charts remain as they were last week, with Bad Bunny holding the No. 1 slot on the Billboard 200 for a 13th non-consecutive week and Steve Lacy claiming the top song for a second week in a row. No surprises there, but at least there was some fresh blood in the No. 2 positions. A new album from hard rock veterans Slipknot debuted in second place. And on the Billboard Hot 100, a duet by Sam Smith and Kim Petras, “Unholy,” showed surprising strength in moving up to No. 2 after debuting well one spot behind that last week. Billboard points out that Bad Bunny is within striking distance of a record on the album chart, or at least a recent record. His 13 weeks on top with “Un Verano Sin Ti” have the album tied for the most weeks spent by an album at No. 1 in the last decade; he’s currently on par with Drake’s “Views” and the “Frozen” soundtrack. If he reaches No. 1 next week, he’ll singular own the record for most weeks spent on top over the last 10 years. But if we go back more than a decade, he still has a way to go to surpass Adele’s “21,” which spent 24 nonconsecutive weeks leading the chart in 2011-12.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift kept the “Midnights” oil going once again with the late-night revelation of yet another new song, with an explanation of its subject matter to match. But this time, indications are that she may keep going into the wee hours and not just call it a night at 12:02 a.m. The new song Swift revealed and talked about as the clock struck 12 on the east coast is “Lavender Haze.” About the song, Swift said in a video message on Instagram: “Track 1 on ‘Midnights’ is ‘Lavender Haze,’ and I happened upon the phrase ‘lavender haze’ when I was watching ‘Mad Men.’ And I looked it up because I thought it sounded cool, and it turns out that it’s a common phrase used in the fifties where they would just describe being in love. Like, if you were in the lavender haze, you were in that all-encompassing love glow… and I thought that was really beautiful. And I guess theoretically, when you’re in the lavender haze, you’ll do anything to stay there and not let people bring you down off of that cloud. And I think a lot of people have to deal with this now, not just like ‘public figures.’ because we live in the era of social media, and if the world finds out that you’re in love with somebody, they’re going to weigh in on it. Like my relationship for six years: we’ve had to dodge weird rumors, tabloid stuff, and we just ignore it. So this song is about ignoring that stuff to protect the real stuff. I hope you guys like it.”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Shortly after announcing that next summer’s tour would be the last one for Dead and Company, the group has announced the full schedule of dates for that farewell outing, with tickets set to go on sale a week from Friday. The tour will begin with a two-night stand at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum May 19-20 and end — perhaps not surprisingly — in San Francisco, at Oracle Park, where this offshoot of the Grateful Dead will call it a night after final gigs set to take place there July 14-15. Nineteen cities are on the agenda in all, with two-nighters set for Chicago, New York City, Saratoga Springs, NY, and George, Wa. in addition to San Francisco and L.A. Barring any added dates, Boulder is the one city due to get a three-night stand, scheduled for July 1-3. Including those multi-night runs, the total number of shows scheduled for summer 2023 comes to 27. See the full lineup of concerts below.

Thania Garcia Depeche Mode has returned to unveil a new album, “Memento Mori,” and accompanying tours of North America and Europe, all to kick off next year. The forthcoming album will be the band’s 15th studio effort and their first release since the death in May of founding member and keyboardist Andy “Fletch” Fletcher. “We started work on this project early in the pandemic, and its themes were directly inspired by that time,” said Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore. “After Fletch’s passing, we decided to continue as we’re sure this is what he would have wanted, and that has really given the project an extra level of meaning.” Dave Gahan added, “Fletch would have loved this album. We’re really looking forward to sharing it with you soon, and we can’t wait to present it to you live at the shows next year.”

Depeche Mode have announced their 15th studio album, ‘Memento Mori’, and detailed a world tour for 2023.During a press conference in Berlin today (October 4), frontman Dave Gahan and main songwriter Martin Gore previewed a piece of music from their upcoming LP, which they’ve been recording in Santa Barbara, California.The pair are due to head to New York following the event to finish working on the James Ford-produced new record.“We’re quite far into it now, the actual recording process,” Gore explained. “We’ve got all of the tracks finished for the album, without them being mixed.”Gahan said that Depeche Mode had begun writing the material “a couple of years back”, before eventually reuniting in the studio this summer.A “memento mori” is an object that’s kept as a reminder of the inevitability of death – a skull, for example.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Until now completely circumspect about any of the content or even tone of her forthcoming album, “Midnights,” Taylor Swift revealed the theme of one of the collection’s new tunes, “Anti-Hero,” describing it as “a real guided tour throughout all the things that I tend to hate about myself.” Swift also said that she “struggle(s) a lot with the idea that my life has become unmanageably sized… I struggle with the idea of not feeling like a person.” The pop superstar made the statements about “one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written” in a video posted on Instagram. It was part of her “Midnights Mayhem With Me” one-by-one rollout of the 13 song titles from the album. Although it’s the sixth song title she’s revealed in this manner, it represents the first time she’s followed the title reveal with any discussion about the track.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Ashley McBryde, one of the premium-grade country stars of the 21st century, is at the point in her career where many country stars would be playing it safer than ever. She’s in-between the second and third releases in her album cycle, a time when many would be most fixated on grabbing for the brass ring. Instead, she’s got brass balls, opting instead to put out a beautifully quirky concept album full of guest singers and co-writers called “Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville.” Please pardon the minor vulgarity in the preceding paragraph, but that’s partly the after-effect of listening to “Lindeville,” a character-driven set of songs whose protagonists tend to be on the straight-talking side, to the point of definitely including a few songs you will never hear on country radio. But “going for adds” is the furthest thing from the mind of an album that takes place entirely in a fictional small town where virtue is rarely the thing being modeled, and where even the local dogs are a little embarrassed about the array of sins they’ve witnessed.

EXCLUSIVE: Fox Soul, the Black community’s premiere free streaming platform, announced today its new and returning shows coming this fall. In addition to the entertainment platform’s current line-up—talk, celebrity news, reality, faith, and informational—Fox Soul is expanding its content to include music,  sports and finance programming.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Brandi Carlile’s IMAX livecast Wednesday evening couldn’t have been better timed in the calendar year, coming just a few days after the equinox. A nationwide live simulcast on IMAX screens pretty much demands a universal start time of 6 p.m. PT/9 ET,  a time frame that, in the last week of September, means a 90-minute show being shot outdoors on a ridge overlooking L.A. will start sunny and end with a dark sky and the basin at its twinkliest. Cinematographers everywhere couldn’t have asked the movie gods for a more compliant dusk than the one Carlile and her band and filmmaking team got. She’s having her own magic hour, of course … definitely not to be confused with a twilight, in her case. The Carlile album that came out just about a year ago, “In These Silent Days,” carried on its Grammy-winning predecessor’s success in further establishing her as America’s troubadour du jour in the classic singer-songwriter vein. Now she’s celebrating that anniversary with a deluxe edition that includes a separate, all-new rendering of the album, titled “In the Canyon Haze,” featuring re-arrangements meant to invoke the spirit of early ‘70s Laurel Canyon folk-rock just as blatantly as the altered title suggests. There’s something almost ironically contrary about marrying the new record’s intimacy to giant screens — Lookout Mountain meets “Attack of the 50-Foot Woman”? — but with a little bit of help, maybe, from the spirits of the hippie holler, it worked.

Bruce Springsteen has announced his new album, ‘Only The Strong Survive’ – listen to his cover of Frank Wilson’s ‘Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)’ below.After teasing the announcement yesterday (September 28), Springsteen has now confirmed that his next record, billed as a collection of “15 soul music greats”, will be released on November 11 via Columbia (pre-order here).In an announcement video shared this afternoon (September 29) that you can watch below, Springsteen told his fans that the record will celebrate an array of soul music classics from such catalogues as Motown, Gamble and Huff and Stax.“I wanted to make an album where I just sang,” Springsteen said. “And what better music to work with than the great American songbook of the Sixties and Seventies?“I’ve taken my inspiration from Levi Stubbs, David Ruffin, Jimmy Ruffin, the Iceman Jerry Butler, Diana Ross, Dobie Gray and Scott Walker, among many others. I’ve tried to do justice to them all — and to the fabulous writers of this glorious music.“My goal is for the modern audience to experience its beauty and joy, just as I have since I first heard it.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor With lead vocals by Springsteen, “Only The Strong Survive” features songs from the catalogs of Motown and Stax Records, the songwriting duo of Gamble and Huff and more. This album, Springsteen’s 21st studio outing, will also feature guest vocals by soul great Sam Moore, as well as contributions from the E Street Horns, string arrangements by Rob Mathes, and backing vocals by Soozie Tyrell, Lisa Lowell, Michelle Moore, Curtis King Jr., Dennis Collins and Fonzi Thornton. Bruce Springsteen commented: “I wanted to make an album where I just sang. And what better music to work with than the great American songbook of the Sixties and Seventies? I’ve taken my inspiration from Levi Stubbs, David Ruffin, Jimmy Ruffin, the Iceman Jerry Butler, Diana Ross, Dobie Gray, and Scott Walker, among many others. I’ve tried to do justice to them all—and to the fabulous writers of this glorious music. My goal is for the modern audience to experience its beauty and joy, just as I have since I first heard it. I hope you love listening to it as much as I loved making it.”

Paramore are back with new music and details of an album due early next year. The band, led by Hayley Williams alongside Taylor York and Zac Farro, will release This Is Why on February 10 with the album title track streaming from today. There's a video for the song, too, directed by Turnstile's Brendan Yates.

Samia has announced details of her second album. ‘Honey’ will come out next year and is being previewed by first single ‘Kill Her Freak Out’.The record follows the New York-via-Nashville singer-songwriter’s 2020 debut album ‘The Baby’ and last year’s ‘Scout’ EP. It’s due on January 27, 2023 via Grand Jury.Of the new single, Samia said in a statement: “I wrote ‘Kill Her Freak Out’ at my loneliest and most delusional.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic A live album by Barbra Streisand that had originally been planned as her debut album in 1962, “Barbra Streisand — Live at the Bon Soir,” will finally get a release, 60 years after it was first penciled in as her recorded bow. At 24 songs, the set is undoubtedly much longer than what would have come out if Columbia had issued the live album six decades ago, as was first the plan. It comes out Nov. 4, 60 years to the week after Streisand’s shows at the Bon Soir club in Greenwich Village were recorded Nov. 4-6, 1962, just a little over a month after the 20-year-old theatrical sensation signed her Columbia deal. Ultimately the idea of releasing a live album as her debut was scrapped in favor of a 1963 studio recording, “The Barbra Streisand Album,” that had her recording 11 songs that were part of her nightclub repertoire. That decision is hard to second-guess, as her first album went on to win the Grammy for album of the year.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic After being with Mercury Nashville since the beginning of her recording career in the early 1990s, Shania Twain has a new label home, Republic Nashville, and a new song and video to go with the switch — “Waking Up Dreaming,” her first official single in five years. It’s not just a new label for her — it’s a new label to everyone, as Twain’s statement about the signing established that she is the debut artist for Republic Nashville, a division of Republic Records. “I couldn’t think of a better partner than Republic Nashville,” Twain said. “I’m honored and excited to be the label’s first artist and lead the charge of this new and exciting chapter. In this respect, it feels like a new beginning all around, and I’m embracing it wholeheartedly.”

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.