FEATURE:
Music Isn’t Cancelled
IN THIS PHOTO: Fiona Apple in 2012/PHOTO CREDIT: Sebastian Kim for Interview
Albums in Lockdown/April Albums to Own
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THIS challenging period must…
IN THIS IMAGE: Dua Lipa
be heartbreaking for artists who were due to release their albums round about now and have to put it out into the world without being able to promote as heavily and openly as they’d hoped. Nobody could realistically have seen the coronavirus pandemic coming, so there hasn’t been the time to time to delay things and reschedule. I am going to put links to albums that are due out this month, so that you can see how artists are carrying on and keeping strong. That is the thing right now: music isn’t cancelled, it is merely having to take a bit of a different approach. Whilst gigs are cancelled and there are fewer events taking place this year, there are albums arriving and plenty to look forward to. Newer artists are, as I have said before, finding ways to deliver new music to fans; there are streamed gigs and many of us are spending more time around music than we otherwise would. I am going to mention Dua Lipa a couple of times this weekend but, as Future Nostalgia came out on 27th March, she had to release this huge album whilst in lockdown – an experience a lot of other are going to face in the next few weeks. Dua Lipa was interviewed by the BBC about releasing an album whilst in lockdown:
“Four weeks ago, Dua Lipa flew back to London after playing Sydney's Mardi Gras to discover her flat had flooded.
The singer-songwriter rented an Airbnb while the repairs were carried out. Now, she and her boyfriend are stuck there for the duration of the lockdown.
"I'm really enjoying it," she tells the BBC over the phone. "I'm doing stuff that I don't normally get the chance to do, just sleeping in and reading a book and catching up on TV shows."
Sleeping in wasn't supposed be on the agenda this month.
Dua's second album, Future Nostalgia, was primed for release at the start of April, and her diary for the rest of 2020 was packed - with a world tour, a Glastonbury slot and an appearance on Saturday Night Live all scheduled for the coming weeks.
But while artists like Lady Gaga, Sam Smith and Haim have delayed their albums due to the coronavirus, Dua chose to bring hers forward, giving it to fans a week earlier than planned.
It wasn't an easy decision. The star was in tears as she announced the news in a YouTube livestream, not least because the album had leaked online (a situation she later described as "a pain in the arse").
Ultimately, she thinks it was better to set the record free instead of worrying about the "perfect" release strategy.
"I made this album to get away from any pressures and anxieties and opinions from the outside world," she says.
"Yes, it was made to be listened out in the clubs and at festivals - but at the same time, I wanted to give people some happiness during this time, where they don't have to think about what's going on and just shut off and dance”.
One can understand why artists like Sam Smith and Lady Gaga have delayed albums that were due out very soon; other artists are choosing to keep album release dates set, as they want to give fans a treat at these hard times.
IN THIS PHOTO: Lady Gaga/PHOTO CREDIT: Christopher Polk/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank
Whilst it is difficult for the artists and this is not what they envisaged when they finished their album, it is admirable that there are still some great albums to look forward to this month. One album that I am really looking forward to is Fetch the Bolt Cutters by Fiona Apple. I am a big fan of hers and, following from 2012’s The Idler Wheel…, this is a record so many people have been waiting for – you just know her latest is going to be extraordinary. This NME report shed more light:
“Fiona Apple has finally revealed the release date for her new album ‘Fetch The Bolt Cutters’ after weeks of teasing, and it’s coming sooner than you might have thought.
‘Fetch The Bolt Cutters’ will be released on Friday April 17, which is just over two weeks from today (April 2). It will be Apple’s first full length album in eight years, following 2012’s ‘The Idler Wheel…’
She confirmed that the album was complete earlier this month, revealing so using American sign language in a video posted to the same fansite.
Earlier this week, she teased that she thought she should release it soon in a video posted on Twitter by her friend Zelda Hallman.
In a recent interview with The New Yorker, Apple revealed a selection of song titles from the album, including: ‘Newspaper, ‘On I Go’, ‘The Drumset Is Gon’, ‘Rack of Hi’, ‘Kick Me Under the Table’, ‘Ladies’, ‘For Her’, Fetch the Bolt Cutters’, ‘Shameka’, ‘Heavy Balloon’ and ‘I Want You to Love Me’”.
Aside from Fiona Apple’s new album, there are other records that are worth checking out. On Friday (10th April). The Strokes release The New Abnormal and it is an album that I urge you to buy. Rina Sawayama’s Sawayama is also out that week, and you can pre-order here. Sawayama spoke with Pitchfork recently about her upcoming album:
“SAWAYAMA is also her most personal work yet, a warts-and-all chronicle of the British-Japanese singer’s own story that includes several songs about her parents and her attempts to forgive them. Rina spent months delving into her family’s history while writing songs for the album, pestering her grandparents to share tales of her dad as a child and even flying to Japan to corner her mother with uncomfortable questions.
The songs on SAWAYAMA gleam, strut, and thrash as they take on themes of forgiveness, legacy, and generational trauma. “Making the album so dramatic helped satirize the whole thing and make it feel a little bit lighter, in a weird way,” she says. “It’s kinda like drag, where you’re making so much light and humor out of something that is so painful.” Rina helped produce nearly every song, adding choir vocals and electronic shimmers to make them that much more sweeping.
While much of the album is rooted in Rina’s past, some tracks are anchored by small coincidences. Swaggering single “Comme des Garçons (Like the Boys),” which sends up male privilege, was originally inspired by a conversation she had about the arrogance of would-be presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke. Rina wrote the heart-tugging highlight “Bad Friend” after checking Facebook for the first time in a while and seeing that a formerly close friend had a new baby. The track details a trip they took to Tokyo in 2012, when they got drunk and danced naked to Carly Rae Jepsen in a karaoke booth. It was ultimately produced by Kyle Shearer, whose resume includes work with Carly Rae Jepsen—“which is wild,” Rina says, shaking her head. “Just what are the fucking chances?”.
On 24th April, Brendan Benson releases Dear Life. I love the songwriting of Benson and, away from The Raconteurs (the band includes former White Stripe Jack White), it is nice to hear him alone – one gets something very personal and engrossing. Here are some more details:
“There's something about this record,” Benson says, describing his Third Man Records debut album DEAR LIFE. “A friend of mine called it ‘life-affirming.’ I thought it was a joke at first but then realized, well, it’s about life and death for sure. I don’t know if that’s positive or optimistic or whatever, but that's what's going on with me.”
Brendan Benson finds himself in an enviable spot as he enters the third decade of a remarkably creative, consistently idiosyncratic career – an accomplished frontman, musician, songwriter, producer, band member, husband, and dad. Benson’s seventh solo album, and first new LP in almost seven years, DEAR LIFE is this consummate polymath’s most inventive and upbeat work thus far, an 11- track song cycle about life, love, family, fatherhood, and the pure joy of making music.
Produced and almost entirely performed by Benson at his own Readymade Studio in Nashville, the album sees the Michigan-born, Nashville-based artist – and co-founder, with Jack White, of The Raconteurs – reveling in a more modernist approach than ever before, fueled by a heady brew of cannabis, hip-hop, and a newly discovered interest in software drum programming.
There are a few other April-due albums that have been pushed back, and I think it is admirable that artists like Brendon Benson and Fiona Apple are releasing material at this difficult time. Although many artists’ touring plans have changed, we can still look forward to gigs and albums later in the year. It is a challenging time, and one where we need to support musicians more than ever,. Try and buy as many albums you can, and keep an eye out for more new releases. Whilst you can see what is being released in April, things might change - so make sure you keep your eyes peeled. I, and many other people, are thankful that artists are putting stuff out now, as they have to see their album go out into the world whilst in lockdown. Music continues on and, whilst we look around for which cool new albums are out, it is so encouraging that artists are…
PHOTO CREDIT: @annietheby/Unsplash
GIVING fans a real gift.