Huge New Music Week - New Drake, Quinn XCII, Kings of Leon, Silk Sonic, Beyonce, Chance The Rapper, Kings of Leon, Kaskade, and More.

MONSTER week for new music this past week. And another huge one this week with The Grammy's coming up Sunday. I'll have a Grammy's preview this week but for now, dive in with all new all genres, and another new featured Motown playlist I put together-

 

And the updated New New list

POP

- The newly announced project from Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak, Silk Sonic, dropped their first single. And it's a fuckin jam. 

This track turns the dial down with a smooth slow jam, not unlike past songs from Mars like “Versace on the Floor” or “That’s What I Like”.

- Performers for this week's Grammy Awards have been announced. BTS, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, HAIM, Harry Styles, Post Malone, Bad Bunny, Brandi Carlile, Miranda Lambert, Brittany Howard, Chris Martin, DaBaby, Lil Baby, and John Mayer are all scheduled to perform. 

-- Detroit's Quinn XCII released his new album Change Of Scenery II and its good, not great. Him and his producer aYo recorded it in Newport over this past summer, and it's apparent with the guitar filled sound that emanates throughout the tracklist. It has a nice "island vibe" to it. It starts off really strong but kind of dies midway through. Highlight tracks for me are “Sit Next To Me”, “SOS”, and “Hey, Goodbye.”

- Beyoncé has released a stirring medley tribute to Lyric Chanel, a 13-year-old girl who died on Friday after years of battling brain cancer and anaplastic ependymoma. As Complex pointed out, Lyric caught Bey’s attention last year with a video singing one of her hit songs. 

-- Biebs released another single off his upcoming album Justice. This one titled 

-- Charli XCX and the 1975 joined No Rome for a new song, “Spinning”

-- Nick Jonas hosted SNL and debuted two new songs- "Spaceman" 

and "This Is Heaven"

ROCK

- Kings of Leon released their new album When You See Yourself

The 11-song effort is the Nashville-bred band’s first full-length since 2016’s WALLS. They previewed the album with three singles — “The Bandit”, “100,000 People”, and “Echoing” — but the most compelling aspect of the rollout process had nothing to do with the sound of the music (which is quite good).

Last week, right before release, the group announced that they were going to be the first band to ever release an entire album in NFT form — that’s a “non-fungible token” for those who aren’t aware. (More on this in a follow-up blog later today)

-- Grace VanderWaal released another banger, "Don't Assume What You Don't Know"

- The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run an animated adventure out on Paramount+, now too has the soundtrack been released to music platforms, and with it comes new music from Weezer, The Flaming Lips, and more. .

Out via NEON16/Interscope Records, the SpongeBob Movie OST features nine tracks written specifically for the film. That includes Weezer’s bopping “It’s Always Sunny in Bikini Bottom” (“It’s always summer in Bikini Bottom/ Even in December, we’re singing la-di-da-da”) and Flaming Lips’ quirky ode to Gary the Snail, “Snail: I’m Avail” (“You won’t mistake me for a whale/ Just refuse to let us fail/ Wag my shell like it’s a tail/ Pretty fast for a snail”).

Other contributions come from Tainy and J Balvin (“Agua”); Swae Lee, Tyga, and Lil Mosey (“Krabby Step”); and Snoop Dogg with Monsta X (“How We Do”). There’s also the new single from Becky G, Tainy, and Trevor Daniel, “F Is for Friend”, and a Kenny G ballad called “Gary’s Song”.

-- Alannis Morisette dropped a new record featured in her hit musical, titled "Predator". It's the original demo version of the song, from Jagged Little Pill The Musical.

The song, one of two new tracks Alanis wrote for the musical, was performed by Kathryn Gallagher and the cast in the stage show and featured on the show's soundtrack. The demo version features Alanis' vocals.

- Dirty Honey announced their debut album and shared “California Dreamin'”

- Evanescence dropped a new record, the single “Better Without You”

RAP

- Drake released his second Scary Hours EP. It serves as a follow-up to his 2018 EP of the same name. I blogged all about it when it dropped Friday night.

- Chance the Rapper is back with a new single called “The Heart and the Tongue” and it comes with an introspective music video filmed during the quarantine. 

- Tyler, the Creator dropped his new Coca-Cola commercial song “Tell Me How”

- SZA scored her first Top 10 hit as a solo artist with “Good Days”, and now she released the song’s music video which she directed herself. The five-minute clip features a preview of her next single, “Shirt”, at the end.

- Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats Drop UNLOCKED 1.5 Remix EP. The project is a reworking of their 2020 joint EP and features Joey Bada$$, Smino, Benny the Butcher, and more-

- D'Angelo put on a solo Verzuz performance where he headed to Harlem’s Apollo Theater, performing live solo before inviting artists like H.E.R., Method Man and Redman onstage. While the multitalent didn't directly face-off with another artist, per the Verzuz standard, it was still a night to remember.

EDM

-- Duck Sauce dropped their first original of 2021, ‘Ask Me’

--  Tommy Trash and Daisy Guttridge have broken hau5trap ground, inaugurating the house hub sub label with “hiiigh.”

- DJ Snake and Selena Gomez’s collaborated once again, with a hot new track "Selfish Love"

-- Kaskade has released the final single from Reset, his first EP of the year and first-ever EP to be released via Monstercat. Reset‘s finale, “Miles To Go,” features Ella Vos

-- The boys from Loud Luxury, Ship Wrek, and GASHI came together for a new electric single, ‘Amnesia’

-- Sultan + Shepard issue final ‘Something, Everything’ single, ‘White Lies’

-- Major Lazer released ‘Diplomatico’

- What So Not released his sought-after mashup of Kendrick Lamar ‘Money Trees’ and Mura Masa’s ‘Lotus Eater’

COUNTRY

- We releasing summer jams, Walker Hayes? An early summer is welcomed.

- Thomas Rhett is yet another artist putting in work with a double album, first one being released April 30th. Here are two new singles…

- Luke Bryan gets the heartbreak going with "Drink a Little Whiskey Down". The man is on fire.

- Miranda Lambert's new project is set to drop May 7 and is supposed to be raw and unproduced. Miranda said about the project, "You can hear the wind blowing, the cows mooing." First taste with "In His Arms"

- Brett Young released "You Got Away With It"

Thanks Jeff

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