New This Week: Albert Hammond Jr. // Gwenno // Grimes
This week we couldn’t quite catch up with all the new music, but here are two albums we enjoyed. More is coming next week.
Albert Hammond Jr. – Momentary Masters
Albert Hammond Jr.’s second album sounds much like the Strokes but Julian Casablancas’ baritone and snarl is dearly missed. (Apple Music, Spotify).
Gwenno – Y Dydd Olaf
If you like vocals but find lyrics distracting, this album is for you (unless you are one of 557 people who master the Cornish language). But there’s nothing folk about this record: Gwenno delivers excellent electro pop on Y Dydd Olaf. (Apple Music, Spotify)
Grimes
There’s still no name or firm date for Grimes’ forth album, but you’ll find a good deal of information about it in this feature by The Fader.
More
Streaming music for a low monthly price is still controversial, even though, with Apple having entered this market too, it is probably not going away anyway soon. Newsweek asked 12 indie musicians about their take on this topic. Many take a pragmatic approach, such as Mackenzie Scott aka Torres:
I think that avenues such as licensing, having songs placed in TV and film and all of that [are necessary to make money from music]. And I think that expectations just have to be readjusted for people in this industry.
Or Sadie Depuis of Speedy Ortiz:
I mean, it’d be great to make money off all that streaming! But I have to assume that a lot of our record sales are a direct result of streaming, so I think it balances out.
What “If Male Musicians Were Described The Same Way As Female Musicians”, asks Headstuff. Then we would have beautiful quotes like:
Known to all as Taylor Swift’s best friend and Laura Sheeran’s younger cousin, Ed Sheeran has had a busy year.
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