Lorde, Reneé Rapp, BigXThaPlug, Shaboozey, and All the Songs You Need to Know This Week
Welcome to our weekly rundown of the best new music — featuring big singles, key tracks from our favorite albums, and more. This week, Lorde returns with the intimate, banger-filled Virgin, Reneé Rapp shares another sexy, rock-tinged single, and BigXThaPlug links up with Shaboozey for a country-rap ode to their Southern roots. Plus, new music from Good Charlotte, Kesha, and Lizzo.
Lorde, 'Favourite Daughter' (YouTube)
More from Rolling Stone
Lorde Performs 'Virgin' in Full at Surprise Glastonbury Set
Reneé Rapp Gets That Her Boo Wants to Be 'Mad,' But Why?
Lorde's Fourth Album 'Virgin' Is Finally Here
Reneé Rapp, 'Mad' (YouTube)
BigXThaPlug, Shaboozey, 'Home' (YouTube)
Good Charlotte, 'Rejects' (YouTube)
Kesha, 'The One' (YouTube)
Lizzo feat. SZA, 'IRL' (YouTube)
Burna Boy, 'Don't Let Me Down' (YouTube)
Myke Towers, 'Expectativas' (YouTube)
Lewis Capaldi, 'Survive' (YouTube)
Kevin Abstract, '97 Jag' (YouTube)
Laufey, 'Lover Girl' (YouTube)
Katseye, 'Gameboy' (YouTube)
The Beaches, 'Touch Myself' (YouTube)
Kim Petras, 'Polo' (YouTube)
Infinity Song, 'London Foxes' (YouTube)
Gale, 'Sería Cool' (YouTube)
Isabella Lovestory, 'Vanity' (YouTube)
Between Friends, 'XD' (YouTube)
Adam Port, STRYV, and Malachiii, 'Positions' (YouTube)
Tchotcke, 'Poor Girl' (YouTube)
Sasha Keable 'Feel Something' (YouTube)
Frances Anderson, 'Don't Forget Me' (YouTube)
Noah Floersch, 'Somethin' Bout A Beer' (YouTube)
Santa Fe Klan, Saweetie, 'Locos' (YouTube)
Jae Stephens, 'Kiss It' (YouTube)
Carter Faith, 'Sex, Drugs, & Country Music' (YouTube)
Holly Blair, 'While I Have You Here' (YouTube)
Dave Hause, 'Enough Hope' (YouTube)
Fitz and the Tantrums, 'OK OK OK' (YouTube)
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San Francisco Chronicle
29 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Irish rap group Kneecap set to play at Glastonbury despite criticism from politicians
PILTON, England (AP) — Irish-language rap group Kneecap is set to perform Saturday at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the Terrorism Act with support a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November. He is on unconditional bail ahead of a further court hearing in August. The Belfast trio has been praised for invigorating the Irish-language cultural scene in Northern Ireland, but also criticized for lyrics laden with expletives and drug references and for political statements. The band draws, often satirically, on the language and imagery of the Irish republican movement and Northern Ireland's decades of violence. Videos have emerged allegedly showing the band shouting 'up Hamas, up Hezbollah' and calling on people to kill lawmakers. Members of the group say they don't support Hezbollah or Hamas, nor condone violence. They have accused critics of trying to silence the band because of their support for the Palestinian cause throughout the war in Gaza. Several Kneecap gigs have been canceled as a result of the controversy. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, when asked by a journalist, that it would not be 'appropriate' for the festival to give Kneecap a platform. Opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said the publicly funded BBC should not broadcast 'Kneecap propaganda.' The BBC, which airs many hours of Glastonbury performances, has not said whether it will show Kneecap's set. Some 200,000 ticket holders have gathered at Worthy Farm in southwest England for Britain's most prestigious summer music festival, which features almost 4,000 performers on 120 stages. Headline acts performing over three days ending Sunday include Neil Young, Charli XCX, Rod Stewart, Busta Rhymes, Olivia Rodrigo and Doechii. Glastonbury highlights on Friday included a performance from U.K. rockers The 1975, an unannounced set by New Zealand singer Lorde, a raucous reception for Gen X icon Alanis Morissette and an emotional return for Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi, two years after he took a break from touring to adjust to the impact of the neurological condition Tourette syndrome.
34 minutes ago
Irish rap group Kneecap set to play at Glastonbury despite criticism from politicians
PILTON, England -- Irish-language rap group Kneecap is set to perform Saturday at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the Terrorism Act with support a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November. He is on unconditional bail ahead of a further court hearing in August. The Belfast trio has been praised for invigorating the Irish-language cultural scene in Northern Ireland, but also criticized for lyrics laden with expletives and drug references and for political statements. The band draws, often satirically, on the language and imagery of the Irish republican movement and Northern Ireland's decades of violence. Videos have emerged allegedly showing the band shouting 'up Hamas, up Hezbollah' and calling on people to kill lawmakers. Members of the group say they don't support Hezbollah or Hamas, nor condone violence. They have accused critics of trying to silence the band because of their support for the Palestinian cause throughout the war in Gaza. Several Kneecap gigs have been canceled as a result of the controversy. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, when asked by a journalist, that it would not be 'appropriate' for the festival to give Kneecap a platform. Opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said the publicly funded BBC should not broadcast 'Kneecap propaganda.' The BBC, which airs many hours of Glastonbury performances, has not said whether it will show Kneecap's set. Some 200,000 ticket holders have gathered at Worthy Farm in southwest England for Britain's most prestigious summer music festival, which features almost 4,000 performers on 120 stages. Headline acts performing over three days ending Sunday include Neil Young, Charli XCX, Rod Stewart, Busta Rhymes, Olivia Rodrigo and Doechii. Glastonbury highlights on Friday included a performance from U.K. rockers The 1975, an unannounced set by New Zealand singer Lorde, a raucous reception for Gen X icon Alanis Morissette and an emotional return for Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi, two years after he took a break from touring to adjust to the impact of the neurological condition Tourette syndrome.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Lorde's new album 'Virgin' is messy, emotional, and perfectly suited for the moment
Lorde released her fourth studio album, "Virgin," on Friday. The lyrics are frank and transparent, tackling knotty topics like sex, drugs, and eating disorders. The album's themes reflect a cultural shift away from polish and toward authenticity. For most of us, the first words we heard come out of Lorde's mouth took the shape of a disavowal: "I've never seen a diamond in the flesh." Lorde wrote "Royals" in 30 minutes when she was 15 years old. Growing up in New Zealand, disillusioned with materialism and flex culture — especially in the US — she proudly cast herself as a distant observer. She saw, she understood, but she didn't participate. This posture resonated with millions. "Royals" topped the Billboard Hot 100, where it remained for nine weeks. The smash hit was later certified diamond and won two Grammy Awards, including song of the year. Lorde has spent much of her career being portrayed as elusive and infallible by fans and media outlets alike. She tends to release an album every four years, and in between, she retreats from the spotlight. Even her stage name (Lorde's real name is Ella Yelich-O'Connor) evokes an office that's separate and superior. But a lot has changed since "Royals" was released as a single in 2013, just a few years after Instagram was launched. At the time, the platform was generally used for sharing one perfectly posed (and heavily filtered) photo at a time. Now, Instagram timelines look much less curated, with the savviest social media enthusiasts sharing unrefined "photo dumps" and spontaneous Instagram Stories instead. Pop culture has tilted dramatically in favor of relatability, transparency, and authenticity, too. Consumers no longer demand polish, poise, or aloof nonchalance from celebrities. "Mess is in," DJ Louie XIV, music critic and host of the Pop Pantheon podcast, recently told me while discussing the state of pop music. Several of last year's biggest hits corroborate his thesis: Taylor Swift embraced chaos and lust in writing "The Tortured Poets Department," and it became the best-selling album of her career. Chappell Roan canceled concerts, shared off-the-cuff videos on TikTok, scolded photographers on red carpets, and then won best new artist at the Grammys. Charli XCX's summer-defining album "Brat" — which the singer described as "my flaws, my fuck ups, my ego all rolled into one" — offers perhaps the clearest example of how this aesthetic has taken over. "Even Charli's outfits are tattered. She can't sing except in autotune. The whole album is about emotional messiness," Louie said. Charli XCX even recruited Lorde for a remix of the track "Girl, So Confusing," to hash out their long-simmering tension in real time. For the new wave of pop stars, he added, fans "seeing the seams is a plus." Lorde has surely noticed this trend because there's plenty of mess in her fourth album, "Virgin," released on Friday. Gone is the detached, enigmatic attitude from Lorde's debut album, when she insisted, "I'm kind of over getting told to throw my hands up in the air, so there." Now, she won't only throw her hands up, but she'll admit to getting them dirty, just like the rest of us. Lorde has said that "Virgin" represents a sort of rebirth — a newfound willingness to follow her gut and experience the world without a protective veil. The album's 11 tracks tackle an array of knotty topics, from enjoying unprotected sex ("Clearblue") and yearning for her mother's approval ("Favourite Daughter") to dabbling with drugs ("What Was That") and struggling with an eating disorder ("Broken Glass"). Lorde's honest lyricism is punctuated with palpable details: a discarded at-home pregnancy test, a dead uncle whom she resembles, blown-up pupils, and rotting teeth. These images make her life feel real and human. "Mystique is dead," she sings bluntly. This is not to say Lorde has never used personal details in her music. However, her last two albums, "Melodrama" and "Solar Power," offered confessions often cloaked in self-conscious theatrics, metaphor, or irony. When Lorde sang, "I can't feel a thing / I keep looking at my mood ring / Tell me how I'm feeling" in the 2021 single "Mood Ring," she was poking fun at the cult of wellness and the blonde caricature she adopted in the music video. By contrast, when she sings, "Take an aura picture, read it, and tell me who I am" in the new album's opening track, "Hammer," it's clear that she's disclosing a raw moment of self-doubt. (And her habit of taking aura photos in New York City's Chinatown is well-documented.) Lorde's "Virgin" co-producer, Jim-E Stack, told GQ how the duo intentionally added sounds that felt raw or jarring to reflect the author's mindset. With AI and modern technology, he pointed out, it's easy for artists to make perfect-sounding records with no hiccups or texture. And when it comes to art, easy usually translates to boring. "That is what's exciting in music right now, and where innovation is happening: People channeling their imperfections and saying stuff that's a little scary," Stack told the publication. "There [are] definitely songs on Ella's record that are like, 'Whoa, can you say this as a pop star?'" He was right to be concerned; a lesser artist wouldn't be able to pull it off. But Lorde can, she should — and she did. Read the original article on Business Insider
