Latest news with #PrettyUgly
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Zara Larsson Doesn't Want Summer to End on New Song ‘Midnight Sun'
Swedish pop singer Zara Larsson has shared a new song, 'Midnight Sun,' which will serve as the title track from her upcoming fourth album, out Sept. 26. 'Midnight Sun' teeters the between ebullient and delirious, with production that nods to frenetic house breakbeats, serene trance synths, and big tent EDM build-ups. Larsson's vocals and lyrics, meanwhile, give the track pop gem of the summer potential: 'It's the midnight sun, kissed skin under the red sky,' she sings on the chorus, 'Laying on your chest like this/Hold me like the pebbles in your hand, initials in the sand/Summer isn't over yet.' More from Rolling Stone Zara Larsson Gets Glammed Up to Get Down and Dirty in 'Pretty Ugly' Video Tate McRae Prepares for Massive 2025 With Album, Tour Announcement How Dolphin Memes Revived a 7-Year-Old Zara Larsson, Clean Bandit Classic In a statement, Larsson said 'Midnight Sun' was inspired by the long summer days in Sweden where 'the sun never goes down.' She added, 'I wanted the whole album to feel like it's a summer night and it never ends. And it doesn't matter if it's December: the summer night will be there for you. It's waiting for you, it will come back for you, and you will come back for it.' This is the second song Larsson has shared from Midnight Sun, following 'Pretty Ugly,' which arrived back in April. Larsson recorded her new album over the lat year working with frequent collaborator MNEK, along with producers Margo XS and Zhone. Of the album, Larsson added, 'Throughout Midnight Sun, I get to just capture that total Scandinavian vibe, which is something that I have grown up with — it's a huge part of me, my happiest memories and my saddest ones, too. A part of my soul is a Swedish summer night. This record encompasses that, how life is so beautiful it makes you cry. It just feels like me—knowing myself, this album is just really, really me. And also. No one can do me the way I can.' Midnight Sun will follow Larsson's 2024 album, Venus. She's set to hit the road later this summer, providing support for Tate McRae on her headlining tour, which kicks off Aug. 4 in Vancouver and wraps Sept. 27 in Los Angeles. After that, Larsson will embark on a headlining European run of her own in October. Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked
The Guardian
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Add to playlist: Kashus Culpepper's ‘southern sounds' and the week's best new tracks
From AlabamaRecommended if you like Luke Combs, Tony Joe White, Charles BradleyUp next Supporting Leon Bridges in the US Kashus Culpepper's story has something of the Hollywood movie about it. A former firefighter who went on to enlist in the US Navy, he only picked up a guitar five years ago to entertain his fellow troops when they were locked down in barracks during the pandemic. On his return to the US, he began working for a cement company while posting clips of covers and his own songs to social media: one attracted the attention of Samuel L Jackson, who reposted it to his 9 million followers. Within a few months, Culpepper had both a record deal and a co-sign from another navy veteran, country star Zach Bryan. By the end of last year, Culpepper was performing at Nashville's legendary Grand Ole Opry. It's obvious why his career has been fast-tracked. The handful of songs he's released so far take a smart, often witty route through the classic Nashville topics of romantic despair, boozing and the struggles of everyday life, performed in a style he classifies as 'southern sounds', based on 'the music in the cars on the freeway, in the restaurants and in the churches' in his home town of Alexander City, Alabama. More traditional and rootsy than the current wave of country-pop, it flits between country, blues, soul, folk and southern rock, occasionally over the course of a single song, as on 2024's Out of My Mind. Most importantly, Culpepper has an incredible voice: raw, vulnerable, the product of an upbringing in a Baptist church. He's referred to his approach to performance as 'singing like it's my last day on Earth', but his future looks assured. Alexis Petridis SL – Paranoia The balaclava'd south London MC has such endearingly musical inflections to his raps – quizzical then crestfallen – even when slowly rolling through a brooding, smoke-filled track like this. Durand Jones & the Indications – Flower Moon The classic soul revivalists' drummer Aaron Frazer takes the lead vocal here, with doo-wop levels of harmonised romance over a funk backing as crisp yet soft as a hearthside rug. Zara Larsson – Pretty Ugly Reminiscent of glorious high-street-nightclub trash such as Hollaback Girl, Like a G6 and Christina Aguilera's Dirty, the Swede's return has the dizzy buzz of a Wednesday-evening round of shots. Full of Hell – Knight's Oath Relatively clean and accessible business here from the returning grindcore band – which is to say that despite the big, bright riffing, it's still got its fair share of hellacious screaming. Kara-Lis Coverdale – Freedom Trumpet lines wobble in heat haze and French horns sound hopeful notes through an almost tropically lush wall of strings and synthesised sound: another imaginative work by the Montreal composer. Quadeca – Monday Once a YouTuber and video-game commentator, then a rapper and now a singer-songwriter, Quadeca tries to get through a rocky relationship patch over Sufjan-leaning cellos, flutes and more. Annea Lockwood – On Fractured Ground The octogenarian NZ composer visited the peace walls that divided zones in Belfast, 'playing' them with hands, leaves and stones: history shivers through this nape-prickling work. Ben Beaumont-Thomas and Rachel Keenan Subscribe to the Guardian's rolling Add to Playlist selections on Spotify.
