Last month, the Brit pop singer, Charli XCXmade a bold proclamation with "I think the dance floor is dead, so now we're making rock music". Many of her fans were taken aback by this statement since she made her name by creating energized music that you could dance to since her breakout single, "Boom Clap" back in 2014. But the singer/songwriter, born Charlotte Aitchison, was actually doing a little promoting for her newest bit of music, "Rock Music". And while this track has an edgy and rough vibe, it's not exactly a hardcore rock song but more guitar-driven with a dance beat driving the tune along. Charli has been busy: contributing music for the soundtrack of Emerald Fennell's adaptation of "Wuthering Heights" and performing as an actor in the films, "The Moment", "Faces of Death" and the upcoming Gregg Araki comedy-thriller, "I Want Your Sex". But she has not abandoned her pop music career with "Rock Music" being the first release from her seventh studio album with no title or street date revealed just yet.
Here's a round up of some intriguing new music: the soul music legend, Chaka Khan is back with "Chakzilla", an oddly titled funky dance track (with production by Greg Kurstin) which also happens to be the title of her first studio album in seven years; the latest single from Harry Styles, "Dance No More" has the former boy band member busting out some serious dance moves in the music video; the Swedish artist, Tove Lo has dropped a raw and edgy new single, "I'm Your Girl, Right?" with an equally spiky video; "Five Past Three" is an electropop single from the Chainsmokers’ newest EP, "Love Is Kind", which is a collaboration with the Swedish performer, Oaks; and Sir Paul McCartney has his twentieth solo album, "The Boys of Dungeon Lane" on the way with the song, "Home to Us", is a duet with his former bandmate, Ringo Starr.
The 2026 Eurovision Song Contest recently concluded on May 16th with thirty-five countries competing for the top prize of the best international original pop song. Held at Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna for the contest's 70th edition, Dara from Bulgaria won the Grand Prize for "Bangaranga", a dance-pop song with the title taken from Jamaican Patois and has been translated as "a joyful kind of disorder". This song, the first win for this country, won both the jury vote and televote, the first entry to do so since 2017. The runner-up was from Israel with "Michelle" by Noam Bettan and in third is "Choke Me" by Romania's Alexandra Căpitănescu. Several countries had declined to participate this year in protest at Israel's inclusion in the contest due to the on-going Gaza war.
Clarence Carter, the blind soul singer behind the hits, "Patches" and Strokin'", passed away on May 13th at the age of ninety. Born in Montgomery, Alabama, Carter (blind since birth) attended the Alabama School for the Blind in Talladega and later went to Alabama State University, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in music. After pursuing music professionally with friend, Calvin Scott in 1960, the duo formed the C & C Boys and recorded several singles but none of them gained much traction commercially. Six years later, Scott was seriously injured in an auto accident with Carter deciding to continue as a solo performer.
His first break came the following year with "Tell Daddy", his answer record to Etta James' hit, "Tell Mama", which reached the top forty on the r&b chart. Carter joined Atlantic Records which began a string of hits on the R&B and pop charts, starting with "Slip Away", "Too Weak to Fight", "Snatching It Back" and the naughty, "Back Door Santa". Carter's biggest hit came in 1970 with his version of "Patches", originally recorded by Chairmen of the Board, which reached number two in the UK and number four on the U.S. pop chart. The record would sell over one million copies and win the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song.
Carter's career would cool down following this but he did have one more hit record with "Strokin'" in 1986. While the song was considered too raunchy to actually be played on the radio, it was discovered by fans with it being played on jukeboxes and later found even bigger success when it was included on the soundtracks for Eddie Murphy's remake of "The Nutty Professor" and the 2011 crime-drama, "Killer Joe". Carter was briefly married to Candi Staton, who began as one of his background singers, in 1970 and they had a son together, Clarence Carter Jr., before divorcing in 1973.
The latest twenty-five sound recordings have been selected and inducted into National Recording Registry. Under the terms of the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, the Librarian of Congress, with advice from the National Recording Preservation Board, selects titles each year that are “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” and are at least ten years old. This latest group brings the total number of recordings in the registry to 675.
Some of the recordings that have been honored include Beyoncé's chart-topping hit, "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" from her third solo album, "I Am... Sasha Fierce"; the original Broadway cast recording of the Bob Fosse directed musical, "Chicago" that featured theater legends, Gwen Verdon and Chita Rivera; the country music tale, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" that went on to become a crossover hit for the Charlie Daniels Band; Gladys Knight and the Pips' version of the country song, "Midnight Train to Georgia" which became the r&b group's first number one pop hit; Ray Charles' genre blurring album, "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music" that features the soul music legend's versions of country music songs; the Byrds's cover of folk music singer and activist, Pete Seeger's song, "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)" became an anthem during the social turmoil of the 1960's; the all-female new-wave rock band, the Go-Go's debut album, "Beauty and the Beat" that reached the top of the US album chart; José Feliciano's bilingual Christmas song, "Feliz Navidad" has gone on to become a holiday classic; Chaka Khan put an early hip-hop spin on a cover of Prince's song, "I Feel for You" and "1989", Taylor Swift's first foray into pop, after first achieving fame in country music, which launched her into becoming an even bigger star.
Here is the complete list of the twenty-five selections entered into the 2026 National Recording Registry:
"Cocktails for Two" – Spike Jones and His City Slickers (1944) (single)
"Mambo No. 5" – Pérez Prado and His Orchestra (1950) (single)
"Teardrops from My Eyes" – Ruth Brown (1950) (single)
"Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words)" – Kaye Ballard (1954) (single)
"Put Your Head On My Shoulder" – Paul Anka (1959) (single)
"The Blues and the Abstract Truth" – Oliver Nelson (1961) (album)
"Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music" – Ray Charles (1962) (album)
"Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)" – The Byrds (1965) (single)
"Amen, Brother" – The Winstons (1969) (single)
"Feliz Navidad" – José Feliciano (1970) (single)
"The Fight of the Century: Ali vs. Frazier" (March 8, 1971) (broadcast)
"Midnight Train to Georgia" – Gladys Knight and the Pips (1973) (single)
"Chicago" Original Cast Album (1975) (album)
"The Devil Went Down to Georgia" – The Charlie Daniels Band (1979) (single)
"Beauty and the Beat" – The Go-Go’s (1981) (album)
"Texas Flood" – Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble (1983) (album)
"I Feel For You" – Chaka Khan (1984) (single)
"The Wheel" – Rosanne Cash (1993) (album)
"Doom" Soundtrack – Bobby Prince, composer (album)(1993) "Go Rest High On That Mountain"– Vince Gill (1994) (single) "Weezer (The Blue Album)"– Weezer (1994) (album)
"Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" – Beyoncé (2008) (single)
The Rolling Stones have just announced they are releasing new music, with "Foreign Tongues" which will be the legendary British rock band's twenty-fifth studio album. Their last album of original material, "Hackney Diamonds" was released three years ago and the Stones has once again teamed up with Andrew Watt to produce their latest effort which will be drop on July 10th.
While the two original members, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are now octogenarians (and longtime guitarist Ronnie Wood is not far behind at seventy-eight) and have been creating and playing music together for over sixty years, that doesn't mean they still can't rock. And they prove it quite convincingly with two songs released from the upcoming record. There's the lead single "In the Stars", a rousing blues-rock track with Jagger's vocals sounding in good form while another track, "Rough and Twisted" (which had been teased and put out on vinyl on Record Store Day last month under the band name, "The Cockroaches") is a guitar blasting blues number that glides with the band's classic swagger.
Some tracks were recorded during the "Hackney Diamonds" sessions and much like that last album, this new record will feature a few impressive guest appearances, this time by Paul McCartney, Robert Smith of The Cure, and Steve Winwood. "Foreign Tongues" will also feature the final recording with the band's original drummer, Charlie Watts which was done during a session in Los Angeles shortly before his death in 2021 at the age of eighty.
North West is the twelve year old daughter of the erratic hip-hop musician, Kanye West (currently going by "Ye") and the media personality-turned-entrepreneur, Kim Kardashian. And it's not really much of a surprise that she has been dabbling in professionally performing and making music since she was ten. Now, West has just debuted her first EP as a solo artist, "N0rth4evr". She was fully hands on in the production and songwriting of this recording with the six tracks featuring an intriguing blend of rap, goth rock and hyperpop. Most of the songs are under two minutes but I have to say that this album is a solid collection, twisting sounds and beats to inventively blast out her Gen Alpha angst. With "N0rth4evr", West reveals she has much in common with her father, credibly displaying that she does have the essential qualities to potentially become a major musical artist.
MAYA HAWKE
The actor and musician, Maya Hawke has released her fourth studio album with "Maitreya Corso". The title represents a fictional "magical misfit" persona that allows Hawke to boldly explore themes of ego, ambition, and reinvention. The songs possess an other-worldly vibe, transporting us through with eclectic sounds, understated arrangements and whimsical thoughts. The twenty-seven year old offspring of actors, Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman has crafted an indie-pop record that also pays tribute to her community of fellow musicians in the New York scene, collaborating with local performers like Benjamin Lazar Davis, Will Graefe, and Michael Riddleberger.
This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the release of "Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite", the debut album by the r&b artist, Maxwell. Inspired by the legends of classic soul, Maxwell took the music he loved and put his own distinctive spin to create a sound that was fresh and contemporary yet also capturing an old school vibe. "Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite", along with D'Angelo's "Brown Sugar" in 1995 and Erykah Badu's "Baduizm" released in 1997, would define the neo soul movement and helped reshape popular black music.
The Brooklyn native born Gerald Maxwell Rivera began creating music at seventeen after receiving a Casio keyboard. While hip-hop was becoming the dominate sound being played on r&b radio at the time, Rivera remained a fan of the soul he heard growing up in the 1980's. As he got older, he continued pursuing music, learning to play other instruments and gaining access to a recording studio where he worked on demos. Rivera had begun performing around in small clubs throughout New York City, which created some buzz for him, while his demos where making the rounds, leading to him being signed to Columbia Records in 1994
Taking on his middle name as his professional moniker, Maxwell went to work on his debut with songwriter, Leon Ware. But after completing the record about a year later, the label put it on hold due to concerns of it's commercial appeal. When "Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite" was finally released on April 2, 1996, the concept album did struggle a bit to receive attention with the first single, "...Til the Cops Come Knockin'" failing to chart. But the mellow collection of funk, jazz, smooth soul did gain some serious traction with the help of the second single, "Ascension (Don't Ever Wonder)" peaking at number eight on the US Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and crossing over to the top forty on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The follow-up single, "Sumthin' Sumthin'" also charted, helping "Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite" go on to sell over two million copies in the US alone.
The album would land on several Top-Ten Album of the Year lists and receive a Grammy Award nomination for Best R&B Album. This success lead to him being featured live on MTV Unplugged (which was highly unusual since he only had one album to date) with the EP being released the following year with his cover of Kate Bush's "This Woman's Work" becoming a hit, reaching number sixteen on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
It has been six years since she has released new music and Madonna is ready for a return. It has been teased for a few years and her fifteenth studio album is now official with "Confessions On A Dance Floor: Part II" which is due out on July 3rd. This spiritual sequel to the 2005 album has the Queen of Pop reteaming with producer, Stuart Price to create a modern and further exploration into dance music.
The first taste of this record is the song, "I Feel So Free", a deep house track that has Madonna speaking seductively (over a sample of the 1989 acid house song, "French Kiss" by Lil Louis) about being able to fully let loose while dancing. This is a thrilling preview and hopefully we'll get even more in a very short matter of time. In the meanwhile, here is the official visualizer for "I Feel So Free" with the lyrics and Lil Louis' original version of "French Kiss":
The number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the week of April 19, 1975, was "Philadelphia Freedom" by Elton John. The British rock artist was still riding high with a string of hit singles with this song becoming his fourth number one song on the US chart and held this position for two weeks.
"Philadelphia Freedom" was originally written by John with his musical collaborator, Bernie Taupin to pay tribute to tennis player, Billie Jean King as she was playing with the Philadelphia Freedoms, a part of a charter franchise of the World Team Tennis in 1974. Taupin could not really find a way to write a song about tennis so he went on to convey a message that was uplifting and somewhat patriotic. The song is also dedicated in part to the feeling of "the Philadelphia sound" which was the soul music of writer-producers Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff, and Thom Bell. In fact, John would later perform "Philadelphia Freedom" on "Soul Train" on May 17. 1975, making him the second White artist to appearance on the r&b music program following Gino Vannelli who was on about four months earlier.
