It's not like we haven't heard from Bruno Mars. He has been busy as a part of some recent, wildly popular musical collaborations with Lady Gaga, Rosé and the super-duo, Silk Sonic with Anderson .Paak. But it has been ten years since his own last studio album, "24K Magic". That is finally about to change as Mars has just announced the upcoming release of his fourth album, "The Romantic" due out on February 27th. There had been rumors of this record coming over the last three years with producer, D'Mile recently joining the project and co-producing with Mars. The first single, "I Just Might" is another blast of retro funk that Mars puts his own special spin on, a sound he has been exploring for some time, particularly with Silk Sonic. Mars has also announced that he will be hitting the road with The Romantic Tour which begins in April and takes the singer through North America and Europe.
Following his recent foray into French pop, the Lebanese-American singer, Mika is back with an upcoming English-language album, "Hyperlove" and the second single, "Immortal Love"; The Swedish pop artist, Robyn has dropped another single, "Talk To Me" from her forthcoming ninth studio album, "Sexistential"; Ari Lennox has another song, "Twin Flame" that will be on the long awaited third album from the r&b vocalist, "Vacancy"; and PinkPantheress teams with Zara Larsson for a new version of the single, "Stateside" from her remix album, "Fancy Some More?":
The legendary Dolly Parton has rounded up fellow artists, Lainey Wilson, Miley Cyrus, Queen Latifah, and Reba McEntire, with a new recording of her 1977 song, "Light of a Clear Blue Morning" to raise money for pediatric cancer research at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital in Nashville. Parton had explained that she had originally written this as a "song of deliverance" when she was dealing with the pain from her break with longtime musical and business partner Porter Wagoner in 1974 in order to further her career. "Light of a Clear Blue Morning" has gone on to be covered by many artists since then including Parton herself who rerecorded this inspirational song two previous times before this recent version.
And finally, I would like to pay tribute to a couple of musicians we lost recently: Carl Carlton, a soul music hit maker, died on December 13th. The Detroit native had been recovering from a stroke he had in 2019. Carlton was seventy-three. He began his professional career as child, first performing under the name "Little" Carl Carlton, a publicity stunt that brought attention to Stevie Wonder who had achieved success around this time. After signing to a recording label, Carlton released some singles with the song, "Competition Ain't Nothing", becoming popular in the UK northern soul scene in 1968.
But his real breakthrough would come six years later with his version of "Everlasting Love" (which was first a hit for Robert Knight in 1967) reaching number eleven on the Billboard R&B chart and number four on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart. A royalty dispute with his new label, ABC Records would prevent Carlton from recording for a period of time. He would join a new label and find his way back on the charts in 1981 with the single, "She's a Bad Mama Jama (She's Built, She's Stacked)". This popular funk song would reach number two on the r&b chart, earn Carlton a Grammy Award nomination for Best R&B Male Vocal Performance and continue to be a staple for soundtracks and music sampling.
Chris Rea, the British blues rocker, passed away on December 22nd at the age of seventy-four. He had been struggling with several health issues since the turn of the century which included pancreatic cancer, diabetes and a stroke in 2016. Born in Middlesbrough, North Riding of Yorkshire, England, Rea bought his first guitar in his early twenties and self taught himself how to play. A fan of the blues and American rockers, Rea became a member of the rock group, Magdalene and would begin singing after the vocalist failed to show for a gig. In 1973, Rea went on to form his own band which lead to him getting signed as a solo artist to Magnet Records. His debut album, "Whatever Happened to Benny Santini?" was released in 1978. The first single, "Fool (If You Think It's Over)" was only a minor hit in the UK but went on to reach number twelve on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and earning him a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. Rea would go on find greater success in his native country, recording twenty-five studio albums throughout his career with several charting songs on the UK pop chart. But Rea would never tour in North America, preferring to remain closer to his family than away from them for months at a time.
David Archuleta had seemed to be happy during his time pursuing a music career and getting a jump start by becoming runner-up during the seventh season of "American Idol" back in 2008. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, his faith was very important to Archuleta, even putting his rising career as a pop singer on hold while he spent two years as a missionary. But he had also been keeping a secret that he had been struggling with for many years: he was gay. This created a problem for him with the Mormon Church when he finally came out in 2021, eventually feeling he had to leave it behind. Archuleta has continued with his music career, more recently with a desire to perform freely whatever kind of music that personally motivates him and he can have fun with. His latest single, "Crème Brulée" is exactly that, clearly inspired by Sabrina Carpenter's catchy hit, "Espresso" which he had performed live in concert. The music video for this playful song has Archuleta dancing with smooth choreography interchangeably locked with male and female dancers.
Here is a spotlight on some new music: Kendrick Lamar and SZA team up on the single, "Luther" from his album, "GNX" with the video as a short film; "Tonight", the latest from British pop artist, PinkPantheress that is a part of her upcoming mixtape; Lucy Dacus, member of the indie supergroup, Boygenius, has just released her fourth solo album, "Forever is a Feeling" and this is a single from the collection and Kesha is back with new music from her upcoming album, a country/hip-hop hybrid that features T-Pain.
It's not really a great surprise that the romantic relationship between actress/pop singer, Selena Gomez and producer/songwriter, benny blanco would lead to a musical connection between these two. Beginning their love affair a little over two years ago, although they first met working together on music for her second solo album, "Revival" in 2015, this couple, who are engaged, has just released their recent collaboration, "I Said I Love You First", an album filled with songs that focuses on the ending of one relationship and finally finding true love in a new one. Gomez, who stars in the popular series, "Only Murders in the Building" and recently co-starred in the provocative, Oscar-nominated big-screen musical, "Emilia Pérez" and blanco, the pop music creator who has probably worked at some point with every contemporary artist you may know, has brought on board Gracie Abrams, The Marías and J Balvin to appear on their project. Here are a few of my favorite tracks from the album:
It's been five years since rock god, Lenny Kravitz has released new music and has returned with a single and news of an upcoming album. While the title might possibly be in reference to something in "Star Wars" or "Boogie Nights", the song, "TK421" is clearly Kravitz's call to find freedom in spirituality. This dance-rock track is the first delivery from "Blue Electric Light", the musician's twelfth studio release which will be a double album and due out early in the new year. But Kravitz surprises us even further with the music video for "TK421" which has the almost sixty-year-old artist looking ageless, revealing an impressive physique and plenty of skin.
Here are some new songs from Australian pop artist, Troye Sivan (who makes a startling transformation in the music video); fellow Aussie, Sia; indie pop artist from Britain, PinkPantheress; the latest solo single from Alabama Shakes member, Brittany Howard and a dance track that serves as a shout-out to an Italian fashion house.
The British pop singer, Paloma Faith may be far better known in her home country and throughout Europe, but she is someone that should be paid attention to on this side of globe. "How You Leave a Man", the first single from her upcoming sixth studio album, "The Glorification of Sadness" has been released and is inspired by the end of her decade long relationship. This emotional, power ballad about the painful decision to leave an unfaithful husband behind is what the forty-two-year-old artist claims to be one of her most personal yet.
Rudolph Isley, one of the founding members of the celebrated family r&b group, the Isley Brothers, passed away on October 11th at the age of eighty-four. The trio, with his brothers, O'Kelly and Ronald, had their first hit in 1959 with the single, "Shout", the first of many songs they would go on to write. This was followed by another popular song, "Twist and Shout" and the Isley Brothers were lured to Motown Records in 1966. But they managed to only find charting success with the single, "This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)" which was written by the label's songwriting team, Holland-Dozier-Holland. The brothers chaffed under Motown's controlling creative methods and left the label two years later. The Isleys started their own label, T-Neck Records and altered their sound from smooth soul to funkier r&b, hitting the top-five on the pop and soul charts with "It's Your Thing" in 1969. With younger brothers, Ernie and Marvin and brother-in-law, Chris Jasper joining in 1971, more hits followed for The Isley Brothers with "That Lady", "Fight the Power", "For the Love of You", "Between the Sheets" and soulful covers of rock songs, "Love the One You're With" and "Summer Breeze". O’Kelly Isley passed away from a heart attack in 1986 and Rudolph decided to retire from the group three years later. The Isley Brothers would continue on as a popular musical act but earlier this year, Rudolph sued his brother Ronald with claims that he had sought to cut him out of the trademark for the group. While Ronald was usually the lead singer, Rudolph occasionally provided leading vocals on some songs. Here are a couple of tracks:
Based on the world's most famous doll, "Barbie" is the first live-action movie of this iconic toy. Margot Robbie brings this plastic fashion doll to life and Ryan Gosling play Barbie's long-time boyfriend, Ken. Greta Gerwig has co-written (with her partner, filmmaker Noah Baumbach) and directed this comedy-fantasy and has attracted an impressive cast that includes Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Hari Nef, Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir with Will Ferrell as a toy company CEO and Helen Mirren as the narrator.
And the movie has an upcoming soundtrack, "Barbie: The Album". Mark Ronson, who is the executive producer of this record, was asked to get involved in curating the music by Gerwig to help match her vision for the film to feature the sounds of fun, high-energy pop. Ronson set about his mission and has assembled an impressive list of contemporary musicians to participate and the line-up is impressive; Lizzo, Charli XCX, Ava Max, Karol G., Haim, Khalid, Gayle, Fifty Fifty and Dua Lipa who released the first single, "Dance The Night". And Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice teamed up to bring some hip-hop on "Barbie World" which features a sample of the notorious '90's hit, "Barbie Girl" by the Danish Europop band, Aqua. Even Gosling, who showed off his musical abilities in the 2016 movie, "La La Land", has a track on the album called "I'm Just Ken".
"Barbie: The Album" is due out on July 21st, the same day as the movie's release. Not all of the artists on the soundtrack have been revealed yet with some surprises still left to be announced. One of the first made public on July 6th was Billie Eilish with her musical contribution, "What Was I Made For?" with more mystery musicians on the horizon.
The one thing that became undeniably clear in 2022 is that record labels no longer held carte blanche over what would become a hit song. With TikTok now a dominant force in many people's lives, the app is now the go-to platform to introduce new music through creative clips, dance challenges, established artists leaking demos and aspiring musicians sharing their tracks.
And once TikTok decides a song is hot, the rest of the world tends to follow with shocking speed. Even songs from the past can be revived on the app (with Kate Bush's 1985 single, "Running Up That Hill" as the year's greatest example), becoming wildly popular once again but to a whole new generation of listeners. I think It's great that everyone has a fair shot at getting their music heard on their terms and be able to have a hit outside of the standard music industry that have long held control. However I am also concerned that this type of fast success without much professional guidance will make it even harder for musicians to establish a long-term career that will become substantial and lucrative for them.
I've been sharing songs that I loved throughout last year but here are some (largely TikTok hits) of my favorites that I didn't get a chance:
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