Music

20 Oct 2022

Which of Taylor Swift’s ‘Midnights’ Lyric Reveals Is Your Favorite So Far?

Swifties, Midnights release day is almost here!

Taylor Swift is unveiling her 10th studio album on Friday (Oct. 21), and leading up to the release, the pop star teamed up with Spotify to plant mysterious electronic billboards in five cities around the world, each of them programmed to display a singular line from an unnamed song on Midnights at the stroke of midnight local time.

From New York and Nashville to Mexico City and London, we want to know which of the Midnights lyric reveals is your favorite. Let us know by voting below.

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20 Oct 2022

MercyMe Talks Getting Back to ‘The Heart of Being a Band Again’ on New Album, ‘Always Only Jesus’

“People say ‘unforgiveable’ a lot, but we don’t use the word ‘forgivable’ much,” says Bart Millard, lead singer of contemporary Christian music act MercyMe. “With all the craziness going on in the world today, sometimes it feels like that forgiveness and grace is the most insane thing, especially with cancel culture. We are very good at eating our wounded.”

Millard is referring to the song that serves as the fulcrum of MercyMe’s new album, Always Only Jesus, out Friday (Oct. 21). For nearly three decades, the Brickhouse Entertainment-managed MercyMe has grown a back catalog of hits like “I Can Only Imagine,” which was just certified 5x platinum by the RIAA;  “Word of God Speak,” and “Even If.”

Their new album strikes the balance between experimental and the style of polished worship music that MercyMe has become known for, as it dives deep into celebratory wonder (“Hands Up,” “Always Only Jesus”), keeping faith amid doubt (“To Not Worship You”) and finding refuge (“Heart Beats for Your Good”).

The band, which has won six Dove Awards, hopes the new music inspires reconciliation within communities that have become fractured through the COVID-19 pandemic, fiery political divides and more over the past few years.

“In our perspective, we’ve seen a lot of division within the body of Christ, a lot of people drawing lines, taking different stances on things,” Millard says. “And, man, if there was ever a time to remind ourselves that there is one thing we have in common and that’s Jesus, [it would be now].”

MercyMe had initially planned to record only a five-song EP; however, that began to shift with the writing of what became their current single, “Then Christ Came.”

“Then Christ Came,” which stands at No. 11 on Billboard’s Christian Airplay chart, was originally slated for their 2021 album inhale (exhale), but the song, penned by Millard and co-writer David Leonard, wasn’t fully finished by the album’s deadline. So they instead included only a snippet of the unfinished demo.

“We couldn’t crack the code on it for some reason,” Millard recalls. “We knew it was a special song, so we decided that for the first time, we were going to pull the song and wait for the next album.”

Millard joined with singer-songwriters Jason Ingram and Phil Wickham to finish the song, which gets an amped-up refurbishing on Always Only Jesus — a technique reminiscent of Rich Mullins’ “Step by Step,” which was a chorus included on the first album of Mullins’ two-volume project, The World as Best as I Remember It, released in 1991. The chorus, written by David “Beaker” Strasser, became a popular worship song. Mullins added verses to it, and included it again on the album’s second volume, under the name “Sometimes by Step.”

“I’m a huge Rich Mullins fan and I love that he did that,” Millard says. “With ‘Then Christ Came,’ our label said, ‘What if we did a demo — since we know it’s going to be the first single, whenever the next record comes out, a kind of foreshadowing?”

As with inhale (exhale), the group recorded Always Only Jesus at Imagine Cabin, their cabin-turned-recording studio just outside of Nashville.

“It’s been a dream of ours forever to have a space like this,” MercyMe guitarist/vocalist Barry Graul says. “We can leave stuff set up however we want and work as much as we want. If inspiration strikes, we can just chase it. It’s great to go to new areas and find new inspiration, but there’s something special about having your own space, too.”

“This is us getting back to the heart of being a band again,” Millard adds.

The group reunited with the same trio of producers that worked on their previous album: Brown Bannister, known for producing a string of contemporary Christian music artists including Amy Grant, Steven Curtis Chapman and Third Day; Tedd T (Delirious, Newsboys, for King & Country) and The Afters’ Jordan Mohilowski (Andrew Ripp, Walker Hayes).

“They are each very different in their approach,” Millard explains. “Jordan is very in-the-box programming, kind of directing us, whereas with Ted, you could accidentally drop your guitar or something and he would be like, ‘Oh, do that again so I can record it.’ And Brown is like the zen master of encouragement in the room. He’s been doing this for so long and really knows how to work with a band, he’s very diplomatic. He’s the king of giving a band space to get it right. It’s been cool to watch each of them bring their own style to the process. Then there are five producers within the band, so you’ve got like eight producers, but it makes everybody better.”

According to Millard, there was another artist who also gave input into the album — CCM icon Grant, who had been instrumental in MercyMe recording and releasing what became their signature hit, ‘I Can Only Imagine.”

“I’ve had a thing for years where I’ll send a new record to Amy before it ever releases, and she’ll take notes and tell me what she loves — or doesn’t love — about it,” Millard says. “She will be brutally honest. For [“Forgivable”], she said, ‘The lyrics are so heavy… The drums kind of get on my nerves, because I’m wanting it to be a ballad.’ When I’m writing lyrics, I tend to save those for the power ballad, but I do love that this is one of the deepest lyrics on the whole album, but it’s also like an upbeat John Mayer song.”

The album closes with a revamped, harmony-rich version of the hymn “Nothing But the Blood.”

“There are some songs that, due to time and scheduling, I’ll do all the background vocals because I’m there, and [his MercyMe bandmates] do it live and they are more than capable,” Millard says. “This is one of those, like [2008’s] ‘Finally Home,’ where there’s no programming, that’s strictly the band. That’s literally us, trying to find the kick drum sound by hitting things on the wall or the couch cushions, creating it right there in the room.”

This week, the band launched their MercyMe Live 2022 tour, and will team with Chris Tomlin for a winter U.S. outing beginning Dec. 1. For all their achievements, including 17 No. 1s on Christian Airplay, the band members say they still have a few career goals left on their wish lists — including some areas where they’ve still never performed.

“There are some overseas places we would love to play,” says MercyMe bassist/keyboardist/vocalist Nathan Cochran. “We’ve done very little international touring; we haven’t done anything in Europe. We’ve played Australia. We did a USO tour, which was amazing. We would love to do that again — though it is a balancing act because either we take all of our families with us, or we would have to be gone from our families for two weeks.”

And atop the bucket list is winning a Grammy — for which they have been nominated six times, but have yet to take home the golden gramophone. “That’s the one. That would be cool,” says Cochran.

20 Oct 2022

Quavo & Takeoff’s ‘Links’ Launches at No. 1 on Top Rap Albums Chart

Quavo and Takeoff’s collaborative album, Built for Infinity Links, yields a No. 1 debut on Billboard’s Top Rap Albums chart as the project starts atop the list dated Oct. 22. Links earned 33,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Oct. 13, according to Luminate.

Streaming fuels the album’s entrance, with 30,500 of the 33,000 units deriving from the consumption method. The 30,500 streaming-equivalent album units equal 41.1 million official on-demand streams of Links’ songs in the tracking week. Two thousand of the remaining units come from traditional album sales, with the outstanding 500 balance owed to track-equivalent album units. (One unit equals the following levels of consumption: one album sale, 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams for a song on the album.)

Elsewhere, Links debuts at No. 3 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and at No. 7 on the all-genre Billboard 200.

The new champ gives Quavo his second solo chart-topper, after Quavo Huncho ruled for one week upon its debut in October 2018. Takeoff, meanwhile, achieves his first leader, after a prior No. 2 best for his The Last Rocket in November 2018. The pair has also visited the summit as two-thirds of the trio Migos, whose Culture and Culture II led the list in 2017 and 2018, respectively. The group’s future is uncertain – Quavo and Takeoff have said Migos is on an indefinite hiatus, while the trio’s third member, Offset, has announced a solo album for release on Nov. 11.

As Links arrives, three of its tracks debut on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart: “To the Bone,” with YoungBoy Never Broke Again (No. 24), “Nothing Changed” (No. 44) and “Chocolate,” with Gunna (No. 48). “Bone” leads the album’s songs in streaming, with 5.8 million official U.S. streams in the week ending Oct. 13.

In addition, the previously released Links lead single, “Hotel Lobby (Unc & Phew),” rallies 37-19 from the album release’s impact. The track returns to its highest rank since the July 5-dated list (also at No. 19). The track’s 50% surge in streams to reach 5.6 million in the week and 356% swell in sales to 1,000 downloads secure it both the chart’s Streaming Gainer and Digital Gainer callouts.

20 Oct 2022

Kelly Clarkson Jumps Into a Third Eye Blind Hit for Spirit Day

Kelly Clarkson performed Third Eye Blind‘s “Jumper” for her latest Kellyoke number on The Kelly Clarkson Show Thursday (Oct. 20), and it was all for a very special reason.

“Wish you would step back from that ledge my friend/ You could cut ties with all the lies/ That you’ve been living in/ And if you do not want to see me again/ I would understand/ I would understand,” she belted out, playing with the alt-rock classic’s iconic melody while her backing guitarist sang along.

After welcoming the audience to the show, the American Idol winner gave some context for the song’s cryptic lyrics. “The song was tragically inspired by the death of a gay teenager who was bullied. It’s been celebrated for its message of support for the LGBTQ+ community, which is why we chose it for today. Because today is Spirit Day!” she explained. “So my band, me and everyone in our audience is wearing purple in recognition. Spirit Day was created to show support for LGBTQ+ youth and speak out against bullying.”

The song, from the band’s eponymous debut album, peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1999.

During the show, Clarkson invited Margaret Cho to highlight some of her own LGBTQ+ role models — such as Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova — and had a Utah mom share a powerful message about accepting your LGBTQ+ child when he or she comes out.

Other Kellyoke tracks performed by the talk-show host in recent episodes include Jackson Dean’s “Don’t Come Lookin’,” “What a Fool Believes” by The Doobie Brothers, Whitney Houston’s “Queen of the Night” and Loretta Lynn’s “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’” with special guest Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Watch Clarkson power through Third Eye Blind’s “Jumper” below.

20 Oct 2022

Macklemore Talks ‘Can’t Hold Us’ Going Double Diamond: ‘Can I Flex?’

This month marks the 10-year history since the release of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis‘ groundbreaking debut album The Heist, but also sees their hit single “Can’t Hold Us” reaching double diamond status by the RIAA.

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The achievement marks their second diamond single from the same album, which only 19 other acts having accomplished the feat in RIAA history. The duo’s 2015 track “Thrift Shop,” featuring Wanz, also has a diamond certification. The awards is given to songs and albums with 10 million sales and streaming equivalents earned.

“It’s amazing. Not everyone has it. I believe only 20 people have it in history. Is that right? Can I flex?” Macklemore recently told Billboard‘s Tetris Kelly of the feat. “It is an amazing accomplishment. The crazy thing is we played those records for record labels, and dudes were like, ‘Yeah, it’s cool. I don’t hear it on the radio, though.’ And here we are with two diamond singles.”

“To land two RIAA Diamond singles is no easy feat – it’s a testament to the incredible artists that Ben and Ryan are and to what’s possible through the power of a true partnership, Cat Kreidich, president of ADA, said in a press statement. “ADA is proud to have been by their side from the very beginning and I know I speak for everyone when I say we’re thrilled for Macklemore and Ryan Lewis on this much-deserved milestone.”

Macklemore dropped his first single of 2022 in July, “Chant” featuring Tones and I. His new song, “Faithful,” drops on Friday (Oct. 28).

20 Oct 2022

Zach Bryan Shares His Favorite Taylor Swift Song — and the One His Girlfriend Makes Him Sing for Her

Zach Bryan‘s songs have dotted the Billboard country charts over the past year, but he recently revealed he’s also a fan of another singer-songwriter with strong country ties: Taylor Swift.

Bryan recently shared his enthusiasm for Swift’s upcoming album Midnights, which releases Friday, Oct. 21.

“miss swift what are the vibes at midnight good morning everybody and happy almost sweekend, get in we’re going crying,” Bryan tweeted Thursday (Oct. 21). That message prompted one of his followers to ask the singer about his favorite Swift songs.

“‘August,’ for sure,” Bryan responded, referring to a track from Swift’s 2020 album Folklore. He also noted that his girlfriend asks him to cover Swift’s 2006 debut single, “Tim McGraw.”

Like Swift herself, who released albums Folklore and Evermore in 2020, followed by last year’s re-recordings of her previous albums Fearless and Red, Oklahoma native and Navy veteran Bryan has also proven himself a prolific writer.

In May, Bryan’s Warner Records debut album American Heartbreak debuted at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Top Country Albums chart and at No. 5 on the Billboard 200, while his song “Something in the Orange” has been certified platinum by the RIAA, and is at No. 44 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart).

In July, Bryan followed American Heartbreak with the release of the nine-song EP Summertime Blues, which debuted at No. 7 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart, as well as at No. 2 on the Top Americana/Folk Albums chart.

Leading up to the release of Midnights, Swift has teased song titles (including “Mastermind,” “Anti-Hero,” and “You’re on Your Own, Kid,” as well as “Snow on the Beach,” a collaboration with Lana Del Rey), lyrics (via a series of Spotify billboards that have popped up in cities around the world), and inspirations for the album.

See Bryan’s tweets about his favorite Taylor Swift song below.

20 Oct 2022

Neu!’s Michael Rother Looks Back on Krautrock Band’s ‘Very Ambitious’ Start 50 Years Ago

“If you had asked me 50 years ago what I would be doing in a year, I wouldn’t have had an answer,” says Michael Rother over Zoom from his partner’s house in Pisa, Italy. Although he would never have imagined it when he recorded the first Neu! album, Rother will soon begin a short tour to mark the 50th anniversary of the band, which he formed with drummer Klaus Dinger. There’s also a box set of the band’s three albums and a collection of remixes. All of which, Rother says, would have been almost impossible to imagine back in 1972.

When Neu! went into the studio to record its self-titled debut album with Conny Plank, who worked on many of the era’s iconic Krautrock albums, “we were very ambitious with the intention to create a new music,” Rother says. At the time, traditional German pop sounded backward, sometimes even tainted by the country’s history, and the Anglo-American rock that was popular globally seemed obviously imported. Along with other Krautrock pioneers, Rother, who had already played in Kraftwerk, wanted to develop a new kind of pop that would be formally innovative but also accessible – think rock with Mitteleuropean characteristics.

“It was the result of very clear thinking about moving away from Anglo-American rock and pop,” Rother says. “But whether it could become influential didn’t even cross my mind. The first objective was to be happy with the result.”

He was. When Rother returned home to Düsseldorf, he played it for his mother, brother and girlfriend and realized “it sounds really good,” he remembers. “That was my memory.”

It was more than “good” — Neu! sounded revolutionary. From the first track, “Hallogallo,” the music was driven by Dinger’s propulsive drumming, which came to be called the motorik beat. Rother and Dinger, who died in 2008, freed the musical vocabulary of rock from the verse-chorus-verse form and let it soar – sometimes, as on “Hallogallo,” in a way that could also be catchy.

Neu! sold decently in what was then West Germany, and Rother and Dinger followed up with Neu! 2 in 1973 and Neu! ‘75 in, yes, 1975. The albums won a small but dedicated following in the U.K. and then the U.S. as well. Along with some other German Krautrock bands – Can and Faust, most prominently – they brought an inventive, experimental approach to psychedelic rock at a time when it was starting to feel stale.

All three Neu! albums are collected on the 50th anniversary box set, along with an album of remixes, which Rother is celebrating with a series of concerts – Oct. 26 in Berlin, Nov. 3 in London, followed by shows in Barcelona and Paris, and maybe more – with different guests in each city. Neu!, once considered somewhat obscure, is arguably as influential and important as ever.

More than other Krautrock bands, Neu! became something of a myth, partly because their albums fell out of print in the ‘80s and ‘90s as Rother and Dinger had a falling out. Dinger, who started the band La Düsseldorf after Neu!, became known as a genius who was eccentric, sometimes hard to get along with.

One day, Rother remembers, he received a fax that a new Neu! album was coming out in Japan – which he hadn’t approved. Meanwhile, the rights to the group’s original three albums were stuck in legal limbo. They were reissued in 2001 thanks to the efforts of Herbert Grönemeyer, a mainstream German rock star who runs the Grönland label. “He was told, this band is these two German guys, they fight about everything, they will never release the music,” Rother says. “But I think this spurred his determination.”

He first got Dinger and Rother to agree to include solo songs from each, plus a Neu! track, on a compilation of German rock he produced, then started asking them about reissues. “I think it took him one and a half years of meetings, talking like a psych therapist to us,” Rother says.

Rother has always been active – he joined Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius from Cluster in the band Harmonia, which released two iconic albums in the mid-1970s, then started a solo career. From 1977 to 1987, he steadily released solo albums – which sold well in the German-speaking world but barely at all outside it.

“Neu! was more popular outside Germany and my music was more popular in Germany,” Rother says. “Harmonia was ignored but my music took off like a rocket.” He pauses. “Well, the comparison with a rocket is a bit misleading. A slow-burning rocket. A tractor-rocket.”

Rother’s last two albums – the 2020 solo set Dreaming and the 2021 duet with his partner, Vittoria Maccabruni, As Long as the Light, came out on Grönland, which has also released two box sets of his solo albums. But he’s also looking forward to revisiting his history. “I feel fortunate that I met all of these musicians,” he says, “and I feel fortunate to have that history.” He pauses. “It’s 50 years,” he says. “Sounds a bit strange.”

20 Oct 2022

Here’s the Gerard Pique Reference You May Have Missed in Shakira‘s ‘Monotonia’ Video

Shakira has dropped her new single “Monotonía” in collaboration with Ozuna, in which she opens up about the rupture of what seemed to be a perfect relationship.

“It wasn’t your fault, it wasn’t my fault/ It was monotony’s fault/ I never said anything but it hurt/ I knew this would happen,” she chants. 

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Though the song — which marks Shakira’s first single post-breakup with longtime partner and soccer star Gerard Piqué — reveals a very heartbroken singer, the music video also references her ex. 

In the first minute of the emotionally charged clip — co-directed by the Colombian star and designer Jaume de la Iguana — a teary-eyed Shakira has an encounter with a man in a grocery store where he blows up her chest and her heart is ejected from her body. 

Fans on social media were quick to discover that the man in the video is wearing a white hoodie and gray joggers similar to one of the outfits Piqué wore for Shakira’s 2017 video “Me Enamoré,” in which the couple is seen enjoying the puppy-love stage of their romance, and furthermore implying that the man who shoots at Shakira in the new “Monotonía” clip is meant to represent Piqué.

In June, the former couple announced their split. “We regret to confirm that we are separating,” the two said in a joint statement released by Shakira’s public relations firm. “For the well-being of our children, who are our highest priority, we ask that you respect our privacy. Thank you for your understanding.”

Shakira, 45, met the Barcelona defender while she was promoting her 2010 World Cup anthem, “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa).” The couple share two children, Sasha and Milan.

“Monotonía” follows the singer-songwriter’s Latin Airplay chart-topping song “Te Felicito” with Rauw Alejandro, in which she calls out her significant other and congratulates him on a stellar performance for making her believe he truly loved her. 

Watch the “Monotonía” and “Me Enamoré” music videos below.

20 Oct 2022

Taylor Swift’s ‘Midnights’ Lyrics Around the World

It’s as if Taylor Swift knew that Swifties wouldn’t be able to wait until Oct. 21 to discover all of the lyrics on Midnights. And thanks to her, they didn’t have to.

In the days leading up to the release of her 10th studio album, the pop star teamed up with Spotify to plant mysterious electronic billboards in five cities around the world, each of them programmed to display a singular line from an unnamed song on Midnights at the stroke of midnight local time. The locations of these special surprises were always teased a few hours beforehand on Spotify’s official social media accounts, meaning Swifties everywhere had the chance to camp out nearby in the hopes of becoming among the first to read a lyric from the “All Too Well” singer’s highly anticipated record.

The first of Swift’s billboards went live the morning of Oct. 17 in — where else? — Times Square, the world’s central destination for light-up signs and advertisements. “I should not be left to my own devices,” the cryptic lyric read.

Next came a simple, sweet fragment of Midnights, unveiled Oct. 18 on a billboard in London. “I polish up real nice,” it spelled out.

The next day marked a new peak. Not one, but two lyrics were revealed that morning at midnight, the first going live in São Paulo, Brazil, and the second in Nashville. “Just like clockwork, the dominoes cascaded in a line,” read the São Paulo billboard. And an hour later, in Swift’s home city: “Did you ever have someone kiss you in a crowded room?”

The finale came Oct. 20, nearly 24 hours before all of the remaining lyrics on Midnights would be revealed once the album hit streaming services at midnight sharp on Oct. 21. “Breathe in, breath through, breathe deep, breathe out,” read a blue and orange graphic erected in Mexico City, which fans were quick to notice matched an exact phrase used by the singer-songwriter in her NYU commencement speech five months prior.

Take a look through photos of each of Taylor Swift’s Spotify lyric reveals in the gallery below:

20 Oct 2022

Matty Mullins Unmasks His Struggles With Panic Disorder and Mental Health

This month’s featured artist in Sound Mind’s Unmasked series is Memphis May Fire’s lead singer, Matty Mullins. Over the years, the four-piece rock band has stayed true to its sound and maintained its vulnerable lyrics. While some artists may lose sight of their identities while on the path to stardom, even after topping Billboard’s Hard Rock Albums chart, Memphis May Fire continues to be open and honest with their fans. Earlier this year, the band released its seventh studio album, Remade in Misery, which confronts topics like crippling anxiety, polarization, and self-righteousness. The record includes some of the band’s heaviest tracks to date such as “Bleed Me Dry,” “Death Inside,” and “Only Human.”

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On the latest episode of Unmasked, Mullins shares his experience coping with mental health and a panic disorder. He experienced his first panic attack on a short flight to Florida)  and says he has never felt the same since.  It would take Mullins two grueling years of panic attacks, anxiety, and depression, privately, before seeking the necessary professional steps to work on his mental health. 

Mullins told Billboard, “Trauma changes us, changes our bodies, our brains, every cell in our being. And while this can feel disheartening, it’s important to remember that healing changes us too! Healing can become part of us, part of our identity, part of how we view the world and other people, and especially how we view ourselves.”

The singer-songwriter credits therapy and prayer for helping him get through the toughest time of his life. Once he started to do the work to improve his mental health and understand what he was experiencing, his outlook changed. Every person in this world experiences pain and trauma, but it is imperative to not feel ashamed of your pain. Unmasked was created to destigmatize conversations around mental health and foster a safe community for people to comfortably verbalize their experiences and feelings. 

Check out Matty Mullins’ episode of Unmasked, and stay tuned for more to come from Sound Mind. 

This content was created in partnership with Sound Mind.