Music
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They don’t call her mastermind for nothing. When she isn’t crafting songs, albums and concert setlists, Taylor Swift apparently draws up plays, as revealed by Patrick Mahomes in a new interview. While speaking to Chris Simms for NFL on NBC in a video posted Thursday (Aug. 29), the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback gushed about the […]
LL Cool J and Eminem have joined forces for the first time on a brand new track slated to land on LL’s upcoming The Force album, which arrives on Sept. 6.
The single finds the pair of lethal MCs passing the baton back-and-forth while spitting rapid-fire bars, one hotter than the next. “Murdergram Deux” landed on Friday (Aug. 30) without much of any notice from LL or Em that the track was on the way.
“Give blessings to my disciples, professional I’m a sniper/ Like eight miles away, me and Marshall doing murders/ With dirty burners, break them down and melt them in the furnace,” LL Cool J raps over the skittering Q-Tip production.
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Eminem closes out “Murdergram Deux” seemingly without taking a breath and brings the uptempo track across the finish line with a hat tip to his Dr. Dre and 50 Cent-assisted “Crack a Bottle.”
“Go ahead and crack a bottle, ’cause this is E and J/ Meaning me and James (Yeah), got that avocado/ And we the sociopaths, and we got your ho on our laps/ And we’re goin’ back to Cali so she can blow on our sax,” he spews.
It’s been a turbulent journey for “Murdergram” to receive an official release, as an unfinished version of the track was leaked earlier this year, which frustrated the Queens-bred icon.
“It’s not A.I., but it’s not official. It’s not official, it’s not the right version,” he previously told Raymond T. “People just walk all in the kitchen, touching the rolls before they’re done — you know, how your grandmother slaps your hand when you try to check the pots early. It’s not A.I., it’s a real joint.”
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Em joined LL Cool J as a guest on his Rock The Bells radio show in 2018, during which the Detroit artist recalled meeting the rapper for the first time on the set of his “Just Don’t Give a F–k” video.
“I’m like, ‘Yo, he’s in here by himself.’ I was buggin’ the f–k out,” Em said. “You quoted a lyric back to me. You said, ‘Yo, how can I be white/ I don’t even exist.’ You quoting that lyric back to me, was like, ‘I think I s–t myself.’”
Eminem also made an appearance at the 2021 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction for LL Cool J, where the duo performed his “Rock the Bells” hit.
LL Cool J’s The Force album serves as his first since 2013’s Authentic, and is slated to feature Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, Rick Ross, Saweetie, Nas and more.
Listen to “Murdergram Deux” below.
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Post Malone’s “Pour Me a Drink” featuring Blake Shelton hops three spots to No. 10 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart (dated Sept. 7). It increased by 18% to 18.6 million audience impressions Aug. 23-29, according to Luminate.
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Post Malone adds his second Country Airplay top 10, after “I Had Some Help,” featuring Morgan Wallen, led for four weeks beginning in June. Both singles are from his first country LP, F-1 Trillion, which soared in at No. 1 on the Aug. 31-dated Top Country Albums chart and the all-genre Billboard 200 with 250,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States. It scored the second-biggest week for a country title this year, after Beyoncé’s maiden release in the genre, Cowboy Carter, arrived with 407,000 in April.
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Shelton banks his 36th Country Airplay top 10 and his first since “Minimum Wage” hit No. 9 in June 2021. He ties fellow Oklahoman Reba McEntire for the ninth-most top 10s; Kenny Chesney and George Strait lead all acts with 61 each dating to the chart’s 1990 start, followed by Tim McGraw with 60.
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Post Malone boasts two concurrent Country Airplay top 10s, as “I Had Some Help” holds at No. 2 (28.1 million in audience). Plus, newest F-1 Trillion single “Guy for That,” featuring Luke Combs, ranks at No. 41 (2.6 million).
Shaboozey Cracks Open Six-Pack
Shaboozey rules Country Airplay for a sixth total and consecutive week with “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” The track, which drew 28.8 in reach among chart reporters (down 3%), is only the second country career-establishing No. 1 to reign for as many as six weeks (counting acts’ first Country Airplay entries as a lead artist or their initial songs promoted to country radio); Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus, Take the Wheel” logged six weeks on top in early 2006.
“A Bar Song (Tipsy)” added a seventh week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 dated Aug. 31, claiming outright 2024’s longest reign, surpassing the six nonconsecutive weeks on top for Post Malone’s “I Had Some Help.” Shaboozey’s hit has likewise logged the sole longest command this year on the multimetric Hot Country Songs chart, its 11 weeks at No. 1 having bested Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em,” which ruled for 10 weeks in February-April.
All charts dated Sept. 7 will update on Billboard.com Wednesday, Sept. 4 (a day later than usual due to the Labor Day holiday Sept. 2).
Sabrina Carpenter collects her third No. 1 on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart as “Please Please Please” ascends to the top of the list dated Sept. 7. The song follows her “Espresso,” which ruled for three weeks in July, and “Feather,” which led for a week in April. “Please Please Please,” released on Island Records and […]
When Nico Baran was 10, he discovered the popular digital audio workstation FL Studio during a class presentation and started making dance tracks. “That helped me build up my skills for making loops,” says Baran, who soon transitioned to R&B and trap productions.
Seven years later, in 2020, the Houston-born, Madrid-based producer started DM’ing loops to members of the producer collective and record label Internet Money. One member, oktanner, played the beats for CEO Taz Taylor, who brought Baran onto the team that year. Taylor asked Baran to send him ideas ahead of his session with The Kid LAROI, which led to Baran scoring his first major placement on LAROI’s debut mixtape, F*ck Love, co-writing and co-producing “Tragic” featuring YoungBoy Never Broke Again.
He has since compiled a genre-spanning résumé — and an impressive original loop library, which he often shares as sounds on TikTok — producing songs for rappers like Lil Tecca, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie and Shy Glizzy, as well as Latin artists like Bad Bunny with Young Miko, Eladio Carrión and Fuerza Regida. In June, when Baran posted a now-viral snippet titled “Love Is Gone” — a moody instrumental that has since amassed 1.8 million TikTok plays and 4.3 million official on-demand global streams, according to Luminate — Drake caught wind of the hype. “He reached out to me through Instagram,” Baran says. “I’m still sending him stuff to this day.”
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Wallace Joseph, SVP of A&R at Warner Chappell Music, calls the producer a “genius,” saying his talent is “purely natural. What he’s doing is next level; whether he’s playing keyboards, producing, or anything else, everything he touches goes viral.”
Ahead, Baran is hoping to make time for his own music as well, saying he “definitely” wants to release an album of his own — “kind of like Metro Boomin and DJ Khaled,” he says, “where I can bring artists into my own sound.”
¥$ (with Lil Wayne), “Lifestyle”
Last November, Baran wrote, “POV: Ty Dolla $ign & Kanye need beats for their next album,” over a TikTok featuring one of his loops. In December, when Ye previewed “Lifestyle” during an Instagram Live filmed at a private Las Vegas party teasing Vultures 2 (despite Vultures 1 not having dropped), Baran noticed a familiar beat: The song sampled “Love Is Gone.” As Baran recalls, “People were sending me screen recordings through Instagram like, ‘Kanye sampled you!’ ” One of the song’s producers, Australian duo FNZ, had sent Ty “Love Is Gone.” Baran says, “He liked it a lot. He showed it to Kanye, and Kanye loved it. It still feels unbelievable.”
Ice Spice & Central Cee, “Did It First”
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In 2023, songwriter-producer Lily Kaplan sent Baran a Dropbox link and asked him to tinker with her vocal tracks. He built a loop around one of them by chopping up the line “Baby, do you understand?” and adding synths before sending it to RIOTUSA, Ice Spice’s go-to producer. RIOT ultimately used it for Ice and Central Cee’s “Did It First,” one of the buzzier singles from her debut album, Y2K!, that dropped in July. “Ice Spice really loved that one loop, and it kind of went crazy,” says Baran of the track, which hit No. 10 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
The Kid LAROI, TBA
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Four years after “Tragic,” one of LAROI’s producers reached out to Baran about sampling a loop that he had posted on TikTok to use on a track from the Australian artist’s forthcoming second album. (His debut, The First Time, arrived last November.) “That’s mainly what I’m focusing on right now,” Baran reveals. “I’m sending a lot of ideas to LAROI’s producers. Aside from that one song, hopefully more [will] come about.”
A version of this article originally appeared in the August 31, 2024 issue of Billboard.
Andrea Bocelli has joined forces with Karol G for a new duet called “Vivo por Ella,” which arrived Friday (Aug. 30) via Decca Records/Sugar Music. The new single reinvents one of the Italian tenor’s most iconic tracks, “Vivo Per Lei” (“I Live for Her”), which originally features Spanish singer Marta Sánchez. The single is part of Bocelli’s upcoming album, Duets, which is slated to release on Oct. 25 and celebrates his 30th anniversary in music.
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Switching out the original piano for a blend of bow-stroked (arco) and plucked (pizzicato) violin notes, the newly reimagined version of the song adopts a slightly faster pace than the ’90s version. This powerful rendition features the passionate tenor of the Italian paired seamlessly with the vibrant vocals of the Colombian superstar. The song is produced by David Foster and Ellis.
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“This song holds a very special place in my heart, and it’s a great honor to reimagine it with one of the most talented and exciting new artists in the world, Karol G,” Bocelli said in a statement. “Her beautiful voice helps create a timeless celebration of love and music that will find new fans and resonate across generations.”
Karol G added in the press release, “I discovered Andrea when I was a teenager. I was super connected to his music, the power of his voice and his unique way of creating music. This song is a huge honor for me – it’s a song I’ve always loved, and when I was invited to sing ‘Vivo por Ella,’ it felt like coming home. It’s a song I really feel inside myself, it feels like it’s going to be a special point in my career.”
The original “Vivo Per Lei” achieved success in numerous countries when it was released in 1995 on his album Bocelli, including on the Billboard charts, peaking at No. 16 on Hot Latin Songs, No. 8 on Tropical Airplay and No. 9 on Latin Pop Airplay.
This career-spanning 32-track collection of Duets also includes duets with Ed Sheeran, Celine Dion, Sarah Brightman, Dua Lipa, Jennifer Lopez, Giorgia and Luciano Pavarotti, as well as Shania Twain, Chris Stapleton, Gwen Stefani, Marc Anthony, Hans Zimmer and more.
Stream the song below:
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Duets tracklist:
CD11. “Time To Say Goodbye” (Sarah Brightman)2. “Vivo Por Ella” (Karol G)3. “Quizás, Quizás, Quizás” (Jennifer Lopez)4. “Fall On Me” (Matteo Bocelli)5. “Perfect Symphony” (Ed Sheeran)6. “Da stanotte in poi (From This Moment On)” (Shania Twain)7. “Holding On” (Gwen Stefani)8. “Il mare calmo della sera” (Chris Stapleton)9. “The Prayer” (Céline Dion)10. “La vie en rose” (Édith Piaf)11. “E più ti penso – from ‘Once Upon A Time In America’” (Ariana Grande)12. “If Only” (Dua Lipa)13. “Somos Novios” (Christina Aguilera)14. “Return To Love” (Ellie Goulding)15. “Rimani qui” (Elisa)16. “Vivo per lei” (Giorgia)CD21. “Dare To Live (Vivere)” (Laura Pausini)2. “Can’t Help Falling In Love” (Katharine McPhee)3. “Hallelujah” (Virginia Bocelli)4. “Amazing Grace” (Alison Krauss)5. “Moon River – from ‘Breakfast At Tiffany’s’” (Sofia Carson)6. “Canto della terra” (Lauren Daigle)7. “La voce del silenzio” (Marc Anthony)8. “Canzoni stonate” (Stevie Wonder)9. “Un amore così grande” (Veronica Berti)10. “Notte ‘e piscatore” – Live in Modena (Luciano Pavarotti)11. “Io ci sarò” (Lang Lang)12. “Pianissimo” (Cecilia Bartoli)13. “The Pearl Fishers Duet” – Live in Central Park (Bryn Terfel)14. “Bambina mia ricordati” (Virginia Bocelli)15. “What Child Is This?” (Mary J. Blige)16. “Time To Say Goodbye” (Matteo Bocelli, Hans Zimmer)
Sabrina Carpenter has been one busy woman. Just one week after dropping her sixth studio album, Short n’ Sweet, the 25-year-old pop star released a surprise bonus track — and Barry Keoghan was first in line to download. Sharing an outtake from her Short n’ Sweet cover shoot, Carpenter announced the new song on Instagram […]
While fans continue the seemingly interminable wait for the proper follow-up to 2008’s 4:13 Dream, The Cure will slake their thirst for new music in October with the release of live versions of two new songs. After debuting some fresh tracks on the road over the past few years, the Robert Smith-led group will issue […]
What would you say is the most iconic performance in the history of the VMAs? Was it Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” from the very first show in 1984, where she wore a combination bustier/wedding gown and rolled around on the floor?
Or Madonna’s performance of that same song and her then-current release “Hollywood” with Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and a guest rap by Missy Elliott from the 2003 show? The performance caused a stir (nothing new for Madonna) thanks to its gender role-reversal and same-sex smooch.
Or would you go with Beyoncé’s “Love on Top” from 2011 in which she patted her baby bump to celebrate her pregnancy? Or Katy Perry’s performance of “Roar” live from Empire-Fulton Ferry Park in Brooklyn, which closed the 2013 show? The VMAs’ list of seven contenders included two performances from the 2009 show – Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” (in which she appeared to bleed out onstage; it was just an effect) and Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me.”
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The final contender – the only one by a man – is Eminem’s performance of “The Real Slim Shady” and “The Way I Am” from the 2000 show. Eminem began the performance outside Radio City Music Hall and continued as he strode into the theater followed by a hundred Eminem lookalikes.
The 2024 VMAs also announced nominees in three other social categories: Song of Summer, Best Group and Best Trending Video. All voting will be hosted on @MTV Instagram Story.
MTV also announced a “bonus week” of voting across general categories, now closing Sept. 6 at 6 p.m. ET. Fans vote for their favorites across 15 gender-neutral categories, including video of the year, by visiting MTV’s website. Voting for best new artist will remain active into show.
With nominations in these four social categories added in, Taylor Swift maintains her lead as the year’s top nominee (12), followed closely by Post Malone (11), Eminem (eight), Ariana Grande, Megan Thee Stallion, Sabrina Carpenter and SZA (seven each); Benson Boone, Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan, Charli xcx, GloRilla, LISA, Olivia Rodrigo and Teddy Swims (four each).
The 2024 MTV VMAs are set to air live on Wednesday, Sept. 11, at 8 p.m. ET/PT from New York’s UBS Arena. Megan Thee Stallion is set to host the show. Katy Perry will receive the Video Vanguard Award and also perform.
The 2024 show will be held just three days shy of the 40th anniversary of the inaugural VMAs at Radio City Music Hall.
Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, Camila Cabello, GloRilla and Rauw Alejandro were the first artists slated to perform at the awards; they were announced on Aug. 12. Benson Boone, Halsey, Lenny Kravitz and LISA were added to the lineup on Aug. 21. Shawn Mendes, Anitta, Karol G and LL Cool J were added on Aug. 27.
Bruce Gillmer and Den of Thieves co-founder Jesse Ignjatovic are executive producers for the 2024 VMAs. Barb Bialkowski is co-executive producer. Alicia Portugal and Jackie Barba serve as executives in charge of production. Wendy Plaut is executive in charge of celebrity talent. Lisa Lauricella is music talent executive.
Here are the nominees in the four social categories, along with information on how to vote.
VMAs Most Iconic Performance
24 hours of fan voting for the new category that celebrates some of the most memorable VMAs performances from the history of the show begins Tuesday, Sept. 10 at 11 a.m. ET on @MTV Instagram Story (one round, tap to vote); concludes Sept. 11 @ 11 a.m. ET.
Beyoncé – “Love on Top” (2011)
Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Madonna, Missy Elliott – “Like a Virgin” & “Hollywood” (2003)
Eminem – “The Real Slim Shady” & “The Way I Am” (2000)
Katy Perry – “Roar” (2013, live from Empire-Fulton Ferry Park)
Lady Gaga – “Paparazzi” (2009)
Madonna – “Like a Virgin” (1984)
Taylor Swift – “You Belong With Me” (2009)
Best Trending Video
Fans will vote for the newly added category that celebrates the artist’s videos and/or songs that inspired fandoms to generate content related to the video and/or song starting Sept. 2 at @ 11 a.m. ET on @MTV Instagram Story (one round, tap to vote); closes Sept. 3 @ 11 a.m. ET.
Beyoncé – “Texas Hold ‘Em” – Parkwood Entertainment / Columbia Records
Camila Cabello feat. Playboi Carti – “I Luv It” – Geffen / Interscope Records
Chappell Roan – “Hot to Go!” – Amusement Records / Island Records, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
Charli XCX – “Apple” – Atlantic Records
Megan Thee Stallion feat. Yuki Chiba – “Mamushi” – Hot Girl Productions
Tinashe – “Nasty” – Nice Life Recording Company
Best Group
Fan voting for favorite group across all genres will begin Tuesday, Sept. 3 @ 11 a.m. ET on @MTV Instagram Story (two rounds bracket-style face-off, final round tap to vote); closes Sept. 6 @ 11 a.m. ET.
*NSYNC – RCA Records
Coldplay – Atlantic Records
Imagine Dragons – KIDinaKorner / Interscope Records
NCT Dream – SM Entertainment / Virgin Music Group
NewJeans – ADOR / Geffen Records
SEVENTEEN – PLEDIS Entertainment / Geffen Records
TOMORROW X TOGETHER – BIGHIT MUSIC / IMPERIAL / Republic Records
Twenty One Pilots – Fueled By Ramen
Song of Summer
Fan voting for all-round favorite summer 2024 hit will launch Friday, Sept. 6 at 11 a.m. ET on @MTV Instagram Story (three rounds bracket-style face-off, final round tap to vote); closes Sept. 10 at 11 a.m. ET.
Ariana Grande – “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)” – Republic Records
Benson Boone – “Beautiful Things” – Night Street Records, Inc. / Warner Records
Billie Eilish – “Birds of a Feather” – Darkroom / Interscope Records
Chappell Roan – “Good Luck, Babe!” – Amusement Records / Island Records, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
Charli XCX & Billie Eilish – “Guess featuring Billie Eilish” – Atlantic Records
Eminem – “Houdini” – Shady / Aftermath / Interscope Records
Future, Metro Boomin & Kendrick Lamar – “Like That” – Wilburn Holding Co. / Boominati / Epic / Republic
GloRilla, Megan Thee Stallion – “Wanna Be” – CMG / Interscope Records
Hozier – “Too Sweet” – Columbia Records
Kendrick Lamar – “Not Like Us” – pgLang, under exclusive license to Interscope Records
Post Malone feat. Morgan Wallen – “I Had Some Help” – Mercury / Republic / Big Loud
Sabrina Carpenter – “Please Please Please” – Island
Shaboozey – “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” – American Dogwood / EMPIRE
SZA – “Saturn” – Top Dawg Entertainment / RCA Records
Taylor Swift feat. Post Malone – “Fortnight” – Republic Records
Tommy Richman – “Million Dollar Baby” – ISO Supremacy / PULSE Records / Concord
In August 2022, Allison Crutchfield, an A&R executive at ANTI- Records, traveled to Asheville, N.C., on a mission to sign the rising singer-songwriter known as MJ Lenderman. By year’s end, Crutchfield succeeded — and had also joined his tight-knit circle of friends.
“I’ve never had a meeting with an artist where they’ve been like, ‘Just come over and we’ll have a barbecue, we’ll just drink beer and eat,’ ” recalls Crutchfield, who got to know Lenderman at the property where he was living with several others, including members of the ascendant alt-country group Wednesday.
At the time, Lenderman had just released his breakthrough album, Boat Songs, a collection of detailed vignettes set to fuzzed-out country-rock riffs, on independent label Dear Life Records. And the 25-year-old hasn’t slowed down since: In late 2023, Lenderman made his ANTI- debut with his acclaimed live album Live and Loose!; in early 2024, he hit the road with Wednesday, for which he sings and plays guitar; and in March, Waxahatchee (fronted by Crutchfield’s twin sister, Katie) released her lauded album Tigers Blood, for which she invited Lenderman into her small creative circle. Lenderman made his Billboard chart debut, on Adult Alternative Airplay, with his feature on that set’s aching lead single, “Right Back to It,” and performed it alongside Waxahatchee on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
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As Lenderman’s profile grew, he was assembling Manning Fireworks, which is set for release Sept. 6 and his first studio album for ANTI-. “It was kind of strange,” he says when reflecting on the whirlwind that accompanied becoming one of indie rock’s most heralded new artists. “I guess it was more of an obstacle of making the new record — just trying to figure out how to not think about that and make a record like I would before.”
For Lenderman, that wasn’t so long ago. A child of music lovers — “My dad was a Deadhead,” he says, detailing the Derek Trucks and Gov’t Mule shows he saw as a kid growing up in Asheville — Lenderman began playing guitar in early grade school and eventually gravitated toward indie and punk music as a teenager playing in bands around his hometown. Soon he began recording, and the pandemic afforded him more time to complete 2021’s Ghost of Your Guitar Solo and, eventually, Boat Songs.
When Lenderman’s manager, Rusty Sutton, passed along a Boat Songs promo to Crutchfield, she knew she had to sign him “probably 10 seconds” into its opening song. “In a medium like indie rock,” she explains, “where there really is only so much you can do, for someone to do something where they’re honoring the tradition of this type of music but to do it in a way that does totally feel refreshing and like something that we haven’t heard, it’s really exciting.”
Lenderman is heavily influenced by Neil Young — “I can trace back most bands that I like to Neil,” he says, citing the rock legend’s scuzzy mid-’70s phase — and he also counts Drive-By Truckers, Dinosaur Jr. and Will Oldham as key touchstones. But his music has connected with younger audiences thanks to its modern sensibility and the way it careens from absurdist humor to deep, sometimes dark, profundity. (One new song, “Wristwatch,” is an ode to loneliness where the narrator notes that he’s “got a houseboat docked at the Himbo Dome.”)
“Obviously, my real life is going to bleed through a little bit, but I try to keep it more from a third-person perspective,” he says. “I feel like that opens more possibilities — and it’s kind of more fun writing fiction.”
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For Manning Fireworks, recorded whenever he could find time between tours, Lenderman followed a familiar approach, reuniting with producer Alex Farrar at Asheville’s Drop of Sun Studios, where he has recorded tracks several times before. But the album, which expands Lenderman’s country-rock creative palette without losing its signature wit or intimacy, is far from a redux.
“I want my records to be dynamic,” Lenderman says. “For a while, I was trying to maybe take it up a notch and go louder or faster or something — and then that just really wasn’t where I was at. So I decided to go in the opposite direction and make it more acoustic and quieter.”
On Manning Fireworks, Lenderman does a bit of both. The music has never sounded richer, with fiddle and brass bolstering his guitar, but he also explores the flip side, like on album closer “Bark at the Sun,” which ends Manning Fireworks with a multiminute noise outro driven by “bass clarinet abuse drone.” While Lenderman “couldn’t tell you why” he made the creative choice — “it just felt right to me” — it’s indicative of his growth. “There’s a level of confidence coming from [him] at this point that feels different from Boat Songs,” Crutchfield says. “This is a person who is unbelievably talented and now understands how to wield that.”
Not that the eternally nonchalant Lenderman would ever describe his intuitive choices so grandly.
This story appears in the Aug. 24, 2024, issue of Billboard.