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21 Oct 2022

Taylor Swift‘s ’Midnights’ Is Here: Stream It Now

At the stroke of midnight (obviously), Taylor Swift unveiled her highly anticipated 10th studio album, Midnights, on Friday (Oct. 21).

The 13 tracks on the album tell “the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life,” according to Swift.

“We lie awake in love and fear, in turmoil and in tears,” she later wrote about the record in two paragraphs displayed across a promotional photo posted to social media. “We stare at walls and drink until they speak back. We twist in our self-made cages and pray that we aren’t – right this minute – about to make some fateful life-altering mistake.”

“This is a collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terrors and sweet dreams,” she continued. “The floors we pace and the demons we face. For all of us who have tossed and turned and decided to keep the lanterns lit and go searching – hoping that just maybe, when the clock strikes twelve… we’ll meet ourselves.”

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The 11-time Grammy winner also revealed that “Anti-Hero,” track three on Midnights, will be getting a music video released at 8 a.m. Friday, hours after the full album drops.

Midnights follows Swift’s sister albums Folklore and Evermore, which were released in July 2020 and December 2020, respectively.

Listen to Midnights in full below.

21 Oct 2022

Every Song Ranked on Taylor Swift’s ‘Midnights’

Taylor Swift’s 10th studio album, Midnights, was introduced to us as an exercise in restlessness. “This is a collection of music written in the middle of the night,” Swift wrote in August while announcing the project, “a journey through terrors and sweet dreams. The floors we pace and the demons we face.”

This explanation for Midnights makes sense in the context of its arrival. Less than two years after the unexpected, two-pronged opus of Folklore and Evermore, and smack in the middle of her extended process of re-recording (and expanding) her first six studio albums, Swift certainly did not need to release an album of original material this year – especially considering that she already has a mini-career’s worth of new material that she has yet to even play on tour. 

Yet like any middle-of-the-night rumination, these songs gnawed at her, begging to be expanded upon instead of stored away for another day. Midnights brims with the bleary-eyed doubts, private triumphs, left-field questions and long-term musings that haunt us in the darkness; Swift felt compelled to hoist hers into the light.

There are no skippable tracks on Swift’s new album… but we already know that there are a few standouts out of the 13 on the standard edition. Here is a humble, preliminary opinion on the best songs on Taylor Swift’s Midnights. 

Want more on Taylor Swift’s new album? Click here to read a full review of Midnights, and don’t forget to check out this breakdown of the 20-plus different versions of the album’s physical format.

21 Oct 2022

Taylor Swift‘s ‘Midnights’: A Personal, Emotionally Potent Late-Night Check-In (Critic’s Take)

Taylor Swift’s 10th studio album, Midnights, was introduced to us as an exercise in restlessness. “This is a collection of music written in the middle of the night,” Swift wrote in August while announcing the project, “a journey through terrors and sweet dreams. The floors we pace and the demons we face.”

This explanation for Midnights makes sense in the context of its arrival. Less than two years after the unexpected, two-pronged opus of Folklore and Evermore, and smack in the middle of her extended process of re-recording (and expanding) her first six studio albums, Swift certainly did not need to release an album of original material this year – especially considering that she already has a mini-career’s worth of new material that she has yet to even play on tour. 

Yet like any middle-of-the-night rumination, these songs gnawed at her, begging to be expanded upon instead of stored away for another day. Midnights brims with the bleary-eyed doubts, private triumphs, left-field questions and long-term musings that haunt us in the darkness; Swift felt compelled to hoist hers into the light.

Working closely once again with longtime kindred spirit Jack Antonoff, Swift uses Midnights to experiment with her sound in a range of directions; gone are the guitars that helped define Folklore and Evermore, replaced by an emotionally revealing brand of pop that’s rhythmic, synth-driven and guided more than ever by Swift’s razor-sharp lyricism. Midnights will draw comparisons to Swift’s more eclectic full-lengths like 2017’s Reputation and 2019’s Lover, simply by existing as more sonically amorphous than the mainstream pop of 1989 or the indie-folk of Folklore and Evermore.

While this project does resemble those albums in Swift’s tendency to color outside the lines of its core aesthetic, Midnights is also more personal and focused, with a relatively short run time (13 tracks in 44 minutes), just one guest (Lana Del Rey, stopping by for the swirling sing-along “Snow on the Beach”) and a smaller studio team (Antonoff and Swift are the only producers listed on the album) yielding a collection of messages that sound delivered straight from Swift’s sleepless mind.

Detours are taken, and voices are warped; Swift glistens in natural beauty, and lets more f-bombs fly than ever. Midnights can be messy, and that messiness is purposeful. Through her songwriting, Swift has embraced the complexities of her personality — that she can be both the bitter partner declaring “By the way, I’m going out tonight!” on “Bejeweled,” and the woman terrified of falling in love again (“You know how much I hate that everybody just expects me to bounce back / Just like that”) one song later on “Labyrinth.” 

Swift’s place in popular music continues to be larger than life, and that status will likely be reflected with the commercial performance of the most anticipated album release of the fall. But on Midnights, Swift shrinks the scale, and pinpoints the humanity that has made her such a beloved storyteller. She didn’t need to capture those long nights, but that insomnia has made her discography, and legacy, all the richer.

21 Oct 2022

Taylor Swift Drops ‘Midnights’ Teaser During Thursday Night Football, And It Looks Like a Lot of Music Videos Are Coming

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Hours before Taylor Swift‘s Midnights hit stores and streaming services, the pop superstar teased her 10th studio album during the Thursday Night Football game on Oct. 20 between the New Orleans Saints and Arizona Cardinals.

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After an introduction from Swift herself, a visual spectacle was unleashed on fans, that appears to show a series of scenes from music videos — possibly for all 10 tracks on her new album.

Credits at the end of the teaser revealed a cast of featured characters, in alphabetical order: Jack Antonoff, Laith Ashley, Mike Birbiglia, Laura Dern, John Early, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Haim (Alana, Danielle & Este), Pat McGrath, Swift herself and Dita Von Teese.

In her intro, Swift called the first look a “teaser trailer of the secret projects i’ve been working on for a really long time. Those projects are the Midnights Music Movies, the music videos that I made for this album to sort of explore visually the world of this record. I love storytelling, I love songwriting, i love writing videos, I love directing them, and this was a really fun opportunity to work again with the cinematographer Rina Yang, who was my collaborator on the All Too Well 10-minute short film. So we really wanted to challenge ourselves to do different things this time around and stretch, and I’m really proud of what we made and I really hope you like them. We worked with some amazing actors that you’ll find out more about at the end of the teaser trailer,” she concluded, referencing the credits.

We’ll have to wait for the arrival of Midnights and the first music videos — for “Anti-Hero,” arriving at 3 a.m. ET — for more details.

Ahead of the Thursday Night Football game on Amazon Prime, Taylor announced the trailer by telling fans: “You would see it before the Midnights album came out, so meet me there?”

If you’re a Swiftie and don’t have a Prime account yet, you can join today and enjoy a free 30-day trial and watch the Midnights teaser in tonight’s game. After your first free month, Amazon Prime will cost $14.99/month, or $139 for the annual plan.

21 Oct 2022

Taylor Swift Is Selling Over 20 Versions of ‘Midnights’ in Different Styles and Formats

For over a decade, Taylor Swift has been offering fans a multitude of options when it comes to purchasing her albums across physical formats with exclusive editions available through a longstanding partnership with Target. But with her new album, Midnights, out Friday (Oct. 20), she’s truly outdone herself.

There are over 20 different versions of the album available on CD, LP and cassette in various colors, with different cover artwork, censored and uncensored, with and without autographs. That plethora of options is great for fans who may want a different version than their friends, or who — as many seem to — feel driven to collect them all. It’s also great for Swift, who’s earning more money from increased sales that will impact her performance on the Billboard charts and likely add up to one of the year’s best album debut weeks.

Few artists, if any, attract as much attention as Swift does for her promotion and sales strategy, thanks largely to her close relationship with her fans. In turn, she is brilliant at developing physical goods they want to buy, in addition to just streaming her music. Last year, following the release of her re-recordings of Fearless and Red, she accounted for one out of every 50 albums sold in the U.S., according to Luminate. She knows Swifties are collectors, and is now providing not only the multiple Midnights versions but elaborate containers to put them in, like a $39 CD clock or vinyl clock for $49, which display the four albums in a timely format, or $79 faux-leather vinyl collector’s case.

In today’s streaming-centric music industry, physical albums have become collectible tokens of fandom, and artists have been responding to growing demand. BTS and other K-pop megastars regularly rack up huge numbers by selling CDs and LPs with different colors and exclusive postcards and photos sold as collectible items, with the music as a secondary benefit. When South Korean boy band Stray Kids’ MAXIDENT topped the most recent Billboard 200 chart for the week of Oct. 22, it did so with 10 CD versions, including autographed CDs and exclusive Barnes & Noble and Target releases. Increasingly, it’s becoming a mainstream strategy for acts in the U.S., too. Such disparate acts as Denzel Curry and Slipknot have recently released various physical versions of their new albums as well. It just so happens that these sales all count towards an album’s Billboard chart performances. So by offering four different versions of Midnights per format, Swift is at least quadrupling her revenue from some super fans, as well as their impact on the charts.

Based on Billboard‘s research, here is a full rundown of the different Midnights versions fans can buy:

CDs:
Moonstone Blue
Blood Moon
Mahogany
Jade Green

Signed CDs:
Moonstone Blue (Webstore Exclusive)
Blood Moon (Webstore Exclusive)
Mahogany (Webstore Exclusive)
Jade Green (Webstore Exclusive)

Clean-version CDs:
Moonstone Blue
Blood Moon
Mahogany
Jade Green

Vinyl LPs:
Moonstone Blue
Blood Moon
Mahogany
Jade Green

Signed Vinyl LPs:
Moonstone Blue (Webstore Exclusive)
Blood Moon (Webstore Exclusive)
Mahogany (Webstore Exclusive)
Jade Green (Webstore Exclusive)

Cassettes:
Moonstone Blue

Target Exclusives:
Lavender Deluxe CD (With Three Bonus Tracks)
Lavender Vinyl LP

Digital:
Moonstone Blue (Webstore Exclusive)
Moonstone Blue (Clean) (Webstore Exclusive)
Standard – 13 Tracks
Standard – 13 Tracks (Clean)
Standard – 14 Tracks
Standard – 14 Tracks (Clean)

21 Oct 2022

NCT DREAM Announce ‘In a DREAM’ Movie Coming to Theaters Worldwide

After NCT DREAM hit a career milestone with two nights in South Korea’s largest concert venue, the K-pop boy band is sharing the experience with fans worldwide through their first-ever movie.

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NCT DREAM THE MOVIE : In a DREAM will be released worldwide this November. The feature film will spotlight the group on stage and backstage at their Olympic Stadium show in Seoul from September earlier this year. Fans will also get to see the preparations that went into the concert and interviews with all seven members of NCT DREAM. According to a press release, NCT DREAM members Mark, Renjun, Jeno, Haechan, Jaemin, Chenle and Jisung will “share candid stories and their thoughts and feelings” and “a look at the future the members envision away from the stage.”

The new flick celebrates NCT DREAM’s THE DREAM SHOW2 : In a DREAM concert that played in Seoul, as well as multiple cities in Japan, after the release Glitch Mode album, which hit No. 50 on the Billboard 200 in April to become the group’s first entry on the chart.

In A DREAM will be released in CGV theater chains with ScreenX as well as 4DX and 4DX Screen formats, which offer multi-sensory effects for viewers. Distribution for the movie comes from Trafalgar Releasing (who have pushed fan-focused movie experiences for artists like BTS, Coldplay and Twenty One Pilots) and CJ 4DPLEX Inc. (the tech company behind 4DX, ScreenX and 4DX Screen theaters). ScreenX offers a 270-degree field of view perspective in movie theaters by expanding screens to the side walls, while 4DX provides moviegoers with special effects like vibrations, wind, scents and more to enhance on-screen visuals. Trafalgar reports over 344 ScreenX auditoriums including 4DX Screen around the world in 38 countries.

“We are pleased to continue our relationship with CJ 4DPLEX Inc. and to partner for the first time with SM Entertainment to bring NCT DREAM’s first movie to cinemas worldwide,” said Marc Allenby, CEO of Trafalgar Releasing. “NCTzens all around the globe will be thrilled with the epic live concert performances and exciting behind-the-scenes footage that is meant to be experienced larger-than-life on the big screen.”

NCT DREAM’s debut on the silver screen makes them the latest K-pop act to deliver fans a concert-documentary hybrid film, last seen from the likes of SEVENTEEN, who brought their Power of Love : The Movie film to cinemas in April.

Forthcoming premiere dates and ticketing information for the November screenings will be available here.

21 Oct 2022

The Rudeboyz, Maluma & Adam Levine Unleash Reggaeton Track ‘Ojala’: Stream It Here

Just days after announcing their collaboration, The Rudeboyz, Maluma and Adam Levine have released “Ojalá,” a sultry reggaeon track, on which the Maroon 5 frontman sings in Spanish for the first time.

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The new song — produced by Maluma’s longtime collaborators The Rudeboyz — finds the Colombian star and Levine trading verses about losing a girl and getting over the heartbreak. They both declare: It won’t be easy getting over them. “Ojalá” is the debut single from The Rudeboyz’s upcoming debut album.

The track arrived alongside a music video directed by Diane Martel via NEON16 & Sony Music Latin. The three-minute clip stars off with Chan El Genio and Kevin ADG (The Rudeboyz) listening to an “incredible” beat they just produced and say, “What if we can get Maluma and Adam Levine on this song, we’d kill it. Can you imagine? That would be a dream.”

The artists first announced the collaboration Oct. 14 on social media. Levine teased a 20-second clip of the upbeat track on his TikTok page, captioning the post, “#Ojala @RUDEBOYZ @Juan Luis.” Maluma shared the snippet to his Instagram Stories and as a post, writing on one Story, “What do you think about this?” Meanwhile, The Rudeboyz wrote, “A very important release for us with people we admire a lot!!  Keep your eyes on this !! @maluma @adamlevine.”

Back in June, Levine had already hinted at a possible collaboration with Maluma. He posted a photo of them on Instagram of the two hanging out in a studio and wrote, “World ain’t ready.”

The Rudeboyz, who were recently signed by Tainy‘s NEON16, have produced hits for artists such as Shakira, Sech, Jennifer Lopez, Prince Royce and Sebastián Yatra, among others.

Check out “Ojalá’s” music video below:

21 Oct 2022

Swing Legend Louis Prima’s Catalog Acquired by Reservoir

Reservoir Media has acquired the catalog of Louis Prima from the Gia Maione Prima Foundation, the company announced Thursday (Oct. 20). The deal encompasses rights to both his publishing and recorded music.

One of the greatest artists, trumpetists and songwriters of the big band era, New Orleans-born Prima’s catalog includes decade-defining songs like “Sing, Sing, Sing,” which he both wrote and recorded. His catalog also includes famous renditions of standards like “I’m Just a Gigolo (I Ain’t Got Nobody),” “Pennies from Heaven,” “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” and “Buona Sera (Good Night).” “Pennies from Heaven,” in particular, has had a recent renaissance thanks to TikTok users, with nearly 300,000 short videos having been created to the song to date, reestablishing it with a new generation of music fans.

Prima’s prominence in popular culture was also immortalized through his voice role as King Louie, the orangutan from Disney’s 1967 animated film The Jungle Book, which features Prima’s classic track “I Wan’na Be Like You (The Monkey Song).”

In the intervening years, Prima’s songs have been covered and re-recorded countless times, including by the Charlie Calello Orchestra (“Sing, Sing, Sing”), Reba McEntire (“Sunday Kind of Love”) and The Brian Setzer Orchestra (“Jump, Jive an’ Wail”). In 2018, Kids See Ghosts — the rap project comprised of Kanye West and Kid Cudi — sampled Prima’s “What Will Santa Claus Say (When He Finds Everybody Swingin’)” on their song “4th Dimension.”

Rell Lafargue, Reservoir president and COO, commented of the acquisition, “Louis Prima composed and recorded some of the most iconic swing music of all time – his name and the genre are practically synonymous. We are honored to represent his catalog, working to drive deeper recognition of his legacy for generations to come.” He added, “Born and raised in Louisiana myself, I am proud to partner with Tony Sylvester from the Gia Maione Prima Foundation, particularly to further support their impactful work in the city of New Orleans.”

21 Oct 2022

Kimbra Sets New Album, Signs With Inertia Music & PIAS: Exclusive

Kimbra returns with fresh music and a new label deal.

The two-time Grammy-winning artist signs with Inertia Music and the independent music company’s parent PIAS on a global basis, Billboard can exclusively reveal.

The first release through the new arrangement is “Save Me,” which drops Friday (Oct. 21) and is an early cut from her forthcoming album A Reckoning.

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“The whole team at Inertia are ecstatic to be working with the unparalleled talent that is Kimbra,” comments Cameron Walsh, Inertia’s director of label services for Australia and New Zealand. “Her new confessionally raw body of work will blow fans away and launch Kimbra into a new dimension. We’re incredibly excited for everyone to discover this striking new chapter.”

“Save Me” is accompanied by a dramatic music video, shot in Iceland by director Yvan Fabing.

Born in Hamilton, New Zealand, Kimbra released her debut album, Vows, in Australia in 2011. Later, the set was reworked and released on both sides of the Atlantic with additional tracks, including “Come Into My Head,” “Warrior” (featuring Mark Foster and DJ A-Trak) and a rendition of Nina Simone’s “Plain Gold Ring.”

The indie-pop artist’s career took flight with her contribution to Gotye’s global hit “Somebody That I Used To Know.” The song logged 8 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and she became the first female artist born in the ’90s to top the chart.

Kimbra made it a perfect two-from-two at the 55th Grammy Awards, winning record of the year and best pop duo/group performance for “Somebody.”

She went on to win best female artist for two successive years the ARIA Music Awards and snagged five New Zealand Tui Awards, including album of the year in 2012.

Following the success of her collaboration with Gotye, Vows bowed at No. 14 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Her sophomore record The Golden Echo dropped in 2014, peaking at No. 5 in Australia, and No. 43 in the U.S.; her third LP, Primal Heart, came in 2018.

A Reckoning began taking shape in 2018, during Kimbra’s tour with co-producer Ryan Lott (Son Lux), and is due early next year, reps say.

“It’s the most sonically autonomous and confessionally raw she has ever been, finding influence in everything from modern movie soundtracks to electronic and industrial worlds,” reads an update.

20 Oct 2022

Liz Truss Gets Hilariously Played Off U.K. TV to Taylor Swift‘s ’Blank Space’

So it’s gonna be forever… or it’s gonna go down in flames. Liz Truss may be out as U.K. prime minister, but one of the country’s major news channels sent her off with a montage set to a Taylor Swift smash.

While the outgoing politician lasted just 44 days in office before resigning, the cheeky tribute was particularly fitting considering she posted a selfie with the superstar back in 2019 while attending the BAFTAs.

A reporter for Channel 4 News opened the segment by saying, “Miss Truss said that her favorite song was ‘Blank Space’ by Taylor Swift. We’ll leave you with that and some images of her. Good night.”

From there, the montage reads as something of a Swiftie fancam as Tay’s voice sings, “Nice to meet you, where you been/ I could show you incredible things/ Magic, madness, heaven, sin/ Saw you there and I thought/ Oh my god, look at that face/ You look like my next mistake/ Love’s a game, wanna play?” over clips of the conservative politician’s short stint in office.

Naturally, the Twitterverse could hardly get enough of the video, with one fan writing, “IM IN TEARS THERES NO WAY CHANNEL 4 DID THIS HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAB #LizTruss.”

Meanwhile, Swift is just hours away from releasing her landmark 10th studio album Midnights at, obviously, midnight on Friday (Oct. 21). Funny enough, the rollout for the highly anticipated LP has actually lasted longer than Truss’ entire career as the U.K.’s shortest-serving prime minister.

Watch Truss’ brief reign as the top politician in Great Britain be memorialized to “Blank Space” below.