When Taylor Swift announced her surprise new album folklore two weeks ago, she revealed that physical editions would contain a bonus cut titled ‘the lakes’. Now that CDs and vinyls are reaching stores, that song has officially been unveiled, though the physical-only cut still remains off streaming services.
‘The Lakes’ was co-written and co-produced by longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff, and unlike much of folklore, The National’s Aaron Dessner was not involved in the making of the track. It’s named after the Lake District in the United Kingdom, a place popularized by Romantic poets such as William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge. It finds her yearning for a simpler time: “A red rose grew up out of ice frozen ground with no one around to tweet it,” she sings, “While I bathe in cliffside pools with my calamitous love and insurmountable grief.” She also refers to someone, presumably longtime boyfriend Joe Alwyn, as her “muse”.
Kali Uchis has shared a new song titled ‘Aquí Yo Mando’ with Rico Nasty. Sung mostly in Spanish, the collaborative single features production from Tainy, Albert Hype, and Jon Leone, and Lil Xan collaborator RVNES. Check it out below.
Earlier this year, Kali Uchis released her most recent EP TO FEEL ALIVE, which was preceded by her 2018 debut LP Isolation. Rico Nasty has shared a number of one-off singles since her 2019 collaborative project with Kenny Beats, Anger Management, including ‘Dirty’, ‘My Little Alien’, and ‘Popstar’.
Saint Raymond, an exciting artist, mostly known for his song Movie in My Mind, has released his latest song Love This Way. The song follows up on Saint Raymond’s Right Way Around. Talking about the song’s meaning, Saint Raymond said “The song is about when a relationship doesn’t quite work how it should,” adding “But you’re both too scared to let go and you wonder if it’s just how it is and always will be. And whether it’s better to stay in it together in a messed up way.”
The mellifluous song is accompanied by visuals which were created byFranklin & Marchetta.
Firstly on our Sound Selection, we have Find Myself by the terrifically talented DYLYN. The song itself envelops the raw, catchy, rock-style DYLYN has shaped since her debut EP Sauvignon and a Kimono, back in 2018. For the song, DYLYN worked alongside Ryan Guldemond who is known for being the member of Indie rock band Mother Mother. Talking about the collaboration with Guldemond, DYLYN stated “After working with Ryan, I thought, ‘This is it. This is finally the stuff I’ve been wanting to write. The 18-year-old me has returned.’ I hadn’t felt that excited in a long time.”
Find Myself is part of an upcoming EP by DYLYN and features a brilliant music video which was inspired by classic horror films.
Justy Expectations
Moving forward, we have the exciting Justy, a Brooklyn-born singer-songwriter, with her newest single Expectations. Justy returns with another euphonious track this time a song that focuses on the theme of unconditional love. Like Justy’s previous song Stringing Along, Expectations also delivers a superb production that encompasses an ear-warming flow that is accompanied by Justy’s playlist ready vocals.
Expectations is the first single from Justy’s forthcoming debut album.
BTS have announced a new concert film titled Break the Silence: The Movie. Hitting theaters worldwide on September 10th via Trafalgar Releasing, it marks the K-pop group’s fourth concert film and will document their 2019 Love Yourself: Speak Yourself world tour through the United States, Europe, and Asia. Find more information here.
Following the world premiere, the film will make its way to US theaters starting September 24. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, dates are subject to local theater opening schedules. Tickets will be available on August 13th.
In addition to footage from the band’s first international stadium tour, the film also explores “each band member behind the curtain,” according to a press release.
Break the Silence will be the follow-up to 2019’s Bring the Soul: the Movie, which will return to theaters from August 28th-30th and will feature a preview of Break the Silence. Tickets for the re-run of their 2019 movie go on sale on August 18th.
The Weeknd has unveiled a new single featuring the late Juice WRLD titled ‘Smile’. Check it out below.
The track marks the first collaborative effort between the Canadian singer and the late Chicago rapper, who passed away in September after suffering a seizure. Just months before he died, he tweeted: “Me and The Weeknd would make a diamond record…”
‘Smile’ arrives a few hours before The Weeknd’s virtual event on TikTok, an “immersive XR experience”, set to air at 8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT today (August 7). Throughout the event, TikTok users be able to donate to the Equal Justice Initiative, which aims to bring an end to mass incarceration in the US.
Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion have joined forces on a new collaborative track titled ‘WAP’. Check it out below, alongside an accompanying music video featuring cameos from Kylie Jenner, Normani, Rosalía, Rubi Rose, Sukihana, and Mulatto.
Cardi noted on Instagram that this is the censored version of the ‘WAP’ video. “The song was so nasty that YouTube was like ‘hold on, wait a minute, that song might be too goddamn nasty,’” she said.
First teased back in April, ‘WAP’ marks Cardi B’s first single since last year’s ‘Press’. Back in March, Meg released a mini album called Suga, which was followed by the Beyoncé-featuring remix of ‘Savage’ as well as the single ‘Girls in the Hood’, both of which she performed at the 2020 BET Awards.
Flatbush Zombies have shared a new single, the James Blake-produced ‘Afterlife’. It comes with with an accompanying music video directed by Arnaud Bresson and shot in Paris before the COVID-19 pandemic. Check it out below.
“Today, there is no technology that x-ray films a living being without endangering it, so we worked hand in hand with a post-production company to develop a technical device that would allow us to achieve a similar effect,” Bresson explained in a press release. “We used multi-camera tracking, recorded the positions and movements of our characters to extract and apply to our 3D compositions. It took four months of work to find the perfect style.”
Flatbush Zombies put out their latest EP now, more than ever in June, following their 2018 album Vacation in Hell. James Blake recently unveiled the single ‘Are You Even Real?’.
Jamila Woods has shared a new track titled ‘SULA (Paperback)’. The song is inspired by the late Toni Morrison’s 1974 novel of the same name. Listen to it below.
“It’s the first Toni Morisson novel I ever read and it inspired the first chapbook of poems I ever wrote,” Woods said in a statement. “The novel shows the evolution of a friendship between two Black women and how they choose to navigate society’s strict gender roles and rules of respectability. On Sula, Toni Morrison wrote, ‘living totally by the law and surrendering totally to it without questioning anything sometimes makes it impossible to know anything about yourself.’”
She added: “Returning to the story several years later, it gave me permission to reject confining ideas about my identity designed to shrink my spirit. It reminded me to embrace my tenderness, my sensitivities, my ways of being in my body. This song is a mantra to allow myself space to experience my gender, love, intimacy, and sexuality on my own terms.”
Jamila Woods’ most recent album was 2019’s LEGACY! LEGACY!, which followed a similar premise and included tributes to artists of color including Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, and Frida Kahlo.
In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on August 7th, 2020:
The Microphones,Microphones in 2020
Phil Elverum is back with his first new album as the Microphones in 17 years. Microphones in 2020 is out now via P.W. Elverum & Sun and is comprised of a single 44-minute track. The LP is accompanied by an album-length short film, which premiered on Youtube yesterday. “Instead of shoring up the tilting walls of whoever I think I am, I push at the seams and try to tip it all over,” the artist said in a statement. “I do not want to be well known by my name or an image or an idea that might trail me around. I do want to know well, and to share insights, about the workings of time and weather growing and eroding this one life.” The album follows 2003’s Mount Eerie; last year, Elverum released Lost Wisdom Pt. 2 in a collaboration with Julie Doiron.
Aminé,Limbo
Aminé has come through with a new album titled Limbo, out now via EMI Records. The album features contributions from Vince Staples, Slowthai, JID, Injury Reserve, Summer Walker, and Charlie Wilson. “It’s something I’m really proud of and something I’ve been putting a lot of effort into for the past two years,” Aminé explained in a 2019 interview with Bandwagon. “I haven’t really gone this in-depth with my music in a while, so it feels good.” The album follows 2018’s ONEPOINTFIVE and includes the previously released singles ‘Compensating’, ‘Shimmy’, and ‘Riri’.
Deep Purple,Whoosh!
Deep Purple have returned with their 21st studio LP, Whoosh!, through earMUSIC. Originally scheduled for release in June but delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the album was produced by Bob Ezrin, who helmed Deep Purple’s previous two records, 2013’s Now What? and 2017’s inFinite (2017). “We’ve included everything that made the whole band smile, including Bob Ezrin,” guitarist Steve Morse said in a statement. “We’ve always enjoyed making music and having the incredible luxury of a loyal audience.” According to a press release, the album sees the band “pushing the boundaries of time, while voicing their resentment about the current situation of the world and addressing all generations.”
Glass Animals,Dreamland
British psychedelic outfit Glass Animals have dropped their third studio album, Dreamland. Originally slated for release on July 10th, the follow-up to 2016’s How to Be a Human Being was postponed “in order to respect and support the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement,” according to a statement. The band’s first album since drummer Joe Seaward suffered severe injuries after being hit by a truck while riding his bike in 2018, it delves into frontman Dave Bayley’s past following a period introspection. “The future was damn scary and completely unknown,” Bayley recalled. “During those weeks in the hospital, it was so difficult to look forwards that I found myself looking backwards.”
Other albums out today:
Jason Molina, Eight Gates; Luke Bryan, Born Here, Live Here, Die Here;Jaga Jazzist, Pyramid; Washed Out,Purple Noon;Alison Mosshart, Sound Wheel.
Phil Elverum is back with his first new album as the 
Deep Purple
British psychedelic outfit 