Sorry for this being a little later than usual, but I had a late lunch with friends and just now finished getting it all written.
In this week’s newsletter, I write about creating the new Chorus.fm shop and review my order of three t-shirts that arrived this afternoon. I share some thoughts on music, TV, movies, and books I enjoyed this week, and share a playlist of ten songs I loved. The supporter Q&A post can be found here.
“I’m going back to my roots” is a statement that we often hear in today’s musical landscape. Sometimes, it happens following a commercial dud of an album. Occasionally, the back to my roots album comes after rigorous stadium touring, yearning for simpler beginnings. Or, it’s a deflection from a “bad” image, resulting in cleaning up one’s act. For Steven Wilkinson, artistically known as Bibio, Ribbons is a sequel to the structured storytelling of his 2016 album, A Mineral Love.
With Ribbons, Wilkinson steps away from the ambient electronica of 2017 album, Phantom Brickworks. That doesn’t mean he’s ditched the intelligent dance music that defined past releases. In fact, the touches of synthesizers serve to elevate the gentle nature of Ribbons. On 28 February this year, Wilkinson took to Twitter to discuss the new album, divulging that it’s “an album made very much in admiration of nature, yet through a tinted window of manmade escapism. Recalling the beauty in nature and the sadness of seeing it spoiled.”
Maren Morris has debuted the Game of Thrones inspired song “Kingdom of One.”
Peter Kafka, writing at Recode:
Disney+ will launch in the US on November 12, for $7 a month. It will have a very large library of old Disney movies and TV shows — crucially, including titles from its Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars catalog — along with new movies and series made exclusively for the streaming service. It won’t have any ads. And it will allow subscribers to download all of that stuff, and watch it offline, whenever they want.
So much new TV. I’m already looking forward to The Sandlot series.
SOB X RBE and Marshmello have released the new three song EP, Roll the Dice, on streaming services.
Ellie Goulding has released the new song “Sixteen.”
Kayzo will be debuting a new song featuring All Time Low at his Coachella set.
Read More “Kayzo to Release New Song Featuring All Time Low”
The teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has been released.
Read More “‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ Teaser Trailer”
Tame Impala has released the new song “Borderline.”
Today sees new releases from Dave Hause and Norah Jones. If you hit read more you can see all the releases we have in our calendar for the week. Hit the quote bubble to access our forums and talk about what came out today, what albums you picked up, and to make mention of anything we may have missed.
The image was produced by the Event Horizon Telescope, a network of 10 radio telescopes spread across the planet and functioning as if it were a single receiver, one tuned to high-frequency radio waves. It represents a technical triumph for the scientists involved, and inaugurates a new era in the study of black holes, galaxy formation, and the laws of physics under extreme conditions.
The M87 black hole appears as a dark shadow within a doughnut-like ring of hot, glowing material.
I thought this video about the black hole was fantastic.
The Mountain Goats have released the new song “Sicilian Crest.”
PUP have announced some new tour dates.