MUSIC

Stevie Nicks Offers a Spell for COVID-19 (Featuring Harry Styles)

She called "Fine Line" Harry's "Rumours" in a sweet note to fans, but mostly to Harry.

Larry Marano/Shutterstock

Stevie Nicks posted a sweet note on Twitter today, encouraging fans to stay strong during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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New Releases

Norah Jones Quietly Persists With "I'm Alive"

The first song from her upcoming album features Wilco's Jeff Tweedy.

Norah Jones - I'm Alive

With seven studio albums to her name, Norah Jones has left an irrefutable impact on jazz and folk music of the 2000s onward.

But the Grammy-winning singer is also a fan of collaborations, too, having released albums with Willie Nelson, Jack White, Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong, and more. The latest to team up with her is Jeff Tweedy, who's become revered in his own right as the leader of seminal indie rock group Wilco.

Tweedy co-wrote and played guitar on "I'm Alive," the lead single from Jones' upcoming album Pick Me Up Off the Floor. In Jones' typical fashion, it's a loungey, piano-driven tune that centers on her trademark smoky vocals (Tweedy's son, Spencer, provides drums). Although the track feels generally calm, its message is especially harrowing for women in the current political climate. "She's crushed by thoughts / At night of men / Who want her rights / And usually win," she croons, though by the song's end, an air of hopefulness takes over. "I care a lot / I know the things I'm not / It's alright, it's OK / And it's not / Maybe things will change."

Listen below:

Norah Jones - I'm Alivewww.youtube.com

MUSIC

Let's Not Overcomplicate Harry Styles' New Album, "Fine Line"

Fine Line isn't a creative reinvention of the wheel, but it's still a lot of fun

LOS ANGELES, CA. November 01, 2022: Harry Styles at the premiere for "My Policeman" at the Regency Bruin Theatre.

Photo by: Paul Smith-FeatureflashBy Featureflash Photo Agency / Shutterstock

Harry Styles has been on everyone's mind all 2019.

Harry Styles - Adore You (Official Video)www.youtube.com

The years have not been kind to a few of the One Directioners, but Styles has all but reinvented himself. He is now cool and collected, like a 2013 Alex Turner or Matty Healy, and as stylish as a millennial Elton John, all combined with the neighborhood quirkiness of the boy next door. "It all just comes down to I'm having more fun, I guess," he recently told Rolling Stone. His personal growth in the last two years has culminated in Fine Line, a joyful and colorful psychedelic pop record that respectfully dips its toes into the pop-sensibilities of its elders, without jeopardizing the youthful swagger of its young host.

As a handsome LGBTQ+ icon, Styles embodies what everyone hopes will happen when you embrace your identity. You'll get all tatted up, develop a colorful fashion sense, and become magnanimous towards your former self. "Step into the light," he begs his listeners as he flails among gorgeous naked bodies in the "Lights Up," music video. "Know who you are."

Fine Line is not the genre-redefining outing critics anticipated, but it is, as Styles said, incredibly fun. Its inspirations are portrayed quite literally, which certain critics take issue with. "She" is an obvious ode to Prince and Pink Floyd, with its soulful crooning and crisp rock edges; and the gentle folk pining of "Canyon Moon" is reminiscent of a young Joni Mitchell. It's all palpable and easily digestible. Fine Line isn't a creative reinvention of the wheel; songs like "To Be Lonely" and "Treat People With Kindness" feel stagnant and falter when compared to the shapeshifting tracks of "Golden" or "Sunflower, Vol. 6"; but it's all part of the process. Styles is 25 and spent his childhood as a teenage heartthrob whose identity was staked in album sales and how cute he was. As many 25-year-olds before him, Styles has learned to gravitate towards authenticity and is seen on Fine Line openly examining a wide range of styles and sounds, waiting to see which shoe fits.

On "Lights Up" and "Adore You," the shoe fits perfectly, but critics were quick to point out the fumbles. "Styles is here, buried underneath the fame and the fear," wrote Pitchfork. "I hear his sweetness, his charm...but mostly I hear a guy who's still afraid he'll never make a David Bowie record." Styles is still a 25-year-old, an amateur at living life. Is he not allowed to experiment with different directions amidst his new-found independence? Or have the short attention spans of the general public–and excessive demand for quality content–perforated the very real and grueling artistic process that is required to generate said content? Styles' sophomore album is not his magnum opus, but why are we saying it has to be? Is that his problem, or ours?

MUSIC

Let Leslie Odom Jr.'s Silky Vocals Ease All the Pain In Your Soul

The sonic equivalent of a hot toddy on a cold night.

Leslie Odom Jr.: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

Leslie Odom Jr. has released a new album, entitled simply Mr, and it's, well, soothing.

whyy.org

While some music is great for diving into the darkness so you can come out stronger (cough, FKA twigs' latest album), some music is useful for replacing all the aches in your heart with elegant jazz, dreamy violins, and of course, Leslie Odom Jr.'s voice.

If we're talking voices, Odom Jr. has the voice. It's the vocal equivalent of a hot toddy on a cold night, an advil in the thick of a migraine, a sip of warm but not hot honey-ginger tea. It's just rough enough to sound real, and thank god for that little rasp, otherwise it would be almost incomprehensibly smooth. He's riffing magnificently and shifting from falsetto to sultry low notes with impressive ease.

Mr finds the former Hamilton star adding modern inflections to classics such as Nina Simone's Feeling Good, using that song's triumphant chord progression to fuel the energy of his song "Standards," which is all about having high standards.

Wait for Itwww.youtube.com

Though not ostensibly a Christmas album, Mr still feels like Christmas—it's got all the bells and whistles, and you can imagine it playing in a department store during the Christmas sale rush, but in the best way possible. That's not to say it's not great party music: It would also be perfect to play during a Christmas party.

Odom Jr. can't quite shake his theatre kid roots, and it shows, as the album has an element of flashy performativity to it. That doesn't hurt the quality of the music. If anything, it's refreshing in an era obsessed with radical authenticity and glitchy sonic experimentation. Though not averse to drawing from a wide range of styles, Odom Jr. makes it all sound classic and refined, resulting in a cohesive, beautiful, and deeply, deeply soothing work of art.

Some of the songs are quite poignant, while others turn political, but ultimately, it's the perfect album to listen to if you're trying to stop racing endlessly through the hamster wheel and just take a minute to rest. On "Cold," he's literally inviting you in from the cold and promising to keep you safe, so take note. Here's some advice: Tonight, shut off Twitter, curl up with a cup of echinacea tea, and let Leslie Odom Jr. sing you to sleep. Sleep for twelve hours, wake up with your winter cold gone and a newfound excitement for the holiday season running through your currently cold, dead veins, and give thanks for Mr and all the pristine sounds that Leslie Odom Jr's voice box is capable of creating.

Harry Styles

Photo by John Angelillo (UPI/Shutterstock)

Harry Styles nearly broke Ticketmaster on Thursday morning, when tickets to his exclusive performance before his Fine Line tour went on sale for only $25, with a presale code available for early access.

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MUSIC

Harry Styles' "Lights Up" Is an Anthem for Confused Bisexuals

Gender and sexuality is a performance, but there's no script.

Harry Styles has kept fans waiting for new music for quite a while, but he certainly did not disappoint with his first single since 2017's "Sign of the Times."

"Lights Up" is a frothy, effortless indie pop number that places Styles' flawless vocals above a funky bassline and dreamy guitar flourishes. It feels infused with the kind of energy that citrus skincare advertisements promise you, but its substance and nuance extend much further than skin-deep.

The song builds up to clusters of harmonies and gospel choirs, wound together with delicate piano. At three minutes, it's a short, concise, and crisp collage of modern and vintage sounds that show off Styles' versatility as well as his expert pop sensibility.

Lyrically, it's all over the place, and since the moment it was released, fans have been reading into its possible implications. Some proposed that the lyrics "I'm not ever going back" are referring to Styles' decision to never return to his One Direction boy band days.

Others think that this is Styles' official declaration of his bisexuality (it is National Coming Out Day, after all). Styles has never explicitly confirmed his sexual orientation, and in 2017, he told The Sun that he doesn't use labels. "No, I've never felt the need to really. No…I don't feel like it's something I've ever felt like I have to explain about myself," he said.

His lyrics have insinuated bisexual themes before. In the song Medicine, he sang, "Tingle running through my bones / The boys and the girls are in / I mess around with him / And I'm okay with it."

Perhaps Styles is smart to avoid labeling his sexuality. Recently, there has been extensive debate about the difference between bisexuality and pansexuality, a difference that largely boils down to semantics and individual interpretation. Labels are perpetually changing and shifting, but of course, these monikers and intricacies obscure what is arguably the point of the entire LGBTQ+ identity: We should all be able to be who we are, and to love who we wish to love.

Of course, it sometimes seems like our world does everything to make this impossible. A deeper dig into the "Lights Up" lyrics reflects this, revealing that not everything is love and light in Harry Styles' glamorous world. Styles did tell Rolling Stone that his new album is going to be all about "having s*x and feeling sad," and in "Lights Up," he's keeping that promise.

The lyrics, "All the lights couldn't put out the dark / Running through my heart / Lights up and they know who you are / Do you know who you are?" seems to hint at a kind of existential questioning that belies the discomfort that often accompanies trying to figure out who you are, corroborated by the pressures of being caught in the insatiable limelight.

We may never know who Harry Styles really is, beyond the glittering figure he presents himself to be. Then again, we're all constantly performing various identities, many of us never knowing just how much we've been influenced and shaped by the outside world and its conventions. As we try to come to terms with who we really are, the best we can hope is that we have a few nights spent on the backs of motorcycles like Styles in "Lights Up," throwing our hands up to the sky and dancing to the beat.