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aron! and Mei Semones Turn a Volcano Drive in Maui Into the Charming New Single “Macramé”

Eric Alper
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aron! and Mei Semones Turn a Volcano Drive in Maui Into the Charming New Single “Macramé”

Some songs have origin stories that do half the work for them. aron! and Mei Semones wrote “Macramé” in a car on the way up a volcano in Maui, and the result carries that spontaneous, sun-warmed energy from the first note. The new single is out now on Verve Records, and it’s the most vivid preview yet of aron!’s highly anticipated debut album due later this year.

aron! describes the song with characteristic candor: “So I’m dating this girl named Mei and I wrote a song about imagining living together (getting way ahead of myself) and decorating our room. We’re hanging up posters and macramé (macramei). Mei wrote her verse in a car with me on our way up a volcano in Maui. She also wrote the crazy guitar stuff as she does.”

The track fuses indie rock with jazz-leaning guitar melodies, capturing the specific electricity of a new relationship before the nerves have fully settled. Mei Semones brings her intricate guitar work and bilingual lyricism to the collaboration, with verses shifting between English and Japanese in the way that feels completely natural within her songwriting world. “I admire Aron so much as a musician so I am very happy we got to make this song,” she says. “It was so fun to write and practice different lines together. I always learn new things when we play.”

Semones is one of the most compelling rising voices in contemporary indie and jazz. Named an artist to watch by the New York Times, The FADER, Pigeons & Planes, and Rolling Stone, the 25-year-old Brooklyn-based guitarist and songwriter has built her reputation on a sound that moves fluidly between jazz, bossa nova, and indie-pop, with lyrical frameworks that flutter between English and Japanese. Her debut album ‘Animaru’ arrived in May 2025, followed by her collaborative EP ‘Kurage,’ recorded across London, New York, and her hometown of Ann Arbor. Standout performance sessions with COLORS, Vevo DSCVR, KEXP, and Audiotree have amplified her reach significantly.

aron! arrives at “Macramé” with serious momentum of his own. Born in Charlotte, NC, he studied classical composition at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts before earning a full scholarship to the University of Miami, where he majored in jazz voice and film scoring. His 2 previous singles have already drawn significant attention. John Mayer praised “Wonderful Thing” on his SiriusXM channel, calling aron! “really good at putting harmonic information in a tune that is both complex, which shines nicely on aron! and his talent, but also is right for the tune.” The Line of Best Fit called him “proof that jazz isn’t just alive, it’s evolving.”

“Macramé” is the third single building toward aron!’s debut album on Verve Records, following “Wonderful Thing” and “Foolsong.” The full picture is coming together fast.

Jon Batiste Announces Three Solo Piano Albums, Starting With ‘Black Mozart’ on Juneteenth

Eric Alper
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Jon Batiste Announces Three Solo Piano Albums, Starting With ‘Black Mozart’ on Juneteenth

 Multi-Grammy, Emmy, and Oscar winner Jon Batiste today announced his next three studio albums, starting with Black Mozart (Batiste Piano Series, Vol. 2), out June 19 on Decca Records US. The release date intentionally lands on Juneteenth, underscoring the deeper cultural context of the album as Batiste reimagines the classical tradition through a Black American musical lens. Marking the second installment in Batiste’s solo piano series, the album continues to showcase the pianist’s engagement with transformative composers from multiple eras using elements of spontaneous composition and improvisation. An artist who “actively promotes the normalization of musical ambidexterity” (Downbeat), Batiste also announced today the upcoming release of Batiste Piano Series Volumes 3 and 4, focusing on Thelonious Monk: Monk Meditations and Monk Movements, both set for release on Verve Records on August 14. Batiste’s intent with the three albums was to “curate a musical conversation between Monk and Mozart with me at the piano, honoring them and contributing to their kindred legacies.” He continues:

“Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a pioneer who created his own musical language yet honored his predecessors, a master of symmetry and refiner of structure and form, seamlessly combined extreme melodic simplicity with intense complexity that challenged the conventions of his time but still had a universal appeal. … Like Thelonious Monk, for me a latter-day example of all the same qualities, Mozart was a meticulous metaphysician who created a special blend of logical mastery that still somehow defies explanation.”

Born into a long line of Louisiana musicians, Batiste trained as a classical pianist and received both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in jazz piano from The Juilliard School. As the pianist told The New York Times in a profile of the first album in the series, 2024’s Beethoven Blues, his love of combining his own music with the classics dates back to his teenage years, when he would improvise on Chopin and Bach while performing in New Orleans. Batiste’s well-known transcending of genre definitions is a by-product of this musical omnivory, but even more importantly it simply reflects the pianist’s joyful engagement with all music, past and present, and his conviction that jazz music is a portal through which all music can be understood and can intercommunicate. The second volume of the Batiste Piano Series turns the spotlight on Mozart, an equally joyful and musically omnivorous soulmate who happened to live two and a half centuries earlier. Batiste elaborates:

“He … absorbed everything that led to him and was the obvious successor of Johann Sebastian Bach. Both were keyboardists, supreme improvisers, providers of melody in all registers and purveyors of the percussive left hand. If Bach was a foundation, Mozart was a bridge that eventually led to the modern age. … I reimagined Mozart ‘Black,’ imbuing it with influences from jazz, rags, stride, blues, and stomps but still maintaining its core essence of modern classical music.”

The first volume of the Batiste Piano Series, Beethoven Blues, received a profound response from audiences and confirmed Batiste’s belief that the piano series should continue. But the idea is bigger than engagement with Classical composers. Batiste’s own reimagining of Classical models implies kinship arrows pointing in all directions, and when he thinks of Mozart, the pianist’s next thought is often about Thelonious Monk. Volumes 3 and 4 of the Batiste Piano Series – two volumes, he declares, because “one wasn’t enough” – are devoted to Monk, not only illustrating Batiste’s view of him as a latter-day parallel to Mozart but to honor a towering figure who has been immeasurably influential on Batiste himself. In his liner notes for the album, written out in rhythmic lines to musicalize his words about the music, the pianist says:

“Even before I knew who he was, I started to have some of the same musical thoughts that he had.
About how to catch the ictus of the swing. About super-syncopation and the humor of harmony. About melodic rhyme and drama. About the piano being 88 tuned drums. …
Monk music makes my brain and my soul feel aligned in a very special way.
He is my favorite pianist of all time – not just jazz pianist, any style pianist.
The way he hears the harmony and the sound he produces on piano is something that should be applied to all styles of playing.”

Though both albums are inspired by the same artist, the complexity of Monk’s music lends itself to many different approaches, and Batiste’s two albums are on different paths: Monk Meditations is likely the first ever new-age meditation album inspired by Thelonious Monk, while Monk Movements reimagines his straight-ahead jazz compositions into long form virtuosic piano movements, expanding the canon of solo piano works. As with Black Mozart and Beethoven Blues before it, what shines through is the consistently innovative enthusiasm of the interpreter, “a once-in-a-generation talent, with a passion for … connecting people through a shared love of music-making” (Classic FM).

These three releases follow the success of Beethoven Blues, which was #1 on the Billboard Classical Albums chart for five consecutive weeks and #1 on Classical Crossover Albums for nine consecutive weeks. It was also Batiste’s highest chart debut on the Billboard Top 200, at #64. The pianist recently kicked off his “Jon Batiste Live: A Fantastical Musical Journey” tour, which will include symphonic shows with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops; international festival dates at KOKO in London, Umbria Jazz Festival, and Rock in Rio; U.S. dates at Forest Hills Stadium in New York and the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, and more. He’s also set to join Tyler Childers as a special guest on select dates of Childers’s 2026 Snipe Hunt stadium tour, including Wrigley Field in Chicago and Folsom Field in Boulder.

Batiste’s 2025 album, Big Money, won Best Americana Album at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards, marking the pianist’s eighth Grammy win. Beyond his work as a recording artist and performer, Batiste has also built a significant body of work as a film composer.  He is next set to compose the score for Amazon MGM’s reimagining of The Thomas Crown Affair, directed by and starring Oscar winner Michael B. Jordan and set for release in theaters on March 5, 2027.

Stephan Moccio Pays Tribute to Burt Bacharach and Revisits His Four Seasons Days on ‘Scenes From A Velvet Room’

Eric Alper
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Stephan Moccio Pays Tribute to Burt Bacharach and Revisits His Four Seasons Days on ‘Scenes From A Velvet Room’

Stephan Moccio has written some of the most recognizable melodies of the last 2 decades, Celine Dion’s “A New Day Has Come,” Miley Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball,” the Weeknd’s “Earned It,” and “I Believe,” the theme for the 2010 Winter Olympics. With ‘Scenes From A Velvet Room,’ arriving June 26 on Decca Records, he’s doing something different. He’s telling his own story. Listen here.

Today he releases “Dear Burt,” a wistful, piano-driven ode to the late Burt Bacharach, the composer and songwriter whose career arc mirrors Moccio’s in meaningful ways: falling in love with jazz first, pop later, and spending decades shaping the emotional lives of millions through melody. Contemplative and bright, the track is the second single from the album, following last month’s “Positano.”

The album’s origin is specific. Before the chart-breaking career took hold, the Canadian-born, Los Angeles-based artist took a gig playing piano 6 nights a week in the lobby of the Four Seasons Toronto. That period sits at the heart of ‘Scenes From A Velvet Room.’ Moccio describes what it taught him: how to read a room, how to curate a vibe without commanding it, how to enter a space quietly and leave gracefully. “I was the guy who was always behind the scenes,” he says.

The album opens with “Beneath The Amber Hour,” conjuring the amber light that filled the Four Seasons atrium at sunset during his late fall and early spring sets. That image persists across the record, giving it a consistent warmth and interiority. Moccio describes his approach at the time: “I had to enter with a very quiet tone. I had to noodle and play these little jazz licks and get under everyone’s skin. And then they’d realize there was a pianist in the room.”

New Orleans legend Branford Marsalis appears on 3 tracks, switching between soprano and tenor saxophone across “Like An Old Photograph,” “The Beautiful Undoing,” and “Opaline.” His melodic thread reaches its resolution on the album’s closing track, “I Break Everything I Love,” when Moccio finally brings the full melody home on piano. It’s the emotional center of the record, recalling the crushing ballads he used to close his Four Seasons sets, soft enough to avoid intruding on conversation but emotionally devastating for anyone paying attention.

Since his debut album ‘Tales of Solace,’ recorded during COVID, Moccio has built a massive Gen Z following. “Fracture” from that record has surpassed 143 million Spotify streams. Subsequent albums ‘Lionheart’ in 2021 and ‘Legends, Myths, and Lavender’ in 2024 have each generated tens of millions of additional plays. ‘Scenes From A Velvet Room’ arrives as his most personal and narratively rich work yet.

‘Scenes From A Velvet Room’ Tracklist:

  1. Beneath The Amber Hour
  2. Room 3A
  3. Melt
  4. Pink Lady
  5. Positano
  6. Like An Old Photograph (ft. Branford Marsalis)
  7. Dear Burt
  8. Bossa Noir
  9. The Beautiful Undoing (ft. Branford Marsalis)
  10. Where The River Heals
  11. Opaline (ft. Branford Marsalis)
  12. I Break Everything I Love

49 Winchester Preview ‘Change of Plans’ With the Moving New Track “Oh Savannah”

Eric Alper
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49 Winchester Preview ‘Change of Plans’ With the Moving New Track “Oh Savannah”

49 Winchester have been building toward this moment for years, and ‘Change of Plans,’ arriving May 15 via Lucille Records/MCA, looks like the album that makes it undeniable. Today the Virginia-based alt-country outfit share “Oh Savannah,” the latest preview from the record and one of the most moving things they’ve put their name on. Listen here.

Written by frontman Isaac Gibson with Jessie Jo Dillon and Chris Tompkins, “Oh Savannah” draws directly from the band’s time recording in Savannah, Georgia with GRAMMY-winning producer Dave Cobb, the man behind landmark records for Chris Stapleton and Sturgill Simpson. Cobb executive produced ‘Change of Plans’ at his Savannah studio in just 8 days, and the efficiency of that process hasn’t cost the record any depth. If anything, it captured the band at their most immediate and self-assured.

“Oh Savannah” follows recent releases “Slowly” and “Pardon Me,” each signaling a new creative era for the group, one defined by emotional honesty and fearless exploration. The track also arrives alongside their debut under Lucille Records/MCA, a striking cover of Black Sabbath’s “Changes” that announced the new chapter on its own terms.

Billboard has called them “among the top-tier groups over the past decade, blending elements of rock, country, blues and Americana into its own signature musical stew.” Whiskey Riff goes further, predicting that “in a few years, as the 2020s are coming to an end, we’ll look back at 49 Winchester as one of the most important bands of the decade.” Led by Isaac Gibson alongside Bus Shelton, Chase Chafin, Noah Patrick, Tim Hall, and Justin Louthian, the band has spent years honing this sound in Appalachian soil and on stages across the country, including 2 nights at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium last fall.

Gibson sums up the band’s trajectory simply: “We started this thing from the smallest seed possible… and by staying true to that same mindset, it finally feels like now is our time to come up.”

Album release week brings performances at the Grand Ole Opry and The Blue Room in Nashville, plus 2 nights at The Caverns in Pelham, Tennessee. On May 11, the band plays an in-store performance and album signing at Grimey’s in East Nashville. The touring schedule through the rest of 2026 is extensive, with headline dates alongside support runs for Eric Church and Tim McGraw across arenas and amphitheatres from coast to coast.

2026 Tour Dates:

May 12 – Nashville, TN – Grand Ole Opry

May 13 – Nashville, TN – The Blue Room

May 15 – Pelham, TN – The Caverns

May 16 – Pelham, TN – The Caverns

May 29 – Ponte Vedra Beach, FL – Ponte Vedra Concert Hall

May 30 – Orlando, FL – The Plaza Live

May 31 – Panama City Beach, FL – Gulf Coast Jam

June 2 – Wilmington, NC – Greenfield Lake Amphitheatre

June 5 – Dewey Beach, DE – Bottle & Cork

June 7 – Amagansett, NY – Stephen Talkhouse

June 26 – North Platte, NE – NebraskaLand Days

June 27 – Lubbock, TX – Cotton Fest

July 7 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre (with Eric Church)

July 9 – Bethel, NY – Bethel Woods Center for the Arts (with Tim McGraw)

July 10 – Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center (with Tim McGraw)

July 11 – Hershey, PA – Hersheypark Stadium (with Tim McGraw)

July 16 – Toronto, ON – RBC Amphitheatre (with Tim McGraw)

July 17 – Cuyahoga Falls, OH – Blossom Music Center (with Tim McGraw)

July 18 – Burgettstown, PA – The Pavilion at Star Lake

July 23 – Camden, NJ – Freedom Mortgage Pavilion (with Tim McGraw)

July 24 – Wantagh, NY – Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater (with Tim McGraw)

July 25 – Saratoga Springs, NY – Broadview Stage at SPAC (with Tim McGraw)

July 30 – Boston, MA – Fenway Park (with Tim McGraw)

July 31 – Syracuse, NY – Empower FCU Amphitheater (with Tim McGraw)

August 1 – Darien Center, NY – Six Flags Darien Lake (with Tim McGraw)

August 6 – Virginia Beach, VA – Veterans United Home Loans Amp (with Tim McGraw)

August 7 – Raleigh, NC – Coastal Credit Union Music Park

August 8 – Charleston, SC – Credit One Stadium

August 13 – Birmingham, AL – Coca-Cola Amphitheater (with Tim McGraw)

August 14 – Charlotte, NC – Truliant Amphitheater (with Tim McGraw)

August 15 – Bristow, VA – Jiffy Lube Live (with Tim McGraw)

August 21 – Kansas City, MO – Morton Amphitheater (with Tim McGraw)

August 22 – East Troy, WI – Alpine Valley Music Theatre (with Tim McGraw)

August 23 – Minneapolis, MN – Target Field (with Tim McGraw)

August 27 – Cincinnati, OH – Riverbend Music Center (with Tim McGraw)

August 28 – Clarkston, MI – Pine Knob Music Theatre (with Tim McGraw)

August 29 – Grand Rapids, MI – Acrisure Amphitheater (with Tim McGraw)

September 4 – Louisville, KY – Fourth Street Live!

September 10 – Austin, TX – Moody Center (with Tim McGraw)

September 11 – Dallas, TX – Dos Equis Pavilion (with Tim McGraw)

September 12 – Rogers, AR – Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion (with Tim McGraw)

September 17 – St. Louis, MO – Hollywood Casino Amphitheater (with Tim McGraw)

September 18 – Noblesville, IN – Ruoff Music Center (with Tim McGraw)

September 19 – Tinley Park, IL – Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre (with Tim McGraw)

September 24 – Alpharetta, GA – Ameris Bank Amphitheatre (with Tim McGraw)

September 25 – Tampa, FL – Midflorida Credit Union Amphitheatre (with Tim McGraw)

September 26 – West Palm Beach, FL – iThink Financial Amphitheatre (with Tim McGraw)

October 3 – Grant, OK – Stage 271 at Choctaw Casino & Resort

October 24 – Gilbert, AZ – The Smoke Show Festival

November 13 – The Woodlands, TX – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion (with Treaty Oak Revival)

Teyana Taylor and Wale Bring “Bed of Roses” Back With a Remix Built for the Moment

Eric Alper
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Teyana Taylor and Wale Bring “Bed of Roses” Back With a Remix Built for the Moment

Teyana Taylor collected the Visionary Award at the 2026 Billboard Women in Music ceremony, then made sure no one forgot the performance. She and Wale debuted the “Bed of Roses” remix live on that stage, his slick bars locking in against her sultry vocals in a surprise collaboration that landed exactly as those moments should. The remix is out now via Def Jam Recordings. Listen here.

The original “Bed of Roses” appeared on ‘Escape Room,’ Taylor’s GRAMMY-nominated album and short film that earned widespread acclaim from The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and Billboard, and picked up a 2026 GRAMMY nomination for Best R&B Album. Wale’s verse on the remix adds a new dimension to one of the project’s standout moments, expanding its emotional range without pulling it from its roots.

Taylor arrives at this release having just added a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination to her already formidable résumé. Her turn as Perfidia Beverly Hills in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Academy Award-winning film ‘One Battle After Another’ earned unanimous praise and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. As a GRAMMY winner, Oscar nominee, Golden Globe winner, actress, producer, and director operating at full creative force across every lane simultaneously, Taylor is one of the most complete artists working today. The “Bed of Roses” remix is the latest proof.

Jessie Reyez and Elyanna Unite Two Worlds on FIFA World Cup 2026 Track “Illuminate”

Eric Alper
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Jessie Reyez and Elyanna Unite Two Worlds on FIFA World Cup 2026 Track “Illuminate”

The Official FIFA World Cup 2026 Album just added its most emotionally cinematic entry yet. “Illuminate,” a new collaboration between Jessie Reyez and Elyanna, is out now via SALXCO UAM and Def Jam Recordings, produced by GRAMMY Award-winning producer Cirkut. It brings together alternative R&B, global pop, and Middle Eastern influence in a track built around emotion, identity, and cross-cultural connection. Listen here.

The pairing carries real weight. Reyez is one of the most fearless voices in contemporary R&B and pop, a Toronto-rooted global force with 2 RIAA 2x Platinum singles in “Imported” and “Figures,” a Polaris-longlisted album in ‘Yessie,’ and a songwriter’s résumé that includes Dua Lipa, Sam Smith, Kehlani, LISA of BLACKPINK, and Calvin Harris. Elyanna is a Palestinian-Chilean artist raised in Nazareth who became the first artist to perform in Arabic at Coachella, has collaborated with Coldplay on “We Pray,” and has been steadily bringing Middle Eastern sounds to global audiences at a scale few have managed before.

Together on “Illuminate,” their distinct perspectives lock into something genuinely moving, a track that earns its place on a global stage without reaching for it. Reyez is donating her artist fee to charitable causes, while Elyanna intends to support charitable initiatives aligned with the tournament’s global moment.

“Illuminate” joins a growing album that already includes “Lighter” by Jelly Roll and Carín León, “Por Ella” by Los Ángeles Azules and Belinda, and “Echo” by Daddy Yankee and Shenseea. Each track brings a distinct cultural perspective, and “Illuminate” adds a dimension none of the others occupy, more emotional, more cinematic, more interior.

Reyez arrives at this collaboration in full momentum. Her fourth studio album ‘A LITTLE VENGEANCE’ arrives June 12 via FMLY/Island Records, and she has already described it as her most daring and uncompromising work yet. A book of poems, a Grammy-winning soundtrack contribution, Billboard Canada’s Women in Music Trailblazer Award, and major festival runs across South America, Australia, Asia, and North America all sit in the recent rearview. The next chapter is already in motion.

J Balvin and Ryan Castro Build a Coded World From Medellín’s Streets on ‘OMERTA’

Eric Alper
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J Balvin and Ryan Castro Build a Coded World From Medellín’s Streets on ‘OMERTA’

‘OMERTA’ is out now, and it arrives as something more deliberate than a typical collaborative album. Built in the mountains of Medellín, the 10-track project between J Balvin and Ryan Castro operates as a generational dialogue, 2 Colombian artists shaped by the same city but arriving from different moments in its musical evolution, constructing a shared world with its own ethics, sound, and memory.

The concept draws from the Italian “Omertà” and reframes it through a paisa lens, where trust is assumed rather than negotiated, loyalty is infrastructure, and music becomes the most honest way to document what can’t always be spoken. That philosophy runs through every track, from the opening moments to the album’s final statement.

“Una a La Vez” sets the tone immediately. Built on a dancehall foundation with coastal percussion and hard-hitting kicks, the track moves with effortless physicality, carrying rhythm and instinct over overthinking. “Dalmation” expands into something more otherworldly, alien synth textures and bright marimba tones framing reggaeton in a futuristic space without abandoning its roots. “Melo” pushes into tension and sensuality, with Ryan Castro delivering raw immediacy while J Balvin stretches into something more restrained and reflective. A recurring reference to NBA star LaMelo Ball turns the hook into a double entendre, blending sensual bravado with a sports-inspired metaphor for confidence.

“GWA” shifts into full street mode with gritty trap percussion and Eladio Carrión entering with a commanding presence that cuts through without disrupting the flow. “Medetown,” “Bengali,” and “Pal Agua” dissolve into a shared coastal atmosphere where reflection and sun-soaked release coexist. “Viernes” carries lighter romantic tension over soft guitar strums and tropical reggaeton, while “Tonto” brings DJ Snake into the fold, warped synth layers reshaping the atmosphere without diluting the album’s core identity.

The SOG-produced closing track, “OMERTA,” functions as the album’s emotional anchor. Moving through laid-back hip-hop textures, it’s where the code becomes explicit. J Balvin delivers a measured message of trust to Ryan Castro, “Ryan no te dañes” (Ryan, don’t get corrupted), a line that carries the weight of experience and survival in an industry that reshapes those who enter it. His chorus, “All eyez on me, Aprendan todos de mi, Follow me rookie,” reframes leadership as visibility and example, drawing a line to legacy without relying on imitation.

Through ‘OMERTA,’ J Balvin’s influence becomes shared rather than singular. It’s not a passing collaboration. It’s an alignment of vision that reinforces the code it documents.

‘OMERTA’ Tracklist:

  1. “Una a La Vez”
  2. “Dalmation”
  3. “Melo”
  4. “GWA” featuring Eladio Carrión
  5. “Medetown”
  6. “Bengali”
  7. “Pal Agua”
  8. “Viernes”
  9. “Tonto” with DJ Snake
  10. “Omerta” featuring SOG

Stephen Sanchez’s Sophomore Album ‘Love, Love, Love’ Arrives With 11 Tracks and an Open Heart

Eric Alper
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Stephen Sanchez’s Sophomore Album ‘Love, Love, Love’ Arrives With 11 Tracks and an Open Heart

Stephen Sanchez has built his career on romantic sincerity, and ‘Love, Love, Love,’ his sophomore album out today via Mercury Records, leans into that quality with full commitment. Across 11 tracks, the multi-platinum singer-songwriter expands the concept of love well beyond romance, into family, friendship, and the strangers we pass every day.

Produced by Oscar Gorres, whose credits include Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, and Troye Sivan, the album blends old-school influences with a modern pop sheen. “Home To Mother” captures the giddiness of new love with technicolor charm, while pre-release singles “Sweet Love,” “Love, Love, Love,” and “Chuck The Money” each reveal a different facet of the project’s emotional range.

Sanchez describes the album’s origin with real openness: “This album is inspired by a period of my life where love was all that I wanted to be and all that I failed to be. In spite of any successful or failed attempts, it taught me just how much of a difference it makes in the world around me to try and choose love as much as I can.”

‘Love, Love, Love’ follows 2023’s ‘Angel Face,’ which drew praise from NPR, SPIN, V Magazine, FLOOD, and American Songwriter. That album featured “Until I Found You,” a multi-platinum breakout that surpassed 2 billion streams and earned Sanchez invitations to perform alongside Elton John at Glastonbury and Lana Del Rey at her sold-out Fenway Park concert. The trajectory from that moment to this album is the story of an artist growing into the full scope of his talent.

Sanchez is currently on tour across the UK and Europe, debuting several album tracks live for the first time alongside fan favorites. The album is out now everywhere.

‘Love, Love, Love’ Tracklist:

  1. Sweet Love
  2. Home To Mother
  3. Already Got Me
  4. Chuck The Money
  5. Dance Away
  6. The Music
  7. It Might Be Love
  8. Baby I Love You
  9. Forgetting Your Kiss
  10. Don’t Let Me Go
  11. Love, Love, Love
  12. You Are So Beautiful

Lewis Capaldi Immortalizes His Best-Ever North American Tour With Surprise Live EP

Eric Alper
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Lewis Capaldi Immortalizes His Best-Ever North American Tour With Surprise Live EP

Lewis Capaldi wrapped the most ambitious North American tour of his career less than 48 hours ago, and he’s already marked the occasion. The ‘Live From North America’ EP is out now, a surprise 4-track set capturing some of the tour’s most electric moments across 4 iconic venues. Listen here.

Capaldi frames it simply: “Had the best tour of my life in North America and felt like I wanted to commemorate it somehow. Took some live recordings from some of my favourite shows and wanted to get them out for those of you that couldn’t be there.”

Leading the EP is “Pointless (2026 Version),” recorded at his biggest U.S. headliner to date at Madison Square Garden. The 2022 single, co-written with Ed Sheeran, Johnny McDaid of Snow Patrol, and Steve Mac, gets a full transformation here, trading its original piano and strings for distorted guitar before building into arena-worthy full-band rock. The result is both familiar and completely reinvented.

“Stay Love,” his tender new single debuted on this tour, was captured during his 2-night run at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado, with a stripped-back arrangement that lets the song breathe in one of the world’s most naturally dramatic settings. “Hollywood (2026 Version)” follows, an updated cut from his 2019 debut ‘Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent,’ fittingly recorded at the Hollywood Bowl. The EP closes with “Forget Me,” complete with a full sing-along at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena.

The physical release, available as a T-shirt bundle or limited edition vinyl, is purchasable within a 72-hour window running until Monday, May 11 at 8 a.m. PST.

This arrives just weeks after Capaldi unveiled the ‘Survive Deluxe EP,’ which added “Stay Love” to a body of work already featuring “Survive,” “Something In The Heavens,” “Almost,” and “The Day That I Die.” “Survive” became the UK’s fastest-selling single of 2025 and his sixth number one on the UK Singles Chart, placing him alongside Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Drake, Lady Gaga, and Queen. Billboard called it on the nose: “Lewis Capaldi is very much back. Surviving, thriving.”

With 1 million tickets sold in 2026 alone, the tour now moves to Europe for an extensive summer run headlined by back-to-back sold-out shows at BST Hyde Park, each with a capacity of 65,000. Conan Gray, Jacob Alon, and Absolutely support both nights, with The Vaccines joining on July 11 and special guests to be announced for July 12. Festival slots including Lollapalooza Berlin round out the schedule.

‘Live From North America’ Tracklist:

  1. “Pointless (2026 Version)” – Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
  2. “Stay Love” – Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO
  3. “Hollywood (2026 Version)” – Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA
  4. “Forget Me” – Scotiabank Arena, Toronto, ON

Dark-Pop Siren Ellise Closes Out ‘Bedroom Confessional’ With the Fiery “Liplock” Video

Eric Alper
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Dark-Pop Siren Ellise Closes Out ‘Bedroom Confessional’ With the Fiery “Liplock” Video

Ellise has saved the most visceral moment of ‘Bedroom Confessional’ for last. The official video for “Liplock” is out now, arriving as the final chapter of the EP’s visual saga, and it delivers exactly the chaotic, cathartic ending the project has been building toward.

The track itself pairs shimmering production with confessional lyricism that moves between vulnerability and temptation without ever fully resolving the tension. That’s the point. “Liplock” captures a late-night spiral where desire and contradiction occupy the same space, and the visual pushes that feeling to its limit, culminating in a fiery finale that lands with real force.

Ellise describes the concept directly: “It begins with me burning the remnants of the demons of my past and freeing myself. I wanted this video to feel fun, energetic, and like the perfect chaotic ending to this story. It represents how my mind felt when leaving everything I thought I knew behind and starting from scratch again: Scary, but exciting and fresh.”

‘Bedroom Confessional,’ created alongside Arthur Besna, JT Foley, Cici Ward, and Madi Yanofsky, is Ellise at her most sonically refined and emotionally unguarded. The project moves through obsession, heartbreak, and self-reckoning across 5 tracks of shadowy alt-pop, each one built around diaristic lyricism that feels genuinely lived-in. The Line of Best Fit noted she has “arrived fully formed with not only a consistent and cohesive sound but a striking visual identity.” Flaunt put it more simply: “If this is the first time you’re catching wind of Ellise, prepare to fall in love.”

The Iraqi-American LA-based artist broke through with “911” and has spent the years since building a devoted following through raw storytelling and a bold cinematic aesthetic. She recently completed Act I & II of her debut headline run, The PRETTY EVIL Tour, following support slots for Madison Beer and Bishop Briggs. With ‘Bedroom Confessional’ now complete, Ellise closes one chapter and opens another.

‘Bedroom Confessional’ Tracklist:

  1. Sexxxtapes
  2. Littlepill
  3. Her
  4. Liplock
  5. Bedroomconfessional
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That Eric Alper

Eric Alper is a 6-time nominee for Publicist of the Year during Canadian Music Week and has overseen the publicity campaigns for over 183 JUNO Award-nominated albums (and 16 in 2025), 45 Grammy-nominated albums, including 47 JUNO Award, 58 Canadian Folk Music Award, 126 Maple Blues Award-winning albums and is also truly honoured to work with some of the biggest and most important artists of our time.

Contact me: eric@thatericalper.com

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