Music Roundup - New Paul McCartney, Eminem, Lil Wayne, MF Doom, Hayley Williams, Diplo, Third Eye Blind and More.

Week before Christmas usually not the most active but there were some gems dropped this week. 

Celebrate Christmas with the essential holiday mix and playlists-

POP

- My new #1 Dua Lipa went on SNL last night and burned the fuckin house down.

She performed her new single, "Levitating" off her smash hit album Future Nostalgia 

as well as the first single off the album, "Don't Start Now", which feels like it came out ages ago but still bumps

She also showed up during one of host Kristen Wiig's skits acting as a WWII U.S.O. entertainer

- Shawn Mendes new album Wonder debuted at #1 once again on the Billboard charts. "The set earned 89,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 10, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data." Aall four of Mendes’ full-length studio albums have debuted at No. 1.

- Taylor Swift rang in her birthday by dropping 4 remixes to her track "Willow" off Evermore

- Post Malone, Jack Harlow and Steve Aoki will headline the "Bud Light Seltzer Sessions Presents New Year's Eve 2021"

- Mike Posner released Operation:Wake Up

- Third Eye Blind, yes Third Eye Blind, released a new record titled "Horror Show"

ROCK

- Paul McCartney released a new album at the age of 78

50 years ago, Paul McCartney released his debut solo album, McCartney, where he handled the songwriting, performing, recording, and producing entirely by himself. Today, he’s reprising his role as a musical renaissance man with McCartney III, his third self-titled solo album and the latest effort where Macca literally does it all. Stream it below via Apple Music or Spotify.

McCartney III is the 18th solo album he has released, following 2018’s Egypt Station. It spans 11 songs in total and, like 1970’s McCartney and 1980’s McCartney II, it’s a collection of creative ideas that came to fruition when The Beatles bassist was free from outside influences, pressures, or expectations. In fact, Macca had no plans to release a record in 2020. But in the newfound isolation of quarantine, he found himself jotting down musical sketches and recording spontaneous songs that naturally turned into an album.

- Nathaniel Rateliff was asked by Justin Timberlake to write a song for his upcoming film Palmer. So, Rateliff wrote, performed, co-produced, and co-mixed "Redemption". It was released this week and soundtracks the film's trailer and is utilized in the final scene - "(Timberlake) said the film was about redemption… I saw that in the characters and did my best to add to that final scene." The film is about a college football star who went to prison, returns to his hometown, and forms a relationship with an abandoned boy… and insert a love story, too - all good movies need some sexual tension. The film comes out Jan 29th on Apple TV+. Trailer looks pretty damn good.

- Alannis Morisette dropped a fire remix EP Such Pretty Forks in the Mix

- Bob Dylan announced he'd be releasing an archived 1970 set featuring nine songs with George Harrison and 74 previously unreleased studio recordings in total. 

On the heels of selling his entire songwriting catalog, Bob Dylan has announced a special new archival set is on the way. It’s called 1970 and it features 74 previously unreleased tracks, demos, and outtakes, including nine songs that feature George Harrison. It’s due out on February 26th, 2021 via Columbia/Legacy.

As the title suggests, 1970 focuses on the music Dylan released during that era. The three-disc set boasts outtakes from the sessions that birthed both Self Portrait and New Morning, the two albums he released that year, as well as alternate versions of select songs, such as “Alligator Man”, and instrumentals.

- Hayley Williams dropped a new three track acoustic EP titled Petals For Armor: Self-Serenades 

- Florence Welch released an amazing cover of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”

RAP 

- Eminem released a surprise new B Side album to Music To Be Murdered By which I covered in a blog

- Lil Wayne dropped the No Ceilings 3 Deluxe Edition. The expanded "B Side" version features Big Sean, 2 Chainz, and Rich the Kid

- Young Thug, Yak Gotti, and Gunna dropped “Take It to Trial”

- MF DOOM and BADBADNOTGOOD Join Forces on New Song “The Chocolate Conquistadors”

- Earthgang and Wale dropped "Options"

- Mayer Hawthorne dropped a new album Rare Changes

Country

- "From one railroad man to another." - text message from the late legend Merle Haggard to Sturgill Simpson. 

Wild, amazing, moving story dropped this week. In last week's Weekend Music Roundup blog, can't-miss-don't-miss Sturgill dropped another album this year, Cuttin' Grass Vol 2 - the Cowboy Arms Sessions. Both volumes 1 and 2 are backlogs of unreleased songs. All written by Sturgill except "Hobo Cartoon" which was written by Haggard on his literal deathbed. Not going to get in the way of this story, so straight from the horse's mouth on SiriusXM Outlaw Country…

Sturgill Simpson: "And then 'Hobo Cartoon' was - that was one I've been sitting on for about four years. Merle Haggard wrote the lyrics to that when he was in the hospital on his deathbed… I think he was optimistic he was going to come out of there and everything's going to be okay. We'd talk on the phone when he was sick and he - one day I just get this text message with a note memo with those lyrics and a text that just said, "From one railroad man to another," but it was just the lyrics. And then he passed away really shortly after that, so we never got to, I don't know, finish the song together, I guess. And I almost put it on another project, but I just - he loved bluegrass a lot, and when we got into cutting this thing and I had it and I just said, "Screw this, man. I'm gonna cowboy up. I gotta cut this." So I went and put a melody and some chords to it and finished the song, sent it to Ben [Haggard], his son, and Theresa [Haggard], his wife, and just said, "I just want to get this out in the world, and I need your all's approval," which they thankfully gave and loved it. And I just decided, this is the only way I could possibly end the record. There's nowhere else this could go."

- Trace Adkins released the music video for "Ain't That Kind of Cowboy"

- Alfred Howard is on a year-long mission to write, record and release 100 songs at a clip of two per week. From San Diego, Howard got his start performing spoken word in parking lots. His skills attracted local bands and he became a sough-after lyricist and percussionist. In 2015, he created the independent record label collective The Redwoods. With 2020 doing its thing, Howard, feeling lost with his music, got back to writing and collaborating. This 100 song project started in June and is about halfway finished. First 3 volumes can be found here:

With Love, Alfred Howard:

- Vince Gill joined the Eagles in 2017 after the late Glenn Frey. The Eagles released Live From The Forum MMXVIII this week. Gill gets outside is usual range lower range and knocks out "Heartache Tonight." The song was co-written by Frey, Don Henley, Bob Segar and JD Souther… the Eagles final #1 hit.

- Travel to Holly Dolly's Ski Resort for a holiday animated banger with Dolly Parton and Michael Buble that maybe/maybe won't get your wife wet for Santa's sack.

- Diplo released a new country album titled Snake Oil

The recently released album Diplo Presents Thomas Wesley: Snake Oil Chapter 1, which uses part of Diplo’s real name — Thomas Wesley Pentz — is what it sounds like when a renowned tastemaker hangs out with the country musicians in and out of Nashville. It doesn’t resemble anything like a George Strait album, but rather leans more toward mainstream country experimentation, with radio stars like Thomas Rhett and Zac Brown and outsiders like Orville Peck all blending Diplo’s ear for danceable electronic production with songwriting that straddles country and pop.

“Heartless,” Diplo’s trap-country collaboration with rising star Morgan Wallen, is a streaming monster with 128 million Spotify plays alone, though it hasn’t done much on country radio. Some of that may be due to both men’s obligations to their day jobs.

“If me and Morgan didn’t have our own careers popping off and our labels just had this one record, it would be the biggest record in the world,” Diplo tells Rolling Stone.

Typical humble Diplo. 

Haven't worked my way through this album all the way yet but it's different. "Heartless" is a good track but these two minute quick hitter "songs" seem geared more towards Tik Tok than long term play. What do I know though?

h/t Augie

If I missed anything let me know-