Author: Jasper Bruce

NME

Kelly Clarkson has put her own spin on Tears For Fears’ hit ‘Mad World’, as part of The Kelly Clarkson Show.

Backed by her band, Y’all, Clarkson covered the track for the ‘Kellyoke’ segment of her show’s March 26 episode.

Where the original ‘Mad World’ is a synth-driven affair, Clarkson pares the song’s instrumentation back for her rendition, allowing her voice to take centre stage.

Immersed in green and blue lights, the inaugural American Idol winner slows the original’s tempo down for a cover clocking in at just under two minutes.

Watch it below:

Clarkson isn’t the first American Idol alumnus to cover Tears For Fears’ 1982 track. In 2009, Adam Lambert took on ‘Mad World’ as part of his season of Idol.

The song was also notably covered by Jules and Andrews for the 2001 film, Donnie Darko, and by Lily Allen in 2018 for Spotify’s Singles series.

The Kelly Clarkson Show debuted in 2019 and has run for over 300 episodes. Its second season will draw to a close in April this year.

Clarkson performs a cover on each instalment of her show, having previously taken on ‘Times Like These’ by Foo Fighters, ‘Dream On’ by Aerosmith and ‘Mr. Brightside’ by The Killers, among many others.

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The US Library of Congress has announced the 25 recordings that will be added to its National Recording Registry this year, with Kermit The Frog’s ‘The Rainbow Connection’ making the cut.

Among the other recordings archived for the year are Janet Jackson’s ‘Rhythm Nation 1814’, Nas’ 1994 record ‘Illmatic’, ‘Celebration’ by Kool & The Gang, ‘Lady Marmalade’ by Labelle, and Jackson Browne’s 1974 album ‘Late For The Sky’. See the full list here.

The 25 recordings were selected from a pool of around 900 public nominations, and have been included on the basis of their “cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage”.

The new inclusions span the years 1878 to 2008. It also features a recording of Thomas Edison’s voice and an episode of the podcast This American Life the oldest and most current additions, respectively.

In total, the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry now contains 575 recordings.

“The National Recording Registry will preserve our history through these vibrant recordings of music and voices that have reflected our humanity and shaped our culture from the past 143 years,” Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said in a statement.

“We received about 900 public nominations this year for recordings to add to the registry, and we welcome the public’s input as the Library of Congress and its partners preserve the diverse sounds of history and culture.”

Explaining its decision to preserve ‘The Rainbow Connection’, The Library of Congress said the song’s “plaintive message about dreams and their fulfilment remains enduring”.

In a statement about the Muppet’s inclusion in the archive, Kermit The Frog said: “Well, gee, it’s an amazing feeling to officially become part of our nation’s history. It’s a great honour.”

“And I am thrilled – I am thrilled! – to be the first frog on the list!”

Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher wrote ‘The Rainbow Connection’ for the 1979 film, The Muppet Movie.

It was nominated for an Oscar at the 52nd Academy Awards but lost out to ‘It Goes Like It Goes’ from Norma Rae.

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NME

Dry Cleaning have covered Grimes’ 2012 track, ‘Oblivion’ for the third instalment of 4AD’s ‘Bills & Aches & Blues’ 40th-anniversary compilation release.

• READ MORE: Dry Cleaning — the London group uniting murky post-punk, Meghan Markle and really weird YouTube comments

Side three of the record dropped yesterday (March 24) and includes four covers of songs originally performed by artists signed to 4AD.

As with the previous two instalments, those performing the covers on side three currently feature on the London-based independent label’s roster.

Aside from Dry Cleaning, the third part of the compilation showcases Future Islands’ take on ‘The Moon Is Blue’ by Colourbox, a Jenny Hval cover of ‘Sunbathing’ by Lush and Bradford Cox’s rendition of The Breeders’ ‘Mountain Battles’.

For their part, Dry Cleaning transform Grimes’ peppy ‘Oblivion’ into a hazier, more introspective number. Listen to it below, along with the other tracks on side three.

The first two sides of the compilation featured covers performed by Tkay Maidza, The Breeders, Efterklang, Tune-Yards and more.

The entire ‘Bills & Aches & Blues’ collection will be released digitally on April 2, before dropping on vinyl and CD on July 23. In total, it is set to feature 18 tracks.

Per a press statement, the first 12 months’ profits from the release will be donated to The Harmony Project, an LA-based charity helping make arts education accessible to disadvantaged children.

For side four, Big Thief will cover The Breeders’ ‘Off You’, while SOHN, Becky and the Birds and Ex:RE will take on tracks by This Mortal Coil/Tim Buckley, Bon Iver and Blonde Redhead, respectively.

Earlier this week, Dry Cleaning announced a tour of UK and Ireland for 2022. Their debut album ‘New Long Leg’, featuring the lead single ‘Strong Feelings’, is out next month.

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NME

Taylor Swift and Evermore, a theme park in Utah, have dropped their lawsuits against each other, which were both lodged last month.

“As a resolution of both lawsuits, the parties will drop and dismiss their respective suits without monetary settlement,” a representative for Swift said in a statement on March 24, according to Rolling Stone.

NME has reached out to Evermore theme park in Utah for comment.

On February 2, Evermore park sued Swift for trademark infringement, claiming her album of the same name confused guests and affected the park’s marketing and merchandising.

• READ MORE: Taylor Swift — ‘Evermore’ review: the freewheeling younger sibling to ‘Folklore’

The park’s suit also cited similarities between its merchandise and that produced by Swift to coincide with her album release.

At the time, representatives for the pop star called the suit “baseless… frivolous and responsible” in a letter responding to the theme park’s claims.

“It is inconceivable that there is any likelihood of confusion between your client’s theme park and related products and Ms. Swift’s music and related products,” the letter read.

• READ MORE: Taylor Swift’s album ‘Evermore’ – the big talking points

In late February, Swift filed a countersuit through her rights management team, claiming that the Evermore theme park had played her music “without authorisation or license agreement”.

The countersuit alleged that Swift’s songs, including her hits ‘Bad Blood’, ‘Love Story’ and ‘You Belong With Me’, were played at the park without permission.

Per Variety, the park had previously been cautioned about its staff members entertaining guests with “unlicensed public performances” of popular songs.

In other Taylor Swift news, the pop star announced she would release a previously unheard version of a re-recorded song ‘You All Over Me’ today (March 25).

It’s the first song ‘From The Vault’ that comes from the forthcoming re-recorded version of her 2008 album ‘Fearless’. ‘You All Over Me’ will feature backing vocals from Maren Morris and was produced by The National‘s Aaron Dessner, her close collaborator on the albums ‘Evermore’ and ‘Folklore’ – the latter of which won Album Of The Year at the 2021 Grammys.

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Rihanna has teased plans to release a new song “soon” in the comments of a recent Instagram post.

• READ MORE: The artists we really, really want new music from in 2021

To mark Women’s History Month this March, Rihanna posted a video to Instagram which celebrated her career and identity as Black woman.

The video features clips of her achievements as a musician – particularly the release of her last album ‘Anti’ – and as a performer, designer and philanthropist.

She captioned it, “Grateful to the most High for putting die hard supports in my circle… Congrats to everyone that contributed to this era [‘Anti’], thank you team.”

In the post’s comments section, a fan asked Rihanna to “celebrate by releasing a song”.

Rihanna responded “I think I should” with a “soon” emoji, before adding “just 1 tho lol”.

The Barbadian singer also responded to a fan’s comment about an entire new Rihanna album. The fan wrote “R9 is what we need”, to which she replied, “Lemme have my moment nuuuhhh??? Lol”.

Rihanna’s comments on Instagram resulted her name becoming a Twitter trending topic in the United States.

Rihanna released her last studio album, ‘Anti’, back in 2016. A year ago, she guested on ‘Believe It’ by PARTYNEXTDOOR. It hit streaming services in late March last year and was her first track as lead artist since 2017.

In an interview late last year, Rihanna said that pandemic-induced lockdowns have helped her “creativity blossom”.

“2021 is a little unknown for everybody … my creativity is within my control though, and I want to take my music and my brands to a different level,” she told Closer in December 2020.

She is yet to announce a concrete release date for any new music, however.

More recently, Rihanna was one of many artists to speak out against anti-Asian violence this month, following a mass shooting in Atlanta which left six Asian women dead.

“What happened yesterday in Atlanta was brutal, tragic & is certainly not an isolated incident by any means,” she wrote on Twitter.

“I’m heartbroken for the Asian community & my heart is with the loved ones of those we lost. The hate must stop.”

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Organisers of Austin’s South by Southwest festival have revealed plans to hold the event in person next year, following this year’s virtual edition.

The 2022 iteration of SXSW is scheduled to go ahead from March 11 to 20, with festival officials currently working with Austin Public Health to make it happen.

“We at SXSW are hopeful that once people feel it’s safe enough to return to what will be the new normal of life, there will be a real enthusiasm for getting back to the things that brought them joy or opportunity or just the simple need to be out amongst humanity,” festival organisers said in a statement.

“We can’t wait to bring people together once again to meet and share ideas”.

“I’m very confident that SXSW will look normal, or near-normal next year,” Austin Public Health’s interim authority, Dr. Mark Escott, added.

SXSW held its 2021 festival online this year from March 16-20, with keynotes from the likes of Willie Nelson, Pete Buttigieg, Stacey Abrams, Priya Parker and Charles Yu.

• READ MORE: Review — SXSW live in Texas: rising talent shine despite showcase’s clunky format

The Chats, Katy J Pearson, The Lazy Eyes and Pillow Queens were among the nearly 100 artists to perform. Notably, this year’s SXSW Film Festival also featured the premiere of Demi Lovato‘s docuseries Dancing With The Devil.

SXSW’s 2020 event was one of the first major music festivals to be cancelled in light of the coronavirus pandemic. It marked the first time the festival had been cancelled in the 34 years of its existence.

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Fleet Foxes frontman Robin Pecknold performed on the most recent episode of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series yesterday (March 9).

Pecknold performed four songs from the group’s latest record, ‘Shore’, which they surprise-released in September last year.

• READ MORE: Fleet Foxes – ‘Shore’ review: a reinvigorating return to form for the rousing folk stars

As with the majority of recent entries in the Tiny Desk series, Pecknold performed remotely for his appearance, rather than in NPR’s studio.

The frontman began his set with an aching rendition of ‘Going-to-the-Sun-Road’. He then launched into ‘Sunblind’, the record’s second track, which he introduced as a song “for some friends”.

Pecknold rounded out the set with intimate performances of ‘Featherweight’ and ‘I’m Not My Season’.

“Thank you so much for asking me to find the tiniest desk I could, and sing unadorned for the first time in too long,” Pecknold said during the concert.

“[It was] a lot of fun putting these songs together for this and I’m excited for real shows and contact. But this is so fun”. Watch his set below:

Pecknold has performed solo in a variety of contexts since Fleet Foxes released ‘Shore’. He launched the album with ‘A Very Lonely Solstice’, a livestream show filmed inside Brooklyn’s St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church.

In December, he appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, accompanied by the Resistance Revival Chorus. Pecknold also featured on the inaugural lineup for Bandsintown’s livestream concert subscription service.

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