"Listening to 'Blue Weekend', you’re struck by an appealing sense of everything clicking into place" - Alexis Petridis writes reviewing the third album by the London indie-rock quartet Wolf Alice (gave if 5 of 5 stars). Brooklyn Vegan writer Erin Christie says "the trance I surrendered to is directly emblematic of the power of a band like Wolf Alice: they completely take your brain hostage as you enter their world". NME hears a "stone-cold masterpiece that further cements their place at the very peak of British music", whereas Sputnik Music calls it "one of those albums that qualifies as an event". 

“I think Rick has created something really special. From what I’ve gathered, he’s really serious about communicating an energy and creating a space for people” Ron the Jewels' El-P says to Complex about Rick Rubin's Shangri La studio situated in his home in Malibu, California. “That’s all based on his ethos. That’s all based on his experience of what makes a good record. So everyone there is really focused on making sure everybody is comfortable and there’s a creative energy. It’s an empty palette you can really just fill with new energy" - El-P adds. The versatile producer "would come by, barefoot, cross his legs, close his eyes and just listen and really take it in and really give feedback".

American jazz critic and music historian Ted Gioia explores the extraordinary life of Charles Kellogg. He started out as a nature singer - Kellogg first performed as a vaudeville performer imitating bird songs (listen to him on Bandcamp), his concerts for bears followed, but his most unusual feat was his ability to extinguish fire with music.

A group of indie and major music publishers - including ABKCO Music & Records, Big Machine Records, Concord Music Group, deadmau5, Downtown Music Publishing, Hipgnosis, Kobalt Music Group, Universal Music Publishing Group - are suing video gaming platform Roblox for over $200 million in damages in the US, alleging widespread copyright infringement by the company. Plaintiffs' representative cites Roblox’s massive user base of more than 42 million active daily players and alleges that Roblox has gone to great lengths to avoid paying music creators, MBW reports. Warner and Sony are missing from the lawsuit - they're partners with the gaming platform.

Carrie Underwood and John Legend won video of the year at the CMT Music Awards for their song 'Hallelujah', whereas Kane Brown was the only double-winner of the night, for male video of the year ('Worship You') and collaborative video ('Famous Friends', with Chris Young), US Weekly reports.

The U.S. music publishing industry registered a 9.6% revenue increase to $4.077 billion in 2020, up from $3.72 billion in 2019, Billboard reports. In 2019 total revenue was up 12.7% from $3.3 billion in 2018. Although 2020 was the year of the lockdown, surprisingly, performance collections grew 7.92% to $2.1 billion from $1.945 billion in 2019.

Deafheaven take an interesting and sharp turn with their new, melodic, non-metal song 'Great Mass of Color'; José González shares his new bassy single 'Head On'; Madi Diaz finds a sweet spot between Americana and indie rock on 'Woman in my Heart'; 'Dropout Boogie' is the first collaboration between Your Old Droog and MF DOOM, produced after YOD renewed his interest in hip-hop - after hearing DOOM; Slow Fire Pistol go from ambient rock to hardcore to ambient... in the span of two minutes on 'Who Decides'.

"Three weeks ago everyone talked about J. Cole’s 'The Off-Season', but the moment has now passed even though the album and rollout were praised. The people who still have 'The Off-Season' in regular rotation are Cole’s day-ones and diehard fans" - Trapital goes into the longevity of today's music, adding - "some believe that this is a quality issue, but it’s less about quality, and more about control".

Nick Cave shared some advice about aging in his latest blog post, with plenty of charm and wit: "Entering your sixties brings with it a warm and fuzzy feeling of freedom through redundancy, through obsolescence, through living outside of the conversation and forever existing on the wrong end of the stick. What a relief it is to be that mad, embarrassing uncle in the corner of the room, a product of his age, with his loopy ideas about free speech and freedom of expression, with his love of beauty, of humour, chaos, provocation and outrage, of conversation and debate, his adoration of art without dogma, his impatience with the morally obvious, his belief in universal compassion, forgiveness and mercy, in nuance and the shadows, in neutrality and in humanity — ah, beautiful humanity — and in God too, who he thanks for letting him, in these dementing times, be old".

The vinyl boom only accelerated during the pandemic, generating $626 million in revenue in 2020 in the United States. Sales are on track to hit $1 billion this year - Billboard dives into the issue of vinyl production. The article looks at the limited editions and exclusive pressings driving the market; the supply-chain problems and manufacturing delays that could threaten sales; the way labels use data to decide what gets pressed on vinyl; and the move for greener pressing plants.

YouTube music theorist Adam Neely goes into "the long shadow of Western European aesthetics in the modern global musical ecosystem". Why? "Tik Tok has recently imploded over a young singer who sang harmony to Matt Maltese’s 'As the World Caves in'".

An interesting selection by the Stereogum of 50 best albums of the five months of 2021 that are behind us. The top 10 (not so expectedly) are:

10. The Armed - 'ULTRAPOP'

9. Matt Sweeney & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - 'Superwolves'

8. Home Is Where - 'i became birds'

7. Armand Hammer & The Alchemist - 'Haram'

6. Spirit Of The Beehive - 'ENTERTAINMENT, DEATH'

5. Cassandra Jenkins - 'An Overview On Phenomenal Nature'

4. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders, & The London Symphony Orchestra - 'Promises'

3. serpentwithfeet - 'Deacon'

2. The Weather Station - 'Ignorance'

1. Fiddlehead - 'Between The Richness'

Dozens of artists signed a letter asking the US Senate to "take action on background checks" for gun purchases, in a campaign organized by Billboard. The esteemed signees: Christina Aguilera, Tori Amos, Sara Barielles, Aaron Bay-Schuck, Tony Bennett, Selim Bouab, Rob Bourdon, Scooter Braun, Cortez Bryant, Michael Bublé, Vanessa Carlton, Joseph Carozza, Steve Cooper, Tom Corson, Lee Daniels, Ellen DeGeneres, Brad Delson, Diplo, Mike Easterlin, John Esposito, Melissa Etheridge, Fletcher, Luis Fonsi, Becky G, Kevin Gore, Julie Greenwald, Josh Groban, Horacio Gutierrez, Joe Hahn, Halsey, Billy Joel, Craig Kallman, Alicia Keys, Kid Cudi, Carole King, Elle King, Adam Lambert, Cyndi Lauper, Kevin Liles, Dre London, Jennifer Lopez, Macklemore, Zayn Malik, Carianne Marshall, Ricky Martin, Paul McCartney, Julia Michaels, Guy Moot, Jason Mraz, Gregg Nadel, Yoko Ono, Mark Pinkus, Gregory Porter, Prince Royce, Bonnie Raitt, Dawn Richard, RMR, Paul Robinson, Maggie Rogers, Kelly Rowland, Mike Shinoda, Sia, Matt Signore, Britney Spears, Rob Stevenson, Sting, Barbra Streisand, Justin Tranter, Sir Trilli, Sharon Van Etten, Aimie Vaughn-Fruehe, Eddie Vedder, Andrew Watt.

HM Magazine presents an oral history of the beginning of Christian metal music, featuring interviews with members of Guardian, Tourniquet, Holy Soldier, Whitecross, and Stryper.

Rolling Stone looks at the music industry's trend of trying to "concoct new ways to profit from the legacy of rock stars from days past. Some well-heeled investors are shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars for lucrative publishing catalogs; others are making use of TikTok and developing technologies like holograms; others envision deepfake software that could create 'new' songs by departed artists. Industry experts say that’s just the beginning".

REDEF Set started a new curated collection of articles Live Music 2.0(21), about the state of live music in the (vaccinated part of the) world. There are several paths that could be taken: vaccinated fans in the orchestra section wearing black wristbands, non-vaccinated (but negative-tested) fans in the balconies, everybody in masks (like the Los Angeles Opera); Springsteen on Broadway will reopen end of June - attendees will need proof of vaccination and a photo ID to get in; club doors open to a full-capacity crowd, masks encouraged but not required.

New Directions in Music shared an interesting story about hoaxes in music. The first Klatuu album was widely rumored to be the work of The Beatles upon its release in 1977, which was how it got attention. After it was announced that the band were, in fact, a group of Canadian studio musicians, their subsequent albums missed both the sales and the charts. There's also the story of Ursula Bogner, a completely unknown woman who purportedly created electronic music from 1969-1988, all the while holding down a day job with a large German pharmaceutical company. Her music was compiled by German musician Jan Jelinek. It is now widely believed that Jelinek was actually the one who made the music and even got photographed as Mrs Bogner (he got dressed in women's clothing).

Jazz pianist Jason Moran talks to The United States of Anxiety about the life and work of James Reese Europe - American ragtime and early jazz bandleader, arranger, composer, and the leading figure on the African Americans music scene of New York City in the 1910s - and about Reese's role in the infamous 369th Infantry Regiment, also known as the Harlem Hellfighters, who crossed racial lines and brought jazz to Europe.

The New York Times shares a story about three brave dancers - Piisciis (25), Nova (25), and Axid (20) who joined anti-government protests in Bogota, Columbia, and fought the power with their - dance. “In that moment we were all connected in the message of the struggle, the resistance, empathy, strength and love” Piisciis said, while Nova added: “We resisted with art and vogue. We were scared, but the people and the love from the public was our gasoline to go up there and confront the police”. For weeks, thousands of people have crowded the streets of Colombia, protesting inequality, rising poverty and police violence. President Iván Duque has deployed the country’s military and police forces, and more than 40 people have died.

Al Jazeera looks into morna, a Cape Verdean musical practice believed to date back to the 18th century, that was initially performed by women who were brought into the archipelago from West Africa and forced into slavery. These improvised songs were used by “Cantadeiras” (women singers) to speak of day-to-day affairs – often taking on a satirical format. Over time, morna, also known as “música rainha” (“queen music”), underwent several changes to its melodic and rhythmic characteristics, becoming the slower, more mournful version heard today.

"An inspiring, provocative vision of the many ways popular music matters- how caring writers have addressed its meanings, pleasures, mysteries, racism, sexism, populism, democratic vistas, conflicts of interest, angles of entry, leaps of faith, tricks of fate, joking around, stormy Mondays, mother fuyers, weary blues from waiting, reasons to be cheerful, simple twists of fate, sexy bits, and did I mention racism?" - Robert Christgau writes about new book 'Songbooks: The Literature of American Popular Music' by (one of his best friends) Eric Weisbard. There are two narrative lines in the book - "the shifting dialectic of vernacular and sentimental and the flowering and wilting of music journalism as a profession".

TikToker @mancypodcast shares a short theory about how punk rock may be responsible for a major shift in accent in America. It happened when American punk bands were copying the sound of British punk bands, who were copying the sound of American punk bands. He calls the accent the California lilt.

Wickedly funny, as per usual, Noel Gallagher in The New Cue interview talks about the lockdown, his new studio, and a certain "fat c***". He went on to compare touring to being in lockdown: "You do live a bit of a Groundhog Day when you're on tour. It's kind of the same but it's different because you're traveling. You live in the same day but in a different country. This is living the same day in the same fucking house. I think I've seen the same dozen people for a year". Apart from watching the telly, he says he's been wasting his days by - wasting himself: "The biggest thing was the drinking... I'm on the go slow at the moment but there's nothing else to do".

Taylor Swift’s 6-months old album 'Evermore' returns to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with 202,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending June 3, Billboard reports. Album sales comprise 192,000, marking the biggest sales week of 2021. Also, 'Evermore' broke the record for the biggest sales week for a vinyl album in the U.S. since tracking sales began in 1991. The vinyl edition of the album sold 102,000 in a week, smashing Jack White’s record set with 40,000 copies of 'Lazaretto' sold in June 2014. 'Evermore' was initially released digitally and through streamers on Dec. 11, 2020, but its vinyl edition was not issued until May 28.

“This is to announce my retirement from touring and from working in the record business. I’ve gotten older and I’m tired” - Sinéad O’Connor wrote in a series of tweets. The Irish singer-songwriter’s upcoming album, 'No Veteran Dies Alone', will be her final release, she said, Deadline reports. TNC, inspired by the announcement, remembers her 1990 interview: "By the time 'Nothing Compares 2 U' happened I was almost in a state of shock. I was zapped mentally. I wasn't eating properly, just drinking coffee and smoking hundreds of cigarettes and getting totally stressed out... man, I just didn't know how to deal with the fame and the American fans and the horseshit British press. 'Shoeless Sinead' and all that bollocks. I was never prepared for what it did to me. I couldn't have been prepared for that kind of success. Let's face it, what other record has really done that? I thought it might do OK? But not this".

They were born around the time the U.S. invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban from power in 2001. Now, they are students becoming doctors and engineers, who are also juggling jobs to support their families. Vice talked to several Afghan rappers about how they feel now the American troops are leaving.

The British Library has released a lovely animated video explaining the 100+ years of recorded sound. Narrated by author, singer-songwriter and broadcaster Cerys Matthews (from the band Catatonia), this animation goes from Thomas Edison's invention to digital sound. It's a short one - 3 minutes in duration.

Former Pearl Jam drummer Dave Abbruzzese has joined forces with the Pearl Jam Family France Facebook community to rerecord the band’s 1993 classic 'Rearviewmirror', Loudwire reports. The seven-minute video cuts between several fans taking turns on vocals, guitars, and bass, while Abbruzzese handles the drums, just as he did on the original recording. Abbruzzese was let go from the band in 1994 because of personality conflicts with Eddie Vedder, but has a strong fan following.

Medium wants us to read more, so they've made a list of the most popular songs inspired by books. There are: 'Pet Sematary' written by the Ramones (1989) after Stephen King himself asked the band to write a song for the 1989 film adaptation of his novel; 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' by Bruce Springsteen (1995) iwas nspired by John Steinbeck’s novel 'The Grapes of Wrath'; 'Shiver Me Timbers' by Tom Waits (1974) pulls from Herman Melville’s 'Moby Dick' and Jack London’s novel 'Martin Eden'; 'Ramble On' by Led Zeppelin (1969) is deep into 'Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings'; 'White Rabbit' by Jefferson Airplane (1967) is Lewis Carroll’s 'Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland' and 'Through the Looking-Glass' set to music.

"Having lived most of my life under military occupation – and therefore lockdown – music has always given me a place to escape from reality, as well as a safe space to express myself. Whether I’m creating, listening or dancing to it, music has the power to take me somewhere else mentally and I’m forever grateful for that" - Palestinian DJ/producer Sama’ Abdulhadi told The Face about what music means to her. She had also trouble because of it - she was arrested by Palestinian authorities on Dec. 27 and held in a Jericho jail for eight days after coordinating and playing a livestream event for Beatport at a site called Maqam Nabi Musa, the tomb of the prophet Moses.