Month: August 2023

LE SSERAFIM‘s “Eve, Psyche & The Bluebeard’s Wife” featuring Demi Lovato has topped this week’s new music poll.

Music fans voted in a poll published Friday (Aug. 4) on Billboard, choosing the collaboration between the K-pop group and pop singer as their favorite new music release of the past week.

“Eve, Psyche & The Bluebeard’s Wife” brought in nearly 46% of the vote, beating out new music by Doja Cat (“Paint the Town Red”), Halle (“Angel”), Usher featuring 21 Savage and Summer Walker (“Good Good”), Grupo Frontera (El Comienzo), and others.

The K-pop group — comprising members Sakura, Kim Chae-won, Huh Yun-jin, Kazuha and Hong Eun-chae — released an English version of the song on Friday (Aug. 4), with the addition of a sultry verse by Lovato. The remix follows the group’s Rina Sawayama collab for the track the week prior.

“I see it written on your face, yeah/ I know you want a little taste, yeah/ You know I’ll put you in your place/ You’re crawling on the floor/ Begging me for more, ooh/ I’m sicker than the flu/ Come put me in the mood/ My body touching you, do you like that?/ Ooh, just watch the way I move,” Lovato belts on the rock-tinged tune.

“Eve, Psyche & The Bluebeard’s Wife” is the second single from LE SSERAFIM’s first studio album, Unforgiven. The song peaked at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Trending Songs chart dated June 3, while the album it’s on peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard 200.

Lovato, meanwhile, is prepping to release an entire album featuring rocked-out versions of some of her biggest hits. REVAMPED is slated for release on Sept. 15 and it will feature the reimagined guitar-heavy versions of “Sorry,” as well as the previously released “Heart Attack (Rock Version)” and “Cool For the Summer (Rock Version).”

Trailing behind “Eve, Psyche & The Bluebeard’s Wife” on the poll is Doja Cat’s latest release “Paint the Town Red,” which brought in 26% of the vote.

Led by a sample of Dionne Warwick’s classic “Walk on By” to leverage the chorus, Doja knows exactly what her naysayers think of her, and taunts them with their own comments on a bouncy chorus.

“Mm, she the devil/ She a bad lil’ b—-, she a rebel/ She put her foot to the pedal/ It’ll take a whole lot for me to settle,” she sings.

The track is the second look fans have received of her upcoming fourth album after single “Attention.”

See the final results of this week’s new music release poll below.

Dirty Heads return to No. 1 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart for the first time since 2010, as “Rescue Me” jumps from No. 4 to the top of the tally dated Aug. 12.

It’s the California band’s first ruler since “Lay Me Down,” featuring Rome, crowned the survey for 10 weeks in 2010. “Lay Me Down” also marked the six-piece’s first charted title.

In between “Lay Me Down” and “Rescue Me,” Dirty Heads appeared on Alternative Airplay with 13 entries, paced by a pair of No. 3 peaks via “My Sweet Summer” (2014) and “Life’s Been Good” (2022).

The band went 13 years and two weeks between No. 1s, the second-longest break in the Alternative Airplay chart’s 35-year history. The lengthiest was achieved by The Killers, who went just a bit longer: 13 years and six months between the commands of “When You Were Young” in October 2006 and “Caution” in April 2020.

Concurrently, “Rescue Me” ranks at No. 7 on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart with 3.1 million audience impressions, up 9%, July 28-Aug. 3, according to Luminate. It reached No. 6 on the Aug. 5 list.

“Rescue Me” is on the deluxe edition, released July 14, of Midnight Control, Dirty Heads’ eighth studio album. Released in August 2022, the LP has earned 57,000 equivalent album units to date.

AC/DC’s “It’s a Long Way to the Top” felt an appropriate choice of lights-down intro music for Metallica‘s concert at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Friday night (August 4) — the first show of the U.S. leg of the band’s M72 World Tour, and the first of two shows they’d play at the venue that weekend.

After all, it’s now been 40 years since their debut album Kill ‘Em All first made them metal sensations. Though they’ve spent most of those four decades as gigantic rock stars, not many years in between have been particularly easy for the band, as they’ve dealt at length with death, alcoholism, in-band turmoil, repeat fan backlash and extremely public humiliation. But here they were, unquestionably at the top — as drummer Lars Ulrich later pointed out, performing in the round at the 80,000-cap MetLife marked the biggest venue they’d ever played in the New York area, and they’d be back doing so again on Sunday night — and their gratitude at being there (and being anywhere at all, really) was infectious throughout the night.

The band was likely feeling extra thankful to have an audience so willing to go along with their fascinating gambit for this particular tour: a risky “No Repeat Weekend” strategy that sees them play two nights at the same venue with two completely different setlists — meaning that each individual show is invariably lacking a handful of the usual musts. Fans with the time, willingness and (most importantly) money to make it out to East Rutherford for both of this weekend’s shows could afford to be zen about such things, but those in town for one night only could understandably be anxious about some of the big misses from Friday’s show. After all, can you really call it a Metallica concert if there’s no “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” no “One,” and — in Yankees country, no less — no “Enter Sandman”?

The answer, of course is “yes,” as became fairly clear early in the set. Many bands throughout history, even great ones, are too defined by their hits to stray from them in an average concert; Metallica can start off with three deep cuts (“Creeping Death” from Ride the Lightning, “Harvester of Sorrow” from …And Justice for All and “Holier Than Thou” from Metallica) and not feel like they’re reaching. Besides, even with over two hours to work with, the band’s songs are epic enough that there was only room for 16 of them; Metallica couldn’t hit all the big ones with that setlist length even if they tried. So it was pretty easy to let go of the idea of a la carte song ordering, and let Metallica’s omakase setlist do its thing.

And both the song selection and the performance was pretty impeccable throughout. It felt a privilege to get near 10 minutes each of both the spellbinding Master of Puppets instrumental chugger “Orion” and the underrated 21st century “Simple Man”-turned-“Free Bird” power ballad “The Day That Never Comes,” with the band — minus the occasional Lars aberration — in total lockstep, guitarist Kirk Hammett’s leads in particular sounding as explosive and radiant as ever. Even most of the material from the new 72 Seasons, which can feel a little flat on record, came alive in this setting — sounding more credible than ever as forgotten b-sides or second-side cuts from the band’s classic period. (“If Darkness Was a Son,” though, will likely always be a tough hang.)

But just as important than the specific songs and performances was the band’s good vibes throughout. You wouldn’t necessarily expect to be able to describe a Metallica concert — particularly one that starts with “Creeping Death” — as “life-affirming,” but that’s how it felt watching these guys cheesing up a storm, raving about their own picks (“I like that song!”) dodging gigantic beach balls onstage (dropped on the crowd during “Seek and Destroy”), even throwing an entire red Solo cup’s worth of picks into the crowd after the show. “We are so grateful to be up there kicking ass and celebrating life with you,” frontman James Hetfield raved. Bassist Robert Trujillo, who’s now been with the band a full two decades (and is basically the same age as the other members), still bounds with a sort of new-guy energy to him; he’s a great argument for why all veteran rock bands should add a brand new member — preferably one who’s been a longtime fan — halfway through their lifespan, to keep things from ever getting too stale.

The show closed with “Master of Puppets” — a signature song which, after three and a half decades of fan worship, also become the band’s unlikely first Hot 100 top 40 hit in nearly 15 years last summer. The most indelible image of the evening — in our section at least — was a series of four pre-teens in matching Metallica shirts losing their minds (and eventually their shirts) to “Master”; all members-in-training of the Hellfire Club, no doubt. One of the adults supervising them was also wearing a shirt with a Napster logo — seemingly as neither an ironic nor confrontational gesture, but rather just as a winking acknowledgment of how much water under the bridge band and audience share after 40 years.

The most emotional moment of the night, however, came earlier, as Hetfield acknowledged thanked the crowd for “remembering my birthday” — the frontman having turned 60 just on Thursday. “My seventh decade on the planet… I can’t believe it,” he rhapsodized from on stage. “Younger me would be saying, ‘You made it. You effing made it.’” Then, before launching into “Fade to Black” — from the band’s second album, and still one of the most vivid, heartbreaking, and still strangely empowering songs ever written about suicidal ideation — he reflected, “I’m glad I didn’t listen to my head when I was young.” It’s a long way to the top, but Hetfield and Metallica made a very good case on Friday for why getting there is worth the trip.

Setlist:

“Creeping Death”
“Harvester of Sorrow”
“Holier Than Thou”
“King Nothing”
“72 Seasons”
“If Darkness Had a Son”
“Fade to Black”
“Shadows Follow”
“Orion”
“Nothing Else Matters”
“Sad But True”
“The Day That Never Comes”
“Battery”
“Fuel”
“Seek and Desteroy”
“Master of Puppets”

Anitta is the latest act to take on the challenge of eating spicy wings in a new episode of Hot Ones.

“I think it’s going to be a nightmare,” she told host Sean Evans before eating the chicken wings. She joked about her family being concerned about her shooting the show and how her publicist encouraged her to take on the challenge because it was an “amazing” opportunity. 

During the nearly 30-minute episode, the Brazilian not only tried out various hot sauces including Classic Chili Maple, Zesty Lemon Pepper and the Spice Shark, to name a few, but she also talked about the roots of Brazilian funk music, her upcoming projects and more. 

Most notably, Anitta was as unfiltered as ever, sharing crazy anecdotes about her personal life and career.  Below, check out five fun facts we learned watching Anitta’s “Hot Ones” episode:

1. Discovering Reggaeton Music: While trying out the Thai Green Curry Hot Sauce, the artist shared a story about discovering reggaeton music during one of her first business trips to Mexico. She said she first went to a “fancy” nightclub and was underwhelmed. Then, she hopped in a taxi and asked to be taken to a regular club in a barrio. She recalls having the best time ever and Shazamming all the reggaeton songs that caught her attention to later go back to the hotel and DM the artists for potential collaborations.   

2. No Condiments, Please: “I never put lemon on my food,” the singer said ahead of trying out the Zesty Lemon Pepper Hot Sauce. “This is the easiest one so far. I feel so relaxed now.” While eating the chicken wing, she talked about going on a date with a chef to his restaurant and faking to like the food. She said all the dishes had black pepper but that she doesn’t eat black pepper because “it causes hemorrhoids.” 

3. Love-Making Music: Things got spicier (no pun intended) when she tried the Chile Lengua de Fuego sauce. “I love songs to make love to. I always make songs to twerk,” she admitted. “I think a good song to have sex needs to have that movement that you feel you can go with it and ride to it. I took a course of tantric massage and it needs to match that vibe — it needs to be sensitive, not that strong. It was good,” she elaborated. 

4. Embarrassing Work Moment: As the challenge grew hotter, Anitta became more revealing. During Los Calientes Rojos Hot Sauce, she talked about clogging the toilet at a fancy hotel where she was having a work meeting. “Everyone was knocking on the door and the toilet wouldn’t flush. The water spilled, I was desperate. I was there for 40-mins,” she laughed. 

5. She Doesn’t Google Herself: While eating the extra hot and spicy Jalapeño Chico sauce, Anitta said she doesn’t care about reading news about herself or even googling her name. “I used to be on top of my sh** every single day—Do people love me? Do they hate me? Now I don’t give a sh** because people are crazy. I decided to let it go.”