Super Starr: ex-Beatle took up country music, The Weeknd went into movies
The Weeknd prepares to part ways with his alias, Ringo Starr goes country, and FKA Twigs turns his anger on its head after a scandalous track leak. The first month of 2025 is by no means a quiet time in the music industry. Melomaniacs are waiting for a lot of high-profile novelties, read about the most interesting ones in Izvestia.
The Weeknd - Hurry Up Tomorrow
The most anticipated release of January is undoubtedly The Weeknd's new album. The popularity of the Canadian artist is such that any of his releases automatically attracts attention, but in this case the interest is reinforced by the artist's own words about his forthcoming renunciation of his pseudonym. Hurry Up Tomorrow is positioned as the completion of the trilogy started by After Hours (2020) and Dawn FM (2024). With the release of the record, Abel Tesfaye promises to open a new chapter of his creativity, "reinvent" himself and leave The Weeknd brand in the past.
The full track list was not yet available at the time of writing, but it was possible to get acquainted with the three "official" singles and several numbers and fragments that were played at The Weeknd's concerts or as part of the promotional campaign for the album. Judging by this material, the record desperately lacks hits of Blinding Lights or Save Your Tears level. Dancing in the Flames fits the role of the flagship song, but it's clear that the track failed to reach the previous heights - it reached only 14th position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. By The Weeknd's standards - a failure.
However, there is no doubt that Hurry Up Tomorrow will still give a lot of pleasure to the fans of the artist: his trademark high vocals (almost falsetto), the most relevant beats, collaborations with rapper Playboi Carti and Brazilian pop star Anitta - there will be a lot of interesting things. And the main thing - a few months after the release of Hurry Up Tomorrow it is planned to release a feature film with the same title - a psychological thriller, where along with Abel himself Jenna Ortega starred. True, The Weeknd's previous film experiences, such as the scandalous series Idol, have caused a much more skeptical reaction than his musical works, but - perhaps we are waiting for something like a full-length video. We'll see!
Ringo Starr - Look Up
In 2024, the country music trend is sweeping across the western industry. Of course, rootsy American music has always been valued overseas, and it's no coincidence that for a long time Alison Krauss, who is relatively little-known in Russia, held the palm of superiority in terms of the number of Grammy awards (by the way, Russian music lovers fell in love with her thanks to two duet albums with ex-Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant). But before that it was still a domestic story, while artists oriented to international audience preferred pop, rock, rap or r'n'b.
But now Beyoncé has released a country album, Post Malone has followed suit, and Lana Del Rey has promised to make a similar move. And after this news, it doesn't seem so surprising that even rock legend Ringo Starr decided to change his usual style, and even attracted a whole host of bluegrass stars (a more authentic form of country music).
The new LP by the artist, who will celebrate his 85th birthday this year, will be released on January 10, and it will feature 11 original songs: unlike the aforementioned Plant, who relied on cover versions, Starr composed the material himself. Two songs are solo, including the first single Time on My Hands, and the rest are duets and trios with Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, rock band Larkin Poe and, of course, Alison Krauss (hey, Robert, you've got competition!).
And it looks like we're in for a predictable record in a good way. Ringo Starr is not about surprises and experiments at all, but about tradition, kindness, positivity. Carefree and melancholy glissando slide guitar, soft rhythm section and simple positive melodies - perfect music for a soft start of the working week after the January holidays. Time on My Hands is proof of that.
FKA Twigs - Eusexua
British star FKA Twigs (Talia Barnett) hasn't released a longplay since 2022, with the last one - Caprisongs - being a mixtape rather than a full album. She hasn't released a full musical statement since 2019's Magdalene, an aesthetically experimental record that has been compared to Björk's work for good reason.
A major comeback was due in 2023: on October 1, FKA Twigs performed at the Valentino Fashion Show with a dance set based on an untitled song with techno accompaniment. It seemed to be not a full-fledged composition, but a fragment, a "sketch", however, very bright and memorable.
However, the release of the track on streaming platforms did not follow - because of a loud scandal: hackers stole from the singer and leaked 85 demos - apparently, all the working material of the upcoming album. Talia reacted extremely painfully: she promised to go into the shadows and cancel the release of the record altogether.
And indeed, about half a year nothing was heard about her, then the singer published a very strange collaboration with British electronic Two Shell - and again lay low, until the release of the movie "The Raven", in which she played the lead female role. And only after that, in the fall of 2024, she announced the record, which was called Eusexua - as the lead single, which was the composition from the Valentino show.
A little later two more tracks appeared on streaming services - Perfect Stranger and Drums of Death, but if Eusexua was encouraging, these singles make a much less unambiguous impression: there are rhythms and beats, but no expressive melody. In general, it is already clear that the album will turn out to be at least uneven. But there may well be some gems on it.
You might have missed
Charpentier. "Midnight Christmas Mass."
Academic organizations regularly put on Christmas-themed operas and oratorios at the end of the year, but the list of works tends to be pretty traditional. The program for the December 15 concert at the Moscow Philharmonic is another matter . The ensemble Questa Musica with its director Philip Chizhevsky (who recently headed Svetlanov State Academic Symphony Orchestra) collected rarities from different eras - from the Renaissance to the post-war avant-garde, culminating in the "Midnight Christmas Mass" by the 17th century French classic Marc-Antoine Charpentier.
Felix Kotlo and Tosya Chaikina. "The rain lured."
One of the most unusual duets of December. Sound producer and singer Felix Kotlo created a composition with a bright tinge of old-fashioned pop jazz, and Tosya Chaikina, who joined him, sang a not at all simple melody with an almost operatic sound (fans know that the singer likes to appear in an unusual role, performing, for example, Puccini's aria from "Gianni Schicchi"). There are different ways to evaluate this rattling mixture of styles, but at least such experiments are interesting.
Georgy Sviridov. Romances to poems by Alexander Blok
A real rarity at the end of the year was released by Melodiya. Georgy Sviridov wrote Romances on poems by Blok in 1938, at the age of 22. Later he repeatedly turned to the work of the Silver Age poet, but this experience was the first. Alas, during the author's lifetime the music was not published, no materials have survived in the archive. However, musicologist and pianist Anastasia Timofeeva managed to find a photocopy of the manuscript. She performed the piano part in the Melodiya recording, and the vocal part was sung by baritone Nikolai Zemlyanskikh.
Izvestia playlist
We wanted to make our first 2025 playlist cozy, homely, soft in sound and winter in theme. We open our selection with the above-mentioned Felix Kotlo and Tosya Chaikina number, followed by another duet, but much more traditional and with a well-known melody: Eva Polna and Basta. The members of the indie band "The Biggest Simple Number" also sing together. And Sviridov's performers form a tandem of a vocalist and a pianist. And only Zhenya Lyubich manages alone, although she turns out no less charming.
