Three New Music Releases to Get You Through Quarantine
We are living in truly challenging and unique times. The precautions that are in place due to the current state of the country have severely limited what people are able to do on a daily basis, and people are looking for ways to stay entertained. Fortunately for music fanatics, big artists are also experiencing this excess of time and lack things to do. Because of this, we have gotten numerous releases from big music artists; some surprising and long-awaited.
Although we could go on for pages and pages about all the new music in the last couple of months, we are going to focus on three influential artists and their most recent projects; these artists being The Weeknd, Gorillaz, and Lil Uzi Vert.
The first of these albums to release was “Eternal Atake” by Lil Uzi Vert. Uzi has been one of the most popular and influential artists in the music industry ever since 2016 when he released two chart-topping albums in one year. Having not released an album since 2017, fans were begging for another project; especially since he had been hinting at releasing music all throughout 2019. Near the end of 2019, he even said that 2020 was going to be his new 2016 (the year he released two albums). He didn’t disappoint either. On March 6 he released “Eternal Atake,” then released “Lil Uzi Vert vs The World 2” only one week later on March 13.
Music fans all over the world were fully satisfied with the two albums that Uzi released, but the releases didn’t stop there. On March 20, one week after “Lil Uzi Vert vs.The World,” The Weeknd (Abel Tesfaye) released his much-anticipated album “After Hours.” In November of 2019, Tesfaye posted a photo on Instagram showing a complete change in his style and aesthetic. He had changed his large head of dreadlocks into a small afro, had a mustache and glasses, and wore a red designer suit. The caption of the post read: “The fall starts tomorrow night.”
His appearance is not the only aspect of his style and aesthetic that has changed. His new album, and the singles leading up to it, are heavily 80s-influenced, with a variety of synthesizer melodies and retro drum machine sounds which pair well with his high, Michael Jackson-esque singing voice. It has been met with widespread critical acclaim, and many (including myself) believe that this is The Weeknd’s best style of music to date.
The latest of these releases, hitting the public on April 9, is “Song Machine 3” by Gorillaz. Although it is only three singles as opposed to an entire album, it is a treat to anyone who has been following the band at any point during their illustrious 19-year career. This project continues with what they have made on “Song Machine 1” and “Song machine 2,” leaving many wondering if this high amount of activity will mean an album release in the near future.
