The Star Online: Entertainment: Music
The Star Online: Entertainment: Music |
- Adele honoured in Queen Elizabeth's birthday list
- New Kanye West album leaks, creating online buzz
- Uncle Kracker reflects on his musical journey
| Adele honoured in Queen Elizabeth's birthday list Posted: 15 Jun 2013 02:46 AM PDT LONDON: Grammy Award-winning singer Adele and Mr Bean actor Rowan Atkinson were among more than 1,000 people recognised by Britain's Queen Elizabeth in her Birthday Honours List on Friday. Marking the monarch's official 87th birthday, the honours went to 1,180 recipients from all walks of life, from a beekeeper and a whisky maker to diplomats, artists and business leaders. London-born Adele, 25, was awarded an MBE - member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire - for services to music. One of Britain's best-selling artists, Adele has won a string of international awards for songs such as "Rolling in the Deep", "Someone Like You" and "Skyfall", a James Bond theme. Comedian Atkinson, known to millions of fans around the world for his bungling creation Mr Bean, was given a CBE, Commander of the Order of the British Empire. A knighthood went to actor Tony Robinson, who played Atkinson's long-suffering servant Baldrick in "Blackadder", a popular BBC comedy series set in different periods of British history. "Some might say that Blackadder (Atkinson's bullying character) will finally have to treat Baldrick with a bit more respect," Bob Kerslake, head of Britain's civil service, told a news conference. Away from the celebrities and public figures, hundreds of people working in schools, hospitals and charities were also recognised. Those honoured will receive their awards from Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace in ceremonies over the coming months, Kerslake added. Others in the arts to be honoured included sculptor Anish Kapoor, who created the Orbit tower at the London Olympics site. He received a knighthood. CBEs went to cross-dressing artist Grayson Perry, actress Claire Bloom and Julian Glover, an actor whose many roles include a Bond villain in "For Your Eyes Only". Nicholas Serota, director of Tate, which runs four art galleries across Britain, becomes a Companion of Honour. In business, there were knighthoods for Richard Olver, chairman of defence company BAE Systems Plc Diplomats receiving an OBE included John Baugh, who last year became Britain's first ambassador to Somalia in more than 20 years. Martyn Roper, ambassador to Algeria, was awarded an OBE, in part for his handling of the hostage crisis at the In Amenas gas plant in January. -Reuters |
| New Kanye West album leaks, creating online buzz Posted: 15 Jun 2013 02:12 AM PDT LOS ANGELES: Kanye West's new album "Yeezus" leaked online Friday, four days before its official release, but the US rapper appeared unconcerned as the Internet went crazy over his latest record. The much-anticipated album - due to be officially released Tuesday - immediately became a top Twitter trending subject, while instant reviews were largely positive. It was not immediately clear if the leak was part of a marketing strategy or was a genuine non-deliberate release. The album includes contributions from French electro artists Daft Punk, Frank Ocean, Justin Vernon and Kid Cudi. The 36-year-old held a public listening session for media in New York on Monday for the new album recorded in Paris and Los Angeles, his sixth solo record, without preventing anyone from recording what they heard. Pop culture and technology website Mashable said its representative was among 100 or so people at the session, and that West's record company staff appeared to have no qualms about the music leaking. Mashable quoted the rapper himself as telling those present: "I have this new strategy. It's called no strategy," adding with expletive accompaniment: "This album is all about giving." Rolling Stone called the album "the darkest, most extreme music Kanye has ever cooked up, an extravagantly abrasive album full of grinding electro, pummeling minimalist hip-hop, drone-y wooz and industrial gear-grind. "Every mad genius has to make a record like this at least once in his career," the music bible added, giving the album 4.5 stars out of five. The New York Daily News gave it a five-star review, saying: "Everything about the album ups the ante of its advance press: It presents Kanye as nothing less than the Johnny Rotten of his generation." "The entire disc rethinks industrial rock of the early '90s for both a new era and genre," the newspaper's critic added. In the past, West has taken extreme precautions to prevent pirating of his music, limiting the number of people involved to reduce the risk of files leaking by email or other means. -AFP |
| Uncle Kracker reflects on his musical journey Posted: 15 Jun 2013 02:31 AM PDT Detroit's Uncle Kracker, whose breezy pop approach has bred hits such as Drift Away and Smile, is in his hometown in support of his November album Midnight Special – his first for the Nashville indie label Sugar Hill Records after a 12-year run with Atlantic. The 38-year-old father of three is hoping to get a boost from his high-profile summer tour with old pal Kid Rock, which will kick off June 28 in Virginia. On parting ways with Atlantic "Things just weren't going the way both of us wanted it. It was time to do something different. I'd been with Atlantic my whole career, and I'd gone through different sets of people with every album. It was just time for somebody that understood ... "Where I'm at in my career, it was the best musical fit for me at Sugar Hill. They've got a pretty eclectic roster, and nobody there is trying to write your songs for you. It's very relaxed. They've had my back since I got there. I like being able to do what I want to do, whenever I want to do it." On being patient awaiting a single to hit "The good news is that I've been through that enough to know that happens. Some days you're scraping the bottom, sometimes you're on top. I know what it's like to be skunked, and I know what it's like to yank a few out of the water. I've been very lucky – and blessed – in that department. It keeps everything fun." On progressing as a songwriter since he started "Writing songs is a craft, and it's a technique that's more from the heart, not a studied thing. You can look at something and say, 'That's a perfectly written song,' and then there are others where it's like, 'Wow, that's horrible, how'd they do that?' but it still hit you where it counts, and you felt it. "Music's always been a soundtrack in the background of my life, for everything I've done. I can think back and remember a song for a certain time, even as far back as walking into Disneyland when I was a kid, songs that were played here and there." On rekindling his partnership with Kid Rock "We were on different paths for the last seven years. I helped him write a couple of songs on the last record. Lately, we've connected more than we had in a long time. We're gearing up for this next tour with ZZ Top, and I'm sure we'll be writing. "In the past, it always worked out that my record would come out and I had to tour, and when I was done his record would come out. The cycles never worked out. "But (last autumn) his record and my record finally came out pretty close to each other." — Detroit Free Press/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
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