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Writer's pictureLeah Laughlin

Music Updates

With music being a substantial part of pop culture, it is no surprise that new songs and albums are constantly being released. 2023 came with new albums from Drake, Pink Pantheress, Jelly Roll, and Hozier. This year, we’ve seen an overwhelming amount of popular artists releasing new albums such as Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish, and Eminem. 

Eminem released his album in July with the title, “The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce).”  With this album being Eminem’s twelfth, there is speculation that this may be his last. Some of the hit songs on the album include “Houdini” and “Somebody Save Me.” The latter of the two features popular artist Jelly Roll, who collaborated with Eminem. Jelly Roll, who’s given name is Jason DeFord, released an album last year titled Whitsitt Chapel. 

Eminem’s album received mixed reviews, and according to Metacritic, after 16 reviews, it received a 46 out of 100. “The Death of Slim Shady feels like just another late-period Eminem album. It has successes and misfires in equal measure. It’s not bad enough to count as terrible, not good enough to count as great,” The Guardian said in a recent review.

         Sabrina Carpenter, an artist rising to fame after her hit single Espresso this summer, released her sixth album. Espresso, as well as another single called “Please, Please, Please,” were songs released early from her album this year, Short n’ Sweet.          Short n’ Sweet garnered 233 million first week streams, and it hit Number 1 on the top albums chart. Her tour will start on September 23rd in Columbus, Ohio. Upcoming dates and cities near Newtown are at the XL Center in Hartford on October 2nd, the TD Banknorth Arena in Boston on October 3rd, and the CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore, Maryland on October 5th. 

         “I liked it. I like Sabrina Carpenter’s voice and the way that she sings and how catchy the songs are. But I found some of the songs a little repetitive but there are obviously a lot of good ones,” Newtown High School junior Nikki Mukka said. “Personally, I love Childish Gambino so I love his album. It’s also his last album so I’m pretty sad.” 

         Taylor Swift also released a new album called The Tortured Poets Department in April. With Taylor Swift being one of the top artists of today’s time, her album was anxiously anticipated. The album was her eleventh, and it was originally released with 16 songs, but two hours later she released The Anthology which brought her album to 31 songs. 

“Taylor might be the self-proclaimed ‘Chairman of the Tortured Poets Department,’ but judging by these songs, business is booming. She sounds confused, bitter, raging, vulnerable, yet more gloriously chaotic than we’ve ever heard her before,” praises the music magazine, Rolling Stone. 

“Fortnight,” the song that Swift co-sung with fellow artist Post Malone, broke Spotify’s record for the most streams for one song in one day. “On a scale of one to ten I felt a six on the excitement scale. I was expecting a different album to be coming out. Just based on the title I knew that this album would be different from her other ones and I didn’t know if I would like it. However, I was very excited because Taylor Swift is my favorite artist and I knew whatever she produced I would at least like some of it and it’s more music,” NHS junior Olivia Gulalo said.

This year saw many different genres and styles with songs and there are still more yet to come. Tommy Richman, who released the popular hit song “Million Dollar Baby” in April, releases his album “Coyote” on September 27th. We’ll also see albums from Lady Gaga, (titled LG7), and Lana Del Rey with her album called Lasso. Gaga’s album is suspected to be released sometime in late 2024 or early 2025 and Ray’s is to be released in September.


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