Thursday night (April 16), Paul McCartney gave a magical, mystery tour through his new solo album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, for 30 fans.
Hosted at producer Andrew Watt’s newly christened Diamond Dust studio in Sherman Oaks, McCartney and Watt described the making of the album track by track before playing each song. In between, an animated McCartney regaled the audience with stories about his fellow Beatles, before playing a handful of deeply nostalgic songs.
Overall, the album, which comes out May 29 on Capitol Records, is delightfully Beatle-esque in parts in terms of melodies, instrumentation, bold tempo and stylistic changes and, of course, McCartney’s vocals, which sound by turns sturdy and robust and then delicate and vulnerable. Watt stressed that for the most part (other than the strings and orchestration), McCartney played all the instruments on the album, including drums…though he got a very able assist from Ringo Starr on one track: “I said [to Watt], ‘Are you going to get Chad [Smith]?’ And he said, ‘Why don’t you have a go?’ And I did!”
“No one else can do that,” Watt said of McCartney’s multi-instrument prowess. A modest McCartney replied, “A few people can do it,” before taking a beat and cutely tilting his head and adding, “but not many.”
The superfans were shuttled from the Capitol Records Tower to the studio, and while McCartney’s presence hadn’t been promised, when the fans (and three journalists) entered the small room and saw two burgundy velvet chairs with three acoustic guitars lined up behind them, flanked by two large speaker stacks, anticipation rose that McCartney would definitely make an appearance.
Shortly before 7 p.m. PT., Watt, McCartney and McCartney’s wife, Nancy Shevell, entered the room, with McCartney miming playing the guitar. “We’re going to play the album and we’re going to explain how we made it,” McCartney said, adding, “Welcome my missus, Nancy.”
And that’s exactly what happened. For close to 90 minutes, a delightfully loquacious McCartney dived into the making of the album, starting with how he met the 35-year old Grammy-Award winning Watt, who has become the go-to producer for legendary artists, including the Rolling Stones, Elton John and the late Ozzy Osbourne, after producing such acts as Justin Bieber, Post Malone and Miley Cyrus.
McCartney met Watt for a “cup of tea,” but they immediately began noodling around and trading licks and “I’m like, ‘okay, we’re going to work together,” McCartney said. “Sometimes, I like to find a crazy chord and [find] maybe that will inspire me,” he said, grabbing an acoustic guitar from behind him to replicate the chord. The small audience burst into applause, leading McCartney to joke, “it wasn’t that good.” From there, they came up with the opening track and began working on the album, which was recorded in Los Angeles and England.
“When I first met Andrew, I thought, ‘He’s a bit pushy,’” McCartney said. “And he is, but that’s what you want in a producer. You don’t want a shrinking violet.”
Below are the songs on the album, McCartney’s first solo set since 2020, with some of his comments on each. As every tune played, McCartney mouthed almost every word or would sometimes play air drums, and Watt, who smartly ceded the floor to McCartney, would often play air guitar.
Zayn Malik isn’t letting his old One Direction bandmates Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan have all the fun. The British pop singer is back with his fifth studio album, Konnakol (via Mercury Records/Island Records U.K.), a collection that houses the previously-released recording “Sideways” and lead single “Die For Me.”
Konnakol is Zayn’s first since 2024’s Room Under the Stairs, which peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard 200, and No. 3 on the U.K.’s Official Albums Chart.
Zayn co-produced the new LP with Malay (Frank Ocean, Lorde), extending a working relationship that dates back to his debut solo album Mind of Mine (2016) and its followup Icarus Falls (2018).
The former 1D star will go full bore with his promotional work in support of the new record. He’ll make his first late-night TV interview, with a performance, for Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show on April 21.
Next up, an April 23 appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, and on May 12, he kicks off his largest solo tour to date, with a show at AO Arena in Manchester, England.
Produced by Live Nation, the KONNAKOL Tour will visit major cities across the world including London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, and São Paulo, and is scheduled to close with a concert Nov. 20 at Kaseya Center in Miami, FL. It’s billed as his first-ever solo arena trek.
He should be match fit. Zayn complete his first-ever Las Vegas residency earlier this year, where he debuted and teased unreleased material from Konnakol.
The new album’s name is a reference to the art of performing percussion syllables vocally, a style found in South Indian Carnatic music. It’s “the act of creating percussive sounds with one’s voice,” he explains in a statement, “but what it means to me lies somewhere much deeper. It is a sound that holds the reverberation of a time before words existed.”
He added, “I have always drawn on my heritage for inspiration since I first started making my own music — this album is a development of that understanding, knowing more now than ever, who I am, where I come from and where I intend to go.”
Zayn made history as a member of 1D, and was the first to split from the band in pursuit of a solo career. He made the best possible start with his first single “Pillowtalk,” which led the Billboard Hot 100 and the Official U.K. Singles Chart. Its parent album, Mind of Mine, also went to No. 1 on both sides of the Atlantic.
Stream Konnakol below.
Nine Inch Nails doesn’t just arrive. Trent Reznor’s industrial metal act steams in, crushes, always leaves an impression.
At the stroke of midnight, NIN delivered that full-body experience with the help of Boys Noize, by way of the collaborative album Nine Inch Noize.
Coming in at 46 minutes, with 12 mashups, the collection was announced ahead of their global debut performance as Nine Inch Noize at Coachella on Saturday (April 11), where reworked classic NIN cuts “Heresy” and others got the live treatment at the Sahara Tent at Coachella.
Nine Inch Noize drops like a hammer ahead of Coachella weekend 2, which should see a repeat performance of Reznor and Co. with the pioneering German techno producer on Saturday evening, April 18.
The collaborative album is a natural progression, and walks the tightrope of capturing the studio sound with the chaos of a concert; it’s both a club record and a beating with a metal club. Boys Noize (real name: Alex Ridha) has been the opening act for Nine Inch Nails’ 2025/26 Peel It Back tour, a 63-date international run during which the two acts also played a segment of the show together.
Previously, Ridha worked with Reznor and Atticus Ross last year when he remixed the duo’s lauded, techno-forward soundtrack to the film Challengers.
The Peel It Back tour concluded in March in Sacramento, CA., a show at which frontman Trent Reznor clarified a statement he’d made at an earlier show in Tulsa, OK, that suggested the band was calling time on touring. “I don’t know if we’re going to be touring anymore after this,” he remarked in a fan-filmed video from the show, “but I’m proud of the show that we’re doing right now. And I’m f—ing grateful that you’ve chosen to spend your evening with us tonight. Thank you very much.”
That’s obviously not the case. “To be clear, I think I said something the other day that then got misconstrued into something that is not intentionally, necessarily true,” he later remarked. “What I said was, ‘This is the last show of this tour and we don’t have any shows booked and we don’t have any plans to book any shows anytime in the future, so far.’”
He continued, “that doesn’t mean we may not tour again. We may tour again. It won’t be next month, it won’t be this year. I never said we were intentionally stopping, and I never meant that.”
NIN has been prolific of late, and full of surprises. The heavy-edged act recently released a companion album to its Tron: Ares soundtrack, titled Tron Ares: Divergence. It’s the followup to TRON: Ares, the first-ever film score from Oscar-winning composers Reznor and Atticus Ross (credited under their Nine Inch Nails), which debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
Nine Inch Nails has landed eight songs on the Billboard Hot 100 and made 18 appearances on the all-genres Billboard 200, including two leaders: 1999’s The Fragile (one week at No. 1) and 2015’s With Teeth (one week). NIN was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2020.
Stream Nine Inch Noize below.
Olivia Rodrigo‘s new song “Drop Dead” just, well, dropped.
On Friday (April 17), the pop star shared her first single in years to kick off her You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love album era. The track is one of 13 that will appear on the June-slated LP, her first full-length since 2023’s Billboard 200-topper Guts.
Related
“Drop Dead” also gives fans their first look at the concept behind Rodrigo’s new album, which she explained in a recent interview with British Vogue. “I realized all my favorite romantic love songs were beautiful because they had a tinge of fear or yearning in them,” she said, revealing that You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love is full of “sad love songs.”
“Falling in love, [I thought] that the second I’m in a really great relationship, I’m gonna start feeling good about myself, and this stuff is going to fall into place. But it just doesn’t work like that,” she continued at the time. “I’m definitely a lover girl. Like, I want to be in something committed and so in love. And yeah, it’s hard these days.”
Leading up to the track’s release, the Grammy winner shared videos on social media teasing “Drop Dead.” “I hope you never finish that beer,” she wrote over a video of herself sipping a Guinness, paired with a wispy, buoyant snippet of the single.
In another clip, she gazes out the window of a moving train. “it’s feminine intuition,” reads pink text over the video.
So far, both of Rodrigo’s lead singles to her past two albums have debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. First, “Drivers License” made her a global superstar ahead of the release of debut LP Sour, after which “Vampire” topped the chart ahead of Guts.
Now that it’s finally out, listen to “Drop Dead” below.
Rihanna doesn’t appear to have babies on the brain at the moment.
RiRi seemed to throw some cold water on pregnancy rumors with her response to a content creator on Wednesday (April 15).
Krissy Clemons, who runs the @EverybodyHateKrissy account on IG, posted a video surrounding speculation of Rihanna being pregnant with baby No. 4 at the moment, which made its way onto the Fenty mogul’s radar, as Rih hopped into the comment section with a word.
“Is the baby in the womb with us?” she quipped.
Fans had a laugh at Rih’s cheeky response, which has compiled 250 likes. “And the only voice that matters in this situation has spoken,” one person wrote.
Another chimed in: “They won’t let your womb alone bruh!”
Rihanna looks to have changed her tune a bit from the top of the year, when she insinuated she had baby fever for 2026. Back in January, Love Island alum Montana Rose Brown posted a video about how she’s ready for another baby this year, which drew the superstar’s attention.
“Deciding whether to get hot and sexy or get pregnant in 2026,” Brown wrote. Rih commented back: “Wait! So I’m not crazy then?”
Rihanna and A$AP Rocky welcomed daughter Rocki in September, their third child together alongside RZA (3) and Riot Rose Mayers (2).
It remains to be seen if the Grammy-winning singer will have baby No. 4 with Rocky, who’s set to embark on a global tour this year, later in 2026. Her last pregnancy reveal came in elegant fashion while attending the Met Gala last May.
On the music side, the Navy is still patiently waiting for R9, as Rihanna’s last album, Anti, celebrated its 10th anniversary in January.
You’ve experienced the album, more than once. Sung its title track loudly with besties. And how you wished you’d seen it performed live.
Now, Pink Floyd is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Wish You Were Here with a sportswear tie-in that you never saw coming.
The prog-rock masters have teamed up with Italian soccer giants FC Internazionale Milano (Inter Milan) and Sony Music Italy for another round of Pink Floyd Football Club (PFFC), with a new capsule inspired by the friendly team founded by the band in the 1970s.
The PFFC collection includes two exclusive, limited-edition goodies, including the “anthem jacket” (priced at $290.10), one of just 400 numbered pieces with exclusive packaging which the Nerazzurri will wear prior to the team’s match again Cagliari at San Siro on Friday, April 17. Fans can also snap-up a bundle consisting of an original T-shirt and an exclusive blue vinyl, limited to 1,908 copies (and priced at $64.70), plus retro PFFC jerseys, scarves, plectrums, drumsticks, tote bags and more.
PFFC kicked off the start of the ‘70s, a squad that played during breaks from touring and featured David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Nick Mason, the late Richard Wright and crew.
The iconic PFFC photo by Kim Gottlieb-Walker “inspires the collection,” reads a statement. Look closely at the groovy blue-and-white retro jersey, which carries the PFFC lettering at its center as a tribute to the shirt worn in the original photograph. The back is emblazoned with 50th anniversary logo of “Wish You Were Here,” adapted for the club, and the sleeves are embellished with the Inter logo and the iconic Pink Floyd burning man handshake symbol.
The PFFC merch is available at the official Inter online store and at Inter Stores Milano, Castello, and San Siro.
Wish You Were Here is here to stay. The album was the U.K.’s Christmas No. 1 last year, five decades after it first hit the top spot. A new digital and physical reissue of the 1975 LP features several previously unreleased alternate versions and demos of songs such as “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” and its title track. It was Floyd’s second No. 1 album of the 2025 after the re-release Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII, a live show from 1971, hit the top spot in May.
“Wish You Were Here” is one of eight curated classics from 1971-79 that will appear on Pink Floyd 8-Tracks, a new compilation album due out June 5. The tracklist includes hits “Money,” “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2,” “Time,” “Comfortably Numb” and an exclusive full version of “Pigs On The Wing,” previously available on the 1977 Animals 8-Track cartridge release.
The music and merch lives on, but Pink Floyd is no longer active. “I’m done with it,” Gilmour told Classic Rock magazine in 2015, a year after the release of what turned out to be the British band’s final album, The Endless River.
KATSEYE’s wild week adds another chapter with the announcement of a visit next month to Australia.
To celebrate what will be the international girl group’s first trip to these parts, fans will have the chance to attend an exclusive fan Q&A experience in Sydney on May 6.
Fan can enter here for the chance at a golden ticket, and by pre-ordering their forthcoming EP WILD. Universal Music Australia is behind the contest, the winner of which will receive flights, accommodation and a double pass to the Q&A in Sydney. Also, 29 runners-up will receive a double pass for the session.
KATSEYE is on the express elevator, going up. After releasing new single “Pinky Up” and delivering an eye-catching performance for the first weekend of Coachella, the pop singers announced WILD would arrive on Aug. 14 via HYBE x Geffen Records.
According to a statement, WILD “leans into something more euphoric and untamed. Rooted in self-discovery and self-determination,” and the group “embraces every version of themselves, resulting in a project that feels open, boundless, and entirely their own.”
Members Daniela, Lara, Megan, Sophia and Yoonchae celebrated the new-music announcement by sharing a cute video on Instagram of themselves backstage at Coachella.
The new collection will mark KATSEYE’s first EP since last year’s Beautiful Chaos, which reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and features Billboard Hot 100 hits “Gnarly” and “Gabriela.” In Australia, “Gabriela,” “Touch” and “Gnarly” are all certified platinum, while “Debut” and “Gameboy” are certified gold.
It’ll also be the group’s first multitrack project since HYBE announced that bandmate Manon would be taking a hiatus to “focus on her health and well-being.” When the “Pinky Up” music video dropped on April 9, Manon was absent from the visual, and she didn’t perform at Coachella (though she was spotted at the festival).
KATSEYE will return to the California desert for weekend two of Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, on April 17. Fresh off their main stage spot, KATSEYE dropped a hoodie collection including six styles designed by each member of the group, through an ongoing partnership with Gap.
Jessie Ware is going large with her forthcoming tour in support of Superbloom.
The British pop artist’s trans-Atlantic tour is said to be her biggest to date, and includes her first-ever U.K. arena run. The Superbloom Tour gets underway in Toronto on Oct. 6, and includes stops in Toronto, New York’s Radio City Music Hall, Washington DC, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles’ Greek Theatre, before heading to Mexico City’s Teatro Metropolitan.
Then, in November, the jaunt heads to Continental Europe before culminating in a U.K. arena stretch with a hometown date at London’s The O2 Arena, and concerts in Glasgow and Manchester.
“I am so excited to be performing my biggest shows ever. We made it to arenas,” she comments in a statement. “I am playing iconic venues around the world and I couldn’t be happier. The Superbloom Tour will be filled with celebration, dancing, theatre, cowboys and goddesses and of course a LOT of singing. Can’t wait to step into my garden where we all shall bloom!”
The presale starts next Tuesday, April 21 at 9am local time, and the general on sale follows on Thursday, April 23 at 9am local time.
But first, the release of Superbloom on Friday, April 17 via EMI Records. It’s the followup to 2020’s What’s Your Pleasure? and 2023’s That! Feels Good!, both of which peaked at No. 3 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart. The London-born singer and songwriter announced her arrival with with her Mercury Prize-nominated debut album from 2012, Devotion, the first of five consecutive U.K. top 10 appearances.
According to a statement, the new collection “erupts into a glittering rush of Studio 54-inflected groove-pop, exploring themes of pleasure, intimacy, connection and transformation,” and houses the previously-released singles “I Could Get Used To This,” “Ride,” and “Automatic.”
Ware personally shaped the sound of the record, “firmly maintaining creative control,” reps say. Collaborators include Ford, Barney Lister, Karma Kid, Jon Shave (Charli XCX), and Stuart Price, while Ben Baptie (Sault, Little Simz, Adele) mixed the album.
“I’ve been trying out this fantasy world and escapism,” she enthuses. I’m not the most by-the-book ‘pop star’, but I do like to play with dress-up, glamor, and fun, While I love dance music, I wanted to dig deeper with this record; to connect with real relationships and appreciate the love I have, and the fears I have of losing it.”
Pre-order Superbloom here.
The ‘Superbloom Tour’ 2026
Oct. 6 — HISTORY Toronto, Toronto, ON
Oct. 8 — Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY
Oct. 10 — The Anthem, Washington, DC
Oct. 11 — The Fillmore Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Oct. 13 — Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, IL
Oct. 16 — The Warfield, San Francisco, CA
Oct. 20 — The Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
Oct. 22 — Teatro Metropolitan, Mexico City, MX
Nov. 10 — Casino de Paris, Paris, FR
Nov. 12 — SaSaZu, Prague, CZ
Nov. 13 — Inside Seaside Festival, Gdansk, PL
Nov. 14 — Compensa Concert Hall, Vilnius, LT
Nov. 16 — Huxleys Neue Welt, Berlin, DE
Nov. 18 – K.B Hallen, Copenhagen, DK
Nov. 20 — Ancienne Belgique, Brussels, BE
Nov. 21 — AFAS Live, Amsterdam, NL
Nov. 28 — The O2, London, UK
Dec. 1 — 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin, IE
Dec. 4 — OVO Hydro, Glasgow, UK
Dec. 5 — Co-op Live, Manchester, UK
Is Boards of Canada about to end its 13-year-long hibernation? If a cryptic poster run by Warp Records is anything to go by, maybe.
The beloved British independent label dropped a bombshell for BoC’s long-suffering fanbase, with a string of puzzling images that raise more questions than offer answers.
The posters, which are captured in a post shared on Warp’s official social channels, without comment, depict zombified children, an image that ties in with the artwork for BoC’s magnum opus from 1998, Music Has The Right to Children. And each image is stamped with a brand that invokes the electronic act’s Hexagon Sun logo.
The easter eggs don’t end there. New York and London phone numbers can be seen among the images, the edge of a “City of Westminster” street sign is visible in one, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame can be spotted on another.
What it all means, only time will tell.
Boards of Canada is the Scottish electronic music duo of brothers Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin, a universe-building pair that is both enigmatic, secretive and adored by connoisseurs of minimal electronic music.
The siblings rarely give interviews and have performed only a small handful of live shows, mostly in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Their fourth and most recent album release was 2013’s Tomorrow’s Harvest. That collection peaked at No. 7 in the U.K., for their first top 10 entry, and at No. 13 on the Billboard 200, their first appearance on the all-genres U.S. albums chart, and a top 40 debut on Australia’s ARIA Chart. That release, too, enjoyed a subtle promotional push with a string of clues drip-fed for fans to gobble up.
In 2019, a comeback of sorts with “XYZ,” a previously-unreleased tune from their Peel Session of July 1998, which appeared on a new Warp Records 30th anniversary package, WXAXRXP Sessions.
BoC’s impact, however, can’t be measured in hits, or streams.
Warp’s teaser could allude to a Record Store Day exclusive, appearing just days out from the annual celebration of vinyl record stores. BoC’s most recent Instagram post dropped 34 weeks ago, announcing the 30 years anniversary of their first publicly-available vinyl mini album Twoism and a new batch available on wax.
A book acknowledgement is one of the greatest honors an author can bestow upon a loved one, and Lena Dunham just did so for Taylor Swift.
Actor, producer and author Dunham released her second memoir Famesick on Tuesday, and toward the end of the book, add a list of acknowledgements to the most important people in her life who helped her get the memoir published. Included in the names is Taylor Swift, who Dunham refers to as “TayTay.”
“TayTay — you sing the songs I wrote this book to, the stories that pulled these stories out of me, the music that makes the whole world feel seen,” Dunham writes. “And yet somehow, miraculously, you also pick up every desperate call at every desperate hour.”
Dunham continues the heartfelt message by telling Swift, “I love you so much and forever, for the reasons that everyone does and for reasons all my own.”
The actor-singer duo have been friends for more than a decade. Dunham has taken to social media several times to praise Swift’s music and has spoken about the Grammy winner in interviews. In a 2024 interview with The New Yorker, the Girls creator talked about how, even prior to their friendship, she was a fan of Swift’s music. In the same interview, Dunham also shared that she is ” always very careful to be protective of [Swift] in every single way.”
Swift received another major honor from Dunham when she served as a bridesmaid for the actress in 2021 when Dunham married musician Luis Felber. In the years since, Dunham has continued to express her love for her friend and support her music, including attending The Eras Tour.