#82 - This ain't Texas 🌞

Happy Sunlighter and Easter Sunday! 🐰 Beyoncé ruled the week, Diddy is still on the run (somewhere in the Caribbean), and our hearts go out to those affected by the collapse of the Francis Key Bridge. Here’s this week in music.

Rating Rationale: Donya here 👋🏼 I’ve been waiting for an album like COWBOY CARTER since Beyoncé released “Daddy Lessons” and performed it live with The Chicks at the 2016 CMA Awards. If you haven’t listened to that recording, consider it your homework. This is the first album I’ve rated as a 10 across all 82 editions we’ve published (if you’re curious, Chris’ was Stormzy’s This Is What I Mean). It’s been a long time since I’ve listened to an album from front to back that felt like a true mastery of musicianship. COWBOY CARTER is a musical marvel–dynamic, yet effortlessly cohesive in both lyrical storytelling and overall sound, with special voiceovers from Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton, surprising features from Miley Cyrus and Post Malone, and a brilliant multitude of samples in “YA YA.” Beyoncé performs a tear-jerking reinterpretation of The Beatles classic, “BLACKBIIRD,” championing up-and-coming black female country artists, Brittney Spencer, Reyna Roberts, Tanner Adell, and Tiera Kennedy. This song is even more symbolic as Paul McCartney mentioned that “Blackbird” was initially inspired by the Little Rock Nine, who helped pioneer the civil rights movement. This is a no-skip album, folks, and it’s worthy of every bit of recognition I hope Beyoncé will finally and inevitably receive.

Critical acclaim for Cowboy Carter, Diddy on the run 

Two stories ruled the headlines this week: Beyoncé’s COWBOY CARTER and a federal investigation involving Diddy.

Let’s start with the good: COWBOY CARTER isn’t a country album, it’s a Beyoncé album. Not only was it over five years in the making, but this album is a clear, cathartic response to an experience where she felt unwelcome, presumably by the country music community during her 2016 CMA performance with The Chicks. In Act II, Beyoncé brings a gun to a knife fight, highlighting the rich but frequently under-recognized history of African-American country music.

Now, the bad: After Cassie’s scathing and head-turning accusations against Diddy’s long-time abuse that oddly settled within the same week, this Monday, U.S. Homeland Security raided Sean “Diddy” Combs’ homes as part of a wider sex trafficking investigation.

Since then, it was reported that:

1. Diddy sold his shares in Revolt TV to an anonymous buyer.

2. Ex-college basketball player, Brendan Paul was arrested for his role in supplying and distributing drugs and guns for Diddy.

3. Diddy is presumably in Antigua after taking off from Miami on Monday afternoon.

Tate McRae wins JUNO Awards, Camila Cabello explores hyper-pop

Last Sunday, Tate McRae was recognized by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences as Artist of the Year through the annual JUNO Awards, which recognizes the achievements of Canada’s music industry. Her song, “greedy” also won Single of the Year.

Camila Cabello returned to music with a surprising stylistic change to her sound - a venture into hyper-pop with “I LUV IT.” If you know us, we always welcome hyper-pop as we’re big Charli XCX fans. Coincidentally, you can catch Charli either “LIVE” or during one of her “PARTYGIRL” DJ sets as part of her upcoming Brat Tour.

Field and Stream debut, All Your Friends Fest, Willie hosts annual 4th of July Picnic

Earlier this year, Morgan Wallen and Eric Church purchased a long-time outdoors magazine known as Field & Stream. Now, they’re debuting a music festival in Winnsboro, South Carolina under the same media brand with Eric Church and Lainey Wilson as headliners of the inaugural festival.

Another inaugural festival is coming to Ontario, Canada - All Your Friends Fest, which features an emo-forward lineup that includes Fall Out Boy, Jimmy Eat World, Dashboard Confessional, The All-American Rejects, Silverstein, and Mayday Parade, among others.

Finally, Willie Nelson will be hosting his yearly Fourth of July picnic (since 1973), but this time in New Jersey, a deviation from his usual native state of Texas. Nonetheless, Bob Dylan, Maren Morris, and others will be joining him. Check out the rest of the lineup here.

Tomorrowland denies expansion speculation, Framework hosts afterparties in the desert

While speculation ran rampant after false reports that Tomorrowland would be expanding to a new location in Thailand, the Tomorrowland team clarified that an official decision had not been made and that they were currently in the due diligence phase.

With Coachella on the horizon, underground EDM event producer and organizer, Framework, unveiled their third annual Coachella afterparty lineup for Framework in the Desert, which will take place in the Atlantic Aviation airport hangar in Thermal, California. Here's the know before you go.

Dermot Kennedy

Primer: Although this Irishman is well-known to (hopefully) a majority of music industry folks, we’re highlighting him to support his still rising popularity in the U.S. Just fifteen years ago, Dermot Kennedy was hustling at open mic nights and busking the streets of Ireland (famously, Grafton Street) with his gritty, raspy voice. He spent his early teenage years learning and honing his guitar and songwriting skills, and to say his parents were supportive of his passion is an understatement. When he was underage, his father would sneak him into bars to perform at open mic nights, and his mother encouraged him to pursue a music education. In the mid-2010s, Dermot signed to the majors, hit the major festival circuit, and by 2019, he had released his debut album, Without Fear, which garnered mainstream attention from the BBC, BRITs, and NPR’s Tiny Desk:

Genre: Folk-rap, hip-hop

Influences: Ray LaMontagne, Glen Hansard, Damien Rice, Mike Dean

Current Label: Interscope Records (US-only) & Island Records

Audience: ~12.2 million monthly listeners on Spotify

What’s Next: In true Irish fashion, Kennedy released his latest EP, I’ve told the trees everything, the Friday before St. Patrick’s Day–you can find the themed sweatshirt in our Merch Store below. He was formerly on the bill to join Shawn Mendes’ Wonder tour in 2022. Even though the tour was canceled, with Shawn returning to the stage later this year, we hope this means these two will take the stage together soon.

🪐 Spotify Universe: Universal Music Group expanded its relationship with Spotify to improve “music discovery and social interaction,” along with fan experiences. One of the first features associated with this partnership includes the ability for users to watch music videos via the “Switch to Video” feature.

🛝 Blipblox: That’s the name of a toy-like music synthesizer developed by parent company, Playtime Engineering, to support early music interests in adolescents. The company recently released a more advanced toy-like instrument called MyTracks that allows kids to live out their young producer dreams.

🤖 AI x Music Updates: AI multimedia company, Runway, recently partnered with lyrics catalog platform, musixmatch, to provide generative video capabilities to musixmatch’s artist community. Separately, music usage rights company, Rightsify, released their copyright-clear AI music generation model, Hydra.

HYBE 🤝 UMG: HYBE and Universal Music Group announced a 10-year partnership that would effectively provide UMG exclusive distribution of HYBE’s artist roster as well as increased collaboration and integration with HYBE’s artist-to-fan engagement platform, Weverse.

4️⃣ Big Four: BMG is quietly approaching $1 billion in annual revenue. Is it time to consider BMG the fourth major label?

🐘 HipNOsis: Within the past few months, we’ve highlighted the flawed business model and subsequent downfall of Hipgnosis Songs Fund. This week, boutique investment bank, Shot Tower Capital, provided an independent valuation of Hipgnosis that was 26% lower than their reported valuation in December. Materially lower than their public disclosures, should we expect upcoming lawsuits asserting that the company misled investors?

🌎 Music Worldwide: is steadily growing. In China, Tencent Music revealed a 21% increase in paid subscribers, while in Australia, the Australian Recording Industry Association released new data showing the highest level of music growth since 2005.

🖊️ New Signings: Teddy Swims is off to more than just a hot start with “Lose Control.” This week, he signed a publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music. Additionally, upcoming singer-songwriter, Dasha, signed with Warner Records after “Austin” hit #1 on TikTok’s viral charts (make sure to check our chart data below to stay updated with viral hits).

💰 Securing the Bag: This week is about giving. UK royalty distributor, PPL, is launching “PPL Giving,” a £1 million annual program to invest in organizations that promote positive change in talent development and career support. Swedish AI-powered record label, Snafu Records, revealed a $1 million fund to support female creators.

Kacey sees strong sales with Deeper Well, Justin Timberlake struggles to impress

📈 No artist toppled Ariana Grande’s eternal sunshine this week, though Kacey Musgraves achieved her biggest career sales debut, reaching #1 for Top Album Sales. Unfortunately for Justin Timberlake, Everything I Thought It Was missed expectations across most charts.

Four Sunlighter favorites drop new albums this week

📅 For upcoming albums, tours, and festivals access our comprehensive music calendar here.

📣 Album Announcements: Local Natives announced their sixth album, But I’ll Wait For You, will be released April 19th. NewJeans surprised fans this week by announcing two new albums, one dropping on May 24th and the second dropping on June 21st. AURORA announced her upcoming album, What Happened To The Heart?, will be out June 7th.

⏩ Here are album releases to look out for this week: 

1. Vampire Weekend, Only God Was Above Us

2. Conan Gray, Found Heaven

3. Griff, vert1go vol. 2

4. Young Miko, att.

5. Khruangbin, A La Sala

6. Lizzy McAlpine, Older

7. Novo Amor, Collapse List

8. Bryson Tiller, Bryson Tiller,

9. X Ambassadors, Townie

10. The Black Keys, Ohio Players

11. Tori Kelly, TORI.

12. Nate Smith, Through the Smoke

The Merch Table

• 🌳  Summer Sweater Weather: If you’re now a fan of Dermot after this week’s profile, you can order his sweatshirt in honor of his latest EP, I’ve told the trees everything.

• 👟 Barbz Sneakers: On April 12th, Nicki Minaj will release 11 unique pairs of sneakers in her first collection with in collaboration with LØCI.

• 🏃 Diplo Run Club: Wanna run a 5K with Diplo? You’re in luck. The DJ has announced that the first two races will take place in San Francisco and Seattle this September.

If you enjoyed today’s edition, feel free to show us. Tap the “heart” icon below, drop a comment, or share it on your social media platforms of choice. After all, music is best when shared with your people.

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See ya next Sunday 😎

Donya and Chris