Noah Kahan announced his musical return with his fourth studio album under the same name. The album, out April 24, explores nostalgia, guilt, and the feelings we try desperately to hide, refusing to speak out loud. The reference to the "great divide," in this instance, is that of an emotional drift. As an adult, Kahan can understand that his old acquaintance was severely depressed and struggling with a sense of identity, video has been shot by Director: Parker Schmidt
At the ceremony at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena tonight, the band picked up two prizes – Best Alternative Music Album and Best Alternative Music Performance, the latter for ‘Alone’.
They had only previously been nominated for two Grammys in their career, both in the Best Alternative Music Album category – in 1993 for ‘Wish’ and in 2001 for ‘Bloodflowers’, but were unsuccessful on both occasions.
They were not on hand to accept their awards, as they were attending the funeral of their long-time guitarist and keyboardist Perry Bamonte, who died in December at the age of 65. They did, however, send a speech that was read from the stage, in which frontman Robert Smith said: “Simon, Jason, Roger, Reeves and I would like to thank the Grammys for this wonderful award, we are very honoured to receive it.”“We would also like to thank everyone who helped in the creation of our ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ album, particularly co-producer Paul Corkett, everyone in the Universal Music Group who worked so hard to get our ‘Lost World’ found, everyone in our mostly indefatigable crew…and most importantly, all of the Cure fans around the world, who came to our ‘Lost World’ shows and enjoyed our ‘Lost World’ music. Without you, none of this would be possible. Thank you!
In the Best Alternative Music Performance category, the Cure beat out Bon Iver, Turnstile, Wet Leg and Hayley Williams, while for Best Alternative Music Album, they won ahead of Bon Iver, Tyler, The Creator, Wet Leg and Hayley Williams.
The album namely had a similar synth pop sound to the preceding album When The Night. There were some indie pop stylings thrown in to created some variety, but in certain way, the only major change that happened was him stripping out most of the lush tropical atmosphere that helped him stand out in the first place and pushing his mild 80s influences to the forefront.
The remarkable tracks here were "The Winds of Change", where the listener was encouraged to embrace themselves to keep searching for inspiration, the listener was supposed to use moments of discomfort in their everyday lives to look for ways to learn more about who we are, and to, quite literally, take our thoughts to where the wind takes them. This idea of pushing boundaries was a common theme throughout the record, because "Matter" was always changing, becoming attracted to new elements, and constantly shifting, even though certain objects may appear stagnant.
But there was a one-of-a-kind track "Dancing on Glass" encouraged the listener to embrace the changing of chemicals in our minds that may cause us to change our past opinions about ideas that seem so certain. “Dancing on Glass” wanted to express our full selves to others, even though it may seem risky in the moment to expose our demons. "Love Somebody", where hewanted us to follow the lessons he learned from African-American music of being UN-self-concious. We should be doing things that we want to do, rather than following society’s preconceived notions of what is successful and acceptable. Music is not meant to be judged, it is meant to be expressive.
In “Matter”, the lyrics often pointed to exposing ourselves to our secrets, in the hope of finding out how we truly feel. Another common lyric from a good amount of St. Lucia songs is about how we are often more comfortable during the night. Night, and darkness, often gives us a sense of self-comfort because others are not able to see our actions as clearly. "Rescue Me", night was seen as a rescuer from others judging our opinions, because we can seclude ourselves and hide behind the darkness.
The single "Help Me Run Away" was a fantastic driving song, this song wanted us to find trusting friends to encourage us to run away from our shadows and demons. The same theme of self-confidence is echoed, and we don’t need to sell ourselves short.
Having topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic with 1989’s Eternal Flame, The Bangles looked set to enter the new decade as the biggest girlband on planet pop but then everything wrecked. The quartet had always operated democratically, sharing both vocal and songwriting duties pretty much equally on all three of their studio efforts. Even so, with her striking stage presence and a voice that could naturally flit between gravelly rocker and delicate balladeer, Hoffs inevitably became the de facto frontwoman.
Susannah Hoffs’ When You’re A Boy, from 1991, could only scrape in at No.56 in the UK. And it fared even worse in her homeland, peaking at a lowly No.83. In fact, the majority of its 12 tracks aimed for the same American new wave-meets-British Invasion pop sound of Hoffs' former day job.
The dreamy lead single My Side Of The Bed would sat comfortably on a Bangles Best Of. Likewise the driving power pop of This Time and the bittersweet mid-tempo No Kind Of Love. It seemed that Hoffs still kept at least one foot in the mid- to late-80s. The strutting synth-pop of So Much For Love gets into the groove of Madonna, while That’s Why Girls Cry was the kind of buoyant bubblegum number you could imagine Tiffany belting out at a shopping mall. And finally a relatively faithful cover version of Cyndi Lauper ballad Unconditional Love.
Hoffs was fine vocal form, particularly on Wishing On Telstar – a wistful ode to the communications satellite, and It’s Lonely Out Here, a stomping mix of Hammond organ and bluesy guitar licks which allows her to truly cut loose. When You’re a Boy also contains a song Hoffs co-wrote with Juliana Hatfield, "That’s Why Girls Cry,".
It was the only album recorded by the band with the Virgin Records label after a recording contract with Chrysalis Records in the UK was terminated. Virgin told manager Andrew McManus they were keen to sign the band—by then comprising just singer Chrissy Amphlett and guitarist Mark McEntee—because they saw Amphlett as "the next Madonna".
Amphlett and McEntee moved to an apartment in Paris where they wrote "Love School", "Make Out Alright" and "Lay Your Body Down", before transferring to Los Angeles, where the remainder of the album was written, partly in collaboration with songwriters Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly.
The album was recorded at Jackson Browne's Groove Masters Studio in Santa Monica, with backing provided by bassist Randy Jackson, keyboardist Benmont Tench of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and drummer Charley Drayton, who later married Amphlett in 1999. The single "I Touch Myself" generated some controversy in the US when lead singer Amphlett sang apparently aboyt female masturbation, but not so many people seemed to care about at the time, Director Michael Bay filmed the video for the single in a nunnery in Pasadena, and became a smash hit on MTV it was also nominated for an MTV award, inredible the video was banned in their native Australia.
This self-titled album offered exactly what audiences expected from the Divinyls: rockin' intensity combined with new wave-ish quirks and a strong melodic sense. The record had respectable and generally appealing tracks, some highlights included the eerie "Love School" and infectious offerings like "Make Out Alright," "Bless My Soul (It's Rock-N-Roll)," and of course the massive "I Touch Myself" this was a release with many more strengths than weaknesses.
