They’re back! Watch the epic trailer for Furious 7 starring Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Ludacris, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and of course the late and great Paul Walker. The next installment in Universal Pictures’ Fast & Furious high-speed franchise now has a full length trailer. And it’s completely epic – you’ll be breathless after watching it!
The film picks up where the last one left off with Ian Shaw (Statham) looking for revenge against Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his team for the death of his brother.
The film was in production when Paul Walker tragically died in a high speed car crash back in November 2013, he was only 40 years old. The majority of the filming was complete and the producers had to use digital effects helped by Paul’s brothers stepping in as body doubles, to finish the movie off.
Vin Diesel spoke about what it was like continuing with the film after Paul’s death: “I grew up in the bouncer world, and we lost people while we were bouncing. But the brotherhood in Paul Walker was something completely different. We grew up in the business together, and we became famous together, and we represented the biggest franchise together. He was my partner, and it’s a strange thing to … I’ve been acting all my life and they don’t teach you in acting, how to mourn someone and simultaneously pretend they’re in a scene with you.”
The trailer ends with Diesel saying “I don’t have friends. I got family,” before it cuts back to a scene starring Walker. The film will be in cinemas from April 2015. In the US it’s called Furious 7 and in the UK and Europe it’s called Fast & Furious 7.
She was a country singer, she was a cross-genre singer but now Taylor Swift is an icon and she is going full-throttle pop. We review global sensation Taylor Swift’s new album 1989, a follow up from her last album Red which went quadruple platinum, earned her four Grammy Awards and serious critical acclaim. 1989’s lead single Shake It Off rapidly became Swift’s second Nº 1 single in the US and 22nd track to debut in peak position in Billboard history. She’s on a massive, world dominating roll.
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Taylor Swift – four-time multiplatinum-album-maker, seven-time Grammy winner and billion-time gossip-blog subject – released her fifth studio album only last week (27th October), through her label Big Machine Records. Taylor has ditched her country roots, moved out of Nashville and flown straight into the Big Apple music scene. Her new album has a young-girl-in-the-big-city feel but utilizes the idea of New York (her new home) metaphorically to pass on her messages of growing, making more mistakes but loving your choices and making the most of learning from it all. She seems so happy to be maturing musically she has given her year of birth as the album title. Having only been with us for a mere twenty five years, Miss Swift has not only proven her worth as a country singer/songwriter but has now transcended and conquered a new genre and level to her career. It seems her indie following have never abandoned her since day one giving her an edge over your regular pop princesses, in that she reaches out to more than just your average teeny-bopping audience.
1989 is a very determined album, which fiercely delivers a strong state of mind and sense of empowerment. We hear a lot less lamenting and a great deal more acceptance, appreciation for one’s self and some power-on-through-the-storm type lyrics. Swift took two years out to write this album and is extremely proud of the results. Rolling Stone reviewed the album as “deeply weird, feverishly emotional, wildly enthusiastic, 1989 sounds exactly like Taylor Swift, even when it sounds like nothing she’s ever tried before” and that “when it comes to Taylor Swift and super catchy Eighties pop-gloss, too much is never enough”.
She delivers her songs with a tongue-in-cheek attitude alongside some serious undertones. She wants to be taken seriously but does not take herself too seriously. Her seemingly chit chatty words are actually pinpoint accurate if you get her drift. She metaphorically comments on her transgression into pop, her constant media coverage, not selling out and collaborating with a big named rapper to sell records- to name but a few examples of her discrete ‘disses’ on the madness that is being a global phenomenon in the music industry. Taylor works very, very hard; she has used the decade she has been attacking the business to achieve her goal; to get out there and show us all exactly what she can do, and win. Like her or not, the go-getter in her is admirable; she had it in her like a volcano waiting to erupt from day one.
Taylor has paranoia issues and doesn’t “trust technology” with a constant fear of being exploited or recorded unwittingly, she is wary and always has her guard up. For a long time the only place 1989 existed was on her iPhone. The first person to hear the completed album was one of her best friends Ed Sheeran. She was on tour with him at the time of writing and would knock on his stage room door and discuss lyrics, melodies and beats. She returned the musical ear to his album-in-progress and so it seemed only right that he be the one to give it a final nod.
She also knows that you need to be liked to succeed, and so her fans get a little something in return from time to time…Taylor dreamt up, organized and baked for the secret sessions at her homes in London, Rhode Island, Nashville, New York and LA; a preview of the full album for 89 of her closest fans at each location, about a month prior to the release date. She played the album for these fans, which she had stringently scoured and selected from the internet, in her own living room to show her appreciation for her followers and give a little back.
1989 could be described as a risk, but Taylor Swift is hardly the gambling type. She is, however, calculated and driven and knows what is required to succeed, as she has proven time and time again. Just look at the triumph of her 2010 country-crossover album Speak Now and the 2012 Red album for reference. The opening track on the 1989 album, Welcome to New York could easily be taken for a simple, “I’ve moved to New York, its great”, type message, however it goes way deeper. You can take Taylor however you like but there’s always an ulterior motive to her light-hearted sounding tracks. She’s telling us via the synth-pop, “sick” beats and eighties sounds, that she has moved on. She is no longer a Country singer, she is now exclusively a profound pop star; so there. “Took our broken hearts and put them in a drawer, welcome to New York”, equals- she’s grown out of kissing, telling and bitching about it and moved on. No more boys, no more country songs.
Her self-aware wit is apparent in Blank Space as she sarcastically studies and uses her reportedly disastrous dating record to make a play at the media; “Saw you there and I thought, Oh my God, look at that face, You look like my next mistake, Love’s a game, want to play?” She’s being cute, she’s being sly. She’s being the jaded Miss Taylor Swift. Her irony is delivered over a hip-hop drum machine beat (courtesy of Max Martin and Shellback) with a strong eighties influence and modern electro pop twist to it. Similar in sound, Style, which initially reflects her love of timeless fashion, develops into a rocky relationship story with a feeling like you might be in an episode of a funked-up Miami Vice.
Taylor has been critically attacked aplenty for her repetitive lyrics and this album proves that she just can’t help but reiterate her lines over and over and over and over again. Breaking out of a downward spiraling relationship in Out of the Woods and Shake it off, as in shaking off the negative media attention she receives, are both heavy on the repetition, but seriously catchy tunes which obviously makes learning the lyrics a piece of cake! After Swift comes Out of the Woods from THAT (?) unhappy relationship she follows up with All You Had to do Was Stay, where that boy comes crawling back but she blows him off with attitude and a bit of “It’s just too late”.
There are many other relationship references within the album, most pertaining to her synth-pop backdrop. I Wish You Would finds Swift wishing a lover would come back to her amidst a sampling from the Fine Young Cannibals (courtesy of Jack Antonoff) and a focus on guitar. There’s yet another doomed affair in the sultry Wildest Dreams and How You Get the Girl is an upbeat, acoustic guitar backed shout out to the guys on matters of the heart. This Love is a grab-a-girl-at-the-disco-for-a-slow-dance tune with synthesized waves in motion providing a metaphor, sort of, for the idea that love will come back, as does the tide. With I Know Places Miss Swift combines both her central topics in one as she carried on a love affair while attempting to avoid any media attention. The lovers are being hunted down but Swift claims to “know places we won’t be found” in this almost eerie sounding track. Clean, which was written and recorded alongside Imogen Heap, delivers another water-based metaphor and of course another break up after which she shakes herself off, again, and discovers she is clean and ready to move on, also a metaphor for her new found music genre perhaps. Then there is the seriously angry tirade that is Bad Blood in which she seemingly attacks another artist who tried to sabotage her tour, which may or may not be about Katy Perry; however the hard-hitting lyrics comply with the beat which hits all the right places.
Swift cleverly added a few bonus tracks in order to separately release the DLX (deluxe) edition of the album. So make sure your copy has the DLX stamp on it so you’re not duped into missing out or having to buy both versions! The album and progression of Swift’s work on 1989 has already been reviewed and highly acclaimed. The New York Times printed that “by making pop with almost no contemporary references, Ms. Swift is aiming somewhere even higher, a mode of timelessness that few true pop stars — aside from, say, Adele, who has a vocal gift that demands such an approach — even bother aspiring to”. It is a statement which outlines how she has set herself apart and above her peers in many ways. That she isn’t asking for this; she is making and taking it to another level. Any other stars trying to reach her would have to go above and beyond to somewhere totally new, just as she has.
Ultimately the album is a success story in that she has delivered exactly what she intended; a punchy, alternative, extreme, eighties inspired, powerful, and game changing pop album. Check.
1989 – Tracklist
1. Welcome to New York
2. Blank Space
3. Style
4. Out of the Woods
5. All You Had to Do Was Stay
6. Shake It Off
7. I Wish You Would
8. Bad Blood
9. Wildest Dreams
10. How You Get the Girl
11. This Love
12. I Know Places
13. Clean
Deluxe Edition – bonus tracks
14. Wonderland
15. You Are in Love
16. New Romantics
17. I Know Places (Voice memo)
18. I Wish You Would (Voice memo)
19. Blank Space (Voice Memo)
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Ariana Grande gets wet and dirty with The Weeknd in her new music video for Love Me Harder. Over the top sexiness, a leather bustier and plenty of sultry, moody looks, but not much else…“Our visuals are really about this tug of war of just loving harder,” director Hannah Lux Davis said. “And the compromise of giving in and needing more and wanting more.”
Grande is certainly attempting to shed her girl-next-door image, even though she retains the signature cat ears. Scenes of the 21-year old writhing around in the sand and touching herself are edited with explosive, sexually suggestive nature scenes, like golden grains of sand falling through fingers and orgasmic explosions in the sky. Yes, the Weekend is in it but its difficult to focus on him with Grande gyrating around and batting her huge eyelashes all the time.
For most of the video she takes on her all-too-familiar lying down position “I’m laying down in every music video ever” commented Grande. The official video was released today (November 3) after weeks of teasing fans with behind-the-scenes clips uploaded to Instagram.
The single is taken from Grande’s second solo album My Everything – the third single, after Problem and Break Free. The album was released in August this year by Republic Records and went straight to the top of the Billboard 200 selling an incredible 169.000 copies in the first week.
Take That prove that 3 really is a special number with their new video for These Days. The video presents a surreal version of a ‘normal’ day with a nod to the sound that defined their early years. Watch Gary Barlow, Mark Owen and Howard Donald explore life as a trio, even sleeping together – platonic of course, you know, Morecambe and Wise style, tongue-in-cheek.
These Days, the first single from their upcoming album III, will be released on November 23 and is described as “an out-and-out feel good pop smash that isn’t like anything they’ve produced since the 2006 reunion.”
The album is slated for a December 1st release, and will be their 7th studio album. The name of the album, III, is of course referring to the fact that Jason Orange left the band in September, leaving just the three of them. Jason made a statement on September 24 saying that after almost 25 years he was leaving the band. There were no hard feelings though, he said the group had “full support and encouragement to continue on with what is to be another chapter for the band”.
Their last album, Progress, was released in 2010 when they were a 5-piece band and it became the fastest selling album of the century, and the second fastest selling album of all time, moving more than 235,000 in just one day.
Take That do have quite a legacy: 8 number one albums, 15 number one singles, sales of over 30 million albums, 6 Ivor Novello awards, 8 BRIT Awards and sales of over 7 million concert tickets!
Kiesza strips off during her new music video for No Enemiesz and as she sheds her clothes they morph into dancers. There’s a reason this girl was a VMA nominee for best choreography, boy, can she move! The video was directed by Syndrome and shows Kiesza dancing alone in her super hipster New York loft apartment, with some imaginary backing dancers. As the song progresses she takes off more items of clothing…
Kiesza, Candaian experimental pop singer-and-dancer, has been turning heads ever since she released the acclaimed Hideaway video earlier this year. Her sophomore album Sound Of A Woman was released on October 21 and she followed the release with this new video for No Enemiesz. The song will be released in the UK on November 10 by Lokal Legend Records as the third single from the new album.
Kiesza co-wrote the song with the track’s producer Rami Samir Afuni and it’s a deep house Endurance tune with retro house beats and a bouncy, grinding groove. Critics have praised the tracks euphoric chorus and ’90s-inspired production. Kiesza has already performed the track live in the UK, the US and Germany and the performance incorporated a dance routine very similar to Madonna’s Vogue (1990).
The new album nods at everything from UK garage to folk, breakbeat to grunge. Keisza herself explains: “I think people will be surprised to hear some of the songs on this album. Because of the success of my first two singles, I’m seen perhaps as a House or Dance artist but I’ve been in to grunge, rock, folk groups in the past. All of those experiences and influences have led me to create this album.”
Ex Machina looks to be the coolest sci-fi movie of 2015, with dazzling visual effects and a compelling storyline. It features Star Wars Episode 7 cast mates Oscar Isaac and Domhnall Gleeson in the strangest and most compelling love triangle we’ve ever seen teased… “To erase the line between man and machine is to obscure the line between men and gods,” warns the trailer.
Ex Machina tells the story of a wealthy, completely reclusive (read weird) ‘Search Engine CEO’ played by Oscar Isaac who invites the winner of a company competition (Domhnall Gleeson) to his remote estate to participate in tests for his new artificial intelligence creation, the adorable Ava (Alicia Vikander). Of course, things go wrong and by the looks of the trailer, they go really, really wrong.
The amazing robot was designed by renowned British comic book illustrator Jock and the creepy score was composed by Geoff Barrow from British trip hop act Portishead. This film just gets better and better.
Directed by Alex Garland (28 Days Later, Sunshine) the movie comes out in the UK in January but stateside sci-fi fans will have a little longer to wait, until April 10.
This group needs little introduction because the music really speaks for itself. A beautiful 5-piece indie/pop band made in Norway and wowing audiences across the globe. You won’t want to overlook this Gem.
Norway’s Highasakite make an adventurous brand of indie pop that is full of contrasts. Their melodies and instrumentation are bold yet sometimes understated, the ebbing of one allowing the other to flourish; whether it’s otherworldly vocals or the dynamic combination of synthesizers, brass and percussion. Following on from numerous international festival appearances, a tour with London Grammar and the EP ‘In And Out Of Weeks’, the quintet released their US debut album, ‘Silent Treatment’ in February this year (Nº1 on the Norweigan charts).
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NPR music writes: “The song titles on their 2014 album Silent Treatment seem more like chapter headings in a crime novel.” This sounds pretty cool to us, but what’s your take on this review? Was this the type of impression intended? I don’t think we intended it to be like that, but it is kind of cool. The music is written as music and the titles referring to the music, but I like the fact that people interpret the music and lyrics their own way!
Speaking of names, you chose an intriguing one for your debut album. How exactly did you come to calling it Silent Treatment? It was the subject of a longer discussion and we had many thoughts about titles. But Silent Treatment refers a lot to the lyrics and mood of the album.
Exciting stuff happening at the minute, you are going to be officially performing back in the US as of November 4th, starting with New York. What’s the atmosphere like at the moment within the band? Also, have you developed any quirky must-dos before heading out on stage? (Be it a handshake, prayer, group hug or is it just prep, prep, prep and GO?) We’re a bit tired right now, it’s been a busy year for us touring since January, but we’re so excited about going back to the US. It’s one of our absolute favourite spots to tour and New York is always amazing! We have a small hand shakey thing we do just before we go on stage. Trond and I also have to brush our teeth before each show, it’s been a thing for 9 years now!
Have you noticed any differences in the audiences you perform to in your homeland of Norway versus audiences overseas? Well, of course the Norwegian audience know us and our songs a lot better, but we’ve been really lucky with the audiences overseas. Especially in Australia and Asia. Japanese audiences are a lot more quiet and the American audiences are more direct with their response.
Can you tell us a bit about the creating process when composing an original track… Is there a main influence? Who does what? Ingrid (vocals) writes the main parts of the songs and brings it to the band. Then we work together, bringing all of our influences into each song. It’s a lot of hard work being five individual people with a lot of ideas and opinions, but it’s also a really good period in which the band strengthens.
What was it like touring alongside London Grammar earlier this year? Touring with LG was amazing. Great people, great crew and great venues. It really opened a lot of doors for us and was great seeing LG every night for two weeks!
Do you have a particular show or performance so far that really stands out? If so, what was particularly memorable about this one? There has been so many this year, but maybe our release show at Rockefeller in Oslo, the first show in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan, and a couple of the shows at the LG. All of them stand out because of the audience, the venue and the vibe in the band.
Okay, spill the beans, who’s the cheekiest in the group? We’re not spilling beans 🙂
A lot of people can be found raving about Kristoffe’s amazing horn-playing. They want to know if it’s going to be used more in your future songs and performances. After watching a clip of your Tiny Desk Concert we can see what they’re referring to. So, more horn playing to come? First off, thank you for the kind words. Second off, of course there will be more horn playing!
The more we learn about your band, the more impressed we become. So tell us, collectively, how many instruments can you guys play? Haha, well we all play a bit since we’re all jazz educated musicians. But let’s not count, let’s rather surprise people when more instruments appear on stage.
What’s the hardest part about all this traveling that you do? As well as the greatest part. Hardest part is being a way from loved ones. That’s difficult, but a part of the job. The fun part is of course seeing new places, playing for new people, meeting new people and eating good food!
If you could pick one word to describe your sound, what would it be? Rich.
Finally, we have found, the profound yet tingling sensation of music emitted by Highasakite, has in fact left us, the listener, feeling high as a kite. In the best way. What does it mean to you when you discover people are experiencing your sound in this way? It means a lot to us. We’re just so happy that people experience things with our music and that they come to us and say it!
To celebrate All Hallows’ Eve we have compiled a list of YouTube videos where you can witness unsuspecting people getting the bejeezus scared out of them. Ever been so suddenly terrified that you thought you were going to have a heart attack? How about just soil yourself? If you have experienced this, it probably wasn’t very pleasant at the time, but it’s all in the name of good thrills to these prank masters.
Most of these are seriously funny, others are kind of shocking, and others… well, they just went downright wrong.
It’s that trick-or-treating, apple-bobbing time of the year again that involves overdosing on sugar, carving pumpkins, attending costume parties, playing pranks, visiting haunted houses, telling scary stories, watching horror films and what-not. So here’s our list of the Halloween Top Thirteen (unlucky for some) classic scary movies that will certainly get you spooked.
This horrifying tale of a regular all-American middle class family being haunted by a poltergeist in their new suburban home is a consistently scary classic horror movie. It may not get you hiding behind the sofa but there are so many nail biting, shocking and eerie moments in this film you’ll definitely get your terror on. The young daughter of the family, Carol Anne, is taken by the Poltergeist via a gateway in the television. There are creepy trees that try to attack the kids, clowns that come to life and a lot of supernatural furniture moving. Their lives are totally turned upside down and almost taken at some points due to this supernatural presence. It’s definitely one for the Halloween hall of fame.
“Here’s Johnny”…this is a chilling tale of a man’s struggle with his inner self and a bucket load of unnatural goings on in an old hotel in the middle of nowhere. Jack Torrance (impeccably portrayed by Jack Nicholson) and his family take-over said hotel and everything goes from bad to worse, demonic presence overwhelms him and sends him totally mad by the end of the film. This is a must-see terror-tale with creepy children, old ladies in baths and symmetrical camera work (thanks to the mastery of director Stanley Kubrick) assisting in adding to the scare factor in this 1980 classic.
This 2002 remake, starring Noemi Watts, of the original Ringu is a dark and monstrous tale revolving around a video tape. If you watch this tape you are subsequently haunted by the most freakish little girl (Watts) with hair covering her face as she drips all over your front room having climbed out of the television. It sounds bizarre and almost comical but in fact it is shudderingly scary and gets under your skin, staying with you long after the movie ends.
This chilling tale, set in the time of World War II, depicts a woman (Nicole Kidman) taking care of her children alone whilst waiting and hoping her husband returns from the war. They stay in an old Victorian mansion in the meantime and very creepy goings on start to occur, including communication with beings from beyond the grave. Be warned, there are lots of jumpy and ‘face behind cushion’ moments.
This was an instant classic depicting ‘that’ mask and a bunch of high school American kids in this teen slasher movie. Drew Barrymore, Courtney Cox, David Arquett, Skeet Ulrich, Neve Campbell, Rose McGowan, Live Schreiber, Matthew Lillard, star in Wes Craven’s (of Nightmare on Elm Street fame) 1996 who-dunnit style thriller where the best way for the characters to outsmart the killer is to have watched plenty of scary movies and know their horror trivia.
Three young students go out into the forest to film a documentary about a lengendary witch who lives in these parts. The three teenagers go missing mysteriously and after a year of not being found the footage was retrieved from the woods and cut into this very true to life film. The home video method of filming in this adds authenticity and depth to the realistic feel of this docu-style film. The actors don’t appear to be acting and the whole thing seems like an actual event right up until the concluding scenes. The fear depicted by the actors is very convincing and creates a sense of dread, panic and terror within us that this could actually be happening.
This has to be the ultimate classic scary film despite the genre crossing between comedy and horror. The make-up precedes its time delivering some horrifying effects. The story goes that a young traveling American gets bitten by a werewolf on his trip to London and subsequently becomes one himself. The film follows his gory transformations and attacks as he makes his journey through the city.
You may have to end up doing the full 5 movie marathon once you start with this one. It isn’t the scariest of films but it’s the most recent blockbuster hit that has to be worth a mention. There are elements of creepiness once we learn the nature of many of the lead characters, albeit disguised under a veil of a love story and lot of teen drama. But then there’s the cast, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, Robert Pattinson and all the other beautiful wolves and vampires that come on screen that make this a worthy contender for the Halloween top thirteen.
This has to be the ultimate horrifying tale of a young girl who is possessed by the devil. This is truly a terrifying horror story about a priest who takes it upon himself to save this poor twelve year old girl. The effects are excellent for the time it was made, it is extremely eerie and probably one of the scariest movies of all time.
This is a masterpiece of a thriller with twists and turns, a young boy with a “gift”, a serious acting role by Bruce Willis, a sharp performance by Toni Collette and a spectacular delivery by a very young Haley Joel Osment. This has to be one of the best supernatural thrillers to date; a definite winner for a Halloween screening.
This seriously stylish thriller was a box office smash hit in 1995 and has doubtfully been beaten since for originality, casting and impending doom! Kevin Spacey is impeccable as ever, Brad Pitt plays a very convincing rookie homicide detective under the patient and experienced wing of his new partner Morgan Freeman. The horrific murders and twisted psychopathic plot, based on the seven deadly sins, is one to be rivaled in genius and hideousness. It is probably one of the best thriller movies of all time.
This wouldn’t be a classic scary movie list without the one and only Freddy Krueger. If you haven’t seen the Nightmare On Elm Street films, of which there are many, then you have some catching up to do. Freddy appears in people’s nightmares, he has gloves with blades for fingers and an extremely scarred and hideous face. Freddy accesses his victims through their dreams, loads of slashing and killing, blood and gore later and these poor innocents wake up dead. It’s gruesome and not for the faint hearted, definitely a classic blood spiller.
This 1984 film has to have a mention, it is an all time classic movie which transcends time and genres but does have its fair share of scary bits, with a haunting performance by Sigourney Weaver and the comedy genius of Bill Murray. A team of guys start their own business, well, busting Ghosts basically. They invent some very funky suits with backpacks and traps that hold these ghosts that are terrorizing the city. And who can forget the car? It’s almost a scary movie, almost a comedy, almost a kids’ film and continues to remain a very popular Halloween choice.
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TulisaContostavlos prepares to re-enter the world of music with her comeback single Living Without You, her first release in two years. Directed by Life Garland (Rihanna, Eminem, Lil Wayne, Tyga) the video portrays what it’s like to deal with fame – the constant flashing cameras and the vogue like status everything takes on.
The former X factor judge has had a year of public scrutiny after her sex tape got leaked and the unfortunate I-know-a-man-that-can-get-you-some-drugs-thing blew up in her face. Now she is back and prepares to re-enter the world of music and entertainment with this new single. The 26-year-old is determined to win back the affection of the British public with her new music and put the dark days behind her.
Speaking to KISS breakfast presenters Rockie, Melvin and Charlie last week she said: “I’m so happy. I’m trying to convince people, I cannot express how happy I am. I’m in such a good place. People forget I was 23 when I started X-Factor alone and 17 when I got my first recognition through N-Dubz. So it’s been a crazy whirlwind of a journey and a career, but I do feel now it’s the time when I’m most confident.’
The video features a brief appearance from Tulisa’s N-Dubz bandmate Richard Rawson (Fazer), who can be seen playing the piano at the beginning of the video.
Living Without You will be officially released on December 7.
