Latest news with #OhWhatABeautifulWorld
Forbes
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Willie Nelson Blocked From Another Career No. 1
At 92, Willie Nelson debuts at No. 2 on the U.K.'s Official Country Artists Albums chart with Oh ... More What a Beautiful World, his seventy-seventh solo studio album and latest top 10. NOBLESVILLE, INDIANA - SEPTEMBER 23: Willie Nelson speaks at the Farm Aid 2023 press conference at Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center on September 23, 2023 in Noblesville, Indiana. (Photo by Stephen J. Cohen/WireImage) WireImage Willie Nelson remains one of the few artists who still releases roughly one album per year. The country legend, who recently turned 92, returns this week with his seventy-seventh solo studio project — a figure that doesn't even include compilations, live sets, and numerous other special releases. Nelson has long since proved himself one of the most prolific musicians of his generation, and his latest release, Oh What a Beautiful World , gives him yet another win on several charts in the U.K. this week. As it debuts, the new effort earns Nelson another notable placement more than half a century into his reign as a global superstar. Oh What a Beautiful World opens at No. 2 on the Official Country Artists Albums chart, a ranking in the U.K. that details only the bestselling and most prominent releases by artists known primarily for country music. Leading the list this frame is Send a Prayer My Way , a collaborative project by Julien Baker and Torres. That set debuted at No. 1 last week and holds atop the tally for a second consecutive frame, blocking Nelson from the top spot. Over the years, Nelson has enjoyed a lot of success on the Official Country Artists Albums chart. He's now claimed seven leaders on the tally, including Spirit , Heroes , To All the Girls , Ride Me Back Home , First Rose of Spring , That's Life , and The Last Leaf on the Tree . He's also become familiar with the runner-up position. Oh What a Beautiful World marks his milestone tenth release to peak at No. 2 on the genre-specific tally. Previous efforts that reached the second spot include Band of Brothers , American Classic , Songbird , and the simply titled Country Music . It's possible that Oh What a Beautiful World may climb to the summit in the coming weeks. In total, Nelson has now pushed 41 titles onto the Official Country Artists Albums chart. That's one of the biggest totals among all acts who have landed on the list. Of those, 34 have entered the top 10, with only a few missing that mark. Oh What a Beautiful World Launches on Multiple Charts Beyond its position on the country-specific roster, Oh What a Beautiful World also performs well on several other U.K. charts. The studio LP narrowly misses the top 10 on the Official Americana Albums chart, landing just one space below that tier. It also appears at No. 49 on the Official Albums Sales chart, No. 50 on the Official Physical Albums roster, and No. 70 on the Official Album Downloads ranking.
Indian Express
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
EarFun Air Pro 4 gives noise cancelling variety on a budget
I woke up to a thunderstorm today. But as I work on this review, I can't hear much of the storm outside because the EarFun Air Pro 4 ultra ANC earphones block out most of it. What's EarFun, you might ask? Well, this is one of those new entrants in the market trying to offer affordable audio solutions for budget -conscious users. I reviewed the predecessor of this earphone almost two years back and found it a decent option at the price. So, will the EarFun Air Pro 4 be able to live up to my expectations? The EarFun Air Pro 4 is a very regular-looking earphone with a charging case that breaks no molds. They are comfortable to wear and stay on even when you are out for a run or pumping weights in the gym. The EarFun app lets you configure the noise cancellation levels and switch to an ambient or normal mode. It also offers five different types of noise cancellation, from strong to adaptive and wind noise canceling, which I have not seen before. These work well, with the AI adaptive noise canceling stepping up to mute the humm of the fan in my living room. There is also a game mode and preset and custom equaliser settings. All these are a plus, given the price point. The EarFun app lets you configure the noise cancellation levels and switch to an ambient or normal mode. (Image: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express) Listening to Göç / Me by Kit Sebastian, I felt the EarFun Air Pro 4 offered a balanced playback with no extremes. It could handle the vocals and percussions well. There are three bass boost levels and this is where you realise the limitations of the earphones. The change is incremental but never at the level, you would get on a Sony or even a JBL. But I customised the equaliser to a sound profile that gelled well with my preferences. A R Rahman's new Satyam Shivam Sundaram composition created for Waves of India also sounded impressive, a good mix of richness and clarity. The earphones handle the lows and highs well, while the mids found the spot. There is a vocal heavy preset if you want to listen to something like Ed Sheeran's Old Phone. I loved Willie Nelson's version of Oh What A Beautiful World too, his baritone shining through at all times, even on my custom equaliser. However, I felt the EarFun Air Pro 4 struggled while I used it for calls. The voice was jarring and irritating though the other side could hear me well. Maybe this needs a software update. At Rs 6,374 on Amazon, the EarFun Air Pro 4 is a good option for those looking to get noise cancellation that works well in different situations. The earfuns have good playback capability too, while I would not recommend this for those who are stuck on calls all day long.
Japan Today
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Today
What to Stream: 'Andor,' 'Babygirl' and new Wu-Tang Clan music
This combination of photos show promotional art for the series "Andor," left, the series "You," center, and the comedy special "Brett Goldstein: The Second Best Night of Your Life." (Disney/Netflix/Max via AP) The second season of the Star Wars series 'Andor' and the streaming release of the Wu-Tang Clan's latest album are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you. Also among the streaming offerings worth your time, as selected by The Associated Press' entertainment journalists: Willie Nelson releases his 77th solo studio album, 'Oh What A Beautiful World,' and the arrival of Nicole Kidman's 'Babygirl' on Max. — Halina Reijn's 'Babygirl' (streaming Friday on Max) stars Nicole Kidman as a CEO who has an affair with a much younger male intern ( Harris Dickinson ). The A24 film, which earned Kidman a Golden Globe nomination, resurrects the steamy, campy atmosphere of erotic thrillers like 'Basic Instinct' and '9 ½ Weeks' but tells it from a more female perspective. In my review, I wrote that the 'ever-shifting gender and power dynamics make 'Babygirl' seldom predictable — even if the film is never quite as daring as it seems to thinks it is.' — Gareth Evans, the Welsh filmmaker of 'The Raid' franchise, returns with more brutal, choreographed mayhem in 'Havoc' (Netflix, Friday), an action thriller starring Tom Hardy as a detective battling a criminal underworld. Jessie Mei Li, Timothy Olyphant, Forest Whitaker and Luis Guzmán co-star. — Film Writer Jake Coyle — Wu-Tang Clan is forever, but their touring days are numbered. In June, the legendary hip-hop group will embark on a final tour titled the 'Wu-Tang Forever: The Final Chamber.' Whether you're planning on attending or not, there is no bad time to throw on one of their records. On Friday, Wu-Tang's joint album with Mathematics, 'Black Samson, The Bastard Swordsman,' released earlier this month as a Record Store Day exclusive, will hit streaming platforms. Why not start there? — Calling Willie Nelson prolific is about as revelatory as saying the sky is blue; it is self-evident. On Friday, he'll release his 77th solo studio album, 'Oh What A Beautiful World,' celebrating the work of songwriter Rodney Crowell. Nelson embodies many Crowell classics — like 1976's 'Banks Of The Old Bandera,' recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker, and 1981's 'Shame On The Moon' for Bob Seger. Crowell and Nelson join forces on the song's title cut. The album also arrives just five months after his 76th solo studio album, 'Last Leaf on the Tree,' his first produced entirely by his son Micah. 'He's a real artist,' Nelson described his son to The Associated Press at the time. 'He picked all the songs.' (Read AP's review here.) — Twangy punk band Rodeo Boys are experts in sugary, spirited hooks — from 2019's debut 'Cherry' to their 2023 Don Giovanni Records debut 'Home Movies.' But the Lansing, Michigan, group's 2025 album 'Junior,' out Friday, takes them to great new heights — a collection of sardonic, queer Americana, melodic songs for and by the heartland. The best description of the band is the one they wrote themselves: 'Rodeo Boys is what happens when the Miller High Life gets legs and starts walking around on its own.' Yeehaw. — Music Writer Maria Sherman — The 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' prequel series 'Andor' returns for its second and final season Tuesday on Disney+. Diego Luna stars as Rebel spy Cassian Andor and follows his radicalization against the Galactic Empire leading up to 'Rogue One' and 'Star Wars.' The first season of 'Andor' was nominated for an Emmy Award for outstanding drama series and received praise from critics. It also stars Kyle Soller, Adria Arjona, Stellan Skarsgård, Fiona Shaw and Genevieve O'Reilly. — Penn Badgley is closing out his chapter as the stalking serial killer Joe Goldberg — who is also disturbingly likeable but that's for a therapy session — in Netflix's 'You.' Its fifth and final season debuts Thursday. While Season 4 took place in London, with Joe working as a literature professor, he's now returned to his hometown of New York. Joe is married to Kate Lockwood (Charlotte Ritchie), whom he met in Season 4 — and they're a New York power couple. Joe is happy with Kate and intends to stop killing people, but the guy is prone to building tangled webs of obsession that leave dead bodies in his wake. The new episodes also feature Madeline Brewer of 'The Handmaid's Tale' and Anna Camp. — In Season 1 of Hulu's 'Vanderpump Villa,' Lisa Vanderpump oversaw a young staff at a French chateau that both lived and worked together for the summer. For Season 2, she's relocated to a castle in Italy and brought roughly half of the 'Villa' staff with her. She's also invited 'Vanderpump' all-star Stassi Schroeder to be a special VIP and serve as her eyes and ears with the staff. Schroeder starred on 'Vanderpump Rules' for eight seasons before she was fired for slurs and racial profiling in 2020. Schroeder has since written two bestselling books, launched a new podcast, got married and become a mother of two. She also has her own show for Hulu in the works. 'Vanderpump Villa' premieres Thursday. — When Brett Goldstein isn't writing and acting in hit shows like 'Ted Lasso' and 'Shrinking,' he's a busy stand-up comedian. Goldstein recently taped his first comedy special, called 'Brett Goldstein: The Second Best Night of Your Life,' for Max. It premieres Saturday. — Bravo has tapped some of its most famous single ladies from 'The Real Housewives' to star in a new dating show called 'Love Hotel.' Cameras follow Shannon Storms Beador ('The Real Housewives of Orange County'), Luann de Lesseps ('The Real Housewives of New York City'), and Gizelle Bryant and Ashley Darby ('The Real Housewives of Potomac') as they stay at a hotel in Los Cabos, Mexico, and meet eligible bachelors who are just visitors to the property, unless they get an official invite from one of the ladies to check in. Bravo superfan Joel Kim Booster hosts as their 'Love Concierge.' 'Love Hotel,' premiering Sunday on Bravo, streams the next day on Peacock. — Alicia Rancilio — Every year, the mystical Paintress paints a new number, and every person of that age dies. This year's number is 33, so it's up to the crew of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 to try to stop her. It's the debut title from French developer Sandfall Interactive, and it aspires to the storytelling, exploration and turn-based team combat of classic role-playing games like Final Fantasy and Persona. The graphics evoke the lush glamor of Belle Epoque Paris, while the voice cast features heavyweights like Charlie Cox ('Daredevil') and Andy Serkis ('The Lord of the Rings'). It's rare for a young studio to launch such an ambitious RPG series — and we'll see if it pays off Thursday, on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S and PC. — Lou Kesten © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Scotsman
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Album reviews: Tide Lines Màiri Morrison & Alasdair Roberts
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Tide Lines: Glasgow Love Story (Tide Lines Music) ★★ Willie Nelson: Oh What A Beautiful World (Legacy Recordings) ★★★★ Màiri Morrison & Alasdair Roberts: Remembered In Exile: Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia (Drag City) ★★★★ Tide Lines Locked Hands: Safety Is Our Focus (Errant Media) ★★★ Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Glasgow is getting a lot of love from its musical denizens in its 850th year. First, Deacon Blue embraced the Raintown once again on latest album, The Great Western Road, and now Tide Lines celebrate the dear green place where the band first formed in 2016. Glasgow Love Story was actually recorded on their native Mull but with eyes directed towards their adopted home. The landscape may contrast with their previous Mull-inspired album An Ocean Full of Islands, with the sound inching ever closer to mainstream pop, but lyrically the territory remains the same – wistful/rousing odes by youngish men who seem perpetually nostalgic. The hopeful Better Days communicates the sense of the city's folk sessions with some added bassline swagger while the synthesizer on The Hardest Miles sounds like it has been switched to bagpipe setting. They add a brass fanfare to Scotpop number Brother and an unexpected saxophone solo on Lonely and the Free, but that is it for curveballs. Willie Nelson The rest of the album is pipe-and-slippers stuff, from cosy Clydeside romance on By the Quayside via the folk pop whimsy of the title track to the banal nostalgia of If I Had My Time. Homeward Bound is a standard spin on the homesick blues and they go river shallow, mountain mid-range on Mountains That We Climb. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Cherry Blossom Sunset's evocation of city park life just about gets by on natural catchiness but simply name-checking locations, as they do on Ashton Lane ('we were younger when we walked down Ashton Lane') doesn't really get to the heart of the city. Like his peers Van Morrison and Neil Young, Willie Nelson is releasing albums at a rate of knots. His latest, Oh What A Beautiful World, arrives on the eve of his 92nd birthday and celebrates the songs of the great country writer (and Emmylou Harris associate) Rodney Crowell. Nelson has already showcased his affinity for Crowell's music, with his heartfelt cover of The Border a highlight of his recent output; here again he chimes with the simple integrity of the storytelling. Forty Miles From Nowhere captures the melancholic pleasures of a quiet, remote existence ('friends don't call like they used to, for reasons not unkind') with sighing steel guitar embellishment. The tone varies with the bluesy strut of She's Back in Town and the California dreaming of Still Learning How to Fly, while a lovely loping arrangement tempers the sentimental Shame on the Moon and Crowell himself joins Nelson on the title track. Màiri Morrison & Alasdair Roberts follow up their 2012 collaboration Urstan with another collection of traditional songs in English and Gaelic, this time collated by folklorist Helen Creighton and recorded by Nova Scotian bassist Pete Johnston who invited Morrison and Roberts to work with him on his home turf. Locked Hands The results are a bridge between old and new Scotland on perennial themes – migration, marriage, love and longing. Roberts leads in seasoned storytelling style on the slow march of Hind Horn and the spindly lovesick Peggy Gordon, while Morrison aces Hi horò, 's na horo h-eile, a Gaelic waulking song to a tune more familiar from Ae Fond Kiss. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Locked Hands is the latest outlet for Edinburgh-based DIY musician Sean Ormsby who also records as retro electro outfit Night Noise Team. Safety Is Our Focus is a more lo-fi and austere affair, featuring reedy cut-and-paste dispatches on grief and mental health. Ormsby intones like Alan Vega of Suicide over terse, tinny beats, bass judder and throbbing synth on Echo Hotel, while S'il Vous Plait is a death dub disco of sorts. CLASSICAL Errollyn Wallen: Orchestral Works Resonus ★★★★ Appointed Master of the King's Music last year, Errollyn Wallen – who lives in an isolated Scots lighthouse – had already gained international recognition as one of the topmost performed living classical composers. In an album of works written over two decades, the BBC Concert Orchestra under conductor John Andrews illustrate the instinctive eclecticism that gives Wallen's music its instant accessibility and charm. Dances for Orchestra, premiered in 2023 by co-commissioners the SCO, is a perfect and substantial example. Within a framework of skilled craftsmanship, mercurial energy and imaginative colourings, vivid influences come and go – shades of Latin, hard-edged rock, parodic wit, even an ultimate undisguised nod to Scots dance. And that's just the start of an adventurous track list that includes the intensely theatrical Shakespearean setting By His and by St Charity (soprano Ruby Hughes), and – launched with a hair-raising quote of Amazing Grace – the powerful Mighty River Ken Walton FOLK TRIP: In Terra's Keep (TRIP Music Records) ★★★★
San Francisco Chronicle
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Music Review: Willie Nelson is ageless singing Rodney Crowell songs on 'Oh What A Beautiful World'
It's fun to hear Willie Nelson sing such words as 'ninja,' 'fishmonger' and 'absinthe,' which are among the many pleasures found in the songbook of influential country songwriter Rodney Crowell. 'Oh What A Beautiful World' is Nelson's latest album devoted to the songs of a specific songwriter, and in Crowell, he's interpreting a kindred spirit. While Crowell has a slightly different lyric vocabulary, both are Texans with a deep love of Hank Williams. The pairing – great songs and a great singer – works beautifully. The album will be out Friday, just before Nelson's 92nd birthday on April 29. He has long sounded ageless, but more than ever, Nelson sings like a sage. His reedy tenor can be a little whispery, but he displays surprising vocal range. His relaxed, conversational delivery is filled with warmth and wisdom. He'll start a phrase late, end it early and make it seem perfect. When he reminisces about childhood on 'Banks of the Old Bandera" — originally recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker — Nelson sounds just like he did in 1976, the year the song was written. Other material ranges from 'Shame on the Moon,' a 1982 pop hit for Bob Seger, to Crowell's overlooked gem 'She's Back in Town.' Also included are tunes that have been recorded by Tim McGraw ('Open Season On My Heart') and Keith Urban ('Making Memories of Us') and a folksy ballad co-written with Guy Clark ('Stuff That Works'). Longtime Nelson collaborator Buddy Cannon produced the record, and the backing musicians provide graceful, tasteful support. Nelson's beloved guitar Trigger plays a significant role, including on a careening, don't-try-this-at-home solo on the title cut, a duet with Crowell. Also among the highlights is 'The Fly Boy & The Kid,' a prayerlike shuffle with playful lyrics that Nelson leans into. He's equally frisky doing roadhouse blues on 'She's Back in Town,' while elsewhere the mood tends toward contemplative. 'The days go by like flying bricks,' Nelson sings on the handsome ballad 'Open Season On My Heart.' More than any other song in the set, 'Still Learning How to Fly' seems as if it was written for Nelson. Nearing the end of the album – Nelson's 154th, according to Texas Monthly's herculean ranking of his prolific discography — he sings: 'I've got a past that I won't soon forget / And you ain't seen nothing yet.' He sounds as if he means it.
