2019 is rapidly coming to a close, which means now is the perfect time to look back on everything that went down in the last 12 months. It’s been an action-packed year for some of our favorites. And that’s especially the case for Katy Perry. The 35-year-old kept her schedule jam-packed with the latest season of American Idol and a continuous release schedule of new music. That means that we regularly...

Goodbye, SG2! Earlier this morning (December 12), Selena Gomez fired up her social media accounts to reveal the official title of her new album. Rare arrives on January 10, 2020 and contains 13 songs including two collaborations. Yes, the chart-topping pop princess (which is difficult to get, not everybody has that to their credit) also unveiled the tracklist. As expected, the opus contains "Lose You...

She's back, Sin City! Shania Twain touched down in Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino's Zappos Theater to launch her new residency Let's Go. The country legend played her first show to a sold-out audience last Friday (December 6). Since then she's reclaimed the stage twice more with another performance scheduled for tonight (December 13). And it looks like everything has gone off without a hitch so far....

In many ways, an artist's sophomore album is more important than their debut. The first time around, they just need to prove they can get the public's attention. The stakes are higher after that. Now they need to keep the listener fully engaged. That's a feat Camila Cabello achieves with Romance. Out December 6, the LP arrives nearly two years after the 22-year-old made her solo debut. Her second effort...

Every December, Mariah Carey's 5-octave superpowers come to the surface and she dominates the music business like it's 1994 all over again. (They don't call it the happiest time of year for nothing). Of course, the source of Mimi's domination is "All I Want For Christmas Is You." The all-conquering festive bop has achieved every accolade since debuting 25 years ago. With one exception. It has never...

Music fans, particularly of the '80s and '90s variety, were saddened to hear that Marie Fredriksson passed away yesterday (December 10) at the still very-young age of 61. The platinum-haired voice of Roxette succumbed to a lengthy battle with cancer — she was first diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2002 — that affected her vision and mobility, but never managed to keep her too far away from the stage....

Sasha Sloan released two of the best EPs of 2018 (Sad Girl and Loser), so it shouldn't be too surprising that the just-released Self Portrait is an early frontrunner for the best Extended Play of 2019. A brutally honest collection of songs that dives deep into traditionally uncommercial topics like religion, loss and mental illness, Self Portrait finds the renowned songwriter coming into her own as...

The holidays are fast approaching (no joke), and that means we've been treated to an influx of seasonal fare every New Music Friday. That holds true today (December 6) with the arrival of Taylor Swift's festive bop "Christmas Tree Farm." The 29-year-old has been hard at work since dropping Lover earlier this year. In the last few weeks she's unveiled two remixes of the album's loved-up title track....

At 22, Becky G has already reinvented herself several times over. After breaking onto the scene as a teen rapper ("Can't Get Enough" is still a bop), the breakout star segued into pop. She promptly landed a hit with "Shower," but experienced diminishing returns with certified bops "Can't Stop Dancin'" and "Break A Sweat." The stars finally aligned when the Inglewood native embraced her Latin roots...

Céline Dion has been slowly chipping away at her 12th English-language album since at least 2016. That year is significant as it marked the passing of her late husband, René Angélil, after a long battle with cancer. The songs that arrived immediately thereafter ("The Show Must Go On" and "Recovering") directly referenced that event, and the music she has been working on ever since is indelibly shaped...

Taylor Swift belatedly lays out the mission statement for Lover on its final track. As "Daylight," a thoughtful and lushly composed love song, closes, the 29-year-old delivers a spoken outro. "I wanna be defined by the things that I love not the things I hate," she muses. "I just think that you are what you love." That's abundantly evident from one listen to the 18-song collection. Released on August...

Turning around a speedy review of a Lana Del Rey record is a thankless task. While the album is increasingly treated as a relic from the past, Lana still views it as an art form, cramming in layers of melodies and ideas that slowly seep out over time. It took me months to get a handle on Honeymoon, while Ultraviolence continues to unfold five years later. Until Friday (August 30), I considered those...