What's New(s)?

T.I., Katy B cover "Drunk in Love"

With the number of covers of Beyoncé's giddy "Drunk in Love", it's only a matter of time before I somehow end up on a remix. Last week alone yielded the official "Drunken Love" remix, along with takes by Kanye West and the Weeknd. A little more than two weeks ago we saw Future hop on and offer up his own slurred reworking of the tune. 

Today that ever-widening list expanded again with performances by rapper T.I. and dubstep/R&B singer Katy B. Somewhat paradoxically, B's version which co-mingles with a cover is the more organic of the two with only piano and the soft pattering of drums to prop it up. T.I. meanwhile snarls over a hyper-kinetic "EDM remix" where vocal samples stutter ad infinitum and the music seems to shift gears every 30 seconds. If its on anything at all, odds are it isn't alcohol.

"Drunk in Love"- Katy B

Morning Phase streaming now

Early returns on Beck's 12th studio album Morning Phase have been nothing short of laudatory. Today, courtesy of NPR, one of Spin Magazine's "50 Albums You Gotta Hear" has been made available for streaming. Beck has been touting this record as a spiritual companion/sequel to 2002's Sea Change and from the first few string-laden moments of "Morning" which drift into rustic guitar you know exactly what he means. I haven't had time to process everything yet, but what I've heard is absolutely gorgeous and fully deserving of the Sea Change comparisons. 

 

As mentioned last week, Morning Phase is just one of two LPs Beck hopes to release in 2014. The other, which has an extremely tentative fall release date may or may not be a dance record and feature the omnipresent Pharrell on it.


For news updates throughout the day, follow @AllFreshSounds on Twitter and check back in tomorrow for more of the newest in new(s).

What's New(s)?

Beck working with Pharrell

At this point, I'm convinced that Pharrell Williams is a robot. There's no other conceivable explanation as to how one man could hold up to such an endless workload. Last week he popped up on the monstrous posse cut "Move That Dope". Two-and-a-half weeks before he was snatching up Grammys and rocking a hat that would make Dudley Do Right envious. Last year, he crafted a 24-hour music video and managed turns on two of the biggest hooks of the summer ("Feds Watching" should've been a clear-cut third). And somewhere in there, he was caught up in the midst of Clipse rumors that appear not to be true.

So why not work with Beck? The indie-chameleon has a new album coming out February 25th entitled Morning Phase, but that's just one of two albums he's been promising for 2014. Now according to a recent interview with Billboard, Beck's detailing that the omnipresent Pharrell will be involved with the other project along with "other high-profile collaborators."

There's no details on that album yet, other than a tentative 2014 release. But as previously mentioned, Morning Phase is out February 25th through Capitol.

"Blue Moon"

"Drunken Love" remix

It seems blasphemous to ask how Beyoncé's soaring "Drunk in Love" could become anymore captivating, but producer Noel "Detail" Fisher had the bravery to. At Complex, he debuted his official remix of the song, appropriately entitled "Drunken Love". And while the original was chugging down thunderous drums and bass, the remix gingerly sips on orchestral flourishes and floating choral vocals. Bey's voice doesn't soar now, it seemingly glides; curlicuing into every line. And Jay's verse, which felt shoehorned into the original, is far less harried her and better for it. If "Drunk in Love" was a full-on body-rush, this is the heady feeling that comes later. 

You can hear the song below and check out of video of Detail describing both the original and the bold reworking here.

For news updates throughout the day, follow @AllFreshSounds on Twitter and check back in Monday for more of the newest in new(s).