NEWS/FEATURESARAB TIMES, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2017

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This fi le photo taken on Feb 15, 2016 shows singer Taylor Swift performing during the 58th Grammy Awards at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. (AFP)

Hillary Scott of Lady Antebellum per-forms at the Hilton Honors music pro-gram ‘Music Happens Here’ at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Mu-seum on Nov 10 in Nashville, Tenn.

(AP)

LOS ANGELES: Chuck Mosley, singer on Faith No More’s fi rst two albums, died Thursday, according to a statement from his family, “due to the disease of addic-tion.” He was 57.

A Los Angeles native, Mosley played with future Faith No More bassist Bill Gould in a band called the Animated. The pair relocated to the Bay Area and joined Faith No More — which had gone through a string of singers, including Courtney Love — in 1983. His snarling, rap-infl ected, at times comical vocals are featured on the band’s fi rst two albums, its 1985 Mordam debut “We Care a Lot” and its 1987 major-label bow, “Introduce Your-self,” which was released on Slash through Warner Bros. A revamped version of “We Care a Lot” became an alternative radio hit and got an occasional look on MTV.

Mosley was ejected from the band in 1988 and replaced by Mike Patton, whose versatile vocals helped bring the band to multiplatinum success with the 1989 release “The Real Thing,” which featured hits like “Epic” and “Falling to Pieces.” Mosley subsequently sued the band, claim-ing violation of a partnership deal; the case was settled out of court. (RTRS)

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PARIS: Pop star Shakira was forced to can-cel the fi rst swathe of concerts of her world tour Friday because of a problem with her vocal cords, the tour’s promoters said.

The Colombian singer postponed two concerts this weekend in Paris and a Bel-gian date on Sunday as well as a concert in Amsterdam on Tuesday “on the orders of her doctor”, they said.

The cancellations come after the “Hips Don’t Lie” star called off the opening concert of the “El Dorado World Tour” in Cologne on Wednesday, telling fans that all cancelled shows would be rearranged.

“We regret to announce the postponement of the dates,” promoters Live Nation said.

“It was under the orders of her doctor because the singer’s vocal cords are still recovering.”

“Shakira is really upset not to see her fans, and is thankful for all the support they have given her in this diffi cult period,” their statement added. (AFP)

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LOS ANGELES: Ex-Spice Girl Mel B and

Variety

‘Film music in concert’

Introspective Eminemback with fresh soundNEW YORK, Nov 11, (Agencies): Rap superstar Eminem made his long-awaited return Friday with a strikingly fresh sound — an introspective ballad that features Beyonce.

Eminem, the top-selling rapper of all time who earned his fame on the back of aggressive beats and lightning-quick rhymes, is accompanied almost entirely by piano and strings on the new track, “Walk on Water.”

In a series of social media posts, the 45-year-old indicated that “Walk on Water” was the debut single of a new album, “Revival,” which would be his fi rst in four years.

Eminem gave no further indication on the release date. MTV simultaneously an-nounced that Eminem would perform “Walk on Water” live for the fi rst time Sunday at the network’s European Music Awards in London.

“Walk on Water” is driven by a Gospel-tinged chorus in which Beyonce sings of how Eminem — earlier the self-described “Rap …” — was deeply human.

“I walk on water — but only when it freezes,” sings

Beyonce, in one of her fi rst appearances since giving birth to twins in June.

In the song Eminem describes his perfectionism and how it fuels his anxiety as he fears his new mate-rial will not live up to his standards.

“Will this just be another misstep / To tarnish what-ever legacy, love or respect I’ve garnered?” he raps.

“The rhyme has to be perfect / The delivery fl awless / And it always feels like I’m hitting the mark / ‘Til I go sit in the car, listen and pick it apart.”

Eminem name-checks legendary late artists includ-ing Prince, Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. and declares himself to be in a lesser league.

The song only hits an older hip-hop sound in its last moments when, in a sarcastic fl ash of his old self, Em-inem alludes to “Stan,” his mega-hit from 2000.

DeliveredEminem fi rst emerged from a year of quiet last

month when he delivered an angry freestyle accusing President Donald Trump of bigotry and incompetence in a video aired at the BET Hip Hop Awards.

Eminem, a white Midwesterner whose listener base likely includes many voters for Trump, demanded that his fans choose him or the president, of whom he said: “Racism’s the only thing he’s fantastic for.”

The unexpectedly downbeat song — which features Eminem accompanied by Beyonce, a simple piano track, synthesizer, a haunting string section and muted percussion — is surprisingly rough-hewn, with the sound of the rapper scribbling and swearing to himself in the background in between verses. Despite its arro-gant-sounding title, the song — which was produced by Rick Rubin and co-written with Beyonce and Sky-lar Grey, who co-wrote Eminem’s hit “Love the Way You Lie” — is a depressive meditation on trying and failing to meet up to expectations.

“Why are expectations so high?” he begins. “Is it the bar I set, my arms outstretched, but I can’t reach? ... I lose my grip like the fl ying trapeze, Into the dark I plummet ...”Always in search of the verse I haven’t spit yet, will this step just be another misstep?/To tarnish whatever the legacy or love or respect I’ve garnered/The ryhme has to be perfect, the delivery fl awless/And it always feels like I’m hitting the mark/Till I go sit in the car, listen and pick it apart/Like ‘This is garbage”

Beyonce’s oft-repeated hook includes the lines:“I walk on water, but I ain’t no Jesus/ I walk on

water but only when it freezes,” and later cascades into the verses:”’Cause I’m only human, just like you/Making my mistakes, oh if you only knew/I don’t think you should believe in me the way that you do/Because I’m terrifi ed to let you down.”

The rapper is set to appear on “Saturday Night Live” Nov. 18 as the musical guest — the show is hosted by Chance the Rapper. It will be interesting to see whether he performs this song — and if Beyonce joins him for it.

The song’s title was written on a prescription note with a logo for “Revival,” which is presumably the name of his forthcoming album, which has no offi -cial release date but is expected to drop at any time between now and the end of the year. The album’s title, which was at the center of an elaborate fake ad-vertising campaign teased by Eminem’s manager Paul Rosenberg earlier in the month, could complete Em-inem’s sequence of albums referencing his admitted struggles with prescription drugs, 2009’s “Relapse” and 2010’s “Recovery.” His most recent album was 2013’s “The Marshall Mathers LP 2.”

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Just a few years ago, “fi lm music in concert” trans-lated to short suites by big-name movie composers (Henry Mancini, John Williams) performed at sum-mer pops concerts. Today, established American or-chestras that once didn’t look at the merging of screen and music seriously, take heed of live-to-picture per-formances as very big business, with concert halls packing in audiences around the world.

That’s something of a surprise, considering how most classical musicians had traditionally looked down their collective noses at movie music. “Film music was a pejorative, and that was the end of it,” David Newman says. Now they see the attendance fi gures, and attitudes have changed considerably.

Indeed, just a month ago, the New York Philhar-monic completed a three-week, four-fi lm “Star Wars” series with Newman conducting John Williams’ scores for the original trilogy plus “The Force Awak-ens” to sold-out crowds at New York’s David Geffen Hall. “The orchestra absolutely killed it,” says New-man. “I don’t think it could be played any better.”

And the possibilities aren’t limited to fi lms. TV shows including “Game of Thrones” and “House of Cards” are placing music-and-montage center stage, offering variations on the live-to-pic presentation in-volving singers and dancers augmenting the fi lm in real-time. A superstar composer such as Hans Zim-mer, meanwhile, is drawing tens of thousands to his rock-concert-style performances.

“There is an ever-growing expansion of the mar-ketplace,” says Jamie Richardson, producer for Film Concerts Live!, which presents other classic Wil-liams scores including “E.T.,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Jurassic Park,” “Jaws” and the just-announced “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Its 2017 book-ings have already surpassed those from last year, “and that is with a lot more product in the marketplace” such as the “Harry Potter” fi lms, offered by CineCon-certs, the “Star Wars” fi lms, controlled by Disney/Lu-casfi lm, and others.

Eminem

Music

Mosley Shakira

Singer recrafts sound and image

Swift’s Reputation pure pop magicBy Mesfi n Fekadu

Taylor Swift, “Reputation” (Big Machine Records)

If you’d stop thinking about her Reputation, you’d actually appreci-ate the musicality of Taylor Swift’s “Reputation.”

Sure, she named the album that so there will be blog posts and essays de-ciphering the lyrics — was that about Kanye? Calvin? — but listen to the music, and you’ll discover pure pop magic.

On 2014’s “1989,” Swift showed she could deliver great pop songs. On “Reputation,” her sixth album and sec-ond pop effort, she has mastered it.

The production level has enhanced, with little nuanced sounds through-out the album — including use of the vocoder — giving the tracks additional appeal. A good number of the 15 songs are bass heavy and beat-laden, while Swift tells the story of her life in the last two years — going from tabloid drama to falling in love.

She’s striking on the exceptional “End Game,” veering into contempo-rary R&B territory. Co-stars include rap hitmaker Future and Ed Sheeran, who is sing-rapping in the style he performed before you fell in love with “Thinking Out Loud.”

Like the singles “...Ready for It?” and “Look What You Made Me Do,” other tracks on the album have similar fl air and a big sound, including “Don’t Blame Me,” “Getaway Car,” “Dancing With Our Hands Tied” and “King of My Heart.”

Riding those big beats are the lyr-ics — Swift’s specialty. Some of the words hit hard like gunshots.

“If a man talks then I owe him nothing/I don’t regret it one bit ‘cause he had it coming,” Swift sings on “I Did Something Bad.”

On the thumping and theatrical “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things,” her target is crystal clear.

“And therein lies the issue/Friends don’t try to trick you/Get you on the phone and mind-twist you,” she sings. “But I’m not the only friend you’ve lost lately/If only you weren’t so shady.”

But the album isn’t all boom boom

pow and big beats. Closing track “New Year’s Eve” is soft, stripped and slowed down, reminisicent of some of Swift’s earlier work. “Gorgeous” and “Call It What You Want” also even out the gigantic sound of the album, pro-duced with Jack Antonoff, Max Martin and Shellback.

“Reputation” also showcases a more sensual side of Swift. The performer with “that good girl faith and a tight little skirt” sings about scratches on her lover’s back on “So It Goes...,” and a man’s hand in her hair on “Delicate,” one of the bright-est spots on the album. On the falset-to-heavy “Dress,” another winning song and R&B-flavored gem.

“Only bought this dress so you can take it off,” she coos.

OutstandingThis album’s got an outstanding

Reputation.In her rise to pop superstardom,

Taylor Swift was once earnest and anodyne, her life’s disappointments more a chance for songs of perky com-miseration than of rage.

The world has changed, or maybe the 27-year-old has grown up. On “Reputation,” her sixth studio album, Swift is in a fi ghting spirit — and the story is all about her.

“Reputation” stars Swift as ag-grieved and vindictive — not the singer from her last album “1989” who playfully pointed to the chatter among her ex-lovers, but one wielding a base-ball bat and ready to smash stuff up on the video for the new album’s fi rst sin-gle “Look What You Made Me Do.”

On “I Did Something Bad,” Swift — who breaks new ground on the song by recording a profanity — tells a man who crossed her, “I don’t regret it one bit / ‘cause he had it coming.”

In a possible nod to challenges faced by strong women, Swift continues: “They’re burning all the witches, even if you aren’t one.”

Swift has always brought autobio-graphical elements into her songs but on “Reputation” one target is unmis-takably clear — Kanye West.

West’s wife, socialite Kim Kar-dashian, sought to defend her husband at the time by releasing a recording

of a telephone conversation in which West appeared to consult Swift about the lyrics.

Swift hits back on her latest album: “Friends don’t try to trick you / Get you on the phone and mind-twist you / And so I took an ax to a mended fence.”

The focus on West is all the more striking as “Reputation” for the fi rst time sees Swift embracing hip-hop, completing a transformation from her early days strumming country guitar.

“End Game,” one of the strongest songs on the album, has Swift col-laborating with both rapper Future and English songwriter Ed Sheeran, a close friend, in a fi nely tuned blend of pop and hip-hop.

If the sharp-elbowed tone may re-fl ect the mood of the United States in 2017, one element is strikingly absent — politics.

Unlike virtually all A-list pop sing-ers of the moment, the self-described feminist Swift has stayed mum about President Donald Trump.

The silence may be refreshing for music fans looking for an increasingly elusive political safe space in Trump’s America. But it also marks a shrewd marketing move for an artist who works on the liberal coasts but whose country roots have ensured her a loyal fan base in conservative states.

And even if her persona on the al-bum is harder-edged, she is also mak-ing sure her real-life Reputation among fans stays undisturbed.

Swift has made surprisingly few public appearances for “Reputation,” instead communicated through safe posts on social media platform Tum-blr.

Taylor Swift’s revenge-tinged new album “Reputation” soared to the top of the iTunes charts on its fi rst day of release on Friday, earning mixed re-views from music critics while fans devoured the lyrics for clues about her latest targets.

“Reputation,” Swift’s fi rst studio album in three years, marks another transformation in image for the coun-try-turned-pop star. It was not made available to music streaming services, in line with the singer’s previous re-leases. (Agencies)

Music

Musicians play Greek traditional music with Bouzoukis (front), guitars and an accordion in front of closed down stores in central Athens. (AFP)

estranged husband Stephen Belafonte reached a settlement over the domestic violence portion of their divorce days before the start of their trial, their lawyers

said Thursday.The pop star — real name Melanie

Brown — fi led for divorce on March 20, accusing Belafonte of physical and

emotional abuse during the course of their 10-year marriage. She also claimed Belafonte threatened to publish explicit recordings of her.

As a result of the settlement, a hearing scheduled to be held in the Los Angeles Superior Court was set aside, and Judge Mark Juhas also cancelled a restraining order Mel B had against Belafonte. (AFP)

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LOS ANGELES: John Hillerman, most fa-mous for playing Higgins the snooty butler in “Magnum, P.I.” opposite Tom Selleck, died Thursday aged 84, his publicist said.

The actor, who also appeared in Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown,” and “Blazing Saddles,” died of natural causes at his home in Houston, Texas, said Lori de Waal, without adding further details.

The Texan’s most famous role, which saw him work with a coach to lose his accent, was as sophisticated British butler Higgins alongside Selleck as relaxed pri-vate detective Magnum.

His character appeared in eight seasons of “Magnum, P.I.” one of the most popular shows during the 1980s.

The role won Hillerman — who also featured in “Murder, She Write” “The Love Boat” and “Kojak” — an Emmy and a Golden Globe. (AFP)