In more ways than anyone would care to count, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we live. Near the top of the list are the ways in which we experience music. Live music venues from concert halls and intimate clubs to festivals and cruises were hit the hardest and the future of these performance spaces remains uncertain.
Staying productive
Fortunately, we still have plenty of recorded music to enjoy while we face the possibility of both a vaccine and further lockdowns. Some musicians have used the opportunity of isolation to create albums.
Gay singer/songwriter
Isolation: 001 consists of original songs and
The crowning glory is Swift’s version of I Contain Multitudes, from Dylan’s new album Rough and Rowdy Ways. “It’s a love song, and a prayer,” she said of the song. “And it’s about his life, but it’s also about what art and music and literature can mean to humanity. And to me that’s an extraordinary thing to meditate on, particularly when our social interactions are so limited.” All of the above could be said of Blonde on the Tracks itself.
– Andrew Stafford
The Avalanches – We Will Always Love You
We Will Always Love You is a miraculous-sounding record, infatuated with the universe and the infinite nature of energy, light and – especially – sounds that echo in the void for eons. Sample-based music is inherently tactile; artists like the Avalanches pick up and tool around with old vinyl that’s traded hands before. And on this record, they’ve leaned into that tactility and the sensoriality of music, turning images into sound and back again (Star Song