Posts Tagged ‘Areath Franklin’

Taylor Swift’s Red Album Launches With Impressive Sales And Rave Reviews

Red , the fourth studio album from six-time Grammy Award winner Taylor Swift, was released worldwide just yesterday (October 22 nd), and the disc is already notching striking sales numbers and widespread critical acclaim.

Taylor Scores 50th Billboard Hot 100 Hit

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Oct. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – Red , the fourth studio album from six-time Grammy Award winner Taylor Swift, was released worldwide just yesterday (October 22 ^nd), and the disc is already notching striking sales numbers and widespread critical acclaim.

Red topped the all-genre Top Albums chart at iTunes within 36 minutes of release, and first day sales at iTunes alone topped 262,000 albums. Taylor scored 13 of the Top 20 songs on iTunes, with the song “Everything Has Changed” taking the #1 position on the all-genre Top Songs chart. Thus far, Red has sold 4.5 million song downloads to date at iTunes in the U.S. alone. At Target, Taylor’s Speak Now album had the highest one-week sales in the retailer’s history. Red has now set the record for Day One sales and is on pace to exceed Speak Now‘s one week results.

Worldwide, Red reached #1 at iTunes on the first day of release in 32 countries, including the UK, Australia, Singapore, Brazil, Canada, Italy, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, Denmark, Venezuela, Thailand, and Ireland.

With Red, Taylor has set a new Billboard record — for the most rapid accumulation of 50 Hot 100 hits in history, reaching the milestone just six years and one month after her 2006 chart debut. Aretha Franklin previously held the record, with a stretch of just over 14 years and six months, and Taylor is one of only five women in the 54-year history of the chart to reach this milestone (joining Franklin, Madonna, Connie Francis and Dionne Warwick).

Taylor Swift’s Red is also impressive in its widespread critical acclaim, garnering stellar praise from top critics around the globe.

“Taylor Swift is a turbine of artistic ambition and superstar drama, and Red is a 16-song geyser of willful eclecticism. Her self-discovery project is one of the best stories in pop. When she’s really on, her songs are like tattoos.” – Rolling Stone

“The writer James Dickey once described a poet as ‘someone who stands outside in the rain, hoping to be struck by lightning.’ He could’ve been talking about Taylor Swift. Sublime…Red should be required listening…’We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’ is the snarkiest pop kiss-off, like, ever.” –Entertainment Weekly

“Taylor Swift’s Red burns with confidence. [She] seems to have crossed some sort of emotional threshold [to] the assured words and music of a star. There are no bumps on Red. Only clean, perfectly rendered American popular music.” – Los Angeles Times

“Taylor Swift’s Red is another winner. What Swift does better than anyone [is] she connects with clear, concise, relatable love songs that are thrown like punches and steeped in everyday details.” – The Washington Post

“Red puts Swift the artist front and center with big, beefy hooks that transcend her country roots for a genre-spanning record that reaches heights unseen. Red is her most interesting full-length to date, but it probably won’t be when all is said and done in her career.” – Billboard

“Fantastic. This is an album she’s spent her entire career building toward. Red is, in every conceivable way, her bid for artistic freedom, not only her most mature and accomplished album, but also her most unapologetic. In short, this is her album, on her terms….the album of her (still young) life. Red may be the beginning of her golden age, but really, it only sets the stage for things to come. And I’m willing to bet we’ll be amazed by what’s next.” –MTV News

“It’s clear that Red is another chapter in one of the finest fantasies pop music has ever constructed.” – The Guardian (UK)

“Swift seems to know just the right phrase to pull you inside her narratives.” – The Observer (UK)

“Swift has grown into one of the sharpest songwriters of her generation. Red is all the proof you need. All in all, color me impressed.” – The Sun (Canada)

Taylor is making multiple television appearances this week in support of Red. Her Times Square Concert this morning was the largest in the history of “Good Morning America,” and tonight she appears on the “Late Show with David Letterman” (CBS). Tomorrow (10/24) she will be live on ABC’s “The View,” and on Thursday she will make a special concert appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” On Friday, she will be a guest on ABC’s “Katie” with Katie Couric, and on Friday night she will be featured on ABC’s “All Access Nashville with Katie Couric – A Special Edition of 20/20.” Next week, Taylor will perform on ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars” (Tuesday, October 30 ^th) and also on the “41^st Annual CMA Awards” (November 1 ^st on ABC).

Taylor is featured on the covers of the current issues of Rolling Stone, Glamour, and Billboard magazines.

SOURCE Big Machine Records

http://www.bigmachinerecords.com

See larger image Red (Audio CD) List Price: $17.99 USD New From: $6.90 In Stock Used from: $5.01 In Stock Release date October 22, 2012.

Roberta Flack Gearing Up for Release of New Album “LET IT BE ROBERTA: ROBERTA FLACK SINGS THE BEATLES,” an Album of Beatles’ Classics

Her First Recording In Over 8 Years Set For Release February 7th

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jan. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – Roberta Flack, the four-time Grammy Award-winning artist, is back after an eight year absence with a brand new album, “LET IT BE ROBERTA: ROBERTA FLACK SINGS THE BEATLES”—a collection of Beatles song interpretations. The first single “We Can Work It Out” is currently being worked at several different radio formats including AC, Urban AC and Smooth Jazz. Buzz continues to build as key press such as NPR, Billboard, Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, AARP and More Magazine are already confirmed. Ms. Flack has also been planning a series of tour dates to coincide with the release of the album. The project has garnered the blessing of Yoko Ono who contributed the liner notes to LET IT BE ROBERTA. Newly signed to a partnership of 429 Records, Sony ATV Music Publishing and Flack’s RAS Records, the album which was produced by Sherrod Barnes, who has also produced Beyonce’ and Angie Stone, with contributing producers Jerry Barnes and Barry Miles, is slated for release on February 7th worldwide (Sony Music will release the album in Japan). Links to Amazon purchase page below.

429 Records logo. (PRNewsFoto/429 Records)

Roberta Flack has long been known as an unparalleled musician who effortlessly inhabits the worlds of pop, soul, R&B, jazz and folk. From her very first recording, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” which hit #1 in the U.S. across all charts, Flack has created strong emotional bonds with her listeners through her poignant musicality and unerring stylizations while also shining an uncompromising light onto the culture and politics of the times.

Since bursting onto the scene in 1969 with the blockbuster album “First Take” (produced by the legendary Joel Dorn), she’s followed her fiercely uncompromising lyrical and musical muses earning her a place alongside pioneering artists such as Aretha Franklin, Elton John, and Nina Simone. A multiple Grammy winner, she is the only artist along with U2 to win “Record of the Year” in consecutive years (for “The First Time, Ever I Saw Your Face” and “Killing Me Softly”). Although she’s taken some time between recordings, she’s never stopped performing having constantly toured worldwide. Flack, a national treasure gives her time freely to a host of charitable and humanitarian causes–among them, the ASPCA (spokesperson of the year for 2011) and the Roberta Flack School of Music in Bronx, NY (which she founded in 2006).

Says Yoko Ono: “With this collection, Roberta is adding a woman’s voice of fun and joy and, again, making people realize how universal these songs are.”

For more information visit:

http://www.429records.com/sites/429records/429details/d_robertaflack.asp

To Pre-order the Full Album, Let It Be Roberta

http://www.amazon.com/Let-Be-Roberta-Amazon-com-Exclusive/dp/B006OE7XH4/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1326822275&sr=1-2

About 429 Records

429 Records is a unit of The Savoy Label Group (SLG).  SLG is the North American based division of Nippon Columbia the oldest music company in Japan.  The Savoy Label Group has evolved into a Grammy Award winning and chart topping independent music company consistently outperforming competitors in key music categories as monitored by Billboard Magazine. The Savoy Label Group is led by Steve Vining and is based in Los Angeles, CA.

About Sony/ATV Music Publishing

Sony/ATV Music Publishing was established in 1995 as a joint venture between Sony and trusts formed by Michael Jackson.  Sony/ATV Music Publishing owns or administers over 750,000 copyrights by such artists as The Beatles, Beck, Brooks & Dunn, Leonard Cohen, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Fall Out Boy, Lady Gaga, John Mayer, Joni Mitchell, Graham Nash, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Linda Perry, Richie Sambora, Kraftwerk, Shakira, Taylor Swift, Akon, Wyclef Jean, Hank Williams, KT Tunstall, and Diane Warren, among others.  Sony/ATV recently acquired both the Leiber Stoller and Famous catalogues.

SOURCE 429 Records

Web Site: http://www.429records.com

Purchase Album: Let It Be Roberta – Roberta Flack Sings The Beatles