The buzz around Avicii's debut album, "True", started back in March when he premiered "Wake Me Up" to the massive crowd at Ultra Music Festival, leaving his fans and the EDM community perplexed by the then brand-new country-tinged sound. And now, with "True" out, Avicii will admit he is no stranger to harsh criticism.
Despite this initial reaction, the single's official release was wildly successful and the attitude began to shift toward "True". "Wake Me Up" has reached no.1 all over the world, and tracks like "Lay Me Down" have already received critical acclaim. The genre departure that first alarmed fans and critics is now setting his LP apart from other collections of electronic music.
"This song, this album is nothing more than me sitting down with some time to spare and actually making exactly the type of music I want to make, with access to all of these people," he explained. Those people include collaborators such as Mike Einzinger, Aloe Blacc, Nile Rodgers, Adam Lambert and Imagine Dragons, just to name a few. Avicii Wanted To Work With Nile Rodgers 'Way Before' Daft Punk.
He was also sure to clarify that the genre crossovers featured in "True" are not a marketing scheme in any capacity, but very simply what he is into right now. "It's all about the music and the songs that I make, and it just happens to be this folky blend because that's what I was listening to a lot at the moment."
With his new release, he hopes to encourage other producers to return to the "emotion and melody" of dance music. "The genre has so much more to offer, and now is the first time I've seen that the scene is kind of lacking." As for the criticism — no negativity can bring him down. "Right from the start, I had such confidence in the music 'cause I knew exactly what I had... for me I was never really worried 'cause I knew it was going to be provocative and I knew I was going to get reactions. I just let it slide and figured once this gets released they'll see what my idea was with everything."
The new Album "Hesitation Marks" soars to No.1 this week with sales of 173.000, 102.000 of those in the US, 12.000 in the UK and Canada, nearly 10.000 in Germany and 6.000in Japan.
If you had to boil down Trent Reznor's persona to one word, that word would be "control." In the chorus of Nine Inch Nails' breakout song "Head Like a Hole," Reznor hollers that he'd "rather die than give you control." The liner notes of Nine Inch Nails' 1989 debut, Pretty Hate Machine, declare that "Trent Reznor is Nine Inch Nails." There is little doubt that Reznor has been fully responsible for conceiving, executing, and presenting pretty much everything he's ever been associated with. For those who are only casually familiar with Nine Inch Nails' music, this compulsion to dominate is totally Reznor.
"Nine Inch Nails are a huge band and they've been headlining loads of festivals everywhere for years".
"Hesitation Marks" is the industrial rockers' first Studio Album in five years, and the first since taking time off from touring. It's a fresh lineup and, in the time in-between, Trent Reznor has won an Oscar, launched How To Destroy Angels with his wife and longtime collaborator Atticus Ross and, made amends with a major labels in time to launch a proper campaign to push a significant and solid radio single. The result from that pause is a mellower Reznor with big standalone songs, rare rays of sunshine and a runof tracks toward "Hesitation Marks'" end.
"Hesitation Marks," NIN's eighth full-length, eagerly rushes in with the Reznor we've known and loved, minus all the yelling. Perfectly dystopic "Copy of A" and the single "Came Back Haunted" are quite the pair, kicking off this 14-track set after murmuring intro "The Eater of Dreams." Reznor intimately croons on piano-dripping "Find My Way" and red-lit "All Time Low," his chilling voice allowing in a few "baby" fillers along the way.
But talk about "Disappointed," which is the title to a meandering glitch-dirge segueing into a sequence of songs that will try the patience of the average Nine Inch Nails fan. The glittering pop-punk sounds of "Everything" completely disorients the dark-dweller with all that light; "Satellite" has all the soul of a car commercial, with follow-up "Various Methods of Escape" providing no obvious means of escaping this HTDA outtake until three-quarters in.
"Running" and closer "While I'm Still Here"/"Black Noise" at least provide some inspired beats, invoking the good ol' days of trip-hop without gagging on sickly sweet melodies, as on the aforementioned. Reznor's voice is as strong as ever
Avicii's smash hit "Wake me up" remains at N°2 and "Blurred Lines" stays in 3rd position after a sales decrease
Lady GaGa's "Applause" and Eminem's "Berzerk" switch places. "Applause" goes up one to no.4 and "Berzerk" slips to no.5.
The only new entry in the top ten is New Zealand new Breakthrough star Lorde. Her amazing hit Single "Royals" jumps from no.16 to no.7.
There are five new Entries in this week's top 40, four from
Asia and one from the USA. With the phenomenal success of the girl band AKB 48 many sister groups were founded including HKT 48. Their new single "Melon Juice" is the clear winner this week in Japan, and sits at no.11 in this week's world chartw.
G-Dragon from K-Pop band Big Bang opens with two songs simultaneously, "Who You?" at no.25 and "Black", a collaboration with rapper Jennie Kim, at no.27.
Tohoshinki, one of Korea's most successful boy groups, lands another big smash in Japan with "Scream" at no.32.
The only western new entry on this week's charts is "Sail" by Awolnation, an American electronic Band. 'Sail' was released in 2011 and has been 122 weeks on the US Digital charts. This week it enters the World charts at no.15 .
Outside the top 40 waiting among other G-Dragon's third new hot Single "Coup D'etat" at no.42.
Flo Rida feat. Pitbull's "Can't Believe It" is at no.46. Dutch electrinic Dance Music Artist Martin Garrix' European hit "Animals" finally enters the world charts at no.48. Jason DeRulo's "Talk Dirty" is at no.56 and Belgian Superstar Stromae's 'Papaoutai' is at no.60 for his first appearance on the World's 50 best-selling Singles tally.
The Civil Wars has been on hiatus since last November, citing "internal discord and irreconcilable differences of ambition." While the act is not performing shows to promote the new album, Williams has been giving interviews to the press. White, however, has been keeping a low profile and has not spoke to the media.
A sturdy 69% of "The Civil Wars'" first week sales came from digital retailers. Its download sales of 81,000 easily place it at No. 1 on the Digital Albums chart as well.
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