By: Ben Watson

Welcome back to Music Mondays where I catch you up on what you missed in music last week. This week: Is Green Day rereleasing one of their hit albums, or what is Lil Nas X cooking up? Find out in this week’s edition of Music Mondays… 

1Goodnight Midnight Rider: 

Johnny Neel of The Allman Brothers has passed away at the age of 70. Neel joined the group in 1989 and quickly became an integral part of the band helping write chart topping hits such as “Good Clean Fun”.  He mainly played keyboards and harmonica for the group. Former bandmate Warren Hayes spoke on Neel’s death stating that “Johnny was one of the funniest people on the planet.” 

2Cissy Houston Passes Away: 

Grammy-winning singer and mother of Whitney Houston, Cissy Houston, has passed away at the age of 91 after a prolonged battle with Alzheimer’s. She was best known for her time with the vocal group Sweet Inspirations. The group sang backing vocals for the likes of Otis Reading, The Drifters, Dione Warwick, and many others. Houston’s last performance with the group was when they performed with the king himself Elvis Presley back in 1969. After leaving Sweet Inspirations she pursued a solo career that would win her multiple Grammys and even have her sing with more top-end stars such as Beyoncé and Paul Simon. Outside of music Houston also authored 3 books.  

3Mm..Food Part 2: 

The late MF Doom’s 2004 album Mm..Food is getting a 20th anniversary re-issue. It will drop November 15th and feature the original track list and some new remixes by Madlib, Jake One, and Atmosphere’s Ant. MF Doom passed away at the age of 49 back in 2020. He was a highly respected member of the rap community having started his career in 1988. 

(Listen to Mm…Food here)

4Timberlake Postpones Tour: 

Justin Timberlake has postponed a select date for his current tour supporting his latest album Everything I Thought I Was which was released back in March.  On October 8th he took to Instagram to announce, “I have an injury that is preventing me from performing.” The injury has not been specified, but Timberlake did share an update that the postponed show was rescheduled for October 15th. No other dates were cancelled as a result of the mystery injury.  

5Demastered Dookie: 

Green Day is releasing a “demastered” version of their hit album Dookie. The album originally hit the shelves in 1994, making this year its 30th anniversary. To celebrate the band released an anniversary edition of the album earlier this year, but now they have announced a series of unusual formats that features songs off the album. They include a toothbrush, a Gameboy disk, floppy disk, a talking fish, and more. The items went up for auction between October 9th and October 11th. So, while the items are already gone you can still hear each song on YouTube in their unusual formats.  

(Listen to Dookie here)

6“GUESS WHOS FINALLY DROPPING NEW MUSIC”: 

That’s what Lil Nas X just announced on X recently. The artist followed up by saying it will be dropping next month and a short clip of him dancing to a currently unreleased song. Lil Nas X hasn’t released an album since 2021 but has released a few singles since. Could it be another album in the works or just more sporadic singles? 

7I Have the Cure: 

That’s right I have the cure, and The Cure have a new song. Titled “A Fragile Thing”, it is the second single from their upcoming album Songs of a Lost World. It will be their first album in 16 years and is set to be released November 1st.  

(Listen to A Fragile Thing here)

8 J. Cole Brings Back Beef: 

J. Cole has released a new song titled “Port Antonio”. In it he reflects on the Kendrick Lamar vs Drake beef that took place earlier this year as in the song he states, “They wanted clicks”. Cole also uses the song as an opportunity to explain why he bowed out of the beef explaining that he didn’t want to lose “a bro” in the battle.  

9Halsey Lets Us Know Her True Feelings: 

Halsey has released a new song that lets us know her true feelings. Titled “I Never Loved You”, it is the 5th single for her upcoming album The Great Impersonator coming out October 25th

(Listen to I Never Loved You here)

10All American-Rejects bow-out: 

The 2000’s emo band known for songs such as “Gives You Hell” and “Dirty Little Secrets” was slated to play at When We Were Young Fest October 19th and 20th. However, the All-American Rejects recently released a statement announcing that they would no longer be a part of the festival. They cited that the new management of the festival could no longer agree to previously agreed upon accommodations as their reasoning.  

Beautifully Broken: 

Jelly Roll’s new album Beautifully Broken is officially out. It dropped on October 11th. The album features two previously released collabs with MGK, as well as numerous other collabs with the likes of Keith Urban, Wiz Khalifa, Halsey, ERNEST, and a few others. 

(Listen to Beautifully Broken here)

The Offspring are SUPERCHARGED: 

The 90s punk band have released the 11th album of their career. It features 10 songs clocking in at 32 minutes and 15 seconds. The album also features Foo Fighters’ drummer John Freese on a handful of tracks. The album was recorded over the span of almost 2 years and still has that classic Offspring punk-rock punch. 

(Listen to SUPERCHARGED here)

Brat Fall: 

As mentioned in last week’s edition Music Monday, Charlie XCX has released the deluxe edition of her hit album brat titled brat and it’s completely different but also still brat. It features a large handful of collaborations including Yung Lean, Julian Casablanacas, and Bon Iver.  

(Listen to Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat here)

Piece By Piece Has Been Released: 

The Pharrell Williams Bio-Doc done with Legos has officially hit theaters. With it a soundtrack album has also been released featuring artists such as Tyler the Creator, Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, and many others. Most of it is previously released songs from over Williams’ career, but it does feature a couple of brand-new songs as well.  

BONUS Mini-Song Review: 

Alice In Chains guitarist, Jerry Cantrell, released his 3rd and final single before the release of his October 18th solo album, I Want Blood. The new single is the title track of the upcoming album, and it is also the most disappointing of the 3 singles to be released. It starts off sounding like it’s about to be this dark and heavy song that could rival most songs from Alice In Chains’ heyday, but then it quickly becomes one of the corniest hard rock songs of the decade. The mix is awful making it impossible to hear any vocals other than the very bland hook “I want blood”. The instrumental is nothing special either. It’s just a mess of basic rock power chords and fast drumming that doesn’t capture any real feeling. How this song can exist on the same album as Cantrell’s solo masterpiece single “Vilified” is beyond me. “Vilified” is one of the truly heaviest, dirtiest, most sludgy song to be released this decade and revivals some of Alice In Chains’ best work. “I Want Blood” is anything, but that. While I still have high hopes for the album this release has brought some unfortunate doubt. 

(Listen to I Want Blood here)

Releases to Look for This Week: 

Asking Alexandria: Where Do We Go From Here? The Remixes EP (October 18th

Jerry Cantrell: I Want Blood (October 18th

MC5: Heavy Lifting (October 18th

Joe Jonas: Music for People Who Believe In Love (October 18th

Harry Styles: Rumored new single supposedly dropping October 18th  

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