Here are some things to look forward to from now (mid-August) until December 31st, 2015...
All release dates are subject to possible changes
August 21st, 2015
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| Not the most flattering album cover but okay... |
Jess Glynne first caught our attention with her Adele-ish vocals showing up on one of the best pop hits of 2014 in January's "Rather Be", a single by British production group Clean Bandit. Afterwards, she made light waves in the USA while dominating the top 10 in the UK's charts with hits like "Real Love" and "Hold My Hand" and other appearances on Route 94's "My One" and Tinie Tempah's "Not Letting Go". For those of you who are not aware, Tinie Tempah is the UK's version of Flo Rida and both always get the best cameos on their tracks that dominate the radio waves while consistently having no substance to them whatsoever. The question that Glynne needs to answer on this album is whether or not she can be the fun-pop artist that Charli XCX is, the 2015 heartbreak song queen (a role previously held by Adele and Sam Smith), or if she is just another singer with a nice voice who is always relegated to "featured artist" status (think Matthew Koma, Kelly Rowland and present-day Christina Aguilera).
American Ultra starring Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Topher Grace and the terrific-in-everything "Mrs. Coach" Connie Britton.
Project X director Nima Nourizadeh is back and without my being a huge fan of his work, I would still be pretty interested in seeing this movie at some point. Eisenberg is a star whose impressive resume' in film (The Social Network, Zombieland, Adventureland and landing his role as Lex Luthor in 2016's Batman v. Superman) hasn't even reached his full peak potential. American Ultra is more along the lines of an action-packed combo that could be called Zombieventure X as it seems to have a storyline that combines the non-stop action of Zombieland and Project X with the comedic styling of all three. I might also be the last person that thinks Kristen Stewart is just really good at whatever she does but, even if the viewer dislike Stewart there is enough talent in the cast (including John Leguizamo and Tony Hale) that this film should rise her Hollywood stock in some way.
August 28th, 2015
Beach House's Depression Cherry
The Weeknd's Beauty Behind The Madness
August 28th might be the best release date of the Summer in terms of depth for albums with dream pop duo Beach House attempting to follow-up 2012's incredible Bloom, Foals building off of the success and critical acclaim of 2013's Holy Fire (an album I did not like but, I love what I've heard from What Went Down so far) and dirty Michael Jackson-impersonator The Weeknd's guaranteed #1 album Beauty Behind The Madness is dropped in the midst of his rise to becoming a household name.
There are also releases from Atlas Genius, Destroyer, Nero and Halsey scheduled to be released on the 28th.
September 4th, 2015
Travi$ Scott's debut album, Rodeo
Travi$ Scott has flown under the radar this year outside of Amber Rose's accusations of Kanye using him as a ghostwriter. Scott's first single off of his debut features 2 Chainz and Future while the rest of his album will include production from Kanye West, T.I. and Metro Boomin (produced ILoveMakonnen's smash hit "Tuesday"). With friends like those and name drops from social media celebrities like Amber Rose, Travi$ (born Jacques Webster) is set up for a nice run in rap at the age of 23.
September 11th, 2015
Kwabs' debut album, Love + War
Kwabs' perfect R&B singing voice mixed with electronic vibes were a very welcome addition to an otherwise dull 2014. It was a disappointment to not have a full album of the British singer's music before the end of last year and to be honest, I had forgotten how excited I was to hear a full project of Kwabs. He isn't exactly striking while the iron is hot but, Love + War will still be a refreshing listen in the year where jazz influences seem to be taking over and that does not appear to be something Kwabs is hopping on board with at the moment.
September 18th, 2015
Pawn Sacrifice starring Tobey Maguire, Liev Schreiber and Lilly Rabe
Every year there seems to be a biographical film which gets nominated for every award in the book. Maybe 2015's version is Pawn Sacrifice? It's a film based on the world's most famous chess player (Bobby Fischer as played by Tobey Maguire) and the story of his life and controversies.
Mac Miller's third studio album, GO:OD AM
2013's Watching Movies With The Sound Off was a dreary mess of an album that received widespread praise only because the album signaled an evolution in Mac Miller's music. If "100 Grandkids" is any sign of what's to come, GO:OD AM will be a much more coherent and fine-tuned version of Miller's previous work.
Metric's sixth studio album, Pagans In Vegas
One of the alternative rock bands that can seemingly do no wrong, Metric has already released four tracks from the upcoming Pagans In Vegas and it sounds like Metric so, it must be decent. As with most bands, their product may not ever match their earlier material and Fantasies Part 2 just is not going to happen as that album is the epitome of great late 2000's indie rock. Even with my cautious hope for this album, it's impossible to hear "Too Bad, So Sad" and not get pumped for some new Metric music.
September 25th, 2015
Chvrches' Every Open Eye
The Dead Weather's Dodge and Burn
Disclosure's Caracal
The Bones Of What You Believe was one of the best synth-heavy albums released this decade and now, Chvrches is releasing their sophomore album on the last Friday of September. They have some crazy competition for album sale totals though with many other big, critically-acclaimed names dropping music on the same Friday. Jack White's side-band The Dead Weather is also dropping a new album on the 25th, their third and first since 2010. None of those albums match the hype that was built recently for Disclosure's second release. Disclosure first popped up in 2013 and introduced the world to Sam Smith, AlunaGeorge and Eliza Doolittle, bringing back shades of 90's house music that nobody realized they wanted until they heard Settle. Caracal will feature The Weeknd, Sam Smith, Lorde, Kwabs, Miguel and many more and even if it disappoints as an album, there is guaranteed to be at least one great song that will never leave the mainstream radio stations.
Also coming out on the 25th? Stories by Avicii, b'lieve I'm goin down... by Kurt Vile, Buffet by R. Kelly, Savage Hills Ballroom by Youth Lagoon and potentially, Honeymoon by Lana Del Rey.
October 2nd, 2015
Freeheld starring Julianne Moore, Ellen Page, Steve Carrell and Michael Shannon
The fact that the events of this movie only took place ten years ago is incredible in itself. The additions of 2015 Oscar winner Julianne Moore and 2015 Academy Award nominee Steve Carrell (originally Zach Galifianakis had the Carrell's role of Steven Goldstein) to the cast just means that the script was done very well and we might be looking another dramatic film that will be nominated in 2016 for various awards.
October 9th, 2015
Knock, Knock starring Keanu Reeves
There is absolutely nothing that trips my trigger or is really on my radar coming out on October 9th so, I have decided to bring your attention to one of the worst trailers I have ever seen that spoils the entire plot of an already very stupid (in my personal opinion) movie that is so bad, it's hilarious. If all you need in a movie is some hot naked women, CONGRATULATIONS! this is your movie. Otherwise, this is totally a future How Did This Get Made? podcast episode waiting to happen... That reminds me, did the creators of this movie not even try to get Nicholas Cage? That would have been perfection.
October 16th, 2015
Goosebumps starring Jack Black, Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush and Amy Ryan
There are only so many ways you can include a story of R.L. Stine and the stories of R.L. Stine into one movie. The idea for Goosebumps looks like a huge winner on paper but, the execution is up in the air as to whether or not this turns into a stereotypical teen/action film or something much cooler than that. Either way characters like The Living Dummy will bring back splashes of nostalgia to anybody who grew up reading Goosebumps (like myself) and might just make a few movie watchers pick up reading again.
October 23rd, 2015
Joanna Newsom's Divers
One of the better songwriters in independent music this century, Newsom's fourth album will probably be another hit amongst critics after her first three albums were all highly praised on most year-end lists. Comedian/Actor Andy Samberg's wife is used to making long, orchestral folk music and as her newest single "Sapokanikan" shows, not much will have changed after a five year absence.
Sometime in October
Untitled Grimes Album
Grimes' debut album in 2012 was a disappointment only because singles like "Genesis", "Oblivion" and "Vanessa" set the bar so unobtainably high for anything else she put out into the music listener's world. In retrospect, Visions was a very good album that was only slightly brought down by non-singles. I hope Grimes has an album packed with re-listenable hits this time around as the above video features a song called "REALiTi" that somehow did not even make the cut for her upcoming album despite being a very nice song that I imagine could easily be slipped into the last few tracks of a Grimes album.
November 6th, 2015
Spectre starring Daniel Craig and Christoph Waltz
The Peanuts Movie
Need to spend a day at the movie theater with your kids without actually spending a day at the movie theater with your kids? Send them to The Peanuts Movie (Charlie Brown!) while you see Spectre (James Bond!). Personally, I'm more interested in The Peanuts Movie because there is no middle ground for a Peanuts-based film in 2015. It will either be too kid-friendly and make adults depressed at what Hollywood has done to their favorite cartoon/comic growing up or it will be the best non-Pixar animated movie of the Fall.
November 20th, 2015
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 starring Jennifer Lawrence & the usual Hunger Games Cast
Where has Jennifer Lawrence been this past year? This is already the fourth and final movie? How? I only saw the first Hunger Games movie (I'm a terrible cinephile and will need to catch up at some point) and at this point, I really shouldn't even be talking about this movie with so little knowledge so I'll just move on to next week...
November 25th, 2015
Creed starring Sylvester Stallone and Michael B. Jordan
They aren't done making movies in the Rocky franchise while also being done making Rocky movies. Michael B. Jordan is pretty much fantastic in everything he is in and the world's best kept secret is that Sly Stallone's last boxing movie (Grudge Match) wasn't actually that bad. I'm not saying it will match the phenomenon that were the first four movies in the series but, Creed will hold it's own and will prove that the unnecessary dragging out of the Rocky series through six movies over three decades was not all that unnecessary.
December film & Unknown but highly speculated to be released before the end of the year albums
Concussion starring Will Smith, Luke Wilson, Albert Brooks and Alec Baldwin
Based on the true story of concussions and their affects on NFL players. This movie will be HUGE if it does get to nationwide theaters. The creators of this movie went all in. Luke Wilson is portraying Roger Goodell, Mike Webster, Dave Duerson, Andre Waters, Justin Stzelczyk and Amobi Okoye are all also going to be portrayed in the film as they have all fallen victim to concussions and those are just the well known cases. This movie could have a serious impact on how the casual fan views concussions if they had not already had their viewpoints changed by just reading the latest death in a headline.
Heart Blanche by Cee-Lo Green
A Head Full Of Dreams by Coldplay
Views From The 6 by Drake
Who Needs The World by Emeli Sande'
Radio Silence by James Blake
Unbreakable by Janet Jackson
SWISH by Kanye West
Man On The Moon III: Speedin' Bullet To Heaven by Kid Cudi
Unnamed Macklemore & Ryan Lewis album
A by SZA
Yes, 2015 has been an excellent year in cinema and music but, just because the first half of the year was jam-packed with excellency, does not mean that the next four months are packed with dull junk.
Enjoy the entertainment and get ready for some preseason overreactions!
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