Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

Jay-Z resides comfortably in the palace of hip-hop: a groundbreaking rapper and label owner, with 21 Grammy Awards and sales of more than 100 million records to his name. As Beyoncé’s husband, he is also one half of pop’s royal couple. But all has not been well on the homefront, if we’re to believe the superstars’ artistic output. His alleged marital infidelity became grist for Queen Bey’s mill on her hit 2016 album Lemonade. Then there was elevator video footage showing an altercation with sister-in-law Solange. Jay-Z addresses both subjects on his 13th solo album. Confessional and apologetic, it’s an impressive mark of maturation from the man born Shawn Carter. Ove...

When the “Royals” singer first exploded on the charts with her debut album, Pure Heroine, she was only 17. Even then, she seemed much older. Now, four years on and with two Grammy Awards under her belt, Lorde (a.k.a. Ella Yelich-O’Connor) is back with more of her quirky, wise-beyond-her-years pop songs. The New Zealand singer-songwriter’s latest documents the current state of her life—wrestling with mixed emotions as she overcomes the loss of her first love and faces up to being single. She’s essentially journaling her personal dramas (the title is a playful knock on herself) and setting them to sounds that mix dance music, hip-hop and classic-pop influences. The album opens with “Green Ligh...

Hips don’t lie. Shakira proved that with her infectious, Latin-flavored dance hits that have helped make her an international superstar. Truth is, the Colombian diva certainly knows how to get hips-a-shaking. Married to Spanish soccer star Gerard Piqué, with whom she has two sons, the 40-year-old Shakira isn’t stopping on her 11th studio. Sung mostly in Spanish with several English tracks, El Dorado kicks off with “Me Enamore (I Fell in Love),” a clip-clopping slice of pop electronica about the romance that led to her marriage. Then Shakira duets with 23-year-old Colombia heartthrob Maluma on the reggaeton jam “Chantaje (Blackmail),” playfully calling him “pretty boy.” She delivers two versi...