Jeffrey Davies

1 week ago | spectrumculture.com | Jeffrey Davies

When Jessica Simpson published her memoir Open Book in 2020, she included six new songs as part of its audiobook, marking the first time she released music in over a decade. Indeed, her presence in the music industry had particularly waned by the onset of the 2010s and while she’s still remembered best as a pop culture icon of the early 2000s, she struggled to carve out the right niche musically.

2 weeks ago | bookriot.com | Jeffrey Davies

Running PressHarper Reid wasn’t exactly planning to start her senior year on the farm where she spent her childhood summers, but running into Ollie Shifflet—former best friend and first crush—makes things much better. When Harper discovers Ollie is starting a new D&D campaign, she quickly joins the group. As the two friends reconnect in the real world, romantic tension begins to build between Harper’s brash barbarian and Ollie’s proud paladin, but it’s all just part of the game . . . right?

2 weeks ago | spectrumculture.com | Jeffrey Davies

With I Said I Love You First, a collaborative album by Selena Gomez and her record-producer fiancé Benny Blanco that also serves as Gomez’s fourth solo LP, the newly-betrothed couple appeared to promise an intimate glimpse into their personal lives and how their Hollywood love story came to be. The album cover suggests as much, as we look through a keyhole at Gomez and Blanco in what appears to be a closed-doors moment.

Nov 18, 2024 | slantmagazine.com | Jeffrey Davies

“Got a lotta talk in my brain right now/Sorry, gotta do it, gotta let you down,” Shawn Mendes sings on the pointedly titled “Who I Am,” the acoustic opening track from his fifth studio album. The meditative Shawn comes two years after Mendes canceled his 2022 world tour due to mental health issues, and the singer’s new music is emblematic of a newfound self-reflection. The result is his most candid work to date.

Sep 27, 2024 | slantmagazine.com | Jeffrey Davies

Pale Waves is something of an anomaly. Lead singer Heather Baron-Gracie suggests a queer-edged Avril Lavigne, and the English band’s aesthetic draws inspiration from indie pop, pop-punk, and goth rock, reminiscent of the mainstream emo explosion of the early aughts, with a sprinkle of the Tumblr subculture of the early 2010s for good measure. “This is not a love song/We don’t end up together,” Baron-Gracie proclaims on “Not a Love Song,” a track from Pale Waves’s fourth studio album, Smitten.