Focus Music Notes. "Out of the Blues". Popular music through the decades

There’s no doubt about it –Florence Welch is back with an almighty bang having shipped a massive 1 MILLION albums worldwide in just two weeks since the release of her global smash of a follow up record, ‘Ceremonials’. Her widely acclaimed album immediately hit the #1 spot in the UK charts on release and crashed into the US Billboard Top, ranking her right up there with other British heavyweights Adele and Coldplay. ‘No Light, No Light’ is the epic and heart wrenching follow up to lead single ‘Shake It Out’ and will be released on January 16. Remixes come from the wondrous Dave Sitek and Breakage – his only remix of 2011. Part romantic battle-cry, part rain-lashed pledge of devotion, thrashed out over harps, tribal drums and interweaving harmonies, this was one of the first songs to be written for Ceremonials and set the tone for a record that acts as a showcase for its creators’ unabashed maximalism. “There are things I struggle to talk about face-to-face. I’m not a confrontational per

Hotly tipped Belgium born Melbourne based multi-instrumentalist and producer, Gotye, releases Easy Way Out, the first single to be taken from his forthcoming album Making Mirrors. 2012 looks set to be a very exciting year for Gotye (pronounced Gaulthier). As a worldwide swell of support heads towards the UK, Gotye will release, via Communion / Island Records, a 7” for lead single Easy Way Out – a short, sharp blast of acid-rock and the first single to be taken from the album Making Mirrors. Upon its online release in June, it was the video for the stunning track Somebody That I Used To Know that triggered an overwhelming response to this particular song worldwide. Just three weeks after Gotye posted the video on YouTube the song had received nearly four million hits (this number has now exceeded 11 million), topped the charts in 4 countries (Australia, Holland, Belgium and New Zealand) and made it to No.1 on the Hype Machine Twitter chart. Hear it once and you’ll be haunted by it for

Following her tragic passing in July, some of the producers and musicians who worked closely with Amy Winehouse, among them Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi, spent time listening over the many recordings that Amy had made, before, during, and after the release of “Frank” and “Back To Black” . It was said by all who worked with Amy that she never sang or played a song the same way twice. It quickly became apparent to Salaam and Mark that they had a collection of songs that deserved to be heard, a collection of songs that were a fitting testament to Amy the artist and, as importantly, Amy their friend. “Lioness : Hidden Treasures“, the third album from Amy Winehouse, without question one of the most talented, original, and best loved artists to emerge in popular music for decades, will be released on December 5th through Island Records. The 12 song collection features previously unreleased tracks, alternative versions of existing classics as well as a couple of brand new Amy compositions. T