SoundBites: Ladyhawke, Ariana Grande, Kendrick Lamar

Ladyhawke

Straight outta Masterton - well via LA, London, Melbourne, Wellington etc - Ladyhawke has announced her third album and released a new song.

The album Wild Things, due in June, follows her 2008 chart-topping self-titled debut and 2012's Anxiety.

The artist, also known as Pip Brown, has said the gap between albums was down to her desire to not release anything she's not proud of. "I don't want to release anything that I have a weird feeling about." That desire saw a full album scrapped because it didn't "feel like" her.

Ladyhawke will be performing at Auckland City Limits this weekend with a set including new single A Love Song.

It may be called "a love song" but it's not all sappy, she says.

The lyric video for the track can be found on YouTube.

Famed doughnut licker Ariana Grande also has a new single and upcoming album, and has celebrated by hosting Saturday Night Live last weekend and pulling double duty by singing the new track as the musical guest.

Dangerous Woman is the title track of the album, due May 20.

Kendrick Lamar

Meanwhile, the surprise release from Kendrick Lamar - untitled unmastered. - debuted atop the US charts, giving him two No1 albums within a year, following last March's To Pimp A Butterfly.

Not bad considering the tracks are unfinished demos from the previous album's recording sessions.

Lamar is also on stage at Auckland City Limits this weekend.

Revisit a classic
Commonly referred to as The White Album, The Beatles' self-titled ninth album often sits behind Sgt Pepper's and Revolver on the best-of lists but, historically and culturally, it's bigger than the sum of its many parts.

As with many classic albums, recording was plagued by infighting and tension, Yoko Ono made a first appearance at the studios, and Ringo Starr walked out.

Thirty songs over a double album include Blackbird, Helter Skelter, Dear Prudence and Happiness Is A Warm Gun among many other Lennon-McCartney numbers, but it's George Harrison's While My Guitar Gently Weeps that tugs at the heart (much like his Something on Abbey Road).