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LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 12: Singer Adele, winner of six GRAMMYs, poses in the press room at the 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards at Staples Center on February 12, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

A Year Later, Adele Is Still No. 1

Happy 21 anniversary, everyone! Are you celebrating by purchasing yet another copy of Adele's breakup opus? If so, you will not be alone — the album sold 730,000 copies this week, its biggest one-week sales take to date (thanks, surely, to her six Grammy wins last weekend). Adele also landed her 21st nonconsecutive No. 1 this week, breaking the previous record held by The Bodyguard soundtrack. And in case you missed it, she won some Brit Awards and flipped off the suits after getting cut off. As ever, it is good to be Adele.

  • Posted 2/22/12 at 12:45 AM
  • Tv

Britney Spears Interested in Judging X Factor

Could Britney Spears leave her conservatorship-approved cocoon of tightly controlled media appearances to become a judge on The X Factor? Us is reporting that Spears and her team have been in touch with Simon Cowell for a slot on the show, while Fergie and the previously rumored Janet Jackson are also in the mix. Spears recently avoided taking the stand in a multi-million-dollar lawsuit with Brand Sense when her reps said she was "not fit to testify" owing to the conservatorship held by her father (which gives him control over nearly every aspect of her life), but would she be mentally fit enough to pass judgment on other singers and withstand the rigors of a live show?

  • Posted 2/21/12 at 6:33 PM
  • Kudos

Brit Awards: Rihanna Speaks, Adele Sings, and Lana Del Rey Wins Something

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LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 21: Lana Del Rey accepts her Best International Breakthrough Artist Award at The Brit Awards 2012 at The O2 Arena on February 21, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)

The U.K.’s answer to the Grammys went down earlier tonight in London, and many musicians that you have heard of did things of note while at the ceremony. As she did at the Grammys, Adele swept the major categories, performed “Rolling in the Deep,” and wore a black dress; unlike at the Grammys, she got cut-off and threw a hand gesture that could very definitely have been the bird. Update: Yup, it sure was! Meanwhile, Lana Del Rey, so soon forgotten in her native land, was given the “Best International Breakthrough award (over Nicki Minaj, Foster the People, Aloe Blacc, and America’s own Best New Artist, Bon Iver).  She continues to look very nervous in public.

And Rihanna won, too. »

Grimes on Visions, Anime, and Being the Next Phil Spector

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She's only been releasing music for two years as Grimes, but Canadian singer-songwriter-producer Claire Boucher has already gone through a career's worth of change, moving from the creepy, lo-fi R&B of her early releases to the futuristic dance-pop of her new album, Visions. We spoke with Boucher ahead of today's release about her sources of inspiration (including New Edition and anime), getting sick of her own voice, and wanting to produce.

"I'd like to be like the Phil Spector of the future, except less abusive." »

The Shins’ ‘Simple Song’ Video: Old James Mercer Hates His Kids

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Today, over on iTunes, James Mercer and his new bandmates debuted the visuals for “Simple Song,” the pleasant first single off Port of Morrow. Watching it requires a fair amount of persistence and Apple-password-remembering, but once you make it through, you will be rewarded with a twisted mini-movie starring Mercer as an old dead guy and the rest of the Shins as the kids who made his life hell back in the day. Without spoiling too much, we’ll just note that Old James gets his vengeance, and also that he vaguely resembles Walter White in the videotaped will. There are some bonus baby versions of all the new Shins members, too, if you like watching small evil children smash piñatas and vomit all over the play rug. Moral of the story: Be nice to your indie-band-front-man dad. Or he will crush you. Literally. 

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  • Posted 2/21/12 at 12:00 PM
  • Duets

Let the Taylor Swift–Zac Efron Dating Rumors Begin

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There are those among you who will read the above headline and groan/close tab/shut your eyes really tightly in protest, but Vulture begs you: Please watch this video of Taylor Swift and Zac Efron's most recent Ellen appearance. Even if you are usually annoyed by Taylor's preening, or if you are not convinced of Zac Efron's star quality (for the record, it's pretty real), the below three minutes are an excellent study in the art of being a celebrity, by which we mean the art of doing silly but endearing things on talk shows to sell Lorax tickets. More important: It's enjoyable. Zac's tiny guitar, Taylor's whispered guitar chords, the winking acknowledgement that this appearance will inevitably start a flurry of relationship rumors — all cutely executed and genuinely likable. Plus, in case you had forgotten, Zac Efron can totally sing! Sure, we would have preferred it if they'd rewritten the lyrics to "Speak Now" or some other underrated Swift jam, but presumably they are saving their Original Duet for Taylor's upcoming album. Lock him down, Taylor! Or make out, and then rope him in for a breakup song. We would rather listen to the Zac Efron version of "Dear John" most any day.

Sleigh Bells’ Derek Miller on Reign of Terror, Learning to Collaborate, and Really Loud Music

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For their 2010 debut Treats, Sleigh Bells were the noisy twosome who met in a Williamsburg restaurant, released a fantastically noisy record, and had a deluge of complimentary synonyms for bombastic thrown at them. Now the duo, comprised of Alexis Krauss and Derek Miller, returns with Reign of Terror, an album that keeps the volume cranked while weaving in more deliberately layered arrangements and threads of maturity. Miller, the band’s creative brain, got on the phone with Vulture to break down his love of loudness, the family trauma that formed the record, and how he’d have handled Bon Iver’s Grammy moment.

"I work for six, maybe seven hours, and then I’ve gotta go home because I can’t hear anything." »

Santigold Wants More

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So, Santigold managed to avoid any pop-star wars after the shade-throwing video for "Big Mouth" (Katy Perry, luckily, is otherwise distracted) and is now pumping out slick, supremely Santogold-y jams from the upcoming Master of My Make Believe, due May 1. "Disparate Youth," the album's first official single, is your perfect new non-aggressive head-nodding soundtrack, with occasional guitar bursts and snares to toughen the thing up. It also features Santi White doing that half-whine clear-out-your-sinuses thing and making it sound cool, like she always does. One more note: Vulture accidentally opened the song in two tabs without realizing, and the doubling actually kind of worked, in a trance sense, even though the plays weren't synced. Just in case one Santigold song is not enough for you today.

Musician Fiona Apple performs live at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park August 14, 2007 in New York City.

Fiona Apple Going on Tour

Fiona Apple is going on a mini-tour in March, she announced this morning, with six dates in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Washington, D.C., Boston, Atlantic City, and Chicago. (Tickets go on sale Thursday.) The long-dormant Apple is also scheduled to perform at SXSW on March 15. Could this mean her oft-postponed album is finally approaching release? One hopes! One certainly hopes. Apple hasn't released an album since 2005, and these upcoming dates mark her first tour since 2007; in pop-music years, that's roughly equivalent to a century.

‘Rella’ Video: Are You Ready for Odd Future, Round Two?

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After taking it (relatively) easy of late, the young weirdos of Odd Future are about to storm back on the scene, with an album (The OF Tapes Vol. 2, featuring everyone but Earl), a tour at the end of March, and an Adult Swim show all on deck in the next few months.  OFWGKTA: not a creepy dream you had sometime in 2011. To kick off Wolf Gang: Phase Two, the dudes just dropped the Tyler-directed video for "Rella," featuring Tyler, Hodgy Beats, and Domo Genesis, and it's a surprisingly mature, artistic effort from the crew. Just kidding! It's bonkers, and totally NSFW, and features Tyler Hodgy in a Robocop suit shooting penis lasers that turn people into cats, plus Tyler as a frightening centaur sniffing a mountain of cocaine. And those are the enjoyable parts. Still, a lot of dick talk and questionable actions toward females here, which means the Odd Future Debate will likely rage on into its second chapter. Everyone ready?

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Here Are the Rihanna and Chris Brown Collaborations

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LONDON - FEBRUARY 18: Rihanna arrives for the Stella McCartney Special Presentation at 13 North Audley Street during London Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2012 on February 18, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Samir Hussein/Getty Images)

Well, here we go. As much speculated, Chris Brown is indeed featured on the new expanded version of Rihanna's "Birthday Cake" (Brown's first line: "Girl I wanna fuck you right now. Been a long time, I’ve been missing your body"), but that's not all:  Rihanna, in turn, is featured on a new remix of Brown's single "Turn Up the Music." (Listen to the end to hear Rihanna giggle, "Oh no, you made me laugh.") So, instead of just one collaboration between the pair, there are two. Have a listen to both and please share your thoughts and feelings — not just on the music. (Vulture's quick gut check on the whole thing: Ahhh, Rihanna! What are you doing! And god, why is the Chris Brown song so stupid catchy!)

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