On December 5, producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi will join together to release Amy Winehouse‘s upcoming posthumous album: Lioness: Hidden Treasures, a 12-track collection featuring unreleased demos, rarities, covers and session tracks recorded while working with the late singer.

“Like Smoke” is one of the first songs to spill from the record.

Originally recorded in 2008, the song features a newly recorded verse by rapper Nas, a close friend to Winehouse, whom he considered his own little sister. According to Billboard, the two artists were planning a joint birthday party before her death in July.

Along with the songstress’ inimitable soulful crooning throughout, “Like Smoke” is filled with gorgeous sweeps of strings and the same swinging ’60′s energy that colored much of Back to Black. It’s a stellar addition to her back catalogue and, although unfinished, clearly held much promise–an incredibly bittersweet metaphor for Winehouse’s own life.

A few days ago, NME‘s Dan Martin got a chance to listen to the upcoming album and wrote a rather in-depth review of the entire listening session. Definitely worth a read.

Lioness: Hidden Treasures will be released on December 5. (iTunes)

To honor what would have been Amy Winehouse‘s 28th birthday today, Columbia Records has released her duet with Tony Bennett: “Body & Soul,” Winehouse’s final recording. Some proceeds from the the song will be donated to the Amy Winehouse Foundation, which is in the process of being established by Amy’s family.

Rest in peace, Amy.
♥

“Heart & Soul” was released on September 14. (iTunes)

I’ve been to quite a few concerts this summer and looking back, it’s funny to think about the differences in the crowds.

At Britney Spears, there were gay men in glittery eyeshadow and booty shorts all around me. At Jack’s Mannequin and Guster, the audience consisted of suburban white kids with backwards baseball caps, flip-flops and far too many popped collars. And at Sara Bareilles’ sold out show last night at Central Park’s outdoor Rumsey Playfield venue, the crowd was comprised entirely of hipsters in thrift store-purchased 500 Days of Summer-inspired floral print dresses and PBR-stained moccasins.

“How many of you are you listening to the show outside of the venue?” Sara yelled into her microphone. “This one’s for you!” she proclaimed as she started beating her tambourine and eased into an immaculate cover of Mumford and Sons’ “Little Lion Man.”

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It’s a weird, awful phenomenon when an artist dies.

There’s the initial news reports, the disbelief, the outcry and sorrow from fans, the pandering by non-fans crawling out from the woodwork, the detractors, the well-intentioned wise words, the mean-spirited off-color jokes and everything else in between.

But with Amy Winehouse, it was different–for me at least–because there was a personal connection underneath it all. And while I don’t mean to discredit or devalue the loss of any pop culture figure, Amy was an invaluable part of my life–someone to whom I could readily point to as responsible for shaping my taste in music today.

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There’s a lot to be excited about when it comes to Alex Winston.

The Detroit native first appeared on my radar in January 2010 when buzz track “Animal Baby” started making the rounds on several blogs I like. Like much of Winston’s work, “Animal Baby” has a summery cheer that masks a darker emotional current; the song’s real subject is weary disillusionment with an indecisive ex-lover, but when a song’s spunky nonchalance is this effective, you’d never even guess.

Her first single, “Choice Notes,” is a fuzzy, Spectorific slice of plucky piano pop that was infectious enough to merit inclusion in a European car commercial, but its B-side, “Medicine,” might be better still: It’s sad and stubborn, with an irresistible singalong chorus. Both tracks feature production from dance-pop duo The Knocks, who perfectly complement Winston’s distinctive, haunting vocals with the kind of subtle, quirky faux-Motown instrumentation that Amy Winehouse and Duffy would rather beat you over the head with. Winston’s retro-pop always sounds modern, never regressive.

So I’m more excited than ever with the release of “Sister Wife,” the first single off of Winston’s forthcoming mini-album of the same name. Only Winston could do a song with a polygamy narrative and produce something winsome and charming, rather than clumsy and precious; there are layers of vocal “ooh-oooh”s and aerobic drums and a big belter of a chorus (“Hey there sister wife, get the hell out, it’s my night!”). Having already been championed by The Guardian and NME, Winston’s path to success seems obvious.

Download “Sister Wife” for free via the reliably amazing Neon Gold Records.

The Sister Wife EP will be released via HeavyRoc Records on February 11. (iTunes)

Three years ago, just at the peak of the neo-soul revival that saw Amy Winehouse and Adele topping the charts, Lucky Soul released their debut album, The Great Unwanted.

The album was a fabulous nod to swinging ’60′s pop, complete with dizzying melodies and razor-sharp hooks. Songs like “Lips Are Unhappy Without You” and “Struck Dumb” provided a nostalgic, authentic dose of yesteryear magic that cherished the sound of pop and all of its celebratory, lovestruck nature.

Now, the group has returned for another stab at creating more pop perfection. Promising “more hooks than an Icelandic hardware shop,” their new self-produced, self-released album A Coming of Age, released worldwide on April 19.

While we wait for its release, here now are two tracks for you to download from their upcoming album, courtesy of the band. I highly recommend them both!

DL: Lucky Soul – Woah Billy!
DL: Lucky Soul – A Coming of Age

This Thursday, the band will be hosting their album launch party at London’s Cargo.

MuuMuse is proud to be giving away ONE PAIR of tickets to attend the album launch in London. If you’d like to enter, send an e-mail my way with your full name and the subject line “LUCKY” or tweet me with the following phrase: “I want to get LUCKY SOUL with @muumuse!”

A winner will be announced on Tuesday April 13 at 12 p.m. EST. Good luck!

These two are Nikki + Rich, a newly signed soul pop act from Warner Brothers Records.

While I was intrigued from the beginning, it was this slick, stylishly crafted intro video that sealed the deal for me.

And now, a brief summation:

Nikki & Rich are Nikki Leonti, a California-born pastor’s daughter who grew up singing in church, and Rich Velonskis, a Queens, NY-born former DJ and established hip-hop/R&B producer who got his start spinning in New York City clubs as a teenager. These two seemingly opposite characters first met in 2007. Nikki was based in Nashville working as a background singer for Carrie Underwood and Rich was in Los Angeles producing tracks for Eve, Robin Thicke, Mario, and Ludacris, under his moniker Rich Skillz…Rich was looking for a strong vocalist and lyricist to collaborate with and take his tracks to the next level and he found the perfect match in Nikki.

To put it simply, Nikki + Rich are to doo wop as Bitter:Sweet are to acid nu-jazz: a dynamic duo of two (rather attractive) musicians with a flair for the old-fashioned.

Though there’s been some backlash as of late for ‘revival acts’ that call upon the sounds of yesterday (Adele, Duffy, Winehouse), Nikki + Rich show the promise of staying true to today without looking back to the point of becoming a tribute band.

You can now stream the swinging “Cat and Mouse” and the deliciously sassy “Next Best Thing” right now.

I’m utterly obsessed with these two!

Move over, Little Boots–there’s a new space-age disco diva in town.

Gabriella Cilmi, the 18-year old Aussie songstress responsible for last year’s “Sweet About Me” has returned to Earth. Well, sort of.

“On A Mission” is a hectic, intergalactic neo-disco rave, where Cilmi’s raspy vocals (a kind of crossbreed between Anastacia, the Noisettes‘ Shingai Shoniwa and Amy Winehouse) are tacked onto a glitzy, ’80′s synthesized beat. Add a spritz of Little Boots’ geometric fixation and a dash of low budget ’50′s sci-fi camp, and there you have it: Cilmi 2.0.

The young singer’s sophomore album Ten is due out on March 22, with production credits from the likes of Xenomania, Greg Kurstin, and Dallas Austin. Odds of brilliance? You do the math.