Welcome to HNGN's biweekly top picks, where we gather the best and brightest releases in music, fashion, beauty, tech and pop culture. Come back every other week for more of-the-moment goodness. - Edited by Michael Lello.
[Want to be considered for Coveted? Send your product information, with photos, to m.bullerdick@hngn.com or send product samples to Michael Q. Bullerdick HNGN/33 Universal, 33 Whitehall Street - 7th Floor, New York, NY 10004.]
MUSIC
By Michael Lello
Tedeschi Trucks Band: Let Me Get By (Fantasy Records)
The roots rock ensemble led by namesake husband-and-wife duo Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks this week release their third studio album and the first since the dissolution of the Allman Brothers Band, for which Trucks was a longtime guitar master.
Below, have a listen to the smooth-rolling and soulful “Anyhow,” the first track released from the upcoming record, which showcases Tedeschi's rich and nuanced vocals.
Sia: This Is Acting (RCA)
You might think that experimental pop artist Sia, known as much for her out-there stage presentation as her music, seemingly gave her seventh album the title “This Is Acting” as a nod to her theatricality, but it actually refers to a collection of songs she initially wrote for other artists, like Adele and Rihanna. “I’m calling it ‘This Is Acting’ because they are songs I was writing for other people, so I didn’t go in thinking ‘this is something I would say,’” Sia told NME last year. “It’s more like play-acting. It’s fun.”
Check out “Alive,” the album’s lead single, which Sia wrote for Adele (the British chanteuse rejected it “at the last minute,” according to PopCrush).
Bloc Party: Hymns
(BMG)
It’s hard to believe it’s been more than a decade since Bloc Party propelled into indie rock stardom with its brilliantly icy and angular debut record, “Silent Alarm.” A lot has happened since then – frontman Keke Okereke came out, the group released the remarkable follow-up “A Weekend In The City” and continued with some hit-or-miss efforts. The British outfit is back with “Hymns,” its first album since 2012’s “Four” and the first since the departure of bassist Gordon Moakes and drummer Matt Tong and the addition of their replacements, Justin Harris and Louise Bartle.
Check out the video for the EDM-influenced “The Love Within” below:
Dream Theater: The Astonishing (Roadrunner)
Dream Theater continues to bear the torch for classic progressive rock with virtuoso musicianship, mathematics-defying tempos, lengthy songs, and of course, the concept album, one of the hallmarks of the genre. On “The Astonishing,” the prog metal band’s 13th studio album, DT takes it a step further with a 2-CD, two-act concept piece.
Check out the dramatic “Moment Of Betrayal” from the new album below:
MOVIES
By Cal Setar
The 5th Wave (Columbia Pictures)
The Earth lay mostly in ruin after four deadly waves of an attack by an unknown alien force. A young girl, Cassie (Chloe Grace Moretz) is on run, attempting to save her brother and herself as the aliens prepare their fifth and final attack. But who can she trust when if she's not sure the people around her are still people?
Dirty Grandpa (Lionsgate)
Robert De Niro stars opposite Zac Efron in this bawdy comedy romp that follows a groom-to-be (Efron) tricked into giving his perverted degenerate of a grandfather (De Niro), who also happens to be a retired Army Lieutenant-Colonel Special Forces, a trip to spring break. All manner of debauchery ensues as the straitlaced Efron tries to keep his grandfather in line and his wedding on track.
The Boy (STX Entertainment)
Greta, a young American woman, finds herself wishing she’d never taken a job as an au pair in a remote English village after it’s revealed that the family’s 8-year-old son is actually a life-sized doll the parents treat as if it were their real son who was lost to a tragic accident some 20 years prior. Trapped as she is in a strange place with people she doesn’t know, a series of strange occurrences lead Greta to question if it’s really all just unfortunate happenstance or whether the “boy” really isn’t just a doll after all.
PETS AND PET LOVERS
By Kimberly M. Aquilina
Shawn Ryan’s (“The Shield”) latest production follows four guys who travel to Belize to celebrate an old friend’s retirement, but a strange and dangerous course of events exposes dark secrets. Chris Cole adapted his British series for Amazon, which has the first season available for streaming.
Check out our complete list of movies available for streaming on Netflix this month and see below for more options on Amazon Prime and for purchase at iTunes. [https://www.hngn.com/articles/164553/20151229/netflix-releases-january-2016-training-day-chelsea-does-parks-recreation.htm]
iTunes
• 400 Days
• All Mistakes Buried
• All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records
• The Angry Guest
• Band of Robbers
• Batman: Bad Blood
• The Benefactor
• Big Stone Gap
• Black Mass
• Bunny Drop: Season 1
• Burnt
• Caprice
• Cheaper by the Dozen (1950)
• Childrens Hospital: Season 7
• Chronicles of the Going Home Club
• Cinema Paradiso
• The Condemned 2
• Contracted: Phase II
• The Diary of a Teenage Girl
• Effie Gray
• The Flag of Iron
• Freeheld
• Friend Request
• Funny Bunny
• Getting On: Season 3
• A Girl Like Her
• Goosebumps
• Howl
• Intruders
• Kagemusha
• Killer Constable
• The Knick: Season 2
• Jafar Panahi’s Taxi
• Jeruzalem
• The Last Witch Hunter
• Learning to Drive
• Life Gamble
• Martyrs
• Moonwalkers
• Nurse Jackie: Season 7
• Our Brand Is Crisis
• Painkillers
• Pokemon the Movie: Hoopa and the Clash of Ages
• Power Rangers Dino Charge: Unleashed
• Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
• Samba
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
• Spectre
• Speed Racer: Race to the Future
• Suffragette
• Tales from the Hood
• The Veil
• Woodlawn
Amazon
• A Better Life (available Feb. 1)
• Adaline (available Feb. 1)
• Amy (available Feb. 1)
• Batman (available Feb. 1)
• Deliver Us from Evil (available Feb. 1)
• The Fifth Element (available Feb. 1)
• The Fury (available Feb. 1)
• How to Steal a Million (available Feb. 1)
• The Identity Theft of Mitch Mustain (available Feb. 1)
• The Karate Kid (1984) (available Feb. 1)
• The Kings of Summer (available Feb. 1)
• Like Sunday, Like Rain (available Feb. 1)
• Lost in Translation (available Feb. 1)
• Mad Dogs: Season 1
• Man of Tai Chi
• Men in Black (available Feb. 1)
• Mordecai
• Night Watch (available Feb. 1)
• Nintendo Quest (available Feb. 1)
• Poldark (available Feb. 1)
• The Truth About Emanuel (available Feb. 1)
• To Be or Not to Be (available Feb. 1)
• Twelve O’Clock High (available Feb. 1)
• Waking Ned Devine
