Popcast returns with a What We Did On Our Summer Vacation edition.
Jon Caramanica tells me about visiting Ariana Grande in Los Angeles — at the office of her manager, Scooter Braun — just prior to the release of her new album, “My Everything,” which entered the charts at no. 1 this week. Ms. Grande — a powerful 21-year-old singer and former Nickelodeon actress (on the shows “Victorious” and “Sam & Cat”) — may personify mainstream pop, Mr. Caramanica explains, but she’s making taking vanguard-like moves as she evolves out of her child-star phase. One is cultivating and protecting a sense of gentility. Another is collaborating with artists of a completely different and much darker sensibility, like the Weeknd and ASAP Ferg.
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And I tell Mr. Caramanica about going to London to see the first of Kate Bush’s concerts at the Eventim Apollo. It was a strangely confident return after 35 years away from performing, in which she has attempted to, and has mostly succeeded in, having it all: extravagance and intimacy, complicated multimedia perfectionism in a mid-size theater, a recital of hits and a staging of long-form suites aimed at her most serious fans. But what is a Kate Bush fan after 35 years except a serious one?
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