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Comedian Tracy Morgan scraps planned Mississippi performance

  • Nick Cave has been singing about mortality for decades, and...

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    Nick Cave has been singing about mortality for decades, and he's really good at it. Whether the narratives are biblical or pulpy, the victims innocents or death row convicts, the circumstances comprehensible or cruelly random, Cave's songs are on intimate terms with the infinite ways a life can be extinguished. And yet, "Skeleton Tree", his latest album with his estimable band, the Bad Seeds, is a relatively concise song cycle shadowed by death that feels different than all the rest. Read the full review.

  • On "22, A Million," Justin Vernon reimagines his music from...

    AP

    On "22, A Million," Justin Vernon reimagines his music from the bottom up by letting technology — synthesizers, treated vocals, electronic sound effects — dictate. The songs retain their melancholy cast, but now must fight for air beneath static and noise. Read the full review.

  • The new album embraces her individuality more explicitly than ever,...

    Jean-Baptiste Lacroix, AFP/Getty Images

    The new album embraces her individuality more explicitly than ever, both more autobiographical and more politically and socially direct than anything she'd recorded previously. It's a rawer, less elaborate work than its predecessors, yet still hugely ambitious. Read the review

  • Kendrick Lamar's "Untitled, Unmastered" is presented as an unfinished work,...

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    Kendrick Lamar's "Untitled, Unmastered" is presented as an unfinished work, though it rarely sounds like one. Read the review.

  • Woody introduces the gang to a homemade spork toy with...

    Pixar / AP

    Woody introduces the gang to a homemade spork toy with self-esteem issues in "Toy Story 4."  Read the review.

  • "Lemonade" is more than just a play for pop supremacy....

    Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times

    "Lemonade" is more than just a play for pop supremacy. It's the work of an artist who is trying to get to know herself better, for better or worse, and letting the listeners/viewers in on the sometimes brutal self-interrogation. Read the full review.

  • Actor Tracy Morgan speaks onstage during the 67th Annual Primetime...

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    Actor Tracy Morgan speaks onstage during the 67th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater on September 20, 2015 in Los Angeles, California.

  • On her seventh studio album, "Golden Hour" (MCA Nashville), the...

    John Konstantaras / Chicago Tribune

    On her seventh studio album, "Golden Hour" (MCA Nashville), the singer-songwriter doesn't get hung up on genre. She's made a style-hopping pop album that infuses her songs with a relaxed spaciousness while muting, but not ignoring, her country roots. Read the review

  • Now "Schmilco" (dBpm Records) arrives, a product of the same...

    Nuccio DiNuzzo/Chicago Tribune

    Now "Schmilco" (dBpm Records) arrives, a product of the same recording sessions that produced "Star Wars" but a much different album. Though it's ostensibly quieter and less jarring than its predecessor, it presents its own radical take on the song-based, folk and country-tinged side of the band. Read the full review.

  • "Blonde" is a critique of materialism with Frank Ocean employing...

    Jordan Strauss / AP

    "Blonde" is a critique of materialism with Frank Ocean employing two distinct voices, like characters in a play, a recurring theme throughout the album and perhaps its finest sonic achievement. A party spirals out of control, the music rich but low key, a melange of organ and hovering synthesizers. Ocean uses distorting devices on his voice to add emotional texture and to enhance and sharpen the characters he briefly embodies. The upshot: They're all little slices of Ocean's personality with a role to play and they each sound distinct. Read the full review.

  • Warpaint's unerring feel for gauzy hooks and slinky arrangements germinated...

    Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune

    Warpaint's unerring feel for gauzy hooks and slinky arrangements germinated over a decade and flourished on the quartet's excellent 2014 self-titled album. But the band has always nudged its arrangements onto the dance floor — subtly on record, more overtly on stage — and "Heads Up" (Rough Trade) gives the group's inner disco ball a few extra spins. Read the review.

  • A grown-up Christopher Robin returns to the Hundred Acre Wood...

    Laurie Sparham / AP

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  • Not many albums could survive Ed Sheeran performing reggae, but...

    AP

    Not many albums could survive Ed Sheeran performing reggae, but Pharrell Williams always took chances — not all of them successful — in N.E.R.D.Despite the Sheeran gaffe, "No One Ever Really Dies," the band's first album in seven years, is a typically diverse, trippy ride from the group that established Williams' career as a performer in the early 2000s alongside Chad Hugo and Shay Haley. Read the full review.

  • An Atlanta teenager (Amandla Stenberg) deals with the death of...

    Erika Doss / AP

    An Atlanta teenager (Amandla Stenberg) deals with the death of her friend in "The Hate U Give," director George Tillman Jr.'s fine adaptation of the best-selling young adult novel.  Read the review.

  • Risk-prone 13-year-old Stevie (Sunny Suljic, left) shares some of his...

    Tobin Yelland / AP

    Risk-prone 13-year-old Stevie (Sunny Suljic, left) shares some of his angst with one of the local LA skateboarding idols, Ray (Na-Kel Smith), in writer-director Jonah Hill's "Mid90s." Read the review.

  • Reunited for a family wedding, former lovers played by Penelope...

    Teresa Isasi / AP

    Reunited for a family wedding, former lovers played by Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem find themselves embroiled in a kidnapping in "Everybody Knows," directed by Asghar Farhadi. Read the review.

  • "Black America Again" (ARTium/Def Jam) arrives as a one of...

    Nuccio DiNuzzo / Chicago Tribune

    "Black America Again" (ARTium/Def Jam) arrives as a one of the year's most potent protest albums. The album sags midway through with a handful of lightweight love songs, but finishes with some of its most emotionally resounding tracks: the "Glory"-like plea for redemption "Rain" with Legend, the celebration of family that is "Little Chicago Boy," and the staggering "Letter to the Free." Read the review.

  • "Love & Hate" shows Kiwanuka breaking out of that stylistic...

    AP

    "Love & Hate" shows Kiwanuka breaking out of that stylistic box. His core remains intact: a grainy, world-weary voice contemplating troubled times in intimate musical settings. The album announces its more ambitious intentions from the outset, with the trembling strings, episodic piano chords and wordless vocals of the 10-minute "Cold Little Heart." It's a striking, if atypical, approach to reintroducing himself to his audience — a five-minute preamble before Kiwanuka begins to sing. Read the full review.

  • A tropical island boat captain (Matthew McConaughey) and his much-abused...

    Graham Bartholomew / AP

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  • Penniless, driven, the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (Willem Dafoe)...

    CBS Films/Lily Gavin

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    Jonathan Hession / AP

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    Frank Gunn / The Canadian Press

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  • Elton John (Taron Egerton) lays down a track for his...

    David Appleby / AP

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  • Childhood friends and uneasy lovers played by Yoo Ah-in (left)...

    WellGo USA

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  • Vanellope von Schweetz (voiced by Sarah Silverman) and Ralph (John...

    AP

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    Steve Wilkie / AP

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    Patti Perret/CBS Films

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  • Stephan James and KiKi Layne play Fonny and Tish, expectant...

    Tatum Mangus / AP

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  • This image released by Fox Searchlight Films shows Olivia Colman...

    Atsushi Nishijima / AP

    This image released by Fox Searchlight Films shows Olivia Colman in a scene from the film "The Favourite." (Atsushi Nishijima/Fox Searchlight Films via AP)

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  • "Everything Now" is a tighter but not better album. The...

    AP

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    Chip Bergmann / AP

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    Matt Kennedy / AP

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    AP

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    AP

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  • In "First Man," Ryan Gosling reteams with "La La Land"...

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  • On "Here" (Merge), the band's first album in six years...

    Ross Gilmore / Redferns via Getty Images

    On "Here" (Merge), the band's first album in six years and 10th overall, the front line of Norman Blake, Gerard Love and Raymond McGinley once again trades songs (four each) and lead vocals, over sturdily constructed pop-rock arrangements. But the band has taken some subtle evolutionary turns to where it's now a faint shadow of its "Bandwagonesque" incarnation. Read the review.

  • When Aretha Franklin recorded her bestselling gospel album in early...

    AP

    When Aretha Franklin recorded her bestselling gospel album in early 1972, director Sydney Pollack's camera crew shot many hours of footage, unseen publicly until now. "Amazing Grace" is now in theaters.  Read the review.

  • Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo" (GOOD/Def Jam) sounds like...

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    Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo" (GOOD/Def Jam) sounds like a work in progress rather than a finished album. It's a mess, more a series of marketing opportunities in which West changed the album title and the track listing multiple times, to the point where the very thing that made West tolerable despite a penchant for tripping over his own ego — the music itself — became anti-climactic. Read the review.

  • Six miles beneath the Pacific Ocean surface, a team of...

    AP

    Six miles beneath the Pacific Ocean surface, a team of oceanographers and experts discover an entire hidden ecosystem laden with species "completely unknown to science." But Meg comes calling, attacking the submersible piloted by the ex-wife (Jessica McNamee) of rescue diver Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham). Read the review.

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PUBLISHED: | UPDATED:

Comedian and actor Tracy Morgan has scrapped a scheduled April 29 performance in Mississippi, citing its contested religious-objections bill for his decision.

The Horseshoe Tunica Hotel & Casino on Tuesday confirmed the cancellation, saying ticket holders would be refunded.

Mississippi’s incoming law would allow certain workers, including some in private businesses, to cite religious beliefs to deny services to gay lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. It takes effect July 1.

In a statement, Tracy Morgan said he didn’t make the decision lightly. He says he looks forward to rescheduling in the region should the measure be “either repealed or heavily amended.”

Several states and cities have banned official travel to Mississippi over the bill. Rock singer Bryan Adams canceled a recently planned appearance in Biloxi over it.

Associated Press

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Pearl Jam cancels North Carolina show over new LGBT law

Bruce Springsteen cancels show because of North Carolina law

Bryan Adams cancels Mississippi show, citing state’s new law

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