2. Sade’s Return

The Nigerian-British artist Sade is back with Soldier of Love, her first album in nine years. Her gorgeously smooth vocals, beautiful acoustic arrangements, and relatable lyrics leave no doubt that the album was definitely worth the wait.

3. Treme on HBO

David Simon, who created what was arguably greatest show in the history of television, The Wire, returns with Treme a new series that examines the devastation—and the hope—of New Orleans after the hurricane. If the first two episodes are any indication of how the rest of the season will shape up, it’s going to be as amazing and addictive as anything Simon's done.

4. Beck’s Record Club No. 4: Kick by INXS

For his Record Club, Beck enlists the help musician pals to record an improvised cover on classic albums—and posts videos of the process online. Previous installments have included The Velvet Underground & Nico, Songs of Leonard Cohen, and Skip Spence’s Oar. This time, Beck and friends (including the Liars and members of St. Vincent) take on the 1987 album Kick by Aussie greats INXS. With the first four videos online already, it’s pretty clear that this may be the Club's best session yet. Their version of “Devil Inside” is simply perfect—and the video looks beautiful.

Record Club: INXS "Devil Inside" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

5. Words With Friends App for the iPhone, and now, iPad

The beauty of Words With Friends lies in its simplicity. Basically, it takes Scrabulous, Facebook's version of Scrabble, to the next level, letting you challenge friends near and far to ongoing games of the classic word puzzle pastime. You can take four hours or 10 days to finish your game, and have multiple games going at once. An iPad-compatible version is already available, proving that this thing has staying power.

---

Bryan Johnson is a TV producer who writes about film and music for Venus Zine