After the unprecedented, historical success of A Star Is Born — particularly the Grammy-winning single “Shallow” — Lady Gaga has never been better. So why did it still feel like she was still facing an uphill battle when it comes to pop itself? Well, fanatical, die-hard fans aside, Gaga’s pop music bonafides weren’t necessarily bolstered by the movie’s emotional, left-of-center ballad or ironic sell-out tracks. And after Joanne failed to get her back on top the way her camp hoped it would, the string of lackluster albums since the (unjust) flop of Artpop back in 2013 was only getting longer.

It’s not that her quick jazz standards follow-up a year later wasn’t another welcome example of her musical ambidexterity — Cheek To Cheek with Tony Bennett won a Grammy and debuted at No. 1 on the charts — it’s simply that amid all this pivoting, the monsters weren’t getting fed. They didn’t want family legacy-oriented anthems of self-discovery or, frankly, record-breaking soundtracks. They wanted dancefloor epics — needed them. And after an initial delay of Gaga’s album release due to the pandemic, it finally arrived last week.

Enter Chromatica, an album that constructs an entire world of glittering, pathos-driven bangers, each and every one of them ripe for both official and unofficial remixes, each and every one of them a full-blown, no-holds-barred pop song. Mother Monster knew her limit, a return to form was necessary, and the songs on Chromatica — which is apparently a new planet/universe she constructed to escape this one — still rely heavily on earth’s tried and true house music as a backbone. Even the orchestral interludes – not one, not two, but three — help showcase the bangers through elegant juxtaposition that, in the case of transitions like “Chromatica II” into “911,” enhance the whole listening process through dramatic effect.

Yet, Chromatica is not an easy listening album that immediately hits every sweet spot the first time through. In true Gaga fashion, some of the songs are remarkably sad, and in even truer Gaga fashion, plenty of them make absolutely no sense lyrically, sometimes venturing into a hodgepodge of symbols that are never fully fleshed out (See “Alice,” “1000 Doves,” and “Sine From Above,” to name a few). But if it manages to do anything, Chromatica creates a specific world and a distinct sound that’s the most cohesive sonic statement she’s released since 2011.

This cohesion can be credited, in some ways, to BloodPop, the producer who Gaga worked with most closely on the release. Of the sixteen songs, which includes three orchestral interludes as previously mentioned, the only tracks BloodPop doesn’t have a writing and producer credit on are the interludes and the track “Replay.” Though her earlier albums featured majority collaborations with producers like Fernando Garibay, RedOne (aka Nadir Khayat), and Paul Blair, never before has a Gaga album been dominated so completely by one collaborator.

Perhaps after years of wandering into jazz, movie soundtracks, country-pop and more, it was this kind of singular focus that brought her back to great heights as a pop queen — though it’s worth noting that BloodPop also produced nearly every song on Joanne, but most of those songs were Ronson co-writes and his influence came through stronger back then. In an interview with Paper magazine in March of this year, Gaga goes so far as to call BloodPop the “nucleus” of Chromatica, and like the emerging pop star-producer relationship between Charli XCX and A. G. Cook, the studio marriage of a pop icon/vocalist with a futuristic electronic producer is an excellent one.

The heart and soul of the record live in the first two singles, the ebullient, crackling lead single “Stupid Love,” followed up with the Ariana Grande-assisted “Rain On Me,” a flawless duet between one of pop’s veterans and a star just entering her imperial phase. Though plenty of other songs on Chromatica are excellent — and appearances from Blackpink (“Sour Candy”) and Elton John (“Sine From Above”) are just as notable — there’s a sense that Ariana can do no wrong at the moment, and her co-sign alone catapults “Rain On Me” to a rarefied realm. Paired with a dystopian dance video, it becomes the kind of hit Gaga needed to get back on top, and a song about survival and resilience sung by two female pop stars who have faced so much trauma is particularly powerful.

Exploring her experience with PTSD — the psychological result of her teenage rape, including the lingering physical pain of fibromyalgia, and later, a severe hip injury — Chromatica plays with Wonderland themes on “Alice,” aptly named after Lewis Carroll’s fearless — if clueless — heroine. The cyclical, escapist hit is the album’s de facto debut track (coming after the first interlude) and starts off a bit icy, making way for the warmer tones of another standout, “Free Woman,” which directly challenges the idea that singledom is a death sentence for a lady. Despite its name, “Fun Tonight” is about when things turn out just the opposite and is a potential low moment on the album, along with “Plastic Doll,” which hits a pretty empty trope of famous-woman-as-barbie-doll.

But on a standout like “911,” Gaga manages to expertly balance her suffering and self-frustration with the dancefloor freedom that defines the album — “My biggest enemy is me / Pop a 911,” she sings, promoting the prescribed, productive pills that help so many of us regulate our mental health, rather than escapist, addictive drugs that can so quickly derail even the best and brightest. As a pop star who is intimately familiar with highs and lows, Lady Gaga is successful on Chromatica because she doesn’t flinch away from the darkest parts of the world, or herself, but instead drills down beneath the surface until she finds something bright and molten, something she can shape a new universe from.

Chromatica is out now via Interscope Records. Get it here.

A Law & Order: SVU spinoff starring Christopher Meloni in his long awaited return as Elliot Stabler is still coming, but it will do so without writer Craig Gore. Franchise creator and executive producer Dick Wolf has fired Gore from the law enforcement/procedural show after his social media remarks (and an incendiary photo) referencing George Floyd protests. “I will not tolerate this conduct, especially during our hour of national grief,” Wolf declared in a statement posted to Twitter. “I am terminating Craig Gore immediately.”

The remarks from Gore in question included his Facebook-penned threat to “light motherf***ers up who are trying to f*ck w/my property.” The remark followed a photo of himself (apparently geotagged from West Hollywood), posing with a firearm with the following caption: “Curfew…” The postings were screencapped and tweeted by Drew Janda (a producer of HBO’s Big Little Lies) with a shoutout in Meloni’s direction.

Prior to Wolf’s statement, the situation went down with some confusion. Janda previously labeled (before correcting himself) Gore as a showrunner, and Chris Meloni responded that, nope, Matt Olmstead (Chicago P.D) is his spinoff showrunner. Further, as Meloni stated, “I have no idea who this person is or what they do.”

It’s now clear that Gore’s not doing anything on this new spinoff, which shall be based in New York City and could potentially crossover with SVU. Once per season, perhaps? Make it so. The world’s been through a lot lately, and ongoing Olivia Benson-Stabler reunions would arrive as no small comfort. Regardless, it’ll be good to see an un-retired Stabler onscreen again.

Yesterday, social media was populated almost entirely by posts that only featured pure black images. This was of course because of Black Out Tuesday, a social media movement in support of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter. While this was well-meaning, Lizzo and Lil Nas X believe Black Out Tuesday actually had a negative unintended side-effect.

Lizzo noted in an Instagram video yesterday that those sharing Black Out Tuesday posts should not include the #blacklivesmatter hashtag, because a flood of black squares with the hashtag could prevent the spread of valuable information.

She said in her video, “Hey everybody: When you post your black square, please don’t use the hashtag #blacklivesmatter, because it is flooding the hashtag search with just black pictures instead of information. So, if you’re going to post a black square, just post a black square and say it, don’t hashtag it.” She also wrote alongside the video, “You can caption black lives matter, but don’t hashtag pls thnx. Hashtag #blackouttuesday instead.”

Lil Nas X shared a similar sentiment with a series of tweets yesterday, writing that Black Out Tuesday was slowing the momentum of the protests. He began, “i know y’all mean well but… bro saying stop posting for a day is the worst idea ever.” Replying to a response, he wrote, “it’s information that needs to be spread! the movement needs to be pushed forward! not silenced for a day.” He continued, “i just really think this is the time to push as hard as ever. i don’t think the movement has ever been this powerful. we don’t need to slow it down by posting nothing. we need to spread info and be as loud as ever.”

Dillon Francis responded to Lil Nas X with a screenshot of the all-black Instagram page for the #blacklivesmatter hashtag and wrote, “Yeah and now the hashtag is blank on Instagram because of everyone hashtagging black squares.” Lil Nas X replied to that, “this is not helping us. bro who the hell thought of this?? ppl need to see what’s going on.” He then wrote, “not tryna be announcing but what if we posted donation and petitions links on instagram all at the same time instead of pitch black images.”

Lizzo has been vocal following Floyd’s death, like a few days ago, when she shared a video message about the ongoing protests.

Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

To complain that the “trailer gives too much away” is obvious to the point of cliché, but some filmmakers, who usually have nothing to do with the marketing, are beginning to speak out. The director of Vivarium, the suburban satire starring Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots, told his Twitter followers that the trailer for his movie “shows A LOT, so I recommend not watching it or any trailers and just going in cold,” while Rian Johnson “fully endorse[d] avoiding everything” related to Star Wars: The Last Jedi before it came out in December 2017. But Andrew Patterson can’t do that. His name alone won’t sell a movie, especially one with no recognizable actors, but after having seen his directorial debut The Vast of Night (out now), maybe his name should sell a movie.

Here’s what you should know about The Vast of Night: it’s good, at times very good.

End of the review. You don’t have to read anymore. Enjoy the rest of your week, stay safe. But if you wish to continue, because you’re one of those people who is interested in the, ugh, plot, I’ll make this as spoiler-free as possible: The Vast of Night takes place over one 1950s night in New Mexico; it follows switchboard operator Fay (played by the remarkable Sierra McCormick) and know-it-all radio DJ Everett (Jake Horowitz) while the rest of the small town is at a basketball game; stuff happens. It’s a fun, genre-heavy, impressively acted, darkly-but-beautifully lit throwback that starts slow, but once you realize what going on, things begins to click like an old-fashioned remote control.

McCormick and Horowitz give splendidly lived-in performances, and writers James Montague and Craig W. Sanger are aware that you will likely figure out what’s happening before the characters do (hint: the radio call sign is “WOTW”), but the real MVP is Patterson. I was surprised to discover that The Vast of Night is the only credit on his IMDb — no other movies, TV gigs, music videos, nothing. “[With The Vast of Night], I think we have a pretty good feel for how to make something look good, even if even if we were still learning how to do 90 minutes worth,” he told io9. “Look good” is an understatement — this is a micro-budget indie that looks like tens of millions of bucks; one scene, in particular, is going to get Patterson’s numerous job offers. You’ll know it when you see it. But it’s not a show-off camera trick. His direction is precise, purposeful.

One of the film’s best scenes involves Fay hearing a strange noise come through the phone lines, and later the radio signal. It’s a “frequency caught between logic and myth,” as a Rod Serling-like voice puts it. (The Twilight Zone reference is not unintentional.) She gets in touch with Everett, who tells her to call back in 10 minutes. From there, we watch Fay work the switchboard for (nearly) 10 full minutes in an unbroken take, as her — and our — sense of unease begins to grow. It’s not flashy, but it’s captivating nonetheless, recalling both the eeriness of The X-Files and the detailed obsessiveness of Zodiac.

The Vast of Night isn’t interested in uncovering the mysteries of the universe, or anything like that; its ambitions are more modest. But you get the sense that Patterson, as well as Montague and Sanger and gifted cinematographer Miguel Ioann Littin Menz, were listening to the real Rod Serling when he said, “You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination.” The Vast of Night doesn’t take place in another dimension, but it’s a journey nonetheless. One that’s worth taking.

Amazon Prime will release ‘The Vast of Night’ on May 29.

Seth Rogen posted a Black Lives Matter logo on his Instagram on Monday with the caption, “If this is a remotely controversial statement to you, feel free to unfollow me.”

The comedian wasn’t kidding.

The post has (ironically) triggered a small number of the An American Pickle star’s followers. “I like All Lives Matter,” one person wrote, leading Rogen to respond, “I like f*ck you.” Another: “All lives matter. Because all life is precious. No life is more important than another.” Rogen: “Shut the f*ck up.” And another: “People making this only about blacks. When [it’s] about all races of color. Why do all these brutality videos only show the end? They don’t show wtf these people where doing to get in trouble in the first place.” Rogen: “F*ck off. You don’t deserve my movies anymore. Stop watching my sh*t.”

Rogen has been equally vocal on Twitter. “Always be more critical of the people upholding the racist system than the ones who are fighting against it,” he recently tweeted, while also matching Uncut Gems directors Josh and Benny Safdie’s donation to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, “and then much more.” If a stoner who once dressed as a rabbi Pikachu can understand the importance of Black Lives Matter, then you can, too.

With BBC America’s Killing Eve‘s third season, showrunner Suzanne Heathcote mostly pulled back from the show’s elaborate cat-and-mouse game between Jodie Comer’s assassin and Sandra Oh’s MI6 agent. It was a risky move, but a necessary one since the second season ran that relationship into the bloody ground, yet the third season finale’s revisiting of the dynamic feels fresh and fun again. And so, the series has evolved for the better with a fourth season already in the cards. Following an intricately crafted season that used double-agent/jester Konstantin to tie together all major threads, it’s now time to rank the finale’s players (with a bonus) while looking toward the future.

9. Paul: Seriously, eff this guy. We can’t trust everything that Konstantin says, but it sure appeared a few weeks ago — from the way that Paul assured Konstantin that he’d take the fall for the death of Kruger’s wife, and the missing money — that Paul was working for The Twelve. Not only that, but Paul’s been undermining Carolyn all season long, likely because he did not want Carolyn uncovering more information about The Twelve. Did the man deserve to die? Maybe not, but Carolyn wanted to kill someone over Kenny’s death, and she didn’t seem able to kill someone she’d cared about in the past (Konstantin). Eve made a fair point, though: now no one can uncover what Paul knew. Yet with his denial of knowing Dasha or Helene, we can make some guesses: (1) He’s a convincing liar; and/or (2) The Twelve likes to keep its secrets so close that not even Paul, who “is The Twelve” knows the identity of all operatives. That’s intriguing.

8. Rhian: Oh man, she learned her lesson far too late. No one gets away with insulting Villanelle’s abilities and dedication to a cause, even when Villanelle is questioning these qualities about herself. Rhian was presented as the up-and-comer in The Twelve and a threat to Villanelle’s place in the organization. The fact that she ended up on the tracks seems to seal the deal for Villanelle leaving the assassin life on her own terms, but where does Villanelle go from here, at least professionally? She’s confused about her own identity and burned down her own origin story. Carolyn rejected her proposal to come work for MI6, and Villanelle told Konstantin (who’s got the money) to get lost. I mean, do we really think that Villanelle is capable of leading a legit life now? Hardly, but Rhian overstepped by injecting her opinion and paid the price.

7. Dasha: Well, things turned out fatally for the former toast of the KGB, but I’m ranking her slightly above the rest of the dead characters this week for one reason: she did not have to suffer the heartbreak of returning to Mother Russia without a celebration in her glory. She truly wanted parades in the streets, so perhaps it’s best that she flatlined before that the inevitable letdown happened. Also, you gotta admire how she physically survived — at least for a few days — attempts on her life by both Villanelle and Eve. Yes, she was a terrible person and an assassin and someone who put babies in trashcans and all that, but she was a tough cookie and a hell of an entertaining character.

6. The Bitter Pill Staff: They’re getting the job done, even with a snack preoccupation slowing things down at times. In the finale, Bear not only revealed video footage that opens up even more questions about Kenny’s intent — he was caught on tape stealing from a honeypot meant to entrap members of an extremist group — but he (and the rest of the skeleton staff) endured their in-person introduction to Villanelle. I’d rank the group even higher, but I know Bear’s feeling like he lost this fight, just a little bit. He still really wants to know what Villanelle does with the “bad ones” after she “pickles” all the delightful penises of the men that she kills. Scandalous!

5. Konstantin: I suppose, by some standards, that he’s a massive loser here after the entire season pointed towards an enormous downfall for this double agent. And who does he have left in life? No one. He’s a failed father whose homicidal biological daughter’s sitting in an institution. His unofficial adoptive daughter, Villanelle, rejected him as “not family,” and there’s no way that he won’t be persona non grata with The Twelve. Still, he survived a heart attack and the gun-wielding Carolyn, even after she learned that he was present during Kenny’s death. There’s even a chance that he’s telling the truth about Kenny falling to his death because Konstantin has always shown an aversion to killing anyone himself. We also know that Konstantin’s got the bar code to recover the stolen money, so that’s a win for him if he can find somewhere to hide from The Twelve. I certainly don’t want him to leave the show. He’s far too enjoyable as a dastardly screen presence, and people will want the guy around after Dasha left the building.

4. Geraldine: I don’t have too terribly much to say about Geraldine’s own qualities because we didn’t get to know her too well, but I’m sure hoping that she’s now free from attempting to change her mother. Carolyn’s the most stubborn character on this series, and I’ll lick the bottom of my own shoes if she softens up at all before this series ends. Yes, Geraldine suffered a metaphorical punch to the gut with Carolyn telling her to leave the family home, but that’s also freeing in a sense. Geraldine no longer needs to bash her head against a brick wall of a mother figure, and I wish her all the best.

3. Carolyn: Technically, she’s walking away from the finale with as much of a win as she could possible manage. Yes, Kenny and Mo are dead, but Paul is gone, and she more than made sure to mop the floor with Konstantin in the process. Carolyn easily explained away Paul’s death as a suicide, and she very much enjoyed telling everyone what to do for the entirety of the finale. Yes, she’s utterly miserable, but Carolyn played her cards as well as possible in the finale. I hope she went home and had a nice bath at the end of the day. That’s the only peace she’ll probably ever know.

1. Tie — Eve And Villanelle: Oh, it’s these two back together again. Actually, I’m more alright with this outcome than I thought would be the case. The writers wisely separated the pair for most of the season, so I’m ready to see them give it a go next time around — probably? They’re not built to last as a couple, but they can’t let their connection go, and the ending moments of the finale suggest that they (mutually) turned back toward each other while accepting that their molotov cocktail of a relationship cannot be denied. They shared a nice dance, some self-aware reflection on the London Bridge, and yes, it was all kind-of romantic. Their “monsters” can’t resist this pull, even after they tried to kill each other in the past two season finales. I look forward to seeing however the hell they try to get along again before (likely) disastrously splitting (and getting back together) again. Viewers just can’t quit these two as a couple, and executive producer Sally Woodward Gentle left everyone with a tease, via EW: “Change is possible.”

The Real Winner — Niko: Since Niko wasn’t in the season finale (I can only assume that he’s still recuperating in the hospital), I did not formally include him in the ranking, but I think he’s the true winner of this season. Yes, he got pitchforked (very bad!) but emerged from that attack with his life and with his dignity fully intact. Finally, he’s gotten the message across to Eve and (it seems) made her fully aware that their marriage is over. I hope he’s free from ever being touched by The Twelve again, but that’s probably not possible if Niko stays on the show. Finding out what the future holds for him will be one of the bigger questions I’ll have for Season 4, and it shouldn’t be too long before we hear about the new showrunner and lead writers who will continue the journey.

BBC America’s ‘Killing Eve’ finale can be streamed on the AMC premiere website.

Jay-Z has made his voice heard during the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, going as far as to speak directly with Minnesota’s governor. Now he has shared a public statement, doing so by taking out full-page newspaper ads in publications across the US.

Instead of using his own words, he used those of Martin Luther King, Jr: The ad features a passage from a speech King gave in Selma, Alabama in March 1965. It reads in part:

“Only way we can really achieve freedom is to somehow hunker the fear of death. But if a man has no discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live. Deep down in our nonviolent creed is the conviction — there there are some things so dead, some things so precious, some things so eternally true, that they’re worth dying for. […] A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.”

Aside from Jay and Roc Nation, others who put their name on the including Charlamagne Tha God, Van Jones, activists, and parents of other young black men who died in altercations with law enforcement.

The ad was run in the Tuesday, June 2 editions of publications including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Denver Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Austin American Statement, The Orlando Sentinel, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, among others. CNN notes that more ads are expected to be published in today’s papers.

Find the full ad below.

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