Month: July 2021

If you’re over the age of… I don’t know, 10? You probably have a complicated relationship with cereal. On the one hand, there are few things easier and more convenient to prepare than a nice bowl of cereal, so if you’re living a busy lifestyle (or just like maximizing sleep), a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios probably slots perfectly into your schedule, sugar be damned. On the other hand, while there are a lot of healthy and balanced cereals out there, the good stuff is usually pretty bad for you.

Our very own Zach Johnston illustrated this struggle perfectly in his ranking of the best grocery store cereals, writing:

“For an adult, the internal struggle of the cereal aisle is cosmic. It’s good vs. evil. The righteous path vs. the valley of the shadow of death.”

Heavy stuff, right? Well, that very same existential dread — which hangs over you every time you enter the cereal aisle — is exactly why Magic Spoon exists. The brand touts itself as being a healthy and delicious cereal for adults. Each box is low in carbs, high in protein, keto-friendly, and grain and sugar-free. There are six different flavors, each of which attempts to recall your favorites from childhood.

As a concept, it’s almost an undeniably solid idea and, since launching in 2019, online sales have continued to grow. All good so far, right?

Here’s the rub: It costs $39 for a case of four boxes and that’s the only size you can purchase. Meaning this is, in all likelihood, the most expensive cereal you’ll ever eat. Which begs the question: Does it live up to the hype and price tag? We decided to find out by ordering all six flavors, ranking them, and seeing if they compare to their sugary grocery shelf counterparts.

Let’s get to tasting!

Wait, wait, wait, no sugar OR grains? What is this stuff?

I’m glad you pretended to ask! Magic Spoon is sweetened with something called allulose, which is a sugar that is found naturally in figs, raisins, and maple syrup and is relatively new on the food scene. Pretty cool stuff! It contains 10% of the calories of regular sugar and hardly has any effect on your blood sugar levels.

The cereal itself is composed of milk proteins and tapioca extract, which is probably why every bowl immediately lodges itself into your teeth, forcing you to brush them out once you’re done. Seriously, the way this stuff gets caught in your teeth is ridiculous, be warned!

Now, can we get to tasting?

The Flavors, Ranked From Worst To Best

Worst — Peanut Butter

Sugar per Serving: 0g
Net Carbs per Serving: 4g
Protein per Serving: 14g

Tasting Notes

Once I opened the inner bag of this cereal box, I was greeted with a distinct and natural peanut butter smell. That smell disappeared instantly, as soon as some cold milk hit the bowl. The initial taste was shockingly bland. After a few spoonfuls, you start to taste the peanut butter again, but it’s depressingly one-note. After I finished my serving, the milk was a dirty brown color with a bland peanut butter scent wafting off of it.

Overall, I had a bad experience with this one — easily my least favorite Magic Spoon.

How Does It Compare To The Real Thing?

It’s clear this cereal is desperately trying to emulate Reese’s Puffs, but without the chocolate flavor worked in with the peanut butter it doesn’t quite get there. This one is very bland, if you had a bowl your first question would be, “Is this a healthy cereal?” Which I don’t think was Magic Spoon’s goal.

Also Bad — Cocoa

Sugar per Serving: 0g
Net Carbs per Serving: 4g
Protein per Serving: 13g

Tasting Notes

Every flavor of Magic Spoon smells crazy intense, it’s a trend I’ll probably talk about in each entry because it’s so distinct. Cocoa has a strong chocolate scent and I was pleasantly surprised to smell some notes of roasted coffee in there too. This is easily the best-smelling flavor. On the palate, you get a blunt chocolate flavor that feels hidden under layers of texture. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t get better over time, with a barely-there flavor that is a far cry from the grocery store cereal it’s trying to imitate.

It also tastes kind of… dirty, and it’ll make your milk look like the most unappetizing version of chocolate milk you’ll ever see.

How Does It Compare To The Real Thing?

It tastes like Cocoa Pebbles but has the texture of a Cocoa Puff. But only if those cereals were run under cold water in a strainer for a few minutes until their flavors were heavily diluted and then poured into a bowl of milk.

Good — Fruity

Sugar per Serving: 0g
Net Carbs per Serving: 4g
Protein per Serving: 13

Tasting Notes

Like the Peanut Butter, the first thing you’re going to notice about Magic Spoon’s Fruity flavor is the strong scent. Similar to the first two entries, this one hits the palate with an initial dullness. There is a fruit flavor, it just takes a few spoonfuls to activate and build. Not sure why this has a tendency to happen with Magic Spoon flavors, I thought maybe they needed milk to activate the flavors, but I gave this one a dry taste test as well to check on that theory. Same experience — dullness that picks up in flavor over time. Very weird.

Having said that, this one really started to grow on me as I worked through the bowl.

How Does It Compare To The Real Thing?

This stuff really tastes like Froot Loops! It doesn’t have that same intense burst of initial flavor, but if you’re a hardcore Froot Loops head and you’re trying to kick the habit of eating a bowl of sugar every morning, give this a try — you won’t be disappointed.

I’ve never been a big Froot Loop fan but, for me, this is easily better than the real thing.

Good — Frosted

Sugar per Serving:
Net Carbs per Serving:
Protein per Serving:

Tasting Notes

Before I had my first taste of Magic Spoon, I assumed the Fruity and Frosted flavors would be my least favorite, and once I opened the box of Frosted, I was sure I was going to hate it. The smell coming off of this thing is sickly sweet to the point that it actually made my stomach turn — though that might’ve been a result of eating a bunch of bowls of cereal in one sitting.

But once I was actually able to bring myself to taste Frosted, I was instantly sold. This is just a great sugary-tasting cereal with a flavor reminiscent of marshmallows. The texture is a bit different than the other Magic Spoon flavors, giving you a bit of crunch that never goes soggy.

Real talk: This could stand up alongside the sugary stuff at the grocery store and hold its weight. The box looks dope, too.

How Does It Compare To The Real Thing?

“Frosted” is a very misleading name, considering how many frosted cereals there are out there. But the box art makes it clear, this is supposed to be Lucky Charms. The thing about Lucky Charms is, it has a distinct oatey flavor to it, that’s obviously not here. But if you ever wanted a bowl of Lucky Charms that contained only the marshmallows, this is kind of that! Only without the fun shapes.

Great — Blueberry

Sugar per Serving:
Net Carbs per Serving:
Protein per Serving:

Tasting Notes

This one has easily the strongest smell of all the flavors. Before I opened the inner bag, I could smell the blueberries. Touching the box made my hand smell like blueberries, I’m not kidding! I don’t know what the hell the dudes who created Magic Spoon are doing to their cereal, but they’ve unlocked the secrets of smell for Consumer Product Goods.

Anyway, let’s talk about this flavor. It’s bursting with blueberry flavor and tastes about as far from a health cereal as you can imagine. While the flavor is very one-note — it’s like eating the top of a blueberry muffin — it’s the only flavor that reminded me that cereals are better with mix-ins. After a few spoonfuls, I cut up half a banana and threw it in the bowl for a delicious experience. It’s not fair to rank it with the banana, but it’s definitely something you should keep in mind when pouring yourself a bowl.

Unless you’re doing keto, in which case, forget it.

The only thing I didn’t like was how this cereal made the milk look after. It looked like purple poison.

How Does It Compare To The Real Thing?

Not sure this has an actual grocery aisle counterpart. Blueberry Cheerios maybe? I’d take these over that any day. Seriously, mix that banana in, it’s an amazing experience.

Fully Reccomended — Cinnamon

Sugar per Serving: 0g
Net Carbs per Serving: 4g
Protein per Serving: 12g

Tasting Notes

If you’ve already decided that Magic Spoon is for you, start with the Cinnamon flavor — it’s easily the best. Smell is such a strong component of the Magic Spoon experience and the Cinnamon flavor had the best smell, with comforting notes of cinnamon and sugar. It’s hard to believe this bowl has 0 grams of sugar.

On the palate, the cinnamon sugar flavor reveals subtle hints of maple, that help to flavor the milk and make this a bowl that’s actually worth drinking. From smell to taste to how it flavors the milk, this is Magic Spoon’s best.

How Does It Compare To The Real Thing?

This is almost as good as Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that this 0 grams of sugar box of cereal is as good as something so sweetened it has crystals of sugar caked onto it, but this comes so damn close. One thing it does better than Cinnamon Toast Crunch is the mouthfeel — this doesn’t have the jagged edges and roof-of-your-mouth-scarring texture that Cinnamon Toast Crunch has, making it easier to eat.

My suggestion is you pick up a variety pack (four flavors of your choosing) over a single flavor case, but make sure two of those flavors are Cinnamon. You’ll want a second box of this before a first box of the bottom three options.

Two things are true about most big award shows like the Emmys. The first is that they’re very silly on a macro level. Art is a subjective thing and trying to select an objective winner from a field that contains thousands of options on hundreds of channels and streaming channels is an exercise in lunacy. It’s impossible. Even just narrowing it all down to a list of a few nominees is a process that should take teams of experts many years and burn through dozens and dozens of spreadsheets. We should all recognize this as madness and treat it as such.

The second true thing is that, once the nominations are announced, I will promptly toss all that rational thought straight into the nearest toilet and develop strong beliefs about who should win and why. I will get heated. I will get mad about it. It happened again today, literally moments after the nominees were announced. It’s not a healthy way to live, recognizing something as utter hooey and deciding to get furious about it anyway. But here we are. I feel okay about it.

Below, I have listed the five nominees I am most passionate about in this moment, as well as various threats I may or may not follow through with should they not be recognized. For legal reasons, let’s say this is all in jest.

I won’t really do any of this.

Unless you disregard my demands.

Haha.

But really.

Pay attention.

DO IT

Nominee: Jean Smart
Nominated For: Outstanding Comedy Actress (Hacks), Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series (Mare of Easttown)
What I Will Do If She Does Not Win: Seize control of the oceans and send floods of salty wet chaos through the streets of Hollywood

It is extremely cool that Jean Smart is having this huge career resurgence here in 2021, in part because she deserves it on the merits and in part because she’s just cool, in general. The best way to cap it all off is to open the Emmys by handing her a trophy and then just continuing to hand her trophies until her knees start to buckle under the weight of all the awkwardly shaped hunks of gold, or until she asks us to stop. But that seems a little unlikely at this point, as she was only nominated for these two, one for comedy and one for drama. That’s still pretty cool, though, to be recognized in two different styles of acting on two different shows in the same year. I hope she wins both. I suppose I will settle for one. But I will have my trident by my side all night just in case.

COME ON

Nominee: Brett Goldstein
Nominated For: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (Ted Lasso)
What I Will Do If He Does Not Win: Upend every full trash can on my street for the next four weeks

The tricky thing here is the competition. The field is just loaded, and loaded specifically with his Ted Lasso co-stars. That’s why my threat is less severe. Because, while it is very important to me on a personal level that the man responsible for bringing Roy Kent to the world be recognized for doing so, I don’t see how I can stay angry for too long if the award goes to Brendan Hunt for playing Coach Beard or to Nick Mohammed for playing Nate, or even to Kenan Thompson or Bowen Yang for their work on SNL. How has Kenan not won an Emmy for acting yet? That’s infuriating, too. I might just knock over those trash cans regardless of the outcome at this point. Someone is getting hosed here. Give them all a trophy.

No. No. We stick with Roy. The man says the f-word better than anyone else on television. And look at how he reacted to this nomination.

Has to count for something.

LISTEN TO ME

Nominee: Rosie Perez
Nominated For: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (The Flight Attendant)
What I Will Do If She Does Not Win: Drive across the country switching the weird orange shredded cheese and the carrots in random salad bars

Rosie Perez is the best and has been the best for a few decades now. She was so good in The Flight Attendant, and one of the main reasons the show became more than just the fizzy and fun flight of fancy it could have been. She provided the menace, the stakes, the level of real concern that helps to elevate a stylish murder mystery into something more. She did exactly what one needs to do in a supporting role: carried a handful of small scenes, shaded in the areas around the bright colors, and stole a few little moments here and there. It was great. Rosie Perez is great. And I really want to hear her give an acceptance speech when she’s done, because Rosie Perez is the coolest.

I SWEAR TO GOD

Nominee: WandaVision
Nominated For: Outstanding Original Music And Lyrics (“Agatha All Along”)
What I Will Do If It Does Not Win: Bees

I suppose this one is a long shot because it is up against Bo Burnham. I could absolutely see voters looking at his nomination and checking that box because his special, Inside, was deep and groundbreaking and introspective and dealt with the emotions we all worked through over a year of being largely stuck inside too, and that’s fair. It was all of those things. But please do not look at that and discount “Agatha All Along” as light superhero fluff. It was so good. And funny. And actually important to the plot of a surprisingly good and fun show. And it gave Kathryn Hahn an excuse to go just as huge as she wanted with it, which is not something we should ever discount. Because if you do…

Bees.

But again, I’m just joking.

Unless I’m not.

Disregard the buzzing you hear.

MOFF GIDEON

Nominee: Giancarlo Esposito
Nominated For: Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series (The Mandalorian)
What I Will Do If He Does Not Win: Send a strongly worded letter to my congressperson

Three things worth noting here:

• Giancarlo Esposito has somehow never won an Emmy for playing Gus Fring across two excellent shows over a period of like 10 years, which is madness
• We should give him an Emmy
• I would like it a lot if someone won a prestigious award for playing a character named “Moff Gideon”

There. It’s settled.

Media availability in the NBA has gone through a rather large change this season as gone are the locker room scrums after games and on-court scrums after practices and shootarounds. Players instead came to a designated room where they sat in at a table in front of a camera for Zoom availability, talking to reporters through the screen rather than crowded in front of them.

In the Finals, there are now select, vaccinated media in the room, but also still folks there virtually. As such the podium set-up remains and players come in and out, all sitting in the same spot to talk to the assembled press. It’s a pretty efficient set-up but comes with one pitfall for the players that might not have been considered for the post-practice availabilities: sweaty seats.

After games, players have typically showered and changed before they come talk to the media, so this isn’t an issue, but after practice they stroll in fresh off the court. That means, for some, they come in very sweaty and leave a, well, uncomfortable spot for the next person to come into. Jrue Holiday was on the wrong end of that when he arrived at the podium on Tuesday and put his hand down to ease himself onto the seat and immediately asked if someone had been there before him. Upon learning it was PJ Tucker, all he could say is “makes sense.”

I really do love that as soon as he found out it was Tucker he went from borderline concerned about how much sweat someone left behind to completely unsurprised. His explanation that he’ll be alright cause he’s about to go shower anyways is great, but him closing it with “no, he was workin, he was workin,” is the best part. Jrue’s not trying to sweat shame PJ, but it certainly startled him when he first touched that “extremely” wet chair. Maybe going forward we can start getting an extra chair to rotate in and out while the other gets wiped down.

Bebe Rexha released her new album Better Mistakes just a few months ago, but that hasn’t stopped new singles, videos, and collaborations from the prolific pop star. She’s also been part of the “Getting Better Together” campaign to advocate for mental health and shared about her own journey with mental illness. On her recent collaboration with Topic, the star got serious with the “Chain My Heart” lyrics and has now shared a video that gets pretty literal.

While decked out in a chain-link bodysuit, Bebe flexes and dances alongside plenty of similarly scantily clad dancers before Topic watches from the shadows. Bebe is clearly the star of the show here, but she’s working with slightly more electronic production than on her latest album, a hat tip to Topic’s production and perhaps more proof that veering into other genres — say, like metal? — isn’t a bad idea. Bebe’s voice is so versatile it works across any form of production, and she even manages to make a bodysuit of chains look comfortable.

Given her other recent collaborations, like “Break My Heart Myself” with Travis Barker, Bebe works great when she’s collaborating with another artist, so expect even more of that in the future.

Check out the “Chain My Heart” video above.

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

Since the release of their last album Heavy Lifter, a lot has changed in the lives of Hovvdy‘s two members. Both musicians recently got married, and one has since become a father. Now returning to make sense of the changes, Hovvdy announce their fourth studio album, True Love.

Alongside the album announcement, Hovvdy debut a video to the LP’s title track. Directed by Adam Alonzo and Zach Taylor, the “True Love” visual mirrors the song’s wistful nature. It shows the two musicians reliving some of their fond memories. They go fishing, ride some ATVs, play in a parachute tent, and toss around a baseball.

In a statement about the album’s title track, Hovvdy’s Charlie Martin said writing the song was particularly cathartic:

“For each Hovvdy record there’s always been a song that kinda shocks my system, kinda jolts me into a brand new and inspired place. This was definitely that song for me. I remember writing it and feeling a rush of excitement — crying a lot honestly. it feels so good to express love and appreciation when you really fucking mean it. but it’s hard to feel worthy of love, of something so rare, and all we can do is try to measure up — that’s what that last part is all about.”

Watch Hovvdy’s “True Love” video above and see their True Love album art and tracklist below.

1. “Sometimes”
2. “True Love”
3. “Lake June”
4. “GSM”
5. “Around Again”
6. “Hope”
7. “Joy”
8. “One Bottle”
9. “Blindsided”
10. “Hue”
11. “Junior Day League”
12. “I Never Wanna Make You Sad”

True Love is out 10/1 via Grand Jury. Pre-order it here.

As Ted Lasso Season 2 gets ready to stream on Apple TV later this month, Jason Sudeikis is the center of a lengthy new profile for GQ where the former Saturday Night Live actor bares his soul on everything from finding success as the almost violently kind Coach Lasso to his headline-making split from fiancé Olivia Wilde.

Speaking of headlines, Sudeikis also took some time to explain his hoodie-wearing acceptance speech at the Golden Globes earlier in the year. Thanks to his noticeably disheveled appearance, and Don Cheadle signaling him to wrap things up, Sudeikis instantly went viral, but he wants to set the record straight that he wasn’t baked or sitting around lamenting his love life. He just felt stupid wearing a suit while in room all by himself. (Sudeikis had Zoomed in from London where he was filming the second season of Ted Lasso.) Via GQ:

“I wore that hoodie because I didn’t wanna f*cking wear the f*cking top half of a Tom Ford suit,” he said. “I love Tom Ford suits. But it felt weird as shit.”

The rest of this story you know: Sudeikis ended up winning best actor for Ted Lasso and gave a dazed acceptance speech while wearing the hoodie, and this in turn sparked glee and speculation about his mental and physical states. For the record, “I was neither high nor heartbroken,” Sudeikis said. It was just late at night and he didn’t want to wear a suit. “So yeah, off it came and it was like, ‘This is how I feel. I believe in moving forward.’ ”

If Sudeikis isn’t in the mood for awards show, there’s some bad (but good) news on that front. On Tuesday, Ted Lasso scored 20 Emmy nominations shattering a previous record held by Glee. Naturally, Sudeikis is among those nominations for Best Lead Actor.

(Via GQ)

Nostalgia is a powerful thing. It can drive someone to spend an entire weekend re-watching an old cartoon they haven’t seen since they were a kid, or play through an old game they used to love on an old console. There is a significant portion of people that enjoy the opportunity to embrace nostalgia no matter how small.

This is a large part of why a trailer dropped today for a new Nickelodeon game. Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is a Super Smash Bros. style fighting game where players will be able to take their favorite Nickelodeon characters and put them in battles to see who comes out victorious. Where the nostalgia comes in is the roster, because the trailer features a plethora of 90’s Nickelodeon cartoon characters including Spongebob, Nigel Thornberry, and Reptar the dinosaur. It will also feature two of the Ninja Turtles, Michaelangelo and Leonardo.

The trailer for this game looks extremely bizarre. There’s an art style to it that initially comes off as unappealing, but when the characters are actually put into some of the stages they look like they fit right in. All of the stages are, unsurprisingly, Nickelodeon-themed and like Smash Bros. will be based on characters in the game. It’s going to be weird watching Reptar beat up Leonardo in Jellyfish fields, but also is that any weirder than Link fighting Donkey Kong in Delfino Plaza?

It will be interesting to see just how deep into copying Smash Bros. this game goes. There’s a lot of technical intricacies to the Super Smash Bros. games that make them unique it’s why they have such a super competitive esports scene. If Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl manages to capture even some of that same spirit then it could end up being a fun time! However, if it comes off as nothing more than a cheap cash grab clone then it will fail. It needs to do something unique beyond just being a Smash Bros. clone. We’ll just have to wait and see until we get some more info in the future.

Don’t blink now, but the Persona series is officially 25 years old this year. The first game came out in 1996 as a spin-off to the Shin Megami Tensei series, but the popularity of the Persona games eventually allowed the spin-off to become its own franchise. Now that it has there are plenty of Persona fans eagerly anticipating the next game in the franchise.

They may be getting some news on that soon! Atlus, the developers of Persona, recently teased a big year for the 25th anniversary. Their website features a timeline count down that will begin September 2021 and end Autumn of 2022. That’s a full year’s worth of Persona content and there is speculation that among that could be a new teaser for Persona 6.

Until now, Atlus has remained very quiet about the future of the Persona series. Since Persona 5 they released a spin-off with Persona 5 Strikers and the expansion Persona 5 Royal. These helped build out that universe and give more stories to the characters that many people fell in love with. However, now that those games have been released, it appears that they will be turning their development time towards Persona 6. An official online recruitment page stated as much. Via Game Informer.

“Thanks to a large amount of support we received for Persona 5, we have gotten a sense of accomplishment,” said Hiraoka. “But we can’t stop there. When we created Persona 4, there was the pressure that it had to exceed Persona 3. Now, we will have to create a 6 which exceeds 5. However, exceeding 5 will be difficult with the current staff. I would like to surpass this tall hurdle with everyone who joins us in this recruitment. The workplace is perfect for those who want a creative challenge when it comes to bringing games to the world.”

So we know that Persona 6 exists and is currently in some form of development, but how deep into development that is could be anyone’s guess. They might still be in the planning phases or they could be recruiting people to actually start building the game. What has fans excited though is that, with a full year of Persona content on the way to celebrate the game’s 25th anniversary, wouldn’t it be cool if we got a teaser of some kind? It doesn’t have to be much. Just something acknowledging the game existing would be great. It would also line up with how they’ve handled game announcements before. Persona 5 was first shown to us in 2014 and that was just an image with an intended release date.

Of course, that game ended up being delayed multiple times throughout development. We’ll just have to wait and see what they want to show us throughout this anniversary and maybe we’ll get a teaser out of it if we’re lucky.

Back at the start of the pandemic, social distancing, and the shutdown of the live music industry, artists kept themselves busy and their fans engaged in various ways. Livestream concerts was a big one, but Idles’ Joe Talbot went a different route by launching his own talk show, Balley TV. The most recent episode dropped in August 2020, but now Balley TV is making a return via a new special, “In Defense Of The Arts.”

Idles is teaming up with Vans for the special, which was filmed in the Old Vic Tunnels at House Of Vans London. The special runs for nearly an hour and will feature interviews and performances from Deep Tan, Nuha Ruby Ra, and Katy J Pearons, as well as Idles and Slowthai linking up for a new version of Ultra Mono highlight “Model Village.”

A studio version of the song will drop on the same day and Talbot says of it, “We are fortunate to announce our forces have joined with the enigmatic and vibrant soul that is Slowthai. Go dig.”

The Idles and Slowthai connection will continue later this year when Idles will perform at Slowthai’s Happyland festival. Idles also have a new documentary, Don’t Go Gentle, on the way.

Indie music has grown to include so much. It’s not just music that is released on independent labels, but speaks to an aesthetic that deviates from the norm and follows its own weirdo heart. It can come in the form of rock music, pop, or folk. In a sense, it says as much about the people that are drawn to it as it does about the people that make it.

Every week, Uproxx is rounding up the best new indie music from the past seven days. This week we got the official return of Courtney Barnett, an ’80s cover from Angel Olsen, and a snarling punk number from Australian punks Amyl And The Sniffers. Check out the rest of the best new indie music below.

While we’re at it, sign up for our newsletter to get the best new indie music delivered directly to your inbox, every Monday.

Half Waif – Mythopoetics

On her fifth full-length album under the name Half Waif, Nandi Rose channels her unique brand of dark pop to break the familial patterns that were handed down to her. Mythopoetics turns the pain of breaking tradition into something truly beautiful, a feat that Rose has managed to pull off effortlessly throughout her growing catalogue.

Koreless – Agor

It’s been ten years since Welsh producer Lewis Roberts dropped his debut single under the Koreless moniker, though Roberts has been filling his time with collaboration work alongside artists like FKA Twigs and Rita Ora. Agor doesn’t sound like any of his recent more pop-oriented work. Instead, it takes on a fully experimental approach that illustrates just how far Roberts is willing to go to perfect his craft.

The Goon Sax – Mirror II

Australian indie-pop outfit The Goon Sax have been around for the better part of the last five years, but Mirror II really sees the trio come into their own for something addicting. Melodic, and clever, the LP is what Steven Hyden described as “infectious and introspective” in a recent issue of the Indie Mixtape newsletter.

Museum Of Love – Life Of Mammals

For the first time in nearly a decade, LCD Soundsystem offshoot project Museum Of Love are back with a brand new album. Life Of Mammals allows core members Pat Mahoney and Dennis McNany to find ways to incorporate their affinity for visual art into their music, with a James Murphy mix that gives the songs an absolutely massive sound.

Courtney Barnett – “Rae Street”

It’s always good news with Courtney Barnett announces a new project. “Rae Street” is the first original music from the Australian singer-songwriter after a year of releasing covers, and reminds us exactly what made Barnett so special when she stormed onto the scene in the mid-2010s. The single is the first taste of Barnett’s forthcoming LP Things Take Time, Take Time, which is due out in November.

Deafheaven – “The Gnashing”

With the lead single for their new album Infinite Granite, Deafheaven signaled a sonic shift away from their black metal roots. “The Gnashing” continues down the path, a track that, as Derrick Rossignol describes for Uproxx “continues the band’s tradition of their epic guitar-based sound, [while] seeming [to confirm] that Clarke’s less hardcore vocals are here to stay.”

Strand Of Oaks – “Galacticana”

Timothy Showalter’s forthcoming eighth album under the name Strand Of Oaks was “created with so much love and my greatest hope is that it connects with people and provides a momentary space for reflection, joy, catharsis, and whatever else someone might be looking for in their life,” he explained in a statement. Lead single “Galacticana” is a contemplative new track that will certainly get you in the headspace for reflection and joy.

Angel Olsen – “Gloria” (Laura Branigan cover)

After the acclaim of her 2020 effort Whole New Mess, Angel OIsen is looking to the past for an EP of ’80s covers. Aisles is previewed by “Gloria,” a synthy, modernized rendition of Laura Branigan’s track originally composed in Italian by Umberto Tozzi. “I just wanted to have a little fun and be a little more spontaneous, and I think I needed to remember that I could!” Olsen wrote in a statement.

Amyl And The Sniffers – “Guided By Angels”

There isn’t a lot of snotty punk rock to go around these days. Australian rockers Amyl And The Sniffers are here to change that with their forthcoming sophomore LP Comfort To Me. The album is preceded by “Guided By Angels,” a snarling affair that stems from the quartet’s time quarantining in a three-bedroom home after two years on the road.

A Great Big Pile Of Leaves – “Beat Up Shoes”

Eight years after their last release, emo idols A Great Big Pile Of Leaves are back with a brand new full-length album. The twinkly, math rock-inspired “Beat Up Shoes” is the first taste of Pono, which may or may not be named after Neil Young’s short-lived high fidelity MP3 player.

Kississippi – “Moonover”

I’ve written in the past about how exciting it is to see an artist emerge from the DIY basement scene with a vision that could catapult them into the pop stratosphere. Kississippi’s forthcoming album Mood Ring is a full-blown pop project, reminiscent of Taylor Swift’s Red or 1989. “Moonover” is one of the most propulsive tracks on the record, and it won’t take long to understand why I’ve been raving about it since the project was announced.

Yasmin Nur – “My Favorite T-Shirt”

Hailing from Wichita, Kansas, Yasmin Nur’s new track tries to find the balance between yearning for acceptance and being comfortable in your own skin. “My Favorite T-Shirt” spends its first few seconds building to a cathartic explosion of a full-band onslaught with distorted guitars and melodic pop punk-infused vocals.

Career Woman – “The Little Dipper”

I’ve had my eye on Career Woman since the release of “Balcony” earlier this year. “The Little Dipper” is a more contemplative affair than its predecessor, existing as almost a diary entry from 17-year-old songwriter Melody Caudill that illustrates the first few months of quarantine in Los Angeles. With just an acoustic guitar and vocal harmonies delivering hefty emotional weight, “The Little Dipper” is reminiscent of early Phoebe Bridgers in the best way.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.