These days, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are the “couple” (Swift’s word) rocking the worlds of both music and sports. It all started, though, with Kelce shooting his shot, which Swift thought was “adorable.”
“This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell. We started hanging out right after that. So we actually had a significant amount of time that no one knew, which I’m grateful for, because we got to get to know each other. By the time I went to that first game, we were a couple. I think some people think that they saw our first date at that game? We would never be psychotic enough to hard launch a first date. […]
As for what Swift’s referring to: Back in July, on an episode of his and brother Jason Kelce’s New Heights podcast, Travis told the story of his first time trying to meet Swift, at a Kansas City stop of The Eras Tour. He said, “I was disappointed that she doesn’t talk before or after her shows because she has to save her voice for the 44 songs that she sings, so I was a little butthurt I didn’t get to hand her one of the bracelets I made for her,” Kelce said, noting the bracelets had his phone number on them.
Jokingly, he added, “She doesn’t meet anybody — or at least she didn’t want to meet me, so I took it personal,”
Meanwhile, Swift noted that she’s really coming to like football, saying in her Time interview, “Football is awesome, it turns out. I’ve been missing out my whole life.”
Sampha dropped his new music video for Lahai highlight “Can’t Go Back,” but that’s not all: He also unveiled new 2024 North American tour dates in support of his recent album.
Of the song, he said, “I spent a lot of time predicting negativity would come my way based on previous life experiences. I would rush past everything thinking I had no time to do anything. I think writing this song was part of learning how to forgive myself in that state of being and to say it’s ok to start now. It’s not always too late. It’s just as important to slow down and recognise I have boundaries and a bandwidth.”
As for that tour: Starting with the Miami date on March 26, fans can currently register to participate in a presale through Sampha’s website. More information can also be found there.
Check out the “Can’t Go Back” video above. Continue scrolling to view a complete list of Sampha’s tour dates.
12/07/2023 — Paris, France @ Cirque d’Hiver Bouglione
02/23/2024 — Auckland, New Zealand @ Powerstation
02/24/2024 — Tapapakanga, New Zealand @ Splore Festival
02/26/2024 — Sydney, Australia @ Hordern Pavillion
02/27/2024 — Brisbane, Australia @ The Tivoli
03/01/2024 — Melbourne, Australia @ Margaret Court Arena
03/03/2024 — Perth, Australia @ Supreme Court Gardens
03/23/2024 — Mexico City, Mexico @ Ceremonia Festival
03/26/2024 — Miami, FL @ Miami Beach Bandshell
03/28/2024 — Birmingham, AL @ Saturn
03/29/2024 — Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl
03/30/2024 — Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel
04/02/2024 — Boston, MA @ Roadrunner
04/04/2024 — Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall
04/05/2024 — Madison, WI @ Majestic
04/06/2024 — Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
04/08/2024 — Denver, CO @ Summit
04/09/2024 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Complex
04/10/2024 — Boise, ID @ Treefort Music Hall
04/12/2024 — Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom
04/13/2024 — Seattle, WA @ Showbox at Market
04/14/2024 — Vancouver, British Columbia @ Vogue Theatre
(WARNING: Spoilers for the most recent Power Book III: Raising Kanan episode will be found below.)
Season three of Power Book III: Raising Kanan got off to a wild start in episode one and it’s just what we expect from the Power Universe. The new season started by showing the aftermath of the Mafia attack and how it affected Kanan and his family. Kanan and Raq are still at odds while Marvin and Jukebox work to repair their relationship. Lou-Lou also has his issues with Raq and then there’s Detective Howard and Detective Burke. The latter was killed by Howard after Burke poked her nose a bit too far into Howard’s past and uncovered all of his darkest secrets. With all of that being said, where does that leave us heading into episode two?
When Will ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ Season 3, Episode 2 Come Out?
The second episode of Power Book III: Raising Kanan season three, titled “Flipmode,” will arrive on December 8. The Dylan C. Brown-directed episode will be available on Friday on the STARZ app starting at midnight EST/PST. The episode will later air on the STARZ TV channel at 8pm ET/PT. Here’s a synopsis for “Flipmode”:
Raq continues her farewell tour with one last job for the Mafia while Kanan dives further into the drug game with an innovative business idea. Howard faces a new threat at the precinct.
New episodes of ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ are available on the STARZ app on Fridays at 12:00 am ET/PT and on the STARZ TV channel at 8:00 pm ET/PT.
There is no greater fast food dish than the double cheeseburger. It’s a flavor bomb of culinary perfection — juicy, savory, beefy — a true joy to bite into. It’s the sort of food that ignites the pleasure centers in your brain and makes your mouth water. There isn’t a single menu option that bests the double cheeseburger, not even the fried chicken sandwich (try as they might).
Whether you eat fast food daily, weekly, once a month, or once a year, if you want the best most rewarding experience, make it a double cheeseburger. But where is your money and time best spent? We’ve thought about this a lot — putting burgers from fast casual and fast food chains to the blind taste test, exploring the more adventurous builds, hell, we even sampled 19 different burgers from the same restaurant, all to find the very best.
And we think we’ve found it. Ready to know the champ? Here are the best double cheeseburgers your money can buy ranked from inessential to most delicious.
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Food Rankings From The Last Month
18. Dairy Queen — Two Cheese Deluxe 1/3lb Signature Stackburger
Dairy Queen
Thoughts and Tasting Notes:
This burger is shortcoming upon shortcoming. The meat is too dense, with a cardboard-like texture making eating two patties overwhelming. The lettuce is watery, the tomatoes are never ripe (in my experience) and the overall build of ketchup, mayo, pickles, and onions feels as if DQ is just checking the necessary boxes of what should be on a burger.
DQ keeps messing with the build here — it used to have one slice of American Cheese and one slice of Swiss and weighed in at a whopping 1/2lb. The burger has shrunk recently, changing to 1/3lb (which I think is a slight improvement, given the meat), and that Swiss was swapped in for a slice of White Cheddar. I preferred the Swiss.
The Bottom Line:
It’s the sort of burger that makes you wonder “Was I better off just making a burger at home?”
Papa Burger? Is A&W sold on that name? It sounds like something a divorced dad who has the kids for the weekend calls his “specialty” dinner. This burger just tastes sad…
The bread is way too dense and dry, the shredded lettuce is often translucent and tastes wilted, the cheese doesn’t melt for some reason, and the meat is dry — which A&W tries to hide by slathering on “Papa Sauce,” the grossest name for a spin on Thousand Island ever.
The Bottom Line:
Considering A&W can barely make a decent root beer, you shouldn’t come here expecting to eat a good burger.
Burger King’s Double Cheeseburger will reveal to you why so many BK restaurants are closing nationwide.
This burger simply isn’t good. The beef is charbroiled to the point of crispiness, resulting in probably the driest meat patty in all of fast food. The bread is too thick, and the pickles, ketchup, and mustard don’t taste nearly as good as they look in the above photo (the entire burger doesn’t look anything like the photo above would suggest).
It brings me no joy to rank Sonic this low because I like Sonic — I think it’s a pretty solid fast food restaurant that I would suggest to friends for a very specific type of fast food. That type of fast food unfortunately is not a burger.
It’s not that this burger is bad, it’s just that everything ranked above it is significantly better. The burger build is fairly standard stuff: two salt and pepper seasoned patties, two slices of American cheese, pickles, ketchup, onions, mayo, lettuce, and tomatoes on a toasted bun. The onions here are diced, allowing for occasional bursts of sharp flavor that cut well through the pickles, while the ketchup provides some bright sweetness that pairs well with the umami quality of the tomato.
Notice I haven’t talked about the meat yet? It’s… fine. The flavor doesn’t jump out, it’s more texture than anything.
I also have a minor gripe with the fact that Sonic places a slice of cheese on the bottom bun. Cheese, meat, cheese, meat Sonic! That’s how you stack a double cheeseburger.
The Bottom Line:
If you’re going to Sonic get some mozzarella sticks, or jalapeño poppers, chili cheese fries, a breakfast burrito, hell… get a hot dog! Just don’t get a double cheeseburger unless you want to be underwhelmed.
Consider this my call for Jack in the Box to bring back the Meaty Cheesy Boys. When I was much younger there used to be a JiB commercial that parodied N*SYNC and the other boy bands of the time with a song by the Meaty Cheesy Boys that went a little something like this:
“Girl you know that there’s one thing that I love, and it’s not you that I’m thinking of. I want the Ultimate Cheeseburger! Cheese, meat, cheese, cheese, meat and that’s it! Baby, you know it’s hot and juicy because Jack won’t make it until you order it.”
Here’s a low rez version of the ad for those who need a refresher:
A few things:
1. This is a hilarious song to sing when you’re hungry (bonus points if you’re singing it to your partner).
2. It’s easily the best song about a cheeseburger ever (besides Jimmy Buffet’s “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” obviously).
3. It’s a sad reminder that Jack in the Box used to have standards. There was a time they didn’t make your foot until you ordered it. They’ve dropped that policy and it shows.
This burger just isn’t that great. Jack in the Box’s meat quality is bottom-of-the-barrel stuff, this tastes like your typical frozen patty with no depth of flavor. While I appreciate the medley of cheeses which includes two slices of American cheese and one slice of Swiss cheese and provides a mix of salty and nutty flavors, overall this burger comes across like it’s missing something.
JiB uses a lot of ketchup, mustard, and mayo to trick you into thinking this burger has big flavor, but without an enjoyable meat component, it just falls flat.
The Bottom Line:
Do yourself a favor and order the Ultimate Bacon Cheeseburger. It’s far superior.
I have sung the praises of the Double Del Cheeseburger many times in my life, and I think the reason is that I’m surprised that Del Taco, a Mexican-inspired fast food chain, makes a pretty decent burger. But when I think about it, I haven’t actually ordered this thing that many times. Because why would I choose this over a taco or burrito?
Here is what works about this burger: the patties are juicy and perfectly cooked. The American cheese melts (which can’t be said for some of the lowest-ranked burgers on this list), the tomatoes are bright and vibrant, and the burger sauce is tangy and gives each bite a savory finish.
But at Del Taco you’re better served with a big Avocado-packed burrito or even a crunchy taco.
The Bottom Line:
Good, but not great enough that you should order this over an Epic Avocado or Cali Burrito (it has fries inside of it!) instead.
12. McDonald’s — Double Quarter Pounder With Cheese
McDonald
Thoughts and Tasting Notes:
As I mentioned in the opening of this article, I eat a lot of cheeseburgers. But no other cheeseburger has shifted around between bad, good, and great as much as McDonald’s Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese.
I think I’ve figured out why. When you order this burger from McDonald’s, you need to eat it immediately. What you’ll find here are two big and beefy patties of meat seasoned with a touch of salt and a lot of black pepper, three slices of cheese, paper-thin pickles, caramelized onions, ketchup, and mustard.
The ingredients all combine for a wonderful mix of beefy, salty, sharp, and tangy flavors with a touch of sweetness. But if this burger sits for any time, it becomes nearly inedible. The beef will start to harden and dry out, which makes eating through two-quarter-pound patties an absolute chore.
The Bottom Line:
For best results, eat your quarter pounder immediately after ordering. It won’t survive even a 15-minute drive home.
Carl’s Jr has several double cheeseburgers but simplifying the menu down to the single best double on the menu was fairly easy. Easy because the Double Western Bacon Cheeseburger was disqualified. That’s not a double cheeseburger it’s a double bacon cheeseburger. If you don’t want bacon, you gotta go Superstar.
Here you get a mix of special sauce and mayo above two cheese-topped charbroiled patties, sliced onions, and tomatoes. Carl’s does what Burger King can’t, they actually manage to make a charbroiled burger that is juicier than it is dry. I like the charred flavor here, it adds an extra dimension to what is otherwise a standard double cheeseburger.
The Bottom Line:
The best charbroiled double cheeseburger in fast food. But if you’re looking for something more adventurous, definitely order that Double Western Bacon.
It pains me to say this but if you haven’t been to Umami Burger in a few years, you should know things have changed in a big way there. Eating this burger used to be a near-religious experience, but now they straight-up taste like they’re made out of ghost kitchens — there is no character here, it tastes similar to your average hotel room service burger.
Ever since the brand was sold to SBE Entertainment Group the quality has significantly dipped. That’s what happens when “making profit” is the business model instead of “making burgers.”
The build of the OG burger consists of umami sauce, dill pickles, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, American cheese, and grilled onions. Unfortunately, nothing about this burger really stands out.
The Big Buford makes the case that more cheeseburgers should utilize red onions over white. Red onions have a milder bite and a bit more sweetness, which pair nicely with this burger’s umami-rich tomato, earthy dill pickles, and ketchup, mustard, and mayo mix.
The build here makes it so that you get produce first, and then your layers of meat and cheese. I prefer meat first but I’m not opposed to this build! The burger is juicy, the produce is one point, and it’s overall a pretty damn good burger.
The Bottom Line:
Rally’s makes some good burgers, I don’t think the brand has anything truly great but you can’t go wrong here. This burger and a side of fries is a meal worth ordering.
While I called Carl’s Jr’s Superstar the best fast food charbroiled cheeseburger, the Habit’s Double Charburger is the best charbroiled cheeseburger in all of fast casual food.
The meat is juicy and savory with a distinct flame flavor that melds perfectly with the rest of the ingredients. Below the charbroiled patty is a stack of carmelized onions alongside tangy pickles, mayo, shredded lettuce, and juicy tomatoes.
This burger has one thing holding it back: the toasted bun. I like a toasted bun as much as anyone else, but The Habit’s bun is always so toasted that it gives an audible crunch. It’s an issue at every restaurant in the chain that I’ve ever been to so it must be company policy to over-toast the bun, which is a shame because I think that takes away from how good the meat is.
The Bottom Line:
A great burger that is held back by its overly toasted bun.
Wendy’s iconic square patties are so thick that Wendy’s is the only fast food chain where I’d rather eat a single cheeseburger than a double. Having said that, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that the Dave’s Double isn’t great. It’s overwhelming, incredibly greasy, and very salty, but… still great!
One bite into this burger and the meat will burst with addictive-greasy umami-esque flavor notes. The bun is soft and buttery, the cheese melts perfectly across each square-shaped patty, ensuring none of your cheese gushes out to the side. The onions are crispy, the tomato juicy, and the pickles have a snap and tang, but… this lettuce drops the ball.
Jesus Christ, Wendy’s has to do something about this lettuce. Inside each burger is a single leaf of Romaine. The water clinging to the leaf and its overall limpness of flavor and texture tamps down the savory elements of this burger and single-handedly holds it back from ranking higher.
The Bottom Line:
A delicious burger but a reminder that lettuce isn’t just a throwaway ingredient. It can make or break a great burger. So I’m going to go ahead and say skip this one and order a Baconator instead, which ditches the lettuce for bacon.
This gigantic burger (my guess is 1/2 pound) features two thick beef patties, two layers of cheddar cheese, pickles, lettuce, tomato, shredded lettuce, and mustard.
One bite will flood your tastebuds with a sumptuous beefy flavor that makes way for sharp and nutty cheese notes, the snap of tomatoes, and a sweet and briny combo of flavors from the red onions and pickles.
The Bottom Line:
If you’ve been sleeping on Chili’s line of burgers, you’re f*cking up.
Fat Burger’s XXL Double King Burger holds the title for the only double cheeseburger that can make shredded lettuce work. The lettuce has a great snap to it, offering a nice texture, while the pickles and onions add a sharp sense of tang and mild spice, which pair nicely with the two well-seasoned patties sandwiched together by two slices of melted American cheese.
In a subtle twist, Fat Burger places each slice of cheese under the patty. I swear this changes the way a burger hits the palate — not in a worse way, just in a way that comes across as slightly off to me. Call me picky if you want, but we are essentially splitting hairs at this point in the ranking. Small minuscule details like this make all the difference when we’re near the top of the ranking.
The Bottom Line:
Each bite is a wonderful savory bomb of flavor. It’s not our favorite but it might well be yours.
This year I tried 19 different Red Robin cheeseburgers and this was my favorite double (non bacon) cheeseburger on the entire menu. The build is slightly smaller than a typical Red Robin burger and features two burger patties, Campire mayo (which is a tangier smokier version of mayo) crispy fried onions, and two slices of American cheese.
The meat is juicy while the sauce brings in some smokey tang to each bite which pairs nicely with the sweetness and crunch of the onion.
In-N-Out will always hold a special place in my heart. As a Los Angeles native, the very first cheeseburger I ever ate was a Double Double, so every burger I’ve had since is measured up against what this burger offers. It is to me, simply what a burger is supposed to taste like.
The meat patties here are delicious, perfectly seasoned, and cooked to a medium well state. The burger has a semi-salty mouth-watering quality that is paired with the best American cheese in all of fast food.
Seriously, In-N-Out, where do you get your cheese from? Start retailing that sh*t ASAP.
The bun is perfectly toasted with a crisped edge that provides a pleasing crunch with each bite. The lettuce is crispy and fresh, the tomatoes are juicy, thick, and always ripe, and the special sauce is delicious with chunks of tart relish.
In-N-Out’s burger is so on point that it’s the only chain that hasn’t given in and produced a bacon cheeseburger. Because they don’t need to. This is such a good burger that it doesn’t need another meat to make it next level.
The Bottom Line:
A truly amazing cheeseburger that is worth the hype it receives. Elevate it by asking for chopped chilis in your burger.
The draw of Five Guys is that the burgers here are fully customizable. So let me talk about the base before offering some builds.
The meat patties are fresh beef cooked to order. They’re juicy, beefy, and I’d guess just under a quarter of a pound. The bun is a standard sesame seed bun and the cheese is salty, a bit creamy, and melts perfectly. Just the meat, cheese, and bun make for a delicious burger that some days will hit the spot even better than our number one choice.
One of my favorite builds is bun, meat, cheese, grilled jalapenos, and onions. It’s beefy, spicy, salty, and incredibly savory.
Another great build is to ask for a grilled cheese and add two patties, this will give you a crispy buttery bun and a more decadent spin on a classic cheeseburger. Elevate this with some barbecue sauce and grilled mushrooms and you have a sweet, smokey, and savory umami bomb of a burger.
The Bottom Line:
This burger is neck and neck with our number one choice. Five Guys is expensive (a double will run you $12), but if you know how to build your burger, it’s worth every penny.
I can say with confidence that Shake Shack has the greatest hamburger patty in all of fast food. I know, I’ve tasted patties completely dry and this one stands far and above the rest.
The way the meat melts in your mouth is just fantastic. It has this wonderful depth of flavor, it’s meaty, juicy, fatty, savory, and has an interesting slightly sweet carmelized crunch to it thanks to the Maillard crust. It is burger perfection. And that’s just the meat!
The produce here is also bang on — the tomatoes are juicy, the lettuce has a slight bitter complexity to it, the burger sauce is sweet, tangy, and rich, and the cheese is a great balance of salty and creamy flavors all served inside a soft and spongey potato bun.
The Bottom Line:
The greatest fast food double cheeseburger your money can buy right now.
A woman named Jackie pulled a move straight out of a romantic comedy recently, and it has the internet rallying around her potential love interest. Jackie met a guy at a bar and liked him so much that she gave him her phone number. Well, 80% of her number, that is.
The world heard about it on January 17 when Twitter user Henpecked Hal shared a picture of the napkin with her partial phone number written on it. “My 22-year-old cousin met his dream girl at a bar and it’s going pretty well,” Hal wrote in the tweet.
“Call me! 512-3*1-2*04,” the message read, along with “I’m worth it.” The 512 is an area code in Austin, Texas.
After congratulating his cousin on meeting his “dream girl,” he asked: “Did you get her number.” The cousin replied, “most of it.” The Tweet also attached a photo of a list of phone numbers the cousin called to try and get in touch with the elusive Jackie.
u201cMy 22 year old cousin met his dream girl at a bar and it’s going pretty wellu201d
The tweet has gone insanely viral, racking up nearly 60,000 retweets, 85.6 million views and 776,000 likes.
The next day, Hal revealed that the woman reached out to him. In the screenshot of her message, she wrote: “Heeeyyy, so you likely won’t see this but I’m Jackie from the tweet!”
“Tell your cousin that next time I see him I’m going to…” she continued, but Hal blurred out the rest of the message to conceal her identity.
“I just talked to him! WHAT’S YOUR NUMBER????” Hal replied. “He said he’s halfway through the list, which means he’s actually like 10 per cent of the way through it.”
“He may not be as clever as he thinks,” Jackie responded, “give me HIS number, I’m taking over this operation.”
A lot of people in the comments said they thought Jackie was cold or arrogant for playing hard to get and making poor Hal’s cousin try 100 different numbers to find out which one was her. But Hal says that it’s all an extension of the conversation the two had at the bar.
“For the people saying she’s arrogant, high maintenance or whatever: these kids talked for an hour about a shared interest in true crime, mysteries, etc,” Hal tweeted. “My cousin bragged that he always solves the case before the show ends (editor’s note: not this time). I think she’s awesome.”
So, all Jackie did was give him another mystery to solve. If he’s such a great amateur detective then he should be able to reach her, right?
Some people in the comments have suggested that the story is fake. One person noted that the notebook page with the phone numbers on it had an indentation at the top which could be the “5” in Jackie’s phone number from the napkin. The implication is that Hal wrote on the napkin while it was on top of the notebook, leaving an indentation. But other people pointed out that the writing didn’t match.
“The programmers who sent scripts and code, the excel junkies who sent me docs to share with my cousin, y’all are wild,” Hal tweeted. “I couldn’t come close to getting back to everyone, but I appreciate it.”
Nearly 90 million people have followed the story of Hal’s cousin and Jackie. Let’s hope there’s a happy ending or at least they get to meet up and see each other again to talk about the mystery that brought them both together.
A24‘s highly anticipated wrestling drama, The Iron Claw, is set to release later this month, and we now have official word on where the Zac Efron film will be streaming after its theatrical run.
Thanks to a new “exclusive multiyear pay-one output agreement” with HBO and Max, The Iron Claw will arrive on the streaming platform in early 2024. A24’s existing deal with Showtime is set to expire at the end of December, and the HBO deal will immediately start on January 1.
According to Deadline, over 100 movies will start playing on Max, HBO and Cinemax including 2023 theatrical releases such as The Iron Claw, Dicks: The Musical, Priscilla, Dream Scenario, The Zone of Interest, Stop Making Sense (2023), Love Lies Bleeding, Civil War, and more.
“Continuing our relationship with A24 to bring award-winning movies alongside recent fan-favorites to subscribers adds incredible value to the HBO and Max value proposition,” Royce Battleman, EVP of Content Acquisitions at Warner Bros. Discovery said in a statement.
Here’s the official synopsis for The Iron Claw starring Efron, Jeremy Allen White, and Harris Dickinson:
The true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who made history in the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s. Through tragedy and triumph, under the shadow of their domineering father and coach, the brothers seek larger-than-life immortality on the biggest stage in sports.
After Sean “Diddy” Combs settled Cassie’s lawsuit against him for abuse and rape, he was accused of further crimes in a new set of lawsuits that a spokesperson called “money grabs.” While Combs was content to allow his lawyers to maintain his innocence in statements to the press, another new lawsuit has him saying “Enough is enough.”
According to Page Six, Combs has been sued again, this time by a woman who claims he and two other men gang raped her in 2003, when she was just 17 years old. Combs’ lastest press statement reads:
“ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy. Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday. Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth.”
In the new suit, the anonymous woman says she and friends were picked up by Harve Pierre, the former president of Bad Boy Entertainment, at a club in Detroit. Pierre told them Combs wanted to meet them, bringing the anonymous Jane Doe to Diddy’s recording studio in New York, where she says she became inebriated and Combs forced himself on her.
According to the lawsuit, “Ms. Doe was reading about Ms. Ventura’s [Cassie’s] allegations of sex trafficking and being forced to have sex with other men against her will. Ms. Doe obviously understands that she too had been sex trafficked, and that Mr Combs behavior in forcing women into nonconsensual sex was not an isolated incident or unique only to Ms. Ventura.”
Hanukkah starts on December 7, Christmas is on the 25th, and any other holidays you may be observing before 2023 comes to a close are probably kicking off soon, too. So, if you haven’t already gotten your holiday shopping done, time is running out. If you still have some music fans to buy for, we have you covered.
We’ve rounded up some of the best music-related gifts worth considering this year, and there’s a healthy mix of things that should appeal to just about everybody, whether they’re into audio, reading, hip-hop, rock, or whatever else. The items below come in at a range of price points, too, so no matter who you’re shopping for, get started by checking out the list below.
Powerbeats Pro Wireless High-Performance Earbuds
Beats
Price: $249.95
A quality pair of headphones can really let a song’s production and impact flourish, and Beats is one of the leading brands in the market. Their Powerbeats Pro earbuds are a solid pick, as they boast a 9-hour battery life, Siri functionality, and a bunch of other ease-of-use features.
Seeing a live performance is perhaps the best way to hear music, but it’s also one of the loudest and potentially most harmful ways. Hearing protection is important, and Vibes’ hi-fidelity earplugs lower sound without sacrificing quality, making them a must-use for the next show you attend.
Another hearing protection option worth looking into is EARPIECE’s collaboration with the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. They have standard and pro options, and if you’re unsure which one to get, the EARPIECE website has a quick rundown that should help you decide which set is right for you.
The rise of concert films of Taylor Swift and Beyoncé doesn’t just mean people going to the theater for a concert experience, it also means that soon, people could be experiencing them in their home. But, to optimize that, you need a good sound system for your television. You can’t go wrong with the TCL Q Class Premium 3.1 Channel Sound Bar, a simple two-piece setup that offers high-end home audio at an affordable price point.
Do you know somebody who’s trying to throw a party in the woods? A rave in a cave? Some other sort of gathering with music, far away from an outlet? That calls for Soundboks, a huge, portable, battery-powered speaker that lets you crank it up to 126 decibels. The specs are impressive: It can go for up to 40 hours on a single charge (6 hours at full volume), it has an effective frequency range of 40 Hz to 20 kHz, and it’s splash proof.
Between his time in Nirvana, Foo Fighters, and the many other endeavors he’s been involved in, Dave Grohl has seen some stuff, which means his memoir ought to be pretty darn interesting. If you want a taste of what to expect before committing to the buy, here’s an excerpt he shared previously, about the time he met Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.
Speaking of McCartney: He put out a book of his own in 2021 and it would be a perfect gift for the Beatles fan in your life who has happened to have missed it. A new paperback edition was released recently and it comes with seven new song commentaries, on ’Bluebird,” “Day Tripper,” “English Tea,” “Every Night,” “Hello, Goodbye,” “Magical Mystery Tour,” and “Step Inside Love.”
TMNT is back in the spotlight right now after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem was one of this summer’s biggest movies. Now, they’ve teamed up with headphone favorites Skullcandy for a new wireless gaming headset that’s a striking “ooze” color and comes with interchangeable headbands.
Like Skullcandy but want it less turtle-y for some reason (or just prefer earbuds to a gaming headset)? The Rail ANC True Wireless Earbuds are worth a look: They boast a 38-hour battery life, they have 4-microphone active noise canceling, and if you forget where you put them, they even have Tile finding technology.
Shortly after Funko announced their new Blackpink collaboration in October, pre-orders sold out. A number of items, like group member keychains, are still available as of this post, though. They’re cheap, too, making them perfect stocking-stuffers for any Blinks on your gift list.
Not enough Blackpink for you? Well, their Funko collab goes deeper: The group teamed with Funko’s Loungefly brand for a line of gorgeous accessories. Specifically, there’s a backpack, crossbody bag, and zip wallet, all of which come in a matching black and pink color scheme that’s perfectly executed.
We don’t really have to explain that Meta Quest 2 is one of the best ways to experience the world of VR entertainment. From a music perspective, though: Meta has the Music Valley Concert Series coming up, and the VR performance lineup includes The Kid Laroi, Jung Kook, Jorja Smith, and Alec Benjamin.
In addition to Ray-Ban being one of the most trusted glasses brands, they pack some impressive tech into their new smart glasses thanks to a Meta partnership. You can livestream with them, you can take pictures, and you can even listen to music thanks to the built-in “discreet open-ear speakers let you enjoy rich audio quality, music and calls, while keeping you connected to the world around you.”
Getting into guitar can be tough, so if you know somebody on your shopping list is getting an axe of their own, a Fender Play subsciption could be a good complementary gift. The service offers guitar lessons to sharpen your skills, bite-size tutorials to learn songs in a flash, and a community where aspiring players can support each other.
A lot of high-end home audio setups can be bulky, but Sonos Era 100 sounds great and comes in a compact form factor. Aside from its minimal footprint and simple-but-elegant aesthetic, it should work with whatever you’re trying to play your music from, whether it’s a Bluetooth-compatible device or an older piece of hardware that can connect via line in.
Rhymesayers Entertainment and MF DOOM’s estate are commemorating the late rapper with a new DOOMSDAY drop. This capsule includes a bunch of limited merch items with a ton of variety, meaning there should be something for everybody. Options include embroidered hoodies, T-shirts, sweatpants, socks, slides with custom printed shoeboxes, skate decks, pins, and more.
It doesn’t matter what your favorite Tyler The Creator album/era is: Spotify’s new merch capsule collection has you covered. You can browse the collection album-by-album and cover yourself head-to-toe in hoodies, socks, hats, and other pieces you can incorporate into your everyday look.
You don’t even have to know what music your giftee is into for this present to work: A Ticketmaster gift card gives the gift of live music (or live sports of theater or anything, really) in all its forms. They’re flexible, too, as you can get a gift card in any amount from $25 to $500.
Eilish has been building herself a nice perfume line for a little while now. She’s up to three different Eau de Parfum scents at the moment, including the recently released Eilish No. 3. That one’s actually sold out as of the writing of this post, but maybe it’ll be back in stock by the time you read this. If not, you can still grab the two previous award-winning scents right now.
Megan Thee Stallion has become a pop culture favorite in recent years, and she has a killer merch line, too, featuring everything from shirts, to bikinis to pet collars. You don’t even have to be a Meg fan to get into her merch, really, as a lot of people could get down with a “Bad b*tches have bad days too!” hoodie.
Taylor Swift is also a merch queen, and while vinyl might be the first thing you think of when it comes to her offerings, she has a bunch of different coals on the fire. We actually wrote a whole Swift-specific gift guide, so that’s a good place to start looking. Then there’s her online shop, which has everything from hoodies to pajamas to a clock.
We put together a Drake gift guide, too, and one of the items worth highlighting here is Titles Ruin Everything, his and Kendra Samir’s poetry book. You’ve seen DJ Khaled reading it, and now you can, too.
First there was the Ice Spice Munchkins Drink from Dunkin, and now Ice Spice is continuing her crusade of perfect branding opportunities with a new Chia Pet. Chia Pets are one of the all-time fun novelty gifts, and getting Ice Spice as the model for one is an absolutely perfect use of the format.
Beabadoobee has a special gift for her fans, who have been so loyal this past year. Today (December 6), the Filipino indie-pop singer has shared a special concert album Live In LA, featuring performances recorded at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.
The album features several fan favorites, including her viral tracks “Glue Song” and “The Way Things Go,” as well as standout tracks from her albums Fake It Flowers and Beatopia.
Earlier this year, Bea opened for Taylor Swift on various dates of her critically acclaimed Eras Tour. During the Eras Tour, Bea spoke with People about taking inspiration to write new music while on the road.
“I’ve written so much recently, it’s like something in my brain where I’m like, all right, I’m back on my songwriting thing,” said Bea. “I’ve been planning on writing the next album and I’ve had ideas for it for ages and I’ve already had some songs here and there, but I’ve been finishing half-written songs and making new ones just yesterday. And it’s all really inspiring.”
You can see the Live In LA cover art and tracklist below.
Thomas Davis
1. “Talk”
2. “Apple Cider”
3. “10:36”
4. “Together”
5. “Charlie Brown”
6. “Care”
7. “She Plays Bass”
8. “Last Day On Earth”
9. “Pictures Of Us”
10. “Animal Noises”
11. “The Perfect Pair”
12. “See You Soon”
13. “Sunny Day”
14. “Glue Song”
15. “Don’t Get The Deal”
16. “You Lie All The Time”
17. “Back To Mars”
18. “Cologne”
19. “The Way Things Go”
20. “Coffee”
21. “Fairy Song”
The end of the year is loaded with “best of lists,” for obvious reasons. But even with big lists dropping left and right, it’s worth taking a moment to focus on the superlatives. While we picked 100 bottles of bourbon to highlight this year, there was one that truly stood above the rest — Eagle Rare 25.
Eagle Rare 25 is a Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey made at the iconic Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky. That alone will get most people excited, as Buffalo Trace is behind some of the world’s most beloved and sought-after whiskeys — from the Pappy Van Winkle line to Blanton’s and Weller to E.H. Taylor. But the “best of the year” is about more than just hype and seeking beloved brand drops. It’s about transcending time and place while offering something unique. A game changer. And that’s what the team at Buffalo Trace was able to achieve with our pick for 2023’s best bourbon.
In creating something truly magnificent, there are a lot of facets at play. Yes, it has to taste astoundingly good. But it also has to open new doors while still holding onto something familiar and perhaps comforting. It’s a hell of a balancing act. That becomes even more strained the longer a whiskey ages. Kentucky has a varied climate with cold winters, mild springs and falls (for the most part), and hot and humid summers. That variance makes long aging a rarity. When looking at aging bourbon, seasons become more important than years. It’s really more about the maturity of the whiskey than the number on a bottle.
“The whiskey changes and develops over time due to a variety of factors, including oak, barrel char, temperature, humidity, light, and more,” Harlan Wheatley, Master Distiller at Buffalo Trace, notes. “Age often contributes to creating a mature spirit, but many factors work together to create an outstanding tasting experience.”
Sazerac Company
This deeper understanding of aging an American whiskey is what makes Eagle Rare 25 so special. Eagle Rare 25 wasn’t just left to sit in a barrelhouse like any other barrel of bourbon at Buffalo Trace. Through the experimentation happening at Warehouse X at Buffalo Trace, Wheatley and his team have been monitoring how whiskey is aged and affected by atmospheric pressure, humidity, temperature, light, and even the airflow in a warehouse. They’ve been gathering millions of scientific data points for years now and have been able to apply what they’re learning to a new format in Warehouse P, where Eagle Rare 25 was aged.
I’ll let Wheatley take it from here: “Warehouse P allows us to maintain our commitment to age as a critical element to producing premium whiskey, while also accounting for the realities of our physical location and the impact the environment has on our ability to age barrels over an extended timeframe, gracefully.”
All of this sounds great (albeit very “in the weeds”). But here’s the long and short of it, Eagle Rare 25 was an experiment that went beyond the “science” and hit the mark of something closer to magic. As the barrel aged in Warehouse P, it started to change in ways that weren’t expected. It’s almost as if the whiskey started doubling back on itself flavor-wise. The hefty oakiness that it had at 20 years old, matured away and revealed a softer whiskey, full of notes that weren’t as readily apparent before.
It wasn’t that it tasted like it was 12 or 15 years old again. It was more like it tasted like something completely new. Something fresh.
As Wheatley puts it, “While we developed predicting formulas on what to expect from our whiskies based on the changes in the environment, this whiskey took us somewhere new as it aged in Warehouse P.”
Sazerac Company
So what does this whiskey taste like? I have the answer for you. I was lucky enough to taste this with Wheatley in Warehouse P when it was ready and again for this article to confirm my original tasting notes:
The nose hints at old oak staves resting in a musty warehouse — much like Double Eagle Rare (a 20-year-old product) — before veering toward stewed cherries with hints of clove and nutmeg next to salted dark chocolate shavings and rich powdered sugar icing cut with bourbon vanilla and light pipe tobacco essences with a whisper of fall leaves and orchard barks. Taking a step back, the nose is like looking over a banquet table full of Black Forest cakes in an old brick barrel house with dirt from the floor, musty old bricks, and aged beams adding to the sweet and lush desserts. Then imagine the windows are open and the falling leaves and cool air are just sneaking into that experience.
The first sip reveals rich vanilla that gets buttery and creamy with an almost eggnog vibe thanks to the spice with dried cranberry, brandy-soaked cherry, and dried figs leading to rich toffee rolled in dark chocolate and anise before getting cut with a touch of earthy tobacco pulled from fresh black dirt.
The finish hugs you gently, with warmth tied to winter spice barks soaked in apple cider cut with black cherry as the dirt takes on a warehouse must with gently sweet oak staves mingling with a whisper of whole black pepper and clove buds over creamy dark orange spice cake. Basically, you’re diving into those spiced cakes while the barrelhouse continues to layer into the overall profile.
What’s magical about this pour is that the oakiness is there but so subtly drawn back that you’d have a hard time guessing this was 25 years old (ancient, in Kentucky bourbon terms).
Sazerac Company
All of this adds up to something truly superlative in bourbon. And yes, of course, it’s also pricy — this bourbon is $10,000 at MSRP and twice that at retail. But there are clear reasons. One, this is well-made whiskey that’s amazingly rare — only about 200 bottles exist. Two, it’s something truly delicious. And three, this whiskey is a doorway to a new world of aging whiskey in Kentucky (and the U.S.) for longer periods, which might be a whole new world of flavor profiles we’ve not seen in a very long time at high-age statements.
Wheatley won’t rest on his laurels simply because he hit it out of the park with Eagle Rare 25, either. He pointed out while we were sipping that they’ve “planned experiments over a 20-year timeframe to identify ideal environmental conditions” for their whiskeys and that they’re only “about seven years into the process”.
Eagle Rare 25 isn’t only the fruit of true craftsmanship and experimentation, but it’s the beginning of something game-changing. Or as Wheatley put it, “I firmly believe the whiskey category is only bound by the ideas we have not considered yet.”
That, folks, is very exciting. And we’re proud to name this expression our Bourbon Whiskey of the Year.
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