Month: May 2024

A lot of the things I’ve loved most throughout my life come from Japan. I’ve been playing Pokémon, Mario, and other Japanese video games since I was a kid during the Super Nintendo and Game Boy Color eras in the ’90s. I had a major anime phase in college that had me binging One Piece episodes deep into the night. I’m admittedly a recovering picky eater, but now I know you can’t go wrong with a big bowl of ramen and some gyoza on the side.

Traveling to the other side of the world to visit the home of my favorite stuff is something I’ve always thought about doing eventually. In November 2023, I turned “someday” into “today” and actually made the trip. Excluding travel days to and from Japan, my cousin and I spent a full week in the country: Three days in Tokyo, a travel day that included an afternoon in Machida, and three days in Kyoto (featuring an Osaka day trip in the middle).

Given that my cousin and I are both big-time Nintendo and Pokémon enjoyers, a significant portion of our to-do list revolved around those interests. Those plans ended up being major highlights of the trip, so now I’d like to pay it forward by sharing some of the best game-related things we did in Japan, things you should consider checking out if you’re a game lover planning a Japanese adventure of your own.

Pokémon Centers and Nintendo Stores

Running through my trip in chronological order, one of the first places I checked out was a Pokémon Center, an official store that exclusively sells Pokémon merchandise. Actually, on the trip overall, I ended up going to five of the 16 locations in Japan (according to Bulbapedia). I would say that was overkill since the stores are mostly the same, but the locations I visited were close to other attractions on my schedule anyway, so a few quick pop-ins were no problem and a natural part of my trip’s flow. (Also there’s no way I wasn’t going to visit every Pokémon Center possible.)

It’s worth checking out at least one or two of them, though: They offer exclusive merch you can’t get anywhere else, and the stores are well-designed and nicely presented, cultivating an atmosphere that made my childhood heart happy. Taking photos with the store’s giant statues (each location has different ones) is a fun touristy thing to do, too, and they’re just a neat thing to see.

The Nintendo Store experience is similar (I went to two of them), but swap out Pokémon for Mario.

Akihabara

Akihabara is always one of the first places that comes up on lists and online discussions about things for gamers to do in Tokyo: It’s a neighborhood in the city that’s best known for its many stores catering to fans of games, manga, anime, and similar interests.

My main goal for my time in Akihabara was to do some retro game shopping. Unfortunately for buyers, shop owners in the area are clearly aware that they’re in a tourist destination, so prices aren’t the cheapest. Still, it’s fun to poke around the stores and see things that you won’t often find outside of Japan.

Super Potato, with its floors of vintage merchandise and even some free-to-play arcade games, was a particular highlight. Before my trip, an acquaintance from Japan noted he found Super Potato to be similar to an early Japanese arcade; The country’s first arcades in the late ’70s and early ’80s were a little makeshift, with buildings not originally designed for gaming purposes filled with game cabinets to capitalize on the sudden popularity of titles like Space Invaders and Xevious. That was sort of the feel of the Super Potato arcade floor, so it’s worth checking out for fans of arcade culture and its history.

I didn’t buy much, but I did get inexpensive copies of Space Invaders for PC Engine (the card was small with nice art, and I wanted something little to commemorate Japanese arcade history) and Mahjong for Game Boy (to commemorate watching mahjong on TV in our hotel room).

84 Hashi

Speaking of gaming history: If you’re a fan (especially of Nintendo history), 84 (also known as “84 Hashi” or “Hashi”) is my most enthusiastic recommendation.

84 was originally a members-only cafe run by Toru Hashimoto (aka Chokan), a former Nintendo employee who contributed to games like Pokémon Red and Green, Yoshi’s Island, and many others. 84 started as a spot for Chokan’s game developer peers to hang out, and now anybody can book a tour.

It’s quite the place to look around, too. It’s an intimate space, but it’s filled with all sorts of unique memorabilia; Handwritten and signed sheet music from Koji Kondo and a Pikachu illustration signed by Game Freak employees especially caught my eye. 84 is a loving tribute to video game history from a man who is part of it, and to be surrounded by that energy makes it a special place. Having the opportunity to chat with somebody who worked on the original Pokémon games and ask what those times were like was a particular thrill.

(Nintendo Life published an informative feature about 84 in 2023 if you want to learn more.)

Serigaya Park

This one is only for hardcore Pokémon fans: Machida is where Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri grew up, and in that city is Serigaya Park. Throughout Japan, there are Poké Lids (Pokémon-themed utility hole covers), but since Machida is a key location in Pokémon history, there’s a concentration of them in Serigaya Park.

Machida is only about a 30-minute train ride from Tokyo, and it was mostly on our way from Tokyo to Kyoto (it did add about an hour of train time to the voyage). Still, it was an easy pit stop to make, especially since the park isn’t a long walk from Machida Station.

Seeing the lids was neat and the park itself was nice, but both were just an excuse to visit what is essentially the birthplace of Pokémon, which was a moving experience for me. As a young boy, Tajiri spent a lot of time studying and catching bugs, perhaps even snagging some beetles in Serigaya Park. These experiences were a primary inspiration behind Pokemon, so to spend some time in the city where those moments happened made me feel close to the history of the games I love in a way I never thought I’d get to enjoy.

If nothing else, stopping off in Machida was an opportunity for a quick glimpse at what Japan is like outside of its major cities. Whether it’s Machida or another lesser-known area, taking a step away from Japan’s most-visited places offers worthwhile perspective.

Go Kart Street Tour

Mario Kart is rooted in reality in the sense that go kart racing exists, but that’s about it. (Also, I throw dangerous items out of the car while driving.) It’s not something you can experience in real life, but I got the closest I probably ever will during my Osaka day trip.

We booked a go kart tour from Akiba Kart Osaka, and it was for real: Before heading to Japan, we actually had to get international driving permits (an easy and inexpensive process). They were necessary because this tour puts you in gas-powered karts on active city streets, free to get pancaked by the full-sized vehicles driving next to you. To make the experience more video-game-like, they also offer a selection of onesie character costumes to wear during the hour-long tour (but no Mario outfits, presumably to avoid the iron fist of Nintendo’s legal department). I was Mewtwo (come and get me, Pokémon‘s legal department).

The Akiba Kart Osaka website claimed we’d be the “center of attention” and would “taste a little bit of fame” during the tour. That initially seemed like self-promotional exaggeration, but they weren’t wrong. Passerssby really did seem to light up as they saw us driving, especially young children who were wowed by the sight of costumed tourists zooming down the street.

The tour was just good clean fun. Furthermore, especially since we were only spending one day in Osaka, it was an effective way to see a lot of the city in a short amount of time, making it an easy recommendation.

(I witnessed a similar go kart tour one day in Tokyo as well, so you might be able to find something similar to the tour I went on regardless of where your Japan travels take you.)

Unplugging

Seeing culturally significant places and other local attractions that aren’t directly game-related should be a priority for gamers. Japan’s rich history and modern culture are worth exploring on their own merits, but keeping with the theme of this article, they also offer valuable context about your favorite games. Learning more about the places where art is made and the daily lives its creators live can be eye-opening.

Specific example: When in Kyoto, my cousin pointed out how the historical buildings reminded him of Pokémon Gold and Silver; The fictional Johto region of those games was inspired by Japan’s Kansai region, which includes Kyoto. Seeing the real-life basis of a fictional world I’ve spent hours exploring since childhood made me appreciate both places so much more than I ever had before.

Kristen Stewart is returning to the world for vampires. But until like Twilight, there will be no sparkling in Flesh of the Gods, an upcoming action-horror movie directed by Mandy filmmaker Panos Cosmatos.

Set in Los Angeles in the 1980s, the film stars Stewart and Oscar Isaac as a married couple who “each evening descend from their luxury skyscraper condo and head into the city’s electric nighttime realm,” according to Variety. “When they cross paths with a mysterious and enigmatic figure known as Nameless and her hard-partying cabal, the pair are seduced into a glamorous, surrealistic world of hedonism, thrills, and violence.”

Cosmatos described Flesh of the Gods as inhibiting “the liminal realm between fantasy and nightmare. Both propulsive and hypnotic, Flesh will take you on a hot rod joy ride deep into the glittering heart of hell.” Producer Adam McKay (Anchorman, Step Brothers, etc.) added, “This director, this writer, these incredible actors, vampires, choice ’80s punk, style and attitude for miles… that’s the film we’re bringing you today. We think it’s wildly commercial and wildly artful. Our ambitions are to make a movie that ripples through popular culture, fashion, music and film. Can you tell how excited I am?”

Not as excited as me, buddy. Move over, Challengers. Flesh of the Gods is my personality now.

Flesh of the Gods does not have a release date, but filming is expected to begin later this year.

(Via Variety)

Dua Lipa will make her SNL debut on Saturday, May 4, as the host and musical guest. Lipa will perform songs from Radical Optimism, her long-awaited third studio album, arriving four years after the Grammy-winning Future Nostalgia.

When Will Dua Lipa’s New Album Radical Optimism Be On Spotify?

Radical Optimism is due out Friday, May 3, which means the album should be available to stream on Spotify (and all DSPs) beginning at 9 p.m. PST on Thursday, May 2, and and midnight EST on May 3. Lipa has released “Houdini,” “Training Season,” and “Illusion” as singles ahead of the album’s release. All three singles debuted within the top 50 of the Billboard Hot 100.

“A couple years ago, a friend introduced me to the term ‘Radical Optimism,’” Lipa said in a press release upon the album’s announcement. “It’s a concept that resonated with me, and I became more curious as I started to play with it and weave it into my life. It struck me — the idea of going through chaos gracefully and feeling like you can weather any storm. At the same time, I found myself looking through the music history of psychedelia, trip hop, and Britpop. It has always felt so confidently optimistic to me, and that honesty and attitude is a feeling I took into my recording sessions.”

Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism Tracklist

1. “End Of An Era”
2. “Houdini”
3. “Training Season”
4. “These Walls”
5. “Whatcha Doing”
6. “French Exit”
7. “Illusion”
8. “Falling Forever”
9. “Anything For Love”
10. “Maria”
11. “Happy For You”

Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism Album Cover Artwork

Did you know that Sausage Party is the second highest-grossing R-rated animated film of all-time after Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train? It’s true! To be fair, there aren’t a ton of animated titles with an R rating out there, but it’s still an impressive box office achievement — especially for a movie featuring a graphic orgy between foods. The success of 2016’s Sausage Party has led to a TV spin off, Sausage Party: Foodtopia, which debuts this summer on Amazon Prime Video.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Seth Rogen-starring Sausage Party: Foodtopia, including plot details and the release date.

Plot

Sausage Party (the movie) is about a sausage named Frank who leads a group of his fellow supermarket products on “a quest to discover the truth about their existence and what really happens when they become chosen to leave the grocery store.” But it’s mostly an excuse to make dirty jokes and puns.

Set after the events of the movie, Sausage Party: Foodtopia follows Frank, Brenda, Barry, and Sammy, the characters voiced by Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Michael Cera, and Edward Norton, respectively, as they try to build their own food society. Little else is known, other than there’s a scene so “unbelievably shocking” that it caught the not-easily-shocked Wiig by surprise.

Rogen told Empire that he warned the PR folks at Amazon, “You should all just start wrapping your heads around this now. You’ll probably have to talk about this a lot.” He added, “We had Kristen Wiig in picking up a few lines the other day, and I think we’ve all become desensitized to it, because we’ll just be like, ‘Roll the scene!’ and then she was like, ‘Oh my God?! This is insane!’”

Kyle Hunter and Ariel Shaffir, who both received screenplay credit on the movie, will serve as co-showrunners, while Conrad Vernon is back as director.

Cast

Original Sausage Party cast members Seth Rogen (sausage Frank), Kristen Wiig (hot dog bun Brenda), Michael Cera (sausage Barry), David Krumholtz (lavash Kareem Abdul Lavash), and Edward Norton (bagel Sammy Bagel Jr.) are all back, while the new additions to the cast include Will Forte, Sam Richardson, Natasha Rothwell, and Yassir Lester in undisclosed roles. Bill Hader will, uh, probably not voice “Firewater” and “José Tequila” again.

Release Date

All eight episodes of Sausage Party: Foodtopia will be available on Amazon Prime Video on July 11. If only it was one week later: July 4 is the most hot dog (and sausage) day of the year.

Trailer

There’s no trailer yet, but Prime Video did release a poster for the series. Yes, there is a “hole” joke.

The Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Lakers both had their seasons come to an end this week, as the Timberwolves polished off a sweep of the Suns and the Nuggets beat the Lakers for the eighth time in their last nine playoff games.

As always happens when teams with stated championship aspirations coming into the season lose early in the playoffs, there has been plenty of chatter about what went wrong and what comes next in L.A. and Phoenix. For both teams, a coaching change could be on the horizon, as Frank Vogel seems a likely scapegoat with the Suns and Darvin Ham has come under fire from many Lakers fans.

Coaches are often the first person to get fired because it’s much easier to change coaches than it is to overhaul a roster, or be willing to look inward as a front office at the mistakes you made. That is something that bugs Charles Barkley, especially when people in the media call for folks to get fired, and he used last night’s Inside the NBA broadcast to once again get some things off his chest about the “punks, idiots, and jackasses on other networks.”

This is at least the third time Barkley has gone after folks on ESPN for their coverage of the Lakers (and Warriors), but this time he also wants to know why GMs James Jones and Rob Pelinka aren’t facing the majority of the criticism for putting “trash ass teams” together. In Chuck’s eyes, the Suns and Lakers stink because of the players, not coaches, and if anyone in the organization deserves blame it’s the ones who build the rosters.

He is probably not wrong. It’s hard to see how just a coaching change makes either of these teams a real contender, and they both need to revisit how they’ve constructed these rosters around their stars — or, in Phoenix’s case, the stars they’ve chosen to bring in. The problem is, that’s a much harder thing to resolve, as neither team has great assets — L.A. does have more than Phoenix — and money is tight given their stars at the top. So, the coach will land a lot of the blame. That said, it’s more than fair for Chuck to call that out as scapegoating, as is his critique that many avoid pointing the blame on coaches because they want players to like them.

Last week, Kanye West announced the new release date for his and Ty Dolla Sign’s second collaborative album, Vultures 2 would be May 3. Now, with that date just a day away, fans of the mercurial producer have to contend with dueling impulses: excited anticipation for the project’s long-awaited release and skeptical dread that it’ll once again be pushed back without warning or explanation.

So, will Kanye West and Ty Dolla Sign’s Vultures 2 be delayed again?

Unfortunately, there’s no real way to answer that. It isn’t like Kanye is a fountain of information these days — at least, not relevant information. For instance, one of his recent missives declared that his next project would be a porn studio (which, if true, would simply offer yet another distraction from him doing the one thing people actually seem to want him to). We know he’s been in the studio, because he added his own verse to Future and Kendrick Lamar’s “Like That” to rekindle his on-again-off-again feud with Drake. But no one asked him to do that, and it’s unclear how that has anything to do with Vultures 2.

One potential problem has been Kanye’s supposed inability to secure a distributor for his music after making antisemitic comments last year. He debated a direct-to-consumer approach, but given his spotty follow-through on projects even when he isn’t enduring the consequences of his own actions, don’t be surprised if tomorrow comes and goes without a new release.

Stephen King’s prolific run as a horror maestro includes regular commentary on what scares him onscreen. Lately, that has included Late Night With The Devil and Baby Reindeer (for very different reasons), but of course, adaptations of his own work will continue until humanity no longer exists, and there has been no shortage of attempts to properly adapt The Dark Tower book series.

As King’s “Constant Readers” already know, a disappointing 2017 effort (directed by Nikolaj Arce) starred Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey. In 2020, a TV pilot also apparently did not work out when Amazon decided “nope” on agreeing to a series order. However, the project would be in good hands next time around, which will be no small feat, given the polarizing nature of King’s eight-novel (and a novella) saga even among his own readers.

The one and only Mike Flanagan happens to have recently wrapped up his time with Netflix for an Amazon TV deal. His legion of devotees is perhaps, despite the differing mediums of literature and TV, the closest contemporary counterpart to King’s own fanbase. Flanagan has already brought Gerald’s Game and (The Shining sequel) Doctor Sleep to audiences, so let’s mull over what we can expect from another meeting of their minds.

Plot

The history of The Dark Tower novel series happens to be as winding and troubled of a saga as efforts to give the fantasy/Western/sci-fi/horror epic saga a proper treatment. Stephen King did, after all, detail (in his On Writing memoir) how his completion of the series was interrupted (and, in a way, spurred on) by a horrendous collision with a car while he had been cycling. So perhaps a successful journey to the screen was meant to be peppered with bumps in the road, too.

Would Amazon take another swing at this saga? There has been zero confirmation on that front thus far, but Flanagan favorite Carla Gugino has admitted, “There has been a conversation about The Dark Tower,” and prior to Flanagan’s deal with the streamer coming together, he and Trevor Macy’s Intrepid Pictures did acquire rights to the book series. And earlier this year at Emerald City Comic Con, the ridiculously productive showrunner described a scene that he cannot wait to adapt:

“Very late in the story, there’s a scene that takes place in a forest where a character is being buried. And there’s a eulogy being given that made me cry the first time that I read it… [it] just kills me, and I can’t wait for that.”

Back in 2022, Flanagan even previewed his opening-shot vision with iconic words: “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” Clearly, it’s his long-running dream to give the post-apocalyptic gunslinger his proper due while he attempts to protect a tower (which is tied to multiple realities) from the antagonistic Man In Black (Walter Padick/Randall Flagg, who readers obviously also know from King’s The Stand).

With that said, Flanagan is currently working to finish another King adaptation, The Life Of Chuck movie, which could arrive in 2024. If The Dark Tower comes next, the showrunner has detailed how he already has “a pilot script I’m thrilled with and a very detailed outline for the first season and a broader outline for the subsequent seasons.” Beyond that, he would prefer five TV seasons and a few movies to give life to the full saga. Again, he cannot stop thinking about that opening quote:

“That first shot which comes right off at the first incredible sentence of the first book, The Gunslinger, I’ve had that image just rattling around in my head since I was an undergrad. It’s going to have to get out of there eventually, I really need to get it out of my head.”

Is the cart ahead of the horse? Perhaps, but Flanagan recently insisted that The Dark Tower is what “I want to do the most.” He added, “I think it’s going to happen. I can’t say for certain, but we look good.” If there’s any hangup, however, that would be with what he acknowledges is Amazon’s possible “institutional PTSD” regarding the source material, but they are “very aware” of his aspirations in making the series. Let’s hope they allow him to fire away.

Cast

There shall be no appetite to see Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey reprise their performances as gunslinger Roland Deschain and the Man in Black, respectively speaking. Nor will Amazon be likely to want to revisit Sam Strike and Jasper Pääkkönen in those same roles after shelving that pilot.

Flanagan, does, however, have a rotating cast of frequent collaborators with whom he loves to work, was the case with Netflix’s Fall of the House of Usher, The Haunting of Hill House, and more. Those actors would presumably include Carla Gugino, Annabeth Gish, Rahul Kohli, Katie Parker, Samantha Sloyan, and/or Kate Siegel. Already, Flanagan favorite Henry Thomas has thrown his hat in the ring by declaring that he would “love to have a part in that.”

Psst. Hamish Linklater (of Midnight Mass) would make a fine Man in Black.

Release Date

If a prospective release window exists, nobody in the know is talking yet. Fingers are crossed, however, that Amazon will decide to roll the dice again now that they can take full advantage of their deal with Flanagan. Once the greenlight happens, it truly shouldn’t be long before he can whip out a first season because he stayed on a fairly consistent year-to-year release schedule between his various limited series on Netflix.

Trailer

We cannot conjure up a trailer out of thin air, but until that happens, here’s a refresher of what Flanagan did with Gerald’s Game. Man, I hope Carla Gugino took a vacation after this shoot.

The most popular genre of music right now isn’t rock or country or rap. It’s personal. I don’t mean “the answer to the question is personal, you are invading my privacy by asking.” I’m saying “personal” music is our current reigning “most popular” genre. People love “personal” music, and music critics love “personal” music even more. If you make “personal” music in 2024, you truly are in your oversharing prime.

But let’s get more specific. There are many subgenres of personal music. There is deeply personal music, which is like regular personal music except it’s 25 percent more intimate. There is achingly personal music, which provokes a physical reaction in the listener akin to the feeling you get in your lungs after running a 100-yard dash. There is radically personal music, which is made for academics who write thesis papers about the dialectics of Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour. There is searingly personal music, which typically involves swear words and/or at least one reference to a public sex act.

I could go on with more adverbs. But you might have already noticed the central flaw in the “personal” genre. If all music is inherently personal — even music with no personality, which is the mark of a personality-free artist, a culturally dominant archetype at the moment — what exactly defines “personal” music? What we really mean is that the song in question has an element of straightforward autobiography that the listener can easily infer from even a cursory reading of the lyrics.

I will give you an obvious example: Songs about romantic relationships gone awry are the bread and butter of the “personal” music genre. Breakup songs are to personal music what nonlinear storytelling is to a Christopher Nolan film. “Personal” music would simply cease to exist without them. This is doubly true if the subject of the song has a level of fame commiserate with the songwriter. In that scenario, the power of “personal” music is fully maximized. This genre is so popular now because it fuses music (which is medium-popular) with reality television (very popular) and the gossipy mindlessness that dominates social media (stupidly popular). Therefore, listening to a “personal” song replicates the feeling of “normal” media consumption in the modern age, i.e. multi-tasking many different forms of content via multiple screens. You are taking in the melody, the words, the lore, and the clout simultaneously, and with peak efficiency.

Historically, I have enjoyed a lot of personal music. A sensitive sad sack airing the dirty laundry of his or her love life while strumming a guitar has undeniable entertainment value. But right now, I’m sick and tired of personal music. We have been inundated with personal music in the 2020s. “Personal” is the MCU of the music business, and it feels like we have finally reached The Marvels stage.

We need an antidote. And that antidote is knowing less about the artists we like. The artists we like need to be strangers again. They need to have a little shame. They need to get out of our grills. They need to seem like fictional characters.

They need to be more like Jessica Pratt.

Pratt is a 37-year-old singer-songwriter from San Francisco who currently resides in Los Angeles. She has put out four critically acclaimed records since 2012, including the new Here In The Pitch, due Friday. In that time she has maintained a remarkably consistent musical aesthetic — quiet and vaguely doom-laden songs played on an acoustic guitar and sung in a ghostly purr that conjures cult-ish folk-pop torch songs from the 1960s and ’70s, like Marianne Faithfull’s version of “As Tears Go By” emanating from an AM radio in the midst of a zombie apocalypse.

“Timeless” is the adjective most often applied to Pratt’s music, but it’s not really accurate. Like all of Pratt’s records, Here In The Pitch is very much rooted in a specific era, which is the opposite of “timeless.” A better descriptor of her sound is “dated but in a good way.” (This retro quality is likely what attracted Troye Sivan to “Back, Baby,” which he sampled for his 2015 track “Can’t Go Back, Baby,” turning the Pratt song into her most streamed number.) For the new record, Pratt’s reference points are the melancholic pocket symphonies of the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and the emotionally sophisticated and musically immaculate compositions of Burt Bacharach and Hal David, especially the hits they created with Dionne Warwick, Jackie DeShannon, and Dusty Springfield. On Pitch, understated orchestrations commingle with featherlight bossa-nova rhythms and Pratt’s own expressive croon, which hints at a well of emotion held in check by a stoic, enigmatic chilliness. It is the best album of 1966 released in 2024.

What’s actually timeless about Pratt is how she comports herself in public. She acts like a pop star from a pre-digital age, back when we knew very little about almost everything. I have been enjoying Pratt’s music for a dozen years, but it wasn’t until I was spinning Here In The Pitch on repeat that I realized I know next to nothing about her. Perusing her recent interviews, the most personal tidbit I learned is that she likes to eat dinner at the classic L.A. haunt Musso & Frank’s with her husband. Surveying the lyrics to Here In The Pitch reveals a similar dearth of insider dirt. Pratt was inspired by her fascination with the history of her adopted hometown. She read Tom O’Neill’s brilliant Charles Manson book Chaos and meditated on the devilish charisma of Kenneth Anger. The result is an album that emulates the “dark seediness lurking in the sunlight” noir feeling that has long beguiled Los Angeles obsessives. But it is hardly a literal L.A. record. Pratt invents vibes, not narratives. She is fond of murmuring lines like “I want to be a vestige of our senses free” that make no sense on the page and all the sense in the world when you’re marinating in this album’s very particular wavelength.

Knowing nothing about Pratt has not detracted from her music. It has enhanced it. Rather than drag me into her real-life world, she’s fabricated an imaginary one that I enjoy exploring. And that’s refreshing during an era in which publicists routinely put the gender identity or the present mental health status of their clients in the subject lines of PR emails. Who you are has become the sum total of what you produce. A song can only be good if the person who made it is noble and mindful and above all relatable. And that has led to a rather stultifying state of affairs. Though I don’t necessarily blame artists for that — it’s the fault of an uncreative media obsessed with celebrity and an insatiably nosy public that abhors mystery and ambiguity. It’s this collective audience that has conspired to make artists more boring.

It doesn’t have to be this way. There are other artists who buck the “personal” trend. Some, like Pratt, have constructed personas rooted in music styles from a “timeless” era (Lana Del Rey, Father John Misty) while others transitioned from “personal” music to elude an insane fanbase (Mitski). And then there’s Destroyer’s Dan Bejar, who has benefitted from never being famous to begin with. When I picture Jessica Pratt in my mind, she’s more like a character in a movie than a “relatable” flesh-and-blood person. I imagine her living a vampire’s existence at the Chelsea Hotel, floating from one heartbreaking misadventure to the other. And then I remember that I’m just recycling this mythology from the cover of Pratt’s 2019 album Quiet Signs. My impression of her derives solely from what she gives me on the records. And that, perhaps, is how it should be.

I Saw The TV Glow will be released in theaters on Friday, May 3, but Caroline Polachek already released her contribution to the A24-backed movie’s soundtrack. Polachek dropped “Starburned And Unkissed,” an immersive, transcendent song co-produced by Polachek and A.G. Cook.

Polachek promoted the song on Instagram with a video showing her blow-drying her hair — for effect because her hair is very much dry — while lip-syncing, “Hey, you Casanova / Hey, you supernova / Come home / The kettle’s whistling / My heart’s a ghost limb reaching / Starburned and unkissed.”

I Saw The TV Glow (Original Soundtrack) is 15 tracks, including Yeule’s “Anthems For A Seventeen-Year-Old Girl,” Drab Majesty’s “Photograph,” Sadurn’s “How Can I Get Out?,” King Woman’s “Bury,” and “Claw Machine” from Sloppy Jane featuring Phoebe Bridgers.

Alex G scored I Saw The TV Glow, which Jane Schoenbrun directed and wrote. Alex G and Schoenbrun previously collaborated on We’re All Going To The World’s Fair. Emma Stone and Dave McCary are credited producers.

According to Stereogum, the original soundtrack will be released next Friday, May 10, before I Saw The TV Glow (Original Motion Picture Score) releases on May 16 — both via A24 Music.

Listen to Polachek’s “Starburned And Unkissed” above, and watch the I Saw The TV Glow trailer below.

Sometimes the best new R&B can be hard to find, but there are plenty of great rhythm-and-blues tunes to get into if you have the time to sift through the hundreds of newly released songs every week. So that R&B heads can focus on listening to what they love in its true form, we’ll be offering a digest of the best new R&B songs that fans of the genre should hear every Friday.

Since the last update of this weekly R&B column, we’ve received plenty of music and news from the genre’s artists.

PARTYNEXTDOOR dropped his long awaited fourth album PARTYNEXTDOOR 4 along with a sinister “For Certain” visual, while Normani dropped her “1:59” single with Gunna and (finally) announced a release date for her debut album Dopamine. Halle Bailey opened up about the “severe, severe” postpartum depression she experienced after giving birth to her son Halo, while Janelle Monáe joined Halsey and Vince Staples as headliners for the 2024 Flow Festival Helsinki. Elsewhere, Chlöe announced her sophomore album Trouble In Paradise.

PARTYNEXTDOOR — PARTYNEXTDOOR 4

PARTYNEXTDOOR’s long-awaited fourth album PARTYNEXTDOOR 4 arrives four years after his third effort PARTYMOBILE. On the new release, PND uses its 14 tracks to tell a story about a threesome gone wrong as it shifts his focus from settling down with a special woman. It’s PND’s most cohesive project to date and arguably the R&B album of the year for 2024.

Sinéad Harnett — Boundaries

London singer Sinéad Harnett, now independent, is back to impress us once again with her elegant vocals on her third album Boundaries. A sprawling 16-track effort, Harnett described the project as “1 heck of a journey, 2 years of therapy” and “ups, downs, laughter, tears, fears, gratitude, learning to love, confusion,” and much more.

Yung Bleu — Jeremy

For his first full-length effort since 2023’s Love Scars II, Yung Bleu returns as Jeremy on his new album. Backed by 17 songs and features from Leon Thomas, Lil Wayne, John Legend, Jacquees, and others, Bleu delivers what he calls a “testimony album,” adding, “it made me feel great and alive again.”

Elmiene — “Sweetness”

With a North American tour nearly complete, British singer Elmiene returns with his new single “Sweetness.” The lovelorn record mourns the end of a relationship and reflects on what could’ve been as Elmiene prepares to move on.

PJ Morton — “Simunye (We Are One)” Feat. Soweto Spiritual Singers

PJ Morton is just weeks away from dropping his new album Cape Town to Cairo, and ahead of its release, he delivers the project’s second single “Simunye (We Are One).” “‘Simunye’ is a Zulu word that means ‘we are one’,” PJ said about the captivating record that features the Soweto Spiritual Singers choir, “One of the main things I’ve learned during my travels is that we’re all more connected than we are divided.”

ESTA — “Too Fast” Feat. Joyce Wrice & DUCKWRTH

Good news: Soulection producer ESTA is putting out an album this summer! Even better news: He released a new single, “Too Fast” with Joyce Wrice and DUCKWRTH. The new single is driven by Wrice who slides over bouncy drums and a funky bassline before DUCKWRTH arrives to show off his lyrical chops and two-step over the beat.

Jae Stephens — “Wet”

There’s a new era on the horizon for Dallas singer Jae Stephens, and her new single “Wet” is proof. Stephens takes control of her world on the futuristic song, as it showcases her confidence and ability to shine on various production styles. “Wet” arrives ahead of her upcoming EP out later this year.

Bairi — Fire Siren

It’s been a long time coming, but Bairi finally released her debut album. Fire Siren arrives from the singer as a sultry tale of self-discovery, where she overcomes darkness to find her purpose and self-worth. Its ten songs feature Nathi and Lilly Aviana for what proves to be a listen you won’t forget.

Ye Ali — Private Suite 5

If you’re a fan of Ye Ali, then you’re well aware of his Private Suite series. It dates back to 2019 and now has five installments thanks to Ali’s latest release. Ali delivered Private Suite 5 complete with ten songs and guest appearances from Dcmbr, Zae France, 11:11, Mizzy Lott, and Benstar.

Amanda Reifer — “Devastating (Album Interlude)”

Banana singer Amanda Reifer continues The Reifer Files with its third installment, “Devastating (Album Interlude).” The emotional track dives into the complexities of the heart by comparing it to the ever-changing qualities of water. The record follows the previously-released “In And Out” and “B*tch Like Me.”

Honey Bxby — 3 Words, 8 Letters (Deluxe)

Nearly a year after the original project was released, Honey Bxby flashes her chaotic spirit once again on a deluxe reissue of 3 Words, 8 Letters. The deluxe edition adds six new songs to the original project, including a pair of guest appearances from Kaliii and Busta Rhymes.