Month: October 2024

Keeping up with new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.

This week saw Coldplay continue their march to the end and Leon Bridges continue his consistent run. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.

For more music recommendations, check out our Listen To This section, as well as our Indie Mixtape and Pop Life newsletters.

Coldplay — “Moon Music”

Coldplay has two albums left on their roadmap: a musical and “a very tiny album.” Right now, though, we have their latest, Moon Music, and it’s worth paying attention to.

Lisa — “Moonlit Floor”

No, this isn’t Sixpence None The Richer’s 1998 hit “Kiss Me.” Lisa did a lovely job at bringing the track to 2024, though, via “Moonlit Floor,” a disco-leaning bop that heavily borrows from the iconic “Kiss Me” chorus.

Leon Bridges — “Panther City”

Bridges is undeniably one of Texas’ finest exports in recent years, but he hasn’t left his home state behind. His new album Leon is out now and it includes a loving ode to Fort Worth with “Panther City.”

The Smile — “Bodies Laughing”

Radiohead fans are in a weird spot: The band hasn’t been active in years, but Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood are busy as ever with The Smile. The group just dropped Cutouts, their second new album of 2024, and it definitely softens the sting of Radiohead’s absence.

Faye Webster — “After The First Kiss”

Webster could have coasted for the rest of 2024 after delivering with Underdressed At The Symphony earlier this year. Instead, last week, she dropped “After The First Kiss,” a new single that’s right in her lush and languid lane.

Pharrell, Swae Lee, and Lil Yachty — “Doodleverse (Draw Me Closer)”

Pharrell always has something cooking, and his latest venture is Doodles, a new sort of multimedia empire about which you can learn more here. Music is of course involved, and last week, he tapped Swae Lee and Lil Yachty to join him on the storytelling, psychedelic “Doodleverse.”

Lil Durk — “Monitoring Me”

It looked like Durk was preparing to drop Love Songs 4 The Streets 3, but instead, it’s Deep Thoughts that he announced, which is set to drop later this month. He teased the project with “Monitoring Me,” a boastful, in-your-face tune.

Victoria Monét — “1900’s”

Quietly, Victoria Monét basically dropped a whole new album last week, via a Jaguar II deluxe edition that adds ten new songs. Among them is “1900’s,” a groovy tune that spins the “party like it’s 1999” trope.

Ferg — “Allure” Feat. Future

Ferg and Future came through with the titanic collab “New Level” in 2016, and now they’re back with “Allure.” Gunna may not be the biggest fan of the song.

Bartees Strange — “Sober”

Bartees is promising his “most ambitious, wide-ranging project to date” with his upcoming album, Horror. The taste he offered last week is “Sober,” a breezy rocker about turning to alcohol to cope.

A few days ago, it was revealed that Nelly would be joining the performance lineup of the American Music Awards 50th Anniversary Special, and that he would be performing alongside Chingy, J-Kwon, and members of the St. Lunatics. Of course, those keeping up with recent Nelly news likely saw something strange there: Nelly and St. Lunatics would be performing together despite the fact that last month, it was revealed the group is suing Nelly.

Ahead of the performance, Nelly had a sense of humor about the situation, writing in an Instagram post, “STL INVADES @amas …!!! An anyone who has a problem with that ‘Sue’ me…!!! [shrugging emoji] [laughing emoji].”

Well, the show was last night, and indeed, the performance went on as planned, featuring a medley of hits that included “Air Force Ones,” “Ride Wit Me,” “Welcome To Atlanta,” “What Da Hook Gon Be,” “Right Thurr,” “Tipsy,” and “Hot In Herre.”

As for the lawsuit, St. Lunatics is suing Nelly over songwriting credits and royalties from his debut album, Country Grammar. The group (Ali, City Spud, Kyjuan, and Murphy Lee) claims they weren’t given proper credit on the album, meaning they haven’t been properly paid for the songs they say they helped co-write, including the album’s big hit, “Country Grammar.”

Over the weekend, Dua Lipa played a headlining set at Austin City Limits Music Festival. What else did the “Training Season” singer get up to while visiting the Texas capital? She went line dancing at Broken Spoke, shopped for cowboy boots, and ruined a perfectly good Diet Coke.

While dining at La Barbecue (the best barbecue in Austin, FWIW), Lipa poured a can of Diet Coke into a cup of ice. So far, so good. But then came the pickle juice, pickles, and “jalapeño sauce.” The unholy concoction was shared on TikTok, and even Lipa had to admit that the drink isn’t everyone’s cup of tea (or Diet Coke, as it were).

“Everyone’s staring at me,” she said. “The lady in the back is like, ‘What the hell is she doing?’”

Luckily, it was a normal Diet Coke, not the Oreo/Coke Zero collaboration. That’s too far, even for Lipa.

You can watch the video here.

The response on social media to Lipa’s mixture was somewhere between hostile (“this just ruined my day”) and curious (“This sh*t is so incredibly insane that I almost feel like I desperately need to try this. Like what could this POSSIBLY taste like”). Another user on X joked, “The most beautiful women you know eat like raccoons.” There were also lots of Regular Show references and concern about what drinking this would do to a person’s stomach. If Lipa bails on ACL weekend 2, we’ll know what happened.

Chappell Roan’s openness about the challenges of fame has brought that conversation to the forefront in 2024. Sabrina Carpenter has had a similar rise to stardom recently, and she discussed it with CBS Sunday Mornings.

In a clip found here, Carpenter was asked if Taylor Swift had given her any advice on handling fame, and she explained:

“You just watch her, like, walk in a room and it’s very easy to understand that she’s so composed. She’s graceful, she’s gracious. I wouldn’t say it’s, like, a verbal thing as much as just, like, she’s very supportive of me and knows who I am as a person and is very supportive of that. So, I’m grateful for that.

I think, again, if we’re talking about how to deal with it all, I think everyone has such an individual, unique experience that there’s no kind of blanket statement or advice on how to not let it rattle you. You just kind of have to exist and figure out what you can handle and what you don’t want to deal with. And again, you just kind of figure it out along the way. I know that sounds a little vague, but I really do think you find the people that you surround yourself with that make you feel safe and go from there.”

The full segment, meanwhile, offers a cool behind-the-scenes look at her tour rehearsals and sees Carpenter getting emotional talking about her mother, so check it out above.

Charli XCX performed in Orlando yesterday (October 6), and she took the opportunity to continue to viral rollout of her upcoming remix album, Brat And It’s Completely Different But Also Still Brat.

In recent days, she has been gradually teasing the features on the tracklist via billboards in various cities. Now, she’s finally come out and shared the full tracklist.

Rather, she had somebody else do it for her. In Orlando, she gave a paper copy of the album’s tracklist to one of her audience members and instructed them to post it online. Indeed, it surfaced online. Watch a video of the moment here.

Check out the full tracklist below.

Charli XCX’s Brat And It’s Completely Different But Also Still Brat Album Cover Artwork

Charli XCX’s Brat And It’s Completely Different But Also Still Brat Tracklist

Disc 1
1. “360” Feat. Robyn & Yung Lean
2. “Club Classics” Feat. BB Trickz
3. “Sympathy Is A Knife” Feat. Ariana Grande
4. “I Might Say Something Stupid” Feat. The 1975 & Jon Hopkins
5. “Talk Talk” Feat. Troye Sivan
6. “Von Dutch” Feat. Addison Rae
7. “Everything Is Romantic” Feat. Caroline Polachek
8. “Rewind” Feat. Bladee
9. “So I” Feat. A.G. Cook
10. “Girl, So Confusing” Feat. Lorde
11. “Apple” Feat. The Japanese House
12. “B2b” Feat. Tinashe
13. “Mean Girls” Feat. Julian Casablancas
14. “I Think About It All The Time” Feat. Bon Iver
15. “365” Feat. Shygirl
16. “Guess” Feat. Billie Eilish

Disc 2
1. “360”
2. “Club Classics”
3. “Sympathy Is A Knife”
4. “I Might Say Something Stupid”
5. “Talk Talk”
6. “Von Dutch”
7. “Everything Is Romantic”
8. “Rewind”
9. “So I”
10. “Girl, So Confusing”
11. “Apple”
12. “B2B”
13. “Mean Girls”
14. “I Think About It All The Time”
15. “365”
16. “Hello Goodbye”
17. “Guess”
18. “Spring Breakers”

Brat And It’s Completely Different But Also Still Brat is out 10/11 via Atlantic. Find more information here.

For the past few years, LeBron James made it known that one of the last major goals he has in his career — along with hopefully adding to his championship total — was to play alongside his son, LeBron James Jr.

This June, the Lakers made sure that LeBron and Bronny would make NBA history together as the first father and son tandem to play together in the league when they selected Bronny with the 55th pick in the second round and signed him to a full 4-year NBA deal. The James’ have had some fun with their new status as teammates, with LeBron joking Bronny isn’t allowed to call him “dad” on the court, and the two argued at media day about who is getting stops on the other in practices.

While Bronny tends to be up against LeBron in Lakers practices, they finally got to play together as Lakers teammates in live action on Sunday night in preseason action against the Phoenix Suns when they both started the second quarter together.

It’s a cool moment, even for preseason, but everyone will still be waiting for when it happens in a game that counts. I would guess new Lakers head coach JJ Redick will look to make that moment happen in the Lakers opening home stand (they start the 2024-25 season with three straight home games), but it remains to be seen if he’ll use the opener against the Timberwolves as the game to do it.

The New York Giants were underdogs by a touchdown in Seattle on Sunday, and it looked early on like it was not going to be their day after the Seahawks forced a fumble on the goal line and returned it 101 yards for a touchdown to go up 7-0.

However, the Giants were able to move the ball on Seattle all day, as Daniel Jones had his best game of the season with 257 yards and two touchdowns passing, while Tyrone Tracy Jr. rushed for 127 yards on the ground in the most balanced offensive game of the year (by far) from New York this year. Even with that performance by the Giants offense, the Seahawks were in it late as Geno Smith led Seattle into Giants territory in the closing minutes down 23-20, setting up a game-tying 47-yard field goal attempt from Jason Myers with just over a minute to play.

Myers kick never stood a chance though, as Isaiah Simmons jumped over the line head on and blocked the kick, which the Giants returned all the way for a touchdown to ice the game at 29-20.

Some Seahawks fans wanted a penalty on the play, as it appeared Dexter Lawrence pulled down the right guard to give Simmons a clean path to leap over the line, but that didn’t get called and Simmons made his jump clean without pushing off anyone, so his portion was legal. While it’s only Week 5, the win was vital for the Giants if they’re going to have any chance of competing this season in the NFC, as falling to 1-4 would’ve shifted New York fans’ interest towards the Draft with three months still to play. Instead, they can hope this game was the start of a turnaround that gets them in the hunt.

The Los Angeles Rams went into halftime with a 13-10 lead on Sunday, thanks in large part to one of the worst interceptions of the season thrown by Packers young star quarterback Jordan Love.

Backed up on his own goal line, Love got hit in the end zone and, desperately trying to avoid a safety as he fell to the ground, just flung the ball towards the sidelines. The problem was, there were Rams defenders over there, and it went right to one, who walked into the end zone for a gifted touchdown.

The reverse angle really hammers home how bad this was, as Love is almost perpendicular to the ground as he lets it go, and as such he can’t get enough on it to get it out of play and it floats right to Jaylen McCollough for the easiest pick-6 of his life.

This is the most Will Levis interception of the season not thrown by Will Levis. It is the curse of being an athletic enough quarterback that you can have enough balance to get rid of the ball in this situation that you’ll try something like this, as a lesser QB would have just fallen to the ground for two points, rather than throw a pick for six. The difference between Love and others (like Levis) is he has enough of the good plays and the wow plays to far outweigh this kind of stuff — which, to be honest, Green Bay quarterbacks have been doing for three decades going back to Brett Favre.

Taylor Swift haters (which might include a guitar smasher) are seeing red because the “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart” singer is seeing nothing but green.

While Taylor Swift has long since been inducted into ever so elusive billionaire club among other musicians such as Paul McCartney, Selena Gomez, Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and Rihanna. However, according to recent reports, Taylor Swift’s recent net worth increased has made her the world’s most wealthy woman.

In Forbes‘ latest change to Swift’s financial status (spotted by NME), which now shows as $1.6 billion secured the songwriter’s monumental achievement.

Back in October 2023, when the outlet initially confirmed Swift’s entry into the billionaire big leagues, it listed her earning contributions as music royalties and touring at nearly $500 million from her and the other half in connection with Swift’s catalog (streaming revenue as well as single, original and Taylor’s Version album sales).

The rest of Swift’s then $1.1 billion fortunate supposedly tied to her real estate portfolio (six homes) was estimated at $125 million across six different homes and lastly her private plane (valued at $10 million).

However, Bloomberg laid out a different financial breakdown: $400 million for musical releases since 2019, $370 million in ticket sales and touring merchandise, $120 million retained from music platforms Spotify and YouTube, $110 million worth of personal properties, and $80 million in music sales royalties.

For the last year, the New York Liberty have been focused on getting some revenge on the Las Vegas Aces after last year’s WNBA Finals loss. New York got beat in four games by the Aces, as Las Vegas completed its repeat bid, with the Liberty learning firsthand what it would require to get to the mountain top.

While they didn’t get their rematch in the Finals as many expected, the two teams met in the playoff semifinals, and on Sunday the Liberty completed their year-long quest to beat the Aces in the postseason, winning Game 4 in impressive fashion, 76-62, to win the series 3-1 and punch their ticket to the Finals for the second straight year. As has been the case all year, it was Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart leading the way for the Liberty, as Ionescu led all scorers with 22 points, while Stewart had a 19-point, 15-rebound double-double in the win.

Ionescu got going early with three makes from downtown in the first quarter, quickly shaking off a rough Game 3 shooting performance to get the Liberty out to an early advantage, while Stewart also got off to a strong start herself.

New York’s defense gave the Aces fits (as it had at home in Games 1 and 2) early, and the story of the game was Vegas’ inability to consistently create good looks. Everything looked hard on offense for the Aces, as they shot just 32.8 percent from the field and 23.3 percent from deep. The league’s MVP, A’ja Wilson, had 19 points and 10 boards, but was not able to get to her spots as easily as usual and the Liberty were able to limit her shot attempts (13) and ask the rest of the Aces to beat them.

That was not a task the rest of the Vegas squad was up to, as Kelsey Plum had 17 points (but on 5-of-16 shooting) and Tiffany Hayes was the only other player on the Aces to get into double figures with 11 points. Vegas was able to mount a challenge in the middle quarters to keep things close thanks to their defense, as Wilson lorded over the paint with five blocks.

However, they just could not make enough shots to reel in the Liberty, as New York pulled away thanks to some timely buckets down the stretch, led by Ionescu’s fifth three of the afternoon.

With the win, the Liberty move on to the Finals where they will be the favorites over either the Lynx or the Sun (Minnesota can punch their ticket with a win on Sunday evening in Connecticut). With Ionescu and Stewart playing at the level they are, and the kind of supporting cast around them, headlined by Jonquel Jones (14 points, six rebounds) and rookie Leonie Fiebich (11 points, seven rebounds), it will take an incredible effort to beat this Liberty squad.

That was not something the Aces could do, as they seemed off throughout the series, with the exception of Game 3 when they showed some terrific resolve to ensure they wouldn’t get swept. The Liberty were able to bother them with length on offense, as the Aces seemed determined to pass up good shots to create great ones, but rarely were able to do so. The result was an offense that looked stuck in the mud, a strange sight after they spent the last three years mowing down opponents, and now they’ll head into the offseason with some things to figure out for the first time in a few years — where perhaps they won’t be as “distracted” as Becky Hammon lamented they were after Game 2.