Year: 2024

In April, Sabrina Carpenter generated some attention online when she modeled lingerie for a campaign from Skims, Kim Kardashian’s shapewear brand. This rubbed some folks the wrong way since Carpenter is friends with Taylor Swift, who famously does not have the best relationship with Kardashian. Carpenter has now addressed the situation in a new Rolling Stone cover story.

Carpenter said:

“As much as people want to believe you’re tuned into every little thing, I’m not because I’m constantly working. In that scenario, I’ve been very, very communicative with her about that situation, and I just love her so much and support her ’til the end. So it was no weirdness for me, but I know people will just say things because that’s all they have time to do.”

Elsewhere, Carpenter said of Swift, “I hold her to such a different echelon. I could never compare my life, my career, my trajectory to anything close to what she’s done.” She also noted of their friendship, “We’re very, very verbal with each other about our mutual love and admiration. […] She played me ‘But Daddy I Love Him’ before it came out, and that’s also one of my favorites.”

Check out the full interview here.

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 Normani release an album at last and NxWorries also drop an anticipated effort. 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.

Normani — “All Yours”

It finally happened: Normani released an album. After five years, Dopamine is here. She celebrated the project’s long-awaited release last week with “All Yours,” a smooth and catchy number that delivers some steam.

NxWorries — “KeepHer” Feat. Thundercat

Speaking of long-awaited releases: Anderson .Paak took a break from his solo work and Silk Sonic to revive NxWorries last week for the duo’s first album since 2016. He and Knxwledge brought some other folks into the fold, too, like Thundercat on the glossy “KeepHer.”

Khalid — “Adore U”

Khalid’s latest album, Free Spirit, was his first No. 1 project, but that was five years ago now. Fans have been waiting for a new album since then (aside from the Scenic Drive mixtape in 2021), and while there’s no news of one yet, he did come through last week with “Adore U,” which sees him trying his best to bridge a gap.

Tommy Richman — “Devil Is A Lie”

Tommy Richman is a candidate for the year’s biggest breakout star thanks to the success of “Million Dollar Baby.” Now he’s in the process of proving he’s more than a one-hit wonder, and he took a stab last week with “Devil Is A Lie.” Like “Million Dollar Baby” before it, it’s got a catchy high-pitched hook that you should start hearing in TikTok videos.

Destroy Lonely — “Luv 4 Ya”

You may have heard “Luv 4 Ya” when Destroy Lonely performed it at Coachella, and now the studio version of the track is here. Uproxx’s Aaron Williams notes of the song, “Over a murky beat produced by Lil 88, Henny, and Evertime, the new song finds the young Atlanta upstart going for broke.”

Charli XCX — “Spring Breakers”

Charli dropped Brat, then she dropped a deluxe edition and decided to erase any doubt about its nature by titling it Brat And It’s The Same But There’s Three More Songs So It’s Not. Among those three more songs that makes it not the same is “Spring Breakers,” which continues the energetic dance party from the base album.

Victoria Monét — “Power Of Two”

On top of dropping a new video for “Alright,” Monét also entered the Star Wars universe last week with “Power Of Two“: The track is a cinematic end credits song for the new series The Acolyte.

Toro Y Moi — “Tuesday”

Toro Y Moi has found himself all over the musical map in his stylistically varied career so far. Who knows where he’ll go next on his upcoming album Hole Erth, which was announced last week. He offered a look, though, with “Tuesday,” which has a bit of hip-hop and a bit of indie rock going on (the album has features from both Don Toliver and Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard).

Nilüfer Yanya — “Method Actor”

New Nilüfer Yanya is coming! She announced the album My Method Actor last week and also shared “Method Actor,” which has a rock edge atop a rhythmic, alternative foundation.

Tanner Adell — “Too Easy”

The influence of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter continues. The album helped vault Shaboozey to stardom and it has also increased the profile of Tanner Adell. She came through last week with “Too Easy,” a catchy country-pop number that boasts a TikTok-ready “Boys are too easy” hook.

Fede Álvarez, director of Don’t Breathe and 2013’s Evil Dead, knows how to work a claustrophobic atmosphere. That’s only a single quality out of many why he was the guy to handle adding a movie to the existing Alien franchise. Of course, he is wise enough to never definitively choose whether the 1979 Ridley Scott movie or the 1986 James Cameron sequel, Aliens, is the better movie. That’s like choosing between the first two The Godfather films, you know? And considering that most sequels don’t come close to the original, it’s a handy dilemma to have.

Álvarez’s upcoming Alien: Romulus is an interquel that takes place in between Scott and Cameron’s contributions, so let’s talk about what we can expect from this facehugging good time.

Plot

This film’s events take place in between Alien (2090-ish) and Aliens (the year 2179), so expect an older (relatively speaking), familiar look to the ship and its technology, and of course, everything here happens as though Prometheus never happened. Álvarez also found inspiration for this show’s characters — a group of young-adult scavengers — after watching Aliens‘ extended cut and wondering what happened colony children grew up and left their homes. These characters, like the crew in Alien, will be blue collar, and the show’s simple description is as follows: “Young people on a distant world find themselves confronting the most terrifying life-form in the universe.”

Are Ridley Scott and James Cameron involved in any way? Scott is producing, and Cameron did some hefty consulting to help map out the ship’s details for this film. In other words, the film’s scavengers will find out the horror of old-school filmmaking in the best way (for the audience).

Additionally, another current Alien project exists, and that would be FX and Noah Hawley’s series (starring Timothy Olyphant) that has been filming in Thailand. The events of that particular take on Xenomorphs revolve around what happens when they crash land on Earth and have the run of an open environment.

Whereas Alien: Romulus is all about being in space, where as the original film’s tagline declared, “No one can hear you scream.” The effects will be mainly practical, including these face huggers, on a ship where there’s no escape from the critters:

The film will also be theatrically released after originally being planned for a Hulu streaming event. And it’s a damn good thing because this is definitely a poster for a movie that should be watched in a theater:

Cast

Xenomorphs and Facehuggers are always the chief attraction with these films, and we can likely expect a synthetic among the scavenger crew. The very human cast, however, includes Cailee Spaeny along with Isabela Merced, Aileen Wu, Archie Renaux, David Johnson, and Spike Feam.

Release Date

On August 16, everyone can be heard screaming if they head to the multiplex.

Trailer

Fans of Aliens should especially enjoy the water scene in this trailer, and multiple nods to Reply include a face off with Cailee Spaeny and a Xenomorph.

Previously, a teaser trailer did the job in a chillingly effective yet sparse way.

Ariana Grande has explained several times why she modeled Eternal Sunshine as something of a concept album inspired by the Jim Carrey- and Kate Winslet-led film, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. Grande’s lifelong affinity for Jim Carrey is well-documented, and now, the two-time Grammy winner shared another particularly interesting adolescent interest while visiting Podcrushed.

Just before the 30-minute mark of the Podcrushed episode, Penn Badgley joked about Grande’s casting of Evan Peters and Badgley in her videos for “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)” and “The Boy Is Mine,” respectively.

“Is it a serial killer tour?” Badgley said, while Grande giggled.

Peters portrayed Jeffrey Dahmer in Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, and Badgley became the internet’s favorite stalker — if such a thing exists — as Joe in You.

Grande acknowledged she “knew someone was gonna say this.”

She continued, “I knew [everyone] was gonna be like, ‘Why the f*ck? What is this pattern? Do we need to talk about this pattern here?’ Um, maybe there’s something to look at. No, I’m kidding. […] No, but I was infatuated with serial killers when I was younger.”

That’s not all. Grande then shared a story to back up her alleged adolescent infatuation.

“Years ago, before the Dahmer series, I was in a Q&A with fans — young fans,” she said. “It was young fans at the time. I think it was in between me being Cat [on Victorious] and pop stuff, so it was a younger group. With a parent, someone said, ‘If you could have dinner with anyone, living or dead, who would it be?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, you’re so cute. Mom and Dad, is it okay if I give the real answer?’ And they were like, ‘Sure, I guess. What’s the answer?’ And I was like, ‘Um, I mean, Jeffrey Dahmer’s pretty fascinating. I think I would have loved to have met him. Like, you know, maybe with a third party or someone involved, but I have questions.’ And the parents were like, ‘We’ll explain it later, sweetheart.’ And I was like, ‘I’ll just sing ‘Problem’ and go home.’”

Elsewhere in Grande’s two-part Podcrushed interview, she further discussed casting Badgley in “The Boy Is Mine,” whether she’ll release an Eternal Sunshine deluxe album, her process for filming Wicked, and more.

Watch the full Podcrushed episodes below.

Sabrina Carpenter is the subject of a new Rolling Stone profile shared today (June 17), and notably, the piece reveals that Jack Antonoff worked on “about half” of Carpenter’s upcoming album, Short N’ Sweet. In the story, Carpenter also takes a minute to go to bat for Antonoff in his battle against the haters.

Carpenter says of Antonoff’s detractors, “F*ck them all. F*ck them all. I think he’s one of the most talented people I’ve ever met. When he’s in a room, he’s able to literally touch every instrument in the room and make it sound magical. He also works very fast, which I really appreciate because I work very fast.”

She also explained how she and Antonoff became friends, starting by meeting outside of a New York comedy club a couple years ago: “I was peeing my pants because I wanted to work with him for my whole life. After that, we, luckily enough, became friends; personalities meshed, and it was only a matter of time. He heard some of the stuff that I was working on for this album, and we just started to make magic.”

Meanwhile, Antonoff also offered a quote about Carpenter’s single “Please Please Please,” which he produced. Antonoff said, “There’s like an Olivia Newton [John] feeling, there’s a Dolly [Parton] feeling, there’s an incredibly super modern pop feeling. The little vocal runs she does are so bizarre and unique — they’re doing this really odd, classic, almost yodel-y country thing. She’s becoming one of the biggest young pop stars, and that song is such a statement of ­expressing yourself, not just lyrically, but sonically.”

Check out the full feature here.

In the Game of Thrones there are winners and then there are those sans dragons. With Targaryens on both sides, spewing fire and sowing chaos in Westeros, keeping track of which House of the Dragon character is outmaneuvering their way to absolute power is almost as hard as remembering the difference between a Jaecaerys, a Jaehaerys, and a Jaehaera.

So, to keep track of the players and their place on the board, we’ll be ranking which would-be genocidal maniacs have the best showing each episode. Maybe they’re closer to the throne, exacting vengeance on their enemies, or just enjoying injecting a bit of mayhem into this Dance of Dragons. Whatever the case, this is the HotD Leaderboard and these are the standings.

1. Aemond Targaryen

The internet’s favorite one-eyed Becky with the good hair is firmly in his villain phase this season and we couldn’t be happier for him. While some House of the Dragon characters would rather wrestle with questions of morality and royal responsibility, that kind of quiet introspection just isn’t for this aspiring war criminal. He’s here for a good time, not a long time you see, which means he’s preoccupied with plotting battles behind his brother-king’s back and trash-talking his own mother to her secret lover and hopping aboard his aging pet dragon to instill fear in the smallfolk whenever the dopamine gets too low. Guilt? Aemond Targaryen’s never heard of her – that’s what makes him so dangerous.

2. Larys Strong

Larys Strong is just looking for someone to match his (foot) freak this season but, alas, the Red Keep is short on familicidal sociopaths who live for mess. So instead, Larys is entertaining his own damn self, sowing seeds of doubt in Aegon’s ear, caving in on himself to appear weak and pathetic to a boy king who actually is both of those things one minute before towering over a former queen the next. He’s hiring new staff willing to give him all the castle goss and (probably) engaging in a both-sides sort of deal with Daemon Targaryen. When people say war is profitable, those people are Larys Strong.

3. Daemon Targaryen

Daemon Targaryen is having a midlife crisis except, instead of abandoning his family and buying a sports car, he’s ordering the decapitation of children and kickstarting a civil war. Again, some kind of telehealth therapy service would work wonders in Westeros right now. Despite his rash decision making and desire to just burn everything to the ground, Daemon isn’t exactly wrong in how he’s handling the fallout of Lucerys’ death. Sure, he should let his wife grieve for a minute, but he’s also smart enough to realize that blockades won’t last forever and every moment of inaction is seen as weakness by their enemies. Does he want Rhaenyra’s throne? Vengeance for his brother and stepson? Or just another chance at glory? Who knows and really, who cares? He’s back in his “time to commit crime” hoodie and for that, we’re thankful.

4. Alicent Hightower

Alicent Hightower is in her hot girl summer phase so this whole war business is really cramping her style at the moment. She should be sitting on Criston Cole’s face breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Instead, she’s wrangling the violent impulses of her two sons, shirking her motherly duties to her daughter, clawing for a modicum of power at a table full of men, and delusionally imagining that her former bestie might still bend the knee. Your son’s dragon ate her son, Alicent! Have all those orgasms addled your brain?

5. Criston Cole

It’s a real shame that this bottom feeder is ranked anywhere but dead last on any kind of power scale but the truth is, Criston Cole is playing a good game in the grand scheme of things. He’s got no title, no wealth, and no dragons to speak of and yet, he’s got the ear of both princes and he’s sharing the Queen’s bed. He’s still a self-righteous, self-important prick obsessed with the teenage girl who rejected him all those years ago, but as long as he doesn’t gaze too hard into the mirror, he’ll be fine.

6. Rhaenyra Targaryen

Why can’t everyone just leave Rhaenyra Targaryen alone? Her son is dead, as is his dragon. Her father’s kingdom has been stolen from her. Her baby died in childbirth as her husband was plotting to steal her throne. She’s had a rough couple of days, okay? And instead of letting her practice some self-care by flying her dragon around Storm’s End searching for her boy’s corpse and refusing to bathe, you want her to give marching orders and plan a war? Yes, women can do it all. But must they?

7. Lord Corlys Velaryon

The good news: Corlys Velaryon is not dead. It took him a few episodes to recover from a battle at sea, episodes in which his absence was used to threaten Rhaenyra’s reign and start a war between two powerful houses but hey, everybody heals differently. The bad news? Corlys is without an heir and a certain sailor shares a few too many of his attributes to not arouse suspicion in his wife.

8. Otto Hightower

Otto Hightower hasn’t learned any lessons from last season. He’s still trying to make a worthy leader out of his disappointing grandson and he refuses to moisturize that beard. There’s specific sense of joy in watching him work so hard to become king-by-proxy, betraying his best friend and lighting a match to his legacy, only to then play babysitter to an incompetent man-child with mommy issues.

9. Aegon Targaryen

In a just world, Aegon Targaryen would be whoring his way through Flea Bottom, drinking himself to an early grave and remaining unconcerned with the definition of the word “magnanimous.” But this is George R.R. Martin’s universe, so we’re giving him the codes to the metaphorical nukes and just letting him wing it. Sounds about right.

New ‘House of the Dragon’ episodes air on HBO (and stream on Max) on Sunday nights.

Back in January 2023, Coldplay offered an update about their upcoming milestone 10th album, with Chris Martin saying, “We’re finishing an album called Moon Music, which is the second Music Of The Spheres volume, but that won’t come out for a little bit.” Then, that November, they teased a song called “One World” when they asked fans to contribute recordings of themselves to be used on the track.

Now, the band has officially announced Moon Music, and it’s set to drop on October 4. There’s no tracklist revealed yet, but there’s the aforementioned “One World,” as well as a new song called “Feelslikeimfallinginlove” that’s set for release this Friday, June 21.

Physical editions of the album will be available, but the band is doing it in an uncommonly sustainability-focused way. On the vinyl front, Moon Music will be released as a 140g EcoRecord rPET LP, each copy of which contains “nine recycled PET-plastic bottles recovered from post-consumer waste,” per a press release.

There’s also the Notebook Edition EcoRecord rPET LP edition, which “comprises 70% river plastic, intercepted by The Ocean Cleanup from the Rio Las Vacas, Guatemala, and prevented from reaching the Gulf of Honduras and the Atlantic Ocean.”

Finally, there’s the CD release, which will “be the world’s first to be released on EcoCD, created from 90% recycled polycarbonate, sourced from post-consumer waste streams.”

Coldplay’s Moon Music Album Cover Artwork

Moon Music is out 10/4 via Parlophone/Atlantic. Find more information here.

Jay-Z doesn’t exactly have the strongest association with the Broadway world, but he still managed to wow at this weekend’s Tony Awards.

Alicia Keys’ musical Hell’s Kitchen was among this year’s nominees, so she performed during the ceremony. She began with a rendition of “Empire State Of Mind (Part II) Broken Down” before transitioning into the original “Empire State Of Mind,” during which Jay appeared on a giant screen to perform his part of the song, which got a big reaction from the audience. It turned out Jay was performing from the lobby outside of the venue, and Keys made her way out there to perform the track alongside Jay.

This actually isn’t Jay’s first Tonys experience: He was a producer of the musical Fela!, which is based on the life of Nigerian singer Fela Kuti. The show was one of the most-nominated at the 2010 Tonys, racking up 11 nods including for Best Musical. Jay said of the show at the time, “It’s an inspiration, about the power of music. Here’s a guy that’s on the other side of the world who was influenced by James Brown, who takes this thing and makes his own sort of genre of music. I just think it’s fascinating.”

Check out the performance above.

Have you seen Ayo Edebiri camping out at her local movie theater lately? That’s because she’s prepping for Cuckoo, and she is simply too excited to give up her seat. She’s got a little bit of time to wait, though.

Gen Z It Girl Hunter Schafer stars in the horror film Cuckoo, her first leading role, thanks to the never-ending Euphoria delay. The upcoming thriller hits theaters later this summer, but it’s already acquired a good amount of buzz after making the rounds at various festivals this past spring, with critics calling the movie “bonkers” and “deliriously entertaining,” so you can understand Edebiri’s excitement. Schafer’s performance is already being praised as “superb.”

German filmmaker Tilman Singer penned the film, which recently won the Silver Raven Award at the Brussels International Film Festival, so the anticipation is already kicking into high gear. It’s also a good sign that Neon is distributing the film, which has been killing it in the horror genre lately. Here is everything to know about the R-rated film.

Plot

Hunter Schafer stars as Gretchen, a teen who heads to live with her father and his new family at a mysterious German resort. She begins to work as a receptionist at the resort, and things begin to mess with her head as she is haunted by figures and disturbing sounds. She eventually learns that her family arrived there for a reason, but they might not be able to leave in one piece. Here is the official plot synopsis:

Reluctantly, 17-year-old Gretchen leaves her American home to live with her father, who has just moved into a resort in the German Alps with his new family. Arriving at their future residence, they are greeted by Mr. König, her father’s boss, who takes an inexplicable interest in Gretchen’s mute half-sister Alma. Something doesn’t seem right in this tranquil vacation paradise. Gretchen is plagued by strange noises and bloody visions until she discovers a shocking secret that also concerns her own family.

Cast

Shafer stars as Gretchen, the rebellious teen daughter who agrees to move to Germany with her father. Jan Bluthardt, Marton Csokas, Jessica Henwick and Dan Stevens also star.

Originally, John Malkovich and Gemma Chan were attached to the project, but they left before filming.

Release Date

After its initial release at the Berlin International Film Festival in February and SXSW in March, the film was initially supposed to hit U.S. theaters in May before being pushed to August 2nd, 2024.

Trailer

The blood-soaked trailer was released earlier this year. Check it out below:

In the world of sports pre- and post-game or event coverage, there isn’t a ton of differentiation in terms of format, as everyone, regardless of sport, does about the same thing. You have a group of folks sitting around a desk talking, bantering, and arguing, with some breakdown segments where someone hops on the telestrator to diagram the biggest plays or moments.

On occasion, you might go to a demo area where the analysts will walk fans through a key play, but that’s about as interactive as shows can get, simply due to the restrictions of being in a studio. However, this year, Golf Channel has done something truly groundbreaking on its Live From coverage from on-site, and it has become one of my (and many other golf fans) favorite things, which is sending former PGA Tour pro Johnson Wagner out onto the course after a round to try and recreate a pivotal shot that we just saw.

The results have been pretty incredible, from Wagner throwing balls at a hill at Sawgrass to see where Rory McIlroy’s drive really would’ve gone in the water after a controversial drop to him putting his chipping yips on display numerous times at the PGA Championship and US Open trying to illustrate the difficulty of getting up-and-down. It is the perfect golf content, because Wagner is no longer a Tour caliber player and his struggles (even as a very good player) offer a fantastic way for golf fans at home to relate and understand just how impressive some of these shots we’ve seen are.

On Sunday at Pinehurst No. 2, Bryson DeChambeau won his second U.S. Open title thanks to an all-world bunker shot from 55 yards out on the 18th needing an up-and-down for par to beat Rory McIlroy, who had made bogey on 18 in the group in front.

After DeChambeau was presented with the Wanamaker Trophy and everyone had cleared the 18th, the stage was set for Wagner to set off into the night and try his hand at that same shot under the lights of the jumbotron and the clubhouse in the distance. Wagner, with his 50-degree wedge and a documented case of the yips, slammed his first attempt over the green, sheepishly hoping he didn’t send it into the clubhouse. But as he started to climb out of the bunker, DeChambeau appeared from the darkness, trophy in hand, ready to make TV magic and demanded Wagner hit it agian.

The result was nothing short of incredible, as Wagner thought he chunked it, but instead hit a perfect shot to 18 inches away from the pin. He and DeChambeau celebrated wildly as if Wagner himself had just won the championship, with Bryson even handing over the trophy.

Wagner going from nuking one over the green to a perfect shot (which he thought he hit fat, which is honestly even better) once DeChambeau showed up is amazing. You can make the case that those two are more dedicated to creating content than anyone in the golf world, Bryson as the world’s foremost YouTube golfer and Johnson as the only analyst in golf (and really any sport) willing to make a fool out of himself on national TV in order to give people a greater appreciation for what the game’s elite are pulling off. That Wagner got that moment of elation, hitting an insanely tough bunker shot to gimme range, was well deserved after going on TV and skulling chips for the past few months.