Category: News

This Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of Spoon’s Gimme Fiction, which was celebrated by GQ as “the most important rock record of the past decade.” Not the most important Spoon album or indie album. According to the author, between the years 2005 and 2016, no rock album, period, was more important than Gimme Fiction. I respect the energy, if not the merit, of the argument. First off, like literally every single retroactive look at rock music in the 21st century, the author portrays the genre in a state of crisis against all available contradictory evidence. They also describe My Morning Jacket as “uncritical retro revivalists” in the year they made Z.

Beyond that, Gimme Fiction is the fourth-most important Spoon album of the 2000s and that’s an indisputable fact — Girls Can Tell is the one that rebooted Spoon’s career after a brief and bitter spell on a major label, Kill The Moonlight was their first widely-acknowledged masterpiece, and Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga has sold at least twice as many copies as any other album they’ve made.

But I think the most bizarre aspect of the piece is the author’s need to describe Spoon as important, let alone “the most.” Spoon has been hailed as the most consistently excellent American rock band of the 21st century, the type of band for which the Five Albums Test was made. And yet, they endure largely because they’re resistant to hyperbole. Spoon makes instant classics, but nothing showy enough to create the aura of “masterpiece” or “earth-shattering.” They will finish in the top ten of most year end lists, but never No. 1. “Important” albums don’t always age well, Spoon ones always do, even after nearly 30 years. Here’s my take on which ones have aged the best.

10. Telephono (1996)

Telephono served as Spoon’s introduction for a select handful of people — KVRX listeners in Austin, indie record store clerks flipping out over anything Matador released in 1996. Aside from that, Telephono is an album that even relative Day Ones would first hear at least five years after the fact, something whose value largely stems as a comparative point for Spoon’s celebrated 21st century output. Yet, even if Telephono is a curiosity, what’s surprising is how unsurprising it is. Just about everything that made Spoon Spoon is already in place, although they’re perhaps still a bit too in thrall to their Wire and Pixies records: The co-ed harmonies and Daniel’s occasional lapse into Frank Black vocal tics are a rare glimpse into Spoon having a firm command on their songwriting basics while still trying to figure out who they wanted to be.

9. Lucifer On The Sofa (2022)

We love a “their best since Achtung Baby!” joke around these parts, but for those who aren’t as familiar with hoary music critic tropes, allow me to explain. Think about a legacy band that, for a time, veered into more experimental territory that was initially well-received but saw them slip either commercially or critically, or possibly both. In that event, there’s an album that stands as the “form” in “return to form.” Achtung Baby is the most obvious example, with Automatic For The People a close second, and the punchline is that U2 and R.E.M. were constantly making “their best since!” albums, each of which were conveniently thrown under the bus whenever the next “their best since!” album came out two or three years later.

The idea of Spoon making a “return to form” is funny to consider since the one thing they’ve been known for above all else is their consistency. And yet, here we have Lucifer On The Sofa — according to Rolling Stone (the primary source of “best since!” gags), “a consistently excellent band takes it to a new level by getting back to basics.” They also say, “Spoon are the most reliable great American rock band of the past 25 years. That might say more about American rock than it does about Spoon,” which is definitely the most backhanded compliment I’ve ever seen from a 4.5-star review in that publication.

So what exactly did it mean for Spoon to get back to basics? Was it covering their Austinite indie brethren on the opening “Held”? Because Dave Fridmann is still in the credits, and so is Mark Rankin and Justin Raisen, which put Spoon one degree of separation from Queens Of The Stone Age and Charli XCX. This is a loud album but a professional one, far removed from their prickly, post-punk origins, and the highlight is the first ever arena rock Spoon song; That’s the one co-written by Jack Antonoff. Otherwise, Lucifer On The Sofa does indeed achieve a baseline “yup, sounds like Spoon” quality that’s a bit deflating in light of the restlessness that typified Kill The Moonlight or Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga or whatever “form” Spoon was supposed to return to here. In fact, Lucifer On The Sofa is without precedent in the catalog, the first time Spoon simply “made a Spoon album.”

8. Transference (2010)

A perfect Contrarian’s Choice — follows an artist’s most popular and critically acclaimed album, is more “raw” and “difficult,” and endured an unusually muted reception upon its release, one where the 8s become 7s and the four-star reviews slip to 3.5. This was pretty much the point of Transference, which countered the precise, pop perfection of Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga with a record that’s literally half demos. Britt Daniel himself has referred to the self-produced Transference as “uglier” than Spoon’s past records, though that wasn’t the initial intention: they ended up scrapping earlier sessions with Mark fucking Ronson.

Still, after an album with so many definitive statements, Transference settled into uncertainty and communication breakdowns: witness the confusion inherent in song titles like “Is Love Forever?,” “Written In Reverse” and “Who Makes Your Money.” Transference has the best lore of any Spoon album, one with a truly divisive reception and also the highest debut on Billboard (No. 4! Indie rock in 2010!).

I imagine its placement on any Spoon album ranking list is the one that says the most about the person who made it. And it’s just one man’s opinion that Transference remains fascinating for never truly revealing all of its secrets by design, but also ranks this low because that inability to truly know Transference is tied up in Spoon making their first album of the decade that wasn’t exclusively memorable songs.

7. They Want My Soul (2014)

You’d figure Spoon could completely dictate the terms of engagement on their return to the majors, but there’s a paranoia and internal conflict coursing throughout They Want My Soul exemplified not just by its album title, but this bar from “Outlier” — “I remember when you walked out of Garden State / ’cause you had taste.” The first part of that line is directed at a long-lost friend, but the latter opinion is presumably Daniel’s own, which casts a lot of the artistic choices in a curious light.

Co-producers Dave Fridmann and Joe Chicarreli make for a maximalist-on-maximalist tag team, each with a sonic signature completely at odds with that of Spoon (also, Chicarreli worked on both The Shins and The White Stripes records in 2007, maybe Daniel changed his tune since “Small Stakes”?). Are they here because Spoon wanted a challenge or because they were still subject to major label meddling 16 years after A Series Of Sneaks? Did “The Rent I Pay” and “Do You” sound comfortable between Foster The People and Bombay Bicycle Club songs on SiriusXM because Spoon was catering to mid-10s mainstream trends, or the other way around? What does it say about Spoon’s “triumphant return to form” that synth-heavy highlights “Inside Out” and “New York Kiss” sound a lot like Daniel’s recent work in Divine Fits? What are we to make of Spoon’s second stint on a major label also lasting only one album? While the occasional ill-fitting slickness of They Want My Soul can’t help but make it a lesser Spoon album, it’s still one of the most fun to think about.

6. Hot Thoughts (2017)

Hot Thoughts arrived two-and-a-half years after its predecessor, but on Spoon Time, that makes it a virtual Amnesiac, Two Hands, or Weird Era Cont. — a relative “quickie” companion piece to its more celebrated big brother. Indeed, They Want My Soul and Hot Thoughts feel like mirror images, with Dave Fridmann trying to fit himself into the Spoon sound on the former, and Spoon trying to make a Dave Fridmann album on the latter. As a result, Hot Thoughts is the weirder, wilder, more truly experimental of the two.

The title track and “Can I Sit Next to You” are such literal come-ons that they’re basically Afghan Whigs songs, “Us” and “Pink Up” veer off into dubby, digital bubble baths, and the beat change on “Whisperandi’lllistentohearit” is one of the most exciting moments of the band’s third decade (has any band made more consistently effective use of a tambourine?). Its cooler reception make it feel more fresh a decade later, and yet, much like They Want My Soul, Hot Thoughts ends up being a little less than the sum of its intriguing parts; the “classic” Spoon songs like “Shotgun” don’t ground Hot Thoughts so much as confirm that they didn’t go far enough into the unknown.

5. A Series Of Sneaks (1998)

Let’s consider the alternate reality that so many Spoon fans wanted for A Series Of Sneaks in 1998 — “Car Radio” or “Metal Detektor” become college radio hits with an occasional spin on MTV or a late-night appearance where Conan O’Brien holds up the CD and mentions how many year-end critic’s lists it made. A Series Of Sneaks does reasonable numbers and Spoon has a solid career path similar to bands who similarly were “indie” in spirit while cashing major label advances in the 1990s, like Built To Spill or Dinosaur Jr., or hell, maybe even Modest Mouse if things broke right.

Catchy as it was, Spoon’s brand of jittery, cryptic power-pop couldn’t have been more at odds with what was actually on the radio in 1998, whether it was alt-rock or college rock; Daniel himself said that A Series Of Sneaks was him trying to gain distance from the electric guitar, which was “too used, too simple, too alt-rock.” In retrospect, A Series Of Sneaks tanking is the best thing to happen to Spoon — it didn’t just serve as the inspiration for the cathartic Girls Can Tell (plus the Ron Lafitte-related songs attached to Series’ 2002 Merge reissue), but gave Spoon the high ground that made celebration of their ensuing output feel like a moral imperative. There’s a risk of A Series Of Sneaks being reduced to a plot point on their hero’s journey, but as a piece of music, at least give some credit to Elektra for thinking something this stubbornly idiosyncratic could sell at all.

4. Gimme Fiction (2005)

Most artists worthy of lists like these eventually make their “sprawling,” “adventurous” album — the one that’s at least 15 minutes longer than the others, with a couple of dud experiments that are beloved nonetheless for its willingness to defy expectations. Gimme Fiction is that album for Spoon, almost by default — though just shy of 44 minutes, it’s the longest LP in the catalog and the relative frills of Gimme Fiction make it feel like Sign O’ The Times compared to the minimalist masterpieces that came before.

Daniel’s handsome rasp and Spoon’s peerless quality control ensure they never sound uncomfortable as they subtly reinvent themselves on a track-by-track basis: the seasick shanty of “The Beast And Dragon, Adored” somehow doesn’t feel at odds with the icy-hot disco strut of “I Turn My Camera On,” nor do the streamlined synth workouts (“Was It You?,” “The Never Got You”) make for a jarring transition to the shifty piano-pop of closer “Merchants of Soul.” There’s enough space in between for alt-country beer blasts (“Sister Jack”), fanciful folk-pop (“I Summon You”), and, in perhaps, the biggest divergence from Spoon’s wheelhouse, a song that’s just one long verse (“My Mathematical Mind”). It’s often perceived as the overlooked middle child between the Spoon albums that made 2000s Best Of Decade lists, but I’ll give Gimme Fiction this: I distinctly remember hearing a leaked version where the tracklist ran backwards and it was every bit as good.

3. Girls Can Tell (2001)

The year is 2001 and a bunch of major-label washouts bet on themselves, channeling all of their frustration and self-loathing into a disgustingly catchy album on a new label that vaults them into a rarefied echelon of popularity and acclaim they occupy to this very day. Yes, this is a Spoon list, so you can see where I’m going with this, but I am also talking about Jimmy Eat World’s Bleed American… and I could not imagine Britt Daniel at the turn of the century looking in the mirror, begging not to write himself off yet.

Though Girls Can Tell is the opening argument for Spoon as the most consistently excellent band of the 21st century, it’s a complete outlier in their catalog for having such a transparent emotional tenor — that being, Britt Daniel is down bad. “Tough break handjob sent me back home to ma / Back to Cowtown and the fish shop and the mall,” he barks on “Take a Walk,” and home is where the self-hatred is. Throughout Girls Can Tell, Daniel tries to put a brave face during the day before hitting the same tired bar scene and coming home to count his losses — remembering every girl who gave him the boot and every girl who won’t give him the time of day, every shitty job in shitty business-casual shirts that makes him wonder how he can feel so washed up at such a tender age.

Of course, Girls Can Tell sounds like triumph now because Daniel expressed all of these things in taut and timeless pop songs too good to be ignored — but on those days where everything hits at once, Girls Can Tell is still an indispensable drinking buddy, a reminder of the hope that comes from hitting rock bottom and realizing there’s nowhere to go but up.

2. Kill The Moonlight (2002)

I want to talk about a high school friend of mine named Matt. Up until senior year, he was generally a well-liked guy, but not what you’d describe as one of the “popular kids,” someone who participated in multiple varsity sports but wasn’t really a star and got good grades without distinguishing himself academically either. And then, for reasons that none of us ever really hashed out, one of the cheerleaders took an interest in him and, just like that, he was that dude until graduation. I googled his name for the first time in maybe 20 years and it looks like he’s a senior director of business development at a San Francisco tech firm.

Point being is that sometimes, all it takes is just an external boost of confidence for someone to become that dude, and this is the story of Spoon after they made a record about the most miserable time in their lives and ended up with a certified indie rock classic. In the span of one year, Spoon transformed from a ’90s indie-rock relic to something sleek and sexy enough to compete in the New Rock Revolution, rather than serving as counterpoint to bands like The Strokes and Interpol.

Daniel cast off the small stakes of 30-something heartbreak to pontificate on the meaning of life (“The Way We Get By”), while “Something To Look Forward To” and “All The Pretty Girls Go To The City” made Spoon a band you pre-game to before a night on the town, not the band you listen to after you strike out. And they did it all without sacrificing any of their contrarian impulses; Kill The Moonlight is one of the most unique-sounding indie rock records of its era, defiantly minimal in a way that can be disorienting (see: the severe stereo panning on “Don’t Let It Get You Down,” “Back To The Life”‘s dubbed-out take on Led Zeppelin’s “Boogie With Stu”), blood-pumping (the rawk outlier “Jonathan Fisk”), and downright eerie (“Paper Tiger”), stripping indie rock down to nothing more than literal rhythm and soul.

1. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (2007)

If it isn’t the best Spoon song, “The Underdog” sure feels like the definitive one. At once sprightly and surly, Britt Daniel honors his obvious lineage of respected, late-’70s “Angry Young Men,” but also the less cred-conscious piano man who actually wrote a song called “Angry Young Man.” And of course, there’s the key lyric on the chorus: “You got no fear of the underdog / that’s why you will not survive.” “The Underdog” lends itself to a pat interpretation of Spoon getting the last laugh on Elektra and disgraced A&R Ron Lafitte, but in 2007, it could be taken as a triumphant statement for indie rock as a whole; bands of Spoon’s ilk still weren’t doing platinum numbers, but indie rock was in the midst of an explosion where seemingly all of the people with cachet were discussing the latest moves of Arcade Fire and Panda Bear and getting granular about pop stars was seen as the pastime of true weirdos.

Similarly, if Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga isn’t the best Spoon album, it sure feels like the definitive one. Coming at the exact midpoint of their discography, it was the first time Spoon acted the part of an A-list rock band, and not just an indie rock band punching above their weight class; the intention of writing “This Record Is A Hit” in the liner notes may have been sarcastic, but it wasn’t wrong. “The Underdog” started popping up in places where you’d never expect to hear a song from a band on Merge and Spoon earned their first top-10 debut on Billboard. From all available data, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga had sold over 300,000 copies by 2010 and it’s probably approaching gold at this point.

And yet, there’s barely anything notably different about Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga than what came before. Only this time around, all of the experimentation of albums past sound like R&D for their version of Thriller or Hysteria, an intentional singles machine that doesn’t mask its painstaking studio craft. “Don’t Make Me A Target” was the meanest Spoon opener to date and also had the stickiest hook. Whereas use of treated piano or exotic instrumentation were the mark of outliers in the past, “The Ghost Of You Lingers” and “My Little Japanese Cigarette Case” hang tough with the more obvious singles like “The Underdog” and “Don’t You Evah.” “Black Like Me,” questionable title aside, is a rare outpouring of pure warmth from a typically obtuse lyricist, the type of closer that confirms whatever impulse you had to call “instant classic” from first listen.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of little moments that can be appraised like facets through a jeweler’s loupe, but a diamond is meant to impress casual viewers at a distance, too. Though I was secretly hoping I’d be able to justify a less chalky No. 1 pick, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is the definitive Spoon album because it’s also the best.

Apple TV+‘s Silo continues to be nothing short of ambitious heading into the third season of adapting Hugh Howey’s Wool omnibus and followup books. To date, showrunner Graham Yost’s worldbuilding has been both striking and intricate, and Howey’s characters sprang to life with nobody suggesting even for a moment that a better Juliette could be found than Rebecca Ferguson.

The tech giant’s streaming service previously renewed the show for two final seasons to be filmed back to back, and the third season will be when the series takes a real pivot, as readers of Howey’s Shift novel are aware. Let’s descend into the underground on what to expect from Silo‘s third season.

Cast

Rebecca Ferguson will return as Juliette with Steve Zahn still in the cards as Solo even though the pair parted ways during the most recent season finale. Will Tim Robbins be back as Bernard? Given that he intentionally set himself on fire the last time we saw him, it’s not looking good there. The same goes for Iain Glen as Juliette’s father, Dr. Nichols, who sacrificed himself in an explosion.

However, Common’s Leather Jacket will surely return as Sims, and we can look forward to seeing more of Harriet Walter (as Martha), Avi Nash (as Lukas), Chinaza Uche (as Paul), and Alexandria Riley (as Camille).

New characters? There should be plenty, including those two mysterious additions previewed in the second season’s final moments. Ashley Zukerman will portray Daniel, a “young and hungry congressman” who will be pivotal to future and past events. And Jessica Henwick will be on hand as Helen, a “whip-smart reporter” who also appeared in the books.

Plot

Get ready because the third season will embark upon bringing parts of Hugh Howey’s Shift novel to life after the second season already adapted a healthy chunk of the voluminous novel. As viewers will recall, that source material followed Juliette traveling to Silo 17 and meeting Solo. Yet since the second season also bounced back and forth between Juliette and Solo’s exploration of Silo 17 and Juliette’s home base of Silo 18, it’s no wonder that Yost and Apple TV+ decided to split Shift (which is an admittedly discombobulating book) into the second and third seasons. There was just too much going on already, and rest assured that there will be plenty of Silo 18 in the third season after Juliette returned home (and since Ferguson remains the star of this series).

Do you want proof of that for reassurance? Apple TV+ posted an Instagram photo that shows Ferguson looking (as always) impossibly cool (and calmly rocking out) with a simple message: “That’s a wrap on Season 3.”

Who are Donald and Helen, exactly? They hail from times closer to our own, and without getting too spoilery, the duo is vital in unveiling the “how,” “why,” and “who” of the silos’ creation. Do expect some changes of scenery when the show dives into that abyss, and when the foundational secrets arrive, they will be jarring. Shift, as a book, reads as intentionally unsettling while parceling out this information, but given how Yost has been gracefully bouncing between silos and unwieldy subject matter, I have confidence that he will also keep the third season moving as smoothly as possible.

To that end, Yost told Space.com that less than a third of the season will focus on “Daniel and Helen” (although that label cloaks so many secrets, it’s not even funny) while keeping most of the action in Silo 18 once Juliette reenters the building:

“It’s about a third of the season of what we call the “Daniel and Helen” story and following them. The rest of it is that Juliette has come back with this big information about maybe there’s a way to stop them from being able to kill us. But we make following up on that incredibly difficult, because the bad guys are smart, is all I’ll say. Apple has been so incredibly supportive. It’s not a cheap or simple show to do. We’ve got the best cast and the best crew and the best writers and the best directors. To work with these people is just an absolute joy.”

Additionally, Rebecca Ferguson expressed her happiness on being able to finish telling the stories in Howey’s Shift and the third novel, Dust. Via an Apple TV+ statement:

“I have always felt passionately about telling the entire story contained within Hugh Howey’s books, so I couldn’t be happier that audiences around the world have enthusiastically embraced the show. Alongside our parters at Apple, Graham, and the entire cast and crew, I cannot wait to dive into these final two thought-provoking seasons that will beautifully conclude this dystopian tale.”

Release Date

Although no precise release date has been publicized by Apple TV+, the excellent news is that third and fourth season filming (which will conclude the series) were scheduled to run fairly close “with no hiatus” other than pre-production and the third season now wrapped. It’s possible that late 2025 could happen, but early 2026 feels equally likely.

Trailer

No trailer exists yet, but this video of Steve Zahn freaking out about Solo’s rooms is really something. Although cluttered, his space is so much cleaner than the books suggested (whew) and overall rad to behold.

Stormzy back! Big Mike’s newest release, a freestyle video called “Sorry Rach!” brings him back to his chest-beating roots, spitting a seemingly endless stream of witty boasts and brain bending double entendres over a straightforward beat. No frills, no fuss, no high-concept storytelling and world building, just good old-fashioned roadman raps in the style in which Stormzy first introduced himself to the world. Hallelujah.

The unexpected return to Stormzy’s gritty roots comes as he’s climbed to the heights of pop culture dominance; he was one of the Black dandies at this week’s Met Gala (his second time appearing on the carpet), he’s starred in commercials for the Golden Arches, and he’s been caught up in dating rumors with R&B’s hottest stars.

It has been three years since the release of Stormzy’s last album, This Is What I Mean, which featured the singles “Hide & Seek” and “Firebabe.” However, he hasn’t been totally off the music radar since then, releasing “Toxic Trait” in June 2023 and “Angel In The Marble” two months later. Still, it’s high time for a new Stormzy album, and hopefully, “Sorry Rach!” is the first signal that he’s got something new on the horizon.

You can watch Stormzy’s “Sorry Rach!” freestyle video up top.

Last month, A24 announced A24 Music, which is… we’re not sure, exactly. Could it be a record label? Or a dedicated streaming service for soundtracks and scores? There’s no details yet, and an Instagram post only says to “stay tuned.” But based on the indie studio’s track record of cinematic excellence, including a pair of Best Picture winners, it’s an exciting development.

It also gives us an excuse to reflect on the use of music in A24’s films. Below, you’ll find the best needle drops in the studio’s filmography, arranged chronologically from a pop queen in Spring Breakers to an indie favorite in I Saw The TV Glow. To reiterate: it’s existing songs only, no scores (The Brutalist, Hereditary, and The Witch will get their due another time).

Wouldst thou like to listen deliciously? Then let’s go!

Spring Breakers

Britney Spears — “Everytime”

Never trust a white guy with dreads — unless he’s praising Britney Spears. James Franco’s rapper/drug dealer Alien calls the pop star “one of the greatest singers of all time” and “an angel if there ever was one.” He then serenades ski mask-wearing college students Brit (Ashley Benson), Candy (Vanessa Hudgens), and Cotty (Rachel Korine) with a beachside cover of “Everytime” on piano, leading into the actual song itself. It’s a genuinely touching moment in an otherwise chaotic (complimentary) film.

The Bling Ring

Azealia Banks — “212”

There’s a recurring joke on BoJack Horseman where the characters sing “generic decade songs” with on-the-nose lyrics to establish when a scene is set. Director Sofia Coppola could have gone this route and made Emma Watson look into the camera to say “this is a song from the Obama administration, the administration which is currently is” during a much meme’d scene in The Bling Ring. Instead, she established that era through cultural signifiers: an early Facebook layout, using the flash while taking a selfie, and Watson popping-and-locking to “212.” No song could have established that time and that place more.

Ex Machina

Oliver Cheatham — “Get Down Saturday Night”

When was the first moment you noticed Oscar Isaac? Was it Drive? Inside Llewyn Davis? Robin Hood, when he apparently played the King of England? (Probably not that one.) For many folks, it was Ex Machina, specifically the scene where Isaac tears up the “f*cking dance floor” to “Get Down Saturday Night” with Sonoya Mizuno (who also makes a striking impression). The song is fun and funky, but it sounds evil being played in an environment as sterile as a reclusive CEO’s bunker. Another thing ruined by tech bros.

Green Room

Creedence Clearwater Revival — “Sinister Purpose”

For an intensely violent horror movie about a punk band, Green Room is often quiet. Disconcertingly so, which of course is the point: it makes the moments that interrupt the silence — often screams of pain — sound as deafening as standing directly in front of the speaker at a hardcore show. But despite the punk-heavy soundtrack, it’s a song (“Sinister Purpose”) from a meat-and-potatoes rock band (Creedence Clearwater Revival) that plays over the end credits that shatters the eardrums the most profoundly.

Moonlight

Jidenna — “Classic Man”

Moonlight is one of two A24 films to win Best Picture at the Oscars (the other appears later on this list). There’s any number of gorgeously lit scenes in the Barry Jenkins masterpiece that might have pushed it over the top, but one of the most personal is a moment shared between Chiron (played as an adult by Trevante Rhodes) and Kevin (André Holland). The two childhood friends have just reconnected after a decade apart, and there’s romantic tension between them. Chiron is apprehensive to become romantically vulnerable, so he instead lets a chopped-and-screwed version of “Classic Man” say what he can’t. He’s a classic man, an old-fashioned man, who just happens to be in love with another man.

20th Century Women

Black Flag — “Nervous Breakdown” and Talking Heads — “The Big Country”

It’s the late 1970s. In order to better understand her son Jamie, Dorothea, a single mother from an earlier generation played by Annette Benning, listens to one of his records: “Nervous Breakdown” by Black Flag. She attempts to make sense of the lyrics (“Is that interesting?”), and even awkwardly bops along to the razor-sharp song with her middle-aged tenant William (Billy Crudup). Neither of them is able to lock in, so they try a different song: “The Big Country” by Talking Heads. This one, they understand. In 20th Century Women, writer and director Mike Mills brilliantly depicts the minor differences between two bands that hail from the same punk ecosystem, albeit different coasts. As Greta Gerwig’s anti-establishment feminist accurately puts it after some Black Flag fans spray paint the family car with a slur because Jamie listens to Talking Heads, “The punk scene is very divisive.”

Lady Bird

Dave Matthews Band — “Crash Into Me”

“Guilty pleasure,” as a concept, should be retired, and the Dave Matthews Band scene in Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird is why. It’s a perversely corny song, a take that I, someone who posted on the DMB-focused Ants Marching message board in high school, am allowed to have. But in the right context, like seeing your crush kiss another guy, it can be the emotional catharsis you need. “I f*cking love this song,” a popular snob tells Saoirse Ronan’s free-spirited Lady Bird. Gerwig’s DMB-loving stand-in replies, “I love it.” There’s nothing guilty about the pleasure she finds in “Crash Into Me” (other than maybe the “hike up your skirt a little more” line).

Under The Silver Lake

R.E.M. — “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?”

If any A24 title was to get a Room 237-style documentary on fans analyzing (or possibly over-analyzing) the film for hidden meanings, it’s Under The Silver Lake. There’s an entire Reddit thread about the surreal noir movie’s use of “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?”, the colossal first single from R.E.M.’s CD classic Monster. Is it meant to mimic the paranoid journey that Sam, the directionless character played by Andrew Garfield, goes on to find a missing woman? Or is the title, a reference to a question newscaster Dan Rather was asked while being mugged, a clue to his state of mind? And the Kurt Cobain connections can’t be a coincidence, right? It could be all three, or none of the above. One thing’s for sure, though: Thank you, David Robert Mitchell, for picking “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?” over the clichéd “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine).”

Waves

Frank Ocean — “Seigfried”

It’s no surprise that Trey Edward Shults was entrusted to direct The Weeknd’s lightly autobiographical movie Hurry Up Tomorrow. The filmmaker previously made Waves, which features a mood-setting soundtrack. There’s tracks from Animal Collective, Kendrick Lamar, SZA, Radiohead, and Alabama Shakes. There are also multiple Frank Ocean songs, including “Seigfried” during a road trip scene. The seamless pairing of sound and vision left Edward Shults in tears. “I felt like I had finally lived it emotionally,” he said.

Uncut Gems

Billy Joel — “The Stranger”

As noted in the intro, scores were ineligible for this list. But if they hadn’t been disqualified, there would be so many — too many! — to choose from: Colin Stetson’s sinful-sounding drones in Hereditary, Emile Mosseri’s lovely compositions for Minari, Oneohtrix Point Never’s nervy synths in Good Time. But the Safdie Brothers are represented here with their other A24 crime thriller, Uncut Gems, starring Adam Sandler as the most in-over-his-head character in cinema history. Billy Joel’s whistling intro in classic rock radio staple “The Stranger” has never sounded more ominous than it does when jeweler/gambling degenerate Howard Ratner stops at his mistress’ Manhattan apartment — with his wife and kids in the car, including a son who desperately needs to use the restroom. The Safides know New York, and few artists are more New York than Billy Joel.

Zola

Migos — “Hannah Montana”

Zola is so much better than “a movie based on a Twitter thread” has any right to be. A large reason for that is the perfectly cast performances from Taylour Paige and Riley Keough as strippers Zola and Stefani; Colman Domingo as Stefani’s controlling pimp X; and Nicholas Braun as Derrek, the quintessential white guy trying too hard to be Black. The first time we see the four of them together, they’re driving from Michigan to Florida, while dimwit Derrek uses his phone to record them rapping along to “Hannah Montana” by Migos. It’s the high-energy beginning of a long trip before Zola and “this bitch” fell out.

Red Rocket

NSYNC — “Bye Bye Bye”

If I had a nickel for every time a movie this century used “Bye Bye Bye” in the opening credits, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice, right? Three years before Ryan Reynolds danced his way to one billion dollars in Deadpool & Wolverine, Red Rocket kicked off with NSYNC’s signature song. In the indelible portrait of modern America, Simon Rex plays a washed-up porn star who returns to Texas from Los Angeles after nearly two decades, back when “Bye Bye Bye” was a modern hit. The song is a signifier of his stunted adolescence and a bit of a flex on writer and director Sean Baker’s part. “It was almost like casting an A-lister in my film,” he said. After winning all those Oscars for Anora, hopefully he’ll have his pick of top-10 hits in his next film.

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Nine Days — “Absolutely (Story Of A Girl)”

Everything Everywhere All At Once is the other Best Picture winner in the A24 canon. More importantly, it’s also the only Best Picture winner in Oscars history to feature not one, not two, but three versions of the same power-pop song. Nine Days had a modest hit with “Absolutely (Story Of A Girl)” in 2000, enough to wriggle itself into the brain of EEAAO writers and directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. They reached out to singer John Hampson to ask permission to use his lyrics in their script. He did them one better by recording multiple new versions of the song, which becomes an important motif in the multiverse saga.

Aftersun

Queen and David Bowie — “Under Pressure”

Charlotte Wells’ astonishing directorial debut Aftersun has a few essential scenes that involve music, and they will all make you cry. There’s Calum (played by Paul Mescal) refusing to sing “Losing My Religion” with his 11-year-old daughter Sophie (Frankie Corio) during a karaoke night. There’s Calum gently stroking Sophie’s forehead to Blur’s hymn-like “Tender.” And most of all, there’s the use of “Under Pressure.” In adult Sophie’s memory, it’s the last happy moment she shared with her father before tragedy occurs.

Beau Is Afraid

Mariah Carey — “Always Be My Baby”

“Running naked over glass before confronting a knife-wielding unhoused man and then getting hit by a truck” isn’t the worst thing that happens to Beau (Joaquin Phoenix) in Beau Is Afraid. Past the two-hour mark in Ari Aster’s misunderstood follow-up to Midsommar, he reconnects with childhood crush Elaine (Parker Posey) after learning he’s late for his mother’s funeral. They have sex — in his mom’s bed — to the middle school dance classic “Always Be My Baby,” but she dies midway through an orgasm while still on top of him. “He’s a bit older in his life when [his first sexual experience] is happening,” producer Lars Knudsen explained. “There’s nothing better than a Mariah Carey song playing while that’s happening.” And there’s nothing worse than what happens while it’s playing.

Past Lives

John Cale — “You Know More Than I Know”

You would never mistake Past Lives for The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three, but there are moments of genuine tension. After Nora (Greta Lee) excuses herself to use the bathroom, a lot is left unsaid between her husband Arthur (John Magaro) and could-have-been lost love Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) — and it’s not only because they’re not fluent in each other’s language. The initial anxious silence between the two men, soundtracked only to the hum of a New York City bar and John Cale’s pristine “You Know More Than I Know,” is snapped when they eventually connect over a shared admiration for the same woman. “[It’s] the perfect song for them because that’s what it is,” director Celine Song shared. “Part of it is the mystery that they have for each other, and they’re actually making room for that mystery for each other and in each other.” They both know they want the same thing: what’s best for Nora.

Civil War

Suicide — “Dream Baby Dream”

“Dream Baby Dream,” once memorably covered by Bruce Springsteen, plays over the final scene in Alex Garland’s alarming Civil War. During a siege on the White House, stony photojournalist Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) — having just basically caused the death of her once-mentor — is tasked with taking a picture of soldiers shooting and killing the president. She gets what she’s there for, but there’s no look of satisfaction once she gets the shot, only the woozy, drone-like clicks of “Dream Baby Dream.” Jessie has just realized the American dream (baby dream) is more of a nightmare.

I Saw The TV Glow

Yuele — “Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl”

The centerpiece of the I Saw The TV Glow soundtrack is a song that bookends the trans-coming-of-age film, a cover by Yeule of Broken Social Scene’s timeless “Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl.” It plays as young Owen (Ian Foreman) finds refuge under a gym-class parachute in a swirling mix of the bi and trans flags, and again when Owen, now an adult (Justice Smith), cuts open their chest to reveal the TV glow inside themselves. Director and writer Jane Schoenbrun wanted “Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl” because it’s “a very early version of this thing that now a lot of queer artists do, through hyperpop,” they explained, and “it has always struck me as this low-key queer anthem.” It’s never sounded more anthemic than it does in I Saw The TV Glow.

Sound Check host Jeremy Hecht already has a perfect record of guessing guest artists’ life anthems, from Big Sean to The Lox, but in this week’s episode, he has to take on the multifaceted streamer-turned-rapper DDG, which offers a unique challenge of its own.

For the newbies, here’s how it works: Jeremy plays two songs for the guest artist, who has to choose one and explain their choice. After seven rounds, Jeremy then has to guess the artist’s life anthem, the song they’d take to a desert island, which the guest wrote down earlier. Here’s the twist: our production team has also given him a decoy song, and Jeremy has to guess which is correct based on what he’s learned in the previous rounds.

For DDG, he pits 50 Cent against Lil Wayne, Drake against Big Sean, Kanye West against Future, and DDG’s fellow streamers KSI and Unotheactivist against each other. DDG also has to choose between two of his own songs, “Trickin” and “Moonwalkin In Calabasas,” and his answer may surprise you. Then, it’s time for Jeremy to make his choice between two unexpected tracks: SZA’s “Nobody Gets Me” and Keyshia Cole’s “Love.” Olivia Rodrigo’s “Traitor” even makes an appearance! Can Jeremy keep his perfect record alive?

Watch DDG take the Sound Check challenge up top to find out.

What is the future of BMF? Nobody can say for sure, but executive producer 50 Cent has perhaps been leaning into that question. The frequently beefing TV mogul recently threatened to boot Demetrius “Lil Meech” Flenory Jr. from the Starz series, and Rick Ross responded to that dust-up by calling the series “lackluster” and proclaiming that he’d like to make a BMF movie.

50 Cent also recently dropped some fighting words about Power co-creator Courtney A Kemp’s upcoming Netflix series, Nemesis, which adds more drama on top of the brand already arising within 50 Cent’s TV universe. However, BMF fans can currently take comfort in knowing that a fourth season is definitely coming on Starz. And it won’t be long before that happens.

When Will BMF Season 4 Come Out?

Sunday, June 6. So yeah, beefing or not, the show must go on.

The crime drama’s new trailer, which you can watch below, previews Lil Meech and Terry Flenory launching their music label while falling into a brotherly power struggle and expanding further into the illicit drug trade. Starz’ synopsis further teases how “the brothers must overcome insurmountable obstacles — from the growing police presence to their revenge-driven oldest rival, it’s hard to trust anyone… even each other. As the pressure and tension mount, it leads to explosive conflict and resentment between the brothers.”

This season, The Shield‘s Michael Chiklis joins the cast as a DEA agent who rapidly adds to the enemy list of Meech and Terry, and Eric Kofi-Abrefa will also return as arch nemesis Lamar Silas. They will, of course, join Demetrius Flenory, Jr. (as Meech) and Da’Vinchi (as Terry Flenory) along with Russell Hornsby, Michole Briana White, Myles Truitt, and Steve Harris.

During Usher’s Las Vegas residency and his last tour, one of the R&B vet’s signature moves was picking a lucky lady in the crowd and suggestively dipping a cherry into her open mouth.

Well, after Monday’s Met Gala, it became apparent that the tradition continued, even in a room full of well-dressed celebrities. Thanks to Getty Images, we also know which of the women in attendance Usher chose for his cherry trick: Sabrina Carpenter, who is herself no stranger to salacious onstage antics.

Carpenter, who was dressed by Louis Vuitton head designer Pharrell Williams for the gala, has had her fair share of pearl-clutching moments on tour, from her tradition of “arresting” attendees like Salma Hayek and Millie Bobby Brown for being “too hot” to her literal reenactments of the positions from her hit song “Juno.” Her risqué stagecraft has sparked complaints from concerned parents about her barely-there ensembles and suggestive choreography, but that hasn’t stopped her from doubling down on her dirty jokes.

Maybe that’s what prompted Usher to pick her from the finely-coiffed crowd to keep his own suggestive stage tradition alive. Perhaps they’ll be able to put any chemistry they’ve conjured up from the interaction to use in the studio for a coy collaboration.

Beyoncé has become a massively influential figure in R&B, pop, and beyond over the years, and that influence was felt on SZA’s album SOS, too, to the point where Beyoncé is actually owed some money over it. SZA knows this, but she says Beyoncé hasn’t actually gone as far as to demand compensation.

As People notes, in an April 28 video from influencer Zuhaila Jama (here), Jama jokes about the amount of writers credited on Beyoncé songs, joking that Beyoncé will give a songwriting credit to anybody who was even tangentially involved in creating a song. Jama also captioned the post, “She makes sure everyone and their mum is credited just for people to turn around and discredit her #beyonce.”

SZA took to the comments section to write, “I literally owe her half my publishing off interpolation alone on SOS and she never pressed me lmao a generous QUEEN [crying emoji].”

Towards the end of the SOS title track, SZA sings, “And I cried and cried / Said what’s on my mind.” This interpolates Beyoncé’s “Listen” from the movie Dreamgirls, the part that goes, “And I’ve tried and tried / To say what’s on my mind.” SZA’s track doesn’t credit Beyoncé or any of the credited writers of “Listen.”

Miley Cyrus and Spotify hosted an event last night (May 6) to preview and promote her upcoming album, Something Beautiful. It’s a project Cyrus is proud of, saying at the event that it’s both her greatest and LGBTQIA+-forward so far. She said (as Pop Crave notes), “It’s not only my best album, but my gayest.”

She also discussed her house burning down in 2023, saying (here’s a video), “When my house burned down, a lot of my relationships also burned down. What I would tell my younger self is to appreciate those darker times because they’re only leading you to the light.”

In an interview from November 2024, Cyrus described the project as “hypnotizing and glamorous” and said of it, “It’s a concept album that’s an attempt to medicate somewhat of a sick culture through music. […] It was inspired by Pink Floyd’s The Wall. […] My idea was making The Wall, but with a better wardrobe and more glamorous and filled with pop culture.”

Meanwhile, it was recently reported that Cyrus features on Lil Wayne’s upcoming album Tha Carter VI, as do Andrea Bocelli, Machine Gun Kelly, Elephant Man, Wyclef Jean, Wheezy, Kameron Carter (Wayne’s son), U2 singer Bono, and maybe Kanye West.

Something Beautiful is out 5/30 via Columbia Records. Find more information here.

To paraphrase a quote often attributed to Benjamin Franklin, in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death, taxes, and Shakira‘s hips not lying. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of her signature song, the singer dropped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon with Wyclef Jean to move her body in a way that makes a man wanna speak Spanish.

“Hips Don’t Lie” was released as the lead single from Shakira’s 2005 album Oral Fixation, Vol. 2. It reached the top of the US Billboard Hot 100, and eventually became one of the highest-selling singles of all time.

“The reason why I named that song that is because, when I’m in the studio, I know when a song is ready and it can be taken out of the oven, and it’s exactly when my hips start moving,” Shakira once told Women’s Health about the song’s origin. “When my body reacts physically to a song, I know, if it’s a dance song, that song is done. So I used to say to my musicians, ‘my hips don’t lie! Are they moving? They’re not moving! So this is not ready.’ And that’s how I came up with it, the idea of the song.”

You can watch Shakira perform “Hips Don’t Lie” on The Tonight Show above.