Category: News

The 2022 XXL Freshman Cypher has arrived. The first round consists of Doechii, SoFaygo, KayCyy, and Saucy Santana, with a beat produced by Wheezy. Obviously, your mileage may vary, but the clear standout here is Saucy Santana, who approaches this year’s Cypher like he has something to prove, delivering a rapid-fire verse with a hand on his hip like he’s already tired of the inevitable Twitter comments.

Members of this year’s class included the above-mentioned names, as well as Babyface Ray, Babytron, Big30, Big Scarr, Cochise, Kali, KenTheMan, and Nardo Wick. It’ll be interesting to see how this group is divided up between the next two potential Cypher videos. Will the Detroiters Babytron and Babyface Ray be split up? What about the two Memphis upstarts, Big30 and Big Scarr? Meanwhile, standouts in the standalone freestyles included Doechii, Saucy Santana, and Nardo Wick, so that last name will certainly be one to watch out for when he shows off his skills alongside his classmates.

2022’s Freshmen have had a standout year so far, with Doechii delivering an explosive performance of her songs “Crazy” and “Persuasive” at the 2022 BET Awards and the Danny Brown-cosigned Saucy Santana securing a Beyonce sample on his song of the summer contender, “Booty.”

Watch the first 2022 XXL Freshman Cypher above.

Lots happened this week — Lizzo unveiled the tracklist for her new album Special, Blackpick announced a comeback, and Charlie Puth revealed the release date for his new album Charlie. There’s great stuff on the horizon, but there were also tons of notable songs to come out this week.

Each week, Uproxx rounds up the best new pop releases. Listen up.

Aespa – “Girls”

Nothing is more exciting than a new Aespa song, and “Girls” delivers. It’s an abrasive, fearless anthem with undeniable, contagious attitude and limitless energy. All four of them put everything they have into it, and it explodes with just the right amount of bombast. It’s a perfect song for the summer.

DNCE – “Got Me Good”

DNCE are always supplying invigorating pop tracks that are awesome for dancing to at the club or driving to on the highway under the sun. This new track “Got Me Good” takes things slower, but it’s no less enticing: “Guess that’s the price / Price that I pay / For falling so hard for you in less than a day,” they sing.

King Princess – “Change The Locks”

King Princess’s new song “Change The Locks” is a rock-tinged ballad about disappointment and moving on. It’s haunting with powerful buildups and intense lyrics that cut like a blade: “You have had your heart and body / Turned to someone’s hobby.”

Blackbear – “The Idea”

Blackbear is known for having trouble with love, and his new song takes on an MGK-like pop-punk edge with Travis Barker on the drums to explore a conflicted relationship. He’s more earnest than ever, giving up rapping for sincere singing: “Wake up my demons and my biggest fears / Are you in love with me or the idea?”

James Bay – “Save Your Love”

James Bay is directly tugging at his listener’s heartstrings with this visceral ballad “Save Your Love,” which reckons with someone who is lusting after someone who doesn’t treat them well. It’s absolutely crushing when he sings the hook “Save your love / For someone who’s never gonna run,” but it’s also inspiring.

Ed Sheeran, Burna Boy – “For My Hand”

Ed Sheeran has been doing a bunch of unexpected collaborations, but this new one with Burna Boy is a pleasant surprise. Their voices together are a delight, and it’s a wholesome song off the bat: “I wanna be in your life until the night is over / I want to hold you so tight,” they sing.

Niki – “Oceans & Engines”

Niki has been impressing with her songs from her forthcoming album Nicole, and “Oceans & Engines” only builds the hype for the LP more. “I wrote this song in 2016 when I was 17 experiencing the earth-shattering heartbreak of a first love moving away for good,” she said about the track, and this intensity is captured perfectly in the poignant ballad.

Easy Life, Benee – “OTT”

The genre-bending Benee has teamed up with Easy Life for this new song “OTT,” a feel-good, funny track with great quips: “I don’t understand you, / ‘Cause you’ve got a face like a slapped fish / Always in vain but in vogue and on trend / Sure hope you calm down in the end.”

Tini, Becky G, Anitta – “La Loto”

This collaboration between Tini, Becky G, and Anitta is all anyone could ask for; it’ll definitely be one of the biggest party anthems of the year. It has fierce, catchy energy, and pulsates with an infectious beat. All of the vocals are strong and mix together amazingly.

Brakence – “Venus Fly Trap”

It’s impossible to not dance to Brakence’s new track “Venus Fly Trap.” The beat is relentlessly compelling as his frustration comes across in the spitting of the irresistible hook: “I take it better when she don’t even ask me / Three chords, and she all over me nasty.”

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

If you happened to have ABC locked into your (digital) television dial, Monday night’s network offerings featured the return of not one but two Bachelorettes, followed by a splash of Jonas Brothers uncovering reality television crimes.

Monday brought the debut of Kevin and Frankie Jonas’ Claim To Fame. As seen above, it’s a reality-style game show where a dozen family members of people with relative levels of fame are trapped in a home and try to suss out who is related to whom. As the folks mingle, they vote someone “out” of the house but are given a last chance to call someone out on who they are related to.

But through one episode, we still haven’t seen how that will actually play out. Because, as you can see in the clip above, Pepper never got to guess the famous person Maxwell is related to: Chuck Norris. Because he cheated.

Producers stopped taping of the show to dramatically call the Jonases over to explain that Maxwell broke the show’s rules. Which was a surprise to Pepper, but perhaps not Maxwell.

“As you know, when you came to the house, we took all your devices to protect your identities, keep away information, to make sure the game was fair to everyone,” Kevin Jonas said. “And one of you has broken that rule.”

The camera pans around the contestants are pretty great here, but the end result is that Pepper never got to guess and Maxwell got the boot. There’s even some dramatic footage of the crime, in which Maxwell rifles through a pair of pants on the floor and pulls out a cellphone. The glow of the screen is briefly visible before he puts it into the pocket of pants he’s currently wearing, then climbs into bed with his shoes still on, covers only over his head, to presumably keep his Pokemon Go streaks alive and totally not google the relatives of famous people.

” As you guys know, we take this very seriously. We want you to take the game seriously,” Kevin Jonas said. “This is truly a competition.”

Maxwell didn’t have much to say for himself after he got the boot, though he did say that he will “be in touch” with everyone in the cast. As Kevin Jonas pointed out, that’s likely: he does make sure to keep a phone on him at all costs.

Tegan And Sara have announced their new album, Crybaby. The album, arriving this fall, will mark the sisters’ 10th studio effort, which they both produced in its entirety, alongside producer John Congleton. Crybaby was recorded between Studio Litho in Seattle and Sargent Recorders in Los Angeles.

“This was the first time where, while we were still drafting our demos, we were thinking about how the songs were going to work together,” said Tegan in a statement. “It wasn’t even just that Sara was making lyric changes or reorganizing the parts to my songs, it was that she was also saying to me, ‘This song is going to be faster,’ or, ‘It’s going to be in a different key.’ But Sara effectively improves everything of mine that she works on.”

Ahead of the album, the duo has revealed a song called “Yellow,” in which they sing of healing over a soft, guitar-driven instrumental, inspired by Coldplay. The accompanying video takes inspiration from that of the Coldplay song of the same name.

According to Sara, Yellow “was written after we began to take steps to heal the bruises we have both carried with us since adolescence and early adulthood – wounds that never quite healed right and flare up seasonally, sending us spiraling backward in time. Are we doomed to remain forever 15, breaking up and breaking apart? I hope not.”

Shortly after releasing Crybaby, Tegan And Sara will embark on a North American tour.

Check out “Yellow” above and the Crybaby album artwork and tour dates below.

10/26 — Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
10/28 — Boston, MA @ Royale
10/29 — New York, NY @ Pier 17
10/30 — Washington, D.C. @ 9:30 Club
11/01 — Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall
11/02 — Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre
11/04 — Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues
11/05 — Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre
11/06 — Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
11/08 — Denver, CO @ Gothic Theatre
11/09 — Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot
11/11 — Ventura, CA @ Majestic Ventura Theater
11/12 — San Diego, CA @ The Observatory
11/13 — Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues
11/15 — Los Angeles, CA @ Fonda Theatre
11/16 — San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
11/18 — Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre
11/19 — Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
11/20 — Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom

Crybabyis out 10/21 via Mom+Pop Music. Pre-save it here.

There isn’t a single fast food item better than French fries. They’re the perfect side order, the one essential food item on every single menu across the fast food universe (unless we’re talking Subway, but who is ever talking Subway?). You can have a great burger or a great chicken sandwich, but if you can’t pull off the fries, your restaurant probably isn’t doing as well as it could be. Here at Uproxx, we love fries just as much as you. Maybe even more. We’ve ranked as many as we could find, defended the most polarizing fries in the game, and even found ways to make them even more delicious.

The only thing we love more than fries are… well, free fries. French fries are great and all but nothing tastes as good as saving money, especially while gas and grocery prices are high. So in celebration of National French Fry Day, which is Wednesday, July 13th, we’ve rounded up all the best fry deals we can find to get you fed on the cheap. If for some reason you try to each french fries sparingly (probably not a bad move) July 13th is the perfect day to throw caution to the wind and go fry-wild.

Here are the best deals popping so far!

Burger King — Join BK’s Royal Perks app and receive a free order of Chicken Fries with any $3 purchase. I roast BK a lot in our fast food rankings and all I have to say here is that on national French fry day Burger King still can’t do it right.

Burger Fi — Download the BurgerFi app and receive a free order of fries after you place your first order. If you’re already a Burger Fi app user it looks like you’re out of luck for the promotion.

Charleys Cheesestakes — Receive a free order of French Fries with the purchase of any cheesesteak. This deal applies to both app-users and in-store diners.

Checkers/Rally’s — Rally’s is up to some weird shit. The chain is offering a free order of medium fries to anyone who signs their “Fry Day to Friday” petition, an official request to National Day Calendar founder Marlo Anderson to move National Friday to the second Friday of July. That’s some nerdy shit but hey, we’ll sign anything to get free fries. ANYTHING.

Farmer Boys — Add Always Crispy Fries for a dollar when you make any purchase at Farmer Boys.

Fatburger — Free Fat or Skinny fries with any purchase! If you order on the app you must check out using the code “FrenchDryDay22.” This deal is valid beginning July 13th through the 19th, so we’re going to go ahead and give the award for Best Deal to Fatburger.

Hot Dog On A Stick — Purchase fries in-store or online and receive a free mystery gift. Why the gift isn’t more fries on national fry day is beyond us, but hey, we’ll take it.

McDonald’s — McDonald’s app-users will be able to snag a free order of fries when ordering from the app, no purchase necessary. Don’t like having food apps on your phone? Download, order, and delete!

Red Robin — Get bottomless fry refills with the purchase of any burger or entree. Choose between Steak Fries, Sweet Potato Fries, or Garlic Fries or you know, just get all three! That’s what we’d do.

Wayback Burgers — Order through the Wayback Burgers app and receive a free order of French fries with the purchase of a burger or sandwich.

Wendy’s — Wendy’s is going all out for National Fry Day by declaring it National Fry Week. Today, receive a free medium fry with any salad purchase over the mobile app. Wednesday, on National Fry Day, you can receive a free any size fry order with any mobile purchase. On Thursday you can receive free breakfast potatoes with any mobile order purchase (don’t miss this, those breakfast fries are amazing) and Friday receive a free medium fry when you purchase fries via the mobile app.

Wendy’s isn’t f*cking around.

White Castle — Receive a free small French Fry with any purchase when using the code “FRYDAY” on online orders.

The Better Call Saul Lie Detector Test is a weekly recap of the major events of the final season, separated out by their apparent truthfulness at the time. This is not one of those recaps that gets into granular detail about things. It will miss the occasional callback or foreshadowing. But it will be fun. Sometimes, that’s what’s important.

Season 6, Episode 8: “Point and Shoot”

I am fine

What we have on our hands here is one of those Two Things Can Be True At Once situations.

The first true thing is that, yes, Lalo Salamanca is dead, because Lalo Salamanca was always going to die. He was a major antagonist for pretty much all of the characters who survive into Breaking Bad and yet he’s nowhere to be seen in that show. He burned fast and bright in a way that does not usually mesh well with longevity. Gus Fring literally says the sentence “All of the Salamancas are dead” at a point a little ways down the timeline. Barring something outlandish like, to choose one example I definitely have not been thinking about a lot, Lalo deciding to get out of crime and faking his own death and becoming a handsome tennis pro named Bert Nebraska at a five-star resort in Aruba, this is how it had to end. Chekhov’s hidden superlab gun and so on and so forth.

But this gets us to the second thing, which is equally important and just as true: I loved Lalo and wanted him to live forever. He was such a great character. It’s crazy that the people who created this whole universe were able to pull that off, to take a character who was mentioned in an apparent throwaway line in one show and then retro-fit a charismatic maniac into a show they filmed years later that took place years earlier. Think about that for a while at some point. Lalo was kind of like the Joker crossed with James Bond but with a tremendous mustache. I am going to miss him a lot.

But, again, sure, we were always headed here. That’s one of those things about a prequel. Once Lalo started waging war against Gus and Mike and holding Jimmy and Kim hostage, I mean, that’s about where the line is. This had to happen for the Gus we see now to become the Gus we met in Breaking Bad. You can set up all the dominoes in a pretty and elaborate pattern, but the whole point is that they still all eventually tip over once you apply pressure to the first one. That’s where we are now. Dominoes are falling. Lalo was a big one. Not the biggest one, though. Which, conveniently, brings us to…

I AM FINE

We are officially on Wexler Watch now. We already were, really, and have been for a long time, in part because Kim has always been the most notable character from this show who does not appear in Breaking Bad and in part because Rhea Seehorn is so damn good at playing the character. But now, in the home stretch of the final season, with Lalo gone and Kim being the last great unknown, things are becoming very serious. I am kind of not okay about it.

Like, go back and watch the scene where she’s driving to ambush Gus. Watch her pull up next to the cops. Watch her walk slowly across the lawn. Watch her raise the gun as a shadowy figure rushes toward her from behind. This is some stressful business here, people. And I say that as someone squarely in the “Kim is not going to die” camp. It is still my position that she ends up going back to Nebraska and eventually runs into Gene at the Cinnabon. I’m a romantic like that.

It’s going to get dicey, though. There are still lots of t’s to cross and i’s to dot. Things are going to get more stressful before they get less stressful. Lalo being dead alleviates some immediate danger, but now Jimmy and Kim kind of owe a debt to Gus Fring. They have gone out of the frying pan and into one of the many immaculately maintained fryers in a Los Pollos Hermanos. We will continue to monitor this situation.

Howard Hamlin probably expected to be buried in a dirt hole next to a cartel boss

Not the most important thing in all of this but, man, what a tough stretch for Howard Hamlin. The guy started this series as a powerful lawyer and upstanding member of the New Mexico community and now he’s buried in a dirt hole with Lalo Salamanca in a drug lab under a laundromat and being painted in broad strokes as a cocaine-fueled maniac who had many deep dark secrets that led to his eventual mysterious ocean-based disappearance.

And, like, for what? What was Howard’s greatest crime? Being kind of a putz? Listening to elevator music in a Jaguar with a NAMAST3 license plate? He deserved some level of comeuppance for being That Freaking Guy, I’ll give you that. I would not have been heartbroken to see him, say, get a bunch of cupcakes whipped at him by unruly teens, or get his house and car egged every Halloween. But this was… a bit much.

I actually feel sorry for the doof. Which is really something. Imagine how angry you’d be if you were sitting at a traffic light and saw that vanity plate in front of you. This might be the show’s greatest achievement to date.

Lalo is dead for the same reason he was so much fun while he was alive

Bullet points, for efficiency:

• Lalo could have shot Gus the instant Gus showed him the hidden door to the superlab
• He didn’t because he is a showman who wanted to create a whole dramatic scene he could show off on a big-screen television at Don Eladio’s compound
• This is one of the reasons Lalo was such a good character, because he did things with flair and they always worked out

Until… they didn’t. Lalo was always depicted in this show as a kind of supervillain. Smarter than everyone, surprisingly agile, etc. It’s a really cool bit of storytelling here that the show used these strengths against him for his undoing. He just couldn’t help himself. The Lalo Show was just always on, all the time, even when it shouldn’t have been. And now it’s canceled.

This is really the moment Jimmy becomes Saul Goodman

Yes, I know, I have probably said this at least two dozen times over the course of this show. I stand by most of them. The people who built this character have done an incredible job of laying it all out piece by piece. And yes, I know he started doing business as Saul Goodman a little while ago, which was a big step. But did you see Gus Fring’s face in that bit I have screencapped up there? When he realized Jimmy talked Lalo out of something? When he realized that the gift of gab was more than just a character trait and closer to a superpower?

That was cool. Everything else was stressful as hell. But that was cool. It’s not going to end great for anyone, sometimes involving missing faces and mall-based baked goods, but still. Cool. Kind of.

UPDATE: A few people have pointed out that this could have actually been Gus realizing that Lalo didn’t care who he sent because he was going to the superlab anyway. This is a better explanation. Let’s pretend I said that!

I will get the damn Los Pollos jingle out of my head before I die

Dammit, Lyle

DAMMIT, LYLE

This could have very easily been a whole section about how Gus Fring is a good boss. About how committed he is to his less lucrative chicken business that he’s calling store employees while bleeding from gunshot wounds. About how he probably pays better than most other fast-food places. About how his employees apparently like him so much that they’ll offer to give him a ride when a “family emergency” pops up. But no.

NOOOOO.

Now I have this jingle in my head. The only silver lining is that it has temporarily pushed out the jingle for Rally House. The human brain is both miraculous and deeply, deeply stupid.

This show can pay off a bit

Back to the bullet points:

• The gun in the superlab was set up a while ago and paid off exactly as we all expected, but imagine having the patience to wait this long before actually getting to it
• The car thing at the beginning was all paid off via Mike’s explanation at the end, which was cool and yet another reminder that Mike is very good at his job
• I am still trying to figure out how exactly Mike staged the scene to have one set of footprints that went in that exact pattern and then stopped like they did, and yes, one of my theories is “he was wearing a jetpack and took off from the beach and landed back on the solid ground”

It could have happened. You don’t know.

I do not want to disappoint Mike Ehrmantraut

The thing about Mike is that he’s always Mike, all the time, even when he’s talking to his boss. He really sat Gus down and started to lecture him like he was a child and not a ruthless drug kingpin who had just murdered his main adversary using a trap he had laid weeks earlier. I love it. I love Mike a lot. I think I would crumble into a small pile of dust and blow off into the wind if he ever sat me down and talked to me like this, but I do enjoy watching him do it to other people.

I kind of want to see Lalo’s bathtub now

This is what Lalo said when the industrial washing machine slid back to reveal the superlab. The obvious assumption here is that he had the bathtub set up to hide his own drug-related secrets. Which is cool. I guess. But the thing about Lalo is that he’s the type of guy who might have had a hidden passage for any number of reasons. Maybe he had a secret poker room. Or a little man cave. Maybe he just kept a tiger down there and like to go visit it. Lalo was a truly fascinating human being and a great television character and I will miss him a lot. (WHOOPS: We did see his bathtub! I just forgot! Although he could have a second one that goes to a room with a tiger! We’ll never know!)

Rest in peace and/or in a dirt hole next to a doof lawyer who crossed the wrong people. That’s a saying, right?

When Stranger Things 4 dropped its long-awaited Volume 1 at the end of May, the fourth season instantly became a pop culture juggernaut as it shattered streaming records and catapulted Kate Bush‘s “Running Up That Hill” to the top of the music charts thanks to a pivotal and emotional scene involving Sadie Sink‘s Max. The young actress got to shine more than ever this season as did Millie Bobby Brown who took a dark, traumatic journey into Eleven’s past.

However, when it came time for Emmy nominations on Tuesday morning, neither Sink nor Brown (or any of the Stranger Things 4 cast for that matter) made the cut, and the snubs did not go unnoticed. Shortly after the noms were announced, both Sink and Brown started trending on Twitter as Stranger Things fans voiced their anger over the two actresses not being recognized for their performances in Season 4.

You can see some of the reactions below:

While the cast was frustratingly snubbed, Stranger Things 4 Volume 1 still had a strong overall presence amongst the nominees. (Volume 2 was not eligible.) Via Variety:

Along with top drama series, “Stranger Things” received nominations for production design for a narrative period or fantasy program (one hour or more); casting for a drama series; single-camera picture editing for a drama series; period and/or character hairstyling; period and/or character makeup (non-prosthetic); prosthetic makeup; music supervision; sound editing for a comedy or drama series (one hour); sound mixing for a comedy or drama series (one hour); special visual effects in a season or a movie; stunt coordination for a drama series, limited or anthology series or movie; and stunt performance.

While 13 nominations is nothing to sneeze at, it’s surprisingly not a record for the streaming series. The first season of Stranger Things racked up a whopping 18 nominations. Brown also scored an acting nomination for Stranger Things 2 in 2018, but apparently, the competition was just too fierce this time around.

(Via Variety)

Halsey has plenty of tattoos — as of last summer, the count was up to 41. With all that ink, Millie Bobby Brown would have to spend a lot of time in the make-up chair to play Halsey in a biopic. Anyway, lately, Halsey has gotten into dishing it as well as they can take it by manning the tattoo gun and putting ink on skin herself. She did more of that recently, actually barely even waiting until her concert was over before tattooing one of her bandmembers.

Bonnie McIntosh-Ravey, the keyboardist on Halsey’s Love And Power tour, shared a couple photos today, one of Halsey applying a tattoo to her arm and another of the ink itself, which reads “love + POWER” in differing fonts, a softer one for “love” and a more forceful look for “POWER.”

Sharing the photos, McIntosh-Ravey wrote, “Me: *wants a Love + Power Tour tattoo.* Ash: *busts out her tattoo kit and does it herself…at the venue…of our last show…right after getting off stage.* I mean… what a f*ckin flex.”

Halsey started giving tattoos last yeah, doing their first one on partner Alev Aydin. He shared a photo of the art, a lovely looking koi fish, and wrote, “Sat for @iamhalsey’s first tattoo, and wow!”

Indie music has grown to include so much. It’s not just music that is released on independent labels, but speaks to an aesthetic that deviates from the norm and follows its own weirdo heart. It can come in the form of rock music, pop, or folk. In a sense, it says as much about the people that are drawn to it as it does about the people that make it.

Every week, Uproxx is rounding up the best new indie music from the past seven days. This week we got new music from The 1975, Julien Baker, Alvvays, and more.

While we’re at it, sign up for our newsletter to get the best new indie music delivered directly to your inbox, every Monday.

Quinton Brock — My Shadow

Buffalo-based artist Quinton Brock cashed in on his hype with his debut album My Shadow this week. The genre-fluid 17-track album features a medley of jangly indie rock on tracks like “Morning Coffee” and “Touch” and propulsive pop punk tunes like “Wannabe.” The ambitious project has a few guests as well, inviting artists Portugal. The Man., Travie McCoy, and Pink Siifu to rock out beside him.

The 1975 — “Part Of The Band”

The 1975 officially kicked off a new era of music with the witty and wistful track “Part Of The Band.” With a prominent string section, the song sounds heavily inspired by indie folk artists like Bon Iver. “Part Of The Band” heralds their upcoming LP Being Funny In A Foreign Language and shows a promising new direction for the band.

Julien Baker — “Guthrie”

Speaking of wistful folk-inspired music, Julien Baker dropped off the lulling single “Guthrie” this week. The song arrives as a B-side to her acclaimed 2021 LP Little Oblivions and is a callback to some of her earlier music with stripped-down production and a pastoral acoustic guitar.

Alvvays — “Pharmacist”

2010’s indie rock favorites Alvvays dropped “Pharmacist,” their first new music in nearly five years. The shoegazy and upbeat tune includes a fun and noisy instrumental break and officially points to their forthcoming third studio album Blue Rev, which is set to arrive this fall.

The Brazen Youth — “If These Wild Winds Are Yours” Feat. Alix Page

Connecticut trio The Brazen Youth’s shimmering track “If These Wild Winds Are Yours” officially points to Eagle, Idaho, an album centered around coping with loss and change. “I think my true ambition in life is to simply be at peace,” band member Nic Lussier said about the project. “That’s a theme that has found its way into the album, and into our songwriting as a band as we’ve gotten a little older.”

The Mars Volta — “Graveyard Love”

After breaking their lengthy hiatus and making a triumphant return last month, The Mars Volta drop the striking new track “Graveyard Love.” Leaning into a synth-forward production, “Graveyard Love” is teeming with energy and hard rock influences that tease their anticipated upcoming tour.

CHAI — “Hero’s Journey” Feat. Superorganism

After making waves with their debut LP Wink last year, Japanese quartet CHAI is back with another whimsical release. The effortlessly bright and sunny track “Hero’s Journey” is a feel-good tune arriving just in time for summer. It features UK indie-pop band Superorganism, who described the song as a “sugary explosion of nothing but pure and refined girl bossery.”

Florist — “Feathers”

Folksy indie powerhouse Florist is just about to release their self-titled fourth studio album, which they’ve so far previewed with a number of cathartic tracks. Their latest, “Feathers,” is no different, creating wistful soundscapes with dreamy arrangements and pleasant prose. “This song is a meditation on the cycles we follow all throughout our lives,” lead singer Emily Sprague noted about the track. “As individuals, as families, as humans.”

Lande Hekt — “Gay Space Cadets”

Lande Hekt is offering escapism in the form of a queer space adventure fantasy with her new single “Gay Space Cadets.” The gauzy song is layered with tranquil tones and reverberating guitars and officially announces her upcoming solo album House Without A View. “It’s a daydreaming song about wanting a life of excitement and adventure rather than a dull and ordinary life — one where people underestimate you and belittle you,” Hekt said about the single. “And where you’re forced to buy into capitalism and become a pathetic, losing player in a game that you hate. I’d rather escape and live in a queer space fantasy and be brave.”

The Berries — “Down That Road Again”

The Berries’ bandleader Matt Berry is no stranger to the indie rock scene. Having played in groups like Happy Diving, Big Bite (Pop Wig), Angel Du$t, and Dark Tea, Berry has mastered his craft at the intersection of indie rock and americana. With his third studio album High Flying Man, Berry takes on themes of isolation, as previewed with the track “Down That Road Again.” The meandering single features expansive melodies and cascading chords coupled with Berry’s twangy lyrical delivery.

Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Lizzo is just a few days away from releasing his third album Special, and now, she has a lot more to celebrate that the project’s upcoming release. Lizzo’s Amazon Prime Video show Watch Out For The Big Grrrls just received an Emmy nomination for Best Competition Series. However, she’s not the only one from the music world that received a nomination for the upcoming 2022 Emmys. Selena Gomez also received a nomination as a producer of the Hulu series Only Murders In The Buildings. That show was selected in the Outstanding Comedy Series category.

Watch Out For The Big Grrrls was launched by Lizzo as a way to give plus-sized women an opportunity to achieve their dreams as Lizzo has been able to over the last few years. “Girls that look like me don’t get representation,” she said about her intentions with the show. “It’s time to pull up my sleeves and find them myself.”

Selena’s nomination in the Outstanding Comedy Series category comes as Only Murders In The Buildings was recently renewed for a third season. Her nomination also makes Selena the second Latina since Salma Hayek in 2007 to be nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series as a producer.

Other notable nominations from the music world include Labrinth and Zendaya who were nominated in the Outstanding Original Music And Lyrics category thanks to “I’m Tired” and “Elliot’s Song” from Euphoria. Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” also helped Stranger Things receive a nomination as the “Dear Billy” episode it appears in was selected in the Outstanding Music Supervision category.

You can view the announcement in the post above.

Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.