Category: News

Those who love live music, or have spent their careers working in the medium, have spent the last couple of years in limbo. Twin questions are looming for most people: When shows will return? And: When will I be ready to return to a show? Even as vaccines have helped facilitate a slow return to some form of normalcy, variants, the still-obvious risk factors, and a growing number of rescheduled and canceled tours keep the pandemic and the threat of Covid-19 at the front of the conversation. But this fall, into that void of fear, uncertainty, and anxiety stepped Harry Styles. Styles remains the ideal pop star for our next decade and the perfect host for plenty of fans to return to large gatherings without trepidation.

As the once and future breakout star of One Direction, Harry is an ideal performer to be throwing a lavish, kindness-infused show during a season of grief and uneasiness. He’s a seasoned vet when it comes to massive crowds, and he’s an expert MC who controls the emotion of the crowd with firm but friendly banter throughout his time on stage. He does all that, and still delivers one of the best pop performances of the last two decades. Already tapped during his first solo tour as a kingmaking performer with the ability to create an entire universe during his allotted set time, Harry set out off on rescheduled tour dates back in September, eager to bring his critically-acclaimed Fine Line album to a global audience of hungry fans.

As a fiercely inclusive icon who urges his audience to embrace themselves wholeheartedly, Styles is uniquely situated to be one of the first major pop acts returning to the stage in 2021. That’s in large part due to his self-proclaimed motto “Treat People With Kindness,” and when the song of the same name began during a tour-closing set at The Forum in LA this weekend, the track’s resonance overtook any overly earnest vibes that might’ve clouded the song’s impact when it came out two years ago. Even with just two albums out, there’s a number of songs that diehard fans seem to treasure as their own, and “TPWK” is one of them. On the other hand, some of the Fine Line-era singles have gotten so big – “Watermelon Sugar,” “Adore You” and “Golden” among them — that even attendees without much knowledge of the Styles canon seemed to at least know the hits.

But let’s face it, most people braving an indoor arena show at the end of 2021 aren’t casual fans, they’re the ones who have been looking forward to this moment for the last eighteen months. During his Saturday night show, Harry made it clear that his appreciation for and trust in the audience was just as strong as their appreciation for and trust in him. Joking about the diamond-shaped stage in the middle of the venue, he let fans know he’d be spending equal time facing them and facing away from them — pausing to let the whole room clap for his ass. This kind of easy camaraderie cut through any tension from the crush of getting into the packed venue, and set the expectation that each person at the set was just as important as the next. Sure, he might cater to his ever-whorling GA pit of most devoted listeners, but there was never a moment the rest of the stadium didn’t feel Harry’s star power, too.

That charisma was spotlighted most during moments like his clever cover of the One Direction standout, “What Makes You Beautiful,” or in quiet moments, like the interpolation of “Two Ghosts” that lead into a rendition of “Falling.” Though Fine Line might be getting more attention at the moment, Styles is careful to create a bridge between the two records, honoring early fan-favorites like “Cherry” and throwing in his debut solo single, the ’70s-throwback anthem “Sign Of The Times,” at the beginning of a lengthy four-song encore.

Finishing that encore with the unreleased cult favorite “Medicine,” his number one banger, “Watermelon Sugar,” and the dance-pit-frenzy-causing “Kiwi,” Styles left it all on the floor and then some. His insistence on creating a safe, passionate place for fans to enjoy his music live has turned his tour into one of the most powerful forces for good during an apprehensive year. And the excellence and unpredictably creative energy of his performances have helped prove that in-person concerts aren’t some kind of unnecessary luxury — they’re as much a space for healing as they are for entertainment. Check out the final setlist for Love On Tour below.

Harry Styles at The Forum, Saturday 11/20
1. “Golden”
2. “Carolina”
3. “Adore You”
4. “Only Angel”
5. “She”
6. “Two Ghosts” intro into “Falling”
7. “Sunflower, Vol. 6”
8. “Woman”
9. “Cherry”
10. “Canyon Moon”
11. “Treat People With Kindness”
12. “What Makes You Beautiful”
13. “Fine Line”

ENCORE
14. “Sign Of The Times”
15. “Medicine”
16. “Watermelon Sugar”
17. “Kiwi”

Howard Stern continued his relentless dunking on Aaron Rodgers on Monday morning by blasting the quarterback for seeking medical treatment for his recent toe injury after “doing his own research” about the COVID vaccine. While no one’s quite sure how Rodgers injured his toe (maybe tripping over one of his, uh, large appendages) Stern once again blasted the Green Bay quarterback for recklessly lying about his vaccination status and taking health advice from Joe Rogan.

Stern also slammed the NFL, which he says “should be ashamed of themselves” for keeping the “f*ckhead” Rodgers around after he “put people in danger.” Via Mediaite:

“Now I hear he has a toe injury. When he had the toe injury – did he go to the doctor or did he go to Joe Rogan? Who fixed his toe?” Stern asked. “I bet you he went to a doctor, so he goes to doctors for everything else, but on the vaccine he’s listening to Joe Rogan.”

Stern has been a vocal critic of anti-vaxxers, so naturally, he hasn’t been gone easy on Rodgers who, as a professional NFL quarterback, has a large platform to influence people’s decision about the vaccine. After Terry Bradshaw and the Hall of Famers called out Rodgers for lying about his vaccine status, Stern backed them up on his radio show the next morning.

“If there was decency in this world, I would throw this guy out of the football league so fast,” Stern said. “What he did to his fellow teammates — and bravo Terry Bradshaw for what you said and everyone else whose got half a brain in this country — but this f*cking guy, they should throw him out of the league so fast. … He said he got his information from Joe Rogan. You’ve got doctors who go to medical school — I don’t know what’s happened to this country.”

(Via Mediaite)

It has been a few months since we last received word on Phife Dawg’s posthumous album, Forever. The late member of A Tribe Called Quest had been working on the album at the time of his death and it was initially to have been released in the first quarter of 2017, but those plans were scrapped and the album had been in limbo ever since. However, in late 2020, Tribe released a statement promising the album’s release sometime in 2021 and the first single, “Nutshell Part 2,” was released in February, followed by an animated music video in March.

A live-action video followed a few weeks later, and in May, a second single, “French Kiss Deux,” dropped, but since then, there has been little information about the status of the album itself. Today, though, A Tribe Called Quest was finally able to announce an official release date for the long-awaited project: March 22, 2022, the sixth anniversary of Phife’s passing. Dion Liverpool, a frequent Phife collaborator, helped to finish the album and will also be releasing it through his Smokin’ Needles Records imprint, distributed by AWAL.

In a statement, Liverpool said, “We faced a lot of ups and downs trying to get the album completed, and only by God’s grace and patience were we able to. I would like to thank his fans for being patient and understanding that nothing that is good and timeless will happen overnight. I took on the responsibility to help the family complete Forever and honored that I was trusted to do so.” Phife’s widow, Deisha Taylor, added, “As we celebrate his life on this day, we are overwhelmed with excitement of completing Forever. This album is truly a masterpiece and will exceed all expectations. The world will absolutely love and cherish this amazing album.”

His mother, Cheryl Boyce-Taylor, was also quoted, saying, “Forever, soon come. His voice a steel pan cruising the sea salt edge of Trini waters. A balm, a salve, a son’s kiss on his mama’s cheek.”

The Succession Report Card is a weekly recap feature where we attempt to assign grades to the important people, things, and themes from each episode of Succession. The grades are entirely subjective and the criteria for scoring will change from week to week and occasionally mid-week. Someone might get detention. It’ll probably be Roman.

Vice President Dave

Let’s see:

• Might be a vegetarian
• Does the weird lip-licking thing
• Logan keeps calling him “Dave” to his face even though he’s the Vice President, and asked him to bring over a Coke like he’s a college intern

Dave is not going to be President.

GRADE: F

MUST IMPROVE: Charisma

Connor

Connor keeps trying to push himself as an option for President to anyone who will listen and everyone who isn’t as dense as a hunk of lead — so, everyone but Connor, basically — knows it’ll never happen but they’re all either too diplomatic or too afraid of Logan or too wooed by Willa and the collective leg to say it. At one point, Logan even tossed it out to the room with an evil little twinkle in his eye and everyone started hemming and hawing like they were searching for the words to say “Freaking no, duh, look at him” until finally my sweet boy Greg actually said it out loud, for the good of the nation.

Connor will also not be President.

GRADE: F

MUST IMPROVE: Situational awareness

Prison

I mean, based on everything I know about it and everything Tom has been reading on the blogs, it doesn’t seem like a great time. No thanks. Pass.

GRADE: F

MUST IMPROVE: Food quality, pillow security, decreasing misadventures

Willa

On one hand, Willa looks as miserable as any person who has ever lived, sitting there at this gathering of demons, getting waltzed around by Connor like some sort of show pony, having to do this awful whole political dance that I can’t imagine she thought she was signing up for when she hitched her wagon to this bozo a few years back.

On the other hand… actually, no. There really isn’t another hand. Between all this and her play just sinking to the bottom of the sea like a torpedoed submarine, Willa is not having fun right now.

GRADE: D-

MUST IMPROVE: Romantic entanglements

Various Karls, Frank, and Karolinas

Slim pickings for this group this week as most of them were sidelined during the big trip. I do have to give Hugo credit, though, for delivering the line about no one of significance going to prison with Tom “Christmas Tree” Wambsgans standing right there in front of him. That was a good piece of business.

What do you think Karl and Frank were up to this whole time? Like, what did they have planned while this Ghoul Ceremony was taking place in Virginia to choose the next President? My working theories are as follows: Frank was hosting a barbecue and working the grill and wearing an apron with a goofy slogan on it, like “I Didn’t Burn It, I Added Flavor”; Karl was watching golf on television and sipping lemonade through a straw.

I’m weirdly sure of this.

GRADE: D-

MUST IMPROVE: Being invited to the party

Jeryd Mencken

Notes on this turd:

• A YouTube provocateur and possible white supremacist who at one point referred to Hitler as “H”
• Seems to have wooed Logan based on “getting it” and “popping” even though — or perhaps because? — he referred to Logan in the past tense and was dismissive of the entire ATN operation, like he’s some sort of pickup artiste out here negging the kingmakers
• Dropped a “Have you read Plato?” on Shiv like the biggest weenie alive
• Spells his first name “Jeryd”

I hate him very much. Which is complicated by the thing where he’s played by Justin Kirk, who plays scoundrels as well as anyone alive, and who I love very much. Real dilemma here.

GRADE: D

MUST IMPROVE: Just, like, not being this way, at all

Gerri

I choose to believe that everything Roman did and pushed into existence this week only happened because Gerri was not there to steer him back onto course using the Sex Mommy face she makes at him when he’s being a naughty little boy. I did not enjoy typing the second half of that sentence but here we all are now. No going back.

GRADE: D

MUST IMPROVE: Gerri needs a hobby, perhaps tennis

Shiv

Sheeeeesh, not a great week for Shiv, what with her husband moping around about prison and her dad calling her a sourpuss and a slick Nazi getting elevated by the family operation over her repeated passionate objections. There was a point where she and Roman were arguing over it all and Shiv said “my opinion counts for more” with this look of incredulity on her face, like she couldn’t believe any of it was happening, like she’s not as much of a dopey goon as the rest of them, especially in Logan’s eyes at this point.

It was somehow the saddest and funniest thing possible in the moment and it ended with her getting bullied into posing for a picture with the creep. Shiv is doing bad.

GRADE: D+

MUST IMPROVE: Finding a new family

Kendall

Good news:

• Might be on the road to wooing Tom
• Got another excuse to wear his black hat real low over his eyes, which he does when he’s in subterfuge mode and I suspect he likes doing a lot
• Is planning a rager 40th birthday party

Bad news:

• Is drinking kind of a lot
• Fired his lawyer because she told him things he didn’t want to hear
• Tom made a good point about him getting screwed all the time while Logan always walks away free, which does not fill potential conspirators or the audience at home with much confidence

I hope we get an entire episode about this birthday party. I hope he tries to rap again. I need to be incredibly clear about the fact that I am not joking here.

GRADE: C-

MUST IMPROVE: Taking criticism

Lisa Arthur

Lisa was on-screen for maybe six minutes total and got off two of the best lines in the entire episode between “I don’t do requests because I’m not a DJ” and “Do you think you’re smarter than me?” And she’s probably better off removing herself from the entire Roy circle of hell. Still embarrassing to get fired by a loser like Kendall this far into the process.

GRADE: C

MUST IMPROVE: Figuring out which horse to hitch her wagon to

Caroline and her new husband Peter Onion

Congrats to the happy couple.

GRADE: C+

MUST IMPROVE: Communicating with her children

Toilets, generally

You ever sit around and think about how weird it is that this is just how we as a society have decided to dispose of our body’s waste material? Like, how we disappear into a separate room and unload it all into a bottomless chair filled with water and then zip it all off down a drain and into some location we do not ruminate on ever again? Because I had not thought about it at all until I heard this guy go on his extended rant about toilets being both a gentleman and a bastard and now it’s kind of all I can think about.

I’m fine. It’s fine. Let’s just move on.

GRADE: C+

MUST IMPROVE: I SAID LET’S MOVE ON

Logan

While the temptation here — and probably the correct decision — is to dock Logan points for the combination of endorsing a creepo red-pill fascist for President and just generally being a black-hearted manipulative goober, we must credit the man for appearing to dance away from prosecution and securing that late-night Coca-Cola. He’ll be up all night from the caffeine and sugar, and he’s tearing the country and his family apart at the seams, but he does get results, I guess.

GRADE: B-

MUST IMPROVE: Playing better with others

Roman

In the interest of being fully transparent here, which I feel I owe you on an account of me giving Roman a good grade for an episode in which he successfully pushed an abrasive dipshit toward the Oval Office and had a mini-meltdown over his mommy’s new fiancé, this grade is based almost entirely on the thing where Shiv revealed that he once greenlit a movie titled “Dr. Honk” about a man who can talk to cars.

GRADE: B-

MUST IMPROVE: Following through on the Dr. Honk cinematic universe

Tom

To the bullet points once again:

• Is not doing great
• Keeps Googling prison things in a way that seems both massively unhealthy for him on a personal level and massively annoying for anyone around him to have to hear about
• Slandered diner food, which I will not stand for
• Is being called “the Christmas tree” because people — EVEN GREG — are hanging their crimes off of him like ornaments
• At one point Kendall called him a “country mouse,” which was uncalled for even if it was true
• Kendall snapped pics of him after their secret meeting and Tom was so hopelessly depressed that he didn’t even try to do anything about it even though he could almost certainly defeat Kendall in physical combat with such ease that it wouldn’t even burn off 10 percent of the calories he consumed in that disturbingly large meal he ate

I hope he turns on everyone, Kendall included, and burns it all down. I would love to see Chaos Tom. I think we might be inching that way.

GRADE: B+

MUST IMPROVE: Spine-growing, embracing anarchy

Kendall’s idiot friends

I need to see this collection of goofballs every week, weighing in on everything, up to and including the finer points of his new legal strategy.

GRADE: A-

MUST IMPROVE: I feel like one of them should have a performative mustache

Jess Jordan

Jess did nothing this week other than get Kendall Tom’s phone number and hover around that gathering of Kendall’s doofus bro friends, but she still gets an A based on a combination of three things:

• Track record
• HBO included her in an official promo image for the show, which I appreciate
• It’s fun to imagine her on the phone with her family and friends trying to explain her typical day at work, and I recommend you carve out some time to do that this week

Jess rules.

GRADE: A

MUST IMPROVE: Leave her alone

Cousin Greg

To recap: Greg is not getting any inheritance because his grandfather is giving the fortune to Greenpeace, but someone wrote a comment about it that Greenpeace promoted, so now Greg is considering suing Greenpeace for defamation and that made him the type of star at this Heathen Cabal that he’s crowdsurfing through a bar like he’s Axl Rose or something.

He’s definitely a little weasel. He has zero morals and it’s all getting a little worse every day. He’s as fueled by self-interest and self-preservation as Logan is and it manifests itself in ugly ways when he starts feeling himself getting cornered. But he’s also a sweet lanky boy who is worried about prison and spoke out about Connor’s presidential ambitions because he “owes it to the country.”

I apologize for nothing.

GRADE: A

MUST IMPROVE: Minimizing the Greg window

Stephen Root, generally

All Stephen Root has been doing for like 20 years now is popping up in awesome television shows as slimeballs and just bringing me heaps of joy about it all. He popped up in Justified as a kooky loose cannon judge who carried a gun and treated his courtroom like its own little sovereign county. He popped up on Barry as Bill Haden’s soulless handler/mentor who plays any angle he sees that will advance his personal interest. And now he’s on Succession as a sleazy mega-donor who is helping Logan pick a President and hitting on Willa and just schmoozing other creeps with a drink in his hand and a twinkle in his eye.

Two things are true here:

• While I am thrilled to have him on the show now, in hindsight it does feel like he should have been involved much earlier, just because no fit has ever been as perfect as “Stephen Root + Succession”
• I shouted “THAT’S STEPHEN ROOT” when he appeared on screen

This is all good news.

GRADE: A+

MUST IMPROVE: Being a castmember in, like, The Righteous Gemstones next

During the most recent edition of Ye’s Sunday Service, his Sunday Service Choir introduced an unusual new selection to its repertoire: Drake’s 2018 no. 1 hit, “God’s Plan.” While the choir has played numerous contemporary classics over the course of the past few years, this one was different in that Kanye and Drake had been feuding for nearly the entirety of the choir’s existence. Although the origins of the feud remain unclear to this day, the performance of the new song was made possible by the recent ceasefire the two stars called at the behest of J. Prince and Larry Hoover Jr.

In fact, Ye was apparently so amped about their reconciliation, the choir not only opened Sunday Service with “God’s Plan,” but also reprised it after several Donda songs, according to HipHopDX. The performance may well have constituted a preview of Drake and Ye’s upcoming concert to benefit the elder Larry Hoover’s efforts to have his life prison sentence commuted, which the pair officially announced yesterday as well.

The concert is set for December 9 at the Los Angeles Coliseum and will see the two rappers join each other on stage for the first time in nearly a decade. The architect behind both the concert and the truce was apparently Houston impresario (and rumored threatening figure) J. Prince, who first posted alongside Kanye imploring Drake to bury the hatchet before the two rappers were seen together with Prince in a photo suggesting they’d done just that.

After starring in hit after hit and winning an Academy Award for her efforts, Jennifer Lawrence had a rough 2016 through 2019. She starred in two little-loved X-Men movies (X-Men: Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix, the most contractually obligated movie of all-time); Passengers and Red Sparrow were quickly forgotten; and while mother! has its passionate defenders, it also received a rare “F” CinemaScore grade. Other movies to get an “F” CinemaScore include Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer’s Disaster Movie and the Lindsay Lohan-starring I Know Who Killed Me. Not ideal company.

Following Dark Phoenix, Lawrence took a hiatus from acting to get married, have a kid, and as she explained to Vanity Fair, re-focus on choosing better projects. “I was not pumping out the quality that I should have,” she said. “I just think everybody had gotten sick of me. I’d gotten sick of me. It had just gotten to a point where I couldn’t do anything right. If I walked a red carpet, it was, ‘Why didn’t she run?’ I think that I was people-pleasing for the majority of my life. Working made me feel like nobody could be mad at me: ‘Okay, I said yes, we’re doing it. Nobody’s mad.’ And then I felt like I reached a point where people were not pleased just by my existence. So that kind of shook me out of thinking that work or your career can bring any kind of peace to your soul.”

The time away from Hollywood seems to have worked: hype is high for her next movie, Don’t Look Up, where she and Leonardo DiCaprio play scientists who try to save Earth from an approaching comet. Lawrence will also star in an A24 movie, Red, White, and Water; Paolo Sorrentino’s Mob Girl; and possibly a biopic of Theranos founder and con artist Elizabeth Holmes, which is excellent casting. The press tour has been fun, too:

It’s good to have J-Law back.

(Via Vanity Fair)

This past spring, Will Forte told us that he was patiently waiting for Peacock to officially greenlight the MacGruber TV show, and a few months later, word came down that the series was happening. Peacock has now announced a premiere date (December 16), which is approximately 11 years after the MacGruber film, which was (of course) based upon Forte’s recurring SNL sketch. The raunchiness of the film, co-starring Kristen Wiig as MacGruber’s sidekick (Vicki St. Elmo), surpassed the network incarnation of the sketch, but sadly, the title character’s sitting in prison these days, and that’s where this first teaser clip (a jailhouse interview) comes into play.

As you can see, MacGruber isn’t exactly friendly when (a decade into his life sentence following the demise of Val Kilmer’s Dieter Von Cunth) quizzed upon the specifics of why he told the court to “eat my sh*t,” and so on. It’s no wonder that Forte once promised fans that that this series (written by Forte) was too “filthy” for network TV. Here are details from the show’s synopsis:

After rotting in prison for over a decade, America’s ultimate hero and uber patriot MacGruber (Will Forte) is finally released. His mission: to take down a mysterious villain from his past — Brigadier Commander Enos Queeth (Billy Zane). With the entire world in the crosshairs, MacGruber must reassemble his old team, Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig) and Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe), in order to defeat the forces of evil.

In other words, welcome back to the aviator sunglasses. Forte and Lorne Michaels both executive produce here, and god only knows whether his “Disgraced American Hero” vibe will fly. Expect to see some Mickey Rourke in this series, and here are some first-look stills, including the return of Kristen Wiig and Ryan Phillippe, along with the gloriously bewigged Sam Elliot and ultra-serious Laurence Fishburne.

MacGruber comes to Peacock on December 16.

A Wheel of Fortune contestant seemingly got away with giving an incorrect answer on a recent episode of the classic game show, and Wheel Watchers are not happy about it. On Thursday night, contestant Steven Page solved a puzzle by guessing “quality craftmanship,” notably without the “s,” which is not the right word. The correct answer is technically “quality craftsmanship” with the “s,” but the Wheel of Fortune judges gave Page the win anyway, which set off eagle-eyed viewers.

According to the New York Post, by giving Page the win, despite technically saying the wrong word, contestants Lisa Volivitch and Christina Maril got the short end of the stick and were potentially robbed of a chance at the bonus round. This move did not sit well with Wheel fans.

Why was Steven’s response on “Quality Craftsmanship” ruled correct tonight??” wrote one fan. “He said ‘quality craftmanship’—without the ‘S’! That’s incorrect! Lisa deserves another $9k, as she would have got that on the next turn.”

“@wheeloffortune just cheated a lady out of a spot in the bonus round by counting as correct a mispronounced answer,” wrote another fan. “If you can’t add an ‘and’ to a crossword, you can’t pronounce it wrong and get credit.”

“Did anyone else notice that Steven didn’t pronounce craftsmanship correctly,” another viewer tweeted. “He said craftmanship, not craftSmanship. He should NOT have won!!”

When it comes to Wheel of Fortune rules, fans of the show don’t miss a beat. Earlier in the year, there was a social media dust-up over a controversial rule that penalizes contestants if they add the word “and” to their answer. So you can understand fans’ frustration with a contestant essentially pronouncing a word wrong and getting away with it when the show is still oddly strict about other mispronunciations.

(Via New York Post)

HipHopDX reports that the longstanding discord between R&B/pop stars T-Pain and Usher finally came to an end last night in Atlanta as the two singers met onstage at a concert afterparty for Dave Chappelle’s documentary premiere event. After the initial film and comedy set, the show reportedly consisted of sets from the likes of local legends such as 2 Chainz, 21 Savage, Jeezy, Monica, and more.

Although phones weren’t allowed inside the venue, a video of Pain and Usher reconciling still found its way online, giving a glimpse into their reunion. T-Pain told Usher, “I love you, bro. I’m telling you, we ain’t going through nothing, bro. We ain’t going through a god damn thing. It’s all love. In a time when we’re divided the most, we need to be together the most. I love you, bro. I’m never not gonna love you, bro, trust me.”

While there was likely never any real ill will between the two artists, Pain’s comments on Netflix’s This Is Pop docuseries could have lent the impression that he held a grudge after he admitted a chance encounter between the two sent him into a deep depression. “[Usher] was like, ‘Yeah man you really f*cked up music for real singers,’” he recalled. Meanwhile, Usher claimed that the encounter never happened in Billboard, prompting T-Pain to tell Power 105’s Angie Martinez that he’d reached out to Usher to settle the dispute.

“I hit Usher after the interview came out, and I’m like, ‘I’m sure you saw what happened,’” he said. “‘That was the truth. That’s what happened, you definitely said that.’ I remember that whole day. Then all he texted me back was, ‘Let’s not text, let’s talk.’ And I was like, ‘Cool, hit me up.’ And I never heard from him, he never called me. I feel like I initiated the contact.”

It appears that the two were able to make good on Usher’s suggestion and turn the page on that particular chapter of both their lives.

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 the culmination of Adele’s comeback and Cardi B show up on a terrific new project. 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.

Adele — “Woman Like Me”

Adele has been forthcoming about the fact that her new album 30 is often about her divorce and the life events that followed. No song on the LP makes that more clear than “Woman Like Me,” which sees the singer addressing an early failed post-divorce relationship. She sings on the track, “Complacency is the worst trait to have, are you crazy? / You ain’t never had, ain’t never had a woman like me / It is so sad a man like you could be so lazy / Consistency is the gift to give for free and it is key / to ever keep, to ever keep a woman like me.”

Saweetie — “Icy Chain”

Saweetie achieved a major career milestone this past weekend when she made her first Saturday Night Live appearance. Ahead of the show, though, she figured it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have a shiny new song to perform on the program, so she dropped “Icy Chain,” a Memphis trap-inspired look at how to secure some iced-out neckwear.

Cardi B — “Bet It”

Halle Berry did something pretty great with her her movie Bruised: Only female artists are included on its soundtrack. Cardi B came through with a new track for the occasion, “Bet It.” Uproxx’s Aaron Williams notes of the song, “Backed by a classic Canción melódica sample from Spanish singer Camilo Cortés, Cardi showcases a polished flow that suggests that she’s been hitting the gym as hard as Halle’s main character Jackie Justice in the film itself.”

Rico Nasty — “Money” Feat. Flo Milli

Rico Nasty established herself as one of hip-hop’s brightest up-and-comers with last year’s Nightmare Vacation, and now she’ back to building her clout up even further with “Money.” Uproxx’s Aaron Williams describes the Flo Milli collaboration as having “a hyperactive call-and-response anthem with big jock jam energy.”

100 Gecs — “Mememe”

Music’s most delightful head-scratchers just wrapped up a tour (save for a couple of December dates), but before they ended that run of dates, the duo dropped “Mememe.” The egocentrically-titled track is yet another example of how well the group is able to balance genre-spanning absurdity with songwriting that’s undeniably catchy, in spite of (or perhaps because of) the eclectic package in which it’s delivered.

FKA Twigs — “Measure Of A Man” Feat. Central Cee

FKA Twigs might have a “deep, emotional, and honest” mixtape coming at the end of this year. Whether or not that comes to fruition, she did give fans at least some new music to wrap up 2021: She linked up with UK rapper Central Cee for a track called “Measure Of A Man,” which is understandably cinematic given that it’s set to appear in the upcoming spy thriller The King’s Man.

French Montana and Doja Cat — “Handstand” Feat. Saweetie

It had been a minute since fans heard from French Montana in terms of new albums, as his latest was 2019’s Montana. He changed that last week, though, with his latest full-length, They Got Amnesia. The “they” in the album title surely isn’t referring to Montana’s peers in hip-hop, because they certainly remember who he is when the signed on to collaborate for the album. One such highlight comes as Montana links up with Doja Cat and Saweetie on the upbeat “Handstand.”

Saba — “Stop That”

Chicago favorite Saba is approaching the release of Few Good Things, which is highly anticipated given that it’s going to be his first LP in nearly four years. He previewed the effort last week with “Stop That,” the song’s title being a message to himself as he works to not let his insecurities get the best of him.

Petey — “Perfect Teeth”

Petey offered one of this year’s indie highlights with his stellar debut album Lean Into Life, and he leaned into life even more last week by adding a new song, “Perfect Teeth,” to the tracklist. It’s an intimate tune compared to the album’s more boisterous moments, as it’s mainly carried by piano, acoustic guitar, and Petey singing about, as he put it, “accepting a dissociative state as a new normal and just going with it.”

Big Thief — “Time Escaping”

Big news for Big Thief fans: The band has a big album (it has 20 tracks) with a big name (Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You) that’s set to drop in February. They offered a look at it last week with “Time Escaping,” a rhythmic and psychedelic effort from the ever-productive group.

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