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Ask A Music Critic: What Are The Best Albums Of 2015?

Kendrick, Father John Misty, and Adele(1024x450)
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Welcome to another installment of Ask A Music Critic! And thanks to everyone who has sent me questions. Please keep them coming at steve.hyden@uproxx.com.

I’m already seeing 10th anniversary posts for 2015 albums. Some of my favorites from that year are Beach House, Deerhunter, Deafheaven, Viet Cong, Protomartyr, Royal Headache, and Thee Oh Sees. How do you rate 2015 for album releases and what’s some of your personal favorites? — Alex from Melbourne, Australia

Australia! I love Australia! I hope you don’t mind, but I edited out the “u” in “favorites,” so as not to confuse my American readers. I also removed all the adorable koala bear noises from your email, so we can stay focused on the task at hand.

I have also noticed the rush of mid-2010s nostalgia lately. Lots of people apparently are looking back fondly on the final year before the Trump era. For me, it was the year I turned 38. Was I ever so youthful? My cheeks were so rosy, my beard so free of gray. I was personally invested in the first season of Mr. Robot and I tolerated hearing “Uptown Funk” every 15 minutes. Pretty heady time.

Musically speaking, I regard 2015 as a solid year, but not an all-time year. If there’s an overarching trend, it’s that a lot of artists put out good (or really good) albums, but not necessarily their best albums. Let’s start with some of the acts you mentioned. Depression Cherry is considered a really good Beach House album, but probably not as good as Teen Dream. Fading Frontier is a worthy Deerhunter release, but few would put it above Halcyon Digest. New Bermuda is a good effort by Deafheaven, but Sunbather is their definitive LP. The same can be said of several other indie or indie-adjacent artists — Lana Del Rey, Sufjan Stevens, Kurt Vile, Car Seat Headrest, Wilco, Jason Isbell, and Joanna Newsom all did good work in 2015, but you would likely pick a record from a different year as your personal favorite.

As far as my own personal favorite LP of the year, I want to briefly hold off on answering that question. In the meantime, let’s take a wider view of the year, so we can really marinate in the 2015-ness of it all.

THE BEST-SELLING ALBUM OF 2015: ADELE’S 25

This one doesn’t require a personal value judgement. It’s all about the hard, cold data. And in 2015, nobody moved more units than Adele, who sold just over eight million copies of her third album. Because she only seems to put out new music every five years or so, it’s easy to forget amid the nonstop media onslaught of megastars like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé that Adele has owned the nation’s minivans for the past 15-plus years. The silent majority of mothers can’t get enough of this record.

THE CRITICAL CONSENSUS FAVORITE OF 2015: KENDRICK LAMAR’S TO PIMP A BUTTERFLY

As my friend Rob Mitchum shows in his annual spreadsheet charting year-end lists, Kendrick killed it with music writers in 2015 in a way few artists ever replicate. He landed in in the Top 10 on 15 different publication lists, far more than any other artist that year. (Courtney Barnett came closest, landing in the Top 10 on 10 lists with her debut album Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit.) Even more impressive, Kendrick topped seven of those lists and landed at No. 2 on five more.

(It’s worth noting that Charli XCX’s Brat was even more dominant in 2024, landing in the Top 10 on a whopping 29 lists, with 12 No. 1’s.)

THE MOST 2015 ALBUM OF 2015: HAMILTION (ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST RECORDING)

We’re moving into the subjective categories now, but just barely. Is there a better choice for most 2015 record than the project that inserted Lin-Manuel Miranda into our grills for all eternity? One of my most lasting memories of the year is reading a different thinkpiece every other day by some media professional who lucked into an absurdly expensive Hamilton ticket, and came away waxing rhapsodic about the experience in terms that seemed histrionic in the moment and in retrospect are sort of silly. I can’t imagine what it was like to be a high school kid in 2015 who was involved in theater. This record is either your life or the bane of your existence.

2015 ALBUM THAT AGED THE BEST: DESTROYER’S POISON SEASON

Ten years ago, I would have grouped this with all the indie and indie-adjacent acts who put out good (or really good) albums in 2015, but not necessarily their best album. A decade later, however, I have talked myself into at least considering that this might be Dan Bejar’s finest. It gives you all the elements that you want from a Destroyer album — there’s the “bar band” Destroyer, the “yacht rock” Destroyer, there’s the “chamber music” Destroyer,” there’s the “making arcane references to Escape From New York and Billy Joel” Destroyer. Poison Season rules.

(The flaw in this argument is that my favorite Destroyer album changes depending on whichever Destroyer album I played most recently. But that’s a conversation for a different day.)

2015 THAT AGED THE WORST: BEACH SLANG’S THE THINGS WE DO TO FIND PEOPLE WHO FEEL LIKE US

2015 was an unusual year for me in the sense that I didn’t publish an official year-end list. I lost my job in October after the website I was working for was unceremoniously shut down. (Actually, I technically still had a job since I was under contract. I was just paid to do nothing until the contract expired eight months later. Best job I ever had.) However, I did post a list on the social media app former known as Twitter, and this album was at the very top. When I still was being paid to write in 2015, I described it as “a mix of nostalgia and forward-looking optimism communicated via fearlessly shiny riffs and florid clichés redeemed by the all-in conviction of a true believer.” I’ll take 2015 Me’s word on that because I have not listened to this record in at least five years.

Honorable mention: On a more macro level, Tobias Jesso Jr.’s Goon is notorious as a 2015 flavor of the month that aged like milk. And I feel okay saying that because Jesso went on to a successful career as a pop songwriter and producer. (He has two credits on 25, which I assume bought him a large house or a fleet of expensive cars.) So he can take the heat. Regarding Goon, I initially liked its throwback retro rock sound, which evoked Todd Rundgren or Randy Newman’s most accessible moments. And then I interviewed Jesso and found that he was — how do I say this respectfully? — a bit of a simple-minded himbo. The conversation made me like the record less, which is a less common phenomenon for me than you might think.

MOST INFLUENTIAL 2015 ALBUM: CHRIS STAPLETON’S TRAVELER

Country music is in the midst of a mainstream commercial moment in the mid-2020s, and it’s striking how much of that music resembles this record. At the time it was considered somewhat of an outlier, a neo-traditionalist hit that racked up Nashville industry awards in what felt like a rebuke of the dead-eyed bro-country hordes. But now it just sounds like the establishment. A burly-voiced quasi-outlaw type with genuine pop bonafides, Stapleton set a template that artists like Zach Bryan, Tyler Childers, Luke Combs and (to a lesser degree) Morgan Wallen later took to the bank.

Honorable mention: My second favorite record of 2015 — and the one I have certainly played the most — is Currents by Tame Impala. It’s hard to overstate how much indie rock, pop and even R&B and hip-hop sounds like this album. It’s easily one of the touchstone indie-adjacent releases of the past 10 years. And it felt like that was preordained when it came out. I hung out with Kevin Parker in an L.A. diner for a profile before Currents dropped, and he already seemed bewildered by the success he hadn’t yet fully experienced. “I used to smoke weed and I don’t even smoke weed anymore,” he told me, “because, it’s like, the world’s intense enough as it is.”

MOST MEMORY-HOLED ALBUM OF 2015: DONNIE TRUMPET & THE SOCIAL EXPERIMENT’S SURF

On Rob’s annual year-end spreadsheet, this is the 29th most critically acclaimed of 2015, right before Jason Isbell, Deerhunter and Beach House and just ahead of Wilco, Earl Sweatshirt, Chris Stapleton, and Kacey Musgraves. You could ask 100 music fans to name one song from this album, and I doubt you would have greater than a five percent hit rate. It has been wiped off the face of the planet. I think it’s a ska record? The title sounds like the name of a ska record? I could just press play, I guess, but I don’t want to.

The album’s original appeal stemmed from the group’s connection to Chance The Rapper, who might be the most memory-holed superstar of the 2010s. So, Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment suffer from the double memory-hole, a devastating predicament to be sure.

Honorable mention: It seems cruel to pick on possible ska bands when Dr. Dre put out Compton, generated glowing press for about three days, sold almost 300,000 records, and then convinced the world that none of it really happened.

[One more special category before I get to my favorite album of 2015,]

MY PERSONAL MOST HATED ALBUM OF 2015: FALL OUT BOY’S AMERICAN BEAUTY/AMERICAN PSYCHO

This band has pissed me off for years by being irredeemably terrible, with a uniquely grating and obnoxious singer and a bad habit of taking the worst aspects of emo and pop and turning them into inedible sonic shit sandwiches. But I was singularly offended when they dared to call their 2013 comeback LP Save Rock And Roll, which is sort of like claiming that the United States military “saved” Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. But then they really crossed the line with this album, which unleashed their most annoying (and annoyingly popular) song ever, the crushingly ubiquitous “Centuries,” a favorite of the sadomasochists who pick the bumper music on sports telecasts.

Seriously, if you take nothing else from this column, remember this: Fuck Fall Out Boy.

[Sorry, I’ll finally answer your question now.]

MY PERSONAL FAVORITE ALBUM OF 2015: FATHER JOHN MISTY’S I LOVE YOU, HONEYBEAR

You know that list I mentioned earlier, the one with Beach Slang at the top of it? This album wasn’t even on it! 2015 Me was not smart! I dread discovering what 2025 Me is like in 10 years.

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Lil Wayne And Hot Boys Continue Their Comeback With A Short ‘Lil Weezyana’ Tour

lil wayne hot boys lil weezyana
Megan Sumpton/@megyuup

Last year, Lil Wayne and his former group, Hot Boys, reunited for the first time in over 20 years at Wayne’s Lil Weezyana Fest (sorta). Apparently, they had a good enough time that they are extending the party with a limited run of Lil Weezyana concerts in February, hitting Tampa, Charlotte, and St. Louis. Tickets are on pre-sale now, with general sale beginning Friday, January 24 at 10 AM local time. You can find more information here.

Wayne, B.G., Juvenile, and Turk first formed as a group in 1997, releasing just two albums together (1997’s Get It How U Live! and 1999’s Guerrilla Warfare) before disbanding in 2001, although a compilation of their recorded material was released as Let ‘Em Burn in 2003. Despite this, they’re considered a totem of turn-of-the-millennium street and party rap, with their sole Hot 100 single as a group, “I Need a Hot Girl,” being supported by a deluge of pivotal solo singles that feature at least two of the members, such as Juvenile’s “Back That Azz Up” featuring Lil Wayne.

Past attempts at reunions were stalled by the group’s legal troubles; Turk was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2006, while B.G. was sentenced to 14 years in prison for gun possession and witness tampering in 2012, just before Turk’s release. B.G. was released in 2023, and the group has allegedly been working on a new album, although there seems to be some discrepancy in their accounts. With all that said, it’s nice to see them all back together again, and here’s hoping for a successful tour that puts them in position for the comeback they deserve.

Lil Weezyana Lil Wayne With Hot Boys Tour Dates

02/21 – Tampa, FL @ Amalie Arena
02/23 – Charlotte, NC @ Spectrum Center
02/28 – St. Louis, MO @ Enterprise Center

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Palmyra Kick Off Their ‘Restless’ Album Cycle With The Vulnerable And Dynamic Single ‘Shape I’m In’

Virginia trio Palmyra is in the midst of a new beginning: Today (January 22), the group announced Restless, their debut album for new label home Oh Boy Records. Arriving today is the single “Shape I’m In,” which sees the band’s Sasha Landon sorting through their bipolar diagnosis. A press release describes the track as the album’s “centerpiece.”

Landon says of the song:

“I remember first showing an early version of ‘Shape I’m In’ to Mānoa and Teddy in the basement of Mercury Lounge in New York City, and trying (and failing at the time) to figure out how to distill the message into something less chaotic. I was trying to make sense of the symptoms of a Bipolar diagnosis — intrusive thought loops, sleeplessness, manic depression — and how that was impacting and rapidly changing my relationships with folks I love. As the song grew during our performances and in the studio, we realized what ‘Shape I’m In’ needed wasn’t big changes to distill a message; it needed us to make an arrangement and performance that could capture that feeling of not being able to make sense of the world around you.”

A press release describes the album’s songs as “compulsive and immediate, true-to-life testimonials from three very good songwriters figuring out existence in real-time in verse,” adding, “These are songs to be sung or shouted out loud, to be coveted as anthems as we try to make our own way from whatever shape we’re in toward whatever shape we hope to become.”

Additionally, the band also announced a new run of tour dates from March to May. That includes an album release show at Charlottesville, Virginia’s Jefferson Theatre on the album’s release day, March 28.

Listen to “Shape I’m In” above, and find the Restless cover art and the band’s upcoming tour dates below.

Palmyra’s Restless Album Cover Artwork

Oh Boy Records

Palmyra’s 2025 Tour Dates

01/26 — Nashville, TN @ Hello From The Hills
01/30 — Statesville, NC @ Iredell Arts Council
01/31 — Philadelphia, PA @ XPN Free at Noon
02/20 — Tysons, VA @ The Vault
02/21 — Bridgewater, VA @ Sipe Theatre
02/22 — Grottoes, VA @ Grand Caverns
03/09 — Continuum Art @ Hendersonville, NC
03/21 — Rocky Mount, VA @ The Harvester
03/27 — Pittsburgh, PA @ Crafthouse Stage & Grill
03/28 — Charlottesville, VA @ Jefferson Theater
03/29 — Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle Back Room
03/30 — Wilmington, NC @ Live at Ted’s
04/01 — Charleston, SC @ Charleston Pour House
04/02 — Athens, GA @ Georgia Theater Rooftop
04/03 — Nashville, TN @ The Basement
04/04 — Knoxville, TN @ Open Chord
04/05 — Atlanta, GA @ Center Stage Vinyl
04/06 — Greensboro, NC @ Doodad Farm
04/24 — Wrightsville Beach, NC @ The Palm Room
04/25 — Charlotte, NC @ Petra’s
04/27 — Asheville, NC @ Eulogy
04/29 — Washington, DC @ DC9 Nightclub
04/30 — Philadelphia, PA @ MilkBoy
05/01 — New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge
05/02 — Cambridge, MA @ Middle East Upstairs
05/03 — South Burlington, VT @ High Ground Lounge
05/04 — Manchester, VT @ Billsville House Concert
05/05 — Buffalo, NY @ 9th Ward
05/06 — Ithaca, NY @ Fan Club Collective
05/08 — Amherst, MA @ The Drake
09/21 — Richmond, VA @ Iron Blossom Music Festival

Restless is out 3/28 via Oh Boy Records. Find more information here.

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Nine Inch Nails Share The Dates For The ‘Peel It Back Tour,’ Their First Tour In Three Years

nine inch nails tour
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It wasn’t a question of whether Nine Inch Nails would tour in 2025. We knew they were going to. Rather, it was: when will Nine Inch Nails announce their 2025 tour? That day is today. Trent Reznor & Co. have shared the dates for the Peel It Back Tour 2025, which kicks off in Ireland in June and extends to September, where the global trek ends with a show in Los Angeles.

Tickets for the Peel It Back Tour 2025 will be available starting Wednesday, January 29, at 12 p.m. local time. You can find more information here.

Check out the full dates below.

Nine Inch Nails’ 2025 Tour Dates: Peel It Back Tour 2025

06/15 — Dublin, Ireland @ 3Arena
06/17 — Manchester, UK @ Co-op Live
06/18 — London, UK @ The O2
06/20 — Cologne, Germany @ Lanxess Arena
06/21 — Dessel, Belgium @ Graspop Metal Meeting^
06/24 — Milan, Italy @ Parco della Musica Novegro
06/26 — Zurich, Switzerland @ Hallenstadion
06/27 — Vienna, Austria @ Wiener Stadthalle
06/29 — Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Ziggo Dome
07/01 — Berlin, Germany @ Uber Arena
07/03 — Gdynia, Poland @ Open’er^
07/07 — Paris, France @ Accor Arena
07/10 — Madrid, Spain @ Mad Cool^
07/12 — Oeiras, Portugal @ NOS Alive^
08/06 — Oakland, CA @ Oakland Arena
08/08 — Portland, OR @ Moda Center
08/10 — Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena
08/12 — Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena
08/14 — West Valley City, UT @ Maverik Center
08/15 — Denver, CO @ Ball Arena
08/17 — Saint Paul, MN @ Xcel Energy Center
08/19 — Chicago, IL @ United Center
08/22 — Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena
08/23 — Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
08/26 — Baltimore, MD @ CFG Bank Arena
08/27 — Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center
08/29 — Boston, MA @ TD Garden
08/31 — Cleveland, OH @ Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse
09/02 — Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center
09/05 — Raleigh, NC @ Lenovo Center
09/06 — Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
09/09 — Duluth, GA @ Gas South Arena
09/10 — Tampa, FL @ Amalie Arena
09/12 — Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
09/13 — Fort Worth, TX @ Dickies Arena
09/16 — Phoenix, AZ @ Footprint Center
09/18 — Los Angeles, CA @ Kia Forum

^ festival date

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Post Malone Is The Official Record Store Day Ambassador For 2025

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Earlier this month, it was revealed that the 2025 edition of Record Store Day is set to be held on April 12. Every year, RSD organizers also appoint a celebrity ambassador to be the face of the annual campaign, and it was just announced that for 2025, that honor will go to Post Malone.

In a statement, Malone said:

“What an honor, I can’t believe I was chosen to be Record Store Day’s Ambassador for 2025. Record Store Day is so important and I really hope to do my part to keep it alive. We love hitting local shops when we’re on the road, seeing all the crazy artwork, the whole energy in a record store is just super inspiring. I feel at home. It’s really an unexplainable feeling to hit up a shop and dig through crates, just see what grabs your eye. You can be looking for something super specific and end up finding something totally different. It’s the best. Keep supporting y’all and let’s keep records and these local shops going strong. Happy Record Store Day everybody!”

The list of exclusive Record Store Day releases has not been unveiled yet, but there should at least be something special from Malone, given that he’s this year’s ambassador.

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Bruno Mars Wants His Next World-Dominating Song To Be A ‘Strip Club Anthem’

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If Bruno Mars was in NBA Jam, he’d be on fire. The “Leave the Door Open” singer’s last two singles, “Die With A Smile” with Lady Gaga and “APT.” by Rose, each reached the top five of the Billboard Hot 100; they also have over a combined two-and-a-half billion streams on Spotify. These are massive, record-breaking songs, and Mars is back in the studio working on his next hit.

“THANK YOU ALL!” he wrote on Instagram about “Die With A Smile” spending a third consecutive week at No. 1 on the Hot 100. “I’m headed to the studio right now to make a strip club anthem so I can celebrate and properly act up this weekend. Someone please help me get in touch with Sexyy Red!!”

Last year, Lady Gaga explained how “Die With A Smile” came together. “Bruno and I have a lot of mutual respect for each other and were talking about collaborating,” she said. “I was finishing up my own album in Malibu, and one night after a long day he asked me to come to his studio to hear something he was working on. It was around midnight when I got there, and I was blown away when I heard what he had started making.”

Gaga and Mars “stayed up all night” working on the song, and their hard work paid off: the collab is up for Song Of The Year at the 2025 Grammys.

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SZA Was Asked If Drake Is A Good Kisser And She Was Not Eager To Answer: ‘We Were Children’

Back in 2020, on 21 Savage and Metro Boomin’s “Mr. Right Now,” Drake rapped, “Yeah, said she wanna f*ck to some SZA, wait / ‘Cause I used to date SZA back in ’08 / If you cool with it, baby, she can still play.” SZA later confirmed she and Drake did indeed have a relationship, although she had a slight correction: It was 2009, not 2008.

Now, it’s 2025, and SZA really doesn’t want to talk about one particular specific.

SZA appears on a new episode of Hot Ones Versus alongside One Of Them Days co-star Keke Palmer and producer Issa Rae. Palmer asked SZA if Drake was a good kisser, and after SZA pushed back on the question, Palmer said, “She’s not going to answer: he must have been terrible.” SZA then started to eat a spicy wing (in lieu of answering the question, per the show’s rules) before exclaiming, “We were children! We were children. 2009? We were children.”

Ultimately, SZA ended up taking a bite and the show carried on, with no clarity about Drake’s smooching abilities.

SZA and Drake have moved on from their old spark and maintained a strong professional relationship: They’ve collaborated a bunch over the years, on songs like “Slime You Out” and “Rich Baby Daddy.”

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Sexyy Red Issued An Apology After Her AI-Generated Image Of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Caused A Stir Online

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On January 20, the world celebrated Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy. Typically, people reflected on the late civil rights leader’s past humanitarian work. However, Sexyy Red decided to shake things up. Instead of uploading a clip from a speech or inspirational quote, the “Pound Town” rapper shared an image generated by artificial intelligence–which didn’t go over well with the King family.

Yesterday (January 21), in a post on X (formerly Twitter), Dr, King’s daughter and fellow minister Bernice King slammed Sexyy Red for the AI-generated image (viewable here), which depicted her and the activist holding hands while sensually staring into each other’s eyes. “This is intentionally dishonoring, deplorable, and disrespectful of my family and my father, who is not here to respond himself because he was assassinated for working for your civil and human rights and to end war and poverty,” she wrote. “Please delete.”

Shortly after being reprimanded for the image, Sexyy Red issued an apology. She subsequently removed the image. “You ain’t wrong, never meant to disrespect your family my apologies,” she wrote. “Just [reposted] something I saw that I thought was innocent.”

King followed up by thanking Sexyy Red for taking shift action. “Thank you for your apology, which I sincerely accept,” she wrote. “Please know that it was not my intention that you be denigrated. I value you as a human being. I hope you understand my concerns about the image. I know that my father has become a bit of a caricature to the world and that his image is often used with no regard to his family, his sacrificial work, or to the tragic, unjust way in which he died (a state-sanctioned assassination).”

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Jennie Announced Her Debut Solo Album ‘Ruby’ And Its Guest Features With A Cinematic Teaser Video

On April 13 and 20, Jennie is gearing up for her solo Coachella debut. In time for the “Mantra” singer’s performance, fans can expect Jennie’s first solo studio album.

Today (January 21), Jennie announced her debut project, Ruby (due out on March 7), with a cinematic video trailer. Throughout the clip, viewers are taken on a visual journey of what is sure to be the body of work’s supporting music videos. From her signature jet black tresses to a fiery red do, Jennie is ready to break the mold of what Blackpink fans often associate her with.

As the video came to an end, Jennie revealed the special guest appearance set to appear on Ruby. Between scenes in the teaser, fellow musicians Childish Gambino, Doechii, Dominic Fike, Dua Lipa, FKJ, and Kali Uchis names are flashed on the screen.

While Jennie and her team has remained tight-lipped about the forthcoming album. Although the official tracklist has not yet been shared, in a statement, they did reveal the album’s confirmed length. “The 15-song sonic experience explores a variety of genres and showcases Jennie truly stepping into her own as a global force,” read the statement.

Watch the full video teaser for Ruby above. Continue below to view the album’s official artwork.

ODDATELIER/Columbia Records

Ruby is out on 3/7 via ODDATELIER/Columbia Records. Find more information here.

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Harry Styles Supposedly ‘Ghosted’ Little Mix’s Jade Thirlwall After Their First Date, But Later Apologized

Harry Styles Grammys 2023
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Harry Styles has built quite the reputation as a ladies man. The “As It Was” singer has reportedly been linked to fellow entertainers Olivia Wilde, Emily Ratajkowski, Taylor Swift, and Taylor Russell (to name a few). But, the Grammy Award winner’s heartbreaker pursuits supposedly started long before he made it being as a member of One Direction.

Yesterday (January 20), during an appearance on The Louis Theroux podcast, Jade Thirlwall claimed that she and Styles could’ve been a thing. But, Harry Styles “ghosted” her shortly after their first date.

“I think we went on like one date when we were 16 or something,” she said. “He’d just got put in a band, and it was really funny, because we kept in touch. Then the minute they went on live shows, he didn’t message me back.”

Thirlwall says eventually, Styles apologized for his actions (or lack thereof). “He was like, ‘I’m really sorry I ignored you,’” she said. “I was so young, it didn’t really matter. But he was always very, very lovely. He’s gotten himself to where he is because he’s very talented, and he’s very lovely. Very charming.”

The pair met while auditioning for music competition show, The X Factor. Although Thirlwall is primarily known for winning as a member of Little Mix in 2011, she initially auditioned the year prior. At that time, a young Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, and the late Liam Payne nearly swept the competition as One Direction.

The full episode of The Louis Theroux podcast featuring Jade Thirlwall is out now. Find more information here.