This week in pop music, artists continued to bring cheer to ease quarantine blues with upbeat anthems. Selena Gomez debuted three new tracks from her deluxe album, Charli XCX began working on an at-home album, and Alesso teamed up with Liam Payne for a buoyant number.

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

Selena Gomez — “Boyfriend”

Selena Gomez debuted three new tracks from a deluxe version of her album Rare this week. With the deluxe edition came her anticipated track “Boyfriend.” A deep bass provides the backbeat for Gomez’s auto-tuned vocals. While the singer is comfortable being single, she sings about missing having another in her life.

Charli XCX — “Forever”

Last week, Charli XCX announced she would be making an album from home entirely from scratch with the input of her fans. After asking her followers for feedback on an instrumental track, Charli released “Forever” as an anthem for navigating a relationship in quarantine. The revved-up track features an eclectic mix of noisy instrumentals smoothed over by Charli’s heartfelt lyrics.

Alesso — “Midnight” Feat. Liam Payne

Grammy-nominated producer Alesso teamed up with ex-One Direction member Liam Payne for the transcendent single “Midnight.” A vivacious melody is uplifted by Payne’s earnest musings. “During these difficult times Liam and I hope this song can bring some light,” Alesso said in a statement about the track.

Omar Apollo — “Imagine U”

Burgeoning Indiana songwriter Omar Apollo returns after a prolific 2019 with “Imagine U,” his first new track of the year. In a statement, Apollo described how the song came to be: “I’m all about the feeling when it comes to music. The lyrics and melody came to me so naturally and I feel like free thinking is what’s missing in a lot of music nowadays… I was listening to a lot of daft punk at the time so I was really inspired by those themes.”

Mxmtoon — “Lessons”

After sharing a handful of singles the last few months, Mxmtoon has announced her forthcoming EP Dawn with her latest track “Lessons.” Mxmtoon described how the song is a reminder to be kind to oneself in a statement: “Life is full of teachable moments, and allowing yourself the space to make mistakes and to become better from those is vital. ‘Lessons’ serves as a reminder to be kind to yourself, to trust your instincts, and live life with purpose.”

Alec Benjamin — “Six Feet Apart”

Singer/songwriter Alec Benjamin has had a prolific quarantine. The singer wrote and released “Six Feet Apart” as an anthem for social-distancing. The emotionally-charged track reminisces on loved ones. “They say distance is relative and relative to relatives I have / I’d say I’m relatively close to breaking down / Because right now I feel so alone,” Benjamin croons.

Alina Baraz — “Endlessly”

Though she’s been making a name for herself through a handful of EPs and singles, Alina Baraz is gearing up for the release of her debut album. It Was Divine arrives in early May and Baraz has been teasing its release through singles. “Endlessly” is her latest, slow-burning number with Baraz’s velvety cadence dripping over a washed-out beat.

Shy Martin — “Can I Call You Back?”

Swedish pop artist Shy Martin returns with the honest track “Can I Call You Back?” Delving into her mental health history through a poetic stream of consciousness, Martin examines her struggles on the sincere track. “I remember first experiencing anxiety when I was turning 13,” she said in a statement. “At the time I didn’t know what that feeling was, only that it made me very sad, and extremely lonely. Last year I decided to finally share my struggles with anxiety with the people who listen to my music.”

Dove Cameron — “Remember Me” Feat. BIA

Following two singles that marked her new era, Disney star Dove Cameron has returned with “Remember Me.” A collaboration with rapper BIA, the single touts a deep bassline under Cameron’s high-reaching vocals. Speaking about the track, Cameron expressed her excitement about the collaboration: “I also couldn’t be happier to be working with an artist like BIA, I’m such a fan and the tone and energy she brought to the track is magic.”

Almondmilkhunni — “Bandana”

The first release off her self-titled debut EP, “Bandana” melts Almondmilkhunni’s dreamy vocals over a sample of Usher’s 2001 hit “U Remind Me.” In a statement to Billboard, the singer offered insight into the song’s meaning. “I had just been told about a girl my ex started dating like around the same time we were talking. [I wanted to] address the fact that this guy clearly has a type, because his new girl looks so much like me,” she said.

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

Radiohead’s latest album was 2016’s A Moon Shaped Pool, and there’s no real word on when the group’s next output will come. A recent Ed O’Brien interview suggests that it might be a significant wait for a new Radiohead album, though.

Speaking with NME, O’Brien said Radiohead’s members are prioritizing solo projects at the moment:

“We’re an ongoing band and have online meetings — there was a Zoom call recently. We’re talking about stuff, but for the foreseeable future everyone is doing their own thing. When it feels right to plug back into Radiohead, then we will. […] We’ve had different chapters in Radiohead life. Up until the end of OK Computer was one chapter; Kid A through to A Moon Shaped Pool was another chapter. We’ve sort of drawn a line now and are wondering what the next chapter will be. That’s what we’ll figure out next.”

O’Brien did reveal, however, that the band has discussed the upcoming 20th anniversaries of Kid A and Amnesiac, saying, “Due to the nature of it, I can’t fully reveal anything — but there have been talks about ways of doing something. Everything gets thrown up in the air with coronavirus, so a lot of ideas are being mooted. It would be nice to honor it, but then there’s the struggle — how can you get that excited about an album that came out 20 years ago? I can’t. I’m thankful it was a moment and know that it means a lot to people, but it was a long time ago.”

Read the full interview here, and read our recent interview with O’Brien here.

It seems there’s one person who just can’t be bored in self-quarantine: 50 Cent. As long as he has someone to troll on social media, he’ll be fine — and fortunately for him, one of his longtime favorite targets just made himself incredibly convenient. When Ja Rule said he’d be open to a Verzuz battle between himself and 50, he sparked a debate on social media about which of the two could conceivably topple the other if they could keep it clean enough to just play their hits and “behave” as Ja put it. But 50 swiftly put an end to the chatter in his usual way — with a pointed set of Instagram posts letting his feelings be known.

In the first, the Power producer posted a reaction .gif of himself. You know the one: 50 pulls his convertible up alongside Turtle’s car in Entourage, makes a snarky comment, and drives off laughing. In this case, 50 captioned the .gif, “Who want to battle?” and sniped at Ja with, “Here’s a moment of silence for the still sick and suffering.” Just for good measure, he threw in a few plugs for his ABC show For Life, for Power, and his liquor line, Branson Cognac, and gibed, “Need attention, call 50,” although he did misuse the hashtags — he is 44, after all.

In the next one, he outright blew up Ja’s spot, posting a pic of his Queens rival’s face photo shopped onto a homeless person holding a sign. The sign itself was also altered to read, “I will battle 50 Cent for attention,” and the photo is captioned simply: “Stupid” with a reference to Fyre Festival, Ja’s failed endeavor that became the subject of two different documentaries. Ouch.

It appears there’s a couple of things for sure: One, there is still no love lost between the two antagonists, and two, that battle is probably never going to happen.

There’s only one Matthew McConaughey, but within Matthew McConaughey lies many personalities. There’s rom-com McConaughey, poetic-sounding nonsense McConaughey, McConaissance McConaughey (you can tell it’s him when he’s thumping his chest or singing about the ladies of Tampa), and naked McConaughey, of course. On Monday, we were introduced to a new McConaughey: “Bobby Bandito” McConaughey.

The Oscar winner adopted a cowboy persona to teach people how to build masks, which are now mandatory in public places in many cities in his native Texas. “You can call me Bobby B,” he says in the video above, adding that “it’s high time to catch this killer [coronavirus], ’cause we got more livin’ to do.” Is there a “WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE” poster for the coronavirus? You better believe it. McConaughey explained (kind of) where the idea for Bobby Bandito came from on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

“He’s gotta be a bandit to beat a bandit. He’s gotta be a little shady to beat this shady guy,” he said. “I was out hiking on our property and came across this guy nailin’ a Most Wanted sign into my tree. I said, ‘What are you doin’ on my property?’ He turned around and said, ‘I’m Bobby B. You never see me coming.’” McConaughey, who also recently hosted a virtual bingo game for senior citizens, then made a bandana mask with Colbert.

Finally, The Dark Tower sequel we were promised.

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Daniel Cormier’s body has taken a constant beating over his illustrious combat fighting career. From Olympic-level wrestling to high-level MMA and a lifetime of weight cutting, the injuries have mounted, including his well-documented back pain.

So when his nutritionist suggested trying CBD, Cormier was cautiously optimistic that the product could help extend his career. The former UFC champion began using CBD products ahead of his fight with Derek Lewis in New York, where he famously took the bout on short notice.

“I relied on the product to help get me there,” Cormier said in an interview with UPROXX Sports. “I took that fight on three weeks. Three weeks into a fight camp, I’m so sore I can barely walk down the stairs. I give a lot of credit to the CBD product to get me where I am and able to defend the title in New York.”

Now, as a member of the cbdMD team, Cormier is ready to continue fighting at a high level at the spry age of 41 years old.

“The group of guys on the cbdMD team, Tyron Woodley, Rampage Jackson, Michael Bisping, they’re guys whose word I trust. Michael Bisping’s word means something to me. He wasn’t trying to sell me on something that wasn’t helping him become a UFC champion late in his career. He was certain this was the product for me that it would put my mind at ease and made me even more comfortable,” Cormier said. “Since I started taking the product, I’ve been able to rest more, I’ve gotten better sleep and I’ve recovered better. These products can extend the career if that’s what you’re looking to do. It allows you to recover, train better and sleep better. For me, it’s been in the recovery. It’s allowing me to be at ease and take the edge off. “

Training better is of utmost importance for Cormier, who is working toward an eventual return bout against UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic.

“There’s some dates, but nothing is guaranteed. I’m waiting for this whole thing to be settled, waiting for normal,” Cormier said. “I think at this point, you take everything one at a time. I’m not a young guy anymore. I’m a guy who needs to focus on the task at hand, and that’s Stipe Miocic for right now. Other than that, we’ll see what happens.”

For the former UFC heavyweight champion, a a third fight against Miocic is more than just a another shot at a title. Cormier’s loss to Miocic in August 2019 gave him just his second loss of his career. With a third fight against Jon Jones unlikely, this could be his only shot at redemption.

“When you lose to a guy like Stipe Miocic, he beat me and I need to go get that right. If I don’t get that right, I don’t know how I’m going to live with myself. It’s a sucky proposition for a guy like me who’s as competitive as I am,” Cormier said. “When you’re a guy like me, who has done so much in this sport, every time you set foot in the Octagon, your reputation as one of those guys in (the greatest of all-time) conversation is on the line. You can go from being surely one of those guys and the next moment you’re an afterthought. I can’t stress enough how important it is for me to be so focused on this fight and this fight only.”

There’s no current return date for Cormier-Miocic III, but early estimations originally predicted sometime in the summer. That could be pushed into the fall as the UFC scrambles to make up other postponed cards.

As the coronavirus pandemic remains ongoing, James Corden, like other late-night hosts, in continuing to put on an at-home edition of the show. On last night’s The Late Late Show, he was joined by Liam Payne and Alesso, who shared a quarantine video they made for the collaboration, “Midnight.” Before that, though, Corden chatted with the pair, and he asked Payne about some potential upcoming activity from One Direction.

Corden mentioned that this summer will mark the group’s tenth anniversary and asked, “Are there plans afoot for you guys to do anything special to celebrate this milestone?” Payne answered, “I’m not allowed to say too much, obviously, because I’d be giving it away. But we’ve been speaking a lot more at the moment. I think that we’re all feeling that that ten-year [anniversary] is a very special moment.” He also noted that he has spoken with Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson recently and added, “Yeah, it’s been really nice, it’s a nice moment.”

While the group’s members have moved on to their solo careers, they haven’t entirely left One Direction behind, as Harry Styles proved recently when he performed one of the band’s hits.

Watch Payne and Alesso on The Late Late Show above.

Warner Bros.’ Dune recently revealed a first look at Timothée Chalamet in Denis Villeneuve’s epic reboot, so get ready for more. This project, of course, arrives decades after David Lynch famously had his name removed as director of the 1984 film, which sputtered into cinemas after Alejandro Jodorowsky’s 1970s take failed to materialize. Now, an expansive Vanity Fair feature drops even more looks at the cast. At this link, you can see Oscar Isaac, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Josh Brolin, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, and more as Villeneuve reveals that this movie will only explore the first half of Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel. So, we’ll see a Chapter Two at some point, with details to be further announced. That might not be 100% wonderful news for Chalamet, whose experience with the costuming aspects in this movie sounds not-so-enjoyable.

To capture the feel of the dust-dry planet of Arrakis, Villeneuve and crew shot outside Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. So, temperatures were above 100 degrees Fahrenheit at all times, and while we’ve got no sandworm details here, Chalamet’s costume talk sounds not unlike what we’ve heard from actors who play superheroes in MCU and DCEU movies. It sounds like those life-sustaining “stillsuits” from the book (which are designed to help preserve human moisture) worked the opposite way on set:

“The shooting temperature was sometimes 120 degrees. They put a cap on it out there, if it gets too hot. I forget what the exact number is, but you can’t keep working… “In a really grounded way, it was helpful to be in the stillsuits and to be at that level of exhaustion.”

Generally these days, costumes like the one Chalamet is describing come with cooling systems, although there’s no telling if that was the case on Dune. Even if that type of system existed here, though, it’s easy to imagine that shooting in the desert would be a grueling experience. And Chalamet’s role as protagonist was probably challenging enough, given that Paul Atreides is gifted with some supernatural touches, and he’s uprooting from a lush home planet to the bone-dry Arrakis, where House Harkonnen has no room for House Atreides moving in on the spice-mining market.

The Vanity Fair photos do reveal a gorgeously-shot set and cast, although it’s slightly disappointing that we’re not seeing Stellan Skarsgård as the monstrous Baron Vladimir. As Skarsgård told Uproxx last year, his role was heavy on the prosthetics. “It says in the script that he weighs 300 pounds, and I can’t gain that much weight and survive,” he gamely told us. “So they’re creating a body that they will have to glue on me. It will be prosthetics all over.” That’s gonna be something to behold, alright.

Dune will also star Dave Bautista, whose character is still under wraps, but hopefully, we’ll see him before the movie’s planned December 18 release.

(Via Vanity Fair)

Quibi, the new streaming service from Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, launched a week ago and will steadily drop new TV series and movies-in-chapters. Even though the service’s premise seems simple — quick bites of content in 10-minutes or less — that doesn’t make the continued roll out less confusing. We’ve dug into whether Quibi’s worth it and also looked at the best-and-weirdest-looking projects (including revivals) that the service has to offer. Aside from the comedies, cooking shows, and sports-related offerings, you might be wondering whether the flagship horror project from Evil Dead maestro Sam Raimi lives up to its pedigree by offering genuine scares, or not.

A bite-sized series begs for a morsel-sized evaluation, so here we go: so far, I’m really liking 50 States Of Fright! Granted, Quibi’s playing things close to their sleeve by only releasing a few episodes to critics at a time, so I can’t predict whether the whole season (of an anthologized series that dances though different directors and actors for each story) will be consistently excellent. However, the show from Gunpowder & Sky’s horror brand, ALTER, makes a strong start with the Michigan-based “Golden Arm” story, which should get folks in the door for more.

This is a brutally efficient story. The whole thing takes place over roughly 30 minutes. Done and done. And if this story’s any indication of what’s to come, the show’s taking its Quibi niche seriously. Sam Raimi’s not simply branding his name as producer onto this project. He also directs “Golden Arm” (and co-writes with his brother, Ivan Raimi), which acts as a cautionary tale to those who’d like to see a fairy tale come to life.

The basic setup here has a ball with the trope of horror characters making objectively dumb decisions. We’ve got a married couple, Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) as Heather and Travis Fimmel (Vikings) as Dave, doing those stupid things. She’s the toast of their small town, and he’s placed her on a pedestal, which includes digging himself into a hole to support her expensive tastes. As narrated by Andy, who’s portrayed by John Marshall Jones (he’s everywhere now, from The Curse of la Llorona to Bosch), Heather and Travis sprint head-first down a dangerous path.

I don’t want to spoil this story, but the title itself reveals that there’s a golden arm, front and center. That makeshift limb comes into existence through the weaving of a twisted fairy tale, and let’s just say that the Raimis have mined the terrifying depths of human weakness to get there. Dreams come true at a terrible price and deliver an ultimate warning that will stick with the viewer. Further, the story gives and takes in all the right places and somehow accelerates and winds down the story with a pitch-perfect pace. It’s damn fine stuff and the right amount of scary, even while delivered onto smart-phone dimensions. The bite-sized concept also allows the three chapters to end at chilling moments, when I genuinely looked forward to seeing what was to come.

However, the manner in which Quibi’s releasing 50 States Of Fright is, well, complicated to describe. The structure of this anthologized project places each story in a different state, where the audience can dive into horrors that can be found “just beneath the surface of our country.” With most of the stories, three episodes will form each story, and only one episode will drop daily. Suspense sounds like the name of the game for this show, but Quibi’s feeling generous enough with “Golden Arm” to release all three parts of this first story at once: on Monday, April 13.

50 States Of Fright will eventually feature Christina Ricci, and over the next few weeks, the show will release these installments:

– The Oregon folklore-based story, Scared Stiff (written and directed by Ryan Spindell, starring James Ransone and Emily Hampshire)

– The Kansas tale, Ball of Twine (directed by Yoko Okomura and starring Ming-Na Wen)

– The Minnesota story, Grey Cloud Island (written and directed by Adam Schindler Brian Netto and starring Asa Butterfield)

– The Florida tale, Destino (written and directed by Alejandro Brugués and starring Danay Garcia)

Eventually, we should see all 50 states from this show, if it survives long enough to cross the whole country. And if the first tale is any indication, the show will retain enough subtlety to not make the Oklahoma story about thrill-seeking vampires hitching rides on tornadoes. Although — let’s face it — I’d probably watch that, too, after digging the Michigan-based “Golden Arm” from Sam and Ivan Raimi.

Quibi’s ’50 States Of Fright’ is currently streaming the ‘Golden Arm’ episodes.

The Strokes’ new album, The New Abnormal, was released a few days ago, and Julian Casablancas is being candidly realistic about it. Most artists default to comparing their new work favorably to their most esteemed output, but in a recent Los Angeles Times interview, Casablancas said The New Abnormal isn’t his favorite Strokes album.

Casablancas was asked, “How do you think of this record in relation to the Strokes’ others,” to which he responded, “I don’t.” From there, he said, “It’s my fourth favorite record I’ve ever been a part of.” When pressed for more, he ranked the first two Strokes albums, 2001’s Is This It and 2003’s Room On Fire, above it. He continued, “…and then maybe… you’re gonna get me in trouble. Let’s leave it a mystery.”

Between The Strokes, The Voidz, and his 2009 solo record, Casablancas has made nine albums, which would place The New Abnormal in the middle of the pack in Casablancas’s eyes.

Casablancas also revealed that he’s not exactly heartbroken about not being able to perform live right now, saying, “People are like, ‘Oh man, you’re not able to tour!’ I’m like, ‘That’s a bad thing?’” Additionally, he said the band considered postponing The New Abnormal, but decided not to (of course, since the album is out now): “The idea came up, I suppose because we can’t really promote it. But it didn’t seem worth postponing.”

Read our review of The New Abnormal here.

The New Abnormal is out now via RCA. Get it here.