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Budding Icelandic superstar Laufey isn’t a household name. Her music is household music, but if you drove to Coachella this year, billboards clued attendees in to exactly why her name isn’t instantly known: most people just pronounce it wrong. Once you figure out how to say “Laufey” out loud (“Lay-vay” is the easiest approximation), you realize that there might not be a singer rising faster in all of music.

And, for her part, Laufey is well aware at just how fast this is all happening. During the second of two sold-out concerts at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena, the artist reflected on the three-year journey that saw her leveling up from The Troubadour in West Hollywood to this massive downtown venue. Laufey noted that performing in front of maybe 500 people a few years earlier felt like a worthwhile peak at the time, and that if it all ended there, it would be enough. She also noted that she didn’t have a proper chance to reflect at the time. Now, in front of an arena audience, she’s not making that mistake again.

There’s plenty about Laufey’s success that might feel surprising. As a Berklee-trained musician, she can play cello, piano, and guitar. Her style incorporates jazz and classical elements, while everything from bossa nova to Aaron Dessner-produced acoustic-pop is on the table in her catalog. This year, she made a surprise appearance at Coachella, not guesting with a big tent DJ, but being accompanied by the LA Philharmonic. Even when introducing the tender ballad “Let You Break My Heart Again,” she acknowledged how her music could seem hard to relate to for people of her age group, making the massive resonance her music is finding feel like a miracle.

Because looking around the audience on Saturday night, it was obvious that something was bringing people together from all demographics and age ranges. The crowd was definitely teen-heavy, with plenty of parental chaperones there. But there were also people of her own age, wearing their Oddli crowns and sporting their just-purchased Laufey merch. Many even did Laufey cosplay, which led to a portion of the show where Mei Mei, her bunny mascot/alterego, looked for the best-dressed fan at the concert. This night’s winner was a child who looked like a Laufey mini-me, complete with both princess and flapper dresses to combine Laufey’s biggest style inspos.

Laufey was just revealed to have a major slot at next year’s Coachella, where she’ll reach another career milestone and bring her old-timey sounds to even more of her peers. And some might see this as a fad, as part of the never-ending trend where old becomes new again. But that discounts the obvious talent of the songwriter, her genius ways of engaging young audiences through social media (she won multiple Webbys in 2024), and just how engaging and addictive her music is. “Castle In Hollywood” could easily fit in a Gracie Abrams set as a propulsive bit of confessional indie-pop, while “From The Start” evokes Caetano Veloso more than it does any of her contemporaries, to the tune of nearly a billion plays on Spotify.

It’s all very heartening, that young people remain open to music that might surprise the powers that be. Sometimes, quality indeed rises to the top, especially when it is made by savvy creators who know how to capture the attention of their own generation.

The Oasis reunion tour is over. It seems possible it’ll be back, but at least for now, it’s done. There’s something Oasis fans can get their hands on to remember it, though: Oasis Live ’25 Opus, a new commemorative book made in partnership with Opus.

The announcement notes the project “will be a celebration of the band’s live legacy, captured by the very best with unprecedented and unique access plus collaboration from both Liam and Noel.”

The Limited Marquee Edition will be limited to just 100 copies globally. Measuring a whopping 62 by 45 centimeters, it includes 400 pages “printed in ultra-high-definition on luxury heavyweight 200gsm silk paper and then hand-bound by master binders,” “presented in a silk covered clamshell case.” Other editions include the “Midi” and “Retail” editions. Those who get the Marquee and Midi editions will receive a “special certification ‘tombstone’,” which looks like a commemorative ticket encased in acrylic. More information about the different versions will be available in the future and a sign-up form to “register your interest” can be found here.

Photographer Simon Emmett said in a statement:

“Being chosen to photograph the top-secret Oasis reunion portraits was a real honour. As the only photographer to document it from the very start through to the end of the tour, it’s been a truly unique and privileged experience and insight. The extraordinary mania and positivity has been intoxicating. Much more than a band reunion, it’s been a real cultural movement.”

Learn more here.

As much as some sources would love to discount or ignore it, the fact remains: The biggest breakout in music in 2025 is the soundtrack for Kpop Demon Hunters, the runaway hit Netflix film from Sony Animation. Huntrix (stylized as HUNTR/X), the titular K-pop trio that also hunts demons, has held the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for well over a month; their rival group in the movie, Saja Boys, holds two more spots in the top five.

Now, the vocalists behind Huntrix — Audrey Nuna, EJAE, and Rei Ami — have announced their debut television performance, setting off waves of anticipation among fans of the film and K-pop in general, and cementing the film’s success as the real-world phenomenon it has always been. In a social media video announcement, Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon is visited by the film’s characters Derpy and Sussie (a smiling tiger and a sarcastic magpie) in their usual roles as messengers, delivering a letter revealing that the Kpop Demon Hunters crew will be performing live on Tuesday, October 7.

In addition to being the “group’s” television debut, it’ll also be the first time Audrey, EJAE, and Rei have ever performed together live.

The film’s runaway success caught much of the establishment unawares; as the soundtrack debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200 and the movie shot to the top of Netflix’s own charts, there was still no merch created, and little marketing. However, word of mouth — or maybe song of mouth — spread like wildfire in the spaces frequented by K-pop fans. At the same time, lovers of Sony Animation standouts like the Spider-Verse series and The Mitchells Vs. The Machines were likely equally excited to check out the stylishly unique-looking movie. Powered by its hilariously catchy soundtrack — “Golden” is a banger, but “Soda Pop” and “Takedown” are inescapable bops — Kpop Demon Hunters not only made the most of its goofy premise, but it’s also put the genre on an even bigger stage, beyond its core fans and into the living rooms of seemingly the entire nation.

You can find out what the hype is all about yourself on October 7 on The Tonight Show.

Alabama Shakes are back and they just gave fans their fill of live music, as they just wrapped up a tour. To mark the occasion, they have shared a video from their Red Rocks Amphitheatre concert, of their performance of “Another Life.”

Howard previously said of the song:

“When I wrote Another Life, I was thinking about all the lives we carry. The ones we’re living right now, the ones that slipped away because of different choices, the what ifs, the what wasn’t meant to be, the goodbyes, and the chance encounters that feel divine. This song is about those threads and how they stretch across time and space, connecting every version of who we are. It’s about letting them come together, letting them harmonize, and realizing that goodbye isn’t really goodbye. It’s more like I’ll see you later. A collective story that never stops unfolding. I’m glad we opened this door into this reality of us making music together again.”

Watch the “Another Life” performance above. Below, find the band’s upcoming tour dates, along with their tour setlist.

Alabama Shakes’ 2025 Tour Dates

11/15 — Mexico City, MX @ Corona Capital Festival

Alabama Shakes’ 2025 Tour Setlist

1. “Intro”
2. “Future People”
3. “Don’t Wanna Fight”
4. “I Ain’t The Same”
5. “I Found You”
6. “Guess Who”
7. “Hang Loose”
8. “Hold On”
9. “This Feeling”
10. “Dunes”
11. “Another Life”
12. “Gimme All Your Love”
13. “Over My Head”
14. “Rise To The Sun”
15. “Shoegaze”
16. “Drive By Baby”
17. “Be Mine”
18. “American Dream”
19. “Gemini”
20. “Sound & Color” (encore)
21. “Someday” (encore)
22. “Always Alright” (encore)

Doja Cat learns all the dangers of falling in love — literally — in the new video for “Stranger” from her new album, Vie.

The Dave Meyers-directed video opens with Doja jumping out of a plane in a wedding dress. Of course, she’s wearing a parachute, which leads to the stark image from her controversial album cover. Then, she dodges another plane as it buzzes dangerously close overhead, catches a ride with a passing motorcyclist, falls off and gets dragged by the train of her dress, and ends up stranded at an old mission. The video cryptically ends with a “To Be Continued…” title card, but anyone who lived through the aughts could tell you that don’t mean much.

“Stranger” follows “Gorgeous” and “Jealous Type” as the third music video released from Vie, Doja’s fifth studio album. Like the rest of the songs on the new project, it borrows elements of ’80s R&B and New Wave, pairing them with Doja’s witty wordplay. If you’re a sucker for sax, it’s an album you’ll probably have on repeat for the rest of the year — and probably well into 2026, as Doja launches her Tour Ma Vie World Tour this November and takes it all over the globe, wrapping up the US leg just before the holidays.

Watch Doja Cat’s “Stranger” video above.

Vie is out now via RCA Records. You can find more info here.

Daniel Ek co-founded Spotify in 2006 and has long been the public face of the company. Things are about to change, as it was just announced that he is stepping down as CEO. Instead, Gustav Söderström (currently the co-president and chief product and technology officer) and Alex Norström (co-president and chief business officer) will take over as Spotify’s co-CEOs, while Ek will move into the role of Executive Chairman.

Per Spotify, Ek’s new role “will more closely reflect a European Chairman setup, where he will determine capital allocation, map the long term future of Spotify and continue to provide support and guidance to its senior team.”

Notably, this comes after artists like King Gizzard And The Wizard Lizard, Hotline TNT, and Massive Attack removed their music from Spotify, in protest of Ek’s venture capital firm Prima Materia investing millions of dollars in the military AI company Helsing. Per Spotify, though, it doesn’t appear the change is in response to this: Their post notes that the shift “formalizes how Spotify has successfully operated since 2023 with the co-presidents largely leading strategic development and operational execution of Spotify.”

Ek said in a statement:

“I always believed that Spotify could play an important role in revolutionizing listening around the world, and with more than 700 million users, we’ve truly charted a new course bringing creativity to every corner of the globe. Over the last few years, I’ve turned over a large part of the day-to-day management and strategic direction of Spotify to Alex and Gustav — who have shaped the company from our earliest days and are now more than ready to guide our next phase. This change simply matches titles to how we already operate. In my role as Executive Chairman, I will focus on the long arc of the company and keep the Board and our co-CEOs deeply connected through my engagement.”

Find the full news release here.

It’s settled: Bad Bunny will be performing the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show in 2026. He offered a statement when the news was shared this past weekend, but now he has spoken about it more candidly.

In an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe and Ebro Darden, Bad Bunny discussed getting the call from Jay-Z, saying, “It’s crazy because I was in the middle of a workout. So I remember that after the call, I just did like a hundred pull ups. I didn’t need more pre-workout sh*t or whatever. It was very special. It was so special.”

He also spoke about what it was like to finally share the news, saying:

“I was keeping this secret for so long and it felt good. It felt good. As I said, you know, what I felt so emotionally… it was the first time that I showed the video one of my friends and I saw his reaction and he was so excited. As I said, I’m really excited but this is making me feel so happy, because more than me, for everyone else. I’m really excited for my friends, my family, Puerto Rico, all the Latino people around the world. I’m excited about my culture. I’m excited about everything, not just for me.”

Watch the interview above.

Every month, Uproxx cultural critic Steven Hyden makes an unranked list of his favorite music-related items released during this period — songs, albums, books, films, you name it.

1. Geese — Getting Killed

After listening to Getting Killed for the past few months, I have no doubt that it is the greatest album of 2025. But I am even more confident that is the most 2025 album of 2025, the record that, by far, best captures how scary and chaotic things seem right now, in this age of smart robots and dumb authoritarians and passionately litigated talk-show controversies and memory-holed sex-trafficking conspiracies. Getting Killed nailed that “tragicomic horror show” vibe from the moment the video for “Taxes” dropped, when Geese depicted themselves playing for an audience of unhinged freaks who rip each other apart as the music hits an exhilarating peak. That was back in July. At the start of fall, we are currently in full-on self-immolation mode. Threats, invective, limbs, bullets — they’re all choking the air like vultures. And now, finally, the appropriate soundtrack for the madness has arrived.

2. Wednesday — Bleeds

From a lyrical perspective, Bleeds is as chaotic as the music is (relatively) orderly. Whereas the narratives on Rat Saw God often seemed linear and coherent, nearly every lyric on Bleeds feels like a story onto itself. And Karly Hartzman stacks them together like she’s emptying several notebooks filled with observations from life on the road as well as the North Carolina countryside. Sometimes, this approach risks lapsing into unwitting self-parody. (The line from “Pick Up That Knife” about throwing up in the pit at a Death Grips show could have come from a Wednesday lyric generator.) As for her delivery, Hartzman’s voice remains Wednesday’s most “love it or hate it” element. Detractors will surely listen to the droning mini-epic “Carolina Murder Suicide” and blanch at her unsteady pitch and idiosyncratic phrasing. But for those of us who are fans, that voice remains a singular insurance policy against Wednesday ever becoming too poppy or mainstream. Even at its most palatable, Bleeds remains a defiant statement of artistic and regional specificity that could not come from any other band. And what a band, truly, Wednesday has become.

3. Liquid Mike — Hell Is An Airport

I fell in love with this band upon the release of their previous album, Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot. I root for them because they hail from Upper Michigan, and because they love Guided By Voices and songs about drinking and small-town life and how the former informs the latter. All admirable traits in my book. The best thing about their latest LP is that they didn’t mess with the formula. Hell Is An Airport is 27 minutes of non-stop hooks and guitar fuzz, by the best band to come out of nowhere in a while.

4. Brian Dunne — Clams Casino

A fascinating record for how “normal” it is, which in most contexts doesn’t sound like a compliment, but in this instance, I swear that it is. If this were 1995 instead of 2025, Dunne would be on a major label and touring with Counting Crows and Gin Blossoms. Clams Casino is made up of extremely well put-together heartland-ish rock songs that are perfect for radio formats that no longer exist. Most contemporary artists who work in this vein apply some form of air quotes to their music — they make it sound lo-fi or downright crappy, or the lyrics scan as somewhat ironic or subversive. But Dunne just does it with straight-up earnestness, which might be the most subversive approach of all, honestly.

5. Will Olsen — 5 4 1

This actually came out at the end of last year, but I didn’t hear it until last week. And if people are going to put Cameron Winter’s Heavy Metal on their year-end lists for 2025, I feel that I can shout out this woefully under-recognized singer-songwriter. His EP 5 4 1 is an example of what I was just talking about with Brian Dunne, sort of. These are, essentially, demo recordings for what ought to be a million-dollar pop-rock record, though Olsen’s songs sound just right in their simpler, stripped-down form. With melodies this good — they remind me of The Waterboys with a dash of L.A. Garage Sessions ’83 era Springsteen — you don’t need much (or any) production.

6. Joanne Robertson — Blurr

I’ve described this album as sounding like a woman softly singing and playing guitar at the bottom of a very deep well. (I call this genre “Baby Jessica-core.”) It would be simpler, I suppose, to just point to the album title as a signifier of its sonic properties. Operating at the nexus of singer-songwriter folk and dream pop, Robertson’s music is so mysterious and atmospheric it makes Jessica Pratt sound like Shania Twain.

7. Shallowater — God’s Gonna Give You A Million Dollars

This doesn’t sound at all like the Joanne Robertson record, but in my mind I’ve paired them together. This West Texas trio makes music as vast and dusty as their homeland, with slowcore grooves gradually giving way to rangy and unruly guitar jams. It’s a record that puts you in the well this time, though the feeling is less claustrophobic than starry-eyed and constantly trained on the flickers of light above.

8. Zach Top — Ain’t In It For My Health

Okay, I’ll stop with the “well” analogies. This album is nothing like the last two. It’s a country record I wish had come out in May or June instead of September, so I could have listened to it all summer, preferably on a pontoon boat. While most country artists his age tend to emulate the Willie ‘n’ Waylon-style outlaw music of the 1970s, Top is drawn more to the genre’s ’90s wing, a time when lantern-jawed and mustachioed neo-traditionalists like George Strait and Alan Jackson scored hit after hit about having fun on Saturday night and asking for forgiveness on Sunday morning. That’s what Top is after, and his music is a blast.

9. Guerilla Toss — You’re Weird Now

“Wacky” is one of those adjectives that automatically comes across as a pejorative in an artistic context. It denotes trying too hard to “be different,” to an annoying and even insufferable degree. But “wacky” need not be qualitative; It is, after all, merely a way to say that something is (according to Google) “funny or amusing in a slightly odd or peculiar way.” And that’s what You’re Weird Now is. I mean, “weird” is literally in the title. But Guerilla Toss has an adventurous spirit that doesn’t for a moment seem pretentious, which I would liken to jam-band music even if one of the songs didn’t feature Trey Anastasio (along with Stephen Malkmus!).

10. Jeff Tweedy — Twilight Override

I admit that I haven’t spent as much time with this as I should. It’s been a packed month for music, for one, but also this is a triple (!) record with 30 songs. And that’s on top of all the music Tweedy has put out in the past few years, on his own and with Wilco. He’s turned into Robert Pollard in late middle age, and he shows no signs of slowing down. Which is awesome, even if it inevitably makes each record feel like less of an event. Over time, I suspect I’ll feel about Twilight Override as I do other recent Tweedy projects. I’ll start with “this all kind of sounds the same” to “this all kind of sounds the same, in a good way” to “I can’t believe I used to think this all sounds the same, this really moves me.”

This past weekend, The Fastest Kids In School, a local band from the Santa Barbara area, were playing a small outdoor gig. Their set included a cover of Lana Del Rey’s “West Coast.” What they didn’t know when they launched into the song was that Del Rey herself was nearby. She was also apparently in the mood for some spontaneity, as she went ahead and joined the group on stage to sing the song with them.

The band shared a clip of the performance. On Instagram, the group’s Dan Grimes explained the situation, writing, “A moment I will never forget [exploding head emoji] Lana Del Rey joined us onstage today to sing the chorus of her song ‘West Coast’. I still can’t believe that just happened. Thank you Lana!!!” He added in a comment, “She just happened to be walking by while we were playing her song and motioned to see if we wouldn’t mind if she came on stage. Of course we obliged and that is when my head exploded. She was just ‘out getting some ice cream’ she said.”

Meanwhile, Del Rey recently revealed her upcoming album that was once titled Lasso and The Right Person Will Stay is now called Stove.

Check out the video here.

The American and Japanese cultures are different in many ways, one of them being the concept of the “rental family,” which is more widespread in the latter country than the former. The service sees actors portraying family members of their customers, whether for a social event or for general companionship.

That’s the topic tackled in Brendan Fraser’s new movie Rental Family, from mononymous director Hikari (who you might remember directed some of the first-season episodes of Beef). The movie was shot in Tokyo, making Fraser a fish out of water both on screen and off.

Ahead of the movie’s release, keep reading for everything you need to know before it hits theaters.

Plot

The logline reads, “Set in modern-day Tokyo, Rental Family follows an American actor (Brendan Fraser) who struggles to find purpose until he lands an unusual gig: working for a Japanese ‘rental family’ agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers. As he immerses himself in his clients’ worlds, he begins to form genuine bonds that blur the lines between performance and reality. Confronting the moral complexities of his work, he rediscovers purpose, belonging, and the quiet beauty of human connection.”

Takehiro Hira told The Playlist:

“The word ‘rental family’ is a wacky idea, but when you really talk to people who are running it or who get the service from them it actually makes sense. In the modern world or in a metropolitan setting, people are really lonely and you can just hire someone to be friends to fill the void. And I played the guy who runs Rent Family, and then Brendan Fraser was sort of a lost American guy in Japan. And by accident, I end up recruiting him into my team and he ends up working for a rental family business.”

Cast

The movie stars Brendan Fraser, Takehiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto, Shannon Mahina Gorman, Akira Emoto, and Shino Shinozaki.

Fraser told Deadline of shooting the movie in Japan:

“I couldn’t resist making this film for the opportunity to work there and to also blaze a trail. I think more and more productions are likely going start working their way towards shooting in Japan, considering there’s the production value.

The talent pool itself is extensive and, of course, behind the camera and at camera, for that matter, there are excellent filmmakers, technically and creatively, design — everything is meticulous. The whole manner of working itself was refreshing and new to me. It’s something that I love about my job when I get to see and learn from others who have done this in a different way.”

Release Date

The film is set to hit theaters on November 21.

Trailer

Check out the Rental Family trailer below.