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Kevin Durant turned in a marvelous performance Sunday evening when he dropped 51 points, nine assists, seven rebounds, two blocks and one steal on 67.8 percent true shooting, guiding the Brooklyn Nets past the Detroit Pistons, 116-104. Durant’s 51 points established a new scoring record at Little Caesars Arena, eclipsing teammate Blake Griffin’s 50 points set during the 2018-19 season against the Philadelphia 76ers.

Post-game, a reporter asked Durant if he was “aware whose arena scoring record” the superstar forward broke. Durant was not privy to it and when the reporter replied “Blake Griffin’s,” Durant let out a chuckle.

“Good to break Blake’s record,” Durant said lightheartedly. “Damn, I didn’t know that. I mean, I guess it’s a new arena. I’m sure somebody going to break this one here soon.”

Durant’s 51 points tied his most since a game against the Toronto Raptors on Nov. 29 and is the third-highest total of his career, including the playoffs.

Despite an East-leading 19-8 record, Brooklyn’s season has been filled with various setbacks, so seeing Durant enjoy himself after a win and get in a bit of playful banter with his teammate was welcomed. Durant and the Nets will look to snag their 20th win of the year when they face the Raptors Tuesday night.

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.

Shiv

The thing about Shiv is, as we’ve discussed on a number of occasions, Shiv sucks. She doesn’t suck all the time. She was surprisingly good with Kendall when he was melting down in the dirt, to the degree that she was crouching in wedding heels for an extended period of time, which, I say as a man who wears comfortable shoes every day, does not seem fun. She seems to want to do right, sometimes, games of Monopoly and marriage vows notwithstanding. It’s complicated.

But she also earned this one, through the treatment of Tom all season and Gerri in the last episode, and yes, it just dawned on me that Waystar has high-ranking executives named Tom and Gerri. I write 2000 words about each episode and that’s only hitting me now. I’m both thrilled and embarrassed.

More importantly: Did you see her face when she saw Tom and Logan exchange pleasantries at the end? You probably did because it’s right up there. That’s the face of a woman who is realizing things. A lot of them. All at once. Shiv is not having fun right now. But again, she earned it. No tears on this one.

GRADE: F

MUST IMPROVE: Most things, but she knows that

Connor

Hmm. Let’s see…

• Hijacked an intervention for his borderline suicidal half-brother that he more or less stormed out of while shouting “I AM THE ELDEST SON”
• Got his former escort turned girlfriend to agree to marry him by throwing himself a pity party until he extracted a literal “fuck it” from her
• Might be getting deplatformed by the Swedish weirdo who is buying his father’s company, which, it could be argued, is actually a good thing?

I don’t know. Connor is such a loser. Nothing will ever end well for him. It’s funny to watch him flail, though. I kind of hope the entire fourth season is just about him and Willa planning their doomed wedding.

GRADE: F

MUST IMPROVE: Storming out successfully, remaining platformed

Green smoothies, generally

It doesn’t matter why you’re drinking them. Whether it’s general health or digestive wellness or trying to impregnate an assistant who is 40 years your junior with another awful little hellspawn despite going 0-for-4 so far in the old “producing a useful member of society” race, green smoothies do not taste good. Get them out of here.

GRADE: F

MUST IMPROVE: Taste, color, etc.

Willa

Willa is going to regret this. She knows she is going to regret this. She probably regrets it already, if she’s being honest with herself. It’s not a good sign when someone asks you to marry them and you push your decision for multiple days before finally agreeing to it with the same phrasing and energy you would apply to a waiter asking you if you’d like to add bacon to your cheeseburger for an extra 99 cents. She could barely even look at him when he was leaning in for a kiss afterward.

It’s fine. I mean, it’s not fine, and the press is going to snoop if Connor keeps going with his doomed presidential run, and that’s not going to end well, but still. For now, like for right now, it’s fine. See you next season.

GRADE: D-

MUST IMPROVE: Getting pushed into weird/bad marriages by pitiful grandiose creeps

Caroline and Peter Onions

Think about these two for a second. Their whole big fancy Italian wedding got sidetracked by her ex-husband and his crappy children engaging in business subterfuge. She got kind of railroaded into changing the terms of their divorce — again, during her wedding — so her ex could hose their kids and cash out with an extra $5 billion, and then the kids all blamed her for it. And Peter is still a doofus. Just a world-class lanky goof. No one is living up to their potential here.

GRADE: D

MUST IMPROVE: They should have just eloped on a beach, it would have saved everyone so much trouble

Roman

The good news here is that Roman kind of, in a way, after and including a prodigious amount of squirming, stood up to Logan — or anyone, really — for the first time in his spineless little life. Good for him. This is progress. Almost. The only reason he did it was because his other two siblings were bullying him, so he was still getting shoved into it all, but he didn’t let Logan run him over with a steamroller in the room. Again, progress.

The bad news is that doing it accomplished nothing but getting him bounced from the company and burning bridges and watching as Gerri extracted a form of sideways revenge against him and Shiv for embarrassing and/or intimidating her last week with the text fiasco.

The lesson here is… to never stand up for yourself? Hmm. No. That can’t be right. Let’s sleep on this one. There’s probably a lesson here.

GRADE: D+

MUST IMPROVE: Sympathy, empathy, spine-having

Various Karls, Franks, and Karolinas

I love to see Karl and Frank thrive. I hope they both cash out with billions and spend the entire fourth season on a sailboat off the coast of Bermuda, just chilling with boat drinks and stylish Caribbean hats and comfortable linen shirts unbuttoned to their navels. Good for them.

GRADE: C-

MUST IMPROVE: Sneaking, snooping

Kendall

Some notes:

• There was a lot of talk about Jeremy Strong’s acting process after that big profile dropped, about how he’s a complicated but passionate weirdo who might be hard to work with, but if this is the result of it all, I mean… fine
• It was such a good performance
• It was nice to see Kendall briefly emerge from his tailspin to educate his siblings on corporate governance
• He’s a disaster in about six or eight distinct and completely debilitating ways but, I’m sorry, I’m now rooting for him more than anyone else on the show with the exception of his assistant Jess Jordan, who has hopefully been on a relaxing vacation in Key West while the events of the past few episodes unfolded
• It was a little heartbreaking the way he touched the valet on the shoulder, like he was trying to make amends for the dead waiter at the last wedding

I don’t know how to feel about any of this. Let’s move on.

GRADE: C

MUST IMPROVE: Self-esteem, brushing off his pants, just generally not melting down all the time

Kerry

Kerry’s rise this season has been unprecedented. She went from a nameless assistant to a mistress to a trusted advisor to someone Logan sided with above and beyond his own children. She might be having his baby, at some point, if the smoothies do their job for Logan’s gloop, which would be a whole thing. Imagine a newly retired Logan morphing into a loving and attentive father to a newborn and then imagine how insane it would make Shiv.

I think I want to see it. I hope Logan gets way into, like, Pokémon.

GRADE: C+

MUST IMPROVE: Avoiding Marcia at all costs

Comfry and the Duchess

No choice here but to give them the tie, in part because the two of them have somehow found themselves in a love triangle with freaking Cousin Greg of all people, in part because it sounds like Comfry went full Baywatch to save Kendall from drowning in chlorinated limoncello, and in part because I like the idea of a newly powerful Cousin Greg ascending to an unoccupied European throne by the end of next season.

We’ll come back to this.

GRADE: B-

MUST IMPROVE: They can both do so much better than this, he’s just tall and rich, come on

Showing up to a business meeting in a helicopter and/or speedboat

Lots of great shots of people entering/exiting helicopters or riding across bodies of water on speedboats. Makes me feel like I’ve been living my life all wrong. Blogging rarely requires emergency helicopter or speedboat travel. I should have considered this. This one is on me. Let’s go ahead and pencil it in as a goal for 2022: More blogging-related speedboat rides.

GRADE: B

MUST IMPROVE: Feels like we should have a combination speedboat/helicopter by now

Iverson Roy

He’s a good boy and I love him very much.

GRADE: B

MUST IMPROVE: Needs more exciting books

Logan

Two sides to this coin, both of which I will attempt to present objectively…

He’s a monster, a hard-driving maniac who views every situation — even ones involving his children — as a zero-sum game with a winner and a loser. No moral compass at all. Will use and dispose of people to whatever degree it advances his personal interests. A manipulative strongman who bullies and pushes and finagles until he bends the world to his own twisted and perverted whims.

On the other hand, even as I found myself weirdly rooting for the kids while they were in the car headed over to confront him, as I was feeling proud of them for finally making a play, I still had to admit that Logan had a point with the “MAKE YOUR OWN PILE” rant. The kids seem to view Waystar as their birthright, like they deserve to take over the company their father built into a juggernaut. And, like, screw those spoiled little jerks, you know?

No one is clean here. Logan is a demon who raised a bunch of different mini-demons and now they’re all making each other miserable. It’s not ideal.

GRADE: B+

MUST IMPROVE: Like… being a human?

Gerri

Did you see it? Did you see what Gerri did? Did you see the callback to her advice to Roman from earlier this season, even though it now feels like this was all 100 years ago? Here, look.

Good for Gerri. She’s been at Logan’s side in a business setting for decades and rose to a position of prominence on her own merits and his stupid children almost ruined it all with one texting mishap and a hastily orchestrated power play. Gerri wasn’t going to let that happen. Gerri is a survivor. That’s how she’s gotten this far. She’s not losing to any of these little chumps. Not today.

GRADE: B+

MUST IMPROVE: Not getting into destructive quasi-romantic boondoggles with troubled and emotionally stunted manchildren

Marcia

I choose to believe Marcia knows about the thing with Logan and Kerry and already has a private investigator on it and has been meeting with a divorce attorney once a week while this whole season unfolded. I have this rock-solid belief based on nothing but her intensity and my bone-deep fear of her that she’s the only person alive who could cook Logan in a negotiation. Show me their divorce proceedings. Give me a full bottle episode in the lawyer’s office. I’m not joking.

Also, on the subject of things I would like to see and am not joking about, open next season with her and Kerry alone in the back seat of a chauffeured car, five minutes into an hour-long ride, and then periodically check-in throughout the episode to see Marcia casually drop the most cutting and hurtful statements you’ve ever heard. I need it.

GRADE: A-

MUST IMPROVE: Screentime

Lukas Matsson

My guy finessed Logan into giving up the company through the power of sicko tweets and icy Swedish stares. This is… it’s very powerful. I’m kind of excited to see what he does with all of Waystar. I hope he lets a cartoon meme dog host a nightly show on ATN. Or just goes to space and decides to stay there. He has options now, is my point.

GRADE: A-

MUST IMPROVE: I think I would like it if he had a hat

Cousin Greg

Greg should not, by any objective measure, receive an A for his performance in this episode. He’s two-timing Comfry with a princess/duchess/contessa. He’s conniving and scheming and it’s affecting his status as the show’s beautiful sweet boy. He has a vendetta against Greenpeace. On any television program with even a single redeemable character, he would be an evil twerp and maybe even the villain. We should not like him.

And yet!

Look at his face. This gangly boyish angel is now both a big-time corporate player and also a few more solid dates away from being one plane crash or boating disaster away from ruling a country. Can you think of anything more perfect? Can you think of a better ending to all of this than “Cousin Greg angles/stumbles his way into a business success and a fading European monarchy”? I want to see him hold a scepter.

I’m conflicted about it. A little. I’m a little conflicted about it. I still want to know if he can dunk.

GRADE: A

MUST IMPROVE: He should probably let the thing with Greenpeace go now, but we’re nitpicking

Tom

Tom.

Tom.

TOMMMMMMM.

The crazy thing here is that, right in front of our faces, all along, the show has been setting this up. Look at this moment from the meeting at the diner a few episodes ago…

And look at the show bringing the damn Sporus reference full-circle in plain sight, hitting us with the misdirect that was actually just straightforward foreshadowing.

Add in the stuff with Logan saying he’d “remember” Tom’s willing prison sacrifice and all the stuff with Shiv bullying/cuckolding him and taking him for granted, and yeah, Tom’s move — provided that is what happened here — makes perfect sense. You can only push a person so far before they snap. Tom Wambsgans doesn’t have much pride, but he does have a little. I’m somehow both proud of him and disappointed in him. I have much to think about before next season.

But first, I’m gonna keep watching his delivery of “Heeeyyyy Shiv” as he walked into the room. Legitimately hilarious. I’m laughing again now just thinking about it, the way his voice went up an octave from “nervous hello” into “very clearly guilty of something.” Shiv knows. Everyone knows. I don’t think Tom cares. He and Greg are getting corner offices and 20 of their own Gregs. This is a success story.

GRADE: A

MUST IMPROVE: Keeping this energy, or possibly abandoning it, I haven’t decided yet

These waiters

I have so much respect for the catering crew at this wedding, mainly the two dudes in the background here, screwing around and snapping towels at each other while a family and international business conglomerate goes to hell around them. They might have a better handle on life than anyone else on the show.

GRADE: A+

MUST IMPROVE: Leave them alone, they’re perfect

Rex Ryan’s, uh, appreciation of feet has long been a running joke among NFL fans, and on Monday, the former coach turned ESPN analyst decided to steer into the skid with an incredibly well-timed joke that had Dan Orlovsky, Mike Greenberg, and Ryan Clark rolling.

After the Packers’ beatdown of the Bears on Sunday Night Football, there was plenty of discussion of Rodgers’ fractured toe, which he said could require surgery if it got stepped on and worsened. Ryan was asked about the level of concern he’d have about Rodgers’ toe if he were the Packers, and he proclaimed himself a “toe expert,” insisting Rodgers’ toe is just fine given how well he’s playing, causing Orlovsky and Greeny to struggle to stifle their laughter, while Clark straight up walked off the set.

I like to believe Ryan has been waiting years to get a chance to make this joke about being a foot/toe expert and when Greeny teed him up, he absolutely smashed it out of the park. Clark’s reaction is sensational, as he simply couldn’t sit through that, and returns to the desk with a quip of his own that he doesn’t know how he can put his “best foot forward” sitting next to Rex.

Halo Infinite is supposed to be a story about a heroic soldier rescuing everyone when he is needed most. Master Chief is the ultimate spartan. A hero of earth and the world’s greatest protector from threats like the Covenant, the Forerunners, and now the Banished. When the Zeta Halo was taken over by the Banished, the UNSC was decimated in the process and it seemed like all hope was lost until Master Chief returned. With him they had hope. They had a chance at survival.

So why is it that these same soldiers who so willingly looked to Master Chief for guidance are also willingly throwing their lives away to stand beneath falling vehicles? Every player in Halo Infinite has a story at this point. They reach a FOB, call in a vehicle, and then watch as one of the USNC Marines standing at the FOB mindlessly stand in the drop area waiting for a swift death via a falling vehicle. The only question we have is why?

It’s not like the Pelican flying in is catching anyone off guard! It’s very loud, impossible to miss, and it’s carrying a giant vehicle. Nobody should be able to ignore that this ship is clearly dropping in a vehicle for Master Chief’s use and yet they continue to stand in harm’s way. Some even choose to jump into harm’s way!

At this point, the only thing that Master Chief can do is protect these hopeless Marines from any further damage. He can push them out of the way or use the fact that he is more powerful to take the brunt of the damage. Maybe that’s the true lesson in all of this? Master Chief must protect these Marines at all cost, because without them they really are hopeless. He is the ultimate shield.

That or maybe they aren’t that bright.

The news that Mehmet Oz, the “liar” better known as Dr. Oz, is running for Senate in Pennsylvania was met with groans and confusion last week. But the “serial testicle fondler” is taking his campaign seriously enough that he’s ending his successful daytime talk show. The final episode of The Dr. Oz Show — which has won nine Emmys since it started airing in September 2009 — will be on January 14, 2022. It will be replaced by cooking show The Good Dish, a The Dr. Oz Show spinoff hosted by Daphne Oz, Gail Simmons, and Jamika Pessoa, beginning January 17.

Even before the official announcement, The Dr. Oz Show was being pulled from certain markets due to Federal Communications Commission regulations.

Television stations in Cleveland, New York City, and Philadelphia announced Wednesday that they are going to stop airing the The Dr. Oz Show, citing the Federal Communications Commission’s “equal time” rules regarding political campaigns… Under the FCC rule, candidates have a right to request equivalent air time as their competitors, which the stations said could be violated if they continued to air the show hosted by Oz.

Now what will people in Cleveland, New York City, and Philadelphia — and as of mid-January, all other markets in the U.S. — stare at while waiting for the mechanic to finish inspecting their car? Besides literally every other sterile daytime talk show.

(Via Variety and Newsweek)

Billie Eilish has a lot going on so far this morning. Her and Finneas’ No Time To Die song was just nominated for a Golden Globe, and she also guested on The Howard Stern Show. On the program, she revealed that she had COVID-19 in August. Furthermore, she believes that if she wasn’t vaccinated, she would have “died.”

Eilish told Stern:

‘F*ck that sh*t, dude. It was bad. I didn’t die, and I wasn’t gonna die, but that does not take away from how miserable it was. It was terrible. I still have side effects, I was sick for, like, two months almost. This was in August, a couple months ago. […] I want it to be clear that it is because of the vaccine I’m fine. I think if I weren’t vaccinated, I would have, like, died, because it was bad. When I say it was bad, I more just mean that it felt horrible. But really, in the scheme of COVID, it was not bad. You know what I mean? When you’re sick, you feel f*cking horrible. […] The vaccine is f*cking amazing and it also saved Finneas from getting, it saved my parents from getting it, saved my friends from getting it.”

This conversation came up because Stern noticed that Eilish had a cough. He jokingly got mad at Saturday Night Live for getting Eilish sick (since she’s fresh off hosting the show) and Eilish responded, “Can I tell you a secret? Lorne [Michaels] was sick, coughing everywhere.”

In a very surprise move given his seemingly non-stop parade of controversies thanks to his practically Trumpian levels of tweeting whatever random reaction pops into his head, Elon Musk has been named 2021’s TIME Person of the Year. It’s a head-scratching choice, to be sure. Especially considering TIME actually makes it a point to bring up Musk’s penchant for tweeting about bodily functions.

Just check out this introductory paragraph from Musk’s Person of the Year feature:

The richest man in the world does not own a house and has recently been selling off his fortune. He tosses satellites into orbit and harnesses the sun; he drives a car he created that uses no gas and barely needs a driver. With a flick of his finger, the stock market soars or swoons. An army of devotees hangs on his every utterance. He dreams of Mars as he bestrides Earth, square-jawed and indomitable. Lately, Elon Musk also likes to live-tweet his poops.

Naturally, social media erupted after finding out that Musk was being honored as the Person of the Year given the wide availability of options who don’t tweet at United States senators about their penises when asked to pay their fair share of taxes. TIME magazine certainly made a choice, and people had lots of thoughts about it:

While there’s more where that came from, The Daily Show entered the fray with a scorching hot burn:

Just to drive home the fact that Musk’s Twitter activity has reached Trump-like levels, the Tesla CEO has now reached the point where no matter what happens to him, there’s always a tweet. Case in point:

(Via TIME)

The Philadelphia 76ers have managed to tread water so far this season despite a number of absences at different times due to injuries and COVID protocols, currently sitting at 15-12, tied for sixth in the East. Joel Embiid has been as dominant as ever, and Seth Curry is enjoying the best season of his career, breaking out as more than just a shooter.

However, there is a ceiling on this team as of now because they are operating without an All-Star in Ben Simmons, who continues to sit out as he awaits a trade. After insisting he would let this drag out for years, Sixers president Daryl Morey seems to be recognizing that’s not good business when you have one of the best players in the NBA in the midst of his prime, and reports have emerged this last week that Philly is being more proactive in seeking out a Simmons trade, including trying to work the phones to create a multi-team deal that could create a more enticing package for all parties.

On Monday, Shams Charania offered a report with some new teams attached to Simmons trade talks, including the Knicks and Lakers alongside a few teams that have been connected to Simmons for months.

The New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings, Indiana Pacers and Cleveland Cavaliers are among the teams interested in Simmons, sources said, although it’s unclear how much traction Philadelphia truly has on any move.

It’s hard to see how a team like the Lakers could truly get in the mix for Simmons, given they don’t exactly have much in the way of assets or star level talent that’d be of interest to the Sixers — unless Philly has a very different opinion of Russell Westbrook’s fit there than I am assuming. The Knicks, likewise, don’t have a ton of star-level talent on the roster, but do have more draft capital to throw around than L.A. and that might be able to get them in a three-teamer with someone like Indiana.

Whatever the case, it seems that after a couple months of posturing, the Sixers are at least being more active in trying to get talks going and seeing if they can get someone to offer a trade package that at least comes close to their hefty asking price. They have two months before the deadline to find that deal, and while the expectation should probably be for this to drag out to early February, it’s smart to engage teams now and try to create a stronger market for Simmons, particularly at a time where there are more teams that still believe they could be a contender with how muddied the playoff races are in both conferences.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore has a lot working against it: the J.K. Rowling connection, the indifferent critical and commercial response to Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, the fact that a film series with “Fantastic Beasts” in the title often forgets to include any actual fantastic beasts. We just want Pokémon Snap with wizards, is that too much to ask? All that being said, The Secrets of Dumbledore also has Jude Law and Mads Mikkelsen (filling in for Johnny Depp in an all-time upgrade) casting spells at each other, so I will see it opening weekend.

Here’s the official plot summary:

Professor Albus Dumbledore (Law) knows the powerful Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Mikkelsen) is moving to seize control of the wizarding world. Unable to stop him alone, he entrusts Magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) to lead an intrepid team of wizards, witches and one brave Muggle baker on a dangerous mission, where they encounter old and new beasts and clash with Grindelwald’s growing legion of followers. But with the stakes so high, how long can Dumbledore remain on the sidelines?

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, which also stars Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Callum Turner, William Nadylam, Poppy Corby-Tuech, and Jessica Williams with a screenplay from Rowling and Steve Kloves, opens on April 15, 2022.

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 Juice WRLD continue to expand his posthumous discography and Roddy Ricch launch a new era. 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.

Juice WRLD — “Girl Of My Dreams” With Suga and BTS

It’s been almost two years since the untimely death of Juice WRLD, but in the time since then, the rapper has been as prolific as any of his peers. He’s fresh off the release of his second posthumous album, Fighting Demons, and as has been the case with his posthumous work, there are some big-time collaborators involved, including an appearance from BTS’ Suga on the moody “Girl Of My Dreams.”

Roddy Ricch — “Live Life Fast (Intro)”

Roddy Ricch loves the end of the year, after all the yearly best-of lists have been released: His debut album, Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial, dropped in December 2019, and now its follow-up, Live Life Fast, arrives this week. He teased it a few days ago by dropping a short film for the album-opening title track, a cinematic spoken-word number that sees Ricch reflecting on life and its meaning.

Tame Impala — “No Choice”

On stage is one of the places where Kevin Parker is most comfortable, so he’s surely thrilled that he’s heading out on tour early next year. He shared that news last week, and at the time, he also dropped a new B-side, “No Choice.” Uproxx’s Carolyn Droke notes of the track, “a swirling electric guitar bends and melts over intricate percussion as Kevin Parker’s drowned-out vocals ask big questions about choice, freedom, and purpose.”

Earl Sweatshirt — “Tabula Rasa” Feat. Armand Hammer

Earl Sweatshirt is somebody you don’t necessarily hear from a lot when he’s not actively promoting new material. Well, his name has been popping up lately, and thankfully, that means he has a new project, Sick, on the way. The album is dropping in January and he previewed it last week with the lead single, a soulful, The Alchemist-produced, Armand Hammer-featuring number called “Tabula Rasa.”

Beach House — “Runaway”

Beach House has a highly anticipated new album, Once Twice Melody, coming out in February, but ahead of then, the duo has already shared a sizeable chunk of it. They’ve been releasing sections of the album at a time, and last week brought a new quartet of songs. Included in that is “Runaway,” which is more uptempo than a lot of songs by a band not often paired with that adjective.

Bon Iver and Nicholas Britell — “Second Nature”

You probably know by now that Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi are involved in the new movie Don’t Look Up, but Bon Iver found his way into it, too. He doesn’t appear on screen, but as the movie comes to a close, we hear a new song from him. It’s called “Second Nature” and Justin Vernon said that he was more than excited while making it: “I was energized and inspired beyond words, kinda like a bull in the pen before the rodeo.”

Tierra Whack — “Body Of Water”

While her latest EP Rap? was fresh on her mind, Tierra Whack went ahead and shared Pop?, which includes the highlight “Body Of Water,” on which the rapper firmly and rapidly shows that she is just that: a rapper. All in all, the song is a nice holdover while waiting for Whack to drop Rock? and Jazz? (just kidding: those projects aren’t real, but maybe they will be).

Mitski — “Heat Lightning”

Laurel Hall, Mitski’s highly anticipated (as if a Mitski project can be anything but) new album, is on the way in Q1 2022. The indie favorite previewed it last week with “Heat Lightning,” which I previously noted “starts intimately before blossoming into its first hook and then locking into a rhythmic groove for the rest of the song.”

Khruangbin and Leon Bridges — “B-Side”

Khruangbin and Leon Bridges, both Texas favorites, linked up for the Texas Sun EP last year and now they’re coming back with more collaborative material on Texas Moon. They offered a preview of it last week with “B-Side,” a groovy and funky song that’s tough to not at least nod along to.

Russ — “Note To Self” Feat. Big Sean, Wale, Joey Badass, and Hit-Boy

Russ has earned his place in hip-hop, and if there’s any doubt about that claim, look no further than the newly released Chomp 2. He has certainly found favor in his peers, as the project is packed with features. One song, in particular, is especially loaded, as “Note To Self” features Big Sean, Wale, Joey Badass, and Hit-Boy.

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