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There are a ton of video games. Far too many for any one person to play them all, but we all do our best. The problem is that no matter how hard we try we’re never going to actually play all the games we want to play. Some of them are going to slip through the cracks as more and more games come out and jump to the front of the line, and unfortunately, this happens with some true gems. While great games are getting more recognized these days, thanks to the internet and social media, there are still plenty of games that need more love and attention.

Whether you call them underrated, underappreciated, or overlooked, it really doesn’t matter. These games all fall in the category of those that either didn’t receive enough love when they came out or still don’t receive enough love today. Why they’re on the list is going to vary. It might be because it didn’t sell well at launch and became something of a cult classic, or it could be a game that initially wasn’t well-received but gained major accolades later in life. It could be a game that even now not enough people have played. These are those underappreciated classics that everyone should play.

Psychonauts

While everyone has probably heard of Psychonauts by now, thanks in no small part to the release of Psychonauts 2, when it came out it was the definition of an underrated game. Despite having such a unique premise, with the potential to create any world they wanted through people’s minds, it didn’t sell well. Whether the concept was too weird, the art style off-putting, or people were just tired of 3D platformers, it didn’t catch on with fans until much later in life.

It was those fans that allowed Psychonauts to have such a strong comeback. Over the years it reached cult classic status and formed a very strong and dedicated community. It was the efforts of that community, along with an assist from Microsoft, that allowed Psychonauts 2 to eventually release to much critical acclaim. With the sequel a clear Game of The Year contender in 2021, anyone that wants to experience the original can find it readily available these days in places like Steam or on Game Pass. Give it a go, because it’s a great experience.

Earthbound

Earthbound, also known as Mother 2 in Japan, flopped hard in the United States. A mix of poor marketing and a style that was considered dated at the time led to fans choosing newer games over this very fun RPG. These days, Earthbound has a strong following and is considered one of the best games on the Super Nintendo. So how did a game that initially wasn’t received well, even among critics, turn it around? The setting.

When Earthbound was released it was up against the graphics of Donkey Kong Country, the mechanics of Super Metroid, and the story of Final Fantasy VI, three absolute juggernauts of the era. In comparison was this game that western audiences had never seen before, with “worse” graphics, and a modern setting. When they had the choice of what to play they chose fantasy, sci-fi, and new graphics, not the one about four children fighting dirty cops, road signs, and taxis. However, 27 years later and Earthbound feels timeless. The graphics, while not realistic, are colorful and charming. The modern setting is unique, even now, and the writing is genuinely funny. While it might not have the strongest story in the world, Earthbound is a great time because of its reliance on memorable moments and charm. An underrated masterpiece that even now doesn’t get the mainstream love it should.

The World Ends With You

This is maybe the coolest game on this list. Before Square Enix was focused on milking the Kingdom Hearts franchise for every dollar it could get, they released a Nintendo DS only game called The World Ends With You. Everything about TWEWY is cool from character designs, music, and modern Shibuya setting. The gameplay is unique with the player controlling the top and bottom screens at the same time in combat using different control schemes for each. The story is intriguing and interesting but kinda goes off the rails in that classic Square Enix way towards the end.

Some fans would likely argue that this game isn’t that underrated, because everyone who’s played it speaks very highly of it, but unlike other highly praised Square Enix titles this one just kind of came and went. It didn’t get ported many places, a sequel didn’t come out for 14 years, and it wasn’t until recently that Square Enix seemed to remember this game existed. Even when it finally did receive a port to the Switch it was considered a worse version compared to its DS counterpart. This game is underrated because of its missed potential.

Halo 3: ODST

When Halo 3: ODST came out it was easily the least enjoyed of the Halo games. It didn’t have matchmaking multiplayer, the campaign only takes about six and a half hours to finish, and it cost $60 — a little too much for a game that is really just glorified DLC — but time has helped ODST well. The campaign is one of the best of the main games and the move away from Master Chief to the more vulnerable, but still powerful, ODST’s works great. Firefight was fun at the time, and while it probably should have had matchmaking, many hours were spent with friends trying to unlock achievements.

The best part of ODST though is how it chooses to tell its story. The game begins with a team of ODST’s dropping into what they thought was a raid on a Covenant ship, but after that ship jumps into split space the entire team makes a crash landing and is separated. When the player awakens, as The Rookie, it’s been hours and he has to explore the city to try and figure out what’s happened since he’s been unconscious. These sequences are a mix of stealth, action, and exploration and it works very well together. Of course, this is still a Halo game and when the player finds a clue they’re thrust back in time through a flashback to see what the other ODST’s have been doing in levels that are the more traditional Halo affair. It’s a great storytelling mechanic and very fun, not bad for a game that most people didn’t enjoy when it came out just because of price.

Lost Odyssey

One of the biggest weaknesses of the Xbox 360, and that generation of consoles really, was the lack of JRPG’s. The big focus on the time were shooters with franchises like Halo, Call of Duty, and Uncharted dominating. It didn’t help that one of the most highly anticipated JRPG’s at the time, Final Fantasy XIII, flopped and failed to meet fan’s expectations. For many people, the entire generation went by without a single JRPG worth playing. Unfortunately for those people, they missed out on a gem developed by a legend.

Lost Odyssey, an Xbox 360 exclusive, was written by legendary Final Fantasy director Hironobu Sakaguchi. With the music composed by Nobuo Uematsu this may as well have been a Microsoft-published Final Fantasy game. The results sure felt like one, because this is one of the best JRPG’s from that generation of consoles. The characters are well written, the gameplay is fun, and the story is solid. What’s great about it is that it has a combat system that is extremely accessible making it a fantastic choice for someone that hasn’t played a JRPG before. Unfortunately, while the game sold decently well in the West, it sold very poorly in Japan due to the country’s hesitancy to embrace the Xbox. Despite being such a well made game, Lost Odyssey is rarely mentioned in the conversation of best JRPG’s and that’s a shame because it’s a game that needs more attention.

One of the most effective powers of horror cinema is taking the familiar and turning it on its ear to create a vessel of unease — or even outright terror. What if that seemingly innocent child was actually evil? What if, behind those friendly smiles, your neighbors were plotting horrors? What if the man in the mirror actually wanted to kill you?

In a similar manner, contemporary horror master Jordan Peele has found a new use for the most basic and versatile tool in the fear factory toolbox. While his films put novel twists on familiar frights like ambiguous racism and familial strife, he’s shown an equally innovative propensity for transforming our favorite hits, bops, and jams into the stuff of nightmares.

Like the build of tension over the course of the first act, his initial foray into this terrifying territory was subtle and could be easy to miss. It takes place at the very beginning of his first feature, Get Out. The Academy Award-winning debut was a shock in itself when it was first announced. The funnyman from Chappelle Show heir apparent Key & Peele (a misapplied honor in its own right) was going to do horror?

But then the film opens to the familiar tune of Childish Gambino’s “Redbone,” with its ominous admonition to “stay woke,” and it becomes clear that Peele understood more than anyone expected. Of course, that song is an undeniable favorite, handing Donald Glover a Grammy win for Best Traditional R&B Performance with its nods to the psychedelic funk of Parliament and the Family Stone.

In the context of the film itself, though, it serves two functions. One, to establish photographer protagonist Chris’ hip, contemporary awareness of pop culture, placing him firmly in a demographic of young, urban professionals who would be exactly the type to have the song on repeat. It’s no coincidence that this is also the group most likely to be exposed to the sort of wishy-washy, borderline accidental microaggressions that the film’s plot sends up.

But the second service of the song’s placement is that of the audience’s voice in the film, warning the character to watch out. And reflecting the character’s traditional ignorance to our cries in the darkened theater, Chris ignores the plaintive strains of Glover’s vocals, to his own eventual dismay.

And if that instance was the setup, Peele’s next deft disturbance of the musical status quo established him as an expert in not only the use of music to set the spooky atmosphere of a film’s fiendish setting but also in paying off that setup at the height of the film’s action. This time, the song in question is a Bay Area staple, the 1995 Luniz anthem “I Got 5 On It,” which plays in Peele’s follow up 2019 film Us, both the first act in its original form as the Wilson family drives to Santa Cruz for vacation and at the film’s climax when protagonist Addy faces her doppelganger Red in a subterranean fight to the death.

It’s in the second act that the transformation comes, strangling and stretching and stringing out the well-worn beat into something sinister. But this change didn’t even originate within the film itself; instead, Peele and his collaborators later revealed that it had been added to the scene as a response to the enthusiastic reception it received from fans reacting to its use in the film’s trailer, months before its release. The menacing strings and eerie pauses that had been threaded through the song’s DNA like a malignant viral strain had so unnerved audiences that Peele knew it’d be perfect for use in the film’s climactic scene. He was right.

The tactic proved so effective that it was later revisited in the initial trailer for Candyman in 2020, though the film was only produced by Peele, rather than written or directed by him (Nia DaCosta handles those honors this time around, although Peele contributed to the script, as did Win Rosenfeld, his frequent collaborator). The use of the Destiny’s Child 1999 fidelity challenge “Say My Name” cleverly played on the titular killer’s memorable gimmick — in order to summon the Candyman, you must say his name five times in a mirror.

This time, the evocation of Peele’s signature move is like a composer’s confident flourish at the crescendo of his magnum opus. You could say that it’s a rote device, that it’s a crutch, that it’s even (gasp) a gimmick. But in the hands of a horror hero like Jordan Peele, it’s instead a recognizable trademark, as indelible to his work as the hockey mask is to Friday the 13th’s Jason Voorhees or Freddy Kruger’s bladed glove in The Nightmare on Elm Street. Peele wields musical cues — from hip-hop to R&B to revivalist funk — the way Leatherface swings his chainsaw or Michael Myers looms with his kitchen knife. He turns a tool made for the purpose of evoking one emotion into a weapon with which he carves through his audiences’ expectations, bringing screams of both horror and delight.

Whenever there’s some trouble brewing in the right wing lately, there’s sure to be Steve Bannon lurking somewhere within the mess. Allegedly, he’s a chief instigator, and he’s certainly the guy who pissed off Roger Stone by getting a presidential pardon after being arrested on multiple fraud counts in connection with a Trump donation fund. He also definitely called for Dr. Fauci’s head on a pike, and he seemingly turned against his pal, MyPillow guy Mike Lindell, for failing to “bring the receipts” on voter fraud.

There’s more, though. According to a New York Times profile of veteran journalist Michael Wolff (who’s got a new investigative book, Too Famous, coming out soon), Bannon was all-up with Jeffrey Weinstein prior to his arrest in his sex trafficking scandal. Via Mediaite, the NYT‘s Ben Smith described portions of the book relating to Bannon as a “media trainer” who “advis[ed Epstein] not to share his racist theories on how Black people learn” in transcripts that were acquired by Wolff.

Yikes, and there’s more via the NYT profile:

“Mainly, Mr. Bannon tells Mr. Epstein, he should stick to his message, which is that he is not a pedophile, Smith wrote. “By the end, Mr. Bannon seems impressed. “You’re engaging, you’re not threatening, you’re natural, you’re friendly, you don’t look at all creepy, you’re a sympathetic figure,” he says.

However, Bannon apparently denied that he was doing any media training at all for Epstein. Rather, he claimed to be making a documentary about Epstein (about his “perversions and depravity” being enabled by the powers that be), which runs contrary to how Smith summarizes events while writing, “[I]n the new book, Mr. Wolff relied on transcripts of what Mr. Epstein appears to believe are practice interviews.” So, what, exactly is the truth? While Wolff is staying mum on his sources, there’s a fair chance that Steve Bannon’s involvement in anything is sketchy.

(Via New York Times & Mediaite)

Norwegian-American multi-hyphenate Okay Kaya — aka Kaya Wilkins — has announced a new covers mixtape, The Incompatible Okay Kaya, arriving in October via Jagjaguwar. To celebrate, the Berlin-based artist has shared its lead single, a minimalist cover of gospel standard “If I Can Help Somebody,” which was originally written by composer Alma B Androzzo and recorded by Turner Layton in 1946. Over the years, the hymn has also been covered by Doris Day, Mahalia Jackson, Joseph Locke, Liberarce, and more. Check out Wilkins’ rendition above.

This is certainly not Wilkins’ first time on the covers grind: She earned some love for her haunting cover of Cher’s “Believe” in 2019, and The Incompatible Okay Kaya will feature covers of Nick Cave (“Into My Arms”) and The Magnetic Fields (“Book Of Love”). The mixtape follows Wilkins’ Jagjaguwar debut, Watch This Liquid Pour Itself, and its companion album, Surviving Is The New Living, which also came out in 2020. which dropped last year. Check out the mixtape’s track list below.

The Incompatible Okay Kaya tracklist:

1. “If I Can Help Somebody”
2. “Zero Interaction Ramen Bar”
3. “Calendar Girl”
4. “Book Of Love”
5. “Dance Like U”
6. Into My Arms”
7. “Psychward”
8. “Fake It”
9. “Without Her”

Listen to “If I Can Help Somebody” above. Look for The Incompatible Okay Kaya on 10/22 via Jagjaguwar. Pre-order it here.

Reports that MMA’s Conor McGregor tried to take a swing at rapper-turned-rocker Machine Gun Kelly at the 2021 MTV VMAs are greatly exaggerated — at least, according to Conor McGregor. The Irish fighter denied the “rumors” that he tried to hit Kelly in an interview after the alleged incident, throwing shade at his would-be opponent in the process. When asked what exactly happened by an Entertainment Tonight reporter, McGregor said, “Absolutely nothing. I just showed up — and I don’t know, I don’t even know the guy.” He couldn’t resist taking a verbal jab, though, saying, “I only fight real fighters, people that actually fight. I certainly don’t fight vanilla, white rappers. I don’t even know the guy — except that he’s with Megan Fox.”

Of course, that’s not how some sources, including TMZ, reported it — at least initially. Reportedly, when McGregor asked MGK for a photo on the red carpet ahead of the show, Kelly shoved him away, spilling his drink. Supposedly, McGregor threw the drink at MGK before the two were separated by security. However, in an update to the story, it appears nothing so dramatic happened, as instead, McGregor merely approached MGK with his hand out to say hello and was shoved by MGK’s security guard. As he says above, he doesn’t know what MGK said to prompt that response from security, but a photo of McGregor with his arm out was interpreted by fans as him throwing a punch (because apparently, people don’t know what a punch looks like).

The two both made it inside without any further fuss and, as Conor said, he doesn’t fight non-professional fighters, so the odds of an escalation are low — although it looks like MGK may have lost himself a fan, and vice versa.

Last night, the MTV VMAs brought their unique blend of fun, scandal, and quirky ceremony back to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, bringing along a live audience for the first time since 2019. Doja Cat hosted, performed, and wore a truly hilarious sequence of off-the-wall costumes. Olivia Rodrigo threw her own prom. Chloe, Normani, and Teyana Taylor saluted the show’s salacious history while paying homage to their heroes. It felt like VMAs were “back,” for lack of a better term.

But while the fans in attendance seemed to be having the time of their lives, an undercurrent of discontent rippled among those watching from home, eventually bubbling up to the surface on Twitter. Viewers skewered the show for its treatment of hip-hop, which they felt had been reduced to an afterthought by the show’s attempt to cover a wide swath of musical genres and generations. While neophyte performers like The Kid Laroi teamed up with their elders like Justin Bieber (congratulations, you’re old now) and even the aging Foo Fighters got their due, for some, it seemed like hip-hop had been left in cold.

Were it not still summer, that would be a literal assessment. Performers Latto and Saint JHN performed their sets from a pavilion outside the main venue and although each was given multiple opportunities to perform — three songs each — home viewers noted that those performances basically amounted to snippets of each song functioning as advertising bumpers. One only lasted for thirty seconds, which more than one commenter observed was shorter than one of the commercials that followed it.

The only main stage rap performance came from Busta Rhymes, who’s been around as long as the Foo Fighters have and whose most recent mega-hit (“Touch It”) might actually be older than half the audience that attended. That, of course, doesn’t count Doja Cat, whose hybrid pop-R&B sound is often punctuated by secretly impressive raps honed on LA’s indie-hip-hop performance circuit (shout out to Bananas!) or Machine Gun Kelly, who still maintains a penchant for spitting the odd 16-bar missive despite ostensibly making the switch to pop-punk, emo-rock tribute. Lil Nas X may have started as a rapper, but he calls himself a pop star now. While Busta’s performance was lauded (again I ask, does the man even breathe during his “Look At Me Now” verse?), it also highlighted the VMAs’ utter lack of main stage hip-hop from this decade — of which there would certainly appear to be no shortage.

Now, we don’t know all the behind-the-scenes, contractual details. There’s still a pandemic on, and many of rap’s top names have flouted reasonable safety precautions over the past year — even Busta himself, who gave a weird, anti-mask rant just a few months ago and has always at least rapped like an anti-vaxxer, even if he might not really be one (rap is wrestling, let’s not forget). But still, there was a decided dearth of appearances from the likes of Lil Baby, Lil Durk, Lil Uzi Vert, hell, even Lil Wayne (yes, I know, hip-hop has a lot of “Lils” — if you’re still complaining about this in 2021, maybe you aren’t the audience for it. Go listen to Foo Fighters or something).

Even Travis Scott only showed up to accept his award for Best Hip-Hop Video (for “Franchise”), giving a short speech before probably bouncing from the building entirely. Plenty of hip-hop artists and videos were nominated — very few won Moon People, despite their videos’ arguable worthiness. Fans were right to be incensed. However, this is the MTV VMAs we’re talking about here. They’ve almost never given any level of serious thought to rap as a genre or hip-hop as a culture, and as mostly fan-voted awards like Artist Of The Year have shown time after time, MTV’s audience has never quite been as invested in them as much as they have pop megastars like Britney Spears and Taylor Swift (or Swift’s heir apparent, Olivia Rodrigo) — the obvious exception being Eminem, for obvious reasons.

So disappointed, but not surprised, is probably the sentiment that best describes how many of us feel about the show’s treatment of hip-hop — which is, if nothing else, reflective of how mainstream America views the perceived creators and purveyors of hip-hop. It’s just a little more disappointing after so many of the show’s efforts in 2020 to acknowledge Black Americans’ plights, making the progress feel more performative than anything. On the bright side, the ratio of Black performers was greater than it’s been since Busta and Missy ruled the VMAs (and took home a paltry handful of awards in their primes, although Missy was honored with a Vanguard Award in 2019). One of them was a gay Black man, expressing his sexuality unabashedly in a flamboyant performance preceding a win for Artist Of The Year.

That’s how progress actually looks. It’s rarely a straight line, with everything moving forward at once. Maybe we take some Ls along the way. Maybe one thing moves forward while others stay stagnant or suffer setbacks. We shouldn’t be discouraged by this. We shouldn’t overlook it either, because the only way we keep moving forward is by constantly fighting for it. But we should take stock and appreciate the wins too. Black women won last night, even if they didn’t take home as many Moon People as some would have liked. Busta Rhymes, a sometimes overlooked legend, got his flowers. Lil Nas X got to stand in a place no one like him would have just a decade ago, as Billy Porter pointed out in his introduction of the “Industry Baby” performance.

And as for Latto and Saint JHN, they got to play more songs than anyone else. Maybe those in the venue wouldn’t have seen them, but far more people watched the broadcast and got to see two of rap’s rising stars multiple times. Those who watched certainly know who they are now — which, when you think about it, is actually the point of these shows in the first place. We don’t always remember who won which award, but those performances can be the first time we fall in love. Someone somewhere did just that last night — and that’s the first step toward becoming the sort of fan-favorite with a shelf full of Moon People.

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

After delivering a bizarre, rambling speech to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, Rudy Giuliani is attempting to set the record straight that he wasn’t drunk during the memorial dinner event because he’s not the raging alcoholic that numerous media reports have made him out to be.

While talking to Meghan McCain‘s new place of employment, The Daily Mail, Giuliani repeatedly denied being drunk while delivering his speech, which included, as all speeches do, threats of ripping off General Mark Milley’s military awards and shoving them down his throat. “America’s Mayor” also made entirely unprompted references to Prince Andrew and randomly proclaimed, “Never had a drink with him, never was with a woman or young girl with him. Ever, ever, ever.”

In a nutshell, the 9/11 speech was peak Rudy, but if you ask him, it was a beautiful moment, people were laughing, and, look, he only had a Scotch beforehand. In his own words, he’s not even sure he “drank the whole damn thing.” He also lashed out at accusations that he’s a drunk. Via The Daily Mail:

‘If I was an alcoholic, I’d be fricking dead by now. It is [a] complete lie. I’m on television all the time. I’m as lucid as you can be. I’m not demented like Joe Biden. I can go before the Supreme Court … I have already many times. I write. I do a podcast twice a week. I do a radio show … five times a week. I answer questions from people constantly. I’m probably one of the sharpest guys you’re ever going to meet. And you want to put me in a court room and I’ll kick the s*** out of anybody. I am not an alcoholic.’

According to Giuliani, rumors of his alcoholism are simply a misunderstanding about his love for Scotch and cigars. “I drink moderate amounts of Scotch,” he said. “I mostly drink Scotch because I like to have it with cigars.” While that may have been a convincing argument, these were the very next words out of Giuliani’s mouth, again, unprompted. “I didn’t have a cigar last night.” Absolutely incredible that this is the legal mind that used to take down mob bosses.

(Via Daily Mail)

The Ted Lasso Power Rankings are a weekly analysis of who and/or what had the strongest performance in each episode. Most of the list will feature individual characters, although the committee does reserve the right to honor anything from animals to inanimate objects to laws of nature to general concepts. There are very few rules here.

Season 2, Episode 8 — “Man City”

HONORABLE MENTION: Keeley (full-on giggled at that opening scene with her chatting up a silent Beard and Roy); Phoebe’s teacher (imagine having a parent-teacher conference and world-famous footballer and cusser Roy Kent walks in); Higgins (like a little broom closet Yoda); Jamie’s crappy dad’s friend Bug (man changed his name to Bug because he eats bugs, I have no choice but to respect it); my sweet uncircumcised prince Dani Rojas (I now want a full 90-minute standalone episode about his wedding, whenever that is); Stephen Sondheim (a talented man); Mae (an enigma with a butt tattoo); Dr. Sharon’s friend/therapist Bridget (I have never met a Bridget who was not a fun person); Jan Maas (BE QUIET WHILE ISAAC IS WORKING, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD); getting hit by a car (not ideal); referee Mike Dean (never mess with Mike Dean)

10. Colin (Last week: Unranked)

I think what I need here is for Colin and Will the New Kit Man — whose full name, according to last week’s credits, appears to be Will Kitman, a fact I will never let go of even for a second — to become friends and get an apartment together and maybe go on a road trip through the Alps. Just two sweet ignored and/or bullied boys zooming around the mountains, having sweet little conversations, listening to… oh, I don’t know. Let’s say the soundtrack to The Lion King. Belting it out together in mismatched harmonies until they run out of gas in Switzerland because they each thought the other filled up the tank.

Look at this beautiful soul.

I love him very much and want him to thrive in every way but I also must admit that him dying by choking on the bar while doing the bench press in a crowded but distracted room would be kind of perfect. Someone must protect him.

9. Nate (Last week: 10)

Nate is still dancing on that line between naive little woodland creature (Keeley ropes him into stuff so easily, almost by accident) and burgeoning mini-tyrant. Look at the sentence in the screencap. It’s a perfect insult. Just rolls right off the tongue. I suspect, especially after hearing his confession, that he actually thought of it weeks earlier and had been saving it for the right moment. I hope he has a whole file in the Notes app on his phone that’s full of the most awful put-downs you’ll ever see.

I want to see Nate and Roy get into an argument now. I feel like Roy would resort to a headbutt at some point. This would be excellent television.

8. Sambecca (Last week: Unranked)

Good news and bad news here…

GOOD: This was all kind of adorable, especially the way Sam — who I did not realize was only 21! — dove right into things, completely unbothered by the age difference that makes Rebecca old enough to be his mother, all of which was predicted by these very Power Rankings as recently as last week. He’s a sweetheart, that one, and apparently a smooth one, too, based on that whole “I’m at your door but you can use my address next time” move. Good for him. Good for them.

BAD: We are one tabloid expose away from this all blowing up in a bad way for Rebecca, for a slew of reasons she articulated right away, the biggest of which is the thing where she’s his boss and the power dynamic at play is not great. The paparazzi will run wild. At the very least, these two need to start closing the front door before they smooch on each other. Although it would have been wildly funny if the show had cut from that straight to a shot of Trent Crimm hiding like 25 feet up in a tree with his little notepad. Something to consider.

7. Ted (Last week: 6)

Lot going on here. Perhaps too much to address right now. Ted’s admission about his father was a heavy shoe that dropped, and one that goes a long way toward explaining a lot of things, starting with the thing where he deflects with positivity as a way to ward off bad vibes. That’s a classic symptom of trauma, spinning plates and juggling and riding a unicycle all at once to prevent the people around you from feeling sad. So much of this show makes so much more sense now.

We will undoubtedly circle back to this again at some point in the future, probably whenever he actually sits down to discuss it all with Dr. Sharon. In the meantime, please note for the record that I found it hilarious that he tried to do the “it’s the same court/field” speech from Hoosiers about Wembley and was corrected right away. That one was a little joke for Brian.

6. Phoebe (Last week: Unranked)

She’s a good egg. She just swears a little. That’s fine. There is nothing funnier than little kids saying swear words with their little voices. I say this as someone who does not have any children. I suspect my take would be different if it were my child getting sent home from school for inventive profanity. Maybe. Either way, give me at least one Roy/Phoebe scene every week. I know they are just playing directly to my emotions in a manipulative bid to be adorable but I also do not care.

Gimme.

5. Dr. Sharon (Last week: 3)

While there is plenty to get to regarding Dr. Sharon and her bicycle accident and the thing where she has a corporate apartment littered with empty booze bottles, I would like to focus on two things here:

• I like that, per the above screencap, we are now screaming toward an implied or — please, lord, let it be true — literal “We’re not so different” moment between Sharon and Ted, and I could not possibly be happier about it
• It was just last week that I suggested that Dr. Sharon would be a blast at a pub for karaoke, and now we hear her belting out songs from West Side Story while concussed, which is not exactly the same as doing karaoke after a few drinks, but is also not exactly not the same, either

The important thing here is that I was correct. Thank you.

4. Isaac (Last week: Unranked)

Effective immediately and going forward indefinitely, I want nothing in this world more than a haircut from Isaac. I say this because it looks fun and like a borderline religious experience, but also because I just really like getting my hair cut and think I would enjoy it. I do not care how much it costs. You only live once. Give me a five up top and a two on the sides and blend that sucker in nicely. Take your time. I’m not in a rush.

3. Jamie (Last week: 8)

A handful of wonderful developments for Jamie Tartt this week:

• He got a little chunk of plot all his own to examine his own parental issues in a way that, like Ted, kind of goes a long way toward explaining why he is how he is
• He got the satisfaction of punching his dad — who looks kind of like Mel Gibson, in a move I choose to believe was intended — square in the kisser after a lifetime of probably wanting to do it
• He said the phrase “textual chemistry” in that accent of his, which was admittedly a bigger thing for me than for him, but still

Good for Jamie.

2. Roy (Last week: 2)

Did you cry a little? Be honest. Did you cry a little when Roy marched across the room and grabbed Jamie and pulled him in tight in the warmest and most powerful embrace that has ever been depicted in a show about an American football coach who begins coaching a soccer team in England and wins over the players and the community with his infectiously upbeat personality?

I did. A little. Again, I know there’s an element to this “Roy is a kind and lovely man under his rugged exterior” stuff that is being played out for this exact reason. I know they’re trying to make me feel things. I imagine one day they’ll push it a little too far and I’ll roll my eyes about it all. But we’re not there yet. Roy is a good man. I love him.

And somehow, the hug wasn’t even my favorite thing he did with his body this week. That honor goes to this eyebrow raise he tossed at Phoebe’s teacher.

I might put this on a t-shirt. Or a billboard. Or I might hang it from a giant sheet that I’ve tied to the bottom of a blimp that I’ve rented or stolen and started flying around the country. Blimp heist. No jury in the land will convict me.

1. Coach Beard (Last week: 1)

Three notes about my beloved Coach Beard:

• His relationship with Jane fascinates me, almost as much as it fascinates me that he coached an entire game while dosed on mushrooms and no one even realized it
• I like that he’s the one who escorted Jamie’s dad out of the locker room, mostly because I’ve always felt like Beard can handle himself physically — in my head he spent three years of his 20s cage fighting in Southeast Asia — and it was nice to have that validated
• I could not possibly be more excited about next week’s episode after seeing the teaser and reading this description: “After the semifinal, Beard sets out on an all-night odyssey through London in an effort to collect his thoughts”

The greatest.

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 Baby Keem deliver on his promise with his debut album and Kacey Musgraves channel her heartbreak into another superlative release. 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.

Kacey Musgraves — “Simple Times”

While Golden Hour was an album driven by love, Star-Crossed is more about loss, a change that mirrors Musgraves’ life following her divorce. On “Simple Times,” the loss is that of childhood, as the song sees her reminiscing about her younger years (the titular simple times). She also shared a video for the track (a clip from the Star-Crossed film), in which she is joined by You‘s Victoria Pedretti, Princess Nokia, and Drag Race‘s Symone.

SZA — “The Anonymous Ones”

The uber-successful musical Dear Evan Hansen is making its way to the big screen with a movie adaptation, and they got some big names to assist with the soundtrack, providing covers of the musical’s songs. SZA took on “The Anonymous Ones,” filtering it through her pop/R&B lens.

Baby Keem — “Issues”

Baby Keem may have at one point been best known as Kendrick Lamar’s cousin, but with his debut album The Melodic Blue, he’s proving that he’s his own person. Indeed, save for a handful of features (including a couple from Lamar), Keem goes about it mostly solo on his album, like on “Issues,” an emotional cut he debuted on The Tonight Show.

Ed Sheeran — “Shivers”

After taking some time off, Ed Sheeran is continuing his mathematician-approved saga of albums with =. He’s promoted the effort with some singles thus far, and his latest his “Shivers,” which continues on the pop path forged by the album’s lead single, “Bad Habits.” The track also comes with a surreal video staring awkward and kooky encounters between Sheeran and actress AnnaSophia Robb.

Chlöe — “Have Mercy”

Chloe Bailey has generated a lot of attention for herself since announcing her intentions to go solo. Finally, she made good on all the hype last week with her debut solo single, “Have Mercy.” The tune borrows from R&B and pop, and Bailey says the later genre is the direction her new album will take.

Big Thief — “Certainty”

Adrianne Lenker and Buck Meek dropped some great solo projects in recent times, but now they’re back to focusing their efforts on Big Thief. The band has shared some singles this year, and they did so again last week with “Certainty,” a lovely folk tune the group wrote during a multi-day power outage.

Syd — “Right Track” Feat. Smino

It’s been a few years since Syd dropped a new solo project, and while nothing on the follow-up front is set in stone yet, there’s at least a new single, “Right Track.” Uproxx’s Wongo Okon describes the song as “a change in tempo from the singer’s often breezy and chilled-out songs” and notes that on it, the artists “beg for trust and commitment from their partner while promising that they’ll reach the next level together if things stay on the ‘right track.’”

Rico Nasty — “Switch Places”

Rico Nasty is at the point where it’s a big deal when she releases something, meaning there’s some sort of fanfare about a new project from her. So, fans were caught off-guard last week when she went ahead and dropped a group of new songs on SoundCloud. The collection highlights Rico’s genre-spanning sensibilities, as Uproxx’s Aaron Williams outlines: “There’s the puffy sugar trap of ‘Show Me Your Love,’ the JetsonMade-produced banger ‘How Ya Feel,’ the stripped-down ‘Switch Places,’ the spacey ‘Cotton Candy,’ and the surprisingly vulnerable ‘Grow Up.’”

J Balvin — “Perra” Feat. Tokischa

J Balvin’s fans have been eating well, as last week brought the release of Jose, his fourth annual album since 2018. Among the highlights is the final pre-album single, “Perra,” a rhythmic tune with Tokischa that’s a fitting send-off to summer as we leave the warm months behind.

Lisa — “Lalisa”

Lisa is forging her own legacy outside of Blackpink, which she kicked off last week with her debut solo album, Lalisa. She shared a video for the project’s title track, and describing the visual as “ultra-maximalist,” Uproxx’s Rachel Brodsky notes, “this is pretty much everything you’d want a pop music video to be: costume changes galore, bonkers dance routines, super-slick sets, etc.”

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

Taylor Swift isn’t from the UK, but she should still be pretty recognizable on that side of the pond, considering that her last seven albums have topped the charts over there. She’s apparently not an icon among the patrons of Ed Sheeran’s local pub, though, as he once brought her there and nobody seemed to care all that much.

On the KISS Breakfast show, Sheeran spoke about a night out with Swift in his small hometown of Framlingham in Suffolk, England. He compared the experience to bringing Stormzy to the same pub, where the rapper drew more attention:

“I took Stormzy to my local pub, and it was one of those ones where the locals were trying to be funny with him, but it just ended up being like, ‘Oh, can you not say that, please?’ […] I took Taylor [Swift] there once, but when I took Taylor there, no one really clocked. It was like a week later that the person behind the bar was like, ‘Did you bring Taylor Swift in here last week,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah.’ No one clocked it at the time.”

Sheeran and Swift have been pals for a while, and that relationship will be further cemented on Red (Taylor’s Version), which is set to feature a song the pair wrote together on the day they met each other.

Watch the full interview below.

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