Tacoma indie rockers Enumclaw were a Stereogum Band To Watch three years ago, and now their new album Home In Another Life is coming later this week. We’ve posted the early tracks “Change” and “Not Just Yet,” and now they’ve shared one last song before release day.

Charli XCX has been around well over a decade, and her career has gone though tons of different twists and turns, but she’s currently riding higher than ever. Brat was the year’s most critically acclaimed album even before the superstar remixes with Lorde and Billie Eilish — the latter of which is now a #1 UK hit — drove her even deeper into the zeitgeist. Despite not being American, Charli is now having weird intersections with politicians like Kamala Harris and Barack Obama. The Brat Summer memes keep coming. And now Charli is implying that there’s a new album-length project on the way.

In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present. Book Bonus Beat: The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the History of Pop Music.

Buffalo rap hardhead Benny The Butcher has a truly chaotic discography. Earlier this year, Benny released his Def Jam album Everybody Can’t Go. A couple of weeks ago, Benny and his Black Soprano Family crew released an album called Summertime Butch. Now, Benny has a new EP with three songs, each of which has a big guest star. One of those guest stars is Drake.

In 1965, the Staple Singers, already giants in the world of gospel, released Freedom Highway, an album explicitly inspired by the Civil Rights struggle. Pops Staples wrote the album’s title track, and his daughter and bandmate Mavis was in her mid-twenties when it came out. Mavis Staples is 85 years old now; she had an all-star birthday celebration in April. Last night, she got together with her frequent collaborator Jeff Tweedy to sing that song on Colbert.

The wildly creative Florida singer and rapper Doechii signed with Top Dawg Entertainment a few years ago, and she scored a hit last year with the Trillville-interpolating Kodak Black collab “What It Is (Block Boy).” Since then, Doechii has released a handful of promising one-off singles like “Booty Drop,” “Pacer,” and “Alter Ego.” (She’s also featured on the new Katy Perry album, but you can’t win them all.) Doechii hasn’t released a larger project since the 2022 EP She / Her / Black Bitch, and people have been wondering when she’d get a chance to drop something larger. It’s finally happening, and we won’t have to wait long.

OutKast released their sophomore album ATLiens in 1996, and it’s an absolute bulletproof rap classic. You could argue that it’s OutKast’s best album, and plenty have. As it turns out, there’s a masked dubstep duo from Atlanta that calls itself ATLiens. They’ve been around for a while, they play big venues, and they’ve got tracks with producers like Bassnectar. OutKast, or at least the lawyers representing OutKast, would like to let ATLiens know that you can’t just do that.

Maria Jacobson, the Chicago musician who records under the name Fran, released their album Leaving at the top of 2023. Today, they’ve released a really cool new song, a watery waltz called “Florida.”

This year, the Boston Celtics won their first NBA championship since 2008, pretty much trouncing the Mavericks. Celtics star Jaylen Brown won the Finals MVP, but he wasn’t selected to play for the American Olympic team, and he says that he was passed over because of his longstanding beef with the Nike corporation. Now, he’s out here rapping about it.

New Radicals, the band responsible for the 1998 alt-pop anthem “You Get What You Give,” broke up shortly after the release of Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too, their sole album. Band mastermind Gregg Alexander disappeared from the public eye, but he kept writing songs for other artists. Alexander has been tentatively coming back to the spotlight over the last decade, partly because of some of those songs that didn’t come out under the New Radicals name and partly because a few political types really, really like “You Get What You Give.”

For what feels like the first time in a while, we’ve finally got some new pop stars really going off this year. One of them is Sabrina Carpenter. Technically, the 25-year-old Carpenter isn’t new. She was a Disney child star, and she’s on her fifth album. But Carpenter has had a series of huge breakout moments this year, releasing the massive hits “Espresso” and “Please Please Please.” The former was a true song of the summer contender — Stereogum readers voted it #2, right behind Kendrick — and the latter debuted at #1. Carpenter already sold out her upcoming arena tour — a real accomplishment in this climate. Now, her much-anticipated album Short N’ Sweet is here. On first listen, this one pays off on the promise of those two songs.

Seven years ago, Jai Paul and his brother A.K. Paul began their Paul Institute label by releasing two singles from London-based unknowns — one from Fabiana Palladino, and the other from Ruthven. At the time, Sean Nelson, the London singer and producer who records as Ruthven, was serving as a firefighter and working on music in his spare time. Now, he’s getting ready to release his debut album.

A few days ago, Donald Trump shared a couple of obviously-fake, AI-generated images of young women wearing “Swifties for Trump” T-shirts, writing, “I accept!” Taylor Swift doesn’t make a ton of political statements, but she’s long been a vocal Trump detractor. It seems unlikely that Trump — or, for that matter, most other people — honestly thought that Swift and/or a significant percentage of her fanbase were jumping on the Trump train, but the post was enough to get people riled up anyway. Now, Trump has been made to address the situation.

Former Jay-Z business partner Dame Dash co-founded Roc-A-Fella Records with Jay and Dash’s fellow Harlem entrepreneur Kareem “Biggs” Burke in 1994. For the moment, Dash still owns a one-third stake in Roc-A-Fella. Later this month, Dash plans to auction off his share in the company so that he can pay the $823,000 that he owes to film producer Josh Webber. (Webber successfully sued Dash over a failed film partnership.) Dash also owes about $145,000 in unpaid child support. Now Billboard reports that Dash also owes $8.7 million in taxes.

The St. Louis rapper Sexyy Red, one of our favorite new artists of 2023, has had a tremendous come up in a short period of time. In just over a year, Sexyy Red has landed a handful of big hits, released two albums, collaborated with Drake multiple times, and launched a lip gloss line with funny product names. But it might’ve been a little ambitious for such a new artist, especially one without any real live-performer reputation, to launch an arena tour at this point in her career.

In 2018, the British songwriter Ellis Ford ended his project Trust Fund — which, now that I think about it, is an outrageous thing to call your band. It turned out, however, that the Trust Fund was not quite dry. Ford revived Trust Fund in 2022, and he’s cranked out a steady stream of one-off singles since then. The most recent of those was “Has It Been A While,” which came out last month. Apparently, that’s the title track of the first new Trust Fund album since 2018’s Bringing The Backline.

Blair Howerton’s indie-folk project Why Bonnie will release the country-fried sophomore album Wish On The Bone next week, and we’ve posted the early tracks “Dotted Line,” “Fake Out,” and “Rhyme Or Reason.” Today, Howerton drops one last song before the LP shows up.

Sam Shepherd, the UK producer who makes meditative electronic music under the Floating Points name, is getting ready to follow up 2021’s Promises, his absolutely beautiful 2021 collaboration with the late jazz legend Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra, with his new solo album Cascade. We’ve already posted “Birth4000,” “Del Oro,” and “Key103,” three of the tracks that will appear on Cascade. Today, Floating Points shares another one.

In 1984, Dan Aykroyd and Bette Midler teamed up to host the very first edition of the MTV Video Music Awards. Over the years, the crucial role of VMA host has gone to luminaries like Arsenio Hall, Roseanne Barr, and Dennis Miller. In recent years, MTV has been recruiting pop stars like Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, and Doja Cat to host the show, when the show even bothers with having a host. This year, Megan Thee Stallion will take the job.

Before this year, the Virginia singer/rapper Shaboozey was best-known for having a song on the Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse soundtrack. This year, however, Shaboozey’s combination of country and rap has taken off big-time. His J-Kwon-interpolating down-home drinkers’ anthem “Tipsy (A Bar Song)” is the #1 single in America, and it’s held that spot for six weeks. It’s taken work to get Shaboozey to that point, and some of the work apparently involves a gross little marketing firm that’s paid to make fake fan TikTok pages that run “fan fiction” stories about artists.

Last night, Minnesota governor Tim Walz officially accepted the vice presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention. When Walz finished his speech, Neil Young’s pissed-off 1989 anthem “Rockin’ In The Free World” boomed over the arena speakers. This is nothing new. “Rockin’ In The Free World” is a staple at political events, even though its lyrics paint a notably bleak picture of that free world. But this time, there was something different: Neil Young actually approved the song’s use.

Minneapolis rockers Soul Asylum had a weary old-soul vibe even when they were young guns, so veteran status suits them nicely. Next month, Soul Asylum will release Slowly But Shirley, the new album that they recorded live with their old producer Steve Jordan. We’ve already posted lead single “High Road,” and now they’ve also shared the new song “Freak Accident.”

The British electronic producer Clark released his album Sus Dog and its companion piece Cave Dog last year, and now he’s getting ready to release his score to In Camera, the new indie film from writer/director Naqqash Khalid. We’ve already posted Clark’s early track “Green Breaking,” and now he’s also shared a cover of a pretty famous song that he recorded specifically for the film.

Shoegaze has had a wild ride over the past few years, with the entire genre becoming a TikTok buzzword and some of its young practitioners and old favorites becoming viral quasi-stars. One such act is the LA trio julie, who built up a big online buzz and then signed a deal with Atlantic. (The indie band that gets an out-of-nowhere major-label look is a true ’90s throwback.) Next month, julie will release their full-length debut my anti-aircraft friend, and we posted their lead single “clairborne practice.”

The Armed, the ultra-diesel and once-mysterious Detroit post-hardcore collective, put on a famously wild live show. For years, the Armed barely toured, and their gigs were freakout spectacles, sometimes involving Juggalo cheerleaders. Since the release of last year’s Perfect Saviors, the Armed have become more of a functioning band, and they’ve been playing out more often. (They were at Stereogum’s Austin day party this year, and the people who were there said that they were awesome.) But it can’t be easy to put on an Armed show, and they’ve just been forced to cancel their fall touring plans.

Imagine that you’re in a random club in the fanciest part of Long Island on a Tuesday night and a damn Beatle pops up onstage. That’s what happened last night at Stephen Talkhouse, a Hamptons venue with a capacity of about 250. Last night, big-deal producer Andrew Watt and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith played a one-off set there, and they were joined by surprise guest Paul McCartney.

Last month, the great UK singer-songwriter Laura Marling posted a video of herself playing a solo piano version of her new song “No One’s Gonna Love You Like I Can.” That track appears on Marling’s upcoming album Patterns In Repeat, and we’ve already heard first single “Patterns.” Today, Marling has shared the studio version of “No One’s Gonna Love You Like I Can,” and it’s awfully pretty.

Last year, the Nashville-based acoustic guitar virtuoso William Tyler released Secret Stratosphere, the album that he recorded with a backing band called the Impossible Truth. Tyler also teamed up with Kieran Hebden, better known as Four Tet, on the long, gorgeous, exploratory collaborative tracks “Darkness, Darkness” and “No Services.” Today, Tyler has a new single of his own.

The late drummer and singer-songwriter Don Heffington was a founding member of the LA country-rock band Lone Justice. He also played in the bluegrass group Watkins Family Hour, and he toured and recorded with artists like Emmylou Harris, Bob Dylan, Lowell George, Lucinda Williams, and Fiona Apple. In 2021, Heffington died of leukemia at the age of 70. The reunited Lone Justice recently announced plans to release Viva Lone Justice, their first album in 38 years, and it includes contributions that Heffington recorded before he died. Now, many of Heffington’s peers and admirers are taking part in a new compilation that pays tribute to the man.

Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan go way back together. When Rodrigo launched her first tour in 2022, a then-unknown Roan opened the San Francisco show. Rodrigo and Roan share a primary collaborator, producer Dan Nigro, and Roan sang backup vocals on Rodrigo’s songs “Lacy” and “Obsessed.” Earlier this year, Rodrigo launched her Guts Tour, and Roan opened the first 24 dates. That really kicked off Roan’s insane, meteoric rise — a pop-star takeoff so fast and so complete that it took another Taylor Swift special-edition drop to keep Roan’s 2023 debut album The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess from ascending to #1 this week. Last night, things came full circle when Rodrigo welcomed surprise guest Chappell Roan to the stage.

In The Alternative Number Ones, I’m reviewing every #1 single in the history of the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks/Alternative Songs, starting with the moment that the chart launched in 1988. This column is a companion piece to The Number Ones, and it’s for members only. Thank you to everyone who’s helping to keep Stereogum afloat.

Canadian-born, London-based musician Dana Gavanski released her album Late Slap a few months ago, and now she’s shared a new track from those same sessions — a late slap from Late Slap, if you will. The new track “Ought To Feel” is a flinty, twitchy indie-pop track with a bit of that old Delta 5 post-punk deadpan to it. Listen below.

Green Day are currently on a huge stadium tour with the Smashing Pumpkins and Rancid, and they’re celebrating two big anniversaries — Dookie turning 30 and American Idiot turning 20 — by playing both albums in full every night. That’s not all that Green Day are doing to mark that big American Idiot birthday. There’s also a deluxe edition of the album, with bonus tracks. And obviously, there’s a new American Idiot Keurig machine, truly the most punk way to brew your little coffee cartridges that anyone ever invented.

Over the past few weeks, Reba Meyers, longtime guitarist for the Pittsburgh heavy hardcore band Code Orange, has been playing live with disgraced shock-rocker Marilyn Manson. She also appears in the video for his new song “Raise The Red Flag,” though longtime Manson collaborator and film composer Tyler Bates is credited with playing guitar on the record. As you might expect, plenty of people from the hardcore world are not very amped to see Reba Meyers up onstage with Manson.

The Whitby, Ontario musician Brandon Williams makes sad, blurry, pretty music under the name Chastity, and he’ll release a new self-titled album next month. We already posted the two-song punch of “Jaw Locked” and “Summer All Over Again.” Today, he follows it with the new track “Offing.”

Philthy Phil Collins, Genesis singer/drummer and ’80s pop overlord, has understandably been looking backward in recent years. The 73-year-old Collins has retired and unretired a few times in recent years, and he played what appears to be the final Genesis show two years ago. Lately, Collins has been focused on reissuing his older music; the 30th-anniversary box-set edition of Both Sides arrives next month. But now, for the first time in a long time, Phil Collins is reportedly working on some new music.

It feels like every Stereogum post today is either about a solo record from a prominent band member or about a band reuniting. File this one in the latter category. Pennsylvania post-hardcore greats Balance And Composure are back together after their 2019 breakup, and they’re getting ready to release with you in spirit, the new LP that they recorded with producer Will Yip. We’ve already posted their early singles “cross to bear,” “sorrow machine,” and “believe the hype.” Today, they’ve got a new one.

British power-poppers Haircut One Hundred (or, if you prefer, Haircut 100) started in 1980, and they released a few perfectly crafted hits, but they didn’t last long. During the recording of their 1984 sophomore album Paint And Paint, the band kicked out frontman Nick Heyward, and they broke up soon after. Haircut One Hundred have reunited a few times over the years. Right now, they’re touring the US with fellow new wave greats Howard Jones and ABC; it’s their first American tour in more than 40 years. Now, Haircut One Hundred are planning a new album, as well.

Eight years ago, the extremely sick Georgia fuzz-metal band Kylesa announced an “indefinite hiatus.” Now, that hiatus is over. The great metal-centric Netherlands festival Roadburn has announced the first few acts for next year’s edition, and it’ll feature Kylesa, as well as Chat Pile and Altın Gün. In addition, Kylesa say that they’ll celebrate their 25th anniversary with “a limited number of special shows next year.”

The trans-Atlantic classic rock crew Foreigner sold about one bajillion records in the ’80s and ’90s without getting much critical respect. This year, however, Foreigner are being inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame — possibly thanks to a splashy for-your-consideration campaign from Mark Ronson, stepson of longtime Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones. Now, Foreigner are celebrating that induction by announcing a brand-new greatest-hits collection and sharing a new song written by the band’s classic-era co-leaders, Jones and singer Lou Gramm, as well as producer Marti Frederiksen.