The filter bank is what makes the Spectravox unique in Moog’s lineup of midrange semi-modular instruments. It’s a dynamic 10-band filter bank with high- and low-pass filters, plus eight bandpass filters in between. These can be used to simply shape incoming audio like an elaborate EQ. But the bands can also be shifted around with the aid of an LFO for creating phaser- and wah-like effects. If you really crank stuff it can even give you pseudo-ring modulation. Is spending $599 on a desktop synthesizer a little overkill just to play some funk guitar? Absolutely. But it’s a fun little trick the Spectravox has in its back pocket.
The filter bank can also be used to produce sound all on its own if you connect a midi controller or sequencer with CV (control voltage) output. If you turn up the resonance of the filter and patch the EG (envelope generator) to the carrier input, then connect the pitch output of the controller to the spectral shift and the gate to the trigger input, then you can coax interesting marimba-like tones out of the Spectravox without any additional audio input.
The Synth
Photograph: Terrence O’Brien
Of course part of the requirement for a vocoder is a carrier signal, in this case a synthesizer. The Spectravox includes an incredibly simple but pretty decent-sounding single-oscillator monophonic synth. It has square and sawtooth options, with variable pulse width on the square. There is also a noise source that you can dial in to dirty up the single oscillator, but it goes from nonexistent to overpowering pretty quickly, and I generally just left it off.
The synth can be combined with a keyboard or sequencer which has CV output and is played like any other synth. Or, you can pair it with some external effects to create risers, drones, and other sound effects. Similar to using the Spectravox as a phaser though, while it’s a nice trick, you don’t need to spend $600 to get a basic monophonic synth. This is a nice perk but not necessarily a reason for it to jump to the top of your shopping list.
Where Spectravox starts to get interesting as a synthesizer is when you start combining all of its various elements in slightly unexpected ways. For instance if, instead of vocals you ran a drum loop into the program input, it would impart its rhythmic ebb and flow to the internal synth, or whatever you were feeding into the carrier.
Better Together
Photograph: Terrence O’Brien
I think the Spectravox really shows its versatility when you use it as a middleman between two different sources of audio. For one, a monophonic vocoder can feel a little thin. But if you plug another synth into the carrier, you can sing in gorgeous polyphonic synth chords. If I wanted to get some rich vocoder action going I would just plug my Korg Minilogue XD into the carrier input. And using things like drum loops to add rhythmic interest to other synths or even my guitar was always a blast. In fact, one of my favorite tricks was feeding a drum machine into the program input, my guitar (through an amp sim pedal first) into the carrier, and then feeding the output of the Spectravox through some chorus and reverb. The result is something that doesn’t sound exactly like a synth or exactly like a guitar. I don’t know how often I’d use such a strange effect, but I’m dying to put it to the test on a guitar solo.
It’s this sort of experimentation that makes the Spectravox so compelling and fun. In fact, it’s what keeps me coming back to Moog’s line of desktop semi-modular synths like the Subharmonicon (8/10, WIRED Recommends) and the DFAM. I love the sound of a good Mini Moog as much as anyone else, but these all offer some new experimental take on Moog’s legacy. My one major complaint about the Spectravox is that it is noisy. I had to cut a lot of the high end to get it to be usable on recordings.
If you’re in the market for a vocoder you should probably skip the Spectravox. There are better and cheaper options for just traditional vocoding, like a MicroKorg ($429) or Arturia’s MicroFreak ($359). But if you want something more playful—something that can be a vocoder if you need it to be but is really more of a sonic playground—the Moog Spectravox might well be worth the $599.
Tom Waits has shared a previously unreleased version of “Get Behind the Mule.” The song, which originally appeared on his Grammy-winning 1999 studio album Mule Variations, is coming out to ring in the LP’s 25th anniversary. Give “Get Behind the Mule (Spiritual)” a listen below.
“Definitely part of the original idea was to do something somewhere between surreal and rural,” Waits said in a statement. “We call it surrural. That’s what these songs are: surrural. There’s an element of something old about them, and yet it’s kind of disorienting…”
The drought of new music from Waits continues onwards, as is now tradition for the eccentric musician. The same year that he released his most recent album, 2011’s Bad as Me, Waits was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Since then, however, Waits has continued his lifelong acting career in feature films such as Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza, the Coen brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths.
Last year, Waits made a rare public appearance to present Nicolas Cage with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the SFFilm Awards to honor his Rumble Fish co-star. He also penned a similarly uncommon public statement just a week before, honoring the late Pogues frontman Shane Macgowan. Waits’ next project is a starring role in Jim Jarmusch’s upcoming movie Father Mother Sister Brother.
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Apple’s AirPods Pro must be feeling pretty bigheaded these days. Every year we see dozens of new earbuds aiming to model Apple’s distinctive design, with even the latest revamp of Samsung’s Galaxy Buds joining the party.
Looks aside, most models that come across my desk don’t attempt to directly compete with the AirPods Pro’s high-end performance or breezy iOS usability. Instead, buds like OnePlus’s new Nord Buds 3 Pro go the other way, heavily undercutting Apple’s top buds on price while offering solid baseline performance and features.
There’s nothing like the real thing, especially if you want earbuds that cater to all things Apple. For those on a tighter budget, the latest Nord Buds Pro serve up a comfy fit, extras like multipoint connection and decent noise canceling, and clear, punchy sound for well under $100.
Familiar Form
The Nord Buds 3 Pro’s most stand-out trait may be their exorbitantly long yet unmemorable name. No joke, I’ve had to look up the order of this word salad nearly every time I write it.
Their design recalls the AirPods Pro and their many knockoffs, of course, but it’s particularly similar to a pair I recently reviewed from Soundpeats, the Air4 Pro (7/10, WIRED Recommends), right down to their rounded and speckled charging cases. Both pairs have a budget flair with large swaps of shiny plastic throughout, though the Nord Buds’ more compact stems make them marginally easier to wield and wear.
Photograph: Ryan Waniata
Their weight of 4.4 grams per bud is slightly heavier than the Air4 Pro, but still nearly a gram lighter than the AirPods Pro, which combines with their ergonomic design to do a disappearing act in your ears. Like a lot of budget pairs, they only provide three ear tip sizes, but the default pair worked fine for me, providing a stable fit and multiple hours of comfort.
The buds offer snappy and stable device connection over Bluetooth 5.4, often pairing with my iPhone before I pulled it out of my pocket, and Android users get easy one-touch initial pairing with Google Fast Pair+. Multipoint connection is similarly seamless, letting you pair the buds to a phone and a laptop simultaneously to conveniently swap between the two. To initiate, simply hold down the button on the case’s bottom, no app required.
You will want to download the OnePlus app (bizarrely named “Hey Melody”) before getting too far along because the Nord 3 Pro’s play/pause command is turned off by default. I assume this is to prevent unwanted taps while adjusting the buds, but it’s still a baffling default setting. The buds do offer sensors to automatically pause or play audio when you pull one out, something even my favorite budget buds, Soundcore’s Space A40 (8/10, WIRED Recommends), omit. You can easily assign the play/pause control in the app, alongside volume, ambient audio, and song skip commands for a well-rounded experience via generally responsive touch sensors.
Plugging in the soundbar through HDMI (it features eARC) to any modern TV means that you can immediately use the TV remote to control audio volume, but you will want to use the remote on the soundbar itself (unless you own an LG TV), to change settings. It does also support things like Tidal Connect Dolby Vision pass-through, which makes it a great bar to stream music to, or plug your disc player in for full-bitrate video (and audio).
Pressing Play
I had the pleasure of reviewing this system alongside LG’s new C4 OLED, which can add even more channels to the mix, contributing its own TV speakers to boost the center channel and make it sound a bit more like the voices are coming directly from the image.
The huge array of speakers and the volume they can produce means you really get a sense of scale when scenes change, or when you go from one type of thing to another. When playing modern classics like Dune and Mad Max: Fury Road, you feel the immensity of the scenes in the audio profile that the bar, subwoofer, and satellite speakers convey. When my wife switches back over to RuPaul’s Drag Race, I’m immediately sucked back into what’s happening onscreen, with more traditional three-channel TV audio that’s absorbing and dynamic, but much smaller-feeling in your space.
Photograph: Parker Hall
You can adjust sound modes on the bar, but I tend to err on the side of standard settings except when watching a film, where I experimented (and occasionally settled on) the Cinema mode, which passes a bit more sound to the surround and height channels, near as I can tell.
Standard mode essentially listens to whatever the TV is telling it to do, which makes it play super nice with LG’s AI processing inside late-model TVs. With this and the C4, it’s essentially a “turn on and forget it’s there” vibe, which is what I prefer in my home theater systems. There is nothing worse than having to open cabinets and hit buttons and wait for things to turn on and see each other. It really can’t be overstated how well it worked (and how rare an experience this is, oddly, in A/V land).
The direct competitor to this model is Samsung’s Q990D ($1,700), which, I have to admit, I prefer in some ways. The audio profile of the LG can be a bit thinner and more bright than Samsung’s, and I find that Samsung’s model bounces sound off the walls a bit better for a wider soundstage. That said, given how well the S95TR integrates with late-model LG TVs, I’d probably choose this over the Samsung bar if I was buying the LG TV, and likewise buy the Samsung bar if I was buying a Samsung TV.
As far as simple (and, let’s be honest, not heinously expensive) ways to outfit a room with a pretty solid approximation of what they’d experience in an A/V nerd’s cave, I think LG has really nailed it here. If I was buying a C4 and didn’t have a proper sound system to pair it with, I’d really be looking at this.
Regional Justice Center, the powerviolence band led by Militarie Gun’s Ian Shelton, have returned with some big changes and a new album. Freedom, Sweet Freedom is due out September 20 via Closed Casket Activities, and joining Shelton in the band are his younger brother, Max, and Taylor Young of Twitching Tongues and Nails. Listen to two new songs from the record, “Freedom,” led by Ian Shelton, and “Take a Step Away,” sung by Max Shelton, below.
Ian Shelton started Regional Justice Center in 2016, shortly after Max was incarcerated, as a way to process his worries for his brother, the prison industrial complex, and its institutional degradation. While Max spoke on previous albums—2018’s World of Inconvenience and 2021’s Crime and Punishment—via recorded phone calls from prison, Freedom, Sweet Freedom is the first album with the Sheltons writing, performing, and recording together in person.
“Eight years ago to the day, I woke up in county jail,” explained Max Shelton, who was released from custody in 2022. “I was confused, I had zero recollection of what events took place to land me there, and I didn’t know how long I’d be gone or when I’d be able to see and hug my family again. To be able to reclaim these dates and put something positive and hopeful in place of the trauma and anxiety that had always been wrapped around it all—that is the most beautiful full circle moment to me. Even a lotus can grow in mud. Freedom, sweet freedom.”
Ian Shelton added: “When Max went away, I started RJC as a way of unpacking everything that was happening, so he’s been a defining part of the band from the start—but the plan was always for him to be even more involved when he got out. I never knew exactly what that would mean until we started making this album and it became clear: he’s the singer of the band. RJC has always been about Max’s story and I’m happy for him to finally be able to tell it with his own voice.”
Bright Eyes have announced a lengthy 2025 tour, and they’re back with another new song from their upcoming album Five Dice, All Threes. “Rainbow Overpass” is a horn-fueled single featuring gang vocals by the So So Glos’ Alex Orange Drink. Give it a listen below.
Conor Oberst elaborated on that collaboration at the heart of “Rainbow Overpass” in a statement, saying, “[Alex is] kinda like my hype man, getting a little Beastie Boys on the shit! They grew up on punk rock and the Beasties, so there are a lot of little bursts of other voices. I like that. It creates energy. Sometimes music can feel flat until you get into a live situation, when there’s adrenaline and raw energy. Instead of working in reverse, where that happens as we tour, I was trying to get some of that energy onto the record.”
Bright Eyes already had a few tour dates on the book for this fall in the U.S. and Europe, but now they’re expanding that run with a long list of concerts that keeps them on the road well into 2025. The new dates begin in Phoenix, Arizona on January 16 and will last on through April 26 when Bright Eyes perform in West Des Moines, Iowa. See their full list of tour dates below.
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Bright Eyes: North American Tour
Bright Eyes:
09-19 Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel 09-21 Chicago, IL – Riot Fest 09-22 Omaha, NE – Steelhouse Omaha 10-11 Oakland, CA – Fox Theater 10-12 Los Angeles, CA – The Bellwether 10-13 Las Vegas, NV – Best Friends Forever Fest 11-10 Wolverhampton, England – Wulfrun Hall 11-11 London, England – O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire 11-12 Nijmegen, Netherlands – Doornroosje 11-13 Ghent, Belgium – Ha Concerts 11-14 Cologne, Germany – Carlswerk Victoria 11-15 Berlin, Germany – Tempodrom 11-16 Weissenhäuser Strand, Germany – Rollingstone Beach 11-18 Stockholm, Sweden – Fållan 11-19 Oslo, Norway – Parkteatret Scene 01-16 Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren 01-18 – Del Mar, CA – The Sound 01-19 – Santa Ana, CA – The Observatory 01-20 – Sacramento, CA – Ace of Spades 01-21 – Eugene, OR – McDonald Theatre 01-23 – Vancouver, British Columbia – Commodore Ballroom 01-24 – Seattle, WA – Paramount Theatre 01-25 – Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom 01-26 – Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom 02-26 – Fayetteville, AR – George’s Majestic Lounge 02-27 – Austin, TX – ACL Live at the Moody Theater 02-28 – Dallas, TX – The Factory in Deep Ellum 03-01 – San Antonio, TX – Aztec Theater 03-02 – Baton Rouge, LA – Chelsea’s Live 03-03 – Jacksonville, FL – Florida Theatre 03-05 – St. Petersburg, FL – Jannus Live 03-07 – Orlando, FL – The Beacham Theater 03-08 – Atlanta, GA – Tabernacle 03-09 – Knoxville, TN – The Mill & Mine 03-10 – Richmond, VA – The National 03-13 – Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel 03-14 – Pelham, TN – The Caverns 03-17 – Memphis, TN – Minglewood Hall 03-18 – Little Rock, AR – The Hall 03-20 – Tulsa, OK – Cain’s Ballroom 03-21 – Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theater 03-22 – St. Louis, MO – The Pageant 04-03 – Madison, WI – The Sylvee 04-04 – Saint Paul, MN – Palace Theatre 04-08 – Detroit, MI – Royal Oak Music Theatre 04-09 – Cleveland, OH – Agora Theatre 04-10 – Toronto, ON – History 04-11 – Buffalo, NY – Buffalo Riverworks 04-13 – Portland, ME – State Theatre 04-17 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount 04-18 – Boston, MA – House of Blues 04-19 – Philadelphia, PA – The Met Philadelphia 04-20 – Washington, D.C. – The Anthem 04-22 – Pittsburgh, PA – Roxian Theatre 04-23 – Newport, KY – MegaCorp Pavilion 04-24 – Louisville, KY – Old Forester’s Paristown Hall 04-25 – Indianapolis, IN – Egyptian Room at Old National Centre 04-26 – West Des Moines, IA – Val Air Ballroom
Aggro Dr1ft is the first feature film that AraabMuzik has scored. The movie stars Travis Scott, and it premiered last year at the 80th Venice International Film Festival; it’s available online now at the Edglrd website.
“Collaborating with Harmony is always a vibe,” AraabMuzik said in a statement. “We both have our own unique sound and vision, and, together, we push the boundaries of what’s possible in music and film.”
Aggro Dr1ft (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is released via Milan Records. The album follows AraabMuzik’s December 2023 Gift Wrap, Vol. 2 EP.
The next Harmony Korine movie, Baby Invasion, will debut at the 81st Venice International Film Festival later this summer. The new film is scored by Burial.
Sports cars tend to be less common, and more aspirational, than SUVs or people-carriers. Headphones with planar magnetic drivers tend to be less common, and more aspirational, than headphones with dynamic drivers. In some ways, the reasons for this are very similar. Planar magnetic drivers, which use thin pieces of metal held between magnets—are a bit like sports cars: They’re designed for uncompromised performance. Like sports cars, they’re also trickier, more expensive, and more time-consuming to produce. They tend to make the headphones that feature them bigger and bulkier than the dynamic driver alternative, which is the only place where my clever sports car/SUV analogy rolls into a wall.
The broad point still stands. Planar magnetic drivers tend to be the preserve of specialist brands and tend to be fitted to headphones costing a great deal more than those alternative designs that feature dynamic drivers. But no one, it seems, has mentioned any of this to Edifier.
Edifier was established in Beijing in 1996 and hit the ground running where loudspeakers and headphones are concerned. By 2012 it had wholly acquired the venerated Japanese headphone brand Stax, which, in terms of prestige, is a bit like the time Fiat acquired Ferrari. (I promise, this will be the last of my auto industry comparisons.) Now Edifier has launched a new pair of wireless over-ear planar magnetic headphones called the Stax Spirit S5 that are no bigger or more expensive than some of the leading dynamic driver designs. They’re fantastic headphones that bring music and films to life better than dynamic drivers can, and they are well worth considering for audiophiles who may otherwise have purchased wired headphones.
That’s the Spirit
The Stax Spirit S5 are not, it’s worth noting, Edifier’s first affordable planar magnetic headphones to go wireless. Where pricing and specs are concerned, with one notable exception, it’s hard to dispute that they’re the company’s most ambitious.
So yes, planar magnetic drivers: Unlike the far more common dynamic driver alternative, which produce sound via a conical diaphragm driven by a voice coil within a magnetic field, planar magnetic drivers use a tremendously thin, flat diaphragm with implanted wires. It’s suspended in a gap between two magnets that vibrate the diaphragm to produce sound. The magnets need to be big enough to cover the entire surface area of the diaphragm, which is why this type of design tends to be bigger and heavier than the dynamic alternative. It’s a more power-hungry arrangement too.
Photograph: Simon Lucas
In the case of the Stax Spirit S5, the diaphragm is a mere 2 microns thick and is embedded with the second generation of Edifier’s “EqualMass” wiring. By connecting different numbers of wires of the same width in a symmetrical structure, uniform driving force can be achieved; the diaphragm will move back and forth with the same momentum across its entire surface, keeping distortion to a bare minimum.
The esoteric nature of their drivers aside, the Edifier Stax Spirit S5 feature most of what the market tends to demand at the price. They use Bluetooth 5.4 for wireless connectivity, and thanks to the Qualcomm QCC5181 SoC they have codec support up to and including LHDC, LDAC, and aptX Lossless. With an appropriate source of music, they can deliver a lossless 16-bit/44.1-kHz resolution, as well as “lossy” 24-bit/96-kHz. AptX Voice is onboard in an effort to deliver optimal call quality, and multipoint connectivity is available for the multitaskers among us.
Battery life is a very impressive 80 hours from a single charge, and if you’re negligent enough to run out of power, a 15-minute pit stop will hold you for another whopping 13 hours. If you’ve an Android device running Marshmallow or newer, Google Fast Pair is available.
The USB-C socket on the right ear cup can be used for data transfer as well as charging the battery, and there’s a 3.5-mm input on the left ear cup for the same hard-wired purpose. Edifier provides both cables in the S5 packaging.
Two Shell have enlisted Sugababes for a new song, “Round,” a rework of the pop trio’s 2002 hit “Round Round.” The band’s original (and current) lineup of Mutya, Keisha, and Siobhan re-recorded their vocals for Two Shell’s track, which the dance duo debuted back in 2022 in a Hessle Audio guest mix. Listen to “Round” below.
For years, Maxwell has been performingAl Green’s 1972 song “Simply Beautiful” live. He’s now released a studio recording of the track. Hear Maxwell’s “Simply Beautiful” below; scroll down for a video about the making of the cover.
Maxwell made “Simply Beautiful” with producers Hod David and Shedrick Mitchell. “We had the best of the best come out to be a part of the recording, from the horns to the strings to the vocalists,” the singer remarked in a press statement. “They sound amazing. This is really magical.”
After years of remixes and singles, the Blessed Madonna has announced her first solo studio album. The new album, Godspeed, is out on October 11 via Warner. Guests on the 24-track project include Kylie Minogue, Jamie Principle, and Clementine Douglas. Below, listen to the Blessed Madonna and DJ E-Clyps’ new song “Godspeed.”
In a press release, the Blessed Madonna stated, “Godspeed: The word marks the beginning of a journey and sometimes the end of one. After nearly a year in lockdown, when I signed the paperwork and knew that I was going to be allowed to make this album, I called my dad in Kentucky to tell him the good news. He could not contain his pride and in a way his relief. I was going to be OK. He says it better than I do at the beginning of the record. I lost him suddenly just weeks before the first session, but his voice will live in Godspeed forever and make a million more journeys to everyone who hears it.”
Hotline TNT have announced a fall tour of the U.S. and released a new remix EP to coincide with the news. Dubbed Somersault, it features remixes of a handful of Cartwheel songs by DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ, They Are Gutting a Body of Water, Poisonfrog, Downstairs J, and Car Culture. It’s out now via Third Man. Give it a listen below.
“I had no idea what to expect when we sent the stems out to get the Cartwheel tracks remixed, and all five of these visions messed with my head,” says bandleader Will Anderson of the remix EP. “When the artists asked me what BPM the song was at or how much headroom to leave in the mix, I didn’t know how to answer and probably gazed upon them with a one thousand yard stare as I recalled the horrors of my GarageBand project files, leaving them to their own devices to figure it out.”
Hotline TNT have been on the road for much of 2024—including a memorablestop at Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago—and will keep that momentum going with these new dates. After finishing a European leg in August, the band will return for another U.S. run that extends throughout the fall. That begins on September 29 in Philadelphia and currently ends in Eau Claire, Wisconsin on October 18. Find their complete list of tour dates below.
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Hotline TNT: Fall 2024 Tour
Hotline TNT:
07-31 Freiburg, Germany – Slow Club 08-01 Darmstadt, Germany – Oetinger Villa 08-02 Genk, Belgium – AFF Festival 08-04 Katowice, Poland – OFF Festival 08-07 Bergen, Norway – Perfect Sounds Forever 08-09 Gothenburg, Sweden – Way Out West 08-11 Luxembourg, Luxembourg – Congés Annulés 08-13 Brighton, England – Dust 08-14 Leeds, England – Brudenell Social Club 08-15 Devon, England – Outside Devon 08-16 Brecon Beacons, Wales – Green Man Festival 08-17 Coura, Portugal – Parades de Coura 09-28 Philadelphia, PA – First Unitarian Church * 09-29 Somerville, MA – Crystal Ballroom * 09-30 Montreal, Quebec – Bar “Le Ritz” PDB * 10-01 Toronto, Ontario – Great Hall * 10-03 Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg * 10-04 Washington, D.C. – Union Stage * 10-05 Millvale, PA – The Funhouse at Mr. Smalls * 10-06 Lakewood, OH – Mahall’s * 10-07 Indianapolis, IN – Hoosier Dome * 10-09 Saint Paul, MN – Turf Club * 10-11 Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle * 10-12 Milwaukee, WI – Cactus Club * 10-13 Green Bay, WI – The Tarlton Theatre * 10-18 Eau Claire, WI – Stone’s Throw
Composer and multi-instrumentalist Yasmin Williams has announced her new album, Acadia, which arrives October 4 via Nonesuch—marking Williams’ debut on the label. Today, Williams reveals lead single “Virga,” which features guest vocals from indie-folk outfit Darlingside. Hear that below, and scroll down for the album art and tracklist.
Acadia consists of nine, largely instrumental songs, all written and produced by Williams. She also plays a host of instruments on the record: guitar, banjo, calabash drum, kora, and even tap shoes. Williams enlisted contributions from saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, singer Aoife O’Donovan, rhythm bones player Dom Flemons, and more.
“Acadia has several meanings,” Williams noted in a press release. She continued:
A place of rural peace and pastoral poetry (Italian), a refuge or idyllic place, (Greek and Italian), fertile land (Mi’kmaq), a place of plenty (French). All of this relates to the ethos of this album. The songs are seeds I planted, and the seeds grew into the album, Acadia: a place of peace, a place where creativity can blossom, a place where everyone can fit in together and collaborate effectively, a place where the fruits of my own labor in music can fully flourish without judgment or prejudice. One of my visions for this record was to expand the potential for current folk music to encourage collaboration across various genres. Blurring those somewhat arbitrary lines has been a natural tendency for me since I started writing music at twelve years old and Acadia is a full circle moment.
Of the lead single “Virga,” Williams added: “A virga is a meteorological phenomenon where streaks of rain hang from a cloud and evaporate before reaching the ground. I related this sentiment to how it feels for me to be an artist in an industry that doesn’t seem to always value art and reflection. I eventually realized that I needed to learn how to thrive ‘in virga,’ so to speak. To learn to be okay with feeling slightly suspended in time, with my hopes and dreams dangling in an environment I have no control over, never fully having my feet planted on the ground.”
New Bluetooth earbuds are arriving nearly every week nowadays, and while all of that variety can be good for your wallet, deciding which pair is best can also be tricky. After considering things like active noise cancellation (ANC), sound quality and design, the next deliberation is over unique features that big companies like Sony, Bose, Apple and Samsung put in their products. I test dozens of sets of earbuds a year for Engadget, constantly pitting new models against the previous best across all price ranges to keep this list of the best true wireless earbuds up to date. This guide explains why my current selections for the best wireless earbuds made the cut, and offers some shopping advice in terms of everything you need to know before choosing the best true wireless earbuds for your needs.
Battery life: 8 hours, up to 24 hours with charging case | Water resistance: IPX4 | Noise cancellation: Yes | Multipoint: Yes
With the WF-1000XM5 flagship earbuds, Sony improves its already formidable mix of great sound, effective ANC and handy features. These earbuds are undoubtedly the company’s best and most comfortable design of its 1000X models so far, which was one of the few remaining riddles Sony needed to solve. Sony still manages to pack in more features than anyone else too, including trademark ones like adaptive sound and Speak-to-Chat. Add in upgraded drivers, new chips, eight hours of battery life and significant improvements to sound quality and these are Sony’s best earbuds yet. But all of the advancements come at a cost: these are also Sony’s most expensive set of wireless earbuds in the 1000X lineup.
Battery life: 6 hours, up to 30 hours with charging case | Water resistance: IPX4 | Noise cancellation: Yes | Multipoint: Yes
Apple’s second-generation AirPods Pro are a huge improvement over the previous models. These buds have improved sound quality and active noise cancellation, while maintaining all of the conveniences that make AirPods the best earbud option for iPhone, iOS and Mac. When we reviewed them, we found the most impressive feature to be transparency mode, which is more natural sounding than any other earbuds by a mile. You can leave these in during a conversation and it’s like you’re not even wearing them. Of course, fast pairing, hands-free Siri, spatial audio, good battery life, and now, a USB-C charging case that can also power up wirelessly will also come in handy.
Battery life: 11 hours, up to 31 hours with charging case | Water resistance: IPX4 | Noise cancellation: Yes | Multipoint: Yes
Google has hit its stride when it comes to true wireless earbuds. Every new model the company introduces is an improvement after its first attempt failed to impress. With the Pixel Buds Pro, Google offers deep, punchy bass, solid ANC performance, reliable touch controls and wireless charging, all in an IPX4-rated package that will be great for Android users. Plus, there are added convenience features for Android and Pixel devices including Google Translate Conversation Mode.
Battery life: 6 hours, up to 26 hours with charging case | Water resistance: IP57 | Noise cancellation: Yes | Multipoint: Yes
The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro borrow heavily from Apple’s AirPods Pro in both looks and features. However, Samsung did well to make things like Adaptive ANC and voice commands work well. Some features like Voice Detect could still use some fine tuning, but there’s a lot to like here beyond the basic functionality.
The truly surprising thing about the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro is the sound quality. There is some thick, boomy bass when you need it with plenty of crisp detail to complement it. This model really shines when you pair it with a Samsung device to unlock 24-bit HiFi streaming. There’s also a natural-sounding transparency mode that keeps you from feeling shouty during calls.
Battery life: 10 hours, up to 50 hours with charging case | Water resistance: IPX4 | Noise cancellation: Yes | Multipoint: Yes
The Anker Soundcore Space A40 offer the kind of features you’d expect from wireless earbuds that cost twice as much: ANC, multi-device pairing, wireless charging, IPX4 water resistance, a transparency mode, eight to ten hours of battery life and LDAC support. When we tested them, we found their warm sound to be pleasing right out of the box, but Anker’s companion app makes it easy to customize the EQ curve if needed. And while their ANC isn’t quite as effective at reducing background noise as our top picks, it’s still effective for a noisy office or long flight. For $80 or so, this is a superb value. – Jeff Dunn, Senior Commerce Writer
Battery life: 6 hours, up to 24 hours with charging case | Water resistance: IPX4 | Noise cancellation: Yes | Multipoint: Yes
Since the company introduced the first model, Bose’s QuietComfort Earbuds have consistently provided the best noise cancellation out of all the wireless buds we’ve tested. It’s not surprising that its most-recent version, the QC Ultra Earbuds, only improved in ANC performance. However, the bigger story here is that Bose finally has the audio chops to compete with the best earbuds thanks to its new Immersive Audio tech. The feature brings spatial audio to all by not requiring specially-made content to use it. Rather than employ music and movies where the sound is coming from all directions, QC Ultra Earbuds put you in the middle of the acoustic “sweet spot” by relying heavily on virtualization. A dedicated gesture for volume controls, better-than-advertised battery life and customization settings round out the spec sheet.
Pros
Stellar ANC
Spatial audio doesn’t require special content
Upgrades with no price increase
Cons
Earbuds are still big
Immersive Audio significantly impacts battery life
Battery life: 7 hours, up to 30 hours with charging case | Water resistance: IP54 | Noise cancellation: Yes | Multipoint: Yes
Once again, Sennheiser has retained the top spot on this list in terms of pure sound quality. Sure, you’ll find better ANC performance from Bose and a longer list of features from Sony. But the Momentum True Wireless 4 has great detail and clarity. It delivers warm, inviting sound that is enjoyable to listen to for hours on end and even though the bass is boomy when it needs to be, it never overpowers. Those pairing to Android devices can enjoy high-res audio thanks to compatibility with Snapdragon Sound, while the iPhone faithful will get the best experience with Apple Music – especially on Dolby Atmos tracks.
Battery life: 6 hours, up to 24 hours with charging case | Water resistance: IPX4 | Noise cancellation: Yes | Multipoint: Yes
Most of the best AirPods features in a set of workout earbuds? That’s the Beats Fit Pro. Thanks to Apple’s H1 chip, these buds offer one-touch quick pairing, hands-free Siri and Find My tools. They’ll also allow you to use Audio Sharing with an Apple device and another set of AirPods or Beats wireless headphones for tandem listening or viewing. Balanced and punchy bass will keep the energy up during workouts while good noise cancellation, an IPX4 rating and comfy silicone ear tips make these a solid option outside of the gym too. And there’s plenty of support for Android devices, so these aren’t just a good buy for iOS users either.
Pros
Comfortable design
Good ANC
H1 chip offers quick pairing and switching between Apple devices
Battery life: 6 hours, up to 20 hours with charging case | Water resistance: IPX4 | Noise cancellation: Yes | Multipoint: Yes
One of the biggest surprises this year wasn’t Sony’s unique open-wear LinkBuds, it was the more mainstream follow-up. With the LinkBuds S, the company debuted a more traditionally designed pair of earbuds akin to its premium WF-1000XM4, only this model is much smaller and lighter which leads to a much more comfy fit. These tiny wireless earbuds muster some punch when it comes to sound quality too and support for high-res listening (LDAC and DSEE Extreme) are both onboard. Capable ANC lends a hand with environmental noise and transparency mode can keep you tuned in when needed. What’s more, handy Speak-to-Chat is here and Adaptive Sound Control can automatically change settings based on activity or location. That’s a lot of premium features at a mid-range price.
When it comes to shopping for earbuds, the first thing to consider is design or wear style. Do you prefer a semi-open fit like AirPods or do you want something that completely closes off your ears? If you’re shopping for earbuds with active noise cancellation, you’ll want the latter, but a case can be made for the former if you want to wear them all day or frequent places where you need to be tuned in to the ambient sounds. The overall shape of earbuds can determine whether you get a comfortable fit, so can the size and weight, so you’ll want to consider all that before deciding. And remember: audio companies aren’t perfect, so despite lots of research, the earbud shape they decided on may not fit you well. Don’t be afraid to return ill-fitting earbuds for something that’s more comfortable.
As wireless earbuds have become the norm, they’re now more reliable for basic things like consistent Bluetooth connectivity. Companies are still in a race to pack as much as they can into increasingly smaller designs. This typically means a longer list of features on the more premium sets of earbuds with basic functionality on the cheapest models. Carefully consider what you can’t live without when selecting your next earbuds, and make sure key items like automatic pausing and multipoint connectivity are on the spec sheet. You’ll also want to investigate the volume controls as you’ll often have to sacrifice access to something else to make that adjustment via on-board taps or swipes.
When it comes to battery life, the average set of earbuds lasts about five hours on a single charge. You can find sets that last longer, but this is likely enough to get you through a work day if you’re docking the buds during lunch or the occasional meeting. You’ll want to check on how many extra charges are available via the case and if it supports wireless charging.
Companies will also make lofty claims about call quality on wireless earbuds. Despite lots of promises, the reality is most earbuds still leave you sounding like you’re on speakerphone. There are some sets that deliver, but don’t get your hopes up unless reviews confirm the claims.
Sound can be subjective, so we recommend trying before you buy if at all possible. We understand this isn’t easy at a time when we’re doing most of our shopping online. But trying on a set of earbuds and listening to them for a few minutes can save you from an expensive case of buyer’s remorse. If a store doesn’t allow a quick demo, most retailers have return policies that will let you take earbuds back you don’t like. Of course, you have to be willing to temporarily part with funds in order to do this.
We also recommend paying attention to things like Spatial Audio, Dolby Atmos, 360 Reality Audio and other immersive formats. Not all earbuds support them, so you’ll want to make sure a perspective pair does if that sort of thing excites you.
How we test wireless Bluetooth earbuds
The primary way we test earbuds is to wear them as much as possible. We prefer to do this over a one- to two-week period, but sometimes embargoes don’t allow it. During this time, we listen to a mix of music and podcasts, while also using the earbuds to take both voice and video calls. Since battery life for earbuds is typically less than a full day, we drain the battery with looping music and the volume set at a comfortable level (usually around 75 percent).
To judge audio quality, we listen to a range of genres, noting any differences in the sound profile across the styles. We also test at both low and high volumes to check for consistency in the tuning. To assess call quality, we’ll record audio samples with the earbuds’ microphones as well as have third parties call us.
When it comes to features, we do a thorough review of companion apps, testing each feature as we work through the software. Any holdovers from previous models are double checked for improvements or regression. If the earbuds we’re testing are an updated version of a previous model, we’ll spend time getting reacquainted with the older buds. Ditto for the closest competition for each new set of earbuds that we review.
Other wireless Bluetooth earbuds we tested
Samsung Galaxy Buds 3
The Galaxy Buds 3 combine ANC with an open-type design, which renders the noise-blocking abilities of the earbuds mostly useless. Still, there’s great low-end tone with ample bass when a track demands it. There are also lots of handy features, most of which require a Samsung phone. But at this price, there are better options from Google, Beats and Sony
Sennheiser Momentum Sport
I really like the overall shape of the Momentum Sport earbuds. They’re more comfortable than the Momentum True Wireless 4 and fit in my ears better. What’s more, the body temperature and heart rate sensors work well, sending those stats to a variety of apps. However, that sport-tracking feature works best with Polar’s app and devices, so there’s that consideration. Also, the audio quality and ANC performance isn’t as good as the MTW4, and these earbuds are pricey.
Beats Solo Buds
There’s a lot to like about the Solo Buds for $80. For me, the primary perk is they’re very comfortable to wear for long periods of time thanks to some thoughtful design considerations. You only get the basics here in terms of features and, as expected, the overall sound quality isn’t as good as the pricier models in the Beats lineup. You will get 18 hours of battery life though, since the company nixed the battery in the case and beefed up the listening time in the buds themselves.
Bose Ultra Open Earbuds
Bose created something very unique for this set of earbuds that allows you to stay in-tune with the world while listening to audio content. The clip-on design is very comfortable, but sound quality suffers due to the open-type fit, especially when it comes to bass and spatial audio.
Audio-Technica ATH-TWX7
These stick buds have a compact design that’s comfortable to wear and the warm sound profile is great at times. However, overall audio performance is inconsistent and there’s no automatic pausing.
Master & Dynamic MW09
Retooled audio, better ambient sound mode and reliable multipoint Bluetooth are the best things the MW09 has to offer. They’re expensive though, and you can find better ANC performance elsewhere.
Beats Studio Buds +
Updates to sound, ANC and battery life top the spec sheet here, and the new clear color option has some throwback energy I love. But there are some basic features missing, and Beats doesn’t come close to Apple’s natural audio quality in transparency mode.
JBL Tour Pro 2
These earbuds are feature-packed, including a touchscreen “smart case.” They aren’t the most consistent in terms of overall performance though, and I’m not convinced that case provides a lot of utility just yet.
Wireless earbud FAQs
What is considered good battery life for true wireless earbuds?
Most wireless earbuds will last five hours on a single charge, at the least. You can find some pairs that have even better battery life, lasting between six and eight hours before they need more juice. All of the best wireless earbuds come with a charging case, which will provide additional hours of battery life — but you’ll have to return each bud to the case in order to charge them up.
Is sound quality better on headphones or earbuds?
Comparing sound quality on earbuds and headphones is a bit like comparing apples and oranges. There are a lot of variables to consider and the differences in components make a direct comparison difficult. Personally, I prefer the audio quality from over-ear headphones, but I can tell you the sound from earbuds like Sennheiser’s Momentum True Wireless 3 is also outstanding.
Which wireless earbuds have the longest battery life?
With new models coming out all the time, tracking the hours of battery life for each this can be difficult to keep tabs on. The longest-lasting earbuds we’ve reviewed are Audio-Technica’s ATH-CKS5TW. The company states they last 15 hours, but the app was still showing 40 percent at that mark during our tests. The only downside is these earbuds debuted in 2019 and both technology and features have improved since. In terms of current models, Master & Dynamic’s MW08 offers 12 hours of use on a charge with ANC off (10 with ANC on) and JBL has multiple options with 10-hour batteries.
What wireless earbuds are waterproof?
There are plenty of options these days when it comes to increased water resistance. To determine the level of protection, you’ll want to look for an IP (ingress protection) rating. The first number indicates intrusion protection from things like dust. The second number is the level of moisture protection and you’ll want to make sure that figure is 7 or higher. At this water-resistance rating, earbuds can withstand full immersion for up to 30 minutes in depths up to one meter (3.28 feet). If either of the IP numbers is an X, that means it doesn’t have any special protection. For example, a pair of wireless earbuds that are IPX7 wouldn’t be built to avoid dust intrusion, but they would be ok if you dropped them in shallow water.
Which earbuds stay in ears the best?
A secure fit can vary wildly from person to person. All of our ears are different, so audio companies are designing their products to fit the most people they can with a single shape. This is why AirPods will easily fall out for some but stay put for others. Design touches like wing tips or fins typically come on fitness models and those elements can help keep things in place. You’ll likely just have to try earbuds on, and if they don’t fit well return them.
What wireless earbuds work with PS5?
PlayStation 5 doesn’t support Bluetooth audio without an adapter or dongle. Even Sony’s own gaming headsets come with a transmitter that connects to the console. There are universal options that allow you to use any headphones, headset or earbuds with a PS5. Once you have one, plug it into a USB port on the console and pair your earbuds with it.
Recent updates
July 2024: Updated our list to include the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro.
At this point there’s little to say about Teenage Engineering that hasn’t been said. Every review of the sleek Swedish audio brand’s gadgets commences with a hot take that ultimately underscores the same points: While their gear is quirky and astonishingly expensive, it’s tough to hate what they’re doing when they do it so well.
Within the synth space, and the broader realm of Very Online People who make music between bouts of doomscrolling, the Swedish gearmaker functions somewhat like comedian Tim Robinson’s Netflix series I Think You Should Leave. The final product is proudly defiant concept art that’s brilliant but also kind of annoying. It’s critically acclaimed, yet clearly not for everyone. And the memes that swirl in its wake are pure gold.
When compared to its brethren in the brand’s “Field” series of ultraportable musical devices, the TX-6 makes a compelling case for being the most useful and worthy of its hefty $1,199 price tag. At its core the TX-6 is a mobile USB-C interface and standalone mixer, with an impressive six stereo ⅛-inch inputs packed into a sturdy, handsome little unit that’s smaller than a deck of cards. Plug an audio source into one of the top-mounted jacks and the small black-and-white display asks whether you’re using a stereo or dual mono source. Adjust highs, mids, and lows with the cutest little trim pots you’ve ever caressed, and the vertical sliders below adjust each track’s volume, which outputs to a ¼-inch jack at the bottom of the unit.
A white knob under the display screen steps gently as you turn it left or right to adjust the master output volume. A click of the knob opens up an expansive menu of options like tempo syncing, Bluetooth connectivity, and defaults settings for the channel knobs. A pair of color-coded FX buttons toggle effects like reverb, delay, and EQ, and the shift button unlocks a world of menu diving that lurks beneath the TX-6’s small but mighty surface. The USB-C port offers a driver-free, class-compliant connection to an iPad or the desktop device of your choice. It even works seamlessly with an iPhone through USB-C to Lightning, via an MFi-certified connection. Insert a thumb drive in the USB-C port and you can record a live stereo track directly to the drive from the TX-6’s master mixdown channel. You’ll need to furnish your own mic to capture audio on the fly with this method, but it’s a tad more practical than the similar workflow you’d find on the TP-7.
Photograph: Pete Cottell
A Teeny Tiny Mixer
It’s no surprise the unit’s diminutive size necessitates significant tradeoffs that a traditional studio-based musician will find annoying. Plugging in a guitar or a traditional microphone requires a converter, and the plastic housing of the average ⅛-inch connector you’d find at Amazon or Guitar Center is a tight fit next to the other inputs. Pair that with the lack of 48-volt phantom power for condenser mics and your best bet is either a cheap lavalier mic with a built-in ⅛-inch output or a newfangled influencer mic like the Tula or the Austrian Audio MiCreator. Teenage Engineering sells its own connectors, of course, with prices ranging from $12 for a simple ⅛-inch to ⅛-inch cable, to $19 for a stereo ⅛-inch to dual-mono ¼-inch cable.
When setting up my Sonos home theater system, I had a persistent problem. I was trying to add a Sonos wireless subwoofer to my network, but according to Sonos’ mobile app, the Sub was nowhere to be found. The app would throw a “Could not connect” message, or—even weirder—show me that I was trying to connect a gray box labeled “product” with a serial number that had nothing to do with anything.
“I thought the smart home was supposed to make your life easier,” my husband commented mildly, as he watched me factory-reset the Sub a few times, turn my phone on and off again, toggle Bluetooth, switch phones, and finally bang my head against a wall and cry before calling Sonos tech support.
As we all know, I am far from the only one who has problems with Sonos’ new app; the company pushed out a radical redesign in May that broke a number of key features—such as the ability to change the volume on some of its speaker systems—and angered countless longtime Sonos fans.
Today, more than two months after the contentious redesign, Sonos CEO Patrick Spence finally acknowledged the general customer disappointment in a long note posted to the company’s Instagram account. “Since launch we have had a number of issues,” he wrote in a hilarious tone of wry British understatement. Spence apologized for the frustration the update caused, and noted that fixing the broken app continues to be Sonos’ “number one priority.”
The post refers customers to the detailed list of Sonos software updates that have already been released, and lays out a road map for further improvements to the hobbled app. Here are some of the problems that Sonos promises to fix in the upcoming months:
Implementing Music Library configuration, browse, search, and play (in July and August)
Improving volume responsiveness (in August)
Improving alarm consistency and reliability (in September)
Restoring edit mode for playlists (in September and October)
That’s a short list, and maybe it’s too short. The number of improvements the company needs to make is—no point in beating around the bush here—preposterous. I am having trouble thinking of an app update fiasco large enough to compare it to this one, because in my time as a consumer tech reporter and editor, I cannot think of another software update that took away users’ ability to control the volume.
More than that, I can’t think of another update that took away users’ ability to control the volume and then did not immediately fix that. For months! I reached out to Sonos asking why Spence’s timeline for fixes is so prolonged. The company has not yet responded.
It’s worth nothing here that Sonos’ hardware remains the gold standard in the premium consumer audio world. My colleague Parker Hall refers to the Era 100 as the new smart speaker standard; the Ace wireless headphones earned an 8/10 and a WIRED Recommends badge. When I finally got my Sonos home theater system up, my jaw dropped at the richness and depth of the jungle noises in Land of Bad. (Bomb go boom!)
And yet, this feeling of frustrated disappointment is oddly familiar. My family used to be a fully Sonos household, with Play speakers extending throughout our home and out to my husband’s workshop. I ditched the Play system in 2020 because I could no longer deal with the company’s decision to split its controller software into two separate Sonos apps, one for new speakers and one for legacy speakers. Why do I need to do some mental math to remember which app controls which speaker every time I want to change the music?
Yet here I am again, held hostage by hardware, stranded by software, unable to edit my Sonos playlists until September. Maybe I’m just another foolish beautiful dreamer. At least my Roku TV still works.
If you’re a PlayStation 5 owner who participates in the console’s beta program for testing new features before the rest of the public gets them, you’ll receive access to an update on Thursday that includes some new features for PS5 Remote Play and 3D audio. Both features seem designed for households where multiple people are sharing just one PS5.
I’m a big fan of the Remote Play feature on the PS5, and this specific update is addressing a hyper-specific need for Remote Play users — but if it’s a need you happen to have, it’ll be great news. Basically, this feature lets PS5 owners “adjust Remote Play settings per user and choose who is allowed to connect to [their] PS5 console using Remote Play.” The PlayStation blog includes this handy picture of what it would look like in action, depicting multiple user profiles with a toggle switch that would presumably allow you to shut off each person’s access to Remote Play.
Image: PlayStation
My wife and I both use the PS5 in our house, but I’m the only person who uses PS5 Remote Play; I use it all the time on my Steam Deck. It’s actually even possible to get PS5 Remote Play to work on a Steam Deck if you’re away from your PS5 and not connected to your home internet; it’s difficult to set this up, but it’s feasible. That’s part of why I think this feature could end up being weirdly useful in very specific circumstances, such as households where a lot of people are using Remote Play, including people who are away from home.
It’s kind of passive-aggressive to just turn off somebody’s access to Remote Play when they’re no longer in the PS5’s vicinity, but sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do. I can’t help but think of those times in my life when I’ve had a breakup and had to change my Netflix password. Obviously that’s a worst-case scenario. More likely, you’d just want to turn off this option if somebody isn’t living with you anymore, but they might still visit you and want to use Remote Play in the future. Again, pretty specific need, but nice to have.
There are also some beta updates coming to 3D audio profiles on the PS5. This is another update that benefits households where lots of different people use just one console; if multiple people each have a set of corresponding PS5 headphones for 3D audio, this update has their names all over it.
According to the PlayStation blog post, this “feature that lets your PS5 console create a personalized 3D audio profile just for you […] You can run through a set of sound quality tests to analyze a vast number of factors to create an audio profile that best fits your hearing characteristics.”
Here’s a video depicting what those sound tests are like and the options that are available. You’d go to go to [Settings] > [Sound] > [3D Audio (Headphones)] in order to make these selections.
Last but not least, the update includes adaptive charging options for PS5 controllers, but only for people who own the new slimmer PS5 model. If that’s you and you’re a beta features participant, you’ll be able to select adaptive charging as an option, which “helps save power by adjusting the length of time that power is supplied to your controller based on its battery level.”
Oso Oso, the emo and power pop band led by Jade Lilitri, have announced a new album; Life Till Bones comes out mere weeks from today on August 9 via the band’s own label, Yunahon Entertainment LLC. They’re sharing a new song called “That’s What Time Does” today, which is technically the second track from the LP, following May’s “All of My Love.” Listen to it below.
Life Till Bones was produced by regular Oso Oso collaborator Billy Mannino. The follow-up to 2022’s Sore Thumb spans 10 songs in total, including the aforementioned two tracks. Back in October 2022, Lilitri shared the single “De Facto,” which appears to be a standalone number.
01 Many Ways 02 The Country Club 03 All of My Love 04 That’s What Time Does 05 Stoke 06 Dog Without Its Bark 07 Seesaw 08 Application 09 Skippy 10 Other People’s Stories
Eminem has released his new album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce). Having previewed his first album since 2020 with “Houdini” and “Tobey,” the Detroit rapper has delivered a concept album about his career milestones and controversies. Listen below.
The concept record, Eminem said, concerns the last bow of his alter ego, Slim Shady. Promoting the LP, he used gravestone imagery and published an obituary in the Detroit Free Press, as well as entreating fans to listen to the record in order. Throughout, he reckons with the alter-ego and his controversial past. One tongue-in-cheek verse proclaims, “Kendrick’s album was cool, but it didn’t have any bangers/Wayne’s album or Ye’s, couldn’t tell you which one was lamer /Joyner’s album was corny, Shady’s new shit is way worse.”
Elsewhere, he more explicitly separates himself from the Slim Shady character in verses that, in a callback to his heyday, take pains to offend as crudely as possible. “Antichrist” makes a fuss about pronouns and (in Shady’s voice) “woke BS,” before promising to “spit a bar” that is “so hard, Megan Thee Stallion and Nicki Minaj’ll scissor.” The second verse addresses the harrowing video, released in May 17, of Diddy attacking his then-girlfriend Casse in a hotel in 2016:
But who else is as pitiless, actually witty and crass, hideous Ghastly, and insidious as me, or spitting as nasty? Next idiot ask me is gettin’ his ass beat worse than Diddy did But on the real, though She prolly ran out the room with his fuckin’ dildo He tried to field goal punt her, she said to chill Now put it back in my ass and get the steel toe
To hammer home the theme, the album cover depicts Slim Shady in a body bag and the “Tobey” video depicts Eminem taking a chainsaw to Slim Shady.
Though “Tobey” guests Big Sean and BabyTron are the only featured artists, there are production credits for Dr. Dre on “Lucifer” and “Road Rage,” and Bizarre raps a verse loaded with transphobic imagery as a coda to “Antichrist.” On “Road Rage,” Eminem directly addresses the topic—“So transgender rights, where do I stand? Oh, I’m all for ’em, I really am pro/But intercourse with you, would I have? No”—and continues in a similar fashion.
Moses Sumney has announced a new EP. His first new record in three years is titled Sophcore and arrives August 2 via his label Tuntum. The indie rock singer-songwriter has also shared the new song “Gold Coast,” which you can listen to below.
Sophcore is fifth EP of Sumney’s career, following 2018’s Black in Deep Red, 2014. It spans six tracks in total, including “Gold Coast” and the previously released song “Vintage” from June. “Sophcore explores the meeting points between sensuality and intuition…esotericism and populism…deep feeling and fun,” Sumney said in a press release. “It’s diving into subterranean rhythm, bass and drums, and making music for the hips as well as the heart.”
Sumney put out the live album Live From Blackalachia, featuring the single “Bystanders (In Space),” back in 2021. He’s contributed to soundtracks for The Idol and Everything Everywhere All at Once in the time since then, and hopped onscreen as an actor in the horror movie MaXXXine. When it comes to proper albums, however, it’s been awhile; Sumney’s most recent LP was 2020’s Græ.
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