Sampha has shared an outtake from the sessions for his 2023 album Lahai. “Cumulus / Memory” was co-written with the xx’s Romy, who also sings on the track. Give the song a listen below.
“‘Cumulus’ was the first song I wrote for Lahai and the last one to be finished,” Sampha shared in a press statement. “Living with it for some time, I really feel like I wanted to share it with people.”
Looking for a Bluetooth speaker that’s rugged and ready for anything? The JBL Clip 5, named for its built-in latching hook, is currently marked down to just $60 at Amazon and Walmart in a variety of colors and finishes. That’s a healthy 25 percent discount and makes this compact Bluetooth speaker an appealing option for anyone who loves a little adventure.
Photograph: Ryan Waniata
Photograph: Ryan Waniata
Photograph: Ryan Waniata
While the attached clip is the big draw, this little speaker packs a surprisingly big sound profile. In his write-up, our reviewer Ryan Waniata says it has a “fuller bass and midrange frequencies than expected.” That’s good news for anyone who doesn’t want to compromise on sound quality just because they’re hanging off the side of a rock wall or floating down a river. Better yet, you can use the JBL Portable app to adjust the profile to fit your favorite genre.
Importantly, this little speaker is also IP67 certified, which is a pretty serious dust and water ingress rating. The 6 means it’s totally dust-proof, so you can throw it around on the beach without worry of sand getting into the important bits, and the 7 means it can be fully immersed in water without causing any damage. Our reviewer even tested it in the shower with no issues, and clipped it to his belt while doing yard work, and the JBL never missed a beat.
Battery life in a device this small can’t keep up with the larger Bluetooth speakers, but it still manages almost 12 hours on a single charge, or up to 15 with Playtime Boost, an app-enabled feature that boosts both volume and battery life. If you want to pick up multiple, you can pair two of them together to form a stereo pair, for the perfect music setup, even in the middle of nowhere.
If the JBL Clip 5 doesn’t sound like your speed, you can always check out some of our other favorite Bluetooth speakers, but this speaker does offer something unique for adventurous and outdoorsy folks. At its full price of $80, it feels a little on the expensive side, but a $20 discount makes it much more appealing.
Two decades after co-founding the Dodos with drummer Logan Kroeber, singer and guitarist Meric Long will release his first solo album under his own name. The record, Kablooey, is out this Friday, October 24, via Polyvinyl. Below, listen to the new album’s lead single, “A Small Act of Defiance.”
Long worked on Kablooey in between shifts as an in-house engineer at John Vanderslice’s Oakland, California, recording studio, Tiny Telephone. “This album was really meant to be fun and not too purposeful,” Long shared. “I put a lot into it as one would expect, but I really just wanted to make something that was fun and allowed me to follow my more ‘amped-up kid in a candy store’ impulses.”
Kablooey follows the Dodos’ 2021 album, Grizzly Peak. It also follows Long’s true solo debut, a 2018 album called Barton’s Den that he released under the moniker Fan.
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Kablooey:
01 Split Decision 02 Exit Forward 03 A Small Act of Defiance 04 Maybe I Forgot 05 1+1 06 Closer 07 Rinse and Repeat 08 Is This It 09 Slowburn
“When I first wrote this song it had a sonically pensive aura,” Mirah said of “Catch My Breath” in press materials. “I could tell it was a keeper, but I wanted to try some different presentations, play with it a little. Could the wound spring of questioning and longing and relationship anxiety sound bombastic, or fun, or like an ’80s pop song? That’s what we went for in the studio. I love how the song expressed its malleability to me and then took so well to the treatment.”
In 2021, Mirah reissued two formerly out-of-print LPs, 2002’s Advisory Committee and 2004’s C’mon Miracle. They followed the 20th-anniversary reissue of Mirah’s debut album, You Think It’s Like This But Really It’s Like This, which included a supplemental tribute album featuring covers from Mount Eerie, Allison Crutchfield, Shamir, Half Waif, and others.
I don’t know about you, but for me, there’s something infinitely appealing about compact gadgets. I loved the iPhone Mini (RIP) and love (present-tense) the very much still-existent Samsung Galaxy Z Flip (not RIP). And don’t even get me started on tiny gaming handhelds like Panic’s Playdate. Seriously, take one look at that thing and tell me it’s not the cutest goddamn handheld you’ve ever seen. If I could, I’d pinch its Simpons-yellow cheeks.
But as much as I love compact gadgets, there’s something that loses me once portable Bluetooth speakers come into play. Maybe I’m just too much of an audio snob to fully enjoy a portability-focused speaker, but sometimes bigger is better in the audio space, and with speakers, that’s partly just a matter of physics. Bigger speakers move more air, which in turn equates to more bass, higher volume, and often, less distortion. Nevertheless, you’re not going to catch me walking around with a car-sized boombox any time soon, which means some level of compromise in the audio department is always inevitable.
But how much s appropriate at $129? Bose’s latest tiny Bluetooth speaker may have just answered my question.
Bose SoundLink Micro (2nd gen)
Bose’s tiny Bluetooth speaker has great sound and a much-improved battery life.
Great sound for a portable speaker
Much-improved battery life
Upgraded strap
IP67 water and dust resistance
Not easy to stand up
Strap can feel a bit useless
Sound is good but limited at times
SoundLink Micr-oh, damn, this thing sounds pretty good
Bose’s $129 SoundLink Micro (2nd gen) is maybe the first ultra-portable Bluetooth speaker that I’ve felt like I could use on a regular basis, and it’s thanks in large part (no pun intended) to its big emphasis on sound quality. Like the recent SoundLink Plus, which I reviewed this year, the SoundLink Micro sounds great, but does so in a form factor that’s about a third of the size, if not less.
Don’t get me wrong, you’re not going to get anywhere near as much bass or volume from the SoundLink Micro (2nd Gen) as you will out of the SoundLink Plus, but you’ll still get a lot more than you might expect. I carried the SoundLink Micro (2nd Gen) around Washington Square Park in Manhattan and was pleasantly surprised by not only the volume, but also the quality of the sound it was putting out.
It’s not as loud as competitors like the recently released JBL Grip, the unofficial tall boy of Bluetooth speakers, but that’s more than okay in my book, because it sounds a heck of a lot nicer. I played a few different genres on the SoundLink Micro (2nd Gen), including jazz/funk, ambient, and rock, and all three had the nuance you’d expect from Bose. Bass was punchy and natural, but not overpowering, which means you can still hear mid and high frequencies where vocals and guitars live.
This isn’t going to contend with bigger speakers in terms of sound quality, nor should you ever expect a speaker of this size to do so, but if you’re looking for audio that doesn’t suck, the SoundLink Micro (2nd gen) has it. There are inevitably moments where its limitations come into focus, particularly at higher volumes, or in the speaker’s handling of treble sometimes (in some songs I listened to, higher frequencies sounded almost a little too sharp and snappy), but its faults weren’t enough to change my overall impressions. This speaker sounds pretty good and even better next to competitors from JBL.
I’m not often in a position where I need to emphasize portability above all else (usually an average-sized speaker like Soundcore’s Boom 3i or one of JBL’s Charge line is small enough to fit into a bag), but if I were at a premium for space, the SoundLink Micro (2nd Gen) would easily be among my first picks for which speaker I grab before I go backpacking in the Carpathian Mountains or whatever; and believe or not, there’s more than one reason for that.
In the second-gen SoundLink Micro, Bose ups the durability, giving it an IP67 rating. That means it’s able to deal with dust but also withstand pretty much any water that you may encounter in a normal, non-biblical flood setting. To test that out, I have the SoundLink Micro, a little rinse in the sink after getting some dirt on it, and sure enough, it worked just fine afterwards. Bose says the SoundLink Micro (2nd Gen) is also more durable, though I don’t do any intensive drop testing, so on that front, you’ll have to take Bose’s word. Anecdotally, the speaker feels solid and sturdy enough to withstand some drops.
Mico improvements make for a macro upgrade
Another area in which Bose’s second-gen SoundLink Micro improves is battery life. I’ve not tested the first-gen version of this Bluetooth speaker, but from what I can tell, the battery life was, well… bad. Even by Bose’s official estimate, it’s only rated for 6 hours of audio playback, which is more than enough in the context of one sitting, but annoying when you consider that almost no one remembers to charge their Bluetooth speaker every day. Those 6 hours are going to be all used up before you know it.
This time around, Bose doubled the battery life, and based on my testing, its estimates are pretty accurate. After over an hour of listening at about 50% volume, the SoundLink Micro (2nd Gen), which was at 60% when I started, didn’t budge. Obviously, battery life is contingent on lots of things, particularly the volume you’re playing music at, so your exact mileage may vary, but in my experience, Bose’s speakers seemed to hold up well. To be clear, 12 hours isn’t the longest battery life in the world, but it feels like a good amount for a speaker this size, especially when considering competitors like JBL’s Grip, which is also rated for 12 hours on a full charge.
Another notable tweak from the last generation is the velcro strap, which, this time around, is both removable and replaceable. There’s not much to say here, really. I strapped the SounLink Micro (2nd Gen) to the belt loop on my pants and walked around, which made me feel like a dork, but it didn’t fall off. Being able to remove and replace the band feels like a welcome change, given the fact that it’s just a piece of fabric. If it should get torn or tarnished in any way, you may want to swap it out.
One thing you will not get this time around is a microphone. Bose’s SoundLink Micro (2nd Gen) does away with an integrated mic that could be used for talking via speakerphone, as well as activating a voice assistant. I guess it’s a bummer to lose a feature, but I’m not sure that will be a major drag for most people, since the vast majority of us aren’t itching to yell into a tiny Bluetooth speaker for calls (or, really, for any other reason.)
One other nice-to-have this time around is the switch from microUSB to USB-C, which is more a matter of timing than anything else, since the first-gen SoundLink Micro was released all the way back in 2017. There’s also more functionality with the Bose app that lets you do more granular stuff, like three-band EQ. That upgrade is augmented further by a new “shortcut” button on the speaker that can be programmed to do various things. By default, the button is used to link two Bose speakers so they can play at the same time, but it can also be programmed to play Spotify on your device with a single press. There’s also your typical array of buttons that let you skip tracks, play/pause, power off/on, and connect to Bluetooth.
If there’s one gripe I have with the SoundLink Micro (2nd Gen), it’s the same one I have with most speakers of this size, which is that the ability to hitch it to things just doesn’t make a ton of sense for a front-firing device. Sure, you could strap the product to your bike or belt, but then your music is blaring rather than at you. That can feel a little silly, or obnoxious at worst, but it’s just a fact of any speaker meant to be used in this way. One thing I can nudge Bose for, though, is not having a way to stand the SoundLink Micro up. The JBL Grip, which I recently tested, can stand upright, making positioning the speaker so that it actually plays toward you much easier. I would’ve loved to see a kickstand or something similar here, but I guess precariously perching the speaker upright works well enough of the time.
Should you make a microtransaction?
Tiny Bluetooth speakers aren’t for everyone. They serve a specific type of person in a specific type of scenario. But if you’re looking for something very portable, Bose is holding that category down well. The latest SoundLink Micro costs $30 more than JBL’s Grip, but given the difference in sound quality and the parity on battery life, I think the Bose premium is worth it here. If you want something on the louder side, JBL still has the SoundLink beat, but Bose will be the better pick for most people.
You should never expect the world out of a Bluetooth speaker this size, but Bose has also proven that you can expect a solid package. Coupled with other quality of life improvements over the last generation, this is firmly the only SoundLink Micro speaker worth buying at this point, and one of the most appealing I’ve used so far.
The QuietComfort Ultra sit right near the top of our list of the best noise-canceling headphones, and for good reason. They sound great, with top-tier clarity and detail, and our reviewer Ryan Waniata was particularly impressed by the “fabulous instrumental separation” and the “wide and spacious soundstage.” The bass is a little boomy out of the box, but a quick tweak of the EQ can smooth that right out, and even if you prefer the big bass, it’s still clear and punchy. They sound just as good during phone calls, in case you really need to focus in while working or chatting.
The noise-canceling is the star here, and there are really only two companies that compete for the crown, Bose and Sony. Each company has flagship headsets that do a stellar job of keeping out plane engine noises, crying babies, and your chatty seat neighbor, with performance so close we have a dedicated guide comparing the two. There’s also a great transparency mode for when you need to stay a little more alert, but want to keep the music going.
There are some other features that we’re less enthusiastic about, like a spatial audio mode that tries to “spatialize” existing stereo tracks, which is a neat trick for some songs, but less so for more produced music or watching videos. There’s optional head-tracking as well that tries to keep sound coming from the same places as you turn around. They’re both a little gimmicky and don’t help with the QuietComfort Ultra’s already-middling 24 hours of battery life.
Even though Bose recently updated these extremely popular headphones, the newer version isn’t massively different from these. That means these are still a great deal, and one of our favorite noise-canceling headsets, despite being on the market for a few years. Its price compared to some of its biggest competitors was a downside, so the $100 discount makes a big difference if that was a deciding factor.
Looks aren’t everything, but they ain’t nothin’ neither. Or, I guess they are Nothing in that the U.K.-based tech company often makes appearance a defining part of its gadgets, and not in an entirely superficial way. Nothing’s products are fun to look at, but their appearance, which incorporates elements of ’90s tech (specifically, a transparent design), also mean something symbolically: that the company is down to Try Things.
What those things are depends on the category. In phones, it’s custom software and flashy lights on the back, which are both meant to wean you off staring at your screen all the time. Nothing has tried lots of other stuff with its earbuds, including open-ear design, ChatGPT integration, and—most recently, with the Ear 3—a novel microphone feature that is better in theory than it is in practice. Sometimes those ideas work, and sometimes they don’t, but there is one category where they have hit more than they miss, and that’s headphones.
Nothing’s Headphone 1 aren’t just a more affordable alternative to high-end competitors like AirPods Max. They also hold their own in the field, delivering on aesthetics, functionality, and more practical features like active noise cancellation (ANC) and sound. Because of those high marks, I was excited to get my hands on the Headphone Pro, which are an even more affordable alternative to the Headphone 1 made by CMF, a subbrand of Nothing. Like the Headphone 1, the CMF Headphone Pro take some chances—and the hit rate is higher than I expected.
CMF Headphone Pro
The CMF Headphone Pro give you a good amount for an affordable price.
When it comes to budget devices, the question is always: What are you sacrificing, and to what degree? With personal audio products like wireless earbuds and headphones, the answer is usually sound quality, features like ANC, or maybe battery life. The name of the game is whether those sacrifices are acceptable at the price point in question, and in the Headphone Pro’s case, they generally are.
The first thing you’ll notice about the CMF Headphone Pro when you’re actually holding them in your hand is that they feel a lot cheaper than the Headphone 1. This is to be expected given the $200 price difference between the two, and if you’re willing to accept budget build quality (which I am, though I can’t attest to the comparative durability of the two devices), then you’ll likely get past that difference pretty quickly.
Do these headphones look as cool as the Headphone 1? That’s subjective, but also no, definitely not. The Headphone 1 crush the design part of things, and as someone who’s worn them out in public fairly often, I can tell you that they’re likely to turn heads (I’ve had more than one person ask where I got them). The CMF Headphone Pro have a look all their own, but the vibe isn’t quite as bold. CMF does get points for including a light green color that, especially when coupled with orange earcups, looks different from the rest of the crowd.
In the spirit of uniqueness, CMF also lets you buy additional earcups in different colors. In my case, CMF sent along orange earcups that I paired with the light green headphones. The color combination won’t be for everyone, but I actually like it. It brings a “look-at-me” spirit that makes Nothing’s product design fun, and in addition to aesthetics, also adds a dose of modularity, which is great for longevity. Earcups are often one of the first parts of a pair of headphones to deteriorate, and replacing them is much cheaper than buying a whole new pair. As an added plus, swapping the earcups out couldn’t be easier; just twist them off and then twist different ones back on.
Ultimately, though, the look is really just a first impression and, like all first impressions, subject to change. That’s a point in the Headphone Pro’s favor.
Budget isn’t always bad
If you’re willing to adorn your head with a big pair of over-ear headphones, you’re probably expecting bigger sound than your average pair of wireless earbuds. While the Headphone Pro don’t match the Nothing Headphone 1 in sound quality, they did exceed my expectations at a price that undercuts most headphones and even some wireless earbuds.
I listened across a few different genres and found the Headphone Pro most at home with electronic music. Their quite round-sounding bass worked well with electronic sound-scape-y music from Kitty Ray and groovier, disco-forward electronic tracks from Daft Punk. That round bass, however, is a bit less suited to grunge-y, folk-y tunes from my favorite newer bands like Wednesday.
Even if the bass tuning feels slightly out of place in rock genres, the Headphone Pro still performed better than I expected them to on a fairly wide soundstage, presenting guitars and other midrange frequencies as distinct elements. I would have liked to see the same attention to higher-frequency vocal ranges in rock songs, but premium headphones these are not. As always, I used the companion app, Nothing X, to tune the CMF Headphone Pro to my hearing, and while the hearing test definitely improved the sound a bit (especially vocals), that wasn’t enough to change my mind about the tuning.
If there’s one thing of which these headphones are guilty in the sound department, it’s putting a little too much oomph on the low end and not as much love on the other frequencies, which is funny given what I’m about to touch on next.
Buttons, buttons, buttons
One bit of carryover from the Nothing Headphone 1 to the CMF Headphone Pro is an emphasis on buttons. Like the Headphone 1, there’s a roller for volume that can also be pressed for pause/play and (unlike the equivalent button on the Headphone 1) double-pressed to skip tracks. There’s also a button on the underside of the right earcup for power and Bluetooth pairing, and a red dot button on the left earcup activates a voice assistant on your phone by default.
Those aren’t the buttons I really want to talk about, though; the tactile control I find most interesting is what CMF calls the “energy slider.” In normal person parlance, it’s an adjustable slider that controls the amount of bass. As someone who’s very specific about how headphones and wireless earbuds handle bass in particular, a slider is something I might actually use.
For others like me, I have good and bad news. The good news is that the thing works: Sliding that bad boy up definitely cranks the bass to 11, as a member of the fictional band Spinal Tap would say. The bad news? Well, it’s probably a bit redundant given how bass-heavy the Headphone Pro’s tuning already is. Maybe you’ll use it if you’re a bass junkie that just needs more, but I didn’t end up seeing a need to crank the low end on any song I listened to.
While we’re being honest about the buttons of the CMF Headphone Pro, it’s worth noting that the volume roller feels significantly cheaper than that of Nothing’s Headphone 1. While the Headphone 1’s has a nice pop when you press it, the Headphone Pro’s has a gritty, almost flimsy feel. Though it does work, it’s not what I would call a superb tactile experience. But again, this is the type of compromise you’re signing up for when you buy a budget pair of headphones.
CMF Headphone Pro: Everything else
One thing that caught my eye when CMF was leaking news about its headphones before their release was the battery life. The manufacturer claimed that the Headphone Pro would deliver 50 hours of battery life with ANC on and a whopping 100 hours with ANC off. ANC-enabled listening is the more important figure here, and while 50 hours wouldn’t break any records (companies like Sennheiser and Marshall have gone into the 60-hour and 70-hour mark with ANC on), it’s still a lot of longevity for a pair of headphones that only costs $99.
I’m happy to report that after testing the CMF Headphone Pro for hours, those battery life estimates seem like the real deal. As I’m writing this, I’ve been listening to the CMF Headphone Pro for two hours straight at 75 percent volume with ANC on, and they haven’t budged from the 30% battery mark. I was listening on the train for about 45 minutes before that, and they were on 30% battery then, too. If battery life is a priority for you, these headphones will give you your money’s worth and more.
As long as we’re talking about ANC, it’s also worth noting that CMF does a solid job in that department. These aren’t the most advanced ANC headphones I’ve ever used (Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra take that award), but they hold their own, and if you’re upgrading from an older pair of budget or midrange earbuds, you’ll probably feel the improvement. I still get some noise bleed on the train and when I’m walking down the streets of New York, but the passive and active noise cancelling definitely add up to a decent listening experience.
Like other Nothing and CMF products, there are also some app-enabled software features to take advantage of, including new spatial modes. One of them, Concert Mode, is meant to simulate a more live sound, but I can’t really notice a huge difference when I turn it on. That’s more than I can say for its companion mode, Cinema Mode, which actively makes the sound of movies and TV shows worse. I’m not really sure what CMF was going for here, but when I activate Cinema Mode, which I did while watching Jujutsu Kaisen on my phone, it sounds like I’m watching the show inside a person-sized tin can.
Having just used a spatial audio feature in Bose’s new QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen) headphones that feels like it genuinely augments immersion, CMF’s stab at the same effect feels extra off the mark. If you were thinking about watching things with Cinema Mode activated, I would recommend… not. The headphones are perfectly serviceable for listening to movies, TV, podcasts, and YouTube without trying and failing to compound the effects with software.
Am I pro-Headphone Pro?
To many audiophiles, a $99 pair of headphones might sound like a deal that’s too good to be true. But CMF has put forth a very compelling package for that price. The battery and sound aren’t mind-blowing, but they’re both better than I’d normally expect to receive for a third of the price of their ritzy cousin, Nothing’s Headphone 1.
CMF’s Headphone Pro also take some risks here, and some of them pay off. I love the modular earcups, and while the buttons aren’t super practical all the time (I probably won’t be using the energy slider often), they’re still nice to have. If you’re expecting an AirPods Max or Sony WH-1000XM6-level experience for under $100, you may be in for a rude awakening. But if you’re okay with sacrificing some sound quality and ANC, and if you don’t mind touching cheap plastic on a regular basis, the Headphone Pro aren’t a bad pick at all.
Sun O))) have signed to Sub Pop and shared their first songs for the venerated Seattle-based label. “Eternity’s Pillars,” “Raise the Chalice,” and “Reverential” are out now on streaming services and as a limited-edition 12” vinyl single. Hear all three tracks below.
“‘Eternity’s Pillars’ is named for the mid-1980s television program created and hosted by jazz visionary and spiritual guru Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda, focusing on her incessant belief in music’s capacity to attain spiritual transcendence,” Sun O))) shared in a press statement. “‘Raise the Chalice’ is named for a rallying cry often uttered by Northwest legend Ron Guardipee throughout the mid-1990s. ‘Reverential’ equally pays respect and sends loud praise to those who came before us with the heaviest burdens, expressions with music and art being the materials of an antiphon.”
Now a duo of founding members Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson, Sunn O))) shared their last new studio LPs, Life Metal and Pyroclasts, in 2019. The band also documented their BBC Radio 6 session from that same year in the 2021 live album Metta, Benevolence.
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Sunn O))): “Eternity’s Pillars b/w Raise the Chalice & Reverential”
This Is Lorelei’s Nate Amos has announced a new album of old songs. Holo Boy compiles 10 re-recorded tracks originally written between 2014 and 2021, all pulled from Amos’ extensive back catalog of Bandcamp releases. It’s out December 12 via Double Double Whammy. Listen to a new version of “Name the Band,” from 2021’s Jimmy Buffet Tape, below.
“The songs on Box for Buddy, Box for Star are really similar, and they’re produced in such a way that the differences are accentuated, whereas with Holo Boy, the songs are really different, but they’re produced in such a way that the commonalities are accentuated,” Amos said in a press statement. “I tried to look at the catalog as little as possible and more just think to myself, ‘What are songs from the past that I feel like are good songs, demonstrate growth, and are significant to me, in terms of embodying a certain period of time?’”
01 I Can’t Fall 02 But You Just Woke Me Up 03 Dreams Away 04 SF & GG 05 My Friend 2 06 Name the Band 07 This is a Joke 08 Mouth Man 09 Money Right Now 10 Holo Boy
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The Amiron 300 have a classic Beyerdynamic sound profile, which is delightfully rich and smooth, with a mostly neutral base that has good definition at the far ends of the spectrum. Reviewer Parker Hall was particularly impressed with the vocal quality, which he called “clear and dynamic” and didn’t get “overwhelmed by such a well-defined low end.” These are particularly good for jazz and vocal-heavy acoustic music, but anyone with good ears will be impressed with the performance.
They also come with five sizes of ear tips, so most people shouldn have no trouble finding some that are a good fit, which also helps provide excellent sound isolation. That helps make up for the fact that the active noise canceling isn’t quite as sharp as it is on earbuds from the likes of Sony or Bose. They do have excellent pass-through audio, though, which could trick you into thinking there isn’t any noise canceling on at all.
There’s a mobile app that’s non-intrusive and useful, letting you change the functions of the buttons on the outside. As someone who constantly skips tracks by accident when pulling my hood up, I can appreciate the ability to tweak these settings. There are a variety of other options too, including an EQ to adjust, and a low latency mode if you want to use them to catch up on your favorite shows while riding the bus to work.
Overall, these make for a nice upgrade from more budget-friendly true wireless earbuds, particularly for those with discerning ears and a penchant for vocal music or podcasts. Their understated design and great compatibility help round out an otherwise appealing package, and the lower price helps seal the deal. If you’re still not sold, make sure to check out our full roundup of true wireless earbuds for all of our top picks.
Sugar, the alt-rock band Bob Mould formed after Hüsker Dü’s split, have reunited. Back with their first music and shows in more than three decades, the band is gearing up for dates in May 2026 in London and New York, with Mould alongside original bassist David Barbe and drummer Malcolm Travis. The new single, “House of Dead Memories,” is “a failed-relationship song, nothing too unique for me,” Mould told Rolling Stone in an interview about the reunion. “But the riff is definitely a Sugar-type riff, and it was fun to get the three of us on the floor together to record for the first time in ages.” Listen to it below.
Sugar had reconvened in 2011, around their 20th anniversary, Mould said in the Rolling Stone article. But “we all walked away thinking, ‘Eh, not right now.’ At least for me, it was like, ‘I think I’m going to do what I’m doing.’” That was his ongoing solo career—his latest LP was March’s Here We Go Crazy—but after regrouping in the studio last year, the trio decided the time was right.
Further activity depends on the response to the new music and shows, Mould added. “I don’t want to get out too far in front of the skis, as they say. People’s reactions will probably guide a lot of the possibilities in front of us, whether it’s more songs or more shows. All three of us are all in for whatever feels right. I just want to see if people are still interested.”
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Sugar:
05-02 New York, NY – Webster Hall 05-03 New York, NY – Webster Hall 05-23 London, England – Kentish Town Forum 05-24 London, England – Kentish Town Forum
Peaches is back with a new song, along with the announcement of a tour and her first album in a decade. The follow-up to her 2015 album Rub is called No Lube So Rude, and it comes out on an unspecified date next year. “Not in Your Mouth None of Your Business,” recorded with producer the Squirt Deluxe, is out right now, and you can listen to it below.
Peaches says of the new music, “When the world is friction, lube isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity. It’s how you turn that friction into pleasure, into power, into pride. I want people to understand that they can still have a voice no matter who they are or what the world says about them. Now more than ever, there are so many forces that just want you to give up and be quiet. If this album can help you resist that, then that’s what it’s for.” The video description adds that it is “a chant for trans and queer autonomy.”
02-20 Miami, FL – ZeyZey * 02-21 Orlando, FL – Beacham Theater * 02-24 Atlanta, GA – Buckhead Theatre * 02-25 Norfolk, VA – NorVa * 02-27 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club 02-28 New York, NY – Knockdown Center * 03-01 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer * 03-03 Montreal, Quebec – Rialto Theatre * 03-04 Toronto, Ontario – Danforth Music Hall * 03-06 Detroit, MI – Lincoln Factory ~ 03-07 Chicago, IL – The Vic Theatre ~ 03-08 Minneapolis, MN – Varsity Theater ~ 03-10 Denver, CO – Summit ~ 03-11 Salt Lake City, UT – The Grand at the Complex ~ 03-13 Vancouver, British Columbia – Commodore Ballroom 03-14 Seattle, WA – The Showbox 03-15 Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom 03-17 Eugene, OR – WOW Hall 03-19 San Francisco, CA – Midway SF 03-20 Los Angeles, CA – The Bellwether 03-21 Los Angeles, CA – The Bellwether 03-23 San Diego, CA – The Sound 03-24 Phoenix, AZ – Walter Studios 03-25 Tucson, AZ – La Rosa 03-27 Austin, TX – Central Machine Works 03-28 Dallas, TX – The Studio at the Factory 03-29 New Orleans, LA – Republic NOLA
Tara Lily, the British-Bengali musician who’s based in South London, has shared a new song featuring King Krule dubbed “Tropical Storm.” She describes the mellow collaboration with Archy Marshall as being “a lucid dream playing in our minds again and again.” Give the song a listen below.
“Tropical Storm” is the lead single from Lily’s upcoming record Quiet Nights (Early Takes). That four-song EP is out November 7 via Tru Thoughts. Discussing the upcoming record, Lily said, “Quiet Nights are some of the early sketches from a deadly quiet and beautiful period of time. For myself it was a time of stripping back, dropping down into the ground and channelling something raw and real.” Her debut album, Speak in the Dark, came out last year.
King Krule’s most recent album Space Heavy, in which he sung about love and his newfound status as a father, came out in 2023. He followed up that fourth studio LP with the concert film You’ll Never Guess What Happened Next that same year, and then the four-song Shhhhhhh! EP in 2024.
Inside a desk drawer next to me lives a collection of wired earbuds I can never bring myself to toss out. Although I’ve mainly used Bluetooth wireless earbuds for many years now—usually AirPods Pro—sometimes it’s nice to just plug in a cable and listen, without the fiddliness of a wireless connection. The one thing that’s missing? Active noise cancellation, or ANC.
I check in from time to time on the state of wired earbuds with ANC, and I’m usually disappointed. ANC needs to be powered, and you can’t get that from a 3.5mm headphone jack, so the solutions—like embedding a battery pack in the earbuds’ cable, or adding the feature via a separate USB-C-powered dongle—ditch the battery-free advantage of wired audio. Same goes for using Bluetooth over-ear wireless headphones with ANC as wired headphones. Yeah, you can do it with most wireless over-ears, but they still need power for their sound filtering, and some won’t even work as normal headphones once their battery is kaput.
Finally, in early September, Belkin unveiled almost exactly what I’d been searching for: its $29.99 SoundForm ANC Wired Earbuds (USB-C). I previewed them at IFA 2025, where I found them comfortable, lightweight, and they sounded decent, but that was based on using them on a noisy show floor, which wasn’t enough to actually evaluate them. Thankfully, Belkin sent me home with a pair to review.
Belkin SoundForm ANC Wired Earbuds (USB-C)
Belkin’s new SoundForm ANC Wired Earbuds don’t have the best noise cancellation, but they’re convenient, cheap, and sound great for what they are.
They’ll never run out of battery
Decent, balanced sound
Comfy
Great for phone calls
Cheap!
Weak ANC
Wires make a lot of noise when bumped
Only works with devices that support audio over USB-C
I’ve always really liked AirPods Pros, from the first generation to the latest AirPods Pro 3. But as good as they are, their wireless connection can still be flaky, especially after years of battery and physical wear and tear, not to mention the occasional mandatory firmware update that makes them act weird. Like when mine identified themselves as “Not Your AirPods Pro” every time I opened the case for months on end, only returning to normal after a firmware update release that coincided with the release of the AirPods Pro 3. It’s been nice to go back to just plugging in a thing and having it work—no recharging, no Bluetooth pairing, no secret, software-breaking firmware updates. Just music or podcasts when I want them.
Belkin’s SoundForm ANC Wired Earbuds are chunky—roughly the size of my aforementioned AirPods Pro—but, for me, lightweight enough that I don’t really notice them in my ears. They’re also IPX5-rated, which means they aren’t dust-tight, but they should withstand sweat and splashes of water—AirPods Pro 2 were IPX4 or IP54, depending on whether you bought the Lightning or USB-C version. The SoundForm ANC Wired Earbuds come in both black and white color options, and they use a flat cable that’s pliable and tangle-resistant.
Their in-ear tips are made of a soft silicone that’s much more resistant than Apple’s AirPods to the creeping horror that is my earwax. (Sorry if that’s gross to read, but I know this happens for plenty of you, too.) They come with three pairs of tips, and they don’t attach to the earbuds in any special, proprietary way, so picking up a set of universal fit earbud tips is doable if the included ones don’t feel good.
Belkin’s wired earbuds are clunky in some ways. The volume and play/pause buttons on the small, inline control module work like you’d expect, but it’s awkward as hell to hold down both volume up and down to cycle through the three included EQ presets: bass boost, balanced audio, and Belkin Signature Sound. And I’m not sure I like the way ANC and transparency mode are activated, by long-pressing a button on the side of the module, despite not minding a long squeeze to do the same thing on AirPods Pro. Something about it being a physical button makes me want it to work differently. But those are minor complaints, and I found I didn’t really want to change the EQ preset once I set the bass boost one.
The biggest compromise is right in the name: they connect with USB-C, rather than a 3.5mm headphone plug. That means you can’t use them with older devices like MP3 players or pre-USB-C handheld game consoles. I did confirm that they work with my iPhone 15 Pro, Google Pixel 6, both of my Apple silicon Macs, and my Nintendo Switch 2. Asterisk on Nintendo’s latest handheld: the Switch 2 Pro controller, which has a 3.5mm audio jack that lets you use headsets for GameChat, doesn’t support USB-C headphones. And just so we’re clear, neither does the first-generation Switch, including the OLED model, much to my disappointment.
Still, it’s good to know that of everything I would want to use wired headphones with, Belkin’s earbuds work fine with most. USB-C also introduces another issue: longevity, or the potential lack thereof. The Belkin SoundForm ANC Wired Earbuds seem to have a hardy USB-C plug, but I’ve only tested them for around a month. As often as they could be plugged and unplugged over time, the mechanism that clips them into a USB-C port is bound to wear out eventually. I hope Belkin did a good job with these and that they’ll last for years, but only time will tell whether that’s the case.
So how do they sound? Belkin outfitted the SoundForm ANC Wired Earbuds with 12mm drivers, putting them right between the AirPods Pro 2 and 3. Driver size isn’t everything, and Belkin only charges $30 for these earbuds, so I didn’t expect miracles—and they didn’t give me any! But they did outrun my expectations with punchy bass that’s not too boomy, and midrange and treble that are clear without being muddy or ear-piercingly tinny, respectively. Compared to the AirPods Pro 3, their sound profile is far cooler, with thinner low-end. It’s not a fair comparison, though (the AirPods Pro 3 are pretty widely praised, after all). Overall, they’re quite decent, putting out much better sound than I would expect from similarly priced wireless earbuds.
It’s when you start to pay attention to the details that the price tag shows. The bass gets fuzzy and weak when you turn the SoundForm ANC Wired Earbuds up to around 80 percent or so. And they lack definition in songs that need it; Belkin’s earbuds didn’t do any favors for tracks like Tom Waits’ “Green Grass,” overly emphasizing its crackling audio and making it sound more amateurish than an intentionally ragged stylistic choice. The earbuds also have a pretty narrow sound stage, leaving audio you listen to very much confined to the area between your ears. I tend to actually like the intimate feel of that when I’m listening to something like that Tom Waits song, but it’s not ideal for a bombastic track like “Through the Fire and the Flames” by DragonForce. There’s also a lot of cable noise that vibrates its way up into the earbuds. I could hear rustling every time I turned my head and the cable scraped against my facial hair, and a loud thump when I reached up and grabbed the wire or tapped it with my fingertips.
The SoundForm ANC Wired Earbuds only mildly cancel noise—they’ll block the small desktop fan I have in my office, but generally speaking, they only deal well with certain droney sounds. Walking around near a busy street in my neighborhood, the ANC quieted other sounds well enough to listen to music and podcasts or take a phone call, but these would be your last resort on, say, an airplane or a city bus. The earbuds also have decent voice isolation. A friend I called while on that walk said that while they could tell there were cars around, my voice came through loud and clear. Turning off ANC compromised the voice isolation, such that my friend could suddenly hear way more wind and car noise. Either way, though, they said I was clear and intelligible throughout the call. That’s not always the case with my AirPods Pro 2, which tend to cut out a lot and require me to constantly repeat myself when outdoors on a phone call.
I genuinely didn’t expect to like the Belkin SoundForm ANC Wired Earbuds as much as I do. My AirPods Pro 3 are in no danger of being replaced by them, but during the testing period, they were my go-to, anytime I was playing my Nintendo Switch 2, and I found I even liked using them while sitting and working at my laptop. I’d still rather use wireless earbuds if I’m up and about, mostly because I find all the noise from the cable bumping or rubbing, well, anything at all is just too distracting.
I liked the experience, which resembled a past time when I never had to mess with Bluetooth pairing and my earbuds worked with anything that output sound. It’s not the exact same, since I couldn’t use these with, say, my Sony PS Vita or my old Apple iPod nano, but most of the devices I use in my daily life have a USB-C port these days, and almost all work with Belkin’s earbuds the way I want them to. The one exception was with my Switch 2 Pro Controller, which only outputs audio through its 3.5mm audio jack. I didn’t actually expect it to do so with the USB-C port on top, but wouldn’t it have been neat if it did?
If you’ve been missing wired earbuds, or you want something that’s close to a modern Bluetooth audio experience but without the tiny, easy-to-lose earbuds and no fear of running out of battery, these are an easy recommendation for less than $30. Belkin’s SoundForm ANC Wired Earbuds (USB-C) will be available Oct. 17 on Belkin’s website, and soon thereafter on Amazon.
Haim have recruited Bon Iver for “Tie You Down”—one of three new songs that will feature on an expansion of I Quit that the trio will release on October 17 on Columbia. Danielle Haim and Justin Vernon duet on the song, and produced it alongside Rostam Batmanglij. Check it out below.
“Tie You Down” follows Danielle and Vernon’s Sable, Fable duet “If Only I Could Wait.” The other two songs on I Quit Deluxe are “The Story of Us” and “Even the Bad Times.” The group will return to the late-night circuit to perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live! next week.
Life Without Buildings, the beloved Glaswegian art-rock band, broke up in 2002 after the release of their sole, classic album, Any Other City. But not before recording a final song, “Love Trinity.” The rarity received a small Australian release, but the studio recording never became widely available; most fans have heard the song only via bootlegs and a live version, from the post-split record Live at the Annandale Hotel. Now, the studio recording is getting its first wide release. Unearthed by Glasgow label Errol’s Hot Wax, the song is out now—you can hear it below—and gets a vinyl release on November 21. Find the single—a co-release with fellow Glasgow label Heavenly Creature—on the Errol’s Hot Wax Bandcamp.
Guitarist Robert Dallas Gray explains in press materials how “Love Trinity” has “taken on more importance over time, because it feels like a swansong.” He writes:
It’s nice to mark ‘Love Trinity,’ as a song—it’s always felt like it slipped through the cracks a bit. It was the last song we recorded, one of the last we wrote. We recorded it as a one-off single for Trifekta Records in Australia, to promote the tour we were going to do there. I think it felt quite different from the other stuff; it came out of Chris’s bassline (which a lot of things did), and it had the delay effect on the guitar, and the sort of big guitar solo. There’s even a part where Sue’s vocals are multi-tracked—so whereas all the previous stuff had deliberately been very dry and live sounding, it was more of a sort of atmospheric thing. I don’t think it was anyone’s favourite at the time, but a lot of people we knew loved it and said it was the best thing we’d done. For me it’s taken on more importance over time, because it feels like a swansong, I guess.
It’s Prime Day times, and one of my favorite sonic surprises of 2025 is getting a sweet discount. The Sony Bravia Theater System 6 is one of the best soundbar setups I’ve tested this year, offering a unique mix of components that serve up some of the most thrilling and musical surround sound you can get for the money. There aren’t a ton of fancy features here, but you’ll get everything you need in one box to take your TV setup from boring to bodacious.
The Bravia Theater System 6 comes in a rather large box, with its hefty subwoofer taking up most of the real estate. The large cabinet serves as both the sonic foundation and the primary hub of the 5.1-channel system, offering all inputs and connecting to the slim soundbar via a small flat cable. Inputs include HDMI eARC for seamless TV connection, as well as digital optical and 3.5-mm analog input for legacy sources.
A small amplifier box connects to the subwoofer wirelessly, while two more flat cables connect the tall surround speakers. It’s a lot of wires for a single-box surround system in 2025, but the payoff is performance that gets refreshingly close to more complex multi-speaker setups. You’ll get punch and verve in the bass, smooth musicality and poised dialog from the bar, and clear and fluid surround channels from the back speakers. While there aren’t any upfiring speakers for 3D sound formats like Dolby Atmos, the System 6 does a commendable job virtualizing Atmos.
One thing you won’t get in the package is Wi-Fi support, which means you’ll be confined to Bluetooth streaming, and any updates need to be done manually with a USB drive, yet another callback to older Home Theater in a Box (HTiB) systems.
A bit of awkwardness in setup is worth it for the sheer cinematic performance the Bravia Theater System 6 serves up. It’s worth the splurge for many at full price, but this discount makes it a much easier choice for anyone looking to take their basic TV setup to the next level. If you want to be fully immersed in your films and TV shows, this setup delivers.
There are lots of ways to drive like a complete and utter douche bag; Teslas, for instance! Autopilot, the company’s driver assist, is an express ticket to distracted driving that has resulted in some truly Darwinian moments. Case in point: this porno that was shot while Tesla’s unfinished, almost-kind-of-self-driving software was at the wheel. Lovely. No notes. Or, wait, how about these trucks that “roll coal,” which is numbnuts code for intentionally spewing black diesel smoke everywhere? Nice! Very cool. Thanks, America.
There are subtler ways, though, like driving with wireless earbuds in, which is not only inadvisable but actually illegal in some states. While there’s obviously nothing preventing anyone from popping their wireless earbuds in and driving like that, there’s at least one UI quirk in iOS that nudges would-be distracted drivers in the right direction. When you get into a car you’ve previously connected to via Bluetooth, your phone audio will often automatically switch to the car instead of your wireless earbuds if you happened to be listening to something at the time you turned your car on.
You can obviously just switch it back and go about your asshole journey of driving with wireless earbuds in if you want to, but then at least you’re truly electing to be an unsafe driver each and every time you fire up the trusty steel battering ram. Maybe not anymore, though, thanks to iOS 26. With a new setting called “Keep Audio with Headphones,” you can make sure that even when your car’s Bluetooth is within range, your wireless earbuds (be they AirPods or others) will remain playing in your ears and not on your car speakers.
On one hand, I get it. Sometimes the audio switches when you’re not even in your vehicle if your car happens to be on, and you don’t want that very important call you’re on to be trapped inside your car, where you are not currently located. Or maybe, you’re a passenger and you want to completely f**king ignore the person who is driving. In that case, I just want to say I am sorry, I’ve been there. I promise things will get easier once you graduate high school. But, also, let’s be honest, for people who want to listen to their wireless earbuds while driving, this is a major win. Finally, less screwing around and more Rogan-esque anti-vax misinformation piped straight into the ol’ flesh desert where your mind used to be.
I know that there’s a less-than-0% chance that Apple intended to release a feature that makes distracted driving easier. If I had to imagine, engineers are probably trying to avoid the jump scare of having the audio switch to your car without asking it to, which is, at least in theory, an issue worth tackling. Or, I don’t know, maybe they actually want all of us dead after the mass criticism of Liquid Glass. Who’s to say, really?
This would normally be the point where I tell you how to activate said new feature, but, uh… don’t do that. Sure, auto-switching isn’t always going to be ideal, but sometimes the annoyance we have is better than the mass safety hazard we invented, and as tempting as tuning out all of that very annoying auditory information on the road may be, a little concentration can (despite popular opinion) actually be a good thing.
Gorillaz have shared the latest single from new album The Mountain. “The Manifesto” features the Argentine rapper Trueno, as well as a freestyle from the late D12 member Proof, recorded in his early days as a rapper. Check it out below.
“The Manifesto” also features an illustrious cast of musicians, including sarod players Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash, the longstanding Indian wedding band Jea Band Jaipur, bansuri player Ajay Prasanna, and the Vijayaa Shanker–led Mountain Choir. Gorillaz’s fictional drummer Russell Hobbs said in a press release, “As space dust we are here forever and that’s a mighty long time. This is a musical meditation infused with light. A journey of the soul, with beats…”
Gorillaz introduced the new album with “Happy Dictator,” featuring Sparks. Idles, Kara Jackson, Yasiin Bey, Omar Souleyman, Anoushka Shankar, Black Thought, and the late Tony Allen and Mark E. Smith also feature on the Cracker Island follow-up.
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