A 2008 Paramore performance at the Norwegian Wood festival in Oslo has surfaced, and it’s a compelling time capsule. Captured at Frognerbadet during the band’s first-ever visit to Norway, the show finds Hayley Williams and company deep in their ‘Riot!’ era, playing to a crowd that was watching a young band become something much larger in real time. The setlist pulls from both ‘All We Know Is Falling’ and the platinum-selling ‘Riot!’, including “Pressure,” “Emergency,” and “Misery Business,” alongside rarer live cuts like “Stop This Song” and “Miracle.” It’s an unfiltered look at a band with everything to prove, delivering exactly that.
Spotify Rolls Out Playlist Folders on Mobile, Bulk Editing, and Smarter Offline Listening
Spotify has rolled out a series of platform updates focused on everyday usability, and several of them address features listeners have been requesting for a long time. The changes are live now or rolling out globally across free and Premium tiers.
The biggest quality-of-life addition is playlist folders on mobile. Long available on desktop, the feature lets users group playlists by mood, activity, or genre directly from their phone. It’s available now for all users globally, and for anyone with a library that’s grown unwieldy over years of listening, it’s a meaningful organizational upgrade.
Playlist management gets sharper across the board with in-playlist bulk actions, allowing users to edit and reorganize multiple tracks, audiobooks, or podcast episodes at the same time. Premium users also get back the ability to select and manage multiple songs in their play queue at once, a feature that had been missing and is now restored.
Offline listening becomes more dependable with background downloads on iOS, now rolling out for Premium users globally. Music and podcasts download even when the app is closed, with progress notifications keeping users informed. The result is a more reliable offline experience for flights, commutes, and anywhere else connectivity drops.
A reshuffle button rounds out the update, giving Premium users on mobile a single tap to generate a new shuffle sequence without toggling the feature off and back on. It’s a small addition that makes rediscovering a familiar playlist considerably more satisfying.
These are just a few ways they’re improving Spotify, so you can spend less time managing your music and more time enjoying it. Make sure your app is up to date to get the latest features.
Spotify Launches Narrated Articles Feature With Over 650 Long-Form Magazine Stories
Spotify has launched a new content format called Articles, bringing narrated long-form magazine journalism to the platform for the first time. Starting today, over 650 English-language articles from publications including Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, Vogue, Variety, Billboard, Vibe, GQ, WIRED, Vanity Fair, and Pitchfork are available to stream, produced by Spotify’s in-house team, Spotify Audiobooks.
Each narrated Article is under two hours long and available within Premium users’ monthly audiobooks allowance, alongside their existing audiobook library. Free users can purchase individual articles for $1.99 each.
“With Articles, we’re introducing long-form journalism in audio as a natural extension of the music, podcasts, and audiobooks people already come to Spotify for,” says Colleen Prendergast, Licensing Lead at Spotify Audiobooks. “By bringing shorter form content into the mix, we’re meeting audiences where they are to help build healthy listening habits, ultimately growing engagement with books over time.”
Rolling Stone is among the launch partners, and its CEO Julian Holguin frames the collaboration as a natural fit. “This allows us to deepen the connection between our readers and the artists, stories, and features they care about, while also providing an opportunity for discovery,” he says. “By making Rolling Stone’s journalism more accessible on Spotify, we’re excited to bring our storytelling to an even wider audience.”
The logic behind the format mirrors what Spotify has seen with podcasts: shorter, less intimidating listens opening the door to longer-form engagement over time. Since launching audiobooks just over 2 years ago, Spotify has expanded into 22 markets, reached tens of millions of new readers, and grown listening hours 60% year over year. Articles adds another entry point to that ecosystem, sitting alongside existing features like Page Match, Recaps, and Follow Along.
For music and culture fans already living inside the Spotify ecosystem, Articles represents a direct pipeline from the artists they follow to the journalism written about them, surfaced through the platform’s personalization and discovery tools.
Spotify Reveals Its 2026 Songs of Summer Predictions and Lets Fans Vote for the First Time
Spotify’s global editors have unveiled their 2026 Songs of Summer predictions, a 30-track list spanning pop, dance, country, Afrobeats, and everything in between. And for the first time, they’re letting listeners predict the song they think will be the season’s biggest hit with in-app voting. Just tap “Vote” at the top of the Songs of Summer playlist, then share your pick on social media or via Spotify Messages.
“I think above everything, we all know that a song of the summer is about the vibes,” says Talia Kraines, Editorial Lead, Pop at Spotify. “It’s a song that makes you feel good, that you can listen to outside in the sunshine with your friends, and that has the ability to travel across genres, people, and countries.”
Dance music leads the charge with a strong nostalgic lean. “New Religion” from Bebe Rexha and Faithless and “Jamaican (Bam Bam)” from HUGEL and SOLTO sample sounds from summers past, while “Talk To You” from ANOTR and 54 Ultra and “DANCE…” from Slayyyter pull from disco, ’90s house, and early 2000s French electronica.
The list reaches across borders for its party-ready energy. “Kakalika” by DopeNation fuses Ghanaian azonto with South African Amapiano, while “CHÉVERE” by ARIA VEGA and Ryan Castro brings Caribbean and Latin Afrobeats into the mix. Country storytelling enters through Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” and STELLA LEFTY’s “Boston,” both rooted in specific places and the warmth of long summer nights.
A sadboy summer thread runs alongside the upbeat material. “Freakin’ Out” by Dexter and The Moonrocks, “Babydoll” by Dominic Fike, and “Earrings” by Malcolm Todd offer something moodier for the nights that call for it.
The full predictions list, in alphabetical order by artist:
“Talk To You (ft. 54 Ultra)” – ANOTR, 54 Ultra
“CHÉVERE (premium_remix)” – ARIA VEGA, Ryan Castro
“hate that i made you love me” – Ariana Grande
“New Religion” – Bebe Rexha, Faithless
“Kingdom of Fear” – Cameron Whitcomb
“Bangaranga” – DARA
“Raindance (feat. Tems)” – Dave, Tems
“Freakin’ Out” – Dexter and The Moonrocks
“Babydoll” – Dominic Fike
“E85” – Don Toliver
“Kakalika” – DopeNation
“Janice STFU” – Drake
“Choosin’ Texas” – Ella Langley
“NOBLE” – F3miii
“L.U.C.K.Y” – Fcukers
“Jamaican (Bam Bam)” – HUGEL, SOLTO
“Mexico Honey” – Kacey Musgraves
“Earrings” – Malcolm Todd
“Maladie” – Mauvais djo
“Doors” – Noah Kahan
“drop dead” – Olivia Rodrigo
“KOKO” – Omar Courtz
“Girl Like Me” – PinkPantheress
“Free Your Mind” – Prospa, Cloonee
“Rein Me In (with Olivia Dean)” – Sam Fender, Olivia Dean
“DANCE…” – Slayyyter
“Boston” – STELLA LEFTY
“Dracula – JENNIE Remix” – Tame Impala, JENNIE
“Self Aware” – Temper City
“Midnight Sun” – Zara Larsson
Finnish Modern Death-Rock Force Post Pulse Reinvent Themselves Again on New Album ‘Lupaus’
Post Pulse have released ‘Lupaus’, their third full-length album, out now via Almots Records. The Finnish metal band continues pushing their sound into new territory, and ‘Lupaus’ (Finnish for “Promise”) represents their boldest move yet, leaning toward rock rather than death metal, with clean vocals, distinct melodies, and oppressively heavy tempos taking the place of relentless speed.
The album runs 5 tracks across 45 minutes, culminating in closing track “The Hole,” a 22-minute metal monolith that anchors the entire record. It’s the kind of commitment to a single idea that separates serious albums from collections of singles, and Post Pulse deliver it without flinching.
The genesis of ‘Lupaus’ began with chief songwriter Antti Karhu feeling completely drained following ‘Return to the Halls’ (2024), with no clear direction for what would come next. The only certainty was that the same album wouldn’t be made twice. What followed came in a burst: the seed of a 20-minute metal composition that eventually became “The Hole” unlocked everything else, and the album came together quickly from there.
Thematically, ‘Lupaus’ moves through the weight of daily news and social reality: war, domestic violence, depression, substance abuse, and social exclusion. The album doesn’t offer easy resolutions. It sits with the difficulty and lets the music carry the emotional weight, which it does with significant force.
The production reflects the same ambition. Mixed by Juhis Kauppinen, known as vocalist of Merta, and mastered by Miro Kiiski, the album’s sound is bigger and more melodic than anything Post Pulse have put their name on before. The cover artwork is a painting by artist Juuso Laatio.
Post Pulse celebrated the release tonight with an album release show at Kuudes Linja in Helsinki, joined by Sisin and Sounds of Delusion.
‘Lupaus’ Track Listing:
- Not My War (6:19)
- Lupaus (6:38)
- Incredible Creatures (4:43)
- A Strategy of Peace (6:18)
- The Hole (21:44)
Kimiko Glenn’s New Single “Just Like That!” Turns Dating Spiral Into Sharp Pop Gold
Kimiko Glenn, performing as KIMIKO, has released “Just Like That!,” the latest single from her upcoming debut EP ‘Modern Dance’. The track is an outwardly laid-back, completely un-chill examination of the devolving mental state that comes with waiting for a text that never arrives, and it arrives with a music video that frames the whole spiral through the lens of a TikTok For You page.
The song captures something specific and universal. “‘Just Like That!’ is a seemingly chill song about the world being literally on fire, but your biggest concern, the greatest tragedy of all, is that he hasn’t texted you back,” says KIMIKO. “It’s the process of convincing yourself you’re more important than this, while ultimately voice-noting everyone you know, spiraling out of control.” The production keeps it breezy while the lyrics do the damage.
The video builds the concept further, structured as a series of stitched-together vlogs: the Get Ready With Me’s, fashion hauls, song teasers, matcha flashes, and dance trends of a fictional micro-influencer who is very publicly, very visibly not spiraling. Except she absolutely is. “If you look closely, beyond her manicured online presence, she’s totally spiraling,” KIMIKO explains. The format is the joke, and the joke lands clean.
“Just Like That!” follows “Emotional Whiplash,” KIMIKO’s previous single and her first venture into directing her own music video. Both tracks pull from the same inspiration pool: Lily Allen and Sabrina Carpenter, 2 artists who find power and fun in the messiness of gender and romantic politics. The comparison holds. ‘Modern Dance’ shapes up as a sharp, funny, and genuinely felt debut from someone who has spent a decade making audiences feel things through other people’s words.
Glenn is best known on screen for her role as Brook Soso on Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black, which earned her and the cast 3 Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Ensemble in a Comedy Series. Her voice work spans Hazbin Hotel, Disney’s KIFF (which earned her 4 Children & Family Emmy nominations), Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and both sequels, and the upcoming Netflix adaptation of Among Us. She originated the role of Dawn in the Broadway production of Waitress, nominated for a 2016 Tony Award for Best Musical with music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles.
‘Modern Dance’ EP Track Listing:
- Hang Out Forever?
- Emotional Whiplash
- Just Like That!
- BIG ICK ENERGY
- Modern Dance
Bryan Adams, Wyclef Jean, and Nora Fatehi Headline Toronto’s FIFA World Cup 2026 Countdown Concert
The FIFA World Cup 2026 Countdown Concert is coming to Toronto on June 10, and the lineup for the city’s celebration has been confirmed. Bryan Adams, Nora Fatehi with Sanjoy, Vegedream, and a special collaboration between AHI and Wyclef Jean will perform at the FIFA Fan Festival Toronto site at Fort York and The Bentway. Additional artists and special guests are still to be announced. Tickets are on sale now via Host City Toronto.
The Toronto concert is part of a synchronized multi-city celebration taking place simultaneously across Canada, Mexico, and the United States on June 10, the eve of the FIFA World Cup 2026. It marks the first event of its kind in FIFA’s expanding music and entertainment program, developed in collaboration with the GRAMMYs and featuring artists connected to the Official FIFA World Cup 2026 Album.
Toronto’s show runs from 9:00 to 10:30 pm EDT and will be broadcast live across FIFA’s global platforms, including an exclusive social media livestream on the FIFA World Cup TikTok account. Full concert footage and behind-the-scenes content will be available the following day on VuMe Live.
“Toronto is one of the most diverse and culturally vibrant cities in the world, making it the perfect stage for this first-of-its-kind FIFA World Cup 2026 Countdown Concert,” says Peter Montopoli, Chief Tournament Officer, FIFA Canada. “Bringing together globally recognised artists, football fans and communities from across the country is a powerful reflection of the energy, passion and multicultural spirit that Canada will showcase to the world throughout the tournament.”
Lineup announcements for the Mexico and United States Countdown Concerts follow June 1 and June 2 respectively, with further talent details to come. For Toronto, this is a genuinely historic night for one of the world’s most multicultural cities, hosting one of the world’s biggest sporting events.
Pop Innovator JORDY Drops Nostalgic New Single “SICK!” Ahead of Fourth Album ‘In Retrospect’
JORDY has released “SICK!,” the latest single from his forthcoming fourth studio album ‘In Retrospect’, arriving July 10 via EMPIRE. Wrapped in glossy, nostalgic production inspired by The 1975, The Band CAMINO, and Jonas Brothers, the track is high-energy, hook-loaded, and tackles the all-too-familiar tension between what’s good for you and what actually makes you feel alive.
The song digs into the psychology of anxious attachment, the experience of confusing anxiety with love and finding stability somehow unsatisfying after years of chaos. “It’s about how hard it can be to trust someone good when you’re used to being treated badly, and how sometimes you crave the chaos of feeling ‘sick’ with love instead of safe and calm,” JORDY says. He also keeps it from going too heavy. “I wanted to have a little fun with that realization and not take myself too seriously,” he adds.
“SICK!” follows the carefree energy of recent single “DUMB,” and together the 2 tracks map out the emotional range ‘In Retrospect’ covers. JORDY describes the album title as his way of looking back and recognizing when he was confusing infatuation with love, and the songs reflect that clarity.
The foundation under this release runs deep. JORDY has accumulated 350 million career streams and over 1 million social followers, earned praise from Rolling Stone, Billboard, and PAPER, and built his reputation through albums ‘BOY’ (2023) and ‘SEX WITH MYSELF’ (2024), the latter praised for its “euphoric bits of big pop swings.” His original song “Good Not Great” went viral in 2023, sparking tens of thousands of fan creations. Nominations from the GLAAD Media Awards, Queerties Awards, and iHeartRadio Music Awards have followed his trajectory closely.
On the live front, JORDY makes his UK festival debut at London’s Mighty Hoopla on May 31, headlines Columbus Pride on June 20, and closes the summer with a hometown headline set at Chicago’s Northalsted Market Days on August 9, one of the country’s largest LGBTQ+ street festivals.
Track Listing:
- Cool Boy
- COULDA NOT
- BAD SEX
- GOD COMPLEX
- stop texting my friends.
- DUMB
- Normal People
- SICK!
- Little Distractions
- I Still Do
- So Whatever
Bonus Track (vinyl + CD): IDKW
JORDY On Tour:
May 31 – London, UK @ Mighty Hoopla Festival
June 20 – Columbus, OH @ Columbus Pride (Headline)
August 9 – Chicago, IL @ Northalsted Market Days (Headline)
Lost Don Williams Recordings Surface on New Album ‘Epilogue: The Cellar Tapes’
Don Williams’ ‘Epilogue: The Cellar Tapes’ is out now via Craft Recordings, and the story behind it is as compelling as the music. Twelve previously unheard recordings from Williams’ celebrated 1979-1984 era, discovered in the cellar of the Williams family’s rural Tennessee home after more than 30 years in storage, have been restored and released as a complete album. Available now on digital platforms, CD, and vinyl. Listen here.
The tapes required extensive restoration. Many multitrack elements had deteriorated significantly, requiring musical parts to be carefully reconstructed from deteriorated sources. Williams’ original vocals, the heart of every recording, remained intact throughout, anchoring the entire project in his original performances. Longtime co-producer Garth Fundis, who worked alongside Williams for more than 4 decades, led the restoration alongside Williams’ son Tim, recruiting musicians who had toured with Williams to help reassemble the missing parts of his signature sound.
The assembled cast behind the restoration reflects the depth of Williams’ musical world. Joe Allen on bass and Kenny Malone on drums and congas provide the understated groove at the album’s core. Charles Cochran handles subtle string arrangements alongside piano and organ. Lloyd Green plays steel guitar, with guitarists Jimmy Colvard, Dave Kirby, Billy Sanford, and Tim Williams rounding out the sessions.
“Don liked every one of these songs,” says Fundis. “I remember recording all of them, too. He was very particular about the songs he recorded. I think he’d be really proud of this record.”
The recordings capture the warm baritone and understated charm that defined Williams across 56 charted singles, including 50 Top 20 hits, 45 Top 10s, and 17 No. 1s. Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2010 and an Opry member since 1976, Williams built one of the most consistent careers in country music history before his passing in 2017. ‘Epilogue: The Cellar Tapes’ adds a remarkable final chapter to that legacy.
On June 10, Opry 100 Honors: Don Williams spotlights his legacy at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville with performances by Keith Urban, Trisha Yearwood, Brandy Clark, Rodney Crowell, The Isaacs, Jamey Johnson, John Foster, and more. Tickets are available now.
Track Listing:
- Try Me Again
- You Came True
- I’m The One (Alternate Version)
- Leaving Louisiana In The Broad Daylight
- I Wish I Was Crazy Again
- I’m In Love For My Last Time
- Spinning Around
- A Matter Of Time
- I’m The One (Original Version)
- How Can I Miss What I Never Had
- Goldy’s Gone From Golden
- Growing On Me