Every season when I begin this roundup column of new books I’m looking forward to, I find a way to say this is the perfect weather for reading—well, books are best when it’s cold out in the winter, or maybe a little cold in the fall, or maybe when it’s lightening up, in the spring. But I do think—and maybe I’ll change my tune in August, when it’s time to prepare the fall list—that summer is superior, and lazy weekends on porches or parks when the sun doesn’t set until after 8 are the best to pick up a new read. We have 32 here to choose from—from activist memoirs to fiction about Gertrude Stein to anti-government narratives. Let us know which you decide to pick up!
Profiting off misery and seeing the silver lining in rejection, Kyle Kouri’s nonfiction essay collection The Problem Drinker is a wise and earnest book about seeing the best in your own failures.
From the Paleolithic era to today, artists have turned their eyes toward dogs as hunting partners, unforgettable friends, and emotional companions. Thomas W. Laqueur’s wonderfully illustrated and well-researched chronicle tracks the image of man’s best friend.
One of the sharpest and most enigmatic writers of fiction, Deborah Levy follows August Blue up with an autofictional story about a narrator trying to write an essay about Stein, only to wonder what she loses by putting someone else on the page.
The author of Aesthetica returns with a foray into 1982 Los Angeles; Lovers XXX is a story of two women trying to navigate the porn world and get out alive—and still friends.
The Amazon employee-turned-political-activist’s first memoir is an electrifying story of how one of the least visible—and most important—people in global commerce turned the pandemic into an opportunity for change.
A strange and surreal debut novel where a young Black woman’s arrival—and romance—in a small town threatens its stability, centering local politics and outsider crises.
Billed as Call Me By Your Name by way of Elena Ferrante, Nymph is a coming-of-age love story where a young woman named Leo is shaped by trauma among the verdant hills of Italy, then returns to pick up the pieces.
The Cluny Institute director’s newest book focuses on self-fulfillment and blazing your own path as a person during an era wherein we take a lot of clues (myself included!) from others.
For fans of Pluribus’s cosmic horror, Voyagers starts with a signal coming from somewhere deep in space, grounding planes, halting international voyages and bringing together two people who might know the answer of where it came from.
From the recently launched Joyland Editions, the debut novella from poet and filmmaker Courtney Bush follows a woman, also named Courtney, whose job, a progressive daycare, gives her mind ample time to wander, from exes to family to the recent death of a hometown friend.
A hardscrabble paparazzo, Ben, gets a whiff of his big break—the A-list actor Jack Whitlock is embroiled in a sex scandal and promptly flees town. But reminiscing on his past—following a pop star that had led to death threats—may shake his faith in his career.
Agnes Lives! is a distractingly titled novel that takes place during one day where Agnes, emerging from a SoulCycle class in 2014 New York, yearns for someone to kill her. Will it be a magazine editor, an older politician, her harsh writer boyfriend?
A queer mystery wherein a fresh-faced private detective sets out to find the horn that Picasso alleged Alice B. Toklas—partner of Gertrude Stein—has. Bone Horn is a fun and ridiculous takedown of “self-important scholarship.”
The poet and author of Vivienne returns with The Moon Papers, wherein a controversial art collective lays out a grand plan—a second moon, set to launch from the Mojave Desert at the end of summer. The only problem is that no one knows how it’ll work, and the people in charge are woefully unprepared.
An often stunning, decades-long sprawl of a novel that centers Lucy, a college student who wakes up one day after a convincing dream in which she’s a leopard and continues acting as such. Tormented and enthralled with the natural world, A Real Animal depicts violence and trauma in a refreshing, often surprising way—a captivating, remarkable debut.
Rachel Aviv is one of my favorite nonfiction writers, and her work for The New Yorker and her previous book is journalism at its finest—getting a good story and knowing how to tell it well. An astute, capable narrator, she turns her psychological focus to mothers and daughters in this new essay collection.
A moderately successful actor digs into his mother’s Guyanese upbringing, where she may have been in contact with the cult leader Jim Jones, and forces him to write a memoir based on the experience. But what happens when he finds out it’s only a half-truth?
The Pulitzer Prize finalist for North Woods returns with Country People, a year-in-the-life look at a couple who decamps up north and gets involved with a cast of characters and stories.
After a breakup, a gig worker in Washington, DC learns she owns a parcel of land in Tennessee that her great-grandfather owned—a Black landowner who had to fight hard for his stake of the land, and the country.
Television writer Roshan Sethi’s debut novel, The Simp, follows a failing actor who gets scooped by a prestigious Hollywood family as their assistant—a role that gives him more than enough future material.
In 1989 Romania, two unlikely citizens perform small acts of defiance against the Ceaușescu dictatorship—a young girl who gets folded into her older neighbor’s secret plot, and an old detective scribbling secrets away in a notebook.
The author of Marlena returns with Famous Men, an adventurous story where a young woman discovers the writing of an older, prestigious writer and thinks she might have unlocked the clues of her past—but has no idea what this web of self-discovery will cost her.
Jem Calder continues his streak of disaffected Brits attempting to cobble together relationships with Chuck and Joey, a much older copywriter and barista who meet at a bar. Both writers try to keep things normal and chill, but their anxieties get the best of them; another mesmerizing and realistic read from Calder.
Mark Haber’s new historical novella sees the French tyrant Gerard Desacroux IV, desperate and uncompromising of his yearning for Ada, who was a brief fling a couple years ago. But to return to him, there are a couple assassination attempts and a country in turmoil she has to get past.
The queen of the American southwest returns with Yellow Pine, where a single parent resists the recent exploitation and commercialization of her beloved desert to forge a new way of living and enveloping oneself in the earth.
Jan Carson returns with a historical revision narrative where a 7th county for Northern Ireland is created by draining its largest lake. Decades later, a pair of siblings hope to keep this sacred land for themselves, and away from the government’s hands.
A searing satire on American violence and womanhood, Burnside comes out of the gate swinging as it depicts a surreal and dangerous Californian summer. Two women follow a homeless man as he starts to be blamed for the rabid fires surrounding the town. It’s pretty miraculous.
The author of Hot Stew returns with Awake Awake, where a struggling writer in her 30s moves back to her childhood town only to start receiving memories she’s pretty sure aren’t hers, but feel real nonetheless.
From the former editor-in-chief of The Rumpus, Alysia Sawchyn, comes an essay collection stemming from her partner calling off their wedding six months before the date. Marrying her friend Sarah mainly for health insurance, she discovers that the strange solution had resulted in something worthwhile.
A young woman falls into fascination with her boyfriend’s childhood cat, an animal who sees past her flaws and offers unconditional love—but when does her devotion become too much?
In an era of “problematic fiction,” depictions of any toxicity or moral gray areas are met with scorn, or even worse, bannings. What happens when we refuse to make art that gets totally nasty? Daisy Dixon investigates the story of dangerous art in this important and meticulous book.
Drew Buxton’s debut novel of masculinity and power centers Daytona Teddy Riggs, a failed high school football star trying to make his return with the Gulf’s Strongest Man powerlifting competition. But his training is derailed after meeting a local bodybuilder, Tammy, and intrusive thoughts lead to violent actions.
“The studio is not a neutral space—it’s a site of labor, precarity, and politics. To curate from the studio is to engage with the conditions of production, not just the product.” Hito Steyerl critiques the art world’s extractive tendencies and the pervasive discourse on cross-cultural practices. In Ziyan Xu’s work as a curator and gallerist, she embodies this understanding, insisting on a studio-based approach that prioritises the ‘lived context’ of artworks. Working across China, the United Kingdom and Europe, Xu’s conceptual framework is grounded in the inherent necessity of recognising where artworks originate, the artists’ particular stories, and the unique characteristics of each artist in response to the exhibition’s curatorial narratives. With a curatorial practice that is nomadic in method, Xu navigates the complex and sensitive lines between cross-cultural concepts, making accessible Western conceptual lines of inquiry to Chinese viewers and presenting Eastern traditional practice to the European audience. Through this, Xu’s practice creates something very particular: a network of lived experiences.
Defining herself as a cross-cultural curator, Xu’s curatorial narratives strongly assert that good artworks come from real experiences, aiming to create a deeper-rooted comprehension in order to provoke emotions so that viewers can not only feel the cultural layers behind the work but also gain a deeper awareness across different cultures. Because cross-culture, for this curator, is not just a clean, beautifully wrapped concept; it’s not styles, motifs, or colours; it’s the artist’s background, their lives between cultures, and how those lived experiences become translated in the studio into form, material, and concept.
Literally deconstructing the way most galleries and curators work nowadays, before every exhibition, Xu visits the artist’s studio several times, learns about their lives, residencies, and backgrounds, and discusses the work in person (not just through a screen) so she can make curatorial decisions that grow out of long-term conversations. She sees this as a way not only to make exhibitions that are faithful to the artist’s reality, rather than a curatorial concept imposed from the outside in, but also as a way to build trust and respect between the artist and the curator.
The Exhibition Blooming Dartmoor. Image courtesy of Ziyan Xu.
The exhibition Blooming Dartmoor, held at Lian Art Museum in Hangzhou, brings together over 100 works by 18 artists from the UK, Greece, Italy, Singapore, and China. It is a perfect example of cross-cultural work, international networks, and educational approaches. The curatorial narrative focuses on the Buddhist concept of paramita (the other shore) and integrates the mythological landscape of Dartmoor Forest, exploring diasporic subjects’ cultural memory and identity reconstruction. The spatial design features five zones, with eight interwoven wall panels and single-sided glazing arranged in a U-shape, with four floating walls suspended 30cm above ground. This creates visual permeability (when facing one wall, viewers could glimpse the next space), resulting in a layered, flowing experience as you move through the exhibition. In terms of exhibition narrative, there is a deliberate structure: the first room features Chinese artists working with traditional watercolour or ink on silk and paper, offering a familiar entry point for Chinese audiences, and then the later rooms are filled with increasingly experimental, cross-cultural works by London-based and mixed-background artists. There is a clear relationship between the exhibition’s conceptual framework and the participating artists.
The exhibition Blooming Dartmoor, held at Lian Art Museum in Hangzhou, brings together over 100 works by 18 artists from the UK, Greece, Italy, Singapore, and China. It is a perfect example of cross-cultural work, international networks, and educational approaches. The curatorial narrative focuses on the Buddhist concept of paramita (the other shore) and integrates the mythological landscape of Dartmoor Forest, exploring diasporic subjects’ cultural memory and identity reconstruction. The spatial design features five zones, with eight interwoven wall panels and single-sided glazing arranged in a U-shape, with four floating walls suspended 30cm above ground. This creates visual permeability (when facing one wall, viewers could glimpse the next space), resulting in a layered, flowing experience as you move through the exhibition. In terms of exhibition narrative, there is a deliberate structure: the first room features Chinese artists working with traditional watercolour or ink on silk and paper, offering a familiar entry point for Chinese audiences, and then the later rooms are filled with increasingly experimental, cross-cultural works by London-based and mixed-background artists. There is a clear relationship between the exhibition’s conceptual framework and the participating artists.
The Exhibition Blooming Dartmoor. Image courtesy of Ziyan Xu.
Even more, Xu extends her cross-cultural approach beyond the exhibition context by running education programmes linked to the show. She invites students to visit, organising and guiding discussions and introducing elements that foster a learning-based audience. There is also a quiet participative quality: some visitors touch the exhibited objects and patterns directly, while a more cautious audience asks for permission first. Xu guides these visitors from conceptual engagement to the physical experience.
Within the London context, one exhibition succinctly illustrates Xu’s curatorial works. A Table Fable (2024) is a very particular kind of exhibition set in the curator’s own apartment. Xu collaborated with multiple artists, including an Italian food artist, transforming the apartment into something else entirely: an installation, a mix of painting, sculpture, and food, designed for social and sensory interaction. By situating the exhibition within the familiar concept of home, Xu’s methodology challenges our definitions of both home and exhibition. The result is a shift from the usually cold, distanced atmosphere of a gallery to an environment of shared intimacy and creativity. Food was the link between art and the audience, becoming a fusion of what Xu terms “effective friction: moments where different frameworks meet without premature resolution”. The Italian food artist created dishes that double as edible artworks, where guests experienced the exhibition through taste, touch, and smell. Every guest received a ceramic plate, which changed hands every five seconds, creating several unique collaborative plates, breaking the distance between the audience and art, and encouraging conversation and reflection. Through this interactive setting, Xu explores how people emotionally and socially respond when art is not something precious on the walls but instead is linked with food and play.
The Exhibition A Table Fable. Image courtesy of Ziyan Xu.
In terms of methodology, Xu runs a nomadic curatorial model, moving between different spaces and venues depending on the project, yet keeping a very specific curatorial message: “Most urgent conversations in contemporary art happen at the edges: between cultures, between languages, between structures of power that rarely acknowledge one another.” In close collaboration with XIMA Gallery (three spaces in China) and founder of Whiteshepherd Art in London, Xu facilitates dialogue between London artists and Chinese audiences through exhibitions, residencies, and art fairs, working with emerging artists whose practices resist easy categorisation. Within the London context, the curatorial narratives presented span multiple nationalities and backgrounds, showing a genuine cross-cultural practice, not a bridge, but rather a flexible, balanced, morphing dialogue of collaboration and understanding.
“We do not seek to build a bridge between East and West—a bridge implies symmetry that does not exist. We seek instead to create conditions for effective friction: moments where different aesthetic frameworks, viewing habits, and critical languages meet without being prematurely resolved. “Xu explains.
The Exhibition A Table Fable. Image courtesy of Ziyan Xu.
So what makes this curatorial practice so powerful? One answer might be that, being both a curator and a gallerist and a former artist herself, Xu has a very intimate understanding of what artists are, what they feel, what they think, and how they react to their own experiences and atmosphere. She also understands collectors and their responses. This dual understanding helps her communicate with artists and design exhibitions that speak to both local and international audiences, while also creating narratives that appeal to collectors and other curators. Another answer might be that, by creating exhibitions where the artworks truly speak of the artist’s experiences (where there is a continuous line from the studio to the audience), where the architecture of the space is deeply curated, and where the choice of artist is very deliberate and, in some exhibitions, introducing a more interactive aspect to the shows, Xu constructs a far more interesting and layered contemporary understanding of what curatorial narratives are. The first quote from Hito Steyerl exemplifies cross-cultural work beautifully, and Ziyan Xu’s work truly embodies it.
The Exhibition A Table Fable. Image courtesy of Ziyan Xu.
About Ziyan Xu:
Ziyan Xu is a curator, gallerist, and the founder of Whiteshepherd Gallery. Having grown up painting and trained formally in fine art, she later pursued an MA in Curating and Collections at University of the Arts London — a transition that sharpened her understanding of what it means to move between the world of making and the world of framing: how context shapes meaning, and how institutional structures determine whose work is seen, and where. It is this dual literacy— as someone who has inhabited both sides — that defines her curatorial perspective.
Rooted in her own experience as someone who belongs fully to neither China nor London, her practice is built around the artists who occupy similar in-between spaces: cross-cultural practitioners, particularly those from Asia, navigating diaspora, displacement, and the negotiation of identity across borders. Over five years, she has developed an independent curatorial model that gives these artists professional infrastructure at the earliest stages of their careers — a contribution that addresses a structural gap within the UK’s contemporary art ecology, where such support for international emerging artists remains scarce.
I resist being called a cultural bridge — a bridge is passive, implying equal passage where none exists. I speak instead of effective friction: the deliberate refusal to smooth over the real asymmetries of power, language, and market that shape how art moves between cultures.
She speaks of effective friction and effective ambiguity as core methodologies: the deliberate refusal to smooth over real asymmetries of power, language, and market dynamics. Rather than premature resolution of cultural differences, her practice creates conditions where different aesthetic frameworks and viewing habits can meet without being immediately reconciled. This approach acknowledges the structural realities of the contemporary art world while refusing to let those structures determine what deserves showing or who is entitled to seeing.
From artists creatively blending performance and painting to creators making sense of information systems through visual art, here are five abstract artists on Instagram whose work is bound to add vigour and inspiration to your week.
Caroline Denervaud
Swiss artist Caroline Denervaud’s work is so graceful and fluid, you can’t help but hold your breath. It’s no wonder her paintings feel like movement itself: trained in classical and contemporary dance at the Laban Centre in London before studying fine art, Denervaud intentionally merges performance and visual art within her practice. Her process often begins with an improvised dance, allowing her body to leave traces across the canvas using charcoal or ink, forming the starting point of a composition.
American artist Stanley Whitney is known for his vivid abstract paintings and prints, where colour becomes the underlying structure of the work itself. Drawing inspiration from figures such as Piet Mondrian and Giorgio Morandi, as well as American quilt-making traditions, Whitney approaches painting with a striking spontaneity. As he puts it: “I follow the paintings wherever they take me. If the painting goes out the door, I follow it out the door; if it goes out the window, I follow it out the window.”
Hailing from the Netherlands, Thomas Trum feels compelled to explore the abstract in his artwork, especially the concept of traces. Focusing on line and colour, Trum enjoys using unique tools like felt-tip pens or rotating spraying machines to create arresting artwork with a bright, three-dimensional effect.
NYC-based Derek Lerner engages with the “creation, control, use and experience” of systems in his art. His interpretations of information spaces including ones related to tax evasion, identity theft, the metaverse and urbanism results in a vibrant, fascinating visual world.
Karen O’Brien works across pastel, acrylic and mixed media to produce richly textured abstract paintings on canvas and paper. More recently, the artist has experimented with freezing floral arrangements in blocks of ice and documenting the process photographically over several days, later translating those frozen transformations into mesmerising painted forms.
There’s so much music coming out all the time that it’s hard to keep track. On those days when the influx of new tracks is particularly overwhelming, we sift through the noise to bring you a curated list of the most interesting new releases (the best of which will be added to our Best New Songs playlist). Below, check out our track roundup for Wednesday, May 27, 2026.
Gilla Band – ‘Giraffe’
Gilla Band are back. The discombobulating post-punk of ‘Giraffe’ marks the group’s first music in three years, and it comes with a video from Cuan Roche and Chanthila Phaophanit. In a statement, frontman Dara Kiely said that his head “can be a very scattered and sometimes lonely place. Feeling unloved and finding it difficult to articulate what I’m actually thinking. The song’s outro indirectly details a kind of confirmation that affection toward me does exist. While I appreciate it, I still find that hard to believe.”
Cornelius – ‘Aeons’ [feat. Sean Ono Lennon]
Cornelius has collaborated with Sean Ono Lennon for his latest single, ‘Aeons’. “As the world and my surroundings changed at an intense speed, I think all of that inevitably shaped this work,” the Japanese producer said of the slinky tune. “Rather than expressing these ideas directly, I approached them structurally – exploring continuity, transformation, and multiple coexisting states within a single, uninterrupted flow of time.”
Wild Pink – ‘Round of Applause at the End of the World’
Wild Pink made an album at Asheville’s Drop Of Sun studio with producer Alex Farrar, bringing along the likes of Hand Habits and MJ Lenderman for the ride. Leading Still Coming Down is ‘Round of Applause at the End of the World’, which brought to mind Destroyer’s ‘Hydroplaning off the Edge of the World, a song that instantly became one of my favorites of last year. I’m getting a similar kind of feeling with this one, which centers around the refrain, “I don’t know what my idea of fun is anymore.”
The Durutti Column – ‘Liars’
The Durutti Column are returning with Renascent, their first new album in 16 years. Vini Reilly’s trio will follow up 2010’s A Paean to Wilson on July 31 via London Records, and the dolefully hypnotic lead single ‘Liars’ is out now. The LP was recorded with producer/instrumentalist Keir Stewart and drummer/percussionist Bruce Mitchell.
The Tallest Man on Earth – ‘Colors’
The Tallest Man on Earth has returned with a new song, ‘Colors’. Recorded at home, it marks the Swedish singer-songwriter’s first music in three years, and as lo-fi folk rock songs go, it’s especially vibrant.
Melaina Kol – ‘Lifeheart’
Melaina Kol, the moniker of Nashville musician Logan Hornyak, has signed with Philly label Julia’s War Recordings, marking the announcement with a phantasmagoric new song, ‘Lifeheart’. It leads the curiously titled LP Okay that’s a great idea because if I do that then, which is out August 14. The song’s eerily chopped-up vocals sounded strangely familiar on first listen, which made sense upon discovering they come from Lowertown’s Olivia O. “With this album, I was obsessed with not singing,” Hornyak explained. “I kept imagining vocal lines that didn’t really fit my voice, so most of the other vocals on this album come from chopping up Olivia O’s vocal feature on the title track, including this song, ‘Lifeheart’. I spend a lot of time playing guitar and am obsessed with two dueling guitar parts that are completely different but serve to accomplish a uniform sound. The rest of the instrumental comes from some pedal stuff, and I was able to record harp in a studio my roommate works at.”
Lockstep – ‘Ash in the Water’
Nashville’s Lockstep have signed to Profound Lore, which will release their debut LP I Know What I Saw on July 24. “This record is, hands down, our most dialed material yet in every sense,” singer/drummer Austin Rolison commented. “We put a lot of trust and focus into our sonic instincts and ended up with eight songs that I feel truly define everything Lockstep is at this point.” It’s led by the churning, uproarious ‘Ash in the Water’.
Holy Wave – ‘s33.u.in/HAL’
Holy Wave have announced a new album, i’m DADA, arriving in July. The mesmerizing lead single ‘s33.u.in/HAL’ is out now, and the band’s Ryan Fuson had this to say about it: “‘s33.u.in/HAL’ is like a prayer to the God of shortcomings, a child God that we are raising to one day be our savior. It was one of the first ideas we worked on for the album, but also one of the last songs we finished. I was listening to a lot of Wagon Christ at the time and wanted the song to basically be a Wagon Christ rip-off, but it just didn’t feel right. Big surprise, that was a tall order. So the song was shelved to the “maybe the next album” part of the new song catalog. Then, late in our demoing phase, Joey and Julian showed up to practice with some ideas for it. We played around with them, and the song literally just started to write itself. We finished that day with essentially the song done, sans lyrics and some finishing details, and it instantly became one of our favorites. I still hope we put out the other version some day, but this is by far the better of the two.”
Lorg – ‘Marathonia’
Lorg, the solo project of SALES’ Lauren Morgan, has unveiled a languorous track called ‘Marathonia’. “My closest friend was moving away to NYC around the time my relationship was feeling out of reach/doomed,” Morgan explained. “I felt like the two people I really wanted around were not there anymore. Brings a little tear to my eye even now. I wrote this song for Daniel — athletic, self-assured, a beam of light. For the lyrics, I imagined going on a run with him. I’ve never been a great runner and I hope when I die whoever is on the other side gives me a good reason for that. Ever since we met, Daniel and I were fast friends and this song came out of me 100 percent complete. Songs like these give me energy for 10 more.”
Quadeca – ‘Dark Magic’
On the heels of his Kilby Block Party performance, Quadeca has released his first new single of 2026, ‘Dark Magic’. It comes paired with a video directed and edited by Quadeca and longtime collaborator Brendon Burton.
Félicia Atkinson – ‘Sans Visage I’
French musician Félicia Atkinson has shared ‘Sans Visage I’, the unnerving second single from her forthcoming album SANS VISAGE, a reimagining of the score for Georges Franju’s cult 1960 horror classic Les yeux sans visage. “Through the music, I decided to bring back their empowerment despite what they endure,” Atkinson reflected. “This is why the record is also dedicated to Gisèle Pelicot, whose trial happened while I was in the process of composing the music and kept thinking of her strength and her decision to share her trial in order to reverse the shame.”
knitting – ‘I Wasn’t Fully Cooked’
Montreal’s knitting have previewed their upcoming full-length Souvenir with a visceral new single, ‘I Wasn’t Fully Cooked’. Frontperson Mischa Dempsey explained: “I was on tour in early 2020 and got really scared that I would die in a freak accident and would be mourned as a girl, as my old name (this fear was eventually a big impetus for me coming out to people as non-binary and changing my name). ‘I Wasn’t Fully Cooked’ was a way for me to think about what death interrupts and what gets remembered…It might be our favourite knitting song yet.”
Daydream Plus – ‘Speed Limit’
Daydream Plus, a new math-rock band that features two members of the Toronto death metal band Tomb Mold, have a new song out. The deceptively breezy ‘Speed Limit’ is taken from the trio’s debut LP, Second Last Day of Summer, which features American Football’s Steve Lamos, Fox Capture Plan’s Ryo Kishimoto, and Joseph Shabason of Destroyer and The War on Drugs.
Blums – ‘Cashout’
Blums, the NYC project of songwriter and musician Kelsea Feder, has announced her debut album, Sunk Cost Fantasy, dropping August 7 via Take Care Records. About the propulsive, whimsical track and its accompanying video, Feder said: “Initially, I wrote this all on guitar and a GarageBand drum beat in 2022 or 2023, none of which made it into the final version. I came home from a night with a guy during which I had a pretty unpleasant memory pop up and wig me out during what was supposed to be a fun time. It unlocked a lot of unpleasant memories/anger during what was supposed to be a sexy, fun time, and I wanted to turn it into a celebration of catharsis. This song also points a lot to repeated patterns and how we find ourselves back inside of what we’re trying to get away from. I walked manically around Maria Hernandez Park for a couple of hours when we were close to being done and wrote layers of vocal parts that all go over each other at the end of the song. I had the video idea for ‘Cashout’ over 2 years before I was finally able to make it. I knew that I wanted some fever dream Coyote Ugly bar dance sequence interspersed with knife flipping on the side of the road where I grew up in South Jersey. The song deals with uncomfortable memories and feeling stuck/frozen, so I wanted to turn the video into a fantasy/celebration of the anger to express what couldn’t be in a previously frozen state.”
The 79th annual Cannes Film Festival has once again proven that fashion is as central to the Croisette as cinema itself, reaffirming its status as one of the world’s most influential red-carpet stages. This year’s red carpet leaned into sculptural couture, textural experimentation, and archival-inspired ensembles, as stars balanced classic glamour with architectural silhouettes. From tailored power dressing to dreamy ethereal gowns, Cannes 2026 delivered a full spectrum of modern red-carpet expression, highlighting the evolving language of contemporary couture. Ultimately, the festival reinforced that what is worn is just as compelling as what is screened, setting the stage for a standout display of style across the Croisette, and we’ve rounded up the standout stars who graced this year’s red carpet for the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, an occasion that offers the perfect excuse to arrive in their best-dressed looks.
Director and screenwriter Chloé Zhao had a range of striking looks during Cannes this year, but the most impactful was wearing Daniel Roseberry’s Schiaparelli Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2026 collection for the screening of Paper Tiger. The ‘Isabella Blowfish’ consisted of a transparent suit that was a reproduction of a puffer fish or blowfish while subtly referencing fashion icon Isabella Blow, as the spikes are uniquely made from resin-coated organza,adding to the couture piece’s surrealist edge. The suit is also entirely made from structured tulle which retains its shape, and underneath, there’s hundreds of layers of transparent illusion tulle, stacked behind to create a shadow effect to form a soft, blurred silhouette underneath the outer structure.
Supermodel, Bella Hadid made her first appearance on the red carpet this year wearing a custom Prada column gown, complimented by a cape with co-ordinating bomber sleeves. She accessorized the ensemble with Chopard diamonds and white pointed-toe stilettos, elevating the look with a refined sense of glamour. The custom Prada creation channelled timeless appeal and Old Hollywood elegance.
Hoyeon served one of the night’s most memorable looks as her Cannes debut appearance by wearing a chic antique grey slip dress embroidered throughout with aged silver glass tubes, created custom for her by Nicolas Ghesquière for Louis Vuitton. The ensemble underscored Louis Vuitton’s signature blend of contemporary silhouettes and meticulous detailing, elevating her debut into a fashion statement.Ultimately, she pairedit with timeless pieces from the brand’s High Jewellery collection.
Mexican American actress, Salma Hayek stepped out in a sweeping, fully feathered Gucci creation by Demna. She completed the elegant, romantic look with a sleek, pulled-back updo and statement emerald earrings, adding a vivid jewel-toned contrast to the softness of the ensemble, keeping her glam and accessories to a minimum, allowing the sculptural intricacy and boldness of the look to take full focus.
Chung attended the screening of The Man I Love wearing a custom Dior satin gown designed by Jonathan Anderson, featuring a navy skirt adorned with delicate floral embroidery. She completed the look with jewellery from Messika, bringing a refined finish to her red-carpet appearance. The ensemble balanced soft romantic detailing with a structured silhouette, making for a quietly striking moment on the carpet.
Lost in Space actress, Taylor Russell stunned in a custom Dior look. Soft, etheral draping created a silhouette that moved with effortless and airy fluidity. Her red-carpet ensemble featured a soft white dress with a green waist accent detail, highlighting the piece’s structure and texture. Russell continues to deliver her reputation of fashion-forward red carpet moments.
Simone Ashley served one of the night’s most memorable looks by wearing an Alexander McQueenred strapless gown styled by Rebecca Corbin-Murray, from their Autumn/Winter 2005 collection. Previously worn in 2011 by Gisele Bündchen for the Met Gala, this time Ashley reinterpreted the archival piece by accessorising hers with Chaumet jewellery.
Greg Mendez is a Philadelphia-based singer-songwriter who was born outside Boston and raised in New Jersey. Growing up at a time of mainstream saturation for pop-punk and nu metal, he developed a taste for different kinds of aggressive music while being inspired by the lo-fi, heart-on-sleeve songwriting of the Microphones, Elliott Smith, and early Emperor X. A similar dynamic played out after Mendez moved to Philly: he cut his teeth playing in hardcore and punk bands while recording his own songs with the built-in mic on his laptop. By the time he released his disarmingly intimate self-titled album in 2023, he’d spent a decade and a half as part of the city’s DIY scene – and writing that record, which dissects childhood trauma, addiction, and homelessness. The following year, it was reissued by Dead Oceans, which also put out the wistfully bare-bones First Time/Alone EP. This Friday, Mendez is following it up with his most extensive collection to date, Beauty Land, one no less thematically heavy than its predecessor but more unburdened in its expression. The songs swell with unguarded emotion, whether looping a single thought over spare keyboard or slow-burning into miniature symphonies. Still recording almost entirely alone, Mendez finds ways to stir them outside the confines of his own reality; you could say that’s where the beauty comes from.
We caught up with Greg Mendez for the latest edition of our Artist Spotlight series to talk about making Beauty Land, his relationship with loud music, non-productive obsession, and more.
What’s your headspace like with the release coming up? Are you preoccupied with it, or are you focusing on other things?
I’m a little bit mentally and spiritually preoccupied with it, but most of what I’m working on right now is moving. This bare room that you see used to be my studio, it’s just a little spare bedroom in our apartment. This is where I recorded the record, but I’ve moved out of there, so I’ve been setting the studio up in a different space that’s not in the apartment anymore. The past couple weeks have kind of been that, so I’m not really working on any music, but it is, I guess, music-related.
How is that affecting you? Do you feel like the space has been connected to your process in any significant way?
Maybe it is. I actually haven’t made any two records in the same space, actually. The self-titled was in a different, small, spare bedroom in a different apartment, and we moved, so I only recorded Beauty Land and the First Time Alone EP in this one. But I’m excited about the new space, it has much more room to spread out, and I got a couch and coffee table in there, too. There really wasn’t any room to move around in here, or do much of anything other than sit in a chair with a guitar, and you can’t even turn very much. But I think even just being in the new space is gonna feel a lot better. I think it’s kind of a coincidence that I haven’t made two records in the same space, I’ve just been renting living spaces and moving. But maybe there is something, maybe I wouldn’t be able to make another record in this room, I don’t know. I spent a year and a half on this record in this room, so maybe I need a change.
It’s mentioned in press materials that there’s no natural light in this room. I wonder if other kinds of lighting play a role at all in setting the mood for you when you’re sitting with a guitar and writing.
I definitely prefer lamps to overhead lighting for the most part, but I think I actually do like having windows and natural light. There’s this window in here, but it faces the street. To record stuff, I had to put an acoustic panel in front of it and then close these curtains, so it only didn’t have natural light because you could hear people driving and honking in the recordings if it wasn’t blocked off. But I think I generally like to write more, where I can, in front of a window. The new space has no windows at all. [laughs]
Did you spend time writing and recording into the night, or was it mostly during the day?
I think I ended up writing a lot in the mornings. I haven’t always been a morning person, but I think I ended up writing a lot in the mornings, and sometimes in the evening, too. I feel like midday is my least productive time, generally. But then, when I was recording, I kind of had to base it around when my wife was not here, because you could just hear everything that was going on in the apartment in the microphones if she’s doing stuff. Making any kind of noise at all, it would just come in, so I just worked on stuff while she was out of the house, at work, doing something. And we had downstairs neighbors, so not doing loud stuff late into the night was actually very limiting. As much as you would think having the space right in your apartment means you could just do it whenever, it was actually pretty limited as to when I could do what. Which maybe was good, because I’d be like, “Well, I can’t do this thing right now, but I could do this other thing,” and it made some decisions for me.
Do you wonder whether you would maybe be inclined to write more loud parts, or do it for more songs, if that wasn’t a concern?
I kind of always want to make louder music, interestingly. So maybe it is partially because I’m trying to be quiet a lot of the time. I’m always trying to get things as good or as done as they can be, as quickly and painlessly as possible. If it’s a song like ‘Mary’, it is literally just acoustic guitar and vocals because it just felt like a full and complete arrangement, and I’m always trying to do that when I’m writing a song on a guitar. I always try to finish it, getting it to as close to done as possible in each step. But I’m gonna be able to be loud at this new spot. It’s a lot of practice spaces and some other studios in the building, and maybe I’ll go quicker to electric guitars and drums. Every time I think about making a new record, a lot of times I’m just like, “I want this one to be loud and gross,” and then it just doesn’t happen.
I was thinking about this because of ‘No Evil’, which has a video directed by They Are Gutting a Body of Water’s Douglas Dulgarian with whom you’ve collaborated in the past. It’s also one of the songs that has a more expansive build-up. How would you describe your relationship to loud music as a listener? Are you drawn to hearing some of the themes that you write about reflected in that context?
I love it. Sometimes I think I listen to more loud and aggressive music than music that sounds like mine. I don’t know why. Even when I was a kid, I feel like I wanted to make music that was more like that and less like mine. I feel like I am unconsciously trying to bring those feelings into a quieter space, the same kind of feeling that I get from loud music. At the end of ‘No Evil’, I originally brought my friend in who drums in a punk band to put a D-beat over it because the rhythm of the guitar kind of calls for that, but then it didn’t exactly work how I imagined. But I’m always trying to or imagining bringing those kinds of elements into it, because that just is the kind of music that really got me obsessed with music. I listen to it a lot.
You said you’ve been unconsciously bringing it to a quiet space, and I’m curious if, doing it for so many years, it’s maybe become a bit more conscious.
Maybe. I feel like I just gravitate towards those feelings that are so common when you listen to music that’s heavier. I’ve just always been drawn to that, but I think that a lot of stuff that I started listening to later in high school kind of blew my mind, a lot of the ’90s indie rock stuff, where it felt like that but did it in a way that was just quieter and chiller. It still had that same intensity to it. I think I was drawn to that because a lot of my music-making was kind of private. I was living in spaces with other people, and I was pretty not confident about sharing it a lot of the time. Making something that was quieter literally just meant that less people would hear me doing it. I think part of that started it, which is funny that I end up now very publicly releasing this stuff. But that was how I started. I was kind of ashamed of it, but I also liked the challenge of trying to get to these emotions that are more commonly expressed in loud, heavy, aggressive music, and just doing it with soft acoustic guitar. It’s a fun challenge for me.
It took you about a year and a half to make this record, but how old are these songs? Did you revisit ones that were written before the EP?
I think the bulk of them are newer. There were a couple that I revisited. ‘Everybody Wants to Be Your Friend’ is from 2011, which I just liked for a little bit then, and then just tossed it off and forgot about it. And ‘Concussion’ was from 2020. I actually tried recording that one for the self-titled, too, and it just didn’t really come out right, so I came back to that one. And ‘Geranium’ is from 2020 also, which I also tried to record for the self-titled. Sometimes the simpler ones are kind of less forgiving, in a way.
Similar to the EP, I feel like the songs that kind of push you to embrace that simplicity are those built around the keyboard.
Part of it is I’m not very good at keyboards, so I can’t do anything that’s particularly difficult or intricate. I look at it, and it kind of just looks like a bunch of black and white to me. I definitely don’t know my way around it as far as even the chord shapes. I’m going note by note and just seeing what sounds good, and I think that is a little bit freeing, in a way. I’m not really a trained or particularly knowledgeable guitarist, but I’ve been doing it for a really long time, where I could kind of play a lot of these songs with my eyes closed. The keyboard kind of forces my brain to think differently, because it’s very difficult to me, and I’m very much a beginner at it. I would not write any of the keyboard songs on guitar; it just wouldn’t have happened. And I couldn’t write any of the guitar songs on keyboard either, because I’m not good enough.
Did you write a lot more songs that you had to discard? What was the culling process like?
There were a bunch that I stopped working on or discarded, but maybe they’ll come back. I tend to bring things back that have been discarded. There were a couple that made it to the end, to the mixing process, and some of them, it just became clear that they didn’t fit in with the sequence of the album. Then there were some that I walked away from earlier, where I just didn’t feel like I was getting them to a place where they felt like a complete song.
I don’t think any of the songs go past the three-minute mark. Is the sense of completeness ever related to song length for you?
I think it’s unrelated. Sometimes I do feel like something that’s a minute long is not enough, but it’s more related to whether I feel like the song has come to an ending or gone somewhere. I generally feel like I want it to take me to a different place than where we started. There’s a lot of stuff that I write where maybe it’s the same length as something that I’ve called finished, but it just doesn’t feel like it has resolved itself.
Were you kind of surprised by the way in which any particular song resolved itself?
Kind of all of them, to be honest. [laughs] My whole thing is just going blind. ‘Looking Out Your Window’ kind of surprised me lyrically, and ‘I Wanna Feel Pretty’, and ‘Serving Drinks’, just because they feel like a stream of consciousness. That was how they were written, and I didn’t really expect for them to end up where they did.
‘Looking Out Your Window’ has that organ, which is such a striking moment on the record. I don’t know if that’s part of what resolved it.
I was originally trying to make that one a Beach Boys song – I was trying to put bass on it, it was gonna be a bouncy, ‘60s pop song. I was about to discard it, until I figured out that keyboard part that clicked it into place.
Beauty Land does have more songs than your previous records, which is why I wondered if you were more comfortable being less selective with the tracklist.
I just had more time to work on them, I think is the truthful answer, and I wanted to push myself a little bit. I’ve just done so many under 10 song records, where the runtime is 20 minutes. Being afforded a little bit extra time with the label backing, I wanted to see if I could do it.
When you put out the First Time Alone EP, you said that it was a pretty non-traditional thing to put out after signing with a label. Did you feel a different pressure, even self-imposed, when it came to working on the next full-length?
I’m kind of always daunted by starting a new record, but there definitely was an added layer of it. Even when I released the self-titled, I didn’t expect as many people to hear it, so this is the first one that I went into making that I knew there was going to be a wider audience than I had thought when I was making the last ones. There’s people who stand to either make or lose money off of it, including me, so there was definitely an added, mostly self-imposed, pressure to have it be good. I didn’t really expect the self-titled to be that good, and I don’t think anybody else did either, but when all of a sudden you’re a professional musician and you’re on a real label, I went into it being like, “Well, I guess people are expecting it to be good now.”
Are there any parts of your creative process that you didn’t expect would be affected by the signing or the space and stability it afforded you?
Yeah, I think I didn’t expect it to affect me psychologically as much as it did, honestly. I kind of got pretty philosophical about it, where I was trying to decide whether I wanted to continue to make records in the same way that I did, and whether that was even possible, even if I tried. I read this book by Baudrillard, and that cemented my perspective on it, which is that I realized that I could not honestly make it in the same way, even if I was physically doing all the same things – psychologically, it’d be me pretending that I was doing it in the same way.
How so?
When I was making the self-titled – or even when I was making the EP, because I made the EP before I signed a record contract – just the difference between doing it as a job versus being somebody who has another job that they don’t care about, and then when they come home they do this because they love to do it. I feel like there’s this idea that you could have it become your job and still do it exactly the same way, and I don’t think that’s true. Even if you could make something that is convincing of it being done in the same way, it was, for me, an entirely different experience up here.
I wonder if part of it is the value of empty space – the ability to sit still for a bit when you’re not in any kind of flow state, maybe engage with different kinds of media.
Yeah, I’ve definitely been reading more books for the past couple months, and that’s been really nice. I think moving forward, I’m gonna be giving myself more space like that. I really went pretty hard while making this record, and I didn’t really give myself too much breathing room. I was a really bad boss to myself for this, essentially, and I started to see things going badly in my life. I was not really treating myself very well, and I’m gonna try to get better about that, because I think the way that I did this one is not very sustainable.
Do you mind sharing what that would entail? Is it about having other people involved, or is it more about self-control?
I think it’s mostly setting boundaries with myself. Moving the studio out of here was part of it, and just being less hard on myself. I just overworked myself, I think. I also slipped back into drinking a lot all the time, and that was a progression during making this, and I quit that entirely. The more I lose myself in making something, which in the moment feels good and is very intoxicating – I mean, it also feels really bad. But I don’t think I would have very many records left in me if I kept doing that.
Do you hear that progression on the record? With playing these songs live in mind, are you cautious of stepping back into that headspace?
Yeah, I do hear it. It feels, to me at least, like a pretty dark record. I don’t know if that’s what other people will hear, but I tie it to things feeling pretty bleak. I think I am, unfortunately, pretty self-destructive – that’s my natural state, to do things that might feel good in the moment, but are hurting me. I think that any time I loosen my grip on keeping that at bay, it’ll start to seep in, and if it’s because I’m too in it with something – like, I didn’t even realize it was happening until after the record was done, and I was full-blown in a bad place. The more I get lost in something, those things just start to happen. I just start treating myself very poorly, because my automatic unconscious response to do things that are not good for me.
A lot of times when we ask questions about future plans, it’s always about making music with different collaborators or kinds of production. But I feel like those personal goals, like making a record without it taking over your life, are often closer to reality.
I would love to make a record that didn’t take over my life, and all the people that are in my life would love that also, truly. There’s a part of me that’s worried, like, “Will I be able to make a record that I think is good like that?” But then there’s another part of me that thinks it’s a very honest possibility that maybe that’s actually hindering the records, because a lot of the all-consumingness isn’t actually productive. It’s just fixating and stressing about things, and I would say probably at least half of it is not actually productive obsession. If I could find a way to walk away from that part, maybe the productive obsession would be actually more powerful.
What made you hear your wife’s voice on ‘So Mean’?
We started playing that song live first. She plays with me live a lot, and I definitely had the feeling at that point that the end should be a big thing. And kind of the easiest thing – we worked out these harmonies in a hotel room on tour. I had just started playing the song live, and played it a few times just solo. She might have even suggested it, like, “Hey, I kind of have this harmony idea for the end,” and it just felt really good live. I was building the song, all the other parts, while I was recording it with that in mind. She actually sang on the recording more towards the end; I think the drums were already done. And then the way it’s mixed, it almost is louder than my vocal. It’s definitely supposed to be the focal point.
There were a couple other songs on the record where we had also been playing them live, and there were some harmonies. ‘Mary’ had some harmonies on it from V, and I think there was another one too, but it became really clear during the sequencing to both of us that it fell flat in those other songs in the context of the record, and it also diminished the power of the end of ‘So Mean’.
Were there other ways in which you felt like Veronica was present during the process? Was the songwriting more of an isolated process, or would she listen in as you worked out different parts?
I feel like we work out a lot of our live parts together, but I’ve always been very isolated while making recordings. But ever since I’ve known V, she’s a fantastic editor. If I’m stuck on something, I’ll bring it to her, and I’ll be like, “Is this good or is this dumb? Should I go with this or this?” I’ll present options a lot of times, and I just listen to what she says, pretty much. [laughs]
Can you think of an example that made a difference for you?
On this one, I feel like it was a lot of mixing decisions and arrangement decisions. I feel like I was really stressed out by the arrangements on ‘I Wanna Feel Pretty’, and I almost scrapped them and the whole thing, and there were a bunch of different versions of it. I just listened to V when she was like, “This is cool, you don’t need to do anything other than this.” And with ‘No Evil’, she was one of the voices that was like, “You gotta take this D-beat off the end.” There’s just a bunch of moments like that where I get stuck a lot on things that probably don’t really matter. I’ll give her two options, and she’ll be like, “You’re being crazy, these sound essentially the same.” That’s important feedback, too.
You mentioned getting quite philosophical about your career. I wonder if that’s a dynamic that played out in conversations between the two of you, in terms of treating it in a healthier way.
Yeah, I think so. She’s always like, “You’re a psycho.” She’ll straight up tell me that, and be like, “Yeah, definitely you need to take a break,” or “You need to take the day off.” Sometimes I’ll listen to that, and sometimes I’ll be cranky about it.
You mentioned you’ve been reading more on those days off. What books have you been into?
Well, I read that Baudrillard book, Simulacra and Simulation, which, I’m not smart or educated enough to read that shit. I was looking up words on every page, it was kind of an intense experience. But it did put a lot of feelings that I’ve had into more articulation. And then I read the NOFX autobiography, which was honestly beautiful and heartbreaking and really interesting. I read Their Eyes Were Watching God this year, which was also a beautiful book, and right now, I’m reading this crazy book called The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, which is easier to read than the Baudrillard book. It’s kind of this disputed theory that consciousness as we know it is very new, and that before 3,000 years ago, we were operating in a different sense where hallucinated voices were telling us what to do, and we did it. Which, I don’t know if I believe it, but it’s a really interesting read.
So you’ve been mostly leaning into nonfiction?
I think it just happens to be recently – I do like fiction a lot, too. I just go to the bookshelf and pick something that speaks to me. Maybe I’m just feeling philosophical right now.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
From her origins on an Australian soap to a decades-long pop career, Kylie Minogue has never stopped surprising her audience. Now, fans can go behind-the-scenes and find out exactly how she managed to pull it off.
Docuseries Kylie, available on Netflix, offers a candid look at Minogue’s life and career. With 2.1 million views this week, it’s one of the most-watched titles on Netflix, globally, as well as the #1 show in three countries. Could that mean a follow-up might be on the way?
Kylie Season 2 Release Date
At the time of writing, there’s no official news about a potential Kylie season 2. Given that this is a docuseries, a sequel is unlikely.
That said, the episodes available paint a complete picture of the star’s impact. If you’re a fan, prepare to get emotional.
Kylie Cast
Kylie Minogue
Dannii Minogue
Jason Donovan
Pete Waterman
Nick Cave
What Is Kylie About?
Directed by Michael Harte, the three-part documentary about Kylie Minogue traces her rise from Australian soap star to one of the most enduring names in pop music. It combines archival footage with home videos, photographs, and behind-the-scenes material.
On top of that, it features interviews with Kylie herself, along with commentary from people close to her. The list includes Dannii Minogue, Jason Donovan, Nick Cave, and producer Pete Waterman.
Those expecting a “greatest hits” type of retrospective will be happy to know that the docuseries digs deeper. It deftly explores the disconnect between Kylie’s cheerful public image and the personal struggles she often kept private. Plus, it focuses heavily on reinvention, as well as aging in pop music and dealing with media scrutiny.
The series kicks off with Kylie’s early life in Melbourne and her breakthrough role as Charlene Robinson on the Australian soap Neighbours. Then, it shows how unexpectedly fast her fame exploded in the late 1980s. It also tackles Kylie’s artistic reinvention in the 1990s and her massive comeback during the early 2000s. Finally, it gets personal, highlighting Minogue’s battles with cancer and her complicated relationship with public perception.
While Kylie season 2 is a long shot, the docuseries does a great job at showing the icon as a resilient and emotionally grounded figure. If you’re hungry for more, special Kylie: Tension Tour Live is streaming on Netflix as well.
Are There Other Shows Like Kylie?
If you enjoyed Kylie, we recommend checking out other similar docuseries streaming on Netflix.
Panda Bear and Sonic Boom have announced a new collaborative LP, A ? Of WHEN. The follow-up to 2022’s Reset will arrive via physical formats and download on July 10, forgoing streaming platforms entirely. The title track is available to download today, and you can check it out here.
A ? Of WHEN features contributions from harpist Mary Lattimore, British multi-instrumentalist Daniel O’Sullivan, and Zena Kay on pedal steel guitar. In a statement, Noah Lennox and and Peter Kember said:
Change. Exciting & frightening at the same time. The slow slips & the big shifts. Highs & lows from the distraction of connectivity. AI slop becomes an AI slope. Algorithm tables & algorithms tumble. We’re taking things a little off piste. More rock n’ roll than flick & scroll… From here on in we’re getting back to a place of real connectivity and as you might have noticed from our new “Graveyard”/“Lucky Charm” 7″ (only available from record stores) there’s no streaming, no videos, and a minimisation of online everything. Going forward we’re looking to radio, live shows, listening parties, Q&A sessions & real life interactions to get back to a place we feel makes more sense. To that end, we’re asking you to join us offline, outside of social media. To meet us in the real world. IRL not URL…
1. Never givin’ in
2. Lucky Charm
3. Revive him
4. Something like dreaming
5. A ? of WHEN
6. Pray to you
7. Be the bridge
8. Like a moth to the flame
9. Somethin’ that lasts
10. Graveyard
Something is not quite right in the seemingly peaceful retirement community at the heart of supernatural series The Boroughs. As a result, a group of residents must band together and stop the threat from robbing them of time, their most precious resource.
If that premise sounds intriguing, you can rest assured: the show delivers. A charming combination of spookiness and heart, The Boroughs is a satisfying watch.
It’s also slowly climbing the Netflix charts, currently resting at the #2 spot on the streamer’s most-watched list. Is that enough to secure a season 2?
The Boroughs Season 2 Release Date
At the time of writing, Netflix hasn’t officially renewed the series for more episodes. That said, we’re cautiously optimistic.
Viewership numbers are solid, reviews are good, and the creators seem to have a multi-season arc in mind.
“We have a very specific three-season plan, and we think we know the last shot of the last scene of the last episode,” one of the showrunners told IGN.
A renewal is likely just a matter of time. If all goes well, The Boroughs season 2 could arrive in late 2027 or early 2028.
The Boroughs Cast
Alfred Molina as Sam Cooper
Alfre Woodard as Judy Daniels
Denis O’Hare as Wally Baker
Clarke Peters as Art Daniels
Carlos Miranda as Paz Navarro
Jena Malone as Claire
Seth Numrich as Blaine Shaw
Alice Kremelberg as Anneliese Shaw
Geena Davis as Renee
Bill Pullman as Jack Willard
What Could Happen in The Boroughs Season 2?
The Boroughs is set in a seemingly idyllic retirement community. The plot follows widower Sam Cooper, who moves there after the death of his wife.
Unfortunately for him, what first appears to be a peaceful place slowly reveals itself as the centre of a terrifying supernatural conspiracy. Residents begin dying under mysterious circumstances, so Sam teams up with a group of fellow retirees to uncover what’s really going on.
The series is an intoxicating mishmash of horror, sci-fi, mystery, and emotional drama. Add an excellent cast into the mix, and you’ll be hooked from start to finish. The soundtrack is fun, too.
By the time the final end credits roll, the show provides answers, while also leaving the door open for a follow-up. The Boroughs season 2 will likely pick up from there and expand the show’s mythology. We don’t know about you, but we hope to reunite with the gang somewhere down the line.
Wild Pink have announced a new album. Still Coming Down, the follow-up to 2024’s Dulling the Horns, arrives August 21 via Fire Talk. It’s led by the world-weary yet boisterous single ‘Round of Applause at the End of the World’, which comes paired with a video that serves as the first of four visual chapters helmed by Wes Sterrs. Check it out below, and scroll down for the album cover (by Rob Riggs) and tracklist.
Still Coming Down was tracked across one week at the renowned Drop of Sun studios in Asheville, NC with producer Alex Farrar. “There was not a ton of overthinking,” frontman John Ross said. It features longtime member Dan Keegan on percussion, as well as everyone from Meg Duffy (aka Hand Habits) to MJ Lenderman and his The Wind bandmates Landon George and Xandy Chelmis. “Strangely, I feel like I’ve found my voice on this record,” Ross added.
1. Box Store
2. Round Of Applause At The End Of The World
3. Still Coming Down
4. Plates Keep Spinning
5. Like Water
6. Simple
7. Dead For A Sec
8. 500 Is The New 250
9. Relaxing, Special Interests
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The Dog’s Gaze: A Visual History, Thomas W. Laqueur (June 2)
My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein: A Fiction, Deborah Levy (June 2)
Lovers XXX, Allie Rowbottom (June 2)
When the Revolution Comes: A Fight for the Future of the Working Class, Chris Smalls (June 2)
Rabbit, Fox, Tar, P.C. Verrone (June 2)
Nymph, Sofia Montrone (June 9)
The One and the Ninety-Nine: Forging Identity in the Age of Social Contagion, Luke Burgis (June 16)
Voyagers, Meg Charlton (June 16)
Learning, Courtney Bush (June 23)
Close Relationships with Strangers, Krista Diamond (June 23)
Agnes Lives!, Hallie Elizabeth Newton (June 23)
Bone Horn, Prudence Bussey-Chamberlain (June 30)
The Moon Papers, Emmalea Russo (June 30)
You Won’t Get Free of It: Stories of Mothers and Daughters, Rachel Aviv (July 7)
False Prophet, Afsheen Farhadi (July 7)
Country People, Daniel Mason (July 7)
The Great Wherever, Shannon Sanders (July 7)
The Simp: A Novel Without a Hero, Roshan Sethi (July 7)
Astronaut!, Oana Aristide (July 14)
Famous Men, Julie Buntin (July 14)
I Want You to Be Happy, Jem Calder (July 14)
Ada, Mark Haber (July 14)
Yellow Pine, Claire Vaye Watkins (July 21)
Few and Far Between, Jan Carson (July 28)
Burnside, Devyn Defoe (Aug 4)
Awake Awake, Fiona Mozley (Aug 4)
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Kitten, Stacey Yu (Aug 4)
Depraved: The Story of Dangerous Art, Daisy Dixon (Aug 11)
Daytona Teddy Riggs, Drew Buxton (Aug 25)
