It would be pretty funny if the new Daphni single had something to do with the upcoming Stranger Things finale, but it seems pretty safe to say that that is not the case. Caribou leader Dan Snaith has recently been cranking out tracks under his dance music alter-ego, assisting on Sofia Kourtesis’ “Unidos” and releasing his own singles “Sad Piano House” and “Clap Your Hands.” His new track “Eleven” presumably is not an ode to Millie Bobby Brown’s telekinetic secret-lab escapee, but since it has no lyrics, we simply cannot say for certain.

These days, Belfast rap group Kneecap is probably better-known as a symbol for free speech and pro-Palestinian solidarity than as an actual musical entity, but they’re still making music. A few months ago, Kneecap shared their new single “The Recap.” Today, they’ve got another one, a rave rap-rap track called “Sayōnara” that’s produced by Paul Hartnoll from Orbital.

Back in the day, R.E.M. almost never printed their lyrics in their liner notes. Michael Stipe famously did not enunciate those lyrics very clearly much of the time, which led to generations of listeners singing along with their own fill-in-the-blanks versions of his lyrics. That was especially the case with R.E.M’s classic 1987 college-radio smash “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine),” a blitz of rapid-fire cultural-reference non sequiturs that has remained fairly opaque for the last 38 years. The internet abhors a vacuum, so you can find plenty of transcripts of the “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It” lyrics online. But Michael Stipe, now finally breaking his silence, is here to let us know that those transcripts are wrong.

Big Thief has always been an intimate affair. A lot of the time, it seems like the band’s members — vocalist/guitarist Adrianne Lenker, guitarist Buck Meek, drummer James Krivchenia, and, until his recent departure, bassist Max Oleartchik — can’t get close enough to one another. On stage, no matter how much space they’ve got, they’ll set up and play crammed close together in the center. In photos, they’re usually touching each other, and sometimes they’re on the floor draped over each other in a cuddle puddle. In one interview, Oleartchik said that he felt like the four of them had “melted into each other.” Incidentally, a Twitter search for Big Thief polycule is not short on results.

Sunday afternoon, the defunct girl group Fifth Harmony’s Twitter/X account posted for the first time in seven years. #FifthHarmonyFollowSpree, it read. What was this about? Within a few hours, the answer would be clear.

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

That’s a wrap on Cyndi Lauper’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour. The ’80s pop icon has brought out some special guests throughout the tour, and Saturday night at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl was no exception: John Legend came out to duet “Time After Time,” SZA was there for “True Colors,” and Cher lent an assist on “Girls Just Want To Have Fun.” And after covering Joni Mitchell songs many times over the years, Lauper even got Mitchell herself to come out for a rendition of her Blue classic “Carey.” See some clips from the audience below.

Over the weekend Gorillaz kicked off their House Of Kong residency in London, where they’re playing a few of their most beloved albums in full to celebrate 25 years since Damon Albarn founded the project. On Friday night they ran through their eponymous 2001 debut, and last night was dedicated to their star-making sophomore album, 2005’s Demon Days. They played songs like “November Has Come” and “All Alone” for the first time in over a decade, and they also brought out a few guests: Bootie Brown, Michelle Ndegwa, Skye Edwards, and, yes, the surviving members of De La Soul. They also performed Demon Days-era rarity “We Are Happy Landfill” live for the first time ever.

The mass exodus from Spotify continues: After Godspeed You! Black Emperor, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu, and Hotline TNT pulled their music from the streaming service, WU LYF explained why did back in April, along with every other streaming service. They’ve also now pulled their latest song as well.