'We had a few songs that we were like, 'These are really good, these are genius, and we are the Spice Girls slash Destiny's Child,' said singer Ayden Mayeri in the documentary, on which she served as director.
The only song here that really matters. Written just hours after the murder of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis and released a few days later, Springsteen names names (looking at you, Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem) and speaks bold, specific truth. With a title that recalls his own impactful Streets of Philadelphia, a melody reminiscent of Bob Dylan, and an urgency not felt since Neil Young's Ohio, it may not be groundbreaking musically, but Streets of Minneapolis is exactly what we need right now.
Not only does the track show off Anjimile's lush, patient vocals, it's got a pretty fascinating rhythmic structure; his drummer offsets the groove when they arrive at the chorus, almost like the song gets caught between moving too fast and too slow. That momentum really ramps up in the final refrain, complete with some guitar shredding and open hi-hat smashing. It's a great demonstration of Anjimile's tasteful ear and his ability to match a song's subject with its instrumentation.
The song reflects on two contrasting visions. In the first verse, he looks back on his childhood growing up female and compares it to living in a dream. Then, after a stirring bridge, he revisits the same reflective structure and ponders his childhood growing up as a boy: "When I was a little boy I wanted to be real/ I wanted to feel all of the things my body wanted me to feel," he sings.
After seven solo albums, Tempest had begun thinking about working with others, and so the night before the recording session, he and Chatten repaired to Albarn's studio and wrote their verses together, responding to each other. It seemed to work really well, he says: A true collaboration. Nevertheless, he concedes, the actual recording of Flags proved to be quite the baptism of fire.
The 2026 Grammy Awards are underway in Los Angeles. Darren Criss is currently hosting the annual Premiere Ceremony at the Peacock Theater, where the majority of the 96 Grammy categories are being announced prior to the main telecast. The primetime portion starts at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and is being hosted by Trevor Noah. It's the comedian's sixth and final time at the helm.
The Grammy HoF is meant to honor those albums and songs that "exhibit qualitative or historical significance and are at least 25 years old." And this year's honorees are headed up by just such iconic bands/records: Radiohead, Funkadelic, and 2Pac. Thom Yorke and company enter those hallowed halls on the back of their seminal OK Computer, which turns 29 this year.