IN THE BLOOD
As a proud loudmouth fan of the criminally underseen Lodge 49, I'm already pretty hype on Wyatt Russell's screen presence. The offspring of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn has been the best thing in a lot of projects, but on Hulu miniseries UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN, he's striking me, probably for the first time, as a Serious Actor. Playing Dan Lafferty, one of a set of true-life, scary fundamentalist Mormon brothers, Russell transforms physically and as a character in impressive ways. Early in the seven-episode murder mystery, he's a schlubby dumbass clearly in over his head in the family business, but Russell's Lafferty soon evolves into a pseudo-intellectual anti-government activist and religious scholar. Russell makes what could have felt like cartoonishly abrupt evolution feel utterly and frighteningly natural, and he stands out among an overwhelmingly excellent cast that also includes Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington and Daisy Edgar-Jones. (DAN NAILEN)
THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING
After nine years as an active K-Pop group, BTS released their long-awaited (at least for me) 35-track anthology. PROOF, arriving just three days shy of the band's ninth anniversary, features well-loved songs and three new tracks that fans have been eating up and streaming since midnight the day of the drop. The seven-piece band sprinkled in demos and unreleased tracks as gifts to their supporters and, let me tell you, I've been looping the demo version of "DNA" for hours now. As a longtime stan, the album reminds me why I've stuck around for so long, but also serves as a great jumping off point for those interested in learning more about the group and diving into the chaos of the BTS-sphere. (MADISON PEARSON)
THIS WEEK'S PLAYLIST
Noteworthy new music arriving in stores and online July 1:
IMAGINE DRAGONS, MERCURY — ACT 2. The somewhat inexplicable modern rock powerhouse releases the Rick Rubin-executive produced companion to 2021's first act.
MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK). This Jack Antonoff-produced compilation gathers modern artists to cover '70s songs (matching the film's retro era). Think St. Vincent playing "Funkytown," Thundercat flying like an eagle, Phoebe Bridgers doing the Carpenters, etc.
GUIDED BY VOICES, TREMBLERS AND GOGGLES BY RANK. Reasonably sure that Guided by Voices' prolific nature is mostly a bit at this point. (This is the indie rock band's 36th album, the second one in 2022.) (SETH SOMMERFELD)
