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      Oasis Starts Its World Tour With Cardiff Concert

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      Liam and Noel Gallagher put aside their brotherly rivalry to play the first date of their band’s long-awaited comeback tour in Cardiff, Wales.They had waited 15 years for this moment, and they couldn’t believe it was happening.Dressed in bucket hats, Adidas tracksuits and other ’90s looks, a boisterous crowd gathered on Friday at the 75,000-capacity Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, to witness one of the unlikeliest reunions in rock music.Oasis was back.For two hours, at least.Around 8:15 p.m. local time, Noel and Liam Gallagher, the two stars of a band whose anthemic hits include “Wonderwall” and “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” swaggered onstage, putting aside decades of brotherly war.Liam had his arm around his older brother’s shoulder, and as the phrase “The Great Wait Is Over” flashed on screens at the back of the stage, the pair strode forward, holding each other’s hands skyward.The ringing chords of the group’s 1995 track “Hello,” which features the refrain “It’s good to be back,” wafted over the crowd, kick-starting a 41-date sold-out world tour that includes two concerts at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.After an opening filled with fraternal joy, the brothers soon reverted to type. For the rest of the set they stood about 30 feet apart and barely glanced at each other. Liam, 52, wearing a black rain jacket, clasped his hands behind his back as he sang upward toward the microphone. Noel, 58, dressed in a blue shirt, stared at his guitar in concentration.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Kesha Seeks a Chaotic Love, and 9 More New Songs

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      Hear tracks by Foo Fighters, Ethel Cain, Tyler Childers and others.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.Kesha, ‘Red Flag.’Now that Kesha’s lawsuits and record-company contracts are in the past, her first independently released album, “. (Period),” doubles down on her persona as an unruly, thrill-seeking party girl who wants what she wants. In the peppy “Red Flag,” she welcomes chaos and complication over boredom. “I need a certain kind of chemical / It’s dangerous and unforgettable,” she sings, with an edge of Auto-Tune. The track revs up a combination of synth-pop pulsation and hand-clapping trance buildups, an adrenaline rush of romantic disaster.J.I.D. featuring Eminem, ‘Animals (Pt. 1)’The Atlanta rapper J.I.D. — born Destin Route — zooms through a barrage of syllables in the virtuosic “Animals (Pt. 1).” It’s a breakneck boast that juggles rhyme schemes and percussive flows with casual precision: “I’m good at my job / It’s not a walk in the park ’cause I’m in a metropolis / I’m lost in a thought but escaping the darkness.” J.I.D. is confident enough to split the track with a past master of enunciation and internal rhymes, Eminem. He pivots the production from eerily electronic to orchestral, without lessening the beats per minute or syllables per second.Foo Fighters, ‘Today’s Song’“Today’s Song,” the first new Foo Fighters song since 2023, starts as an elegy, then explodes into an exhortation to persevere. “Two sides to a river,” Dave Grohl sings as drums and power chords come crashing in, and, later, “We’ll drown in the middle / Which side are you on?” It’s the band’s latest earnest, uplifting hard-rock anthem, and despite a few rhyming-dictionary lyrics, the feeling comes through.The Reds, Pinks and Purples, ‘What’s the Worst Thing You Heard’The Reds, Pinks and Purples, from San Francisco, merge the 1960s and the 1980s at their most dejected. They share the ringing picked guitars of folk-rock with the bitter tunefulness of the Smiths and the Go-Betweens. On their new album, “The Past Is a Garden I Never Fed,” the song titles are a checklist of pessimism, from artistic careers to life choices: “The World Doesn’t Need Another Band,” “You’re Never Safe from Yourself,” “No One Absolves Us in the End.” In “What’s the Worst Thing You Heard?,” rising chords disguise dimming expectations; “I know we’re going to crash,” Glenn Donaldson sings, unconsoled by a brisk beat and a pretty guitar pattern.Ethel Cain, ‘___ Me Eyes’In the new single from Ethel Cain’s album due in August, “Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You,” she sings about a troubled fast girl from a small town, potentially a romantic rival in the album’s narrative. “She’s got her makeup done and her high heels on,” the singer observes. “She goes to church straight from the clubs / They say she looks just like her mama before the drugs.” The track’s pulsing synthesizers echo the 1981 Kim Carnes hit “Bette Davis Eyes,” which Cain has covered on tour. But unlike the casual seductress in that song, Cain’s character grows tearful behind her bravado. “They all want to take her out / But no one ever wants to take her home,” Cain wails in a surge of sympathy.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Faces Not Just a Sentencing, but a Host of Civil Cases

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      The music mogul, convicted on lesser charges at his federal trial, has been accused of sexually assaulting people in dozens of suits. He has denied the allegations.The federal trial of Sean Combs ended on Wednesday with the media mogul acquitted on the most serious charges, but while Mr. Combs remains in jail and awaits sentencing for charges of transporting prostitutes, he also faces ongoing civil lawsuits.There are more than 50 lawsuits accusing him of sexual abuse, the majority of which are based in New York. The accusations date as far back as the 1990s and include allegations of druggings and rapes, often at parties. The plaintiffs are a mix of men and women, and at least a dozen say Mr. Combs sexually assaulted them when they were minors. Many of the suits were filed anonymously.In a statement following the verdict, Erica Wolff, a civil lawyer who represents Mr. Combs, said the outcome helped prove “what we have been saying about the civil cases since day one: they are all fabricated attempts to extort windfall payments from an innocent man.”“Mr. Combs never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone,” she said. “From the beginning, we have vigorously defended against the civil plaintiffs’ made-up claims with full confidence that Mr. Combs would prevail in the criminal case, and he did.”But now the question becomes whether evidence from the criminal case could find a way into the civil suits in ways that could affect their outcomes. Mr. Combs was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy during the criminal trial, but he was found to have engaged in transportation to move escorts over state lines for the purposes of prostitution.Still, there was a lot of testimony that he was repeatedly violent to a former girlfriend and used drugs in sexual situations.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Lawrence Power Wants You to Pay Attention to the Viola

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      Lawrence Power’s instrument has been overlooked throughout its history. He has made a career of changing that.Hector Berlioz’s “Harold in Italy” is full of wandering. In his memoirs he wrote that, through this symphony with viola obbligato, based on the mood of Lord Byron’s poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” and inspired by the composer’s unfruitful time in Italy, he sought to make the viola “a kind of melancholy dreamer.”The violist Lawrence Power has spent his whole career playing “Harold in Italy.” But, he said in an interview, he has always been “completely uncomfortable and just confused by the whole piece.” It’s essentially a symphony, but completely different from a conventional one, with a viola solo part that drifts in and out of the action. Berlioz “obviously had something in mind to have the viola separate from the orchestra,” Power said, guessing that the composer “had something theatrical in mind.”In a dramatized performance of “Harold in Italy” with Aurora Orchestra at the Southbank Center in London late last month, Power leaned into that wandering, theatrical spirit, something that has also become a hallmark of his recent work. After whistling the piece’s idée fixe, or recurring theme, while strolling from a raised platform amid the ensemble, Power recited searching sections of Berlioz’s memoirs and wandered through the auditorium, playing sections of the obbligato part with a distant, slightly aloof expression.This is just another idiosyncratic project by Power, somebody who has championed the viola for the past 25 years, with a particular focus on new work. He’s not alone: Viola soloists often have to become champions for their instrument, which has been underappreciated throughout its history.“There’s no defined idea of what a viola is,” Power said.Kalpesh Lathigra for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Crumbl’s Benson Boone ‘Moonbeam Ice Cream’ Cookies Are a Hit

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      With help from social media, Crumbl’s Benson Boone-inspired Moonbeam Ice Cream has received an extended run.If the singer Benson Boone were a cookie, he’d taste, in this reporter’s opinion, unpleasant. The flavor would be cloyingly sweet and frosted with notes of lemon, berry and an unnameable processed aftertaste that lingers on the tongue as if you’ve just woken up and have yet to brush your teeth.Or, at the very least, that’s what a Crumbl cookie inspired by one of Mr. Boone’s songs tastes like.Still, that hasn’t stopped people from popping into the nearest Crumbl — of which there are more than 1,000 locations across the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada — to purchase Benson Boone’s Moonbeam Ice Cream Cookie, a collaboration between the sweet treat company and the artist.Mr. Boone, a singer who quit “American Idol” in 2021 and found mainstream fame soon after, is perhaps best known for backflipping off pianos in tight jumpsuits while performing his hit “Beautiful Things.” (Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, borrowed the particular blue, sequined suit Mr. Boone wore for the 2025 Grammy Awards while he serenaded his wife at her birthday party earlier this year. He did not do a backflip.)Benson Boone is perhaps best known for backflipping during performances.Mario Anzuoni/Reuters“Mystical Magical,” another song by Mr. Boone, was the inspiration for the cookie thanks to the lyric “you can feel like moonbeam ice cream, taking off your bluejeans.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Alternate Juror at the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Trial: ‘I Understand’ the Verdict

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      A Manhattan man who did not deliberate but heard all 28 days of testimony said in an interview that he was not persuaded by the prosecution’s case.An alternate juror in Sean Combs’s federal trial said in an interview that he agreed with the jury’s verdict, which found the music mogul not guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. Combs was convicted of two counts of a lesser charge, transportation to engage in prostitution, and remains detained while he awaits sentencing.“I understand how my fellow jurors came to that conclusion,” the alternate, a Manhattan man named George, said in an interview on Thursday with The New York Times.As an alternate, George was not present for the deliberations by the jury of eight men and four women who reached the verdict, though he was seated in the jury box for the entirety of the case, and said he took some 350 pages of notes.He described the panel as a collegial group that ate lunches together and followed the judge’s rules not to discuss the case until they had been told to decide on a verdict.The jury reached its verdict on Wednesday morning after about 13 and a half hours of deliberations.The jurors in the case were granted anonymity by the judge to protect their privacy in a high-profile trial. The Times is publishing only George’s first name because of his concern that he might face harassment. No other jurors have spoken publicly about the case.To corroborate George’s identity, The Times examined public records and his social media accounts, and questioned him about his answers to the judge during the public jury-selection process. He also shared an image of the juror badge given to him by the court.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’s Winning Defense: He’s Abusive, but He’s Not a Racketeer

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      In defusing much of the government’s case, lawyers for the music mogul did not dispute that he did bad things. They disputed that they matched the crimes he was charged with.Over 28 days of testimony, federal prosecutors called witnesses who gave compelling accounts of harrowing violence, acts of intimidation and voyeuristic sex in hotel rooms with oceans of baby oil. Sean Combs, they said, was the ringleader.Investigators detailed for the jury raids at Mr. Combs’s mansions in Miami Beach, Fla., and Los Angeles, where they carted away several AR-15-style guns and illicit narcotics. People who worked for Mr. Combs, the music mogul known as Puffy Daddy or Diddy, testified that they had procured drugs for him or had witnessed his physical abuse of a former girlfriend.In the face of this evidence, the defense presented a case that lasted less than half an hour. Mr. Combs declined to testify, and no other witnesses were called. The rapid turnaround was startling after six weeks of trial.But in retrospect, the defense’s compact case was a sign that Mr. Combs’s lawyers felt confident the government had not done enough to convince a federal jury that Mr. Combs was, as charged, the boss of a criminal enterprise.That confidence had appeared to waver on Tuesday afternoon, when eight of Mr. Combs’s lawyers somberly huddled near their client after jurors said they had reached a verdict on all but the racketeering charge. But those same lawyers turned jubilant on Wednesday after the jury declared Mr. Combs not guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy — the two most severe charges against him.While Mr. Combs’s convictions on two lesser counts of transportation to engage in prostitution could result in his spending years in prison, sex-trafficking or racketeering convictions would have carried potential life sentences.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Reacting to the Sean Combs Verdict

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicOn Wednesday, the eight-week trial of Sean Combs came to a close with a mixed verdict. Mr. Combs was found guilty on two counts of transporting people for prostitution and was acquitted of the remaining charges of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.The result was widely seen as a victory for the music mogul, who was facing the possibility of life in prison if convicted on all charges.On this week’s Popcast, a conversation about the strategies of the prosecution and the defense throughout the trial; how Mr. Combs has molded tragedy into tales of triumphing over personal adversity throughout his career; and about what avenues of public rehabilitation might now be available to him. Guests:Joe Coscarelli, New York Times music reporterConnect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show’s Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@nytimes.com. Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. More