Tame Impala frontman Kevin Parker has teased big happenings in the near future, seeming to confirm a new record with his latest social media update.

Taking to Instagram on Saturday (July 13), Parker uploaded a series of images which captured his last few months. Captioned with the phrase “Been busy,” the collection showed pictures depicting Parker with friends and family, behind-the-scenes shots of the promotional video for his Orchid musical “ideas machine,” and snaps of him surrounded by music-making equipment both in and out of the studio.

The last image, however, showed a whiteboard which ostensibly has been used to track the progress of the next Tame Impala album. Notably, all tracks included in the image are listed as “Done.”

The photographic update comes a matter of weeks after Parker previewed new Tame Impala material during a surprise DJ set at Barcelona’s Nitsa Club. “You guys want to hear a new song? “You want to hear a new Tame Impala song?” he asked the crowd. “You’re going to be the first ones to hear it, you realize? There’s no going back from this point on, you realize?”

As it stands, it’s been five years since the last full-length release from Tame Impala. In February 2020, The Slow Rush became the project’s fourth studio record, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard 200. This was one position higher than the previous album, 2015’s Currents, which served as a commercial breakthrough for Parker.

In the time since the last record, Parker has been busy with myriad other projects. In 2023, second album Lonerism would receive a tenth anniversary reissue, and would be followed by the release of the track “Journey to the Real World” for the Barbie soundtrack.

Additionally, Tame Impala would also be credited with remixes of songs from Crowded House and Elvis Presley, and would appear as a guest artist on cuts from Diana Ross and Gorillaz. 

In 2024, Parker would serve as a producer and guest musician for Dua Lipa‘s Radical Optimism album, and would also serve as a guest artist on two tracks from French outfit Justice‘s Hyperdrama album. One of those collaborations, “Neverender,” would see Parker win his first Grammy for best dance/electronic recording in 2025.

Most recently, Justice also announced a series of Australian tour dates for December 2025, with a Tame Impala DJ set listed as the main support alongside Busy P.

As rumors swirl regarding a new album from prog-rock icons King Crimson, the band’s manager has urged fans not to get too excited about the prospect.

News of a fresh record from the English outfit first came to light last week when guitarist Jakko Jakszyk spoke to Goldmine Magazine about his recent solo album, and his joining King Crimson back in 2013.

“It was an amazing thing to have done, and in a way, part of it’s still happening. As we speak, we’re doing a King Crimson studio album,” Jakszyk admitted.

“When that will come out and what format or how—that’s beyond my brief. But yeah, we’ve been doing it piecemeal, and then a couple of months ago, the management said, ‘Can we?’ So, yeah. I’ve been recording that with a view to it coming out in some format at some point. But who knows when?”

Word of a potential new album from the veteran group undoubtedly came as a surprise to many, especially given that King Crimson was viewed as having effectively come to an end following the completion of their 2021 tour dates.

In the wake of mounting speculation, manager David Singleton took to social media to respond to the claims that King Crimson have been in the studio. 

“Addressing this very question before he died, Bill Rieflin posed the excellent question ‘why make a studio album? There are excellent live recordings of all the songs out there already,’” Singleton wrote.

“One possible answer would be an album the very sound of which no-one has ever heard before. A sound driven by the three drummers. And it is true that those drummers have now recorded studio versions of their parts – separately, so that there is perfect separation.

“So there is indeed the seed of a new recording,” he continued. “Whether it is an album, whether it sees the light of day, whether it is something else is unknown. As is the outcome of any creative process.

“So yes, recordings have taken place. We are building a new studio, and when it is complete I am looking forward to seeing what may, or may not, exist. Getting excited about the possibility of a new album, as has been happening in some quarters, is however somewhat premature. Carts before horses.”

King Crimson was initially formed in 1968 by Robert Fripp, Ian McDonald, Greg Lake, Michael Giles, and Peter Sinfiel, with the band releasing their debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King the following year.

Initially disbanding in 1974 after seven albums, further reunions would take place throughout the ’80s and ’90s, with the group’s most recent record, The Power to Believe, arriving in 2003. 

At the time of their last dissolution, in December 2021, Fripp remained the only continuous member from the original lineup, telling Rolling Stone the following year that future tours from the band would only take place “If I knew for certainty that King Crimson touring was the only way to prevent World War III.”

When Emmanuel Kelly was 11 years old, he put a note on his mirror that he looked at every day manifesting his dream of sharing a stage with Coldplay. And now, after checking that bucket-list item off after opening for the band in his native Australia last year on their Music of the Spheres Tour, the singer who first rose to prominence with a breathtaking cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine” on The X Factor Australia in 2011 has ticked off another major lifetime goal.

“It’s pretty extraordinary,” Kelly told Billboard a few days before performing with Coldplay at Sunday’s (July 13) 2025 FIFA Club World Cup final halftime show. Kelly, who was found in a box in a park during the height of the Iraq War as a baby, severely injured by chemical warfare, is the first differently abled pop artist to perform at a halftime show, and he is more than happy to take credit for blazing that trail.

“It’s a market that has never been represented on this scale and someone always has to be the first and for me to be that is a sign of the times,” he said of singing alongside fellow pop icons Tems, J Balvin and Doja Cat and duetting on”Sky Full of Stars” with Coldplay from the roof of MetLife Stadium in New Jersey during the match between Chelsea FC and Paris Saint-Germain.

Billboard chatted with Kelly about the halftime show curated by Coldplay singer Chris Martin — co-produced by Global Citizen, in partnership with Live Nation, Done+Dusted and DPS — and how he turned his childhood dream into a globetrotting reality.

This is the first time a person with a disability will headline a global event or halftime show of this magnitude. How does that feel to hear that?

Extraordinary… the wall and barriers are breaking down and we’re living in a society that recognizes that talent is talent and a gift is a gift. It’s an honor and a privilege and I feel like the luckiest person in the world. I’m a huge fan of FIFA and a huge fan of people being seen for who they are and I get to show that to 2.5 billion people on Sunday.

Have to ask, what’s your team?

I’m a Chelsea fan in general, but for a long time I was a Real Madrid CF fan, but I felt they got too rich and got too many players. But I’m also a fan of players and I gravitate towards individuals who are awesome human beings in whatever form, because all humans have the capability to be great.

Talk about performing with Tems, J Balvin, Doja Cat and Coldplay at the Club World Cup final. That’s a pretty epic stage to be on for what will likely be most of the world’s first exposure to you.

It’s not bad. I like to say they’re all taking the lineup with me. [Laughs] I’ve been a huge fan of J Balvin since he globally popped on the scene 10 years ago and I’m a big Latin music fan in general. Reggaeton was going to be a start for me at one point. … I’ve done a few Latin tours. Doja, she’s a class act and has this unassuming nature but is so cool and vibey. And then Tems, I’ll be honest, I was new to her music until Chris introduced me to her. I’m in love, she has a really cool vibe. I’m in great company with Chris, though I’m not even sure why he’s singing with me. [Laughs] He should be grateful he’s allowed to sing with me.

How did you end up on this bill? What’s your relationship with Chris?

He’s a brother to me. It started in 2016 when we first met.

What was the connection?

Energy, positivity, love. I’m a believer that everything in this universe has its way and there are random acts, but those acts lead to cause and reaction. Where Chris was at in his life and his career and where I was at in my life and career created a random act and the cause of that was Chris learning about me and the reaction was Chris taking action to want to meet me and become my mentor. I told him he’s been an inspiration to me since I was a little kid. One of the first songs I learned when I came to Australia [at 8-years-old Kelly and his brother were brought to Australia by humanitarian Moira Kelly and underwent life-saving surgeries] and could barely speak English was [Coldplay’s breakthrough 2000 hit] “Yellow.” I can only shine so bright, but everybody’s brightness shines because they have electricity around them that fires those bulbs and lights them up.

What was the spark from Chris?

Chris has an electricity that allows me to shine as bright as I can be and he has people around him who do that for him and now we kind of do that for each other. When I was 11-years-old I put a sign on my mirror and looked at it every day and it said I would tour with Coldplay one day. During a dark time when I was homeless in L.A. and lost hope and love for myself, I found a way out by remembering all the good in my life. I let go of ego and pride and asked for help and I took that sign from when I was a kid and put it on the wall again and said, “this dream cannot end.” [Coldplay’s] “Yellow” was the first song I ever learned, before “Imagine,” and I sang it to my mom, who had no idea who they were. Chris is an extraordinary individual who has an electricity that fires a lot of people up. I was going around Hollywood asking everyone — from Snoop Dogg and the Quincy Jones camp to random Joe Blows — if they knew Chris Martin. I asked 1,500 people in the span of six months and the 1,499th person connected me with Dr. Habib Sadeghi [co-founder with Martin of the Love Button Global Movement]. He said “it will happen when it’s supposed to happen.”

You opened four shows in Sydney with Coldplay last year and now you’re jumping up to the biggest stage there is, so describe the plans for the FIFA gig.

Chris will be coming out as my special guest, even though it was all planned by him! [Laughs] We will come together to sing “Sky Full of Stars,” which is a beautiful sentiment for anyone who wants to reach out to the stars and grab them. I believe that this will be one of the greatest halftime shows from a spectacle point of view we’ve ever seen. The way the MetLife stage is set up we’re on the third floor up on the roof and singing in the sky.

You’ve achieved so much against such major odds. If you had a message for other aspiring singers, of whatever ability, what would you tell them?

Be your version of an outlier. Be an outlier and don’t be afraid to be different. Being different is cool. I’ve had labels and execs and shows turn me down because I’m an outlier, and that’s never stopped me. Don’t complain about the situation; fix it yourself. If you don’t like how things are rolling, do something about it. Be the change. You be the change and be the best version of yourself and don’t be afraid to be different.

The KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack climbs 3-2 on the Billboard 200 chart dated July 19 — a new peak — in its third week on the list. The set earned 75,000 equivalent album units (up 21%) in the United States in the tracking week ending July 10, according to Luminate. It’s the first soundtrack to debut in the top 10 on the Billboard 200 and then see unit increases in its second and third weeks since the Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2: Awesome Mix Vol. 2 album in 2017.

In the 2020s, only four soundtracks have reached the top two on the Billboard 200: KPop Demon Hunters, Wicked (which debuted and peaked at No. 2 in 2024), Barbie (also No. 2 debut and peak, in 2023) and Encanto (nine weeks at No. 1 in 2022).

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new July 19, 2025-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard’s website on July 15

Of the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack’s 75,000 units earned in its third week, SEA units comprise 70,000 (up 24%, equaling 96.33 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs — it holds at No. 2 on Top Streaming Albums), album sales comprise 4,000 (down 6% — it rises 21-9 on Top Album Sales) and TEA units comprise 1,000 (up 6%). (The album continues to only be available to purchase as a digital download album. A CD edition of the album is due in August, while a vinyl edition is slated for an October release.)

As the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack racked up 96.33 million streams for its songs in its third week, it scores the biggest streaming week for a soundtrack in more three years. The last soundtrack to post a bigger streaming figure was Encanto, on the March 12, 2022-dated chart, when it rang up 101.16 million streams for its songs in its eighth week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

KPop Demon Hunters premiered on June 20 in a limited theatrical release in the U.S., and on Netflix, alongside its soundtrack release. In the tracking week ending July 6, KPop Demon Hunters held at No. 2 in its third week on Netflix’s Top 10 Movies in United States chart.