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Fall is here, but that doesn’t mean you have to retire your beloved dresses.

Quite the opposite, actually according to Jessica Simpson. The celeb-run brand just dropped a bunch of new fall offerings including a slew of unique dresses at Walmart that are available to shop now. We scoured through the selection, picking out six that we think are must-haves for the season. We’re talking leopard-printed minis along with florals, bell sleeves and lace-trimmed accents that’ll put your summer dresses to shame.

The best part? Every dress we picked out is under $50, proving you don’t have to break the bank to look and feel good. These styles are great for work, dates or coffee with your girls. No matter which dress you choose, they’ve all got thay coveted Simpson stamp of approval. Keep reading to shop our favorite dresses from Jessica Simpson’s fall line at Walmart.

Leopard is just one of those patterns that screams fall. Safe to say you’ll be seeing a lot of this wild design this season. To get on top of the trend, we’d recommend shopping this Jessica Simpson Women’s Velvet Popover Shift Dress for $32.50. Sizing ranges from XS to XL.

The silhouette leans more summer than fall, what with the short sleeves and equally short skirt. However, the leopard print brings us back to cool days with fallen leaves under our boots, sipping a PSL. The pattern is approachable and easier to style because the colorscheme is all neutrals. To really emphasize those fall vibes, we’d likely style this dress with fringy suede boots in black or brown with a dark wash denim jacket layered overtop for warmth and style.

Jessica Simpson Burgundy Lace Fit + Flare Dress for $31.92 is a more dramatic option, but one we can see our readers getting a lot of miles out of, especially for formal occasions. The dress is only offered in a single size, size eight, or a medium. The piece sits above-the-knee and comes in a deep burgundy fabric.

It consists of a high neckline that gives way to a keyhole cut-out and dramatic sheer bell sleeves. To break up the monochrome burgundy hue, black lace paneling is affixed to the bodice. Dramatic sheer paneling can be seen throughout. The style is almost gothic or witchy and would look best with a classic black leather stiletto pump. To dress it down, suede ballet flats might do the trick.

Jessica Simpson Women’s Plus Phoebe Maxi Dress for $40 is another leopard number that we think screams fall. This is a plus-size option, with sizing ranging from 2X to 4X. The dress is a maxi length with quarter sleeves that gives way to tie detailing on the front and a flattering tiered skirt. This flowy option can be styled both casually and for formal occasions, a very versatile trait to have for new wardrobe additions.

Wearing this dress to grab coffee with friends or heading out to the pumpkin patch to pick out the perfect jack-o’-lantern? Low-top sneakers in white or burgundy would look great. Or how about wearing this to Thanksgiving dinner with the in-laws? We’d suggest styling the piece with ankle-length bootie or heeled Mary Janes to impress that stubborn monster-in-law.

Florals aren’t usually the first thing we think of when fall comes around, however this Jessica Simpson Women’s Leah Ruched Mini Dress is an exception. Retailing for $32.50, the dress comes in sizes XS to XL and features a black background with a pink floral pattern throughout. The colorway, despite the flowers, is what makes us think of fall.

The hues are deep and rich (yes even the pink), colors that are best suited for the season. while the dress’ silhouette is rather summery, it can be used as a layering piece under cozy jackets and over tights or worn on it’s own for those unseasonably warm days. Taking a page from Simpson’s style book, we’d wear this dress with knee-high boots in black, alongside a cropped leather jacket and a boho-esque wide-brimmed hat.

Simple and easy to throw on. Those are our favorite kinds of dresses, and this Jessica Simpson Women’s Adalle Denim Tiered Short Dress for $19.81, certainly fits the bill. The dress is another plus size option with sizes 1X through 5X. This piece is a tiered style in black with short but voluminous sleeves, a v-neckline and a bow tie detail fixed to the bodice. The Adalle can be styled numerous ways because it’s so simple, making it a great addition to your closet, especially if you’re experiencing decision fatigue. For a casual moment, we’d wear this dress with sneakers in black or a cream or taupe Chelsea boot.

Paisley print is a classic. The design is timeless and draws the eye. This Jessica Simpson Womens Paisley Short Mini Dress for $32.42 is a great example of paisley print done right. Sizing options for this dress are medium and large. The paisley offering comes with all the makings of a top-notch dress. You’ve got billowing bell sleeves, a subtle but whimsical paisley print, and a relaxed fit that’s just as comfy as sweatpants. Ankle boots of any kind in neutral hues would look great with this dress including Chelsea styles or something with a block or platform heel (Simpson’s favorite).

Are you ready to press Play? As fall unofficially starts and the kids settle back into their school routines and studies, musicians from across the spectrum of genres have dropped new music this Friday (Sept. 12) to help soundtrack the new season and year in academics.

Among them are four-time Grammy winner Ed Sheeran, who has released his eighth studio album, Play. The 13-track release, which marks the start of a new project series after he wrapped the five-album Mathematics collection, includes lead single “Azizam” (which debuted and peaked at No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April) and “Old Phone” (No. 89). The album finds the musician exploring global sounds (as on the first single) as well as nostalgia (the aforementioned “Phone” as well as “Heaven”).

“Play was an album that was made as a direct response to the darkest period of my life,” Sheeran explained on social media ahead of the album’s release. “Coming out of all of that I just wanted to create joy and technicolour, and explore cultures in the countries I was touring. It’s a real rollercoaster of emotions from start to finish”

Like Sheeran, Drake also finds himself going back in time, in a way. In his new track “Dog House” featuring Yeat and Julia Wolf, the rapper not only rhymes about money, sex and power, but also references the chorus of his Hot 100 10-week No. 1 hit “One Dance” in his verse: “Just like Drizzy said, I just need one dance, baby.”

The megastars of pop and hip-hop weren’t the only ones to release new music this week. Alt-rock band Twenty One Pilots offered up new album Breach, while Colombian-American artist Kali Uchis teamed up with Billboard‘s 2025 R&B Rookie of the Year Ravyn Lenae for “Cry About It!,” while dance Star John Summit delivered emotional head-bopper “Crystallized” with Inéz, and Little Mix’s Jade Thirlwall offered up her debut solo album, That’s Showbiz Baby!

Which new music release this week is your favorite? Vote in our poll below!

Four minutes into the upcoming documentary Rick Nelson: Guntersville, we’re shown a modern restaurant with brick walls, pizza-eating customers, wandering waitresses and a TV on the wall tuned to sports. This is a crucial location: the site of PJ’s Alley, where Nelson performed his final set, closing with Buddy Holly’s “Rave On,” before boarding his DC-3 at the Guntersville, Ala., airport, then crashing en route to a 1985 New Year’s Eve gig in Dallas.

The film, directed by Nelson fan Kenny Scott Guffey, an indie filmmaker who made 2022’s A Night of the Undead, illuminates the rockabilly pioneer’s career by focusing on Guntersville, a city of about 9,000 people, many of whom remain obsessed with the local tragedy. “‘Haunted’ is a good word,” Guffey says. “They had just seen him a few hours before, playing on stage, alive and vibrant and happy, and everything was good — then, boom, they had the rug pulled out from under them. It’s definitely something that still affects them, as a town.”

Nelson, who died at 45, is the film’s subject, but it’s not a traditional documentary. Early on, Guffey breezes through classic clips of The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, the ’50s and ‘60s TV show that made Nelson a teen idol, before featuring footage of him as a country star with hits like 1972’s “Garden Party.” However, the film is far more interested in the Guntersville characters who encountered the star just before his death: bandmates of the late Pat Upton, a longtime Nelson collaborator who opened the fateful concert; the club owner’s wife; and several fans who attended. The film lingers on an actor wearing Upton’s gold jacket — stamped with “Rick Nelson” and “Capitol Records” — which Lynn Upton, Pat’s widow, loaned to the production.

The subjects of Rick Nelson: Guntersville remain shellshocked 40 years after the crash that killed Nelson, his fiancée, Helen Blair, and five musicians who performed with his Stone Canyon Band. “Nothing like that had ever happened to our small town before,” one interviewee says.

Guffey’s original idea for the film was an “almost cinema verite or voyeuristic approach,” in which he would travel to Guntersville and observe locations that were meaningful to Nelson in his final days. But after vacationing with his wife for their anniversary in June 2024, they detoured from Florida to their Somerset, Ky., home. They had an early dinner at Pizza Ed, formerly PJ’s Alley, and, Guffey recalls, “I happened to look over that main room, where they have all their tables and booths and everyone eats. A portion of the stage was still there in the corner, and I’m like, ‘No fricking way. That’s the stage. That’s the stage.’”

Later, Guffey contacted the editor of The Advertiser-Gleam, Guntersville’s newspaper, who put him in touch with reporter Sara Watkins. She introduced him to local sources, provided historical context and came onto the film as a producer. “It changed the game,” he says. 

“I envisioned it as kind of lame compared to what it turned into.”

The film’s most emotional moments come at the end, when Guffey juxtaposes 1985 media footage with new local interviews to piece together the chronology of Nelson’s plane crash. Some were present at the airport before the flight, like Tim Hammond, who played keyboards with Upton in opening band Headline, helped load the Nelson group’s gear onto the plane and hung around the airport before departure: “I had this eerie feeling that something… was wrong,” Hammond recalls in the film. Lynn Upton adds that her husband begged Nelson not to take the flight, then returned home and said, ‘I don’t feel good about this at all.” 

The plane’s two pilots were the only survivors. “The town was in shock for days afterwards,” one broadcaster says.

Adds Hammond, in the film: “That night was a very sad night. It’s something [that] weighed pretty heavy with me for a long time. Still does, when I think about it.”

Rick Nelson: Guntersville also contains a lengthy recollection with two non-Guntersville residents, Dorothy Knight, whose late husband was longtime Nelson songwriter Baker Knight, and their daughter, Tuesday Knight, an ’80s pop singer and actress who appeared in two A Nightmare On Elm Street sequels. They talk mostly about Baker’s own tragic life — although media outlets reported he died of “natural causes” at age 72, in 2005, Tuesday Knight says in the film: “He shot himself.” This segment has little to do with Guntersville, but Guffey found it so poignant that he kept all of it in the film for an alternate “extended cut” for YouTube.

Guffey will premiere the film Sunday (Sept. 14) in Guntersville, projecting it on the stage where Nelson played his final show. The film’s distributor, Bayview Entertainment, plans to release the film on streaming services “later in the year,” according to Guffey. He contacted reps for Nelson’s twin sons, Gunnar and Matthew, who were in the hit ’90s duo Nelson, about the film, and received a “hey, they let them know” response. “I was like, ‘I’m going to quit bothering them,’” Guffey says. The film uses snippets of Nelson video performances over the years, plus a clip of Bob Dylan covering “Garden Party” earlier this year, citing the fair-use doctrine in U.S. copyright law in the film’s closing credits.

As a teenager, Guffey, now 37, first learned about Nelson from a magazine, relating to the star’s Ozzie & Harriet beginnings as a “pseudo-reality show before there was reality TV.” He became a fan of the show, concluding the child star could have been far bigger had he not had the misfortune of coming out at the same time as Elvis Presley, and later the British Invasion. “His story had always fascinated me,” Guffey says, then adds of his film: “I hope that it gets Rick some more recognition that he deserves.”

Ed Sheeran made a bit of history on Friday morning (Sept. 12) when he played the first-ever livestreamed NPR Tiny Desk concert of this scale to celebrate the release of his eighth album, Play. Taking to the office with his trusty loop pedal set-up, a keyboard and acoustic guitar, Sheeran got right down to business and proved he was in the moment by asking, “is it live now?”

Wearing a pink shirt cued to the color of the album cover, Sheeran first explained to the crowd how the loop rig works before bringing up a sample on his keyboard and playing the new album track “Sapphire.” Layering in a guitar bit, banging on his acoustic to drop in a beat and recording his own backing vocals, Sheeran quickly built what sounded like full backing band accompaniment as he crooned the song’s keening chorus, “The lights, your face, your eyes/ Exploding like fireworks in the sky/ Sapphire!” and busted into the rap-like verses.

Sheeran recalled that he’d visited the Desk before, though it was during COVID, so he filmed it remotely in a house in upstate New York, or maybe Jersey. “It’s kinda mad being here and seeing the actual desk, it’s great,” he said, thanking the NPR staff for showing up to the place they already work to see him.

Warning the rapt audience that he’d only played the second selection once before on loop pedal and asking for forgiveness in advance in case he messed up, Sheeran proceeded to do just that and start over. Plucking a bluesy figure on his acoustic, Sheeran then smoothly leaned into the lyrics to the Play bad break-up single, “A Little More.”

“You think I was born to ruin your life/ But you did most of that before I arrived,” he sang over a spare, strummy background before sliding into the stinging falsetto chorus, “I used to love you/
Now every day I hate you just a little more/ Life got better when I lost you/ But every day I hate you just a little more and more and more.”

“The Desk has always been about breaking down the walls between artist and audience,” said Bobby Carter, the series producer and host said in a statement released before the episode. “With this livestream, we’re taking that intimacy worldwide. And trust me — Ed Sheeran is going to make history.”

Though by now he’s used to playing for tens of thousands of screaming fans in stadiums around the world, Sheeran admitted to being “a little nervous” to perform for the modest crowd of public radio staffers. “I don’t usually get nervous, but this is fun,” he said.

He then set aside the loop pedal for a run through the new album track “Camera,” a moving acoustic ballad about the beauty we can’t always see in ourselves. “You should see the way the stars illuminate your stunning silhouette/ You’re glowing in the dark/ I had to count to ten and take a breath/ You think that you don’t have/ Beauty and abundance but you do/ And that’s the truth,” he crooned.

The chorus was a heart-swelling expression of true love, with Sheeran singing, “I don’t need a camera to capture this moment/ I’ll remember how you look tonight for all my life/ When everything is black and white, your color’s exploding/ There’s somethin’ in the way you shine/ I don’t need a camеra when you’re in my eyеs.”

Before his final song, Sheeran took time to thank NPR for letting his use his loop pedal, saying he could count “on one hand” the amount of times other American media outlets allowed him to schlep in his trusty rig in place of a full live band. The set ended with the first Play single, the skittery “Azizam,” which he recreated via a thumping bass keyboard backing track and layers of acoustic guitars and backing vocals.

Sheeran is gearing up to take his Play show on the road with upcoming December stadium Loop Tour shows in Europe in December, followed by a run of gigs in Australia and New Zealand in January, February and March. At press time no U.S. dates have been announced for the Loop Tour.

Watch Sheeran’s Tiny Desk show below.

Billboard Japan caught up with ORANGE RANGE for its Monthly Feature interview series spotlighting currently noteworthy artists and works. The five-man J-pop band is soon celebrating its 25th anniversary and showering fans with a string of releases both nostalgic and new.

On July 2 — a Japanese numeric pun, as “7/2” can be read as “natsu,” meaning summer — the band hailing from Okinawa dropped a brand-new music video for one of its signature hits called “Ikenai Taiyo”（”Naughty Sun”). The updated “Reiwa”

version visuals star the popular comedy duo Mayurika, who previously referenced lyrics from OR’s hit “Shanghai Honey” in their routine, and feature 72 Japanese throwback pop-culture references from the aughts, a period that falls under the country’s Heisei era. The comic video resonated with Japan’s thirty to forty-something demographic that grew up on the pop band’s hits, topping the Billboard Japan’s video views metric for two consecutive weeks and continuing to chart in the upper ranks today. 

Additionally, the group’s “Oshare Bancho feat. Soy Sauce” is going viral on TikTok, with numerous influencers, idols, and other celebrities posting dance videos set to this song from 2008. ORANGE RANGE’s current resurgence in mainstream popularity, where people from all generations are responding to the band’s highly addictive pop music, can be attributed not only to the strength of the songs themselves but also to the success of Sony Music’s strategy after reuniting with the band.

Back in July 2010, OR established its own independent imprint called SUPER((ECHO))LABEL, continuing its music activities independently in recent years. The band returned to Sony Music Records in May and dropped its first CD single from the label in about 12 years called “Maji de sekai kaechau 5 byou mae.” Currently promoting its Natsui Natsu★Project (roughly meaning “Summery Summer Project”), the band is hyping up the summer of “Reiwa 7” (2025) with signature party tracks including “Hadashi no ceccoli.” The members and label staff chatted with Billboard Japan about their thoughts behind the band’s latest project with SMR and series of releases in this latest interview.

“Ikenai Taiyo” from 2007 was featured as the theme song for the TV drama series Hana-Kimi and became one of your signature tracks, partly due to the popularity of the show. How do you view its resurgence in the summer of 2025?

RYO: Looking at the comments on YouTube’s THE FIRST TAKE and our music videos, I think the core audience is probably in their 30s, and it really hit home just how many people were listening to our songs. Then the teenagers and 20-somethings who see those comments realize that those were the people who used to listen to ORANGE RANGE back in the day, and that’s a very modern phenomenon. It wasn’t really a thing when we first made our debut, so it genuinely makes me happy.

NAOTO: I have a personal anecdote related to this. I got a LINE message out of nowhere from a relative, a kid in high school, who hadn’t spoken to me at all until last New Year’s. And this kid was like, “I never knew ‘Oshare Bancho feat. Soy Sauce’ was a song you did, Uncle.” I didn’t want to pry too much, so I just replied, “Thanks.” [Laughs] 

YAMATO: Honestly, I’m really happy about it. But we haven’t really changed what we’ve been doing. We’re currently riding the wave and experiencing firsthand what it means to go viral, but intend to continue doing what we do and should do, as we always have.

HIROKI: While it wasn’t just a sudden, spontaneous phenomenon and there was definitely a strategic element to it, we never expected it to reach this level. I think we were incredibly lucky. But I also genuinely want to give ourselves credit, since the fact that we’ve been doing this until now and strength of our songs have something to do with it, too. Receiving renewed attention means we have a better chance of getting more people to listen to our future releases, and I’m really happy this whole chain of events was successful. Of course, this isn’t the end goal, so I’m excited about what to do with our next song and so on.

You left gr8!records, a label within Sony Music where you’d been for nine years, and rejoined Sony Music Records in May. There was a strategic intent behind that move as a band, right?

YOH: Let’s say the band is a robot. It started out as a small robot with just the members. But by the time our songs started reaching more people, it had grown massive, and it was like our weapons kept changing too. Then, to go back to basics, we decided to operate it on our own again, which meant leaving the company. There was always plenty to learn, no matter the environment, and we’ve taken steps in building our careers. So personally, I was eagerly waiting for the moment to use those super-powerful weapons and high-defense shields we used before. It wasn’t a decision made in the past year or two, and was always in the back of my mind. I’m glad we got good results, and think we’ve taken the first step towards next year’s 25th anniversary.

Did you have any conflicted feelings when you left the major label?

YOH: More and more people got involved as we rose to stardom, which meant the members were talking to each other less and it became harder to know what everyone was thinking. It felt like tension just kept building up inside the group. That was incredibly stressful for me. After going back to the indie scene, I got to hear stories from people I probably never would have connected with otherwise, and had all kinds of encounters. Sometimes people looked at us in a biased way, so being able to shed that was huge. I’m pretty sure each of us has our own experiences. It feels like all of that has come together and connected to created this good flow we have today.

RYO: I definitely felt conflicted. It felt like we were just charging ahead. Back then, I believed that was the right thing to do. Now, we’ve come to understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and we’ve achieved a good balance because each of us has our own role. Next year is our 25th anniversary, and I think we’d be unbeatable if we all became proficient in every area by the time we reach our 35th.

Do you feel you were able to team up with a major label again and create the situation you’re in today precisely because the band has become tougher now? 

RYO: Oh, for sure.

YOH: Personally, I discover a lot of new stuff when we go head-to-head (with the label staff). There are more sections now than back then and everyone analyzes things deeply, so it’s really interesting to hear what they have to say. I mean, they all graduated from good universities. [Laughs] You’ve got to hand it to them.

What are your thoughts on your performances on THE FIRST TAKE? You released “Ikenai Taiyo” on July 18 and “Hana” on July 30.

RYO: I was nervous.

YAMATO: Maybe I came across as being nervous because my recent stance has been to take things a bit too seriously. But I’ve also noticed that I’ve become more sensitive to tension over the past few years.

Is that so?

YAMATO: I’ve grown older and I’m not as mobile as I used to be, so I’ve started using my mind more. I’m someone who used to just go with the flow, relying on instinct. After I stopped doing that and started trying to think things through as much as possible, I realized over the past few years that I hadn’t been doing what I should have been doing. I’ve become more aware of all sorts of things, and feel like I’ve started putting more pressure on myself. Maybe that’s what made me seem nervous.

NAOTO: About that young relative I mentioned earlier — I got a LINE message saying, “I watched THE FIRST TAKE, too.”

So you’re reaching that demographic! Are there any aspects you consciously focused on or paid particular attention to that are unique to THE FIRST TAKE?

YAMATO: I thought I’d do it like I always do, but noticed there were a lot of parts that I sing on the recording, but don’t sing them live. We had discussions like, “Should we try sticking closer to the recording here?” Maybe we could incorporate that as a nice accent in future concerts too.

Tell us about “Ikenai Taiyo (Reiwa ver. Music Video).” How did that project come about?

HIROKI: That was also something we started preparing months ago. It started as a suggestion from the team, so I’d actually like to ask them about it now. I imagine there were individual steps they could visualize, like “Let’s do this, let’s do that,” and others where they were like, “Is this such a good idea?” All those dots connected to get us to where we are now, and I’m curious about the extent that they had planned ahead.

SMR Staff: We had a lot of ideas, but the biggest factor was probably that not just me, but the entire Sony Music Records team was incredibly happy to be working with ORANGE RANGE again. So there was this shared passion among the staff to really get things going. I also felt that many people within the company still felt grateful for the band’s conduct and musical activities during their previous tenure here, which made us feel we had to carry that legacy forward in a proper way.

That’s very interesting.

Staff: I think I first said to the members that we wanted to revisit past songs, knowing they probably wouldn’t like that idea. But (those songs) shined so bright to me. I believed that by polishing them further, there’d be a moment beyond that when the band’s new songs would reach people properly. That’s why I brought it up. So it really is like a starting point, a gateway, and I’m excited to create new things together with the band from here and release new songs. 

Tell us about your latest single, “Hadashi no ceccoli.” What was the original concept behind its creation?

NAOTO: Our team asked us to write something like “an old-school ORANGE RANGE summer bop.” It was an idea that we wouldn’t have acted on ourselves, and decided to go along with it. So it’s more like a self-homage to the old ORANGE RANGE, rather than an attempt to create something new. But ultimately it gave us a fresh new feeling, and we realized this kind of thing definitely works too.

HIROKI: Over the past few years, we’ve been making songs entirely based on our own judgment. So this time, we consciously tried to absorb and incorporate different people’s opinions and ideas. That was probably our mindset for this production. We hadn’t really done stuff like the vocal chase in the A-melody (first verse) of “Shanghai Honey” in recent years. Even with the lyrics, we were deliberately going for that borderline cheesy feel, like “Remember how it used to be?” while we were making it. People don’t want to do the same thing over and over and want to try something different, you know? So we were like, “Maybe this will do, too,” and had fun with it. 

Lastly, what are ORANGE RANGE’s visions and ambitions moving forward?

HIROKI: We released “Hana” on THE FIRST TAKE too, so I’m hoping people searching for the girl group HANA accidentally click on our “Hana” instead and it gets more views.

YAMATO: They both do come up on the search.

HIROKI: It’d be great if we showed up higher when people search for “Hana.” [Laughs]

—This interview by Takuto Ueda first appeared on Billboard Japan