The Stream: Charli xcx releases new album

Charli xcx’s new album and a pickleball movie starring Jake Johnson are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.

Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: the “Big Bang Theory” spin-off “Stuart Fails to Save the Universe,” “72 Hours” and the Nintendo game “Splatoon Raiders.”

NEW MUSIC TO STREAM

• “BRAT” summer came and stayed and eventually went — and what would be built in its absence? Charli xcx claims the dance floor is dead on her latest album, “Music, Fashion, Film,” out Friday. She’s making “Rock Music” this time around, at least, her version of it: a bit troll-y, a bit sincere, full of distorted guitars and processed vocals. But her pop heart remains intact, like on the depressed and dreamy “SS26.” If that’s not enough to inspire curiosity, perhaps this is: The album’s sole feature credit is Canadian auteur and beloved horror filmmaker David Cronenberg on its closer, “No One Lasts Forever.”
• Grammy-winning South African artist Tyla burst onto the mainstream with her 2023 global hit “Water.” It married R&B, pop and amapiano — a style of music which translates to “the pianos” in the Zulu language, a fusion of Kwaito house music and jazz, often driven by log drums. And it did so at a time when hunger and curiosity for African music was at an all-time high. Afrobeats have only continued to skyrocket in the time since, and Tyla has proven to be no one-hit wonder. She’s paved her own path. On Friday, she will release her sophomore album, “A*POP.” It’s the next evolution of her sound, which features a dancehall collaboration with Zara Larsson, “She Did It Again,” the amapiano-pop “Chanel” and so much more.

— AP music writer Maria Sherman

NEW MOVIES TO STREAM

• Pickleball is the target of the new Apple TV comedy “The Dink,” starring Jake Johnson as a tennis pro who “almost beat Andy Roddick” and reluctantly takes up the popular sport while recovering from an injury. The movie, available to stream Friday, co-stars Ben Stiller, Mary Steenburgen, Ed Harris and Patton Oswalt.
• Kevin Hart goes on a bachelor party trip with some twentysomethings after being accidentally included in the group chat in the new Netflix comedy “72 Hours,” streaming Friday. Said twentysomethings are played by “SNL” cast members Marcello Hernández, Kam Patterson and Ben Marshall, with Mason Gooding as the groom-to-be.
• “Blue Heron,” streaming on the Criterion Channel as of Tuesday, made The Associated Press’s list for best movies of the year so far. Film writer Jake Coyle wrote that, “Sophy Romvari’s exquisite and soulful directorial debut melds documentary and fiction, past and present. It’s based on her own childhood, when her Hungarian parents moved their family of six to Vancouver Island in British Columbia. It’s an aching, probing memory piece.”
• Another movie that made our list, “Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie,” has a quite different tone. This silly, lo-fi indie about two slacker buddies (Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol) who concoct crackpot schemes to land a gig at the Toronto music venue, the Rivoli, is a gem that begins streaming Friday on Hulu. I wrote that I’m proof that no prior knowledge is needed to get on their goofy wavelength and enjoy the ride — and all the “Back to the Future” references.