Lindsey Hobbs’s Inkubator crossword, “Settle Down”—Jenni’s write-up

I had a second of panic about midway by means of as a result of I had no concept what was occurring with the theme even after attending to the revealer entries. Then I stuffed within the backside third of the puzzle and the sunshine dawned.

The clue to every themer sounds a bit outraged, and the reply is lacking one thing that has “settled down” to the underside of the puzzle.

Inkubator, November 10, 2022, Lindsey Hobbs, “Settle Down,” answer grid

• 1d [*Rocky outcrop? What happened to “Lawn nuisance plant?”] is CRAG with BRASS at 46d. Mix them collectively and you’ve got CRABGRASS, which is actually a nuisance.
• 4d[*Personal pronoun? What happened to “Like a dog on a walk, usually?”] is SHE and LEAD is down under. The remix provides us LEASHED.
• 7d [*Tilt to the side? What happened to “Theme park celebrating little toy bricks?”] is LEAN and GOLD, which mix to make LEGOLAND.
• 10d [*Courtney Love band? What happened to “Direct phone-to-phone link for high-priority calls?] is HOLE and TIN. HOTLINE.
• 13d [*Publishes a blog entry? What happened to “Antimatter particles?”] is POSTS and IRON – POSITRONS.

You’ve in all probability observed that each one the “sinkers” have one thing in frequent. The revealer confirms your suspicions. 37a [With 39-Across, genre for Warlock and Black Sabbath…or a hint to what’s sinking from five of this puzzle’s answers] is HEAVY METAL. Original and well-executed. I approve.

A number of different issues:

• 14a [Company that makes Valium] is ROCHE, which was a gimme for me and I believe considerably obscure for most individuals.
• 5d [Bash for some brides-to-be] is a HEN PARTY. British brides.
• 29a [Nit-pick, say] is DEBUG. Great clue.
• We have AIMEE (Mann) crossing AMIE (Parisian pal) which is OK however seems to be odd.
• Glad to see B–GIRL clued as [Certain hip-hop fan] than the outdated reference to Philip Marlowe novels.

What I didn’t know earlier than I did this puzzle: by no means heard of Cheryl Lynn or “GOT to be Real.”