WELCOME to DDW’s new update on the best new music to come out this week. New Music Fridays outlines five of the stand-out releases in the last seven days, giving you a few pointers for your weekend listening. Three albums and two singles make this list this week, with a few honourable mentions at the bottom as well.
Beach House – Once Twice Melody: Chapter 3
Beach House’s eighth studio album Once Twice Melody is scheduled for a full release on February 22nd, but the Baltimore band have been teasing fans with incremental chapter releases since November. Chapter 3 out of 4 came out on Wednesday and is a dreamy selection of shoegazing anthems with delicate vocals from Victoria Legrand.
Tracks like Superstar and New Romance were standout features from Chapters 1 and 2 respectively, but our pick of Chapter 3 has to be Only You Know, an archetypal slice of Beach House melancholia. Look out for the band’s album tour this year.
AURORA – The Gods We Can’t Touch
Norwegian folk-pop singer AURORA released her third studio album this week to a largely ecstatic reception from critics. Having shot into the limelight with her early single Runaway in 2016, a song that now has 450 million streams on Spotify and credits Billie Eilish with inspiration, The Gods We Can’t Touch is AURORA’s first major project since her soundtrack to the motion picture WolfWalkers in 2020 and contains an abundance of songwriting talent and enchanting melodies. Look out for the tracks Cure For Me, Exist For Love, and the pre-released single A Dangerous Thing.
YoungBoy Never Broke Again – Colors
New school rapper from Louisiana YoungBoy Never Broke Again, or NBA YoungBoy, surprised everyone last month when he said he wanted to quit music. “I lost love for music and it brings too many problems,” he told DJ Akademiks during a Clubhouse conversation.
His announcement came despite becoming one of hip hop’s most promising figures in the last few years after his mixtape AI YoungBoy 2 debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200. Luckily for his fans, he hasn’t hung up his mic just yet, as his newest project Colors was released today after a failure to launch last week.
The hour-long mixtape is essentially 20 tracks of NBA YoungBoy’s recognisable southern twang talking about money, hustling, and general notions of gangster life. His collab with Quando Rondo on Gangsta is the only guest feature on the project and is a standout track.
Charlie Puth – Light Switch
Charlie Puth’s new single Light Switch finally arrived this week after months of TikTok teasers, a definite marketing ploy to build as much hype as possible. And it’s worked! You’ll be hearing this all over socials this weekend – the fast-paced rhythm and incredibly catchy hook are tailor-made for TikTok.
Light Switch is the first single from 30-year-old Puth’s upcoming album, Charlie, set for release later this year via Atlantic Records. The album will be the American’s first since the Grammy-nominated Voicenotes in 2018.
Khruangbin & Lean Bridges – Chocolate Hills
Texas is in the building. Psychedelic funk dreamers Khruangbin team up with the soulful vocals of Leon Bridges for the second time on their upcoming EP Texas Moon, a follow up to 2020’s hugely popular Texas Sun. The group released the first single from the EP, B-Side, in December, and have now treated fans to another single called Chocolate Hills – a lazy, hazy slow jam with Khruangbin’s signature guitar riffs accompanied by Bridges’ flawless notes. Look out for the full Texas Moon release on February 18th.
Honourable mentions:
2 Chainz – Pop Music ft. Moneybagg Yo and BeatKing
iann dior, Travis Barker & Machine Gun Kelly – thought it was
Shenseea – Lick ft. Megan Thee Stallion
Young T & Bugsey – Nice ft. Blxst
Lana Del Ray – Watercolour Eyes (From Euphoria)
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