Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond.
This week, SZA and Doja Cat craft a killer reunion, Post Malone is back with some pop chemistry, and Metallica are still riding the lightning. Check out all of this week’s picks below:
SZA feat. Doja Cat, “Kill Bill (Remix)”
While SZA’s “Kill Bill” has been one of the defining smashes of the first half of 2023, the SOS single has done it while stuck outside of the Hot 100’s top spot — this week spending its eighth nonconsecutive week at No. 2 on the chart. Will this remix with her “Kiss Me More” pal Doja Cat give “Bill” the push it needs to No. 1? Regardless of chart effects, Doja’s inclusion on the track injects a new excitement: the superstar opens up the remix with detailed rap storytelling, documenting a violent run-in with her ex and his new girlfriend that makes SZA’s well-worn hook leap off the speakers once again and potentially serves as a prelude to the hip-hop album that Doja Cat has been hinting at for some time.
Post Malone, “Chemical”
When “Circles” became one of the biggest hits of Post Malone’s career upon its 2019 release, the hip-hop superstar seemed to be gesturing at a new pop-rock template for his crossover singles. Last year’s Twelve Carat Toothache downplayed that transition a bit, but “Chemical,” Posty’s first new release of 2023, adamantly embraces that sonic tweak: this single is giddy pop euphoria, with a driving beat, sunny guitar strums and upper-register singing about a relationship finally collapsing. Although Post Malone has demonstrated an ability to straddle both sounds, “Chemical” sounds like a nod toward top 40 radio, and a surefire summer smash.
Metallica, 72 Seasons
Metallica may take their time with studio albums these days — 72 Seasons arrives six-and-a-half years after 2016’s Hardwired… to Self-Destruct, which came eight years after 2008’s Death Magnetic — but whenever they return, they pummel longtime fans with riffs, hooks and kinetic energy. At 77 minutes, 72 Seasons presents its ideas over an extended period of time, but at a breakneck speed: Kirk Hammett’s technical skill works overtime on songs like “Lux Æterna” and “Shadows Follow,” while James Hetfield hasn’t lost a step across a four-decade career, conjuring personal pain and hoisting it up with classic thrash-god instincts. Metallica’s studio output may have slowed a bit, yet 72 Seasons showcases how vital they remain.
Ice Spice feat. Nicki Minaj, “Princess Diana (Remix)”
A key component of Ice Spice’s meteoric rise is her skill as a collaborator: from the top 10 smash “Boy’s a Liar Pt. 2” with PinkPantheress to “Gangsta Boo,” the Lil Tjay team-up that highlights her Like..? EP, the Bronx rapper knows exactly how to accentuate her own voice while making room for other types of artistry. The remix to “Princess Diana” not only slides a huge co-sign from Nicki Minaj into her back pocket, but seamlessly brings a larger-than-life personality into the world of a very good existing song — after Ice Spice’s slick cadence and internal rhymes glide across the beat, Minaj provides new highlights with quotable sneers like “She the princess, so f–k who you lames is?”
Dominic Fike, “Dancing in the Courthouse”
After experiencing some run-ins with the law while growing up in Florida, Dominic Fike synthesizes his experiences and resulting emotions on “Dancing in the Courthouse” — part tongue-in-cheek riff on our modern legal system, part joyful return of a rising singer-songwriter, whose sophomore album is due out later this year on Columbia Records. “Dancing in the Courthouse” makes good use of both Fike’s subtle wordplay and pop sensibility, with each barbed line eventually coalescing into one of the most soaring refrains of his career thus far.
Marshmello & Farruko, “Esta Vida”
One month after linking up with Colombian reggaeton star Manuel Turizo on the new single “El Merengue,” Marshmello continues his exploration of disparate Latin pop styles with “Esta Vida,” a summer-ready anthem co-starring Puerto Rican party-starter Farruko. “Esta Vida” clearly takes inspiration from the playbook Farruko used on the stadium-sized hit “Pepas” — the thousand-voiced effect returns on the chorus here — but both artists bring their A-game to the dance cut, with rubbery synth production backing Farruko’s smooth oscillation between rapping and singing.
