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, Doja Cat demands your “Attention,” Gunna contemplates a new reality, and Queens of the Stone roar back after too long away. Check out all of this week’s picks below:
Doja Cat, “Attention”
Following a commercial run that has included a string of huge singles and an indelible mark on pop music, Doja Cat can go anywhere she wants — and on highly anticipated new single “Attention,” the multi-hyphenate flaunts her power by crashing sounds into one another and cutting off anyone trying to crash her party. After an intro that combines harp and finger-picked guitar, the melodies and rhythms of “Attention” snap into place, and Doja rattles off a pair of highly impressive rap verses; Doja had been teasing a more hip-hop-leaning project to follow 2021’s Planet Her, and here, she combines influences like Tyler, The Creator’s internal rhyming and Eminem’s wordplay into molten-lava bars about the balance of body image and artistic gravitas. “I am not afraid to finally say s–t with my chest,” Doja proclaims — a sentiment that “Attention” makes abundantly clear.
Gunna, A Gift & A Curse
In the spring of 2022, Gunna was riding high off of his DS4ever album and its standout single “Pushin P,” leading Young Stoner Life alongside Young Thug as a new hip-hop powerhouse. Soon after, YSL was the target of a sprawling RICO case, and Gunna was able to strike a plea deal last December after months behind bars — although many hip-hop fans perceived his release as an untrustworthy sign of cooperation with the authorities. Gunna unpacks his complex circumstances on the aptly named A Gift & A Curse, the formerly vibed-out rapper adopting a somber tone while reflecting on his journey and ultimately finding a semblance of peace in his craft on a compelling, guest-free project.
Queens of the Stone Age, In Times New Roman…
Six years after linking up with Mark Ronson and aiming to dance a little with 2017’s Villains, Queens of the Stone Age are back to what they do best: grand, crunchy rock, with the bluesy exterior and Josh Homme’s innate gift for hook-writing inviting a beer-hoisted boogie. In Times New Roman… follows a difficult period in Homme’s life that included a cancer diagnosis and subsequent surgery, and the painful life experiences have been mined for a batch of snarling, self-produced songs –QOTSA hasn’t sounded this invigorated since 2005’s Lullabies to Paralyze, and Homme deserves credit for guiding this return to form.
Don Omar, Forever King
Don Omar has been a reggaetón pioneer long before the sound fought its way into the U.S. mainstream, and maintained his stature during a recording break following 2019’s The Last Album. With Forever King, however, Omar visits a variety of different sounds, from mambo to tropical to urban, expanding the contours of his reggaetón aesthetic while welcoming a slew of collaborators (Residente, Wisin, Nio Garcia and Maluma among them) and asserting his dominance within Latin music as a whole. Forever King plays out like the perfect type of album from a veteran artist: tasteful experimentation abounds, with plenty for longtime fans.
Read a full review and track ranking for the new Don Omar album.
Carly Pearce feat. Chris Stapleton, “We Don’t Fight Anymore”
“This song embodies a place that I think, if we are honest with ourselves, we’ve all felt at some point in a relationship,” Carly Pearce shared in a press release of her new Chris Stapleton collaboration, “We Don’t Fight Anymore.” “The distance that feels heartbreaking, yet you’re also indifferent.” Both country greats bring their A-game to this story of a relationship cold war, but Pearce and co-producers Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne nail the song’s atmosphere: an uncluttered country arrangement is marked by mournful fiddle and guitar, bubbling up as if to remind the voices of the fond memories before once again disappearing.
Asake, Work of Art
Fast-rising Nigerian artist Asake has delivered his second album, Work of Art, to lofty expectations: he’s touring North America in a few months, including a headlining show at Barclays Center in Brooklyn; collaborating with stars like Davido and Fireboy DML; and working with a handful of producers who know how to elevate artists on an international scale. Fortunately, Work of Art addresses the professional pressure with pure joy, a confident synthesis of different African music styles heavy of wide-reaching vocal harmonies and string flourishes, with a few clear hits (“Basquiat,” “Amapiano” with Olamide, “2:30”) headlining the potential breakthrough.
Editor’s Pick: Peggy Gou, “(It Goes Like) Nanana”
Need to physically shake off a long work week? “(It Goes Like) Nanana,” the first new track from dance auteur Peggy Gou in nearly two years, has arrived to inspire uninhibited movement with nods to classic house anthems, ‘90s jock jams and modern club sounds. Gou has long been capturing feelings of bliss, but “(It Goes Like) Nanana” is immediately one of the producer’s most self-contained and accessible singles to date; her first release on XL Recordings and the lead single of a long-awaited debut album, the song precedes an exciting artistic period, as well as a summer full of dance breaks.
