Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to New Music Friday’s most essential releases each week — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond.
Last week, we featured Lil Baby, JENNIE, Dove Cameron, XG and Boys Noize.
This week, the massive, star-studded Hunger Games soundtrack is out; ATEEZ release its 15th mini-album; and U2 drop its 16th album, Carnaval de Luz, featuring the late Dolly Parton … plus much more.
Check out all of this week’s picks below:
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping – The Album
Following an emotive lead single from Noah Kahan with “Draw You Out,” songs by Gigi Perez and The Smashing Pumpkins followed. Now, the film’s full accompanying album is out and it’s a whopping 29-songs long, clocking it an one hour and 40 minutes. It features artists including Noah Cyrus, Bella Kay and Stevie Nicks while current chart-topper Ella Langley scored the latest focus track, “Here Then We’re Gone.” The bare and chilling song spotlights the country star’s signature vocals, only stripped back with minimal acoustic production as she reminds us that “we’re all on our way to the end of a song.” — LYNDSEY HAVENS
ATEEZ, Golden Hour: Part.6
Since debuting in 2018, South Korean boy band ATEEZ have kept fans well fed — as evidenced by the release of the group’s 15 mini album Golden Hour: Part.6. The hard-hitting “UP” would sound right at home soundtracking a high-speed chase scene in an action film as the tension and energy of the song brings listener’s heart rates all the way up, just as intended. — L.H.
U2 feat. Dolly Parton, “Torn” (Kent Wells Version)
Dolly Parton’s soaring voice is gracing music fans once again on this pairing with U2 frontman Bono, in what became Parton’s final recorded vocal before her passing in August. This country variation, from Parton’s producer Wells, received a country radio world premiere earlier this week. Written by Parton, U2 and Johnny McDaid (of Snow Patrol), “Torn” intertwines Parton’s crystalline soprano with Bono’s gritty vocal, as they sing of the pain of fractured familial bonds on lines like, “When halfway seems too far to meet/ Across the table too hard to reach.” Backed by a rich blend of guitars, drums, pedal steel and keyboards, the arrangement gives the performance a striking depth. — JESSICA NICHOLSON
2Hollis, “Daisy”
Genre-blurring breakout 2hollis shared his new album, Piroutte, mid-week to quick praise. Fans were equally quick to notice Mk.gee co-wrote and co-produced the glitchy “Human After All,” which sounds like a thrilling free fall through discovering ones own emotional depth. Elsewhere, album closer “Daisy” is a crunchy techno-pop track about feeling “so nauseous that I can’t eat or sleep at all/ Can we please just stop it before I go crazy?” As expected from 2hollis, he takes what could have been a classic lovesick song and injects it with new life. — L.H.
Fall Out Boy, “ACES”
Earlier this week, pop-punk vets Fall Out Boy announced a 2027 global tour in celebration of its 25th anniversary — and they didn’t stop there. The band also shared new single “ACES,” a perfectly melodic yet roaring and rallying cry to “keep the fire alive through tryin’ times/ through the slow decay and rapid decline.” It “ACES” is any indication of more to come, Fall Out Boy sounds fired up and ready to rage on stage. Good timing for that tour. — L.H.
Snoh Aalegra, Legendary Love
Five years after she gifted the world Temporary Highs in the Violet Skies, enigmatic R&B star Snoh Aalegra has returned with Legendary Love. The three-time Grammy-nominated singer’s fourth studio album finds her mining her own love life for a cinematic, 80s R&B-steeped exploration of near-mythological love. Armed with an all-star cast of contributors, including Babyface, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Raphael Saadiq, Nile Rodgers, Daniel Caesar, Legendary Love is another winning addition to Aalegra’s catalog. — KYLE DENIS
Leon Thomas, “Trophy”
How does Leon Thomas cap off a year that began with two Grammy wins and featured an all-time R&B feature run? By delivering a sexy, cocky single titled “Trophy.” The former Billboard cover star’s first solo offering of 2026 finds him pining for some bedroom fun as a treat for all of his hard work. “Give it to me like a trophy/ I been workin’ hard, let’s make love like I’m your only,” he coos in the earworm hook. — K.D.
