Keeping up with the best new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.
This week saw Drake gift fans with a pre-Certified Lover Boy project and Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak launch a new collaborative venture. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.
Silk Sonic — “Leave The Door Open”
It all started with Anderson .Paak getting drunk on his birthday, and now he and Bruno Mars have a new band, Silk Sonic. The styles of each artist seem like a perfect collaborative match for each other, and it really sounds like that’s true on “Leave The Door Open,” their soulful and groovy first single that shows they’re already well within the pocket.
Drake — Scary Hours 2
There have been a handful of false starts with Certified Lover Boy in terms of its release date so far. No, it’s not out yet, but Drake did give fans something to chew on last week: Scary Hours 2, which features Rick Ross and Lil Baby. Scorpion arrived within months of the first Scary Hours, so this is at least a positive sign that Drake’s next full-length is imminent.
St. Vincent — “Pay Your Way In Pain”
St. Vincent was a little tight-lipped about her new album’s title over the past week or so, but she made the official reveal for Daddy’s Home last week. That news was also accompanied by a cinematic video for “Pay Your Way In Pain,” the first taste of the album Annie Clark described as “the sound of being down and out downtown in New York, 1973.”
Kenny Beats and Denzel Curry — Unlocked 1.5
Beats and Curry’s Unlocked was perhaps the finest sub-20-minute project of 2020, and now they’ve revived it for 2021 with Unlocked 1.5. This time around, they recruited others to lend their production and vocals skills to reworked tracks, including Robert Glasper, Smino, Joey Badass, and others.
Saweetie — “Best Friend” Feat. Doja Cat and Stefflon Don
Saweetie and Doja Cat so thoroughly showed up on their recent collaboration “Best Friend” that it didn’t seem like they needed anybody else on the track. Three is not a crowd in the case of the latest version of the song, though, as Stefflon Don joins that party and proves that everything is better with more friends involved.
No Rome — “Spinning” Feat. Charli XCX and The 1975
At the top of the year, The 1975’s Matty Healy teased that he had a collaboration with Charli XCX on the way, and now it has come to light. Both Charli and The 1975 featured on No Rome’s “Spinning,” which dropped last week and is a thumping glitch-pop track that’s hopefully the first of many, since Charli referred to the trio as a “supergroup.”
Chance The Rapper — “The Heart And The Tongue”
The Big Day was a big one for Chance The Rapper, as it was the most commercially successful project of his career thanks to its No. 2 peak on the charts. That was nearly two years ago, though, but he’s kept the content coming since then. The latest example is “The Heart And The Tongue,” a reflective single on which he confronts some internal struggles.
Juice WRLD — “Life’s A Mess II” Feat. Post Malone and Clever
The drip of posthumous content from Juice WRLD has been impressively consistent and it continued last week with “Life’s A Mess II,” which features Post Malone and Clever. Comparing the song to Juice’s original “Life’s A Mess” with Halsey, Clever noted, “this version I have is the version Juice wanted as far as the beat goes.”
Mitski — “The Baddy Man”
It’s been almost three years since Mitski’s Be The Cowboy, but she’s not quite ready to kick off a new album cycle yet. She did, however, return with new music last week. That was “The Baddy Man,” a straight-up country tune that arrives via the soundtrack for the graphic novel This Is Where We Fall.
Japanese Breakfast — “Be Sweet”
Announcing her new album Jubilee last week, Japanese Breakfast noted, “After spending the last five years writing about grief, I wanted our follow up to be about joy.” Indeed, “Be Sweet” is a more optimism-fueled tune, a fun throwback-pop-leaning track that’s accompanied by an equally fun video. As an Uproxx co-worker of mine accurately noted, the track sounds like it could have been on the most recent Paramore album, 2017’s After Laughter.
Tyler The Creator — “Tell Me How”
A couple weeks ago, new Tyler The Creator music popped up, of all places, in a Coca-Cola commercial; “Commercials need sounds like this,” Tyler declared. Now the track isn’t limited to just the ad, as he released the full version of “Tell Me How” this year, which is as good a chance as any to hear Tyler play the flute.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.