We already told you about Troye Sivans joyous My My My! but we’ll happily do it again (and again) as it opens this week’s BEST NEW MUSIC PLAYLIST. Then we’ve got an unexpected but totally sense-making collaboration between GoldLink and Craig David, Live In The Moment. To celebrate, we sat them down together and pushed them for tips on how you, too, can start to do the same. Norwegian club boyband Rytmeklubben have gone and got their new tune stuck in our heads already. No Apologies, featuring Mad Decent voices LIZ and Santell, is a certified pop banger with a video to match.
Guys, Camila Cabello, the phoenix of Fifth Harmony, released her eponymous debut solo album today! It’s a great mix of emotional ballads and seductive Latin-influenced pop, and our favourite song is the addictive steel drum-flecked reggaeton number, Inside Out. Børns’s new album Blue Madonna is out today too. When we caught up with him recently, he told us that, “I wanted to do something that had a lot of layers and a lot of movements… things that challenge your ear a little bit, but that at the end of the day are still pop songs.” Ascending into a spiraling alien-like cry, his falsetto vocal does just that on Supernatural, our personal highlight from the record.
After ghosting on us for a little while, we’re treated to a newbie from Kali Uchis with features from the odd but wonderful couple, Tyler, The Creator and — one of Kali’s musical heroes — funk legend Bootsy Collins. Meanwhile, Lil Peep’s posthumous release with Marshmello, Spotlight, is a surreal, welcome addition to the late musician’s discography, and Jorja Smith goes slow on moving piano ballad Let Me Down, complete with a verse from Stormzy.
Great news for band fans now: NYC dreamers Sunflower Bean have announced that their third album Twentytwo in Blue will be released on 23 March via London indie label Lucky Number. They did it with new single Crisis Fest — a song for the kids in a time when, well, every damn day is something of a crisis fest. And as if that wasn’t enough, this week we welcome the return of Jack White with a modern take on a classic Jack White sound on Connected By Love; Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O is back with the soundtrack to Kenzo’s film YO! MY SAINT, and The Black Eyed Peas have done a song about STREET LIVIN’.
GIRLI is mad at her boring neighbours, Dua Lipa DGAF, and Kylie Jenner’s best mate Justine Skye just released Heaven from her forthcoming album Ultraviolet. We saw her perform at an Island Records showcase in London last night accompanied by her two backing dancers and it was all very good. Plus, to round things off there’s new stuff by NADINE, Shame, J.M.Z., Galvanic, Maleek Berry, Marcus Marr, and more. The whole thing ends on a massive high of course, with a just-released demo of Bowie’s Let’s Dance. Perfect.