Billboard's Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to this Friday's most essential releases — the essential music everyone will be talking about today and that will dominate playlists this weekend and beyond.
This week, Future continues his winning streak, Katy Perry dives deep into her pop bag, and Bad Bunny welcomes home. Check out all of this week's picks below:
Future, Mixtape Pluto
It's been eight years since Future, once the absolute titan of the mixtape game, released an unofficial solo project and Mixtape Pluto returns to its glory days Monster and Beast Mode — 17 tracks without much in the way of the superstar, who is sharpening his sword after a pair of collaborative albums with Metro Boomin kept him on top earlier this year.
katy perry, 143
Katy Perry's recent singles have invited plenty of chatter about her studio partners and chart prospects, but at its core, the new album 143 she's not concerned with criticism or commercial expectations — this is a celebratory pop album, Perry's first since becoming a mother, and guests like Kim Petras, 21 Savage and Doechii help the singer return to her sugary sound .
Bad Bunny, “Una Velita”
The devastation of Hurricane María, which hit Puerto Rico in 2017, is not forgotten by Bad Bunny, as the superstar uses new single 'Una Velita' to process his feelings, celebrate his homeland, criticize those who don't they've done enough and he thinks about the future as the bass thumps steadily beneath him.
Jamie xx In the Waves
Robyn, The Avalanches, Panda Bear, The xx compatriots — the guest list for Jamie xx's expansive new album In the Waves looks like a compilation of Pitchfork-approved artists from the 2000s, but the full-length pops with the same danceable vibrancy as in color, with the producer simply providing more grooves for a new decade.
Keith Urban High
A country veteran like Keith Urban will always try to strike a balance between delivering more anthems for his live audiences and mining more personal anecdotes to reveal new parts of himself. High does an admirable job of walking that tightrope, with songs that stretch outward and others that share new details of a life in the limelight.
Bon Iver, “SPEYSIDE”
As fall officially begins this weekend, Bon Iver returns to deliver some mournful falsettos and soft guitar strums for the brisk weather: “SPEYSIDE,” the first of three new songs Justin Vernon will release as a new EP on next month, he combines his sparse intimates For Emma, Forever Ago with the clarity of his more recent productions, and packs a soulful, fall-ready punch.
4 batz feat. Lil Baby, “Roll Da Dice”
After landing a co-sign with Drake on his hit “Act ii: Date @ 8,” 4batz joined Lil Baby on his R&B-trap fusion “Roll Da Dice,” which seamlessly blends both artists' respective styles in a blurry single. about the pursuit of love and the passion that ignites when it is discovered.
Editor's Pick: Gwen Stefani, “Somebody Else's”
The cowboy hat Gwen Stefani is wearing on the cover of her upcoming solo album Bouquet suggested a spin toward Nashville, but new single “Somebody Else's” actually returns to No Doubt's brand of new wave and radio-ready pop, with Stefani leaning into the guitar as she sings about lost romance with spunk and wit (“Now that you're dead to me / I feel so alive!”).
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/friday-music-guide-future-katy-perry-bad-bunny-1235780416/
