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, Billy Joel makes his big comeback, Don Toliver tackles psych-rock and TWICE keeps the energy high. Check out all of this week's picks below:
Billy Joel's first new single in decades comes with an uneven mix of anticipation and anticipation — after all, the fact that “Turn the Lights Back On” exists marks an exciting new development for a legendary artist, regardless of his quality. What a wonderful discovery, then, that 'Turn the Lights Back On' is both a wonderful performance and a deeply felt personal check-in from Joel, who sounds like the same soulful storyteller he's always been: 'I'm late, but I'm here right now,” he sings, “though I was once a romantic, somehow I forgot.” For both decades-long fans and a new generation of listeners, “Turn the Lights Back On” is a meaningful new moment.
Although Don Toliver's 2023 album Love sick featuring guests such as Justin Bieber, Future, Lil Durk and his partner Kali Uchis, new single “Bandit” features Tame Impala in indicative form as 2020's “One More Hour” becomes the backbone of a chest-wide screen to start. the new year. Toliver has never sounded more confident as he spits rhymes and slaps his falsetto over stadium-rock guitar squeals, and “Bandit” becomes the rare sample-heavy track to stand on its own merits and highlight the highs points of its source material. .
As we head into February, New Year's fitness resolutions may have started to fall by the wayside — but here come K-pop titans TWICE to motivate you anew with their uplifting, insanely fun new single. “I Got You”, the latest track from the upcoming mini-album WITH YOUbuilds on the success of the group's previous English-language singles, highlighting the collective's melodic strengths and doubling down on the more enjoyable synth-pop production tracks, creating a flashpoint that could very well cross over to US platforms.
Next week is showtime for Usher, with a new album I'm coming home due out next Friday (Feb. 9) and a small show called the Super Bowl halftime show two days later, but before revealing his final full-length show and the biggest performance of his career, he serves up the sleek, luxurious new track “Ruin.” as a final preview of what sounds like a return to form. Up-and-coming Nigerian artist Pheelz provides a fine assist on the dimly lit, adjacent Afrobeat beats, but “Ruin” shows Ursh pushing himself as a veteran artist, his silky charm undiminished one bit.
“Straight Line” was born out of a desire to escape the routine and feel that somewhere along the line, life lost a little color and excitement,” Keith Urban explains in a press release. Indeed, the first track released from Urban's next studio album takes the country veteran's timeless formula and throws in some adrenaline, with a driving beat and some choice uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus in the post-chorus. While “Straight Line” will no doubt soundtrack some raucous songs during Urban's next tour, the song also bodes well for the rest of 2020 The Speed of Now Part 1.
New music from Burial – one of the most influential and enigmatic producers of the 21st century – is always a gift, considering how sporadic his releases have been over the past decade, but “Dreamfear/Boy Sent From Above” feels especially special, as a 25 minute double single that is both mysterious and intoxicating. A long time Untrue Fans will gravitate towards the eerie vocals and jumbled beats, but supporters of Burial's more abstract recent work should embrace the sprawl here as well.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/friday-music-guide-billy-joel-don-toliver-twice-1235596158/
