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 Dominic Fike, Mariah Carey and Queens of the Stone Age.
This week, Lil Baby is back with his anticipated fifth album; JENNIE drops a new single for the animated Netflix film STEPS; Dove Cameron releases her long-awaited debut album; and Boys Noize returns with his first solo studio album in five years.… plus much more.
Check out all of this week’s picks below:
Lil Baby, Fresh
After scoring his third consecutive Billboard 200 No. 1 album with WHAM last year, Lil Baby is gunning for his fourth with Fresh. The new set arrives with a title inspired by his recent hit single “Dead Fresh,” an infectious, Pharrell-produced joint that soared to No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped Rhythmic Airplay. Stacked with guest appearances by frequent collaborators Future, Young Thug and Rylo Rodriguez, Fresh finds Baby delivering 17 new songs that reassert his position as one of the most gifted mainstream MCs to blow up this decade. — KYLE DENIS
JENNIE, “Someone To Hold”
The inviting disco-colored intro of “Someone To Hold” neither sounds like a typical song for JENNIE nor a Disney princess — and that’s what makes it magic. The colorful pop song shows a new side of JENNIE’s artistry that leans more playful and vibrant than anything on her solo debut full-length, while also matching the fresh take of the movie it’s from — as the upcoming musical comedy Steps reimagines Cinderella from the perspective of the stepsisters. — L.H.
Dove Cameron, Final Girl
Despite launching her career over a decade ago in Disney TV and film franchises — also lending her voice to both — Final Girl is Dove Cameron’s debut full-length. At long last. The dramatic and soaring album delivers a range of tempos and emotions, from softer songs like pop ballad “Silver Screen Baby” and the raw “Immortalized” to uptempo dance-pop single “When In Rome” and the haunting and heavy “Skin On Bone.” It’s an album that was well worth the wait, and offers so much possibility and intrigue as to what sounds and styles Cameron will want to explore next. — L.H.
Kings Of Leon, “Rose”
Veteran rock band Kings Of Leon has released its 10th album, O My Beloved — and the first the band has ever self-produced. That decision paid off, as the gorgeous album marries thoughtful and melodic production with deeply personal storytelling about the member’s families and upbringings. Described in a press release as a “love letter” to the road that brought the band to this point, it feels just as much a love letter to the fans who have walked that road with them for more than two decades. — L.H.
XG, “Depends”
Since debuting in 2022, Japanese girl group XG have kept busy — especially this year. Since releasing its first full-length in January, titled THE CORE – 核, the group has embarked on its second world tour and has now, amidst that outing, released more new music with “Depends.” The electro-pop track showcases the members vocal strengths, from hard-hitting raps to syrupy, soaring high notes — all of which are united with groovy, metallic production and making for a high-energy addition to its set. — L.H.
Rex Orange County, “Elvis (featuring Brendan Yates)”
British alternative artist Rex Orange County is back with his sixth album, Dream Fatigue, with featured artists including Mustafa, Daniel Ceasar and Turnstile lead singer Brendan Yates (on “Elvis”). There’s a dark beauty to the song, on which Rex sings of lover-boy nerves: “I’m not so calm, I shake my legs like I’m Elvis/ I wanna be your only friend ’cause I’m selfish/ I wanna stay here forever like it’s Vegas/ There’s no one else I wanna share this hotel with.” Yates joins for a final verse before he and Rex harmonize on an outro that lingers long after the last note. — L.H.
Slayyyter, “Hey Boyyy”
In just one month, on Dec. 4, Slayyyter will unveil the counterpart to this year’s acclaimed WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA album. Aptly titled wor$t man in america, the new album will contrast the perspectives she shared and ideas she explored on its predecessor. Frenetic new single “Hey Boyyy” delivers on Slayyyter’s signature sound thought is a bit softer in its lyrics, striking a balance only she can between a chaotic nature with good intentions. “I can’t stop blushing/ I’m too old to feel, more than nothing, she sings ahead of the chorus in which she admits, “Hey, boy, I got a funny little secret/ I get so nervous when you talk to me.” Not even ascendant superstars are immune. — L.H.
Boys Noize, 7LLVSION
After nearly two decades as an underground hero, it feels like the world finally caught up to Boys Noize. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross tapped him to remix their 2024 score for Challengers, then brought him on to co-produce much of their 2025 Tron: Ares soundtrack, finding clear connective tissue between their own industrial rock and the industrial electronic of the Boys Noize catalog. The Iraqi-German producer born Alex Ridha then lived out a rock ‘n’ roll fantasy, effectively becoming a member of Nine Inch Nails while opening for and playing with the band on its Peel It Back run before releasing the collaborative Nine Inch Noize album and playing a pair of Coachella shows that some called among the best in the festival’s history. On top of all that, he and Skrillex activated their longstanding side project Dog Blood last month with a headlining set at Portola, where they teased new music.
And now the producer returns to himself with 7LLVSION, his first solo studio album in five years. An all-killer-no-filler 12-song collection, the album is ferocious and unrelenting, drawing on EBM, punk, new wave and industrial to build music that’s hard as hell (“Illusion,” “Hyytup”) and often deliciously unhinged (“1+1+1”). Collaborators arrive from across the globe — Brazilian funkeiro Adame DJ, post-Soviet electro-punk collective Locked Club, Argentine rapper TAICHU, German duo Brutalismus 3000 — but Ridha never loses the thread. 7LLVSION is the work of a producer who spent years in other people’s worlds, then came home with something to say. — KATIE BAIN
Jack Harlow, Sweet Action II
After taking a blue-eyed-soul detour earlier this year with his Monica album, Jack Harlow is going back to his roots with Sweet Action II, the official sequent to his breakthrough 2020 Sweet Action EP. While that older project housed the career-catapulting “Whats Poppin,” Sweet Action II leans on the ’90s for its exploration of romance, hence Babyface’s appearance on standout track “Too Soon.” — K.D.
