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 Karol G, Role Model, FLO, Stray Kids and more.
This week, three is the magic number: indie-rocker Phoebe Bridgers releases her highly-anticipated third album, Lost Weekend; KATSEYE drops its third EP; and Ayra Starr shares her third album as well… plus much more. Check out all of this week’s picks below:
Phoebe Bridgers, Lost Weekend
After Phoebe Bridgers performed a semi-impromptu, highly in-demand, phone-free show at New York’s Madison Square Garden in early June, it was clear something was coming. And just a few weeks later, that hunch was confirmed when the indie-rockstar announced her first solo album in six years, Lost Weekend. Across its 16 tracks, “the album fluctuates between grief and elation, agitation and contentment, as Bridgers sings like someone who has loved and lost — and still has something to lose,” writes Billboard‘s Christine Werthman for the album’s tracks ranked. Surely, it’s the perfect album to get lost in this weekend. — LYNDSEY HAVENS
KATSEYE, WILD
Despite this girl group’s ongoing lineup changes (with Manon and Sophia both on mental health breaks), one thing is certain: KATSEYE brings the energy. Its third EP, WILD (out on HYBE x Geffen Records) is packed with high-impact, hard-hitting tracks like single “Pinky Up” and focus track “Hootie Frutti.” Meanwhile, sassier songs like single “Animal” and “That Way” slow it down — but just a bit. As a release for the EP states, “the project captures the feeling of a wild ride fueled by growth and transformation” and marks the start of a new “electrifying new era” for the now foursome. — L.H.
Troye Sivan, “She’s the Best”
Troye Sivan is back — and not only with a new single. The pop singer’s low-toned “She’s the Best” — about all the qualities, expected and less so, of a particular person that wows him — serves as the lead single and title track of his fourth album, out Oct. 9 on Interscope. “She’s the Best is a painting that captures my life in all of its moods and colours,” Sivan said in a statement. “It explores the high-octane highs of the last few years, and the solitude and longing that sat underneath. It’s chaotic, layered, organic, troubled and alive. It feels like the truest and most creative version of myself I’ve ever shared. At some point along the way I realised: the only constant in my life keeping me somewhat sane has not been the work, or the men, but the feminine. Thank god for them.” — L.H.
Ayra Starr, STARRGIRL
Nigerian Afropop sensation Ayra Starr is back with STARRGIRL, her third studio album and first full-length effort since 2024’s The Year I Turned 21. The new 16-track set — which includes the Grammy-nominated, Wizkid-assisted “Gimme Dat” — expands the 24-year-old’s sonic foundation with more pronounced notes of dance and R&B. Effortlessly fostering synergy with Leon Thomas, kwn and ZAYN (as well as Danny Ocean on a Latin remix of fan-favorite “Hot Body”), Ayra Starr spends her latest LP proving she can dominate in any lane her heart desires. — KYLE DENIS
Jorja Smith, “I Lied, You Lied”
Ahead of her third album releasing next week, English singer-songwriter Jorja Smith is sharing one more single to preview the set. “I Lied, You Lied,” is a heart-racing track in both its uneven production and the story she tells that essentially details a race to see whose lie will come to the surface first. Yet, only a voice as smooth and serene as Jorja’s can manage to sound totally unbothered through it all. — L.H.
