Billboard's Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to this Friday's most important releases: the essential music everyone's talking about today and dominating your playlists this weekend and beyond.
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Check out the latest videos, charts and news
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This week, Taylor Swift picks up her quill, Pearl Jam roars back, and Nicki Minaj brings together her famous friends. Check out all of this week's picks below.
Taylor Swift “The Tortured Poets”
One constant in Taylor Swift's storied career is that she took chances at the exact moment she didn't need to take them. She's a country superstar, she didn't need to be pop. She was less than a year removed from a major pop album, so she didn't need a detour into indie folk. She was in the midst of a blockbuster success with her new album, so there was no need to re-record her old album. Time and time again, Swift finds artistic opportunities that other stars would have turned a blind eye to (or at least saved for another time so as not to ruin her professional momentum), and she always dreads them. I jumped at the chance without hesitation. She comes out on top.
So now we're in the middle of a blockbuster stadium tour, a Grammy winner for our record-breaking fourth album of the year, a high-profile new romance, and already at the commercial peak of an all-time career. Now — is, of course, a time when Swift chose to release a knowingly fucked-up and very unguarded breakup album.
She didn't have to do this! But then again, making albums like The Tortured Poets Division is what separates Swift from her more cautious peers. Her challenge to reshape herself and achieve something new at a moment when others rest on their laurels is what makes her so appealing. .
Click here to read the full review of The Tortured Poets Department.
pearl jam, dark matter
Producer Andrew Watt has helped various rock legends get their groove back in the studio over the past few years. Pearl Jam's new album isn't the result of a young studio master training a bunch of veterans, but the band certainly feels a new sense of urgency on their first project since 2020's Gigaton. While previous albums may feel as heavy as their titles, Dark Matter is lively and energetic, with Eddie Vedder often spitting out lines to keep up with the tempo. Songs like “Scared of Fear'' and “Running'' give the listener whiplash, while songs like “Wreckage'' with its junky screams are Pearl Jam's best.
Nicki Minaj feat. Travis Scott, Chris Brown, Sexy Red “FTCU (Remix)”
“FTCU” was a bold highlight of Pink Friday 2 at the time of its release, and now Nicki Minaj is inviting her famous friends to Waka Flocka's Flame Sampling Party (unfortunately, Waka is the Although not alone). Instead, Travis Scott spins stories of her world travels (“I had to go to Nice, she was lovely,” he declared), and then Sexy Red tells her endless He almost stole the show with his trash talk. This “SLEEZEMIX” may only exist as temporary fan service, but it sounds like Minaj and her famous friends are giving those listeners a great time.
DJ Snake feat. Peso Pluma “Teka”
Can “Teka” be classified as Coachella pop? After all, DJ Snake and Peso Pluma announced a new studio collaboration in between festival weekends in which they both performed, but they're also a nod to the EDM era of yesteryear. “Teka'' has a natural resonance for dancing in a tent in the Sahara. And thousands of participants look forward to the summer months. Peso Pluma wraps his arms around Elasto Funk productions, effortlessly turning the voice that fueled regional Mexican crossover hits into a disco ball.
Editor's Pick: Cloud Nothings, Final Summer
Cloud Nothings has spent the past decade as one of indie rock's most consistent projects. Final Summer once again balances impromptu melodies and intense guitar work, but with the driving opening title from his track “Running Through the Campus,” this one is actually about sprinting. Final Summer serves not only as a satisfying sequel to a tried-and-true classic for longtime fans, but also as an invitation for new listeners to dive into their rock-solid discography.