Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond.
This week: Everyone’s favorite super-ambitious Australian indie slacker returns with his first new album in five years, Joji shakes the block with long-distance romantic frustration and 5SOS finally address the “boy band” question (but not really).
Tame Impala, Deadbeat
Lord forgive Kevin Parker, but it’s time for him to go back to the old Tame Impala. Well, not really: When Parker sings about being “back into my old ways again” on the first track of new album Deadbeat he’s more talking about getting caught in old behavioral spirals (and perhaps about writing and singing about them) than he is about returning to the psychedelic indie rock that first defined the outfit, before a late-2010s pivot to more of a pulsing (though still plenty trippy) blue-eyed soul sound. There’s probably no turning back from the latter at this point — especially now that Tame’s scored its first Hot 100 hit with the club-ready “Dracula” — but Deadbeat hits hard enough with its relatable ruminations, arresting soundscapes and heavier-than-usual beats that you won’t find much fault with Parker staying exactly where he is.
Joji, “Pixelated Kisses”
Over earthquaking bass, Joji sings plaintively about trying to love from afar: “Pixelated kisses got me goin’ insane/ Replicate this moment from a million miles away.” Fans might be frustrated by the 1:50 runtime and relatively truncated structuring of the alt-R&B star’s first new song in three years, but “Pixelated Kisses” also has both the emotional connection and the head-turning sonics to make them remember why Joji was worth missing in the first place, and to get them excited for more to come.
5 Seconds of Summer, “Boyband”
Should 5 Seconds of Summer, the pop-rock group of young Australian heartthrobs, be considered a boy band? The question has surrounded 5SOS for its decade-long career — no doubt to its significant irritation — but now the band is winking at its reputation with new single “Boyband.” “Boy in a boy band/ Imaginary boyfriend/ Irritates the metalheads/ It’s your favorite boy band” goes the tongue-in-cheek chorus, as the group simultaneously leans into the title status and distances itself from it. Does it solve the debate? Not really, the 5SOS faithful should have a ton of fun singing along to it anyway.
Charlie Puth, “Changes”
“There’s been some changes in our life/ I can feel the distance, space and time” Charlie Puth sings on the chorus to the new single “Changes,” whose exuberant melodies stand in stark contrast to the melancholy subject of the relationship-grown-apart lyrics. From the sound of “Changes,” what Puth has really been drifting towards is Steve Winwood’s “Higher Love,” filtered in through the modern-retro production of George Daniel from The 1975. But as always, Puth is well-studied: in a final tribute to the late-’80s pop-rock sonics he seems to be playing with, he even offers a pre-bridge piano solo worthy of Bruce Hornsby.
Teddy Swims, “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming”
Did you think it was going to be a Judas Priest cover? (Did you hope it was?) For better or worse, no: soul-pop hitmaker Teddy Swims‘ latest (for the soundtrack to hit Netflix sitcom Nobody Wants This) does carry the rueful energy (“If you think I stayed up late at night/ Wiping teardrops from my eyes/ You must be out your godd–n mind”) of the ’80s metal classic, but not the chugging guitars or the strutting vocals. Still, the kiss-off sounds sweet over lush strings reminiscent of early-’70s Isaac Hayes, and Swims has the chops to make the lyrics resound without coming off distastefully bitter.
Morgan Wallen, “Graveyard Whistling”
Morgan Wallen doesn’t often do covers — or deluxe editions — so it’s a little unclear what’s to be made of “Graveyard Whistling,” his new one-off spin on English alt-rock radio regulars Nothing But Thieves’ 2014 EP title track. But the anthemic, questioning song does allow Wallen to tap into something different than he really managed across 37 tracks of his I’m the Problem, with a near-falsetto chorus and a crescendoing bridge that allows the country superstar to really let it rip. It’s not the most seamless match of singer and material — but Wallen connects to the material in a revealing way, which makes you wonder what other new sides of him a potential rumored I’m the Problem reissue could have to offer.
