Keeping up with new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.
This week saw Lizzo drop one of the year’s most anticipated albums and Calvin Harris drop off a major pop moment with a number of cohorts. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.
For more music recommendations, check out our Listen To This section, as well as our Indie Mixtape and Pop Life newsletters. Also find our Uproxx HQ Spotify playlist, which is updated weekly with the best new music, at the end of this post.
Lizzo — “Naked”
Lizzo is usually an in-your-face sort of singer, but she takes a more subtle approach on “Naked,” a highlight from her new album Special. Lizzo said the tune was inspired by the nuance she observed in Solange when seeing her live and also noted she actually recorded this one while she had a sinus infection.
Calvin Harris, Justin Timberlake, Halsey, and Pharrell — “Stay With Me”
Last week brought a big-time hip-hop collab, as Murda Beatz, Anitta, J Balvin, Quavo, and Pharrell all linked up on “No Más.” Now, it’s pop’s turn, as Calvin Harris, Justin Timberlake, Halsey, and (once again) Pharrell collaborated on “Stay With Me,” an upbeat, funky, psychedelic tune on which everybody involved pulls their weight.
Latto — “P*ssy”
As the world continues to process the overturn of Roe v. Wade, artists are starting to address the situation in their music. Latto came through last week with the appropriately titled “P*ssy,” on which she gets as direct as possible about the situation: “How you ain’t got a p*ssy, but got opinions on p*ssy? / That’s p*ssy / My ovaries ain’t for you to bully.”
Finneas — “Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa”
Finneas has some neat stuff going on outside of his Billie Eilish work, like last week’s offering, “Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa,” a reverent pop-rock tune on which he sings of his beloved, “She could be the Mona Lisa, if the Mona Lisa had a prettier face.”
DJ Premier — “Beat Breaks” Feat. Nas
Premier recently told Uproxx of “Beat Breaks,” “When Nas says, ‘Hey, man, I want you to be a part of something,’ obviously you don’t really want to say no. In my whole career, I’ve never done an EP. And then Nas said, ‘You get a record from me.’ We recorded a few different things, but there’s some stuff that he wanted to, he said, ‘Let’s save that on the back burner for some future stuff.’ He said, ‘I want to do like a classic break.’ ‘Theme From The Planets’ is one of my favorites out of all the ultimate breaks and beats and that’s the reason why I shout it out. When I told him, ‘Let me do a quick chop of it on my Serato’ just so I could just figure out an idea of reworking that song, he fell in love with it right off rip. He said it reminded him of the park jams.”
Joey Badass — “Zipcodes”
Joey had an album set for June 17, but that ultimately got delayed. While fans wait for that, though, they still have new music to dig into: Last week, the rapper dropped off “Zipcodes,” which features a warm and nostalgic instrumental that leaves from for Joey’s similarly spirited bars.
Steve Lacy — “Sunshine” Feat. Fousheé
Most of Kanye West’s compliments are addressed to himself, but he offered major praise for Lacy last week, calling new album Gemini Rights “beautiful” and dubbing Lacy “one of the most inspiring people on the planet.” “Sunshine,” for which Lacy shared a video last week, is a definite highlight, a soothing and, to borrow Kanye’s word, beautiful tune on which Fousheé’s feature adds a lot.
Porter Robinson — “Everything Goes On”
Last week marked the start of new League Of Legends event “Star Guardian 2022,” which was also good news for Porter Robinson fans because he contributed a new theme song, “Everything Goes On.” He noted the uplifting-sounding tune was an emotional one for him, saying, “Somebody who I really love was going through something really painful, and I started writing about that, and that was when it really clicked for me because I wasn’t faking anything anymore. The emotions I was writing about were really sincerely held and painful. And when I finally figured out the second pre-chorus, I literally cried in the studio. My entire heart was in it.”
Omar Apollo — “Archetype”
This year’s Ivory was a nice showing for Apollo and now he’s back with more of it, as he has a deluxe edition, dubbed Ivory (Marfil), on the way. Last week, he shared “Archetype,” a mostly smooth tune that has moments where a rock edge peeks through for a nice bit of added dimension.
Beabadoobee — “Sunny Day”
Beatopia made it onto our list of the summer’s most-anticipated indie albums a few weeks ago, and now we no longer need to anticipate because the album has arrived. With it came a video for “Sunny Day,” a warm and easygoing tune that Beabadoobee called “a song that I’ve always wanted to make but something that I’ve never done before.”
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. .
