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 Taylor Swift offer up new sessions for her Folklore tunes, a new Miley album, and Bad Bunny surprise fans. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.
Miley Cyrus — Plastic Hearts
Miley Cyrus has spent her new album’s promotional cycle telling anybody who would listen that she likes rock music and that it had a big influence on her new album. Indeed, that is clear on the album itself: “Midnight Sky” borrows from a Stevie Nicks (who features on a remix of the song) classic, and Joan Jett and Billy Idol make appearances, as does Dua Lipa.
Bad Bunny — El Último Tour Del Mundo
Bad Bunny was already in the conversation about the year’s best albums with YHLQMDLG, but instead of resting on that laurel, he went ahead and pumped out another record. It doesn’t sound quite like his previous music, because, since he recorded it during the pandemic, it was made during unfamiliar circumstances, which he seemingly decided to embrace aesthetically.
Lil Wayne — No Ceilings 3
Wayne’s No Ceilings mixtapes are legendary among his fans, and he continued the series last week with a new installment. The fresh collection nostalgically dropped on DatPiff and it’s headlined by a new Drake collab, “BB King Freestyle.”
Phoebe Bridgers — “If We Make It Through December”
Bridgers puts out a new holiday song around the end of every year, a tradition that she carried into 2020. This time, she opted to bust out a haunting cover of Merle Haggard’s “If We Make It Through December,” on which she is joined by frequent collaborator Ethan Gruska on piano.
Juicy J — The Hustle Continues
Juicy J has been hustling with his solo career for the past decade-plus, and on his latest album, that process continues. For the effort, he is joined by an all-star roster of guests that includes Logic, 2 Chainz, Megan Thee Stallion, and Ty Dolla Sign, among others.
Taylor Swift — Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions
Less than a week ago, Taylor Swift revealed that she and Folklore collaborators Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff hunkered down and recorded a live concert film. That premiered on Disney+ last week, but what she didn’t reveal in advance is that she would also share the audio as a live album, which hit streaming services as the film debuted.
Lil Yachty — Lil Boat 3.5
Less and less time passes between standard edition albums and their deluxe counterparts these days, but Lil Yachty has a more traditional-style expanded effort on his hands. Lil Boat 3.5 adds a solid EP’s worth of new material that adds collaborations with Oliver Tree, Vince Staples, Playboi Carti, and Lil Baby.
King Princess — “Pain”
King Princess established herself as a pop superstar in the making last year with Cheap Queen, and recent activity suggest her debut album’s follow-up may soon be on the way. Last week, she dropped her second single of 2020, “Pain,” which she called “probably my favorite song I’ve ever written.”
Saint Jhn — “Smack DVD” Feat. Kanye West
Saint Jhn got a feature from Kanye West on his latest, “Smack DVD,” but ‘Ye didn’t have as much input on the track’s video. In the visual, Jhn playfully addresses the fact that he didn’t run the clip by Kanye, who may not have loved the stripper-filled video given his newfound piety.
Rina Sawayama — “Lucid”
People living through 2020 could use some encouragement, and that’s what Sawayama aimed to provide on “Lucid.” She said of the track, “2020’s been a tough year so I wanted to finish it off with a dance bop to take us into a more hopeful 2021.”
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. .
