{"id":677646,"date":"2026-11-07T11:40:16","date_gmt":"2026-11-07T11:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/677646\/"},"modified":"2026-11-07T11:40:16","modified_gmt":"2026-11-07T11:40:16","slug":"lil-baby-jennie-lead-best-new-music-friday-music-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/677646\/","title":{"rendered":"Lil Baby & JENNIE Lead Best New Music: Friday Music Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBillboard\u2019s Friday Music Guide<\/a> serves as a handy guide to New Music Friday\u2019s most essential releases each week \u2014 the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tExplore\t\t<\/p>\n

See latest videos, charts and news<\/p>\n

\n\tLast week<\/a>, we featured Dominic Fike, Mariah Carey and Queens of the Stone Age.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis week, Lil Baby is back with his anticipated fifth album; JENNIE drops a new single for the animated Netflix film STEPS; Dove Cameron releases her long-awaited debut album; and Boys Noize returns with his first solo studio album in five years.\u2026 plus much more.<\/p>\n

\n\tCheck out all of this week\u2019s picks below:<\/p>\n

\n\tLil Baby, Fresh<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter scoring his third consecutive Billboard 200 No. 1 album with WHAM last year, Lil Baby is gunning for his fourth with Fresh. The new set arrives with a title inspired by his recent hit single \u201cDead Fresh,\u201d an infectious, Pharrell-produced joint that soared to No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped Rhythmic Airplay. Stacked with guest appearances by frequent collaborators Future, Young Thug and Rylo Rodriguez, Fresh finds Baby delivering 17 new songs that reassert his position as one of the most gifted mainstream MCs to blow up this decade. \u2014 KYLE DENIS<\/p>\n

\n\tJENNIE, \u201cSomeone To Hold\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe inviting disco-colored intro of \u201cSomeone To Hold\u201d neither sounds like a typical song for JENNIE nor a Disney princess \u2014 and that\u2019s what makes it magic<\/a>. The colorful pop song shows a new side of JENNIE\u2019s artistry that leans more playful and vibrant than anything on her solo debut full-length, while also matching the fresh take of the movie it\u2019s from \u2014 as the upcoming musical comedy Steps reimagines Cinderella from the perspective of the stepsisters. \u2014 L.H.<\/p>\n

\n\tDove Cameron, Final Girl<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite launching her career over a decade ago in Disney TV and film franchises \u2014 also lending her voice to both \u2014 Final Girl is Dove Cameron\u2019s debut full-length. At long last. The dramatic and soaring album delivers a range of tempos and emotions, from softer songs like pop ballad \u201cSilver Screen Baby\u201d and the raw \u201cImmortalized\u201d to uptempo dance-pop single \u201cWhen In Rome\u201d and the haunting and heavy \u201cSkin On Bone.\u201d It\u2019s an album that was well worth the wait, and offers so much possibility and intrigue as to what sounds and styles Cameron will want to explore next. \u2014 L.H.<\/p>\n

\n\tKings Of Leon, \u201cRose\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tVeteran rock band Kings Of Leon has released its 10th album, O My Beloved \u2014 and the first the band has ever self-produced. That decision paid off, as the gorgeous album marries thoughtful and melodic production with deeply personal storytelling about the member\u2019s families and upbringings. Described in a press release as a \u201clove letter\u201d to the road that brought the band to this point, it feels just as much a love letter to the fans who have walked that road with them for more than two decades. \u2014 L.H.<\/p>\n

\n\tXG, \u201cDepends\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tSince debuting in 2022, Japanese girl group XG have kept busy \u2014 especially this year. Since releasing its first full-length in January, titled THE CORE \u2013 \u6838, the group has embarked on its second world tour and has now, amidst that outing, released more new music with \u201cDepends.\u201d The electro-pop track showcases the members vocal strengths, from hard-hitting raps to syrupy, soaring high notes \u2014 all of which are united with groovy, metallic production and making for a high-energy addition to its set. \u2014 L.H.<\/p>\n

\n\tRex Orange County, \u201cElvis (featuring Brendan Yates)\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tBritish alternative artist Rex Orange County is back with his sixth album, Dream Fatigue, with featured artists including Mustafa, Daniel Ceasar and Turnstile lead singer Brendan Yates (on \u201cElvis\u201d). There\u2019s a dark beauty to the song, on which Rex sings of lover-boy nerves: \u201cI\u2019m not so calm, I shake my legs like I\u2019m Elvis\/ I wanna be your only friend \u2019cause I\u2019m selfish\/ I wanna stay here forever like it\u2019s Vegas\/ There\u2019s no one else I wanna share this hotel with.\u201d Yates joins for a final verse before he and Rex harmonize on an outro that lingers long after the last note. \u2014 L.H.<\/p>\n

\n\tSlayyyter, \u201cHey Boyyy\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn just one month, on Dec. 4, Slayyyter will unveil the counterpart to this year\u2019s acclaimed WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA album. Aptly titled wor$t man in america, the new album will contrast the perspectives she shared and ideas she explored on its predecessor. Frenetic new single \u201cHey Boyyy\u201d delivers on Slayyyter\u2019s signature sound thought is a bit softer in its lyrics, striking a balance only she can between a chaotic nature with good intentions. \u201cI can\u2019t stop blushing\/ I\u2019m too old to feel, more than nothing, she sings ahead of the chorus in which she admits, \u201cHey, boy, I got a funny little secret\/ I get so nervous when you talk to me.\u201d Not even ascendant superstars are immune. \u2014 L.H.<\/p>\n

\n\tBoys Noize, 7LLVSION<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter nearly two decades as an underground hero, it feels like the world finally caught up to Boys Noize. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross tapped him to remix their 2024 score for Challengers, then brought him on to co-produce much of their 2025 Tron: Ares soundtrack, finding clear connective tissue between their own industrial rock and the industrial electronic of the Boys Noize catalog. The Iraqi-German producer born Alex Ridha then lived out a rock \u2018n\u2019 roll fantasy, effectively becoming a member of Nine Inch Nails while opening for and playing with the band on its Peel It Back run before releasing the collaborative Nine Inch Noize album and playing a pair of Coachella shows<\/a> that some called among the best in the festival\u2019s history. On top of all that, he and Skrillex activated their longstanding side project Dog Blood last month with a headlining set at Portola, where they teased new music.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd now the producer returns to himself with 7LLVSION, his first solo studio album in five years. An all-killer-no-filler 12-song collection, the album is ferocious and unrelenting, drawing on EBM, punk, new wave and industrial to build music that\u2019s hard as hell (\u201cIllusion,\u201d \u201cHyytup\u201d) and often deliciously unhinged (\u201c1+1+1\u201d). Collaborators arrive from across the globe \u2014 Brazilian funkeiro Adame DJ, post-Soviet electro-punk collective Locked Club, Argentine rapper TAICHU, German duo Brutalismus 3000 \u2014 but Ridha never loses the thread. 7LLVSION is the work of a producer who spent years in other people\u2019s worlds, then came home with something to say. \u2014 KATIE BAIN<\/p>\n

\n\tJack Harlow, Sweet Action II<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter taking a blue-eyed-soul detour earlier this year with his Monica album, Jack Harlow is going back to his roots with Sweet Action II, the official sequent to his breakthrough 2020 Sweet Action EP. While that older project housed the career-catapulting \u201cWhats Poppin,\u201d Sweet Action II leans on the \u201990s for its exploration of romance, hence Babyface\u2019s appearance on standout track \u201cToo Soon.\u201d \u2014 K.D.<\/p>\n

\n\tC. Tangana & Agorazein, \u201cMilko Freestyle\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLatin Grammy dreams accomplished, private jets and rockstar excess collide with nostalgia and new fatherhood on \u201cMilko Freestyle,\u201d C. Tangana\u2019s first release in three years. Over a spare, hard-edged beat, he looks back on how El Madrile\u00f1o (2021) took him beyond rap\u2019s limits, then turns inward: mourning close friend and collaborator, Mexican rapper Milkman, confronting what he\u2019ll leave his newborn son, and admitting how much life can change before you\u2019ve had time to catch up. The video saves its most personal reveal for the end, as Tangana steps into fatherhood. Released as his early rap collective Agorazein reunites for its first shows in a decade, the track folds a homecoming into a reckoning with everything that has changed. \u2014 ISABELA RAYGOZA <\/p>\n

\n\tMack Geiger, Dying In This House<\/p>\n

\n\tCountry newcomer and Australia native Mack Geiger delivers a stellar dozen-song debut that is soaked in retro \u201880s and \u201890s country sounds. From the rollicking lead-off song \u201cHis & Hers\u201d to the steel guitar-laced title track that showcases his rich, twangy vocal, and the tender \u201cNothing Like Grandma,\u201d this is a project that feels timeless and comforting. Geiger, along with artists such as Zach Top and Kenny Whitmire, is continuing a revival of the popular \u201890s country sound, while cementing his place as a worthy newcomer with a deep well of talent. \u2014 JESSICA NICHOLSON<\/p>\n

\n\tMuscadine Bloodline, \u201cBlue Bayou\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDuo Muscadine Bloodline delivers a poetic, romantic ballad with \u201cBlue Bayou.\u201d Written by Julia Michaels and Muscadine Bloodline\u2019s Gary Stanton, the song leans into a bit of a double entendre of place and emotion on lines like \u201cWhen you cry\/ I\u2019ll be blue by you.\u201d The song conveys the perspective of someone wading into deep waters of enduring devotion, and longing to be the one someone leans on through the highs and lows. Meanwhile, MB\u2019s Stanton and Charlie Muncaster perform it, as always, with a straightforward sincerity. \u2014 J.N.<\/p>\n

\n\tShygirl, SWALLOW!<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis album unravelled at a time in my life where I felt truly loved and content,\u201d Shygirl wrote<\/a> when announcing her second album, SWALLOW!. This love and contentment radiates from this music, from the lush bliss of \u201cLucky[Hymn]\u201d to the gorgeous \u201cMantra,\u201d on which the English artist\u2019s voice effectively glows, coming through even in the darker, sharper-edged moments. From start to finish, Shygirl looks at her good fortune through the lens of \u201990s electronica, a genre that\u2019s thus far largely untapped in terms of becoming a modern trend and which is deployed to stylish and fresh effect. \u201cIf there\u2019s anything I stand for it\u2019s the pursuit of love; to love and be loved and all the emotions in between,\u201d Shygirl continued. On this one, you can hear it all. \u2014 K.B.<\/p>\n