Friday Music Guide: New Music From Lady Gaga, The Weeknd with Playboi Carti and More

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, Lady Gaga puts on her Joker makeup, The Weeknd joins forces with Playboi Carti and Stevie Nicks meets the moment. Check out all of this week’s picks below:

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Lady Gaga, Harlequin 

Although Harlequin is not exactly a new Lady Gaga album — the 13-song project is largely a mix of covered show tunes and rearrangements that serves as a companion piece to next week’s big-budget film sequel Joker: Folie à Deux — the original track “Happy Mistake,” a breathtaking ballad in the same sonic universe as Gaga’s A Star is Born work, more than justifies this stopgap before the next official full-length.

The Weeknd with Playboi Carti, “Timeless”

Two weeks after The Weeknd and Playboi Carti separately returned with highly anticipated solo tracks “Dancing in the Flames” and “All Red,” respectively, the pair of A-listers have linked up on “Timeless,” which will appear on The Weeknd’s upcoming album Hurry Up Tomorrow but pushes the superstar more towards Carti’s synth-heavy futuristic rap, courtesy in part of co-producer Pharrell Williams.

Stevie Nicks, “The Lighthouse” 

Stevie Nicks wrote new single “The Lighthouse” following the overturning of Roe v. Wade last year, but the legendary singer’s voice resonates regardless of the historical context, as she sings, “I have my scars, you have yours / Don’t let them take your power.”

Tommy Richman, Coyote 

Tommy Richman could have coasted on new-school R&B bangers like “Million Dollar Baby” and “Devil is a Lie” through the rest of 2024; instead, debut album Coyote (which stunningly contains neither of his first two hits on its track list) is decidedly a more bold affair, refracting funk, synth-pop, New Jack Swing and hip-hop through the lens of Richman’s singular croon.

Rosalía feat. Ralphie Choo, “Omega” 

While a fair share of Rosalía’s fantastic 2022 project MOTOMAMI boasted combustible rhythms and dance hooks, “Omega,” a new team-up with Ralphie Choo, serves as a potent reminder of the singer’s vocal might, with handclaps floating her melisma here and each syllable of the chorus delivered with piercing emotion.

Luke Bryan, Mind of a Country Boy 

A press release for Luke Bryan’s album describes Mind of a Country Boy as “the culmination of a career spent studying songs and living the hunting, fishing, and loving everyday lifestyle he sings about”; indeed, there’s an authenticity intrinsic to Bryan’s latest that separates the longtime star from his country brethren, particularly on tracks like “Kansas” and “Country On.”

The Cure, “Alone” 

The Cure’s first new song in 16 years is essentially a best-case scenario for longtime fans of the all-time greats: “Alone” is a gorgeous, nearly seven-minute rock epic, with a sweepingly mournful arrangement and Robert Smith sounding like he never stepped away from the recording studio.

Linkin Park, “Heavy is the Crown” 

If “The Emptiness Machine” reasserted Linkin Park’s rock-solid songwriting and introduced new co-vocalist Emily Armstrong into the mix, follow-up “Heavy is the Crown” fully unleashes the newly reformed band, recalling the bruising rap-rock of “Faint” and “Bleed It Out” while allowing Armstrong to unveil her own extended scream.

Editor’s Pick: SOPHIE, SOPHIE 

In her too-brief time in the spotlight, SOPHIE reconstructed the very fabric of dance and electronic music with a singular verve and boundless talent; SOPHIE, a bittersweet posthumous album which her family helped get across the finish line, honors her brilliance with wondrous moments that recall her career peaks, and glimpses of what could have been.

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