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, Gracie Abrams’ much-anticipated second LP arrives with a famous friend in tow, Peso Pluma bows in grand 24-track fashion, and Ariana Grande and Charli XCX’s new remixes land with headline-capturing guest stars. Check out all of this week’s picks below.
Peso Pluma, Éxodo
The biggest name in música Mexicana returns this week with his sophomore LP Éxodo, a star-studded, 24-track, two-disc affair. The first disc is full of familiar names like Junior H, Natanael Cano, Gabito Ballesteros and “Ella Baila Sola” co-stars Eslabon Armado, while relying mostly on the sort of corridos tumbados that made him a star in 2023 — albeit with some new elements, like heavier guitar on “La Patrulla” and bookending piano on “Bruce Wayne.” Then, the second disc includes some different sounds and first-time collaborators, like English-language rappers Rich the Kid, Cardi B and Quavo on the trappy first three tracks, respectively, as well as Ryan Castro, Anitta and DJ Snake on songs that lean more reggaetón and/or EDM. It’s an interesting juxtaposition, and both discs still end up sounding quite naturally Peso, proving we’ve only really seen the beginning of what he can do in global pop music. (Read our ranking of all 24 tracks here.)
Gracie Abrams, The Secret of Us
Hot off her first Billboard Hot 100 hit as an unaccompanied solo artist, with the long-teased synth-pop banger “Close to You,” Gracie Abrams arrives with her sophomore LP The Secret of Us. It’s an expert collection of pop confections and folky ballads — and folky pop confections — mostly co-written and co-penned by indie-pop superproducer Aaron Dessner. The new song that will get the most attention is undoubtedly the power ballad “Us,” which features Abrams’ Eras Tour headliner Taylor Swift, but highlights also include the humming “Let It Happen,” the sighing “Good Luck Charlie” and the pulse-racing “Free Now.” “This album has meant so much to me because it has supported me through a period of transitions,” Abrams told Billboard about Secret earlier this month.
Ariana Grande feat. Brandy & Monica, “The Boy Is Mine”
We probably should’ve known: You just don’t give a song the title “The Boy Is Mine” if you don’t plan on getting Brandy & Monica involved somewhere along the line. The two ’90s R&B icons both make appearances alongside Ariana Grande on her new remix to the Eternal Sunshine single, with Brandy kicking off the first verse, Monica leading the second, and both sharing the harmony-laden bridge, including the lyric, “I told you once before, I’ll tell you once more, the boy is still mine.” Shoutout to Grande doing the right thing here — as always, pretty much — and to Brandy and Monica for giving longtime fans the semi-official “The Boy Is Mine” sequel they’ve waited over a quarter-century for.
Post Malone feat. Blake Shelton, “Pour Me a Drink”
After his Morgan Wallen collab “I Had Some Help” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent its first five weeks on the chart in pole position, Post Malone returns with his next country-era team-up. This time, longtime genre stalwart Blake Shelton is in tow to help out on with the down-on-our-luck singalong “Pour Me a Drink,” with the two co-stars splitting vocal responsibilities in fairly equal measure on both the chorus and the verses, Post’s resonant warble meshing surprisingly well with Shelton’s twangy croon. Without Wallen’s contemporary commercial clout, it might not be quite as immediate a chart super-smash, but it certainly sounds like it’s gonna end up being two-for-two for Country Posty.
Coldplay, “feelslikeimfallinginlove”
A mouthful for a one-word song title, but “feelslikeimfallinginlove” isn’t really nearly as frenzied or smushed together as its name might imply. Rather, it’s Coldplay generally doing what they do best: love songs with moody verses and blood-rush choruses that you can remember after a single listen. Much of the same superteam of producers behind 2022’s Music of the Spheres, including Max Martin and Oscar Holter, return for the new song, so you know it’s got the same top 40 crackle and sparkle of that album’s highlights — and should get fans excited for the band’s upcoming 10-track set Moon Music, recently announced and due in October.
Kehlani, Crash
R&B star singer-songwriter Kehlani has been one of the more consistent albums (and mixtapes) artists of the past decade, so it’s always a good Friday to be getting a new set from her — as it is today with her eclectic and spellbinding Crash LP. You already know about the coolie dance riddim lift (via Nina Sky’s 2004 dancehall classic “Move Ya Body”) on the viral hit “After Hours,” but the lustful “What I Want” also includes an inspired pitched-up sample of Christina Aguilera’s TRL-era Hot 100-topper “What a Girl Wants” (and the even-more-inspired chorus hook “I need all the pretty girls to the shower”). Meanwhile, “Vegas” is her biggest-sounding pop killer in years, and the grungy, guitar-driven title track is a real lighter-waver, a future setlist closer to be sure. Perhaps in this month of longtime cult favorites experiencing overdue pop success, Kehlani can follow her fellow Crash artist to the top tier of the charts this June.
Charli XCX feat. Lorde, “The Girl, So Confusing Version With Lorde”
Speaking of Kehlani’s fellow party Crash-er, Charli is back this week with a new Brat remix — and if you thought her “Club Classics” redo with Robyn and Yung Lean was clever, just wait till you see who she’s got on her “Girl, So Confusing” Pt. 2. Lorde, the longtime peer of Charli’s who many believed to be the subject of the original love/hate-themed “Girl,” appears to answer the latter’s call to “work it out on the remix,” running through her own mixed feelings about their relationship (as well as her own body and self-image issues) before concluding “I ride for you, Charli.” And unsurprisingly — as Charli predicted on the original — the internet is indeed already going crazy for it.