Friday Music Guide: New Music From Beyoncé, Tyla, Jung Kook & Usher 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, Beyoncé welcomes us into her “House,” Tyla continues her rise and Jung Kook taps a superstar for a new remix. Check out all of this week’s picks below:

Beyoncé, “My House” 

“Ooooh, who they came to see?” a swath of voices demands, as Beyoncé new surprise single “My House” begins. The answer, of course, is Queen Bey: to cap off a year marked by a mega-selling world tour, and on the occasion of her concert documentary Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé hitting theaters, the superstar has gifted fans with a propulsive thank-you that’s both assertive and inviting. “My House” bottles the boisterous energy of last year’s Renaissance album, but Bey’s delivery comes closer to the roof-rattling rap-sing sneer of a song like “7/11,” allowing the song’s structure shape-shift around her but never letting the listener forget whose house it is.

Tyla, “Truth or Dare” 

In the same week that Tyla’s invigorating single “Water” hit the top 10 of the Hot 100 and the South African star announced the upcoming release of a self-titled debut album, she also tided fans over for the 2024 full-length with three new songs, highlighted by the effervescent anthem “Truth or Dare.” As “Water” demonstrated, Tyla knows precisely how to deploy a clipped, arresting hook — and when the refrain of “Truth or Dare” kicks in around the 1 minute 15 second mark, the song levitates, and begs to be placed in several of your playlists.

Jung Kook feat. Usher, “Standing Next to You” remix 

“Standing Next to You” sounds like a smash, from an artist who knows about such things: a centerpiece of Jung Kook’s recent album Golden, the stylish dance-pop track synthesizes the sleek hooks of his BTS work and pairs them with Jung Kook’s engrossing persona and vocal power. The song peaked at No. 5 on the Hot 100 upon its release, but this new remix with Usher, which introduces a legendary hit-maker to its disco-bounce ecosystem, could sustain an extended chart run; there’s probably not enough time for Ursh to bust this one out during his upcoming Super Bowl halftime performance, but you never know, right?

Dove Cameron, Alchemical: Volume 1 

Dove Cameron has said that Alchemical: Volume 1, the first half of her debut album, represents “a report from the void of my own personal experience with love, sex, loss, trauma, darkness and eventually transformation and healing,” a declaration that reaffirms the “Boyfriend” singer’s commitment to approaching pop beyond radio fodder. While Alchemical: Volume 1 includes Cameron’s previously released singles, but new tracks like the haunting “God’s Game” and the head-nodding “White Glove” suggest that the rising star’s self-exploration will contain unexpected sonic multitudes when fully realized.

ATEEZ, THE WORLD EP.FIN : WILL 

As ATEEZ closes the book on a year of sprawling shows and kinetic performances, THE WORLD EP.FIN : WILL captures the K-pop group’s ability to never let its audience’s attention flag for even a few seconds: every inch of the album is filled with percussive breakdowns, rap verses springing into melodic hooks and cleanly delivered interplay between the various group members. After THE WORLD EP.2 : OUTLAW reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart earlier this year, ATEEZ is hoping to close out 2023 on a high note, and artistically, they get there.

Editor’s Pick: Lana Del Rey, “Take Me Home, Country Roads” 

Lana Del Rey will enter 2024 with five Grammy nominations — including an album of the year nod for her sprawling studio set Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd — and is also featured on a pair of other album of the year nominees, Taylor Swift’s Midnights and Jon Batiste’s World Music Radio. Her past has been rightly lauded, but before she closes the books on 2023, Del Rey has unveiled a smoky, heartfelt take on a John Denver classic: her rendition of “Take Me Home, Country Roads” exists as the best type of cover song, underlining the beauty of the original composition while adding her own steely dynamism into the mix.

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