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.
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This week, Ed Sheeran makes a bold left turn, Lil Baby unearths an old hit, and Megan Moroney presents her first full statement. Check out all of this week’s picks below:
Ed Sheeran, – (Subtract)
In early 2022, Ed Sheeran’s world was upended — so he decided to examine his feelings through his craft. As suggested by muted lead single “Eyes Closed” and a rollout focused squarely on the acoustic nature of the project, – is not your typical Sheeran album, and doesn’t contain the no-brainer radio hits that have colored his full-lengths over the past five years. Yet if – marks a searing left turn in Sheeran’s recording career, his songwriting has long been working up towards an unfiltered, emotionally intelligent statement like this. A superstar who grew from busking on the street to playing stadiums — with just himself onstage — over the course of a decade, Sheeran has been gradually improving his song construction without relying too much on pop machinery, and sounds ready to meet this moment.
Click here to read the full review and track ranking of Sheeran’s new album.
Lil Baby, “Go Hard”
While Lil Baby is currently impacting the charts with a years-old song, “Low Down,” that went viral during March Madness, another fan favorite has been revived for streaming services: “Go Hard” has floated around the Internet for roughly three years as “Again” and “Again (Go Hard),” but now, the official song is here, and hasn’t lost any luster. “I’m not into losin’, I go hard as I can go to win,” Baby declares, providing a mantra — along with the track’s quickened pace — that can be motivation for a top-notch workout.
Toosii feat. Khalid, “Favorite Song (Remix)”
Toosii scored a viral hit on his own this year with the undeniable groove “Favorite Song,” but before his TikTok flare-up, the North Carolina artist had been known for his guest spots on projects by Latto, Lil Tjay and DaBaby. Now, he gets to play host to Khalid, who hops on the “Favorite Song” remix and expertly navigates its woozy vibe with some well-placed crooning; Khalid has been a radio fixture in the past, and this rework will hopefully get some run on rhythmic formats.
Megan Moroney, Lucky
Georgia native Megan Moroney’s voice possesses an earthy rasp that grounds her vulnerable songwriting in a sense of hard-earned reality — it’s part of the reason why she’s become one of country music’s breakout stars of this year. Debut album Lucky makes good on the promise of recent hits “Tennessee Orange” and “I’m Not Pretty,” showcasing Moroney’s storytelling panache and technical skill over the course of 42 satisfying minutes; expect this project to garner lots of love from the country awards, and for Moroney to keep rising.
YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Dermot Kennedy & Bailey Zimmerman, “Won’t Back Down”
Only Dominic Toretto and co. could bring together YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Dermot Kennedy and Bailey Zimmerman for a shared mission: “Won’t Back Down,” from the soundtrack to the upcoming Fast & Furious entry Fast X, finds the three artists’ disparate sounds coming together for some surprisingly effective high-speed inspiration. In particular, Zimmerman’s country warble balances out YoungBoy’s singsong rhyming, helping “Won’t Back Down” speed up and achieve a feeling of multiplex grit.
