New Music Friday – the songs you need to hear this week

This week, Ravyn Lenae the singer behind the billion-streamed hit “Love Me Not” taps Dominic Fike—the “Euphoria” actor and voice behind hit song “3 Nights”—for a feature on her latest track, out now. The pair’s voices intertwine over lyrics that frame emotional repair as part of the allure of new love. You can stream “Reputation” across all platforms.

OneRepublic return with “Need Your Love,” their first new single since at least 2024. The track suggests a space where love overrides the concept of cost altogether. Vocals come from lead singer Ryan Tedder. “Don’t need the buzz or the credit cards/The house on the hill with a perfect yard,” Tedder sings. It shares that same simple idea as Taylor Swift’s “Wish List”: one person can be enough. We can check that out. The music video is out now, too.

After a cycle of teasers and delays, Kanye West’s new album “BULLY” came out last Saturday. We’re still giving it our attention this week. You can spot a bunch of strong collaborators across the tracks (Travis Scott and Andre Troutamn—who actually shows up on two songs). In January, West took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal to apologize for his antisemitic remarks. He explained his experiences with bipolar disorder which links to the swings between his high and low moods. He doesn’t really address any of this in the album, though. “Had a change of heart, I felt different at first/Lot of pain, lot of hurt, but still, could’ve been worse,” West sings on “WHATEVER WORKS.” Just take the words as they come, that’s our approach as well.

Another highlight features Swae Lee and Jhené Aiko on “Mural.” This is actually the pair’s second song together, after their track “In The Dark” for “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.” They go back and forth on both songs and the vibe is really chill. “Mural” comes Swae Lee’s debut solo album “SAME DIFFERENCE.” We’ve been giving it a listen and it’s pretty repeatable. It’s about an hour long and ends on a song with his “Sunflower” collaborator Post Malone. They already have a 4 billion-streamed song on Spotify so we weren’t sure this one could be as good—but it is. Lee gets more vulnerable on “TAKE MY HEART.”

Bleachers’ upcoming album “everyone for ten minutes” now has its third single out. The band is run by Jack Antonoff, who is currently one of the most prominent producers in the industry thanks to his work with Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Kendrick Lamar, among others. You might know the band for the songs “Don’t Take the Money” or “Rollercoaster.” We’re going to put you on to “The Van” now. Antonoff has a really good way of capturing that old suburban sad coming-of-age feeling. “I pulled into a Wawa in Philly in 2000/Blue Magic coming from the speaker at the gas pump/All Jersey kids/We never learn to pump gas,” he sings. Should name-dropping Wawa even work in a song? Well, it does. The song feels its warmest during the part where he keeps saying “I just don’t want to be lonely.” Our choice for best new release this week has to be this one, the harmonica outro really seals it. Check it out and don’t get lonely.

—Dawson Therre