We’d be remiss not to mention it before anything: Olivia Rodrigo is back. More on that soon.

“First Light” — Lana Del Rey

But first, a strange email hit our inbox yesterday, with Lana Del Rey attached to a new track for the 007 video game. Though it stops short of being a full-fledged James Bond movie theme song—a lane Del Rey feels tailor-made for—the chorus delivers that unmistakable Bond-style grandeur. Naturally, it stands in contrast to her most recent release (“White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter”), but if anything it leaves the same lingering question: when is Del Rey finally releasing the album? We know it’s a moving target: Lasso, The Right Person Will Stay, now finally Stove. How much longer are we stuck watching the clock?

“Potential” — Sombr

Sombr follows up his North American tour announcement with a new release this week. The song made its debut at Coachella last weekend where Sombr brought out Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins and they sang “1979” together. What’s compelling about Sombr is that his age puts him right in the middle of the modern dating world he’s writing about. “We had potential/it makes me mental,” he sings through a distorted voice. This has us thinking he and Troye Sivan could make a strong creative pairing. One lyric feels like a pinprick: “It was a difficult breakup/But I wrote some songs that got me famous/Sometimes I think about what it costs/You were the last one I could trust.” We may not have lived it ourselves, but the emotional weight cuts through just as strongly regardless. “Potential” is out now.

“She Did It Again” — Tyla and Zara Larsson

Tyla and Zara Larsson have teamed up on “She Did It Again.” Together, the two feel primed for a hit. We think their respective viral runs already sketch out the answer. Revived by TikTok’s endless loop economy, Larsson’s “Lush Life” re-entered the zeitgeist and crossed 2B Spotify streams. Tyla’s “Water” was inescapable on radio in 2023 and won a Grammy. Now what they make here is a playful and feel-good moment. It’s easy to imagine leaving this on when it pops up in shuffle.

“Met Tonight” — Zayn

Today also sees the release of Zayn’s latest album “KONNAKOL.” We tapped into it and let it loop a few times this morning. Our ears perked up on “Met Tonight” which has a Bollywood tint running through it, but that’s not exactly unexpected. During an appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast, Zayn pointed to his Indian heritage and cultural background as key inspiration for the project. The word “konnakol” means the practice of singing percussion syllables in South Indian Carnatic music. The record begins with a track named in reference to a Pakistani singer “Nusrat” and that vocal technique shows up here. There’s still a lot of mileage in “Sideways” for us but we’ll be sure to spin the album all weekend as well.

“Middle of Nowhere” — Kacey Musgraves

The second weekend of Coachella 2026 gets an added slot from Kacey Musgraves and also included is the title cut from her upcoming record “Middle of Nowhere.” There’s a sense that Musgraves is at ease being alone here. “If you tried to call/I wouldn’t call you back/even if I could,” she sings. We like it enough to follow her out into the desert…somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

“Drop Dead” — Olivia Rodrigo

Now is the pink-purple pivot—where a returning pop princess doubles down on polish and pose. If you saw it on your timeline, you knew the purple wall faded, “love” showed up and then the title of Olivia Rodrigo's new album dropped. Today, the first look of “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love” comes into focus with “Drop Dead.” This one’s got the windows down immediately.

What works best for us is how Rodrigo turns odd, fun lyrics into lived-in scenes. “I know that the bar closes at 11/I hope you never finish that beer,” she sings. It has that real-but-off-kilter feel you don’t get from many emerging songwriters right now. Does this separate Rodrigo from the pack? Yes.

The pairing with producer Dan Nigro still hasn’t lost its edge even after his diversions into other projects with Conan Gray and Chappell Roan. They click like a shoe buckle, and we use that bounce to skip through the track. We’ll be moving with it all weekend.

— Dawson Therre

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