Music's Biggest Night is upon us and promises to deliver GRAMMY Moments that will make all fans Believe In Music™. The star-studded performance lineup for the 59th Annual GRAMMY Awards includes a performance by Lady Gaga — fresh off her Super Bowl LI halftime performance — tributes to the late music icons Prince and George Michael, Bruno Mars' return to the GRAMMY stage, and the best in country, hip-hop, pop, and rock. James Corden will host — will he tap one of the night's guests for a special GRAMMY edition of Carpool Karaoke? Tune in to CBS on Sunday, Feb. 12 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. to see the award-winning television personality as well as our stellar cast of performers and presenters.

And the performers on the 59th GRAMMY Awards are:  

Adele
Kelsea Ballerini
Beyoncé
William Bell and Gary Clark Jr.
Chance The Rapper and Kirk Franklin
Cynthia Erivo and John Legend for a special In Memoriam tribute performance
Lady Gaga and Metallica
Little Big Town
Demi Lovato with Andra Day and Tori Kelly celebrating the music of the Bee Gees and the 40th anniversary of Saturday Night Fever
Lukas Graham
Bruno Mars
Maren Morris and Alicia Keys
Anderson .Paak and A Tribe Called Quest
Katy Perry
Sturgill Simpson
Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban
The Weeknd with Daft Punk 

The award presenters for Music's Biggest Night are:

Camila Cabello
The Chainsmokers
Kelly Clarkson
Laverne Cox
Jason Derulo
Celine Dion
DNCE
Halsey
Taraji P. Henson
Paris Jackson
Nick Jonas
Jennifer Lopez
Tim McGraw & Faith Hill
Katharine McPhee
Pentatonix
Thomas Rhett
Gina Rodriguez
Ryan Seacrest
John Travolta

At the time of our call, the release of Telos — Zedd's first studio album in nearly a decade — is just seven days away. Snug in an earthy brown crewneck, the 34-year-old musician joins the Zoom from his new home in Encino, California, with a degree of poise that some might find surprising at this point in the rollout. 

Still, his relaxed body language, decisive, measured speech, and quiet confidence make it clear that any anxiety he once felt about the LP has been replaced by pure anticipation. 

"I am honestly just really excited. I think I've released music in the past that I was nervous about, but it's quite different with this album," he tells GRAMMY.com. "I feel very calm and just happy to be able to release this music that I've been working on for so long, some of which has been in the works as late as nine years ago." 

Out Aug. 30, Telos arrives about four years later than initially announced and about eight years after it was contractually due. Though Zedd confirmed that the long-awaited answer to his second studio album, True Colors (2015), would arrive in 2020, he indefinitely postponed the project at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

"I decided to push back the album to when things are more back to normal," he wrote in a Reddit AMA (ask me anything) in November 2020. "I really wanted it to come out this year, but I put the album on standby because during quarantine, I just didn't feel the inspiration to make this the best album possible."

Timing is everything and Zedd, who counts a clock ticking sample among his stylistic hallmarks, knows this well. Zedd embraced the axiom while making Telos, an album that "isn't for the algorithms" in an era when creative works' cultural capital is largely decided by how well they pander to an algorithm. Telos is decidedly — and in some ways, daringly — non-commercial. "Lucky," alongside singer/songwriter Remi Wolf and "Automatic Yes" with John Mayer, are notably the only two tracks palatable for commercial radio airplay. The 10-track album largely plays like a love letter to classical music (there is an orchestra on the entire LP), with flashes of pop, dance/electronic, jazz, world music, and metal influence. A cross-generational list of collaborators — including 40-year-old musician and composer Jeremy Kittle, who recorded each string for the album one by one, and Gen Z singer-songwriter Bea Miller — further dynamize Telos.

Telos "isn't going to be that pop album that some people may have wanted me to make," Zedd acknowledges. Nor will it be the dance/electronic LP that purists from his name-making run in the early-2010’s might long for. Fans gained during the GRAMMY-winning producer's complextro, electro, and progressive house-heavy era (think "Shave It") have been some of his most outspoken critics in recent years, reproaching his stride into commercial pop.

This response is neither surprising nor foreign to Zedd. "I felt the same way about a lot of bands and artists that I grew up listening to when I heard their new music," he reflects. "In the moment, you might be like, I'm disappointed, 'cause I wanted X, Y, Z, and with a little bit of perspective, you realize what an artist has done, and maybe those become your favorite works when you give it time."

Zedd has already proved his ability to craft pop hits with staying power — with help from some of the genre’s most prominent voices. The 2017 single "Stay" with Alessia Cara (2017) and 2018's "The Middle" with Maren Morris and Grey were two of Zedd's biggest smashes in the dance-pop domain post-True Colors. Both singles achieved platinum certification, though "The Middle" has since struck platinum six times. Like "Clarity" — the 2012 breakthrough single that scored Zedd his sole golden gramophone (for Best Dance Recording) — "Stay" and "The Middle" imbued him with the confidence and greater depth of reference to make an album like Telos.

"If I made another album today that felt the same way Clarity felt back then, you wouldn't feel the same way about Clarity today," Zedd reasons, adding that Telos has some of the "internal motivations" and experimentation of Clarity. "It's just a more mature and experienced expression, so I think the people who loved Clarity will find plenty to love on Telos."

The album's debut single, "Out Of Time" featuring Bea Miller, is likely to serve as one such point of connection. It retains the DNA of Zedd's established, melody-driven sonic identity while still feeling fresh and exploratory.

"It's a really good example of a new version of an old me," he attests. "The real core of what Zedd feels like isn't the sound. It's not the synths, and it's not the kicks you hear at the festival. It's actually really deeply rooted in chord progressions and melodies. Those are well alive, and more than ever, on Telos."

At nine-and-a-half-years-old, "Out Of Time" is the oldest track on the album, penned just after Zedd delivered True Colors (OG fans will recognize the song's chord progression from the intro to his DJ sets). His motivation to repeatedly rework the track and fashion it into the album opener stems, in part, from the feeling that it was "too theatrical" to be a standalone single.

Telos provided "the perfect canvas to deliver all these meaningful songs to my life and to my career that couldn't just be one-offs," he says.

Zedd’s current musical ethos is born from his disenchantment with the direction of music in the age of algorithms and TikTok, and the resulting Telos is the product of his "decision to really be free musically."  

"There was one moment in making Telos that made me realize this is like my autobiography. This is everything I am as an artist, and everything I do musically is for me," Zedd says with conviction. "That was a really liberating moment because I am essentially guaranteeing that I'm not going to disappoint anyone because the only audience is me. I'm making this for myself." 

"It sounds so silly to even say [this album is just going to be for me] because you would think that everything you make as an artist is for you," he concedes. "But really, the truth is it's hard to block out the feeling that people might be disappointed, and the feeling that you could change a song, and you would make so many people happy." 

Telos' exhaustive creation process was as much a matter of deconstruction as it was reconstruction. About halfway through the first version of "Z3," as the album is known colloquially among fans, Zedd scrapped 90 percent of what he'd written, salvaging only "Dream Brother." The hypnotic interpretation of Jeff Buckley's 1994 song embodies the musicality that threads Telos — from the texture of the opening guitar chords and piano, to the swell of strings, and Zedd's signature clock ticking sample in its outro. Telos marks the first and only time the Buckley estate has given an artist the rights to the late creative's work. 

"Dream Brother," Zedd explains, was "the only song that felt like this is living very much in the world that I really deeply feel," citing it as "a song that has inspired me since my early days as a musician." 

Between his successes on Billboard's Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart and the coveted Hot 100, it may be easy to forget that Zedd's musicality traces back to childhood. A classically trained musician, Zedd began playing the piano at the age of four and still writes his music on the piano first. Telos is a cerebral reminder that it's reductive to think of Zedd as anything less than a natural-born composer.

Elsewhere, "Sona," featuring the olllam, harkens back to Zedd's days as a member of German metalcore band DIORAMIC in its use of the 7/4 time signature. "Sona" is the first song in this time signature that Zedd has made since his days as a band member (he was the group's drummer from ages 12 to 20). 

Still, Telos' unequivocal pièce de resistance is "1685" with GRAMMY-winning English rock band Muse. The six-minute and 11-second album finale takes inspiration from Johann Sebastian Bach's "The Well Tempered Clavier" — the first classical piece Zedd ever learned to play on piano as a child and as he calls it, "probably the most influential piece ever written in life for me."

Named for Bach's birth year, "1685" extends the full-circle nature of Telos. Both a tribute to his favorite composer and a reference to Zedd's earliest days as a musician (he performed a cover of Muse during his very first concert with DIORAMIC), these connections imbue Telos with authenticity and soul.  

Intricate and lovingly-crafted, Telos is Zedd at his most musically honest. "It's my entire life in one album," he says. "It's truly an evolution of who I am as a musician." 

His decision to eschew trends and commercial formulae to embrace "music for the sake of art" confers a sense of timelessness to Telos. For those versed in gaming terminology (like the multi-platinum producer, a notorious gamer) Telos is Zedd in his final form — a state unlocked only after the successful completion of considerable, skill-building challenges. 

Fittingly, the multifaceted nature of Telos and its creator is reflected in the album's title. The Greek word has multiple meanings, including accomplishment, completion of human art, and the end. He chose the name "telos" 30 or so minutes before he had to submit the LP — an  ironic timeline for a production that took years to conceive.  Yet like all of the creative choices that culminate in Telos, this, too, was part of a thoughtful strategy. Zedd wanted to be sure that the album's title would faithfully capture its concept, even after the LP’s many metamorphoses. 

"I really relate to all of the meanings," he says. "Accomplishment of a goal is one of them. I made this album that I was dreaming of making my whole life with the artists I love so much who have inspired me, so it's a genuine dream come true to make this album." 

With introspection written on his face, Zedd pauses, then continues: "One of the meanings of 'telos' is the end, and there was a good chunk of time where I thought this might be the last music I will ever release. It's kind of like I put all my emotions and feelings into this one album…is there any reason for me to take space away in this universe if this is all I have left to say? And for a moment towards the tail end, I was like 'yeah, Telos is the name for this album because I will never make another song in my life.'"
But Telos is merely another beginning, briefly disguised as an end. Zedd delivered the album, had a second to breathe, moved from Beverly Hills to Encino, put a piano in his bedroom, and "inevitably started writing new music." Timing is everything.

Thomas Rhett married his wife, Lauren, in 2012 — the same year he launched his career in country music. Naturally, the majority of his catalog has been inspired by their relationship. Over a decade into their marriage, Rhett has officially dedicated an entire album to the love of his life, the aptly titled About A Woman. And is she surprised? Absolutely not.

"A lot of people are like, 'Oh my gosh, does she just melt when she hears these songs?' And I'm like, 'Maybe back in the day, but not anymore,'" Rhett tells GRAMMY.com with a laugh. "It's actually gotten to the point where she's like, 'How do you continue to write about me?'"

But unlike Rhett's GRAMMY-nominated ballad "Die a Happy Man" or his 21st country radio No. 1, "Angels (Don't Always Have Wings)," About A Woman is largely full of upbeat tracks — something that did surprise his wife. "That was her favorite part," the singer adds. "She wants to know there's some fun that can be had with a love song."

From the racing, pop-tinged melody of "Fool" to the bluesy, howling hook of the title track, About A Woman is a feel-good celebration of love. Thomas and Lauren's love story — which dates back to grade school — is most vividly reflected in "What Could Go Right," a retelling of the night they went from friends to lovers. Other personal touches are scattered across the album, including "Church," an ode to their favorite artist, Eric Church, and "Overdrive," which features an anecdote from a high school party.

Of course, there is one ballad on the album, the heartfelt closer "I Could Spend Forever Loving You." But while Rhett was making About A Woman, he knew that the best way he could accurately portray their relationship was with uptempo songs.     

"It kind of feels like we're 21 again — there's a lot more flirting going on, there's more dates, there's more adventure. Even though we have four children, our love level today feels very young and wild and reckless," Rhett says. "That was a fun thing to get to capture on a lot of these songs. I was writing from this giddy phase."

Ahead of About A Woman's Aug. 23 arrival, Rhett sat down with GRAMMY.com for an in-depth chat, well, about a woman. Below, hear from the singer himself on how his wife inspired some of the songs on the album.

I've been trying to write this song for, like, five years. There was a moment when I was 21 years old — and if you don't know anything about me and Lauren's story, we grew up knowing each other, and I always was head over heels for her. We dated a little bit in high school, but it was kind of a young, dumb high school relationship.

We still remained best friends — she would date somebody else, I would date somebody else, but we would always double date with each other. And I think that she was fully over me in her mind, but there was like this little part of me in the back of my mind that just never got over her.

Right before her last semester of college, I texted her, and I was like, "Hey, this is gonna sound really awkward, but I don't know that I can be your friend anymore, because I'm actually, like, in love with you." I think she didn't know how to respond to that. 

So I called her dad, and I was like, "You think I should tell her?" And he was like, "Well, if you don't tell her tonight how you feel about her, I'm gonna tell her." And I was like, "Well that would be even more awkward."  

The night her sister graduated high school, the crowd had started to die down, and Lauren's dad looked at me and he said, "Now's your time." I remember walking out there and kind of just laying it all out. And she looked at me, and she was like, "I feel like you just ruined our friendship." And I said, "Well, I would rather ruin our friendship today knowing that we can be friends later, rather than pretend to be your buddy, but I really just want to make out with you." 

I pulled the cheesiest line ever — it felt like Ryan Gosling out of The Notebook — I was like, "I dare you to kiss me. And if you don't feel any fireworks, if you don't feel any butterflies in your stomach, then let's just move on." And she was like, "Alright, we'll give it a shot." So we kissed, and that was the beginning of everything. We started dating the day after that, and six months later, we got engaged, and, nine months after that, got married, and here we are with four children, 12 years later. And it all started because of that night. 

That's why that song resonates with me so much. It kind of reminds me of [my song] "Life Changes" — it's just so vividly detailed that it could only come from my mouth. For me and Lauren both, that song holds such a special place in our hearts.

It was my junior year, and my wife was the homecoming queen — everybody in our school wanted to date Lauren. She was just so breathtakingly gorgeous, and her heart was so real and authentic.

I remember driving to this party that everybody was going to, and Lauren texted me, like, "Can you pick me up and take me to this thing?" So it was this feeling of being 16, 17 years old, just like, Man, I know that it's your boys before everybody else, but in this case, I'm dropping y'all. The hottest girl in my world just asked me to pick her up to take me to this party, so I'm getting there as fast as I possibly can. 

I think the only line that does not directly correlate to my wife is in the second verse, when it says [something] like, I had to put you on my shoulders because you're wearing high heels to a bonfire party. My wife would rather die than put high heels on and/or put makeup on.

If I'm being completely honest with you, it is the only track on the record that does not directly relate to my wife. When I listened to that chorus, I was like, Man, our genre is having such a massive moment. And there's so many stories I've heard of girls or guys from the city meeting a girl or a guy from the country, and falling in love with the simplicity of the lifestyle.

At the end of the day, I didn't need it to fit the rest of the story. I couldn't get enough of the song, so I was like, You know what, I'm gonna let this one slide a little bit.

My wife is as country as crap. [Laughs.] When I played this for her, she's like, "This is not about me, right?" I was like, "No, this is about people just really wanting to be inundated in the country music culture."

We're pretty dadgum equal [when it comes to being country]. I was born in Valdosta, Georgia, which is a real southern part of Georgia, but I grew up in Nashville. My dad's probably the biggest redneck that I know, alongside Lauren's dad. But we both grew up hunting, fishing, riding four wheelers, catching bream out of some stale pond and frying them in Crisco, eating biscuits and gravy for breakfast. She would say that she's more country than me, but I'm just going to let her believe that. Happy wife, happy life.

"Beautiful As You" (The Instagram Version)

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Our whole relationship has been based on picking on each other. Even in middle school when I first got to know her at church camp, she would always look at me and be like, "You're shorter than me." That was how we started our friendship, and that's kind of how we flirted with each other.

It's a really good feeling to know that we have never lost that bit of our relationship. We both have the same humor — like, on Instagram, when we see memes and we show them to our whole family, and me and Lauren are dying laughing. That's how you know that you're made for each other, in a certain way.

It's always fun to kind of slide one in that's unflattering of Lauren — because the irony of that is, there's really nothing that's unflattering about her, and there's so many things that are unflattering about me. So when she wants to get me back, it's such a more in-depth getting back than me getting back at her. [Laughs.]

I can list like, five to 10 moments — even in the last six months — where that was our story of just like, "Hey, the kids are down. Let's go build a fire and let's sleep outside tonight." Whereas, even two years ago, it was like, get me to my pillow as fast as humanly possible, because life was just so fast and chaotic.

Last year, we did this road trip out West. We did Zion National Park, went all over to the National Parks in Utah, New Mexico and Colorado. Those nights where we were hiking all day, and our kids are so worn out — that was when me and Lauren would go grab some random craft beer out of the fridge, [sit] on the back porch, and get out our star app and try to find as many as many constellations as we possibly could. And [we'd] get to reminisce about the week, and laugh, and flirt, and kiss. Those things sound really normal for a newlywed couple, but when you experience a lot of years of marriage and start to have kids, you realize those moments can be very few and far between, if you don't make a diligent point to make those nights happen.

Lauren loves to play board games. [When] the rest of our family is, like, dead tired, Lauren looks at me, she's like, "What game are we gonna play?" and I'm like, "Are you not exhausted?" And she's like, "Yes, but this is where my cup gets filled up for the next day." 

As sort of PG as all of that sounds, that is sort of my rendition of "After All The Bars Are Closed." I had this conversation with Julian [Bunetta, Rhett's longtime co-writer/producer] a lot, but it's like, "Man, how do you take things that are actually happening in your life and have them apply to an 18-year-old kid?" 

So "After All The Bars Are Closed" was just like, "Everyone's down for the count, but me and you still have energy to keep this party going" — which can relate to people in their mid 30s and 40s, but also can relate to kids going to the bar when they're 18 years old and wanting to go find the field to park in afterwards.

I was about to headline Stagecoach for the first time, and I got this chorus and verse sent to me by a couple of guys that I've written with a ton. Me and these co-writers really bond over being Eric Church nerds. When I heard this hook [with] all these super inside Eric Church references, I knew from that moment that this was going to be — besides "What Could Go Right" — the [song] that [Lauren] goes back to the most.

The majority of me and Lauren's high school and college really revolved around two people: Corey Smith and Eric Church. So I have all these memories of seeing Eric Church with my wife, or her buying me a copy of "These Boots," and me buying her a copy of Chief, and just spending our days memorizing these words. It was always my mission to learn so many Eric Church songs so that I could play them around bonfires and parties.

As I've been in this career for 15 years, me and Lauren have gotten to know him and his wife pretty well. I remember finishing that song and sending it to Eric, and getting his stamp of approval on that song was one of the biggest highlights of my career. His music meant so much to our love story, and I have so many memories that are attached with Lauren to his music, that this song just had to be on the project.

It was like, 1 o'clock in the morning after a show. I'd learned these random jazz chords that day that I started kind of playing. My bus driver's name is Rhett — he's 82 years old, and he drove buses for, like, Mötley Crüe and Dolly Parton — and I looked at Rhett, and I said, "What should we write about?" And he just looked at me, and he said, "I don't know. I guess something about a woman." And this song fell out in 30 minutes.

I love this track so much because it's something I've been trying to write for a long time, but it's never really come out in a unique way. This song has such a vibe, so much sauce. It's like, Steely Dan meets the Rolling Stones meets my love for R&B. It's kind of my best attempt at doing what Chris Stapleton does every day.

We went into that session not even thinking we were writing a song for this record. Our ultimate mission was to try to write a song we could get in the "Yellowstone" [TV show] soundtrack.

I'm obsessed with love films that end with the couple being old together. I'm obsessed with nostalgia, and I'm obsessed with things working out in a positive light. I cannot wait to be 40. I can't wait to be 50. I can't wait to be 60. Because it's just sort of like, "Hey, we made it another decade!" 

I dream about sitting on the front porch in the middle of the country with Lauren, in a rocking chair, watching our kids who we raised, and looking at our grandchildren. I'm obsessed with the thought of knowing that we're gonna finish this race really strong. 

That's where the inspiration of "I Could Spend Forever Loving You" came from. It's like, there's gonna be ups and there's going to be downs, but we can kind of weather any storm — because we've already weathered plenty of storms.

Summer may be slowly edging toward fall, but the red-hot streak of this summer's musical output shows no signs of slowing down.

This New Music Friday (Aug. 16), Post Malone goes country with his sixth studio album F-1 Trillion, Meghan Trainor adds four songs (and rearranges the track list) to the deluxe edition of her latest LP Timeless, and global girl group KATSEYE unveil their debut mini-album SIS (SOFT IS STRONG). Plus, Muscadine Bloodline share their fourth full-length The Coastal Plain and Nikka Costa drops Dirty Disco, her first album in eight years.

When it comes to singles, there's just as many new songs to explore — from superstar collabs like ROSALÍA and LISA's empowered "NEW WOMAN" to the latest releases from Hozier and Peggy Gou. 

Below, dive into eight more new releases from pop and K-pop to rap, rock, country, dance, and more.

Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars gave the world just 12 hours notice that they were dropping "Die With a Smile" this week, sending Little Monsters and Hooligans alike into a tizzy as they braced themselves for the surprise duet.

Mars' sensual vocals lead off the moony, apocalyptic love song, which marks Mars' first release since his GRAMMY-winning work with Anderson .Paak as Silk Sonic. Strumming an electric guitar, the 15-time GRAMMY winner vows, "I, I just woke from a dream/ Where you and I had to say goodbye/ And I don't know what it all means/ But since I survived, I realized/ Wherever you go, that's where I'll follow." 

As for Mother Monster's oeuvre, "Die With a Smile" lands somewhere between Joanne and "Shallow" as her fans wait impatiently for LG7. Not to be outdone, Gaga takes over on the second verse, supported by Mars' swooning harmonies as the duo crescendo the intensity of their devotion to meet the literal end of the world.

On New Music Friday eve, BLACKPINK member LISA added to her blossoming collection of solo bangers with "NEW WOMAN," an empowering shapeshifter of a duet that sees her joining forces with ROSALÍA.

"Hit it when I serve/ B—, you better swerve/ Revving up my aura/ Focus on my mind/ Taking my time/ I'm a new woman, woman," the K-pop star proudly announces on the chorus of the song before Rosalía slams on the brakes to sing and rap her way through a sultry verse in her native Spanish that translates, in part, to "I was born pure, yes/ Not an era will be a flop in my future/ W—, I'm Rosalía, I only know how to serve."

The accompanying Dave Meyers-directed video is filled with high-fashion looks (thigh-high boots on fire, that massive, floor-sweeping pearl necklace…or is it made of ball bearings?), Y2K nostalgia (flip phones!) and a bevy of quirky, genuinely off-beat moments that will be sure to help drive the conversation as LISA continues to establish herself — and her nascent LLOUD partnership under RCA Records — as a global force in control of her musical destiny.

Fresh off "Death Wish Love" — his folksy contribution to the Twisters soundtrack — Benson Boone uses his newest single "Pretty Slowly" to celebrate his sudden rise as one of pop music's shiniest new stars.

The deceptively upbeat track's lyrics reflect on the dissolution of a relationship lost to all the recent, stratospheric changes in his life as he croons, "Oh, how come all the best things fall apart/ And it started pretty slowly/ When you asked about the old me/ Oh, is he gone? Oh, is he gone/ Oh, I don't know/ I think I left him somewhere I no longer go."

However, the song's accompanying music video acts as a both a victory lap in the wake of his debut album, Fireworks & Rollerblade, from earlier this summer and and energetic peek into the "Beautiful Things" breakout's high-octane live show — complete with thousands of ecstatic fans and his signature, onstage backflips.

YG — 'Just Re'd Up 3'

More than a decade after his 2013 mixtape Just Re'd Up 2, YG adds to the series with the long-awaited Just Re'd Up 3.

The Compton native has released six other albums and a litany of other mixtapes and collaborative projects in the interim, and his decade-plus in the spotlight allows him to recruit a wide array of contemporaries for the two-disc LP — from Saweetie ("SHE PRETTY") and Ty Dolla $ign ("IT'S GIVIN," "RESCUE ME") to Tee Grizzley and G Herbo ("MALIBU") and Lil Yachty and Babyface Ray ("STUPID").

"Die For Me," Jean Dawson's new collaboration with Lil Yachty, blends the experimental leanings of the L.A.-based polymath (and musical arranger on Beyoncé's COWBOY CARTER) with the bubblegum trap rapper's one-of-a-kind flow — and the result is magnetic.

Sonically, the swirling track feels like a logical follow-up to Bad Cameo, the "Poland" rapper's recent collaborative album with James Blake. After Dawson warbles the hook ("Don't show up at my funeral/ If you won't die for me"), Lil Yachty grabs the mic for a blunt-force eulogy that demands repeated listening.

Morgan Wade — 'Obsessed'

Morgan Wade preceded her fourth album, Obsessed, with delicate, heart-on-her-sleeve singles like "2AM in London" and "Time to Love, Time to Kill." Arriving almost a year to the day since her previous full-length Psychopath, the country upstart — and occasional Real Housewives of Beverly Hills guest star — is just as vulnerable on the rest of the album.

Showing off her aptitude for laying bare emotional storytelling and heart-crushing nostalgia, Wade cleverly exposes her fragilities and regrets across the album's 14 tracks — whether she's gender-flipping Shakespeare and competing with Romeo on the forbidden "Juliet," finding somber inspiration in fairy tales on the wistful "Hansel and Gretel," or duetting with Kesha on the repentant "Walked on Water."

Seven years since 2017's Coming Home, Falling In Reverse are back with their fifth studio album, Popular Monster. The LP's rollout has been spread across nearly half a decade, with the title track being released as the lead single way back in November 2019. Six additional singles have followed in the lead-up to the long-awaited project, including collaborations with Tech N9ne and Slaughter to Prevail vocalist Alex Terrible ("Ronald") and Jelly Roll ("All My Life"), as well as a reimagined cover of Papa Roach's "Last Resort."

And while Popular Monster's cover art is plastered with frontman Ronnie Radke's 2012 mugshot for alleged domestic assault, the release is hardly a solo project. In fact, it's the first Falling in Reverse album to feature Max Georgiev on guitar, Tyler Burgess on bass and Luke Holland on drums. (Derek Jones, the band's late rhythm guitarist, also contributed to the title track before his untimely death in 2020 from a subdural hematoma.)

Fridayy is practically begging to keep things simple on "Complicated," his yearning, pulsating new collaboration with DJ Snake. "Tell me what you want/ Girl, I want to know/ Please don't make it complicated/ We ain't gotta complicate it," he repeats over the DJ's hypnotic rhythms filled with Spanish guitar and distant jungle sounds.

Eventually, the three-time GRAMMY nominee's desperate pleas morph into an atmospheric echo as DJ Snake's handiwork takes center stage, plunging the track into a spellbinding synth breakdown that dances all the way to the finish.

As August temperatures remain hot, so does the new music. With fresh tracks spanning all genres from dance to rap, there's plenty to explore this New Music Friday.

Check out albums like NIKI's Buzz, Logic's Ultra 85, and Little Big Town's Greatest Hits, as well as first tastes of forthcoming projects from Kelsea Ballerini, Katy Perry and Leon Bridges. Plus, there's plenty more new songs from the likes of The Kid LAROI and beabadoobee, as well as thrilling collabs from ATEEZ and G-Eazy, and J Balvin and Feid.

No matter what genre you gravitate towards, there's something new to discover. Be sure to check out these 10 musical offerings before you kick off your weekend.

Just hours before New Music Friday hit, Shawn Mendes celebrated his 26th birthday with a gift to his fans: not one, but two new songs.

The first taste of his upcoming fifth studio album, Shawn, the two tracks — "Why, Why, Why" and "Isn't That Enough" — present a folkier side of Mendes' musicality, leaning into the acoustic sound of his early music but with an indie flair. Mendes also released the official video for "Why Why Why," which sees shots of the singer playing his guitar in nature transposed with footage of him performing on stage.

In celebration of the release, Mendes played an intimate show at Bearsville Theater in Woodstock, New York, performing Shawn in its entirety two full months before its Oct. 18 arrival. He'll play five more full-album shows: London, U.K. on Aug. 13, Nashville, Tenn. on Oct. 14, Brooklyn, New York on Oct. 18, Los Angeles on Oct. 22, and Seattle on Oct. 24.

After scoring hits with Clean Bandit and David Guetta respectively, Anne-Marie brings them both together for another vibrant, upbeat electronic anthem. "Cry Baby" takes inspiration from early 2010s dance music, reminiscent of the era when the genre dominated the airwaves.

Featuring a haunting whistle hook and Anne-Marie's powerful vocals layered over pulsing instrumentals from the dance giants, "Cry Baby" is a powerhouse collaboration showcasing some of the best talents in electronic music.

Three years after 2021's Hall of Fame, Polo G is back with his fourth studio album, Hood Poet. The album was shelved for over a year due to outstanding circumstances, but it's finally here, and rap fans couldn't be more hyped.

The four singles that teased the project include "Barely Holdin' On," "Distraction," "Angels In The Sky," and "We Uh Shoot," featuring Lil Durk. These tracks feature a range of instrumental backgrounds, from soft piano layers to thumping beats, all showcasing Polo G's powerful and passionate vocal lines. 

Although the wait was long it was no doubt worth it, as the tracks on Hood Poet represent some of Polo G's finest work, from the refined production to his evocative, creative storytelling.

Continuing to tease songs from her forthcoming seventh studio album, 143, Katy Perry delivers her latest dance-pop track, "Lifetimes." The song is a lively, upbeat anthem representing unconditional love.

On Instagram, Perry posted a photo with her partner, Orlando Bloom, using a filter that aged her 50 years, with the track playing in the background. However, Perry recently revealed to The Sun that the song is actually about her 3-year-old daughter, Daisy – a sweet ode to the unmatched feeling of maternal love.

"Every night, before we go to sleep, I say, 'I love you', and then I ask, 'Will you find me in every lifetime?' and she says, 'Yes'," Perry revealed.

Two months after ATEEZ released their 10th mini album, GOLDEN HOUR: Part 1, the K-pop group is still breathing new life into the project's single "WORK" — this time, with the help of G-Eazy. Titled "WORK Pt. 4," the song's latest version features some steamy lines from G-Eazy on the second verse, bringing a risqué edge to the punchy rap-pop track.

"WORK Pt. 4" follows two electronic reimaginings of "WORK," as "Pt. 2" featured a remix by Dutch producer Don Diablo and "Pt. 3" was reworked by ATEEZ's production team, Eden-ary. While "WORK Pt. 4" is the closest to the bumping original, a press release teased that the newest version "reflects the ever-challenging spirit of ATEEZ."

Following the 70th anniversary of Elvis Presley's debut single, "That's All Right," RCA Records and Legacy Recordings have released a sprawling 111-track box set, MEMPHIS. The career-spanning collection features recordings from his earliest sessions at Sun Studios through his final works from the Jungle Room in Presley's Graceland home.

Aside from the Sun Studios recordings, all of the tracks were newly mixed by four-time GRAMMY winner Matt Ross-Spang, who removed all of the overdubs to highlight Presley's original vocal recordings. MEMPHIS offers a new perspective on the King of Rock and Roll, providing a clear listening experience that further immortalizes his one-of-a-kind vocal prowess.

With their 26th studio album, Flight b741, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard dive into a classic blues-rock sound, a departure from their usual psychedelic, experimental garage rock style.

The album features the Australian band's admirable response to current world issues, such as climate change, set against music that embraces the spirit of traditional rock. The concept focuses on how the music translates during their live performances.

Just after the album's release, the band will embark on a massive world tour, beginning Aug. 15 in Washington, D.C., and concluding at the end of November in Miami. The tour includes four shows billed as "marathon sets," where King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard will perform for three hours each night.

GRAMMY-nominated rapper Latto pays homage to her Southern hip-hop roots on her fittingly third studio album, Sugar Honey Iced Tea. The LP boasts an impressive list of collaborators, including Playboi Carti, Megan Thee Stallion, Ciara, and Cardi B.

Latto told Billboard that after a decade in the rap game, she feels she's already proven herself. Now, she is returning to her roots and making music that speaks to her, regardless of whether she receives additional flowers for it or not.

"I feel like what I'm doing has not been done before, so let's start there. [Aesthetically], I've been pulling from Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, and Lil' Kim. [Musically], I've been pulling from Kelis, but obviously with a Southern hip-hop twist," Latto says. "They have very feminine energy, but masculine in the sense of confidence."

Embracing both sides of his Mexican and American cultural identity, 20-year-old DannyLux blends elements of Western house music with his tender Spanish lyricism on "Soltera."

Produced by Mexican-American producer 8onthebeat, the track is a fast-paced earworm perfect for hitting the dance floor. In the music video, DannyLux dances around different rooms of a house and singing along — setting the example for what listeners are bound to do once they press play.

LA LOM — 'The Los Angeles League of Musicians'

If you haven't heard of LA LOM yet, prepare for that to change. The Los Angeles-native trio is on the rise, earning an opening slot for Vampire Weekend earlier this year; now, they are unveil their debut album, The Los Angeles League of Musicians.

The project is a guitar-focused masterpiece, drawing inspiration from traditional Peruvian cumbia music. Featuring a diverse range of tracks, listening to The Los Angeles League of Musicians offers a unique sonic experience. The album takes listeners on a journey from laid-back, lo-fi tunes to uptempo dance tracks, perfect for a get-together with loved ones or a night out on the dance floor at your favorite hole-in-the-wall venue — a perfect weekend soundtrack.