Every week Vulture highlights the best new music. If the song is worthy of your ears and attention, you will find it here. Read our picks below, share yours in the comments, and subscribe to the Vulture Playlist for a comprehensive guide to the year’s best music.
Zedd, Maren Morris, and Grey, “The Middle”
We would like to send our apologies to country music, which watched Maren Morris go full dance pop on Sunday at the Grammys, and is now having flashbacks to the first time they heard Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and knew she was lost to them. Also, double albums are a lot to fuss over, but where is the Zedd project with eight tracks featuring Selena Gomez and eight tracks featuring Morris? It’s time. —Jordan Crucchiola (@jorcru)
CHVRCHES, “Get Out”
Oh thank heavens, CHVRCHES are back! I don’t know if, commercially, they’ll be bigger than ever, but that’s certainly both the sound and direction they’re going for. The legendary Greg Kurstin (who just won his second consecutive Grammy for Producer of the Year) produced their new song “Get Out.” He’s known for his work with Adele, Sia, Pink, Halsey — you know, Big Pop — but he has also dabbled in indie or indie-adjacent projects, producing the whole of Tegan and Sara’s Love You to Death. This song is a lot like that project, only somehow more electrifying and, at least in its hook, more infectious. It’s almost as if Lauren Mayberry’s voice was made to be matched with Kurstin behind the boards. —Dee Lockett (@Dee_Lockett)
Birdman ft. Young Thug, “Lil One”
The Rich Gang are (almost) back together on a long-lost track from Birdman and Young Thug, called “Lil One.” Originally recorded in 2014, “Lil One” was supposed to appear on the ill-fated second installment of Rich Gang’s Tha Tour, but never officially saw the light of day. In 2018, though, it finally has an official release, and is set to appear on the soundtrack to Before Anythang, the upcoming documentary on Cash Money records. The song itself, which is produced by London On Da Track, is fine — not quite at the level of Tha Tour Part 1 — but what’s really important here is the video, which stars none other than Paris Hilton. Ms. Hilton’s presence raises a great many questions: What has Paris been doing with herself these last few years? Is she still signed to Cash Money Records? If so, why is she presented as a high-class call girl? Do she and Birdman hang out? Does anyone remember their 2015 collaboration? For now, though, I’m happy just watch as she and her unlikely co-stars, draped in a variety of shiny accoutrements, lounge their way through the floor plan of a very luxurious (and smoke-filled) high-rise apartment. —Corinna Burford (@coriburford)
Justin Timberlake ft. Chris Stapleton, “Say Something”
If left to his own devices, Justin Timberlake would’ve absolutely ruined this song. Just look at him pretending to construct a beat for the damn thing in its video — dude’s lost. (Because he also obviously didn’t make it alone, Timbaland and a few others assisted.) But Chris Stapleton saves everything and, much as they may look the odd couple on paper, he and JT actually make for complementary singing partners. It’s easy for JT to tap into the Nashville inflection in his voice, and even easier for Stapleton to make it sound authentic. The fact is these two know how to murder a duet (remember “Tennessee Whiskey” and “Drink You Away”?), so if you can just ignore the song’s terrible lyrics (“sometimes the greatest way to say something is to say nothing at all”???????????), you’ll quickly surrender to the realization that this is a bop. –DL
Let’s Eat Grandma, “Hot Pink”
Teen pop is one thing, and then there’s Let’s Eat Grandma, made up of Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth, whose indie debut album I, Gemini, released in 2016 when they were 16 and 17, respectively, garnered critical acclaim for approaching pop from a sharp, peculiar angle. If that album veered into folk territory, whatever new collection “Hot Pink” heralds looks to be high on cutting-edge EDM. Produced by Sophie, the beat for “Hot Pink” stomps and clatters its way to ecstasy; it’s an ideal complement for the rueful, slightly acid, gender-oriented sass of the lyrics. A banger, keeper, and a promise of more to come. —Frank Guan (@frankophilia)
Migos ft. 21 Savage, “BBO (Bad Bitches Only)”
Migos’s Culture II is an overstuffed mess not worth the nearly two hours of your time it would take to get through it. So if I had to put together a sampler with the songs not to skip, it’d include all the singles you’ve already heard, plus “BBO,” a song Kanye West apparently had something to do with (he’s credited as a co-producer and co-writer, which could very well mean he was just in the studio reacting). Now I’m not saying Kanye is the reason this is one of the only valuable songs on the album, but I’m not not saying it. Just, you know, wonder where they got the idea to sample the Festivals’ “You’ve Got the Makings of a Lover.” –DL
