Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
New Music Friday: Charli XCX’s Rock Turn, MUNA’s Fourth LP, Lykke Li’s Farewell and More
This week’s New Music Friday spotlights Charli XCX’s rock-tinged single, MUNA’s fourth LP, Lykke Li’s final album and new music from Kelela, Little Simz and more.
Charli XCX starts this week’s New Music Friday by announcing a shift in tone: her new single “Rock Music” arrives as an invitation and a provocation. Her camp told Billboard in April that an eighth album was in the works, and Charli herself had hinted to British Vogue that rock influences might appear. The single, which includes the divisive line “I think the dance floor is dead, so now we’re making rock music,” is under two minutes long and, true to Charli form, refuses to be literal — a grungy, guitar-laced dash that still lands on the dance floor.
MUNA’s fourth album, Dancing On the Wall, officially arrives today, a record that leans into the trio’s knack for balancing intimate songwriting and pop immediacy. The focus track “Eastside Girls” comes with a video featuring Hannah Einbinder and Kate Berlant, and Katie Gavin’s voice remains the connective tissue across the band’s range — from slow, inward songs to full-throttle bangers. Dancing On the Wall reads like the next chapter in a steady ascent rather than a reinvention.
As Kelela prepares New Avatar for release on July 10, she continues to compress her hybrid of soul, R&B and experimental electronic textures into compact statements. The new snippet “linknb” is under two minutes but carries the same genre-blurring ambition that has kept expectations for her third full-length high.
Lykke Li
Today also marks the release of The Afterparty, which Lykke Li has framed as her sixth and final album. The record functions as a bittersweet capstone to nearly two decades of work; the song “Happy Now” offers a direct glimpse of that moment, its chorus asking: “Did your tears all go away? Did the darkness ever fade? Is it over? Are you happy now?” The album reads as farewell without theatricality.
The Last Dinner Party
Brit-rock outfit The Last Dinner Party push theatricality into heft on their latest single “Big Dog,” a track that pairs large riffs with vocals that slip from eerie whispers to emphatic declarations. An “(On The Road)” video cements the song’s live energy — and with the band set to support Olivia Rodrigo on select dates early into 2027, the single already feels like a document of a song built for the stage.
Little Simz
Two weeks after teasing it, Little Simz drops Sugar Girl, her third new project in as many years and another collaborative reunion with producer Jakwob, who helped shape 2024’s Drop 7 EP. The record moves from bouyon-tinged “Open Arms” to Auto-Tuned flights on “That’s A No No,” but the standout remains the JT-assisted “Game On,” where Simz delivers a rapid-fire, politically pointed verse: “I’m so T, I support the trans/ Game on bitch, let’s take a stand/ Do black lives still matter to these brands?” It’s the familiar Simz blend of sharp humor and uncompromising politics.
PJ Morton
From his forthcoming double album Saturday Night, Sunday Morning, PJ Morton shares “Sell My Soul,” a cut placed on the Saturday Night side that leans into temptation and resilience. The opening verse holds onto a fragile optimism — “You try to come at my weakest/ You try to come when I’m down/ But as long as I am breathing/ The sun can come back around” — and the arrangement is topped by Keyon Harrold’s trumpet and flugelhorn, giving the song a warm, grounding melancholy.
This week’s roundup reflects a mix of parting gestures, stylistic pivots and steady continuations: from a pop auteur flirting with rock, to a trio consolidating its growth, to artists closing chapters or tightening the threads of a long game. Listen through and see which of these tracks will follow you into the weekend playlist.
