Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond.
This week, Harry Styles brings us together, XG deliver a major debut and Louis Tomlinson makes his mark. Check out all of this week’s picks below:
Harry Styles, “Aperture”
Harry Styles has released danceable smashes over the years, and (particularly after his self-titled first album) has pushed the tempo in his solo career — but he’s never put out a straight-up dance song like “Aperture,” the transcendent lead single to Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. that sleekly throbs in a way that recalls electro-indie cuts by Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem but still carries pop-superstar gravity. At five-plus minutes, “Aperture” slowly builds and then fully delivers, a dazzlingly satisfying way to kick off a highly anticipated new era.
Louis Tomlinson, How Did I Get Here?
On the same day that Harry Styles makes his grand return with a new single, his One Direction band mate Louis Tomlinson has unveiled a project just as professionally consequential: How Did I Get Here?, his third solo LP, is the most accomplished of his post-1D career, with blissful diversions and successfully anthemic singles that finally transmit the confidence that Tomlinson demonstrated as a performer and songwriter within a group setting.
XG, The Core
A press release describes The Core as “a defining artistic statement for XG,” and indeed, the group’s long-awaited debut full-length presents their complete aesthetic in a way that their previous singles and smaller projects only hinted at; new focus track “Hypnotize” is an immediate highlight, although “Rock the Boat” and “Take My Breath” make for a potent one-two punch in the front half of the track list.
Arctic Monkeys, “Opening Night”
This week it was announced that many of the U.K.’s best and brightest have assembled to record a sequel to the classic 1995 Britpop-era Help! compilation, benefiting the War Child charity and starring many of the biggest acts of the period. First up on the 2026 version (titled Help (2)) is longtime hitmakers Arctic Monkeys — also celebrating the 20th anniversary of debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not this week — with the satisfyingly scuzzy lounge-rocker “Opening Night,” singer Alex Turner declaring “You’ve got something on your mind, and so have I/ I can see it from here” over a near-bossa nova shuffle. Other artists included on Help (2): Pulp, Beabadoobee, Fontaines D.C., and even America’s own Beck and Olivia Rodrigo.
Fred again.. & Young Thug, “Scared”
If you’ve been waiting to hear what new directions Young Thug’s might take following his release from prison and last year’s UY Scutti, here’s one you may not have seen coming: Thugger teaming up with star U.K. producer/DJ Fred again.. for the new single “Scared.” Turns out that the rapper’s hauntingly yelped verses and inimitable ad libs are perfect fodder for being chopped up as one heavily seasoned ingredient of many in his collaborator’s sentimental stew, with the track showcasing Thug in a way that’s both like nothing we’ve quite heard before, and yet deeply comforting and familiar.
Editor’s Pick: Holly Humberstone, “To Love Somebody”
For several years now, Holly Humberstone has stood out as one of the most promising graduates from the Taylor Swift academy of pop-rock singer-songwriterdom — all she’s been missing is the one hit single to put her over the top. Hopefully it’ll be “To Love Somebody,” a gratifyingly frenetic song about the near-unbearable emotional rollercoaster of feeling to much in a relationship and its end, set to a breezy acoustic-disco beat. It calms down just enough for the chorus to really cut through with the fairly inarguable observation: “To love somebody/ To hurt somebody/ To lose somebody/ Is to know you’re only human, honey.”
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