It's the first New Music Friday of November, and we're just seven days away from the 2025 GRAMMY nominations being announced on Nov. 8.
In the lead-up to Halloween, Tyler, The Creator unveiled his seventh studio album, CHROMAKOPIA, The Cure released their first album in 16 years, and Westside Gunn delivered back-to-back drops with LPs 11 and STILL PRAYING arriving just 24 hours apart.
Plus, several different artists teamed up for cool new collaborations. Jeremy Zucker and Chelsea Cutler completed their years-long brent trilogy with the release of brent iii; the Black Keys and Beck collided their rock genius on "I'm With The Band"; and GALE linked up with Lagos for "Por Si Las Dudas."
Below, dive into 10 other exciting new releases from Shawn Mendes, Lil Uzi Vert, Heidi Montag, Kodak Black, and more to help welcome in November.
Four years after releasing its acclaimed predecessor, Lil Uzi Vert has unveiled the highly anticipated Eternal Atake 2. Technically the gender-nonconforming rapper's fourth solo album — having released 2023's Pink Tape after the original Eternal Atake — the sequel contains tracks like melodic opener "We Good" and the bombastic "Mr Chow."
Rather than pack the LP's 16-song track list with guest features by their hip-hop contemporaries, Baby Pluto largely shows off their unique flow without any help.
The one outlier is the delightful "The Rush" with Big Time Rush, wherein the MC decides to take the Nickelodeon alums' band name for himself by repeatedly and confidently declaring, "B—, I'm big time rush!" (Naturally, the pop foursome contend, "Dude you're not big time rush, we're Big Time Rush!" before one of the members lets out a hilarious "Lil Uuuzi!" for good measure.)
The latest taste of Shawn Mendes' upcoming fifth studio album, Shawn (out Nov. 15), is "Heart of Gold," a glowing in memoriam written for a childhood friend of the pop star who recently passed.
Cast in the firelit shades of red, brown and orange, Mendes laments, "Honestly, it's been a while since I thought of you/ In the end we didn't talk much/ I didn't know what you were going through/ I'm sorry that I wasn't there to hug your mama at the funeral" in the track's music video before going on to mourn, "You left too soon, it was out of your control/ Underneath your skin and bone, you had a heart of gold."
Making the touching ballad even more emotional for fans, the Canadian heartthrob dedicated a performance of the song to the memory of Liam Payne ahead of its release, telling the crowd at his sold-out For Friends and Family Only concert at New York City's Brooklyn Paramount, "It felt completely devastating…Liam, we love you. The world is crying for you, brother, and we're all praying for your son and your family. I miss you. This one's for you tonight, Liam, from all of us."
The Weeknd and Anitta take a sinister and seductive trip to "São Paulo" in the latest single off the former's upcoming sixth LP, Hurry Up Tomorrow.
The Brazilian singer whips up a hypnotic refrain in her native Portuguese ("Bota na boca, bota na cara, bota onde quiser," she intones), over The Weeknd's trademark falsetto. Halfway through, the track morphs on a dime, with the Canadian superstar crooning, "Baby, ride me 'til the darkness of the night/ Kill me softly like you want me euthanized" over a devilish beat.
The nightmarish music video helmed by Freeka Tet is a perfect complement for Halloween, as Anitta struts the streets of the city in a lifeless plastic mask and shows off a massive baby bump before revealing the life form taking over her womb is altogether, disturbingly inhuman — and also singing The Weeknd's parts of the duet.
In case you're wondering how many producers it takes to create a red-hot dance track, the answer is apparently three — with Champion, Four Tet and Skrillex all coming together to create the mesmerizing "Talk To Me."
The bouncing, throbbing banger also benefits from Naisha's ethereal vocals, as the India-born singer/songwriter and fellow DJ delivers a sultry, bilingual message over the screeches and howls of monkeys before declaring simply, "I'm Naisha/ Pleased to meet cha/ Talk to me."
Country upstart Vincent Mason can't shake a pretty little heartbreaker on his latest single, "Speak of the Devil."
"I walked in from hell and back/ Never thought I would go like that/ Looked like an angel dressed in red/ Sold me on love, got a night instead/ And oh, that's a hell of a burn/ She's everywhere I turn," the 23-year-old crooner bemoans on the mid-tempo ditty, successfully channeling influences like John Mayer and Parker McCollum.
The track marks Mason's first release since making his debut at the Grand Ole Opry earlier this fall, and follows his breakout ballad "Hell Is a Dancefloor" as well as recently released singles like "Heart Like This," "Train of Thought" and "Famous for a Heartache" with Eli Winders.
Heidi Montag delighted longtime fans this week with the surprise announcement that she was releasing an EP of songs recorded during her reality TV glory days, newly remastered and finally ready to see the light of day.
Aptly titled 2008, the four-track collection serves as a breathy, bratty, synth-drenched precursor to the reality icon's 2010 studio album Superficial, with songs like "Make Up Your Mind" and "If I Was Your Girlfriend" taking obvious cues from Blackout-era Britney Spears and The Pussycat Dolls.
Meanwhile, on opening track "It Ain't What You Think It Is," Montag takes listeners back to the golden age of "The Hills" — eschewing what's been left unwritten for a damning look behind MTV's famously glossy camerawork as she sings, "I'm just a girl who knows the reality/ Isn't what you see on a TV show/ It's lights, camera, action."
Kodak Black teased his new mixtape, Dieuson Octave, with little notice — dropping opener "Catch Fire" just 24 hours before the full project's release. The found footage-style video for the track opens with a car set ablaze on a sidewalk as the mumble rap pioneer intones, "I made a lot of money, spent most of it making a bail/ Doin' whatever, feel ain't gettin' nowhere/ Like a pitbull trying to chase its tail/ It get lonely on this paper trail."
Taking its title from the rapper's birth name (which loyal fans know he's since legally changed to Bill Kahan Kapri), the rest of the mixtape features cuts like "Harlem Nights," "Versatile," "Drive The Boat," and "Inside I Suffer."
HAYLA — 'DUSK'
Over the last half decade, HAYLA has steadily made a name for herself in the world of dance music by working as a featured vocalist with some of the genre's major players. In 2023, she even scored a GRAMMY nomination for her work on Kx5, Kaskade and deadmau5's debut collaborative album as Kx5.
Now, the Liverpool native is introducing herself on her own terms with DUSK, her debut solo album. Across 10 tracks, the rising star shows off her soulful voice on songs like previously released singles "Fall Again" and "Freefall," as well as shadowy, emotive album cuts like "Only I" and "Visions of You." On Dec. 4, the songstress is set to perform at LA's famous Roxy Theater, marking both her very first headlining gig and a belated album release show.
Kokoroko — 'Get The Message'
Kokoroko's latest EP, Get The Message, arrives just over two years after the eight-piece Afrobeats-jazz hybrid released their 2022 debut album, Could We Be More.
Since then, the London-based collective led by Sheila Maurice-Grey and Onome Edgeworth have reinvented eight songs from that LP with 2023's Could We Be More Remixes and collaborated with Nigerian-born U.K. artist Azekel for single "Three Piece Suit — the latter of which closes out their new four-track project. Get The Message also includes horn-blasted opening instrumental "Higher," the gospel-tinged "Sweeter Than" and the harmonious, lyric-free "My Prayer."
The title of Duki's fourth album, AMERI, may be a reference to America, but the Halloween release is a joyfully cross-cultural celebration of the Argentine rapper's unique brand of Latin hip-hop, featuring contributions from everyone from Myke Towers ("Nueva Era"), Headie One ("Brindis") and Bizarrap ("Buscarte Lejos") to Judeline ("Imperio"), Lia Kali ("Constelación") and Wiz Khalifa and Arcángel ("Wake Up and Bake Up").
"WE HAVE ARRIVED IN AMERI, Welcome devils I love you," Duki wrote in a gratitude-filled message translated from Spanish to his fans upon the album's unveiling. "I owe you my life, thank you for so many years together, this is just the beginning, life is one and you have to live it all."