This week’s best new pop songs were released by aespa, Kesha, Lana Del Rey, Quavo, Lainey Wilson, and more. Listen to them all here.
This week in pop, Kesha celebrated Independence Day in the most literal sense, while Lana Del Rey and Quavo delivered “Tough” months after Quavo swore any dating speculation could be chalked up to “having hits.”
Check that out and more in Uproxx’s Best New Pop Music roundup below.
aespa are big on debuts lately. The former Uproxx cover stars just released their debut full-length album, Armageddon, in May, but the K-pop supernovas have already moved on. Last week, “Hot Mess” served as aespa’s Japanese debut. The anthemic single’s video is, of course, full of Japanese pop culture references, and the lyrics are equal parts playful (“I’m a hot mess, hot mess / So if you like it, I can take you to my world”) and self-aware (“I’m a troublemaker, troublemaker / What’s so funny, funny?”). “Sun And Moon” and “Zoom Zoom” are packaged with “Hot Mess,” so, in other words, aespa fans never have to worry about staying fed.
Beabadoobee previously released “Coming Home” and “Take A Bite” from her upcoming This Is How Tomorrow Moves album, and they’re both lovely, but “Ever Seen” is my favorite. Beabadoobee has a knack for poignantly accentuating sweet romance in the seemingly mundane; in this case, someone telling her she “had the prettiest eyes he’d ever seen” was all it took for Beabadoobee to feel “the highest I think I’ve ever been.”
Kesha released “Joyride” on Independence Day because she could. It’s her first independently released single since fulfilling her Kemosabe Records contract and settling her lengthy legal battle with Dr.
