- Words Darcy Culverhouse
Press play on the latest edition of NOTION NOW, the playlist featuring the freshest tracks you need to hear.
September’s nearing its halfway mark, and the releases keep getting bigger. Just seven days after announcing his long-awaited second album, A Fine African Man, British wordsmith Knucks teases what’s to come with the swaggering ‘GOLDTOOTH’. It’s a genre-jumping flex: Nigerian hitmaker Blaqbonez brings his signature Afrobeats sheen to the chorus, while Knucks glides over an alté-inspired groove. More fire follows with ‘Pink Money’ – bad bitch energy courtesy of Coi Leray and Bktherula, trading bars about designer drip, before G Herbo shuts it down on a trap-tinged finale.
Electronic music is on heat this week. Julian McCarthy returns as his chaos-fuelled alter ego, MCR-T, roping in Six Sex and the internet’s favourite pony horsegiirL for a rave-ready riot that screams: it’s a girl’s world. Joy Orbison marks his first drop of the year with ‘play it again’, a slick fusion of ’80s new wave nostalgia and ’90s electronica that begs to be repeatedly played. And Sam Gellaitry links with Toro y Moi for a blissed-out rush of synesthesia-laced rhythms and hazy melodies, soundtracking the high of falling for someone new.
Pop’s having a moment, too. On the eve of her debut album, THAT’S SHOWBIZ BABY! (out today), It-girl JADE dropped ‘Unconditional’, a melancholic dance-pop gem echoing Madonna’s iconic ’80s glimmer. King Princess keeps the energy flowing on her new record Girl Violence, with standout cut ‘Jaime’, the first track she ever penned for the album and a raw ode to chasing the love you’ll never get back.
Meanwhile, mid-way through her The Sincerely Tour, Kali Uchis gifts fans a dreamy doo-wop-tinged collab with Ravyn Lenae. Aussie five-piece Parcels tap nylon guitars and Latin pop textures to dissect hollow apologies on ‘Sorry’, while Mark William Lewis floats back with ‘Petals’, a breezy, genre-blurring cut stitched with jazz flourishes, indie spirit, and a harmonica that whistles right through the heart.
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