Get stuck into all the tracks you need to hear this week, featuring Megan Thee Stallion, The Kid LAROI, Olivia Rodrigo and more.

‘Cobra’ by Megan Thee Stallion

Megan Thee Stallion is shedding her skin on the venomous new single, ‘Cobra’. This is the Houston rapper’s first track since cutting ties with 1501 Certified Entertainment, with whom she fought a legal battle for multiple years. Slithering into a new era, the pop-rap queen maintains her ‘it’ girl energy and biting rhyme schemes on the independently released cut.

‘BLEED’ by The Kid LAROI

20-year-old Australian music sensation The Kid LAROI is back with another pain-staking single. Titled ‘BLEED’, the track revels in gloomy instrumentation with sorrowful lyricism to match. It’s a far cry from ‘TOO MUCH’, featuring UK rap kingpin Central Cee and South Korean BTS star Jung Kook, which is comparably upbeat.

‘Can’t Catch Me Now’ by Olivia Rodrigo

Olivia Rodrigo’s highly anticipated The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes soundtrack is finally out. Melting into a pool of folky melancholy, the opening two minutes are sedative, before the singer launches into a fiery crescendo, filled with the visceral energy we’ve come to expect from the popstar.

‘know that you’re not alone’ by Cat Burns

South London’s Cat Burns is back and better than ever with her new single, ‘know that you’re not alone’, an uplifting and buoyant number laced with serene vocals, dedicated to those who feel lost and confused by the motions of life.

‘Dumb Guitar’ by Mount Kimbie

Kai Campos and Dominic Maker haven’t wasted time getting back in the studio after their recent album, MK 3.5: Die Cuts | City Planning. The influential British electronic artists wrote ‘Dumb Guitar’ with California’s Yucca Valley, spreading distorted guitars wistfully over woozy synths and infectious vocals.

‘Feeling Alive’ by Strandz, Lancey Foux

Strandz has us harking back to prime Dr. Dre and Timbaland on his new single ‘Feeling Alive’. Featuring fellow multifaceted rapper Lancey Foux, the track is reminiscent of 90s hip-hop but revamps itself around the capital’s pool of UK rap sounds. After sitting on the front row of MAINS’ debut runway show and getting Digga D on his remix of ‘Us Against The World’, it would seem Strandz’s stocks will continue to rise.

‘Nothing Last Forever’ by Sevdaliza, Grimes

Pushing boundaries through her odd-ball sonic explorations, Iranian-Dutch artist Sevdaliza enlists fellow polymathic figure Grimes for her latest single, ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’. Reflecting on life’s dystopian realities, the track fuses genres as disparate as pop and gabber to create an eternally futuristic single for the ages.

‘Gorilla’ by Rimzee, Tiggs Da Author

East London road rap legend Rimzee returns to the game with ‘Gorilla’: an atmospheric cut that features hook master Tiggs Da Author. His first solo release of 2023, after last year’s Cold Feet mixtape, the single stands as one of the Hackney native’s more melodic, but it carries that gritty narrative and gruff cadence we love him for.

‘Madonna’ by Kevin Abstract

Since BROCKHAMPTON’s upsetting, but let’s face it, highly predictable indefinite hiatus, Kevin Abstract seems to have come into his own sonically. On Blanket, the Texas native’s first solo album after the breakup, he proves as much. ‘Madonna’ is a tale of lust and fever dream, using the popstar’s name as a metaphor for a love pursuit and embedding the palpable grunge and indie that’s all over the record.

‘On Your Side’ by The Last Dinner Party

Simultaneously announcing their debut album, Prelude To Ecstasy, and sharing the new single, ‘On Your Side’, The Last Dinner Party are on a winning streak of single releases. Describing their latest offering as “a love song with its hands tied”, the band stray towards softer sounds and more brooding melodies than previous releases.