[VIDEOS] Explore Love With Bebe Rexha, Kygo, iann dior, And More
Plus, catch Fly FM's Dan as she sits down with Alan Walker!
#NewMusicFlyday is our list of the hottest song releases, music videos, and exclusive interviews of the week
Starting strong is The President Joe Flizzow in his collab with Hong Kong rapper Dough-Boy. Also, repping Malaysia is the inspiring stylings of indie-pop band TY:DEL.
On the flip side, iann dior explores a twisted love in a darker track with Trippie Redd. Meanwhile, Kygo's ushering in 2021 with "a new chapter of music".
Following suit is Bebe Rexha in her most "vulnerable" track from her latest album. Gearing up to release her debut album is If The World Was Ending hitmaker Julia Michaels while Dutch DJ and musician San Holo wants to know, bb r u ok? in his upcoming album.
Bringing rock to this week's new releases is Lucy Dacus. To round it up is Troye Sivan and Tate McRae, combining their TikTok expertise in their new, summery track.
1. Zoo - Dough-Boy, Joe Flizzow
Hong Kong rapper Dough-Boy's latest release, his third full-length album titled Power, sees him pair up with multiple talented musicians. Amongst them is Malaysia's very own, Joe Flizzow!
Editor's note: The song contains lyrics with strong language.
The album dropped on 10 April and is made up of collaborations that were recorded before the pandemic.
In addition to Joe Flizzow, Power features Lil Yachty (Mama), Higher Brothers member Masiwei (Do Your Thing), Bohan Phoenix (Back Then), and Mongolian emcee Ginjin (So Cold).
2. I Miss My Friends - TY:DEL
Homegrown indie-pop band TY:DEL — consisting of members Ritchie Retita, Timothy Long, Carlson Kam, and Roshan Sundram — have released their long-awaited EP, To Anyone Listening!
The five-track album encapsulates the personal experiences of a young adult, transitioning into adulthood, acting as a catalogue of mixed emotions. Of the album is the track, I Miss My Friends, which acts as an apology to those we so often forget to catch up with.
The band also describe the album as "Things We Learnt At 21", a sort of "diary for young men in their 20s" and tackles themes like self-love and body positivity head-on.
3. shots in the dark - iann dior & Trippie Redd
Following last month's remix of Glass Animals' single Heatwave, iann dior is giving fans a double-dose of new music! The Puerto Rican-born American singer, rapper, and songwriter has teamed up with label mate Trippie Redd as they tell a story about a twisted love that they can't seem to be without.
iann dior, whose real name is Michael Ian Olmo, rose to fame in 2019 with his songs Emotions and Molly, while his track, Gone Girl, served as the lead single for his 2019 debut album Industry Plant.
In 2020, he was featured on 24kGoldn's single Mood, which peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and became his first and highest-charting song.
4. Sabotage - Bebe Rexha
In her most vulnerable song, Baby I'm Jealous hitmaker Bebe Rexha explores "honesty and vulnerability and insecurities and speaking upon those insecurities".
Of the song, the 31-year-old singer explains: "I know I am not alone in experiencing self-sabotage during life's most precious moments, and this ballad is an acknowledgement that sometimes we are our own worst enemy."
The track is one of (as of yet unconfirmed) many from her upcoming second album, Better Mistakes, which is set to drop in May. It is the second of Rexha's career after her 2018 project Expectations.
5. Gone Are The Days - Kygo, James Gillespie
In his first music drop of 2021, Kygo has tapped British artist James Gillespie to bring his track, Gone Are The Days, to life. The track, a deviation from the Norwegian DJ's usual dance/EDM style, sees a heavy reliance on Gillespie's vocals and the piano. In it, Gillespie sings about a lost lover and days gone by.
The 29-year-old also dropped an accompanying piano version of the track, sans Gillespie's vocals.
Gone Are The Days is rumoured to be the first release from Kygo's upcoming album, marking a change in the musician's style.
6. Love Is Weird - Julia Michaels
If The World Was Ending hitmaker Julia Michaels is back with her latest release and this time, is asking, "If you could describe love in one word, what would it be?"
For Michaels, that word would be "weird".
27-year-old Julia Michaels marked the announcement of the upcoming release of her aptly titled debut album, Not In Chronological Order with the track, Love is Weird.
We say 'aptly' as the singer-songwriter has written music for artists like Selena Gomez and Britney Spears, already has a quadruple-platinum single, and boasts three Grammy nominations – all before even releasing an album of her own.
Of the album, Michaels says each song marks a different step on her journey to find love: "The way that I saw the tracklisting in my head, a lot of the heartbreak came in the middle, and finding new love came at the end. That's the arc of this album: I'm not bitter about love anymore. I know what functional love is like and being in love and being hesitant about that love because it feels so perfect."
7. black & white - San Holo
Taken from his second studio album bb u ok?, Dutch DJ and musician San Holo, whose real name is Sander van Dijck, has dropped two different tracks. One of which is the dreamy, guitar-heavy exploration of the uncertainty of love. As emotional as the track is, it also features a drop that will have you swaying along as you listen.
The 30-year-old dives deep for this album, singing and producing from the heart and giving fans a glimpse into the man behind the musician.
8. Hot & Heavy - Lucy Dacus
Indie-rock singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus' latest track is a mesmerising song about nostalgia, but of the most heart-aching kind.
The title is a double entendre, referring to the explicit connotations of the idiom "hot and heavy" but she expertly twists it in the lyrics to separate the two: "(Hot) in the face, (heavy) memories".
The track is part of her third album, Home Video, which serves as a follow-up to 2018's Historian.
9. You - Troye Sivan, Tate McRae, Regard
After repeatedly teasing the track on his TikTok, 25-year-old South Africa-born Australian singer-songwriter Troye Sivan has released his newest single featuring you broke me first hitmaker Tate McRae ND Kosovo-Albanian DJ Regard.
Heavy on the summer vibes, Sivan and McRae sings about being hung up on someone even after their relationship has ended, with the lyrics:
"When I try to fall back, I fall back to you
When I talk to my friends, I talk about you
When the Hennessy's strong, all I see is you"
You is Sivan's first single since releasing his Easy remix with Kacey Musgraves and Mark Ronson. Sivan initially released Easy as part of his fifth EP, titled In a Dream, released on 21 August 2020.
Not to be missed is this #FlyInterviews session with Alan Walker
Since his last time in Malaysia (circa 2018/2019), what has award-winning DJ Alan Walker been up to? Well, he's back with a new song, Fake A Smile! Hear what he has to say about the track, as well as the ways in which he says TikTok has an influence on music and music creation - and more!
Tune in to Fly FM to listen to these songs and much more!