Week of May 22nd, 2026
Credit: Rolling Stone
Just by looking at the high-level to which this week’s evaluated songs were ranked, I think it might be pretty evident that I had a great week listening to New Music Fridays. While I unfortunately couldn’t find enough space or time to write about all the songs that truly motivated me (beyond the ones from Olivia Rodrigo, Charli xcx, and Niall Horan), I personally found “From Down Here” by Lola Young to be a mature phase of the recent Grammy-winning artist. She’s started to find a vocal style that feels authentic yet more curated and well-thought-out as an artistic track. “Heart Has To Work So Hard” by Blondshell was also a messy, “crash out” (if you will) song that pulls all the right edgy strings you could ever ask for. For example, she casually talks about her address “turning the knife” like it’s no big deal, then goes ahead to share her irritation at this person: “You make this feel like labor.” Anyways, very fun week. Check it out!
1. Most Streamed Song of the Week – “the cure” by Olivia Rodrigo (9.5/10)
Perhaps a metric to define an artist’s talent can be understood as the capacity to produce songs with long runtimes. Of course, anomalies exist, and this doesn’t define an artist’s worth dogmatically; but, artists like Lana Del Rey, Taylor Swift, Nina Simone, Guns N’ Roses, and Pink Floyd all have songs around or at least 10 minutes long. With all such artists’ credibility, it seems that long track times are clearly at least a proof of artistic legacy. And, it makes sense. Producing a song to such a length is hard. Most pop songs cut off at around three minutes. Especially today, with a greater emphasis on curating “TikTokable” quick-bite music, modern attention spans seem to look unfavorably upon songs that take a little longer to unfold their peaks. Describing this phenomenon, Olivia Rodrigo brings out her second single for her upcoming album, “you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love,” and proves she’s on the track to becoming one such artist who features the passage of time within their albums. Nearly five minutes long in length, it’s Rodrigo’s longest song to date and feels like a next-level song from her end.
It’s a genuinely good song, too. The thesis is mature, aware, and a realization that feels all too transcendently atune to the real world for someone who just barely became 23. Sometimes, even after finding the love of your life, it’s not good enough to solve the problems that were originally residing with you from the start. Your lover is not responsible for your own insecurities, problems, and flawed mindsets. It’s a tragedy where it inevitably can end up in separating from someone perfect for you, but isn’t yours for the current time being–you’re still not at the stage of being personally stable for that. While I wasn’t the biggest fan, personally, of the music video’s focus on portraying Rodrigo as a nurse (I am quite nosocomephobic), the song is addictive and proves that the best songs for the algorithm (or art in general) don’t have to be short to encourage retention rates.
2. Lyrical Standout – “SS26” by Charli xcx (10/10)
Somehow, a lot of backlash against Charli xcx’s first debut single, “Rock Music,’ for her new rock-inspired album was able to make any future anticipation for the album skeptical. All over my TikTok, I would notice people commenting on the “trailer style” minimalism of the lead single, citing how it felt incomplete and unfinished. Earlier, when I wrote about that song, I also agreed and felt that it was unclear whether or not the feelings of abruptness and not having a clean finish were intentional, ironically created, or accidental. Clearly, xcx’s sarcastic humor was on purpose and even with brilliant intent. In “SS26,” the sarcastic references to politics, cancel culture, Instagram note apologies, the modern bureaucracy, and ethnic tensions insinuate a dull type of numbness; where you’ve started to become desensitized to negative emotions. Using fashion catalogues “Spring 2026” and “Summer 2026” (thus “SS26”), to discuss the beauty she feels when looking at the stargazing clothes, she contrasts the excitement that fashion receives, compared to modern issues like the aforementioned. Where lines such as “when the world is gonna end, no hope for it,” Charli shows that in the grand scheme of things, the things that truly matter are being underpublicized. And, maybe that’s not good. If xcx is attempting to keep her “cool girl persona” while giving a cautionary tale, I think she does so exceptionally well.
3. Sonic Standout — “End of an Era” by Niall Horan (9.5/10)
There are about 12 days before Niall Horan’s highly-anticipated album, “Dinner Party,” releases on June 5th (also, yikes, June came quick). Listening to the third single promoting the album, it’s no wonder that this album is very well-perceived even before its release and is being met with high anticipation and excitement for the album’s arrival. Collaborating with long-time partner John Ryan, “End of an Era” feels like a bittersweet passing by between one point in your life and a new chapter. What feels awfully cool in the instrumental choices that contrast the initial title, which seem to make way for something more sorrowful, is that the song feels exciting, joyful, and reviving; possibly a way of saying that moving on doesn’t always have to be looking at the past as if it’s a goodbye forever. The lyrics contrast beautifully with the acoustics, too, showing how even when there are merits that come with moving on to the next stepping stone, there is still confusion. It’s hard to let go, but it’s also rebirthing. I cannot wait to hear the entire album!
