TGIF, everyone — here’s a handful of new singles to kick off your weekend in style!
Lady Gaga has released “Till It Happens to You,” a chilling and biting single featured in the documentary film, The Hunting Ground, which casts a stern look at the high incidence of rape on college campuses and the reputed institutionalized cover-ups surrounding it.
Gaga, who has said she was a victim of sexual assault when she was 19, collaborated with seven-time Academy Award nominee Diane Warren on the track. Moving deftly between billowy strings that build into tense climaxes, Gaga first sounds wounded but it’s not long before a seething, low-level rage is evident in her voice as she sings, “You say to get it together… Tell me what the hell do you know?/ How could you know, till it happens to you?”
While you’re waiting for Gaga to finish her new album, which reportedly won’t be released until sometime next year, you can get your LG fix by tuning in to American Horror Story: Hotel on FX starting October 7 — she plays a several-hundred-year-old bloodsucker with 10 identical 8-year-old vampires.
Beyonce also drops a surprise single, “Runnin’ (Lose It All).” The track, credited to British DJ and producer Naughty Boy, also features Arrow Benjamin. (You may remember Naughty Boy from “La La La,” which featured Sam Smith.) The tune is a nicely done soulful dance track (no surprise there), and is reported to be included on Naughty Boy’s upcoming album release.
Next up is bad boy Chris Brown, who teams up with current tourmate French Montana for the “Gangsta Ways” single. All indications point to the single having steady legs that could easily climb the charts, what with Brown’s signature smooth-as-glass vocals and Montana’s clipped, auto-tuned rhymes.
If you’re looking to shake your booty on the dancefloor, look no further than “Cake By the Ocean” by DNCE. The group, fronted by none other than Joe Jonas (he’s the middle brother, if you need reminding), features a retro dance vibe topped with Jonas’ signature falsetto. And if you’re wondering where the title came from, Jonas says that while they were in the studio tracking, Swedish producers Mattman & Robin were talking about wanting get some “cake by the ocean,” when what they really wanted was the tried-and-true cocktail “Sex on the Beach.”
For those of you who have been following Daddy Yankee since he collaborated with Nas back in ‘97 (or perhaps knew him from his baseball days when he tried out for the Seattle Mariners), you’ll be happy to hear the Puerto Rican reggaeton star has dropped “Vaiven,” a song that’s sure to be a dancefloor hit.
Last, but not least, Ryan Adams’ first single from his upcoming album “1989,” which is, somewhat surprisingly, an album of covers of — what else? — Taylor Swift’s “1989.” The single, “Bad Blood,” is an authentic pop-country ballad take on Swift’s more bombastic original. While both stars have had their share of breakups (Adams recently split with wife Mandy Moore), Adams’ jaunty version of the cat fight that makes up the tale behind “Bad Blood” doesn’t diminish the impact of Swift’s lyrics at all.