Kiana Ledé
Mad at Me

Chasing that TikTok buzz means lots of songs are getting shorter and sillier but the slinky Mad at Me, the latest from actor-turned-R&B star Ledé, is abbreviation done right. At only a smidge over two minutes, it repurposes the chorus melody from OutKast’s So Fresh, So Clean in such persuasive fashion that, once it is over, the only logical recourse is to play it again. It is canny sonic brainwashing executed so playfully that – like the song goes – it is impossible to get mad at her about it.

Lady Gaga
Stupid Love

All that serious-acting, ballad-walloping A Star Is Born brouhaha was great but sometimes it is nice to get back to the shallow, especially if it involves an exuberant dance-off in a rad Mad Max world. Unfortunately, the must-hear event status of Gaga’s recent global reintroduction was hopelessly compromised by Stupid Love leaking in January. But now the dust has settled, it actually chimes with the track’s IDGAF energy, all joyous war cries and 1980s synth strut.

SZA & Justin Timberlake
The Other Side

When SZA claimed last year she didn’t even realise she was on the same label as Justin Timberlake, it felt like proof JT’s last album – that lumberjack one full of twigs and flannel – had failed to set the woods alight. Still, their corporate proximity has birthed this polished, if rather autopilot, disco duet for the Trolls 2 movie. The notably gonk-free visual is shot in the tinfoil-and-fisheye style of Hype Williams, which in 2020 seems almost as retro as Hank Williams.

Lianne La Havas
Bittersweet

“No more hanging around,” sings La Havas, which comes across as a bit rich considering she’s essentially been off-grid since 2015. Her languid but potent return Bittersweet seems similarly unbothered by the passing of time, harking back to the warm, widescreen sounds of the hottest and most buttered soul. Despite the breakup subject matter, it is a restorative experience.

Nada Surf
So Much Love

It feels like every alt-rock also-ran from the 1990s – their names dimly familiar from Melody Makers past – is trying to mount some sort of revival. The reedy, earnest Nada Surf are back with a reedy, earnest new single, and while the tasteful video suggests most of the band are in on a bet to see who can look most like Martin Freeman in his chatshow-circuit civvies, their bassist has winningly gone rogue as Jack Sparrow: dreads, headscarf, the lot.