Troye Sivan, Remi Wolf, Gunna and the Releases That Matter Right Now

Friday (Oct. 9) was one of the fall’s most crowded release days. A pop star swapped the club for longing, an R&B singer finally followed up a five-year-old debut, Nigeria’s FOLA came back with a star-stacked second album and Gunna made his first move on his own label. These are the 10 releases worth your time this week: nine from Friday, plus one from the Friday before that we’re not done with yet. Every entry comes with something to press play on.

Troye Sivan, She’s the Best

Troye Sivan’s fourth album trades the club euphoria of Something to Give Each Other for loneliness and longing, and Billboard hears a swerve right from the sung-spoken title track. There’s a lift from ’90s one-hit wonders Forest for the Trees on “I Do This for You” and a dreamy acoustic shuffle on “Embarrassingly,” but the dancefloor isn’t gone: “Canada Dry” runs on vocoder and lust, and “Party” interpolates Madonna. He made most of it at home in Los Angeles with his brother Tyde Levi, and in New York with Jack Antonoff.

She’s the BestTroye SivanListen on Apple Music

Remi Wolf, Mud

Remi Wolf told NME she wrote around 130 songs for her third album; 11 made it, and NME hears a more grown-up, toned-down Wolf, from the acoustic heartbreak of “Twiggy” to the power-pop of “Burn Me Blue” and “Moon So High,” a soft-rock duet with John Mayer, whom she slid into the DMs of. “This album is a sonic sidestep, and there’s always fear in trying something new,” she said. She’s taking it to much bigger rooms: her 2027 North American tour includes Radio City Music Hall and Red Rocks.

MudRemi WolfListen on Apple Music

Gunna, “Pop It”

Gunna’s first solo single since 2025’s The Last Wun is also the first release on SB THE LABEL, his new imprint with Atlantic. It’s a short blast of regal horns and sing-song staccato, per Billboard, and the video puts him on a tennis court with Coco Gauff before whisking him off to beaches and villas. “Gunna has been wanting to get into tennis, so for this video, we thought, why not just learn from the best and make it a reality,” director Spike Jordan told The FADER. A new album, Splurge, was announced in September but has no date yet.

Pop It (official video)GunnaWatch on YouTube

Joyce Wrice, MACHIKO

Five years after Overgrown, Joyce Wrice’s second album comes out of a stockpile of more than 100 songs recorded over three and a half years. The title is her middle name (“Machi” means city, “Ko” girl or child), and its 14 tracks move through several eras of R&B with guests including Ty Dolla $ign, J.I.D, Rio Da Yung OG, Odeal and Eem Triplin; Billboard hears her best pocket in breezy ’00s R&B. “It’s not my alter ego, but it helps me explore that pop star world that I love so much,” she told The FADER.

MACHIKOJoyce WriceListen on Apple Music

FOLA, 9

FOLA named his second album after a striker’s shirt number, and he explained the nickname to The NATIVE: “So they always call me striker because a striker never misses.” The 14 tracks bring a deep bench, with Davido on “2am in toronto,” Ayra Starr on “treat u right” and BNXN on “my type,” plus Darkoo, Bella Shmurda and Zlatan, while “crime” samples a classic by 2Baba. It follows his 2025 debut, Catharsis, and the 2024 breakout “alone,” and by Saturday it was the most-played album on Apple Music in Nigeria.

9FOLAListen on Apple Music

Dawn Richard, creole culture

The Danity Kane alum turned Afrofuturist auteur goes home on her new album for Merge: 11 tracks that fold R&B, soul, jazz, hip-hop and bits of bounce into a hypnotic portrait of New Orleans, as Billboard puts it. Big Freedia, Tarriona “Tank” Ball and Durand Bernarr are among the guests, and Richard co-executive produced it with Katalyst. Rolling Stone named “Only Fans” one of the week’s songs you need to know, and Pitchfork put the album on its list of new records to hear now.

creole cultureDawn RichardListen on Apple Music

Offset feat. Don Toliver, “Every Night”

Offset’s next album, GMFU, arrives Oct. 23, a date he announced himself, and “Every Night” is the newest single from it. It’s a Don Toliver team-up about late nights, and HotNewHipHop says the production is made for a late-night drive, with the two trading catchy flows that lock in together. For Toliver, HotNewHipHop says, it extends one of the best years of his career.

Every Night (feat. Don Toliver)OffsetListen on Apple Music

Slayyyter, “I Think He’s Got a Girl”

A midtempo grunge-pop lament about a partner who has probably moved on, and the third preview of Wor$t Man in America, the nine-song companion to this year’s breakout WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA, due Dec. 4. Slayyyter directed the video herself, swinging between Hollywood pin-up and full Midwest, raccoon-pelt dress included. “I’m kind of making an inverse album, if you will,” she told Rolling Stone.

I Think He’s Got a Girl (official video)SlayyyterWatch on YouTube

Chase & Status, Generic Everything

Seven albums in, the British duo of Saul Milton and Will Kennard know exactly what they do, and Billboard’s verdict on the new one is blunt: “All in, no skips.” The opener, “Disgruntled Everything,” brings in J Hus and IRAH; Little Simz gets free rein over a laid-back beat on “Carnage”; Skrillex turns up on the Latin-tinged “Essa Ta Quente”; and “Gone Too Far,” with Debbie, chases the euphoria of their 2012 hit “Blind Faith.”

Generic EverythingChase & StatusListen on Apple Music

Still spinning: Victoria Monét, Frequency of Love

Last Friday’s (Oct. 2) big R&B album deserves a second week. Victoria Monét’s first album since her Grammy-winning Jaguar II runs 22 tracks, executive produced by Camper, with SZA, Bruno Mars, Bryson Tiller, Leon Thomas and Chlöe aboard and nods to ’90s R&B throughout: “Almost” references Brandy’s “Almost Doesn’t Count,” and “For You” reimagines a Kenny Lattimore ballad. The slow jam “Let Me” has already topped Billboard’s adult R&B airplay chart. She told the AP she chased the risk-taking of Michael Jackson between Off the Wall and Thriller, with one caveat: “I did not make Thriller.” Her 27-city North American tour starts in late October.

Frequency of LoveVictoria MonétListen on Apple Music