How’s your weekend been? I’ll start; it was really lovely except I dropped my phone in the toilet. Anyway, some great stuff out this week so I’ll crack straight on. Remember this is all being added to the rolling 2020 playlist here.

There was also a new Duffy track which is gorgeous, but it’s not been properly released anywhere except on Instagram so you can listen to that here.

Beyoncé – Black Parade: Appearing on Juneteenth without warning, Black Parade is an extremely good song with extremely sharp lyrics (“Rubber bullets bouncin’ off me, made a picket sign off your picket fence”). Stirring, urgent, exciting… it’s the perfect rallying cry for this exact moment in history. An icon delivers, yet again.

Victoria Monét with Khalid and SG Lewis – Experience: This is another slam-dunk for Lewis after last week’s track with Aluna, but more exciting is the fact that it officially launches Project Make Victoria Monét A Superstar, as the lead single from her upcoming debut album. She’s given us so much good stuff over the years – especially for and with Ariana Grande – and it’s great that she’s kept this sizzling summer stunner for herself. Khalid, as a collab buddy, is a perfect fit.

Alicia Keys – Perfect Way To Die: This just hit me square in the guts.

Annie – American Cars: Look who’s back! The Norwegian bop-maker released Chewing Gum sixteen(!!!) years ago but she’s still very much on top of her game, as this song readily proves. This makes me want to go for a long night-time drive.

Lil Halima – Friends: My newfound habit of perusing the New Music Friday: Sweden playlist as often as I check the New Music Friday: UK one continues to pay dividends! This Norwegian-Kenyan artiste was first “discovered” back in 2017 but, shamefully, she’s only just entering my ears now: Friends is a great little bop that gets better and better the more I hear it. I’ll be belatedly going through her back catalogue at some point very soon.

Mike Perry and Ten Times – Down The Line: This is a bit Song That Would Come In The Top Half Of The Table At Eurovision 2013-2017, which is to say it doesn’t reinvent the wheel in any way whatsoever, but it’s still a very enjoyable little dance-pop number. And, most importantly!!!, it has trains on the artwork.