New Music Friday: Benson Boone, LISA, Halsey and more

New Music Friday - this week's biggest new song, album and DVD releases, all in one place

Welcome to New Music Friday, your one place to discover the biggest new song, album and home entertainment releases.

Let's get started on albums, shall we?

UK indie-rock group Doves return this week with their sixth album, and first in five years, Constellations For The Lonely. It's their first record under new label EMI North, and they are surely hoping it will follow in the chart-topping footsteps of their previous three Number 1 UK albums; 2002's The Last Broadcast, 2005's Some Cities and 2020's The Universal Want.

BLACKPINK siren LISA has been making big strides in her solo career in the last year (recently earning her first-ever Top 20 solo hit with the dramatic Born Again featuring Doja Cat and RAYE), and that journey to pop superstardom continues apace with her first debut solo album, ALTER EGO.

Across 13 tracks, LISA explores every facet of her pop star persona, and includes production work from the likes of Ryan Tedder (Tate McRae), ILYA (Ariana Grande) and Max Martin (Taylor Swift), as well as guest appearances from the likes of Future (FXCK UP THE WORLD), Megan Thee Stallion (Rapunzel) and Rosalia (New Woman). Will this new LP take LISA to similarly dizzy heights?

It's now more than 10 years since BANKS debuted with her generation-defining debut album Goddess, and in 2025 she brings a heavy injection of fun and play to her fifth record, Off With Her Head, out today. When we spoke to BANKS about the record's release, she told us that "no-one has seen what I can do yet." Off With Her Head, with link-ups with Doechii and Sampha, more than makes up on that promise.

A debut album 10 years in the making, Bradley Simpson may have come up as the vocalist of The Vamps, but his first solo effort, The Panic Years, sounds and feels like the painstaking work of someone influenced just as much by Jeff Buckley and Queens of the Stone Age as, say, The 1975. Annoucing the album's release with us last year, Brad said that finding his own identity as a solo artist had taken a bit of time. Listening to the album in full, it sounds like he finally understands who he is.

Other LPs to keep an eye out for this week include rising star Shygirl, who comes off a support slot from Charli xcx's BRAT UK tour to release her second Club Shy record, Club Shy Room 2, which will keep the tunes in the club and the afters coming for weeks on end.

Elsewhere, Sports Team also return after a brief break. The indie rock group have had plenty of fun trying to aim for that evasive first Number 1 album...could their third record Boys These Days take them all the way?

Meanwhile, over on singles...

Benson Boone scored one of the biggest Number 1 hits of last year with the anthemic Beautiful Things (which ended 2024 as the second biggest song of the year), and it seems we're now moving into a new era in the new year. Brand new single Sorry, I'm Here For Someone Else sounds just as bombastic as Beautiful Things, or Slow Down, but with Benson moving in a distinct new direction (there are synths!). Will he be backflipping his way to another hit soon?

We also have new music from two other chart-conquerers from last year. Gigi Perez's Sailor Song was perhaps one of the most surprise chart-toppers from last year, and Gigi is back with brand new track Chemistry. While Dasha was front of centre in last year's UK country boom with her slinky banger Austin, she's back to rodeo us all with hooks aplenty on Not At This Party.

One of the 2010's most arresting and interesting pop auteurs, Halsey moved into bold, experimental territory with her analytical fifth record The Great Impersonator last year. Taking this one step further, brand new track Safe Word is a surprise new release ahead of an anticipated tour set to take place later in 2025.

Finally, we have some more new singles today from Måneskin frontman Damiano David (Next Summer), Australian dance princess Charlotte Plank (Chemical Fashion) and woooooah-aaaaah-aaaah! It's none other than Oscar nominated actress Cynthia Erivo, defying gravity and expectations with a new single Replay, co-written by hitmaker to the stars Justin Tranter.