Turn up the volume! From high-octane club bangers and sun-soaked pop melodies to bold, unapologetic LGBTQ+ anthems, this week’s music roundup is stacked with fresh tracks you’ll have on repeat. Whether you’re craving Carly Rae Jepsen’s latest dance floor meditation, MEEK’s razor-sharp pop attitude, Janethan’s soulful hyperpop energy, or the powerful sounds of the Red Light Diaries soundtrack, we’ve gathered the most exciting new releases from across the globe to elevate your weekend soundtrack.
Carly Rae Jepsen – Don’t Leave Me on the Dance Floor
On this potent meditation on the fear of abandonment, Jepsen spins all the pain and heartache into a wildly ecstatic, club-ready banger. Pulled from her forthcoming 24-track double album Day and Night, it’s the first song she’s released from the “night.” She wrote the track with producers CJ Baran and Arthur Besnainou.
“I’d just been recording in Sweden and then traveled to London to see ABBA Voyage. I came home with a mission of making my own ABBA-esque pop song – something with a perfect pop melody, but with some updated production. I wanted a hook that made you feel like you had to participate and sing along.” – Jepsen
Earlier singles “On Wires” and “After All” gave fans a window into the “day” side of the album, with its sun-soaked left-field pop while “night” brings forward-thinking dance music with a maximalist edge, as exemplified by “Don’t Leave Me on the Dance Floor.”
Pre-order/pre-save Day and Night HERE.
Watch the official video for “On Wires” HERE.
Watch the official video for “After All” HERE.
Janethan – ShotOnU
Janethan is a Manchester-born Black queer pop/dance artist. His release of the official video for his new single “ShotOnU” was a pleasant surprise to our eyes and ears. The song and visuals are bold, playful and unapologetically queer, combining hyperpop energy with a soulful vocal. He has previously performed on London Pride’s main stage, been featured across Gaydio and built a catalogue with more than 40 million streams. We did take a dive down his YouTube channel and found some other great songs.
MEEK – Expensive Taste
“What if Chappell Roan and Freddie Mercury had a baby? … might just be the fucking fabulous popstar that British music has spent a long time waiting for.” – Rolling Stone (UK)
Ahead of her North American tour supporting Kesha next week, fast-rising British artist and songwriter MEEK returns today with her latest single, “Expensive Taste,” out now via BMG.
“I wrote ‘Expensive Taste’ while I was splitting my time between my basement flat in Brixton and writing trips to LA.” MEEK shares, “I found the contrast really funny – living between two completely different worlds. The song doesn’t take itself too seriously, and neither do I.”
A razor-sharp pop anthem bursting with attitude, confidence and irresistible hooks, “Expensive Taste” follows her breakthrough singles “Fabulous” and “Beautiful Freeks,” and further establishes MEEK as one of the UK’s most exciting new artists to emerge over the last year.
FOLLOW MEEK – OFFICIAL WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK
CursusVivax – Feel Alive
CursusVivax is an anonymous Australian electronic pop project built around warm, analogue-leaning production and a deep, masculine voice that stays unhurried and intimate. The name is Latin: Cursus, the course of a life, and Vivax, living, vigorous,
tenacious of life.
These are not stories about looking for a relationship in the conventional sense. They are about attraction, curiosity, travel, and freedom, and about finding meaning through random encounters rather than through the shape a conventional monogamous relationship is supposed to take.
His songs take existence itself as their subject, not life as it is meant to be lived, but life as it is actually lived, with particular attention to the connections gay men form and rarely discuss in public. Nothing in his music is explicit. Everything in it is true.
His anonymity is not a gimmick. It is the point. Take away the face, and the songs stop being his story and quietly become yours.
FOLLOW CursusVivax – Website – YouTube – Instagram
Red Light Diaries soundtrack – “Borrowed Peace,” Michael Ighodaro feat TONY B
A new original drama, Red Light Diaries, takes queer survival from New York & Atlanta to Lagos to Bangkok through the lens of HIV, faith, and community, and it produces a soundtrack to match!
Ahead of its series premiere in late 2026, Red Light Diaries is dropping its official soundtrack on August 14, featuring 12 tracks of pop, R&B, and Afrobeats centered on queer visibility and survival, written and produced by creator/director Micheal Ighodaro with a global roster of Black queer artists including Billy the Goat, known for his hip-hop/rap and contemporary queer rap, and Myke B The Label, known for his R&B/Soul, pop. The lead singles are “I Won’t Disappear” and “Borrowed Peace” and are out now.
Some songs are especially personal. “14” is about Ighodaro’s childhood. “I Learned” draws on the real-life story of a close friend, a trans Nigerian woman. “Whole Lotta Future” reflects on the growing range of HIV-prevention choices now available. “Own My Night” is a pop and R&B anthem about queer empowerment and body autonomy.