New Music Friday highlights several albums

Albums were the real story this Friday. Not just a couple of loose singles, but actual project drops from artists at very different points in their careers — Isaiah Rashad with *IT’S BEEN AWFUL*, Zara Larsson with *Midnight Sun: Girls Trip*, and Halsey with *The Great Impersonator (Deluxe)*. That matters because New Music Friday can feel increasingly single-driven. This one looked more like a reset button for three separate album campaigns. (music.apple.com) ### Why did Isaiah Rashad stand out? Because this is his first album in years, and that gap is part of the appeal. Apple Music lists *IT’S BEEN AWFUL* as a 16-song release that arrived May 1, 2026, and Pitchfork flagged “Boy in Red” with SZA as a fresh preview tied to the album rollout. After *The House Is Burning* in 2021, Rashad coming back with a full project feels less like routine catalog maintenance and more like a real return. (music.apple.com)ngle? Zara’s release is the most obviously “pop-strategy” move of the bunch. *Midnight Sun: Girls Trip* appears as an expanded, reworked extension of her 2025 album *Midnight Sun*, with Apple Music showing added songs like “Hot & Sexy” and “Eurosummer.” That makes it more than a standard deluxe with a stray bonus track or two — basically a second wave built to keep the era moving into festival season and touring. (music.apple.com)y deluxe matter? Because it’s big enough to feel like a reframe, not a footnote. Apple Music and Spotify both show *The Great Impersonator (Deluxe)* at 25 songs, up from the original 2024 album, and recent coverage around the release says Halsey positioned it as the completion of that album cycle rather than a casual add-on. When a deluxe gets that large, the pitch changes — it becomes a new entry point for listeners who skipped the first version. (music.apple.com) ### So was this week about albums or singles? Mostly albums. Apple Music’s New Music Daily did update with fresh songs, but the most concrete, verifiable movement around this Friday’s music conversation was project-based. That’s an important distinction, because social chatter often flattens everything into “songs people are posting,” while streaming platforms and artist rollouts tell you where the real commercial push is. This week, the push was toward bodies of work. (music.apple.com) ### Were the user-supplied single titles the main story? Turns out, not from what the stronger sources show. I could verify the three album releases directly through platform listings and music coverage, but not the claimed Madonna/Sabrina Carpenter and Lady Gaga singles as the defining center of this Friday. The Zara item that did surface clearly in recent coverage was her Tyla collaboration “She Did It Again,” which arrived in April and fed into the broader Zara moment heading into this expanded release. (rollingstone.com) ### What ties these releases together? They all use the same Friday slot for different purposes. Rashad is restarting momentum after a long absence. Zara is extending an already bright pop era with a more social, summer-facing version. Halsey is sealing off an existing era with a much larger edition. Same calendar move — very different business logic. (music.apple.com)ke leftovers and more like campaign architecture. Sometimes that means true new material. Sometimes it means reframing an album for touring, playlists, or a new audience segment. Either way, the album isn’t always done when it first drops anymore. (music.apple.com) ### Bottom line This Friday w(music.apple.com)using New Music Friday to reopen, extend, or complete an album era — and that’s a more durable kind of music news.