Friday Five: Lady Gaga is back to pop, a country trap tune that samples Rascal Flatts, and more songs of the week

Every Friday, EW’s music team runs down the five best songs of the week. In today’s edition, Lady Gaga is back to dance pop, an unknown singer drops a surprising country-trap banger, Phoebe Bridgers looks back, G Herbo tackles a tragic topic, and 100 gecs continue the chaos.

"Stupid Love" — Lady Gaga

It’s been three years since Lady Gaga’s last solo pop single — and even then, the record it came from, Joanne, was a stripped-down affair with a heavy country-rock influence. Her interim project, writing music for A Star Is Born, was more ballad-focused. In short, it’s been a long time since Gaga’s come around with a pure pop song in all its candy-coated glory. “Stupid Love" sees her going back to her roots, embracing the pulsing beats and irrepressible licks that made her a star. With a pumping melody line reminiscent of “Born this Way” and — dare we say it — some Goofy Movie Powerline energy, “Stupid Love” has us falling stupid in love — and dancing the whole way down. —Maureen Lenker

“Rascal” — RMR

The instant the music video for “Rascal” starts, it feels like some kind of joke: a melody from country group Rascal Flatts’ massive hit “Bless The Broken Road” juxtaposed with lyrics like “I've been hurt and f—ed up too, many years ago," all while its singer rocks gold fronts and a balaclava. You may even be quick to pin this genre mashup from RMR as the new “Old Town Road.” But listen closely and you’ll realize it’s just a tender piano track with Auto-tuned vocals and some anti-police ad-libs that Gary LeVox, Jay DeMarcus, and Joe Don Rooney would never have dared thrown in. The debut from singer RMR, which immediately went viral after its debut, is an entertaining shock to the system. —Marcus Jones

“ringtone (remix)” — 100 gecs feat. Charli XCX, Rico Nasty, and Kero Kero Bonito

The normally, delightfully chaotic experimental pop duo went chill on the original “ringtone” (off their inventive 2019 debut 1000 gecs). But on the remix, they add a bit more buoyancy to the production while handing over the song to three fellow extremely online artists, who turn it into a compelling and diverse pop cypher. Rico Nasty is the standout here. In addition to providing hot bars — “I be in the front like Rudolph the Reindeer, I can tell you got a crush, that's the reason why you came here”— she begins her verse sounding like the frontwoman of an emo band I desperately wish existed. —MJ

“PTSD” — G Herbo feat. Juice WRLD, Chance The Rapper, and Lil Uzi Vert

Coming out of the drill scene — a subgenre of rap from Chicago that includes acts like Chief Keef — rapper G Herbo was already used to being open about trap survival stories. The recent deaths of high-profile rappers makes the message of Herbo’s “PTSD” take on an even more tragically relatable meaning. The song’s key feature from Juice WRLD, a Chicago contemporary who looked at Herbo as a big brother of sorts, is both hauntingly poetic, and heartbreakingly sad knowing it was one of the dead artist’s last acts. —MJ

"Garden Song" — Phoebe Bridgers

Bridgers recalls childhood memories of gardens and getting taller in this spare new single off her upcoming album. Over a lone guitar, barely-there kick drum, and muddied static, she whispers of a wistful past: "They're gluing roses on a flatbed/You should see it, I mean thousands/I grew up here till it all went up in flames/Except the notches in the doorframe." The song ends on a slightly upbeat note, but it's hard not to think there's something darker under the surface: "I get everything I want/I have everything I wanted." —Alex Suskind

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