The best new songs we heard this week: Ty Dolla $ign and Dvsn get freaky, Olivia Vedder is her father's daughter
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Corinne Schiavone; Blair Brown; Josh Klinghoffer; Universal Music (2) Hana Vu; dvsn and Ty Dolla $ign; Remi Wolf; Tiwa Savage; Eddie Vedder, Olivia Vedder, and Glen Hansard
Every Friday, EW's music team runs down the five best songs of the week. In today's edition, Remi Wolf runs wild, Dvsn and Ty Dolla $ign are here to seduce you, Hana Vu's got the birthday blues, Eddie Vedder's daughter makes her singing debut, and Tiwa Savage taps Brandy for a savagely beautiful duet.
"Quiet on Set" — Remi Wolf
Remi Wolf has exhibited an impishness and offbeat sensibility since she auditioned for American Idol with Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" at the ripe old age of 17. Seven years later, she's delivering her own high-octane blend of disco, funk, hyper-pop, and hip-hop. Galloping along a sexed-up organ-y bass line and a shuffling beat that recalls Nelly's "Hot in Herre," her new single "Quiet on Set" was tailor-made for Gen Z house parties and joyrides through Los Feliz. The budding star's manic, rapid-fire rhymes swerve from the clever ("Going off the deep end like Foushée/I'm cracked the surface creme brûlée") to the downright cursed ("What's better than two girls, two cups"), as she name-drops everything from Chuck E. Cheese to Debbie Downer to The Human Centipede. In Wolf's wayward, unhinged world, nothing is off limits, including a five-guy orgy at — where else? — Five Guys. —Jason Lamphier
"Memories" — Dvsn and Ty Dolla $ign
Spark up some incense, chill the pinot grig, and put that phone in airplane mode: Dvsn and Ty Dolla $ign want to make some "Memories." Sure, their new single is a few shades cleaner than its saliva-soaked predecessor (producers Nineteen85 and 40 sample Silk's horny '90s chart-topper "Freak Me"), but it's got enough vocoder and candle-lit come-ons to fuel 10 R&B reunion tours. By the bridge, Ty and Daniel Dalay are in full K-Ci and JoJo mode with those a cappella "baby baby baby"s. "Givin' you the best of me when you sexing me/We gon need a room," they sing on the hook. Subtle? Nope. And that's the point. —Alex Suskind
"Somebody's Son" — Tiwa Savage feat. Brandy
Yes, Ms. Norwood has turned in some iconic duets, but she hasn't sounded this gorgeous in at least a decade. Of course, when you team with a Nigerian superstar who's been anointed "the Queen of Afrobeats," the results are bound to pack a wallop. Tiwa Savage has collaborated with heavy hitters like Mary J. Blige, Kelly Clarkson, Sam Smith, and George Michael, and on "Somebody's Son" — the highlight from her new EP, Water & Garri — she proves her mettle, offering a bracing, post-breakup empowerment anthem that manages to tug at the heartstrings while sharpening them for their next chapter. "Somebody's son go find me one day," the pair declare on the track's soaring chorus, confident that another lover — one with a good upbringing who knows how to treat a lady like the royalty she is — is just around the corner. This time, the boy isn't either of theirs, but they know they're better off without him. —Jason Lamphier
"Everybody's Birthday" — Hana Vu
We're all falling apart, Hana Vu comfortably acknowledges in her thundering, hooky new single, "Everybody's Birthday." "Everybody knows that it's all end times/And everyone I know is blue," she drones over a thick bass line and crunchy back beat. Vu puts particular emphasis on that last word, wandering up and down the scale in a beautiful warble, adding colorful syllables with each inflection. Things get even sadder in the chorus — "Everybodies [sic] crying in the hallway, I guess it must be everybody's birthday/All the time" — but by the end she's feeling slightly more positive, if not defiant: Yes, everyone is having "a bad time," but she's "not in the mood to lose." —Alex Suskind
"My Father's Daughter" — Olivia Vedder (feat. Eddie Vedder and Glen Hansard)
Plot twist: The best performance on a new soundtrack featuring Eddie Vedder, Cat Power, and Grammy- and Oscar-winning Irish actor-songwriter Glen Hansard (Once) doesn't come from any of them. That award goes to Olivia Vedder, the Pearl Jam frontman's 17-year-old daughter. Her aptly titled singing debut, "My Father's Daughter," is a showstopper among the 13 tracks released for Flag Day, the Sean Penn–directed drama starring him and his own daughter Dylan. In the intimate, string-soaked paean to undying familial devotion ("I am my father's daughter/Come hell or high water/Never gonna leave him/Despite the rights or wrongs"), Vedder's honeyed, no-frills vocals grace David Odlum's hushed acoustic production like the first rays of daylight peeking through the trees. If this is Eddie passing the torch, he should rest assured it's in good hands. —Jason Lamphier
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