On *The Dream*, FINNEAS and Ashe’s first album together as The Favors, the duo tries their hand at one of the most difficult formats to replicate: the male-female power duo. Think Sonny & Cher, Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra, Lindsey Buckingham & Stevie Nicks. The album, which was produced by FINNEAS, features the duo harmonizing over lush orchestral pop and folk arrangements, infusing their signature styles with disco, slow-burning balladry, and country music. Though the collection marks their first time working together on an entire album, they collaborated on Ashe’s 2021 track “Till Forever Falls Apart.” Their relationship dates back even further. In an interview with Zane Lowe, the duo revealed that they met about nine years ago and quickly struck up a friendship. That chemistry works its way through the entire album, from the ELO-inspired electropop of the title track to the lounge jazz of “Ordinary People,” which calls to mind another all-time male-female duo: Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga. The exciting restlessness of the album’s genre explorations comes from the way their relationship began to build. “I think that our friendship really has a lot to do with a kind of mutual curiosity,” FINNEAS says. “I think that, over the years, I’ve looked at why I feel super affectionately towards somebody. And obviously, people’s talent or energy is important, but I think people’s curiosity is this big, underrepresented societal thing.”
Ten years after starting out at a tiny club in the Hongdae region, DAY6 hasn’t let stardom erase their humble beginnings, and this fourth studio album—aptly titled *The DECADE*—is a celebration of those precious early days. Each of its 10 songs features contributions from all four members, making it a truly personal project. While their signature pop-punk sound is to the fore, the group also eyes the dance floor with disco-inspired grooves. What’s more, the choice to name two lead singles (hybrid bop “INSIDE OUT” and the soaring “Dream Bus”) signals their growing confidence—this is a band who knows exactly what they’re about. And below, they share with Apple Music their thoughts on the album’s tracks. **“Dream Bus”** SUNGJIN: “A typical DAY6 tune. Though it’s not mandatory, wouldn’t it be better to have dreams while going through life? We’d like to cheer on everyone and their dreams.” **“INSIDE OUT”** Young K: “The tune’s moods shift like a roller-coaster ride. DAY6 is back with a fresh new sound.” **“Sun, Stay Asleep”** WONPIL: “This tune will lift your mood from the get-go. It’s got a catchy rhythm that will get you nodding along before you know it.” **“Disco Day”** DOWOON: “It’s a disco party, with bouncy bass and drums. I think it’s another song that’s great for driving.” **“My Way”** SUNGJIN: “There’s a bit of punk rock here. We all have to live life the way we want to, no matter what anyone says―though it’s important to be influenced by others to some extent, and consider what they’ve got to say.” **“Before the Stars”** Young K: “We first played this at a fan meeting. We pictured ourselves singing in front of all our My Day fans, as if they were countless stars.” **“Take All My Heart”** WONPIL: “This is our unique take on retro-influenced sounds. It’s got perky melodies that carry the warm lyrics nicely.” **“Dream Rider”** DOWOON: “Here’s a genre DAY6 tried for the first time. The peculiar timing of the snare and kick drums suggests an almost jungle-like rhythm, but in the chorus the drums go back to a straight beat in a satisfying way.” **“So It’s the End”** SUNGJIN: “Everything’s bound to come to an end. So why not take extra care to wrap things up thoroughly before moving on to the next step?” **“Our Season”** Young K: “For sure, we’ve been through days that were heartwarming, burning with passion, cool and relaxed, or tense and challenging. There will be more such days in the future. But no matter how many years pass, even after hundreds of days, our season will be flowing eternally.”
On the outside, Tom Odell is living the wonderful life he sings about on his seventh album. The former BRITs Critics’ Choice winner has hit a prolific patch since becoming an independent artist, with his fourth album in five years. He’s gaining new fans on TikTok, opened for Billie Eilish (a fan of his 2024 album *Black Friday*) on tour in 2025, and delivered a self-assured tribute to Brian Wilson at Glastonbury a few weeks before this release. But dig deeper into his lyrics and there’s a mass of vulnerability, self-doubt, and sadness at the world. The willingness to bare his soul has led to a deep connection with fans—underlined by the continuing viral success of his 2012 debut single “Another Love” and 2023’s “Black Friday”—and *A Wonderful Life* finds Odell at his most authentic, even if he still doesn’t love the mid-thirties version of himself. “I’m standing in the mirror/I want to change my skin/Wish that I was taller/Wish that I was thin,” he sings on the early Radiohead-esque “Ugly.” Written on tour in 2024, *A Wonderful Life* is a snapshot of a hectic period in which Odell balances the messy business of life on the road with love and friendship. There’s a nod to a pre-gig burnout on “Can We Just Go Home Now,” where he’s determined to carry on despite his ills: “Call the doctor up to my hotel room/You see I’ve lost my voice, I’m in a very bad mood/Give me drugs, give me a drip, give me a 20 minute’s rest.” But the show does go on and by the time Odell reaches the album’s closing track, the Leonard Cohen-inspired “The End of Suffering,” there’s a glimpse of light coming through the curtains. “It’s good to see the sun,” sings Odell, suggesting that life might still be a little bit wonderful after all.
Sarah McLachlan’s first album of originals in 11 years fortuitously arrives in the same month as the premiere of *Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery*, a documentary that celebrates the trailblazing legacy of her all-women festival. And in many respects, *Better Broken* serves the same function in 2025 as Lilith Fair did in the ’90s, by providing a safe space for fans to gather and wallow in all the feels. With boygenius producer Tony Berg behind the boards, *Better Broken* sees McLachlan effortlessly integrate herself into a contemporary singer-songwriter landscape she helped create, with the title track reintroducing us to the folk-schooled storytelling, trip-hoppy textures, and hair-raising vocal turns that made her an adult-alternative icon. As ever, McLachlan masterfully distills relationships to the most intimate details (“I want to feel the shiver/Your fingers writing poetry on my skin,” she sings on the dustbowl devotional “Long Road Home”), while delving into their messy aftermaths with unflinching resolve: The post-breakup piano ballad “Wilderness” just might be the most elegant “fuck you” to an ex ever written. But while its songs take the form of deeply personal heart-to-heart conversations, *Better Broken* is very much tuned into the socio-political tumult weighing on all our lives—the tender piano serenade “Only Human” is the musical equivalent of a shoulder to cry on, with McLachlan offering words of encouragement to beaten-down souls like the world’s most sympathetic life coach. And if McLachlan is several decades removed from her Lilith Fair mobilization efforts, uplifting self-empowerment anthems like “One in a Long Line” and “Rise” show the festival’s feminist fuse still burns brightly inside her.
On Rob Thomas’ sixth solo album, *All Night Days*, the Matchbox Twenty bandleader yearns for the chaos of youth. The title puts the singer in that hazy early-morning light, in that half-sleep state after an all-nighter, before the body can figure out what time it is and why it’s been awake for so long. On the title track, Thomas cooks up a hard-charging drum groove and atmospheric synths that give way to a chugging guitar melody and pedal steel accents. He wishes to be wild for just one more minute, to approach life with the unabashed joyfulness of his youth. He admits it might be the booze speaking, but honesty always flows easier with inebriation. “Picture Perfect” is a throwback cut, featuring drum sounds from ’80s synth-pop records and glimmering synths. Here, old memories are like “sad, sad songs.” Thomas asks to be taken back to a time he can hold on to, to a world in which the highs of freedom are tangible—not merely memories he’s left singing about.
Mimi Webb’s *Confessions* is packed with self-assured pop goodness, but the singer-songwriter had so many doubts about it she abandoned her initial ideas. “The first version of the album was completely scrapped,” Webb tells Apple Music Radio. “I wrote it about a year and a half ago and I just freaked out and felt so uninspired. I was like, ‘I can’t sing these bloody songs for the next two years on tour. There’s just no way.’ Even though I had so much love for them, it wasn’t touching the surface for me, it wasn’t deep enough for what I was going through in my day-to-day life.” Webb admits starting again on the follow-up to 2023’s *Amelia* was a challenge, but it’s one that left her “very happy.” And putting in that extra shift paid off, with 12 songs that show the emotional range of mid-twenties life. Webb shot to fame in the early 2020s with the Charli D’Amelio-endorsed “Before I Go,” and *Confessions* finds her diving deeper. Beneath the glossy Y2K R&B of “Kiss My Neck” lies hidden heartbreak, and she offers a tender acceptance of her parents’ split after 30 years of marriage on “You Don’t Look at Me the Same.” One of Webb’s favorite tracks on the album is “Mind Reader,” with Meghan Trainor. “We went to her house and we were vibing the whole time writing that one,” she says. There’s also the standout “Love Language,” a tight three minutes of sophisticated pop that sees Webb examining what she wants from a partner. “It changes a lot with age,” she says. “When I was 21, it was gift giving and then as I got older, it’s all acts of service for me, just being a few steps ahead and helping me. If I’m rushing home from work, I’d love a bit of dinner on the table.” There was just one more element of uncertainty once *Confessions* was finished: the title. “I had no idea what I was going to call this album and I was back and forth,” she says. “There’s a lot of positive and a lot of negative in it, and I think that is the story of life. For me, it was about being able to break the fourth wall on this album and dive a lot deeper than the surface levels. It’s about the whole experience of unexpected turns—you never really know what’s around the corner.”
