Life Listens: New music from NewJeans, Blur, Zayn, Honne and the Barbie movie soundtrack

In this weekly column, The Straits Times curates the most buzz-worthy music you need to know about now.

Must-See MV: NewJeans – Cool With You

Is that Tony Leung Chiu Wai in a K-pop music video? Why, yes, it is.

The popular rookie five-piece girl group NewJeans snagged the Hong Kong screen legend for a 30-second cameo in their Cool With You music video, which also stars South Korean model-actress and Squid Game (2021) breakout star Jung Ho-yeon.

The surprise appearance sparked a frenzy among K-pop and film lovers, causing Leung’s name to trend on Weibo and Twitter when the video was released on July 19.

There are two MVs for Cool With You, Side A and Side B, and both were filmed in Barcelona, Spain. When watched chronologically, they form a complete story.

The plot is a re-imagination of the Greek myth of cupid Eros, the son of the goddess of beauty, Aphrodite. Eros fell in love with a female human named Psyche against his mother’s wishes.

In the video, Eros (Jung) – who is invisible to humans – goes around making people fall in love, but seems sad and bored. Things change when she meets Psyche (Micol Vela) and falls in love with him.

Against the falsetto vocals of NewJeans on garage rhythms, the couple embark on a picturesque romance, going through the four seasons together.

But their love is cut short when Aphrodite (Leung, with a head of brilliant grey hair) shows up and promptly punishes Eros by erasing Psyche’s love for her. She can only watch in dismay as Psyche walks past her, seemingly unable to recognise her.

The ending sequence of Cool With You (Side B) is set to another NewJeans song, the 36-second track Get Up. – Jan Lee

Ace Album: Barbie: The Album

The soundtrack album for the Barbie movie, now showing in cinemas, is a concise capsule of what upbeat, glittery pop sounds like in 2023.

It features zeitgeist-defining stars who have found fame in recent months, represented by the likes of American rapper Ice Spice and K-pop quartet Fifty Fifty, as well as marquee acts who have established themselves in the past few years, such as British-Albanian singer Dua Lipa, and American singers Lizzo and Billie Eilish.

Helmed by British pop-soul wunderkind producer Mark Ronson, expect a mix of genres, from reggaeton courtesy of Karol G to Charli XCX’s electropop.

Music made for the dance floor takes centre stage. These range from the nu-disco of Lipa’s Dance The Night to the 1990s Eurodance revival of Ava Max’s Choose Your Fighter and Fifty Fifty’s Barbie Dreams.

There are plenty of interpolations from past decades, probably as a nod to the Barbie doll’s 60-year history.

Ice Spice and Nicki Minaj’s Barbie World fuses trap with other hip-hop sub-genres and is a twisted subversion of Aqua’s 1997 dance-pop classic Barbie Girl, while Gayle’s Butterflies is a raging pop-punk interpretation of Crazy Town’s 1999 hit Butterfly.

Barbie leading man Ryan Gosling makes a cameo in the campy power ballad I’m Just Ken, backed by rock royalty like Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash and new Foo Fighters drummer Josh Freese. - Eddino Abdul Hadi

Chart Champ: Blur – The Ballad Of Darren

Britpop legends Blur are back with a bang. They played a triumphant, two-night set at London’s Wembley Stadium in early July and surprised fans with news of a new album.

The Ballad Of Darren is the English quartet’s first offering in eight years, a follow-up to 2015’s The Magic Whip, and their ninth album overall.

In a way, the new songs sound like a logical evolution for a band whose past repertoire ranged from jaunty pop-rock to symphonic ballads.

The tunes are generally mature and melancholic, and frontman Damon Albarn has never sounded so world-weary, even on the album’s upbeat tracks.

The Ballad Of Darren is a hit in Britain, going straight to No. 1 on the charts, beating two new entries – American band Greta Van Fleet’s Starcatcher and British pop-punk group As December Falls’ Join The Club.

The Official Charts websites reported that The Ballad Of Darren, which is also Blur’s seventh straight album to top the British charts, is outselling the rest of the Top 10 albums combined.

Albarn must be pleased, as it is his second album to go to No.1 in 2023. His other band, virtual quartet Gorillaz, also topped the charts with their eighth album Cracker Island, released in March. – Eddino Abdul Hadi

Singapore Scene: Honne – inside-out in Singapore

British electronic-pop duo Honne did more than play a show when they were in Singapore in May – they also filmed at local sites.

A collaboration with Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and Warner Music Singapore, the videos include one in which the pair, Andy Clutterbuck and James Hatcher, perform 2018 track Location Unknown in the Joo Chiat and Katong areas. They also sang no song without you (2020) at various spots in Keong Saik Road.

Hosted on Honne and STB’s social media platforms, it is part of inside-out, a video series that features the duo playing acoustic versions of their songs. The camera is placed inside an acoustic guitar and the Singapore episodes are the first ones filmed outside of Britain.

The duo also mentioned in social media posts that their Asian tour, which includes stops in Taiwan and Indonesia, had Singapore Airlines as a sponsor.

Honne said in a joint statement: “Although we’ve been to Singapore several times, we’ve never had the chance to really get to know the city and find out what makes it special.

“Through this project, we got to immerse ourselves in a range of new and unexpected experiences that showcase why Singapore is such a vibrant place, and we can’t wait to share this with our fans around the world.”

The videos are the latest in a series of STB projects with global pop acts – which include artistes such as American singers Billie Eilish and Charlie Puth, and Hong Kong-born star Jackson Wang – performing and filming videos at various locations in Singapore. – Eddino Abdul Hadi

Stream This Song: Zayn – Love Like This

The past couple of years have not been kind to British singer Zayn, what with his split from his ex, American supermodel Gigi Hadid, and former label RCA Records at the same time.

Rather than wallow in misery, Love Like This – the former One Direction member’s first new song since 2021 – is quite upbeat. Eschewing the slick R&B sounds of his past tunes for bouncy UK garage beats, it is a romantic ode to jumping headlong into a new relationship.

With a chorus that features Sam Smith-style falsettos, it is a summer bop fit for the dance floor. Zayn, now signed to Mercury Records, has teased that he has more material coming up.

The usually reticent star seems keen to be in the public eye again. In early July, he appeared on the Call Her Daddy podcast and gave his first interview in six years.

While he shed some light about the circumstances that led him to leave One Direction at the height of the boy band’s fame in 2015, he was tight-lipped about the supposed tension between him and Hadid’s mother, The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills reality television personality Yolanda Hadid. – Eddino Abdul Hadi