Rapper Drake ties with Taylor Swift for most No. 1 albums on Billboard

SINGAPORE – In the last instalment of this column, The Straits Times curates the most buzz-worthy music released in the past month.

Chart Champ: Drake – Iceman/Habibti/Maid Of Honour

Canadian hip-hop star Drake has made history on the Billboard 200 albums chart, becoming the first artiste to hold the top three spots in the same week.

His three albums that swept the podium – Iceman at No. 1, Habibti at No. 2 and Maid Of Honour at No. 3 – were all released on May 15.

Iceman also gives Drake his 15th Billboard No. 1 album, tying him with American pop star Taylor Swift for the most chart-toppers among solo artistes. Only one act stands ahead of them: English icons The Beatles, who hold the all-time record with 19 No. 1 albums.

Of the three, Iceman is the most compelling listen. Arguably Drake’s most focused rap album in years, it is driven by outstanding production and adventurous beats. Its main stumbling block, however, is the bitterness that seeps through it, with repeated callbacks to his feud with American rapper Kendrick Lamar – a beef that is two years old and beginning to feel exhausting.

Habibti takes a softer, more introspective turn, its moody R&B atmosphere yielding some of Drake’s more vulnerable moments. Yet, it rarely ventures beyond familiar territory, leaning too heavily on well-worn ruminations about fame and love.

Maid Of Honour occupies the middle ground among the trio and is the most fun, a club-heavy romp that draws on dancehall and house influences for a batch of fun summer tracks. The downside is that it is slightly inconsistent and bloated, and could have benefited from tighter editing.

Stream This Song: Le Sserafim – Boompala

This single from South Korean girl group Le Sserafim’s second studio album, Pureflow Pt. 1, is a Latin house-inspired banger that heavily samples the iconic 1990s party anthem Macarena.

The song shot to No. 1 on Apple Music in both Singapore and Taiwan. The group are also set to perform in Singapore on Nov 28, although the venue has not been announced.

Anchored by a repetitive spoken hook, it lodges itself in your head whether you want it to or not.

What makes this song stand out is that the title is pure nonsense, a word invented by the group, but the rest of the lyrics are anything but frivolous.

The quintet draw on Buddhism-inspired themes of impermanence, slipping in phrases like “chakra”, “namaste” and “Zen” alongside lines such as “Permanent is something that I’m letting go” and “Nothing’s forever, so nothing’s to fear”.

Ace Album: Kneecap – Fenian

Controversy did not kill Kneecap. It only gave them more fuel.

The Irish-language rap trio from Belfast – made up of Mo Chara, Moglai Bap and DJ Provai – have channelled protest, provocation and personal hardship into Fenian, their second album. The result is an exhilarating blend of political messaging and musical ambition.

Delivered in a heady mix of Irish and English, the album is a razor-sharp integration of hip-hop, trip-hop, acid house and jungle rhythms that swings effortlessly between big, chantable anthems and vulnerable, deeply personal reflections.

In the title track, they reclaim a word long used as a slur against Irish Catholics and nationalists, crafting a modern anthem that bridges ancestral Irish folklore with the defiant energy of its youth today.

Carnival is built around the real-life drama of Mo Chara facing British terrorism charges for displaying a flag at a London concert, charges that were later thrown out of court. The track samples the actual audio of fans chanting “Free Mo Chara” outside the courthouse.

The album also has room for grief. In Irish Goodbye, Moglai Bap processes the devastating loss of his mother, who died by suicide in 2020, with a rawness that cuts through the noise.

Palestine, featuring Ramallah-based rapper Fawzi, channels an empathetic link between two nations bound by shared generational trauma in one of the album’s most sombre and affecting moments.

Must-see MV: The Rolling Stones – In The Stars

The Rolling Stones’ latest music video In The Stars is an AI-powered trip back in time.

The lead single from their upcoming 25th studio album, Foreign Tongues, sees Mick Jagger, 81; Keith Richards, 82; and Ronnie Wood, 78; digitally de-aged and performing in a riotous warehouse party dripping with 1970s aesthetic.

The deepfake work was handled by Deep Voodoo, the AI entertainment start-up founded by South Park (1997 to present) creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, with body doubles standing in for the trio.

Continuing the band’s tradition of casting popular “It Girls” in their music videos, BAFTA-nominated American actress Odessa A’zion, fresh off her turn in sports comedy-drama Marty Supreme (2025), takes centre stage as the video’s central character.

As a tribute to drummer Charlie Watts, who died in 2021, dozens of drummers perform simultaneously throughout the warehouse, a nod to his irreplaceable legacy.

The song is upbeat and fun, but there is an irony hard to ignore. Few bands have built their legend on raw, unfiltered human performance quite like The Rolling Stones. Yet, here they are, turning to artificial simulation to recapture it.

Singapore Scene: Shye – The Doves Came Home

At just 23, home-grown singer, songwriter and producer Shye has already undergone a striking artistic transformation.

Her sophomore album, The Doves Came Home, arrives six years after her debut Days To Morning Glory (2020). And the distance between the two records could not be more pronounced.

Where her debut was a bright, youthful bedroom-pop record full of electronic-tinged pop, teenage crushes and growing pains, The Doves Came Home is its polar opposite. Dark, heavy and mature, the dream-pop and shoegaze album envelops the listener in walls of distorted guitars and ambient textures.

Thematically, songs like In The End, I Always Knew and the title track chart a journey through uncertainty and self-discovery, the sound of a young artiste no longer content to play it safe.

The wider world is taking notice. Scottish alternative rock trailblazers Jesus And Mary Chain recently invited her to perform on stage with them and open their show at the Esplanade. She is also set to join Canadian dream-pop duo Softcult as the Asia support act on their upcoming tour, and has been building her profile steadily through festival appearances across the region.