--- title: 5 Songs You Need to Listen to This Week description: New music from Ariana Grande, James Blake, Maggie Rogers, Maren Morris and half•alive canonical: https://time.com/5507144/5-songs-you-need-to-listen-to-this-week-70/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-01-18T22:04:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:57:01.134Z og:title: 5 Songs You Need to Listen to This Week og:description: New music from Ariana Grande, James Blake, Maggie Rogers and more og:url: https://time.com/5507144/5-songs-you-need-to-listen-to-this-week-70/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 5 Songs You Need to Listen to This Week twitter:description: New music from Ariana Grande, James Blake, Maggie Rogers and more twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # 5 Songs You Need to Listen to This Week (18 Jan 2019) > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jan 18, 2019 10:04 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jan 18, 2019 10:04 PM UTC [Ariana Grande](http://time.com/5446081/ariana-grande-new-song-thank-u-next-inspires-meme/) releases the song and video for “7 rings,” bringing _The Sound of Music_ into relevance in the 21st century. [James Blake](http://time.com/5119127/5-songs-you-need-to-listen-to-this-week-39/item/if-the-car-beside-you-moves-ahead-james-blake/) and Maggie Rogers put out new albums, each of them singular and deliciously complex collections of an artist’s vision. [Maren Morris](http://time.com/5470755/grammy-nominations-2019/) preaches to the girls on “GIRL,” a kind and uplifting anthem of self-love and support. And fresh rock trio half•alive experiment with rock and funk on “arrow.” ### “7 rings,” Ariana Grande Ariana Grande shows off in great style on “7 rings,” an already-record-breaking new single (and accompanying music video, drenched in glowing purples and pinks and sparkling with tableaus featuring champagne towers and oversized furs). We may not have been expecting that a R&B-meets-trap remix of “My Favorite Things” from _The Sound of Music_ was what 2019 had in store, but we are all pawns in Grande’s great game of pop domination. As for the song itself? “I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it” is already one of Grande’s — and the year’s — most referenced lines, making waves on social media and delivered with her signature feathery-light touch. According to Ariana, capitalism is hot again. ### “The Knife,” Maggie Rogers Maggie Rogers may bring to mind a kind of nouveau-hippie sensibility, but on her major-label debut album _Heard It in a Past Life_ — and particularly “The Knife” — the pop-rock singer-songwriter puts herself at the unexpected intersection of dance and pop. There are metallic crackles, industrial echoes, rolling, bouncy beats. And over it all, Rogers letting her flexible, expressive voice carry a bright melody with a cutting message: “Oh, the knife of insight brought me to my knees / Broke me down and taught me how to see,” she sings with world-weary restraint. The song lifts her back up. ### “Mile High,” James Blake feat. Metro Boomin and Travis Scott No one does atmosphere quite like experimentalist James Blake. While his new album _Assume Form_ is full of unexpected twists, the song likely to find the most attention is “Mile High,” which features producer Metro Boomin and rapper Travis Scott. Scott and Blake’s voices float, AutoTuned and resonant, over a murky beat. You can sense its contours, but the edges and details remain just out of sight, layers of production leading you into a sense of security. “Mile High” is a love song, yes, but also a flex — not just in terms of lyrical content, but also in terms of just how understated Blake can be. ### “GIRL,” Maren Morris Maren Morris looks like she’s on top of the world — she’s a Grammy-winning country star with a pop crossover hit on her hands and a career on the way up. But in her new single “GIRL,” Morris lets us in on a secret: even hit-making artists need to rally themselves sometimes. “GIRL” is an empowering anthem meant as a reminder that this, too, shall pass. “I don’t like myself right now, gotta find a way out,” she admits, before insisting that “Everything’s gonna be okay.” Sometimes we just need someone like Morris to give us a pep talk in the form of a slow-burning country jam. ### “arrow,” half•alive With a light touch and a beat with bounce, Long-Beach-based rock trio half•alive stay sharp on “Arrow,” a tune that’s a little bit funk, a little bit pop, and lots of sharp production. Vocalist Josh Taylor’s voice floats delicately above the instrumentation of the track. “My plan’s always changing, always rearranging,” he says, which makes sense; the song is filled with small surprises, like mini drum breaks and a groovy synth sequence that break it up into an unexpected composition that pulses with fresh energy. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5507144/5-songs-you-need-to-listen-to-this-week-70/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5507144/5-songs-you-need-to-listen-to-this-week-70/"},"headline":"5 Songs You Need to Listen to This Week (18 Jan 2019)","datePublished":"2019-01-18T22:04:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:57:01.134Z","description":"New music for 2019","url":"https://time.com/5507144/5-songs-you-need-to-listen-to-this-week-70/","keywords":["Newsfeed"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5507144/5-songs-you-need-to-listen-to-this-week-70/","name":"5 Songs You Need to Listen to This Week (18 Jan 2019)"}}]}] ```