Bop Shops: Songs by Carly Rae Jepsen, Alvvays, Remi Wolf, and More | New

The search for the ever-elusive “bop” is difficult. Playlists and streaming service recommendations can’t do much. They often leave a lingering question: are these songs really good or are they just new?

Walk in Bop Shop, a handpicked selection of songs from the MTV News team. This weekly collection is gender neutral and can include anything – it’s a snapshot of what matters to us and what sounds good. We’ll keep it fresh with the latest music, but expect a few old (but good) ones from time to time too. Get ready: The Bop Shop is now open.

When Toronto pop perfectionists Alvvays returned last month with the roaring “Pharmacist“, it was clear that they had spent the five years since their last LP adding layers to their music. Followed by “Easy on your own? beautifully washed guitar in service to a true heart breaker.As a song, it contains everything that makes Alvvays so easy to love: a lunar melody from singer Molly Rankin and an amazing ability to make an unbeatable pop song sound like if it warped under the heat in real time. This is precisely what happens internally when I listen to Alvvays. —patrick hosken

Carly Rae Jepsen promises to delve into his loneliest thoughts on The loneliest moment (due out October 21), but our latest taste of her upcoming album finds the queen of pop perfectly happy to be on her own, thank you very much. Although to Carly’s credit, her singleness is less about what she posts and more about the caliber of men she meets. From a suitor whose “wife really had impeccable taste” to the boy who “raised his ex and he started crying,” it’s no wonder she’s been flying solo. Luckily, we’ve composed a sunny, bass-heavy, beach-ready anthem from his love misadventures, complete with cheeky and ridiculous publicity covers from the dudes themselves, plus the best upcoming one-liner of the sunny season. : “I got a house on the beach in Malibu / And I’ll probably hurt you.” —Carson Mlnarik

This existential tune is for anyone who would rather eject into the vast unknown of space than deal with the plethora of problems on our home planet. Hey, all the billionaires do it! Although they are also the massive contributors to disorder here on Earth. The F16s say it’s fair to complain. It is a natural reaction to watch our world deteriorate before our eyes – war, hunger, inflation, climate change and the gutting of education, health care and basic human rights. Similar to how these issues are trivialized, the F16s use whimsical, galactic imagery to contrast the seriousness of our predicament, and it seems like an interesting alternative. Teleport us, Scotty! “How did we end up with a planet left in ruins / We fight battles we only lose / Apologies but it sucks to be human / Big bang!” —Gwyn Cutler

It’s hard to overstate how much Blond remade the pop landscape in the years since its release in 2016. We’ve since reached a milestone – nostalgia and dance music have largely supplanted moodiness on the pop charts. But maybe that’s why “Pink + White”, the Blond piece that comes closest to Frank Ocean’s most lively 2012 opus Orange Channel, sounds so good these days. It swings and bounces even if it is tinged with melancholy. Remi Wolf takes all of these individual aspects and does them justice in this jazzy cover recorded at New York’s Electric Lady Studios (appropriately, where Ocean composed parts of Blond). Her athletic vocals and the fact that the song’s key piano melody is delivered on trumpet give the company a sultry nightclub vibe; for a while, Remi becomes a Gen Z Billie Holiday. No one could mistake their motivation for choosing this song for anything other than pure affection. In short, she showed him love. —patrick hosken

Beyonce gave us a collection of dancefloor-ready bops on their exhilarating experimental new album Renaissance, though no song stuck in my head — or caught TikTok’s attention — quite like “Alien Superstar.” The thrilling and empowering track is an ode to uniqueness and a call to “free the movement” right from its intro: a robotic voice warning us: “Don’t try to leave the dance floor”. What happens next is a treasure trove of intergalactic references and sonic delights, with a spoken word piece from Barbara Anne Teer’s “Black Theatre,” plus a sly interpolation of Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy.” Somehow, Bey transforms all of these influences entirely into his own, making “alien superstar” something to aspire to. She’s too “chic for this world” on her ethereal chorus, before declaring “Category, sexy bitch” on her lightning-fast ballroom-influenced verses. In this way, it is emblematic of the whole project itself, showing that it can not only draw inspiration from other genres and simultaneously pay homage to black queer pioneers, but can also do so while creating something entirely new. —Carson Mlnarik

Were you born a bad female dog? You are absolutely entitled to financial compensation. This hypnotic hype song is all about acknowledging your greatness and how reserved it is for your purposes only. Your impact is immortal, and if people move with it, “it was nice knowing you”, but you don’t owe anyone anything. Zyah Beautiful and Storm maybe the bosses, but they are there to serve, not to serve anyone. It’s a sign of looking your best, not impressing others, especially incompetent men. Keep accumulating checks and coming for necks without hesitation. —Gwyn Cutler

The pairing of Danger Mouse and The Roots’ Black Thought feels so organic it should have happened ten years ago. The first singles from the duo’s upcoming album, Cheat Codesshow why – the hypnotic, moving”Becausein particular – but nothing prepared me for the blockbuster “Strangers,” on which they cast A$AP Rocky and Run the Jewels. It’s not just that the track sounds like a million bucks (though sonically it’s gritty with record-breaking quality) or that the bloat suggested by its marquee names is mastered with lyrical precision and a four-minute run time. It’s that everyone looks like they’re having a blast — the rare Event Record that’s actually so subtle that it has to be paid attention to. —patrick hosken