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Bone Thugs-N-
Harmony recently
announced that
they are changing
their name to
Boneless Thugs-N-
Harmony as part of
a Buffalo Wild
Wings marketing
campaign. EW has
since uncovered a
few more can’t-
miss band/ brand
synergies that are
surely in the works.
Mötley J.Crëw
De La SoulCycle
A Tribe Hummus
Called Quest
Taylor Swiffer
MC Hammacher
Schlemmer
KraftWeWerk
Old Spice Girls
Maroon 5 Guys
DraftKings
of Leon
The OFF!springto song-making. There are his
salacious confessions, his barred-
up verses, his tender and som-
nolent crooning. But he takes us
even further into his decadent
world during the song ’s latter half.“Call Out My Name”
This is one of the singer’s
few moments of vulnerability and
is heavy in its dejection. His vocals
are needy and stirring, though his
pleas for a woman to return to him
prove futile. Ultimately, he comes
to the realization that this great
love is completely over.“I Feel It Coming” feat. Daft
Punk
This breezy and lighthearted Daft
Punk-assisted track is one of the
best moments on Starboy. Its disco-
pop simplicity feels warm and
oddly familiar; the verses are
uptempo and minimal. And the
singer’s intentions are crystal clear:
to make his potential love feel at
ease with him.“Wicked Games”
The Weeknd’s debut single
was a harbinger for his melancholic
and piercing catalog. “Wicked
Games,” with its seductive beat,
introduced us to the singer’s will-
ingness to combine smoldering
passion with a dangerous depen-
dency on substances. The song also
shed a light on the enormously
gifted vocalist who, previous to its
release, was cloaked in mystery
about his exact identity. Not only
did the song launch the Weeknd
into the pop culture stratosphere,
it set the tone for an artist with
lofty ambitions.“The Hills”
Tesfaye’s trauma has always
been difficult to navigate, but on
“The Hills” it reaches horror-movie
levels. His depravity and disillusion
don’t stem just from the lyrics on
the track, which fully disclose his
coldness. It’s his throaty and deeply
pensive delivery of verse after verse.
Its ominous and dreary nature
implies that “The Hills” isn’t just a
place—it’s a feeling of hollowness
that he may never be able to fill.No
4No
3No
2No
1BE HER GUESTCOUNTRY STAR KELSEA BALLERINI REVEALS
THE STORIES BEHIND THE THREE A-LIST NAMES SHE
RECRUITED FOR HER THIRD ALBUM, KELSEABy Marcus JonesEd Sheeran
The pairing of the duo
for the ballad “Love and
Hate,” co-written by the
“Perfect” singer, involves
“the stars aligning and
my ass getting on a red-
eye,” she tells EW. When
collaborator Ross Cop-
perman said the Brit
was in Nashville, Ballerini
booked it from L.A. to
Tennessee for a writing
session. She pitched
Sheeran the hook, then
sat awestruck when he
said, “ ‘Oh, I love that,
but what if that was the
verse, and we write
something even better
for the chorus,’ and
the chorus just fell out
of his mouth.”Halsey
“The Other Girl”—her
duet with the “Without
Me” singer—is, she jokes,
both “the country ‘The
Boy Is Mine’ and the pop
‘Does He Love You.’ ”
“The song was written
around the idea of [col-
laborating] with her,
with a story that I know
that we both relate to,”
says the 26-year-old,
who wrote the track on
her tour bus. Ballerini
notes that Halsey is “a
prolific, wonderful song-
writer,” so it was a big
deal to her that she
“respected me enough
to tell the story...and
didn’t change any of
the lyrics.”Kenny Chesney
The first time Ballerini
connected with the
superstar was when
he texted her “Proud of
you, hometown girl.
Love, Kenny,” along with
a photo of her name on
a marquee in Times
Square. So who better
to guest on the song
“Half of My Hometown”
than her fellow Knoxvil-
lian? Though it did take
some prodding from
Copperman and co-
writer Shane McAnally.
“They both said, ‘It
sounds like his story. It
sounds like everything
we know about him.
Just send it to him, the
worst he can say is no.’ ”EW ● COM APRIL 2020 83PEGGY SIROTAAPRIL2020.MUSIC2.LO.indd 83 FINAL 3/3/20 9:07 AM