The Playlist: Kelela's Take Me Apart & 10 More New Songs

Every Friday, OUT's pop critics weigh in on the week's most important new music releases. This week saw Kelela's long-awaited debut album Take Me Apart, as well as drops from queer notables like Sam Smith, Kehlani and St. Vincent. Watch and listen to everything, below.

"Enough" by Kelela

Kelela's debut album has arrived, and exceeds the hype she's rightfully garnered across years of releasing flawless independent music. Take Me Apartintroduces slippery, glitchy R&B for the future, bridging Kelela's '90s melodies and vocal delivery with more progressive metallic electronic. She collaborated closely with queer Venezuelan producer Arca, creating ambitious songs where her voice becomes one with the instrumental--on "Enough," Kelela asks the painfully honest question, "Will your love ruin my heart?" enveloped in swirling, syrupy synths. - JM

"Andy Warhol Is Dead" by Sharon Needles

"Fame is free, it even happened to me," warns RuPaul's Drag Racewinner Sharon Needles on her new song, "Andy Warhol is Dead." The dark, grizzly track appears on Needles' third studio album, Battle Axe, which arrives just in time for Halloween month--she's anything, if consistent. The 11-track project features song titles like "666" and "Electric Chair," delivering a sound that's signature Needles: campy, creepy and, at times, completely shameless. Who else could make a song called "Dirty Diaper" somehow sound sexy? - JM

"Pray" by Sam Smith

We don't need to name 13 reasons why Sam Smith's return to music is a good thing. We just need to hit play on "Pray," the low-tempo ballad that follows last month's "Too Good at Goodbyes," which was also admittedly a low-tempo ballad, as well. Hey, if it's not broken, don't fix it, right? Like his previous single, "Pray" keeps the gospel choir as he sings about praying for a glimmer of hope, which is something we can all relate to lately. - CT

"JE$U$ CRI$I$" by Marilyn Manson

A week after Marilyn Manson's giant gun-shaped set piece toppled onto him during a New York concert, the 48-year-old rock icon has released Heaven Upside Down, his 10th studio album to date. Opting for a more raucous sound than his last LP, The Pale Emperor, Manson dives head first into buzzsaw guitars and searing, industrial synths. On album highlight "JE$U$ CRI$I$," Manson sums up his career-long MO: "If you wanna fight, then I'll fight you/ If you wanna fuck, I will fuck you/ Make up your mind or I'll make it up for you." - JM

"Mad Woman" by Sevdaliza

If you're somehow still sleeping on the Iranian-Dutch songstress known as Sevdaliza, please use this time to wake yourself up. The singer just released the full version of "Mad Woman" from a short film she created last year called The Formula. While you're at it, watch her dance around with a French gay porn star in her haunting video for "Bluecid" and start a fanclub for this underrated gem of an artist. - CT

"Venom" by Bebe Huxley

Bebe Huxley is one of the most important LGBTQ artists to watch, right now. Following her standout singles "Just Pretend I'm a Man" and "Darkside," the LA-based talent has shared yet another, called "Venom," that subverts rules of femininity. The track's music video, which features Saturn Rising, is a trippy, queer declaration of Huxley's sexual, "genderfuck" identity. At one point, she plays an old man getting off to a cam girl, who she also plays. "I embody the male gaze and my own complicity with it," she told Paper. - JM

"Los Ageless" by St. Vincent

There's no city more perfect for satire than Los Angeles--especially when it's Annie Clark taking aim at the city's bone-shaking fear of aging. In her technicolor, twisted video for the latest track off her upcoming album MASSEDUCTION, she faces-off with plastic surgeons and salons as she laments the winter that never comes and the mothers who milk their young. - CT

"Honey" by Kehlani

"I like my girls like I like my honey: sweet," may be the most alluring intro to a song we've heard in a long, long time. Kehlani released a stripped down, acoustic ode to all the pretty girls in the world she's loved and longed for over the years. It's her first release since dropping SweetSexySavage and it does away with all of the heavily produced pop conventions we're used to in favor of letting her show off a voice that's as sweet as the honey she sings about. - CT

"Mistakes" by Tove Styrke

Imagine if, instead of running from the alter and into the arms of Prison Break's Wentworth Miller, Mariah Carey had run across vast expanses of land and wound up at a rave populated entirely by other brides. That's the premise behind Tove Styrke's latest single (and one of my favorite summer bops) "Mistakes." While she airily sings about highs and lows, the singer runs through fields, forests, and across bridges until she finally ends up at a rave fit for a Say Yes to the Dress rager. - CT

"Mindfvck" by Ghita

Breakout singer Ghita is bringing her Moroccan roots to pop music with "Mindfvck," an irresistible new anthem about "waking up in the morning and feeling completely different about a person," she says. The 22-year-old's track was produced by Taylor Bird and co-written by queer hitmaker Jesse St John (Britney Spears, Charli XCX, Brooke Candy). "You know I'm such a mind fuck," Ghita declares above a bouncy blend of synths and staccato strings. "But I can't get my mind off you." - JM

"Fuzzy" by Poppy

"I need somebody to love me/ Make me feel warm and fuzzy," announces Poppy on "Fuzzy" off her delightful debut full-length album, Poppy.Computer. The Mad Decent signee's electro-pop breakout puts a mirror to our Internet culture with song titles like "Computer Boy," "Interweb" and "Software Upgrade." Much like technology, Poppy's entire identity is manufactured, leaving little humanity in her superficial, synth-driven project. It strategically lacks soul, and opens with the most straightforward chant-heavy song, "I'm Poppy." - JM

Listen to OUT's full 10/6 playlist, below.