We’re warming up here, I think – the music is getting better, more albums are on the calendar, spring hath sprung, and so forth. My two favorite albums of the year so far came out in April or just before it, and I think May/June will add quite a few more to that list. As always, if you can’t see the widget below you can access the playlist on Apple Music or Spotify.
Angine de Poitrine – Sarniezz. I guess I barely got ahead of the wave of publicity from Angine de Poitrine’s KEXP appearance, but including them here now feels anticlimactic. Vol. II is easily my album of the year so far, not for the outfits or the weird interviews, but because their music manages to be wildly inventive (including the microtonal guitar, which blows my mind as someone who has played a regular guitar for 40+ years and finds it challenging enough) and still melodic and hook-filled and entertaining.
Courtney Barnett – One Thing at a Time. Barnett’s latest album Creature of Habit is a little more rock-oriented than her last proper LP, although I think her lyrics might be a little less clever? The best tracks on the record are “Site Unseen,” her duet with Waxahatchie; “Stay in Your Lane;” and this song.
Temples – Vendetta. I can’t help it. I love Temples’ throwback psychedelic-rock sound, and if they slip one crunchy guitar riff in there I’m putting the song high on the next playlist.
Snail Mail – Tractor Beam. Snail Mail’s latest album Richochet opens with this song, its best track, and a solid introduction to Lindsey Jordan’s newer sound, with better production and much stronger vocal lines.
Jack White – G.O.D. and the Broken Ribs. I like a lot of White’s time-traveling experimentation, but in the end he’s at his best when he drops a bluesy guitar riff and starts telling a story.
Failure feat. Hayley Williams – The Rising Skyline. Failure’s newest album Location Lost came out on April 24th, and yes, that is indeed the Paramore lead singer contributing a verse – and elevating the entire song out of its gloom.
My New Band Believe – In the Blink of an Eye. Former black midi bassist Cameron Picton has released his first album since that band went on hiatus in 2024, with a number of guest musicians supplementing him. It’s not surprising that it’s experimental and ambitious, crossing and blending genres; it’s surprising that it’s extremely catchy and seems to exist simultaneously in 2026 and 1969. So much of this self-titled album reminds me of Love’s Forever Changes, from the acoustic guitar work to the tempo shifts to the musical patterns in his vocals. It’s also much more coherent and less pretentious than former bandmate Geordie Greep’s album. MNBB released another song earlier this year, “Numerology,” that’s quite good but only appears on the deluxe CD version of the album.
JJerome87 – Track and Field. JJerome87 is Joe Newman, primary lead singer and guitarist for alt-J, and is now releasing his first solo album, The Canyon, in June. I’ve heard the whole thing already and it’s better than either of alt-J’s last two records, but not close to the brilliant combination of experimentalism and cohesion of An Awesome Wave. The best news is that he’s turned away from some of the most commercial aspects of Relaxer or The Dream, which convinced me that the worst thing that ever happened to alt-J was when “Left Hand Free” became an accidental hit.
Pond – Two Hands. This Aussie psych-rock band will drop their xth album Terrestrials on June 19th; the title track came out first and is the stronger of the two, a more immediate, catchier song, while this one takes about half its run time to get fully going.
Lime Garden – Cross My Heart. This British indie band released its second album, Maybe Not Tonight, on April 10th; this is the first song of theirs I’ve liked enough to include, with a drum/bass line that’s extremely catchy and danceable.
World News – Sidestep. I loved both of World News’ singles from last year, representing some of the best modern jangle-pop I’ve heard in … ever? This song veers into a different space entirely, with a more atmospheric rock sound that calls back to Oasis and Stone Roses (and, of course, the DMA’s).
La Sécurité – Snack City. The second Quebecois group on this month’s playlist is this art-punk collective from Montréal, about to release their second album Bingo! on June 12th.
The Reds, Pinks and Purples – Houses. I can’t decide if I love the mournful, Cure-like quality of Glenn Donaldson’s voice, or if it’s just too depressing to work at scale. This track comes off their latest album Acknowledge Kindness, as did “Heaven of Love” from my February playlist.
Fotocrime – Plowjob. I struggled a little with this one, because the music is so much like mid-80s Killing Joke, but the vocals don’t measure up to it across the entire album. Fotocrime is an offshoot of Coliseum, another post-hardcore band from Louisville, and their new album has guest appearances from Barney Greenway of Napalm Death, Jay Weinberg of Slipknot, and Brian Cook of Sumac, so they’ve got the right friends. I wish the vocals were stronger.
MORN – The Standard Model. MORN is a post-punk band from Monmouth, Wales, right near the border with England, not exactly a hotbed for new music, and this is just their second single to date. It’s fast and more punk than post-punk, reminiscent of DEADLETTER and a little of Yard Act.
Tooth – Restless in Bloom. Tooth are a very new grunge-adjacent quartet from London who’ve gotten a bit of music press buzz already after just a couple of singles this year. This is their best one to date, again grunge-like but not derivative of the style or any specific band.
Lambrini Girls – Cult of Celebrity. Good, but more of the same from this punk duo, who I think have to step up their lyrics and/or add something musically to get to the next level.
The Tubs – Fade to Black. Yes, it’s a jangle-pop cover of the Metallica song, and it’s weird and ultimately I think it comes off as snarky, but it is certainly interesting.
Downward – Drawl. A recommendation from Riley Breckenridge of Thrice, Downward blends post-hardcore and shoegaze with just enough melodic sense amid the gloom to make it all work. They put out a two-track single in April with this and “Get Some.”
Monolord – You Bastard. Doom metal from Gothenburg, that haven of melodic death metal, with all of the crunch and depth of that genre but clean vocals that make it way more accessible to a broader audience. They put out two tracks in April, with this the better of the two over “Oozing Wound.”
Armored Saint – Hit a Moonshot. The two tracks I’ve heard so far from Armored Saint’s Emotion Factory Reset, due out on the 22nd, are making me question everything I previously thought about this 1980s metal band, who I always thought of as less interesting than their thrashier contemporaries and less catchy than some of the bands who ended up in the hair-metal bucket (like early Mötley Crüe, before they went all glam). This is better than anything from Testament since the 1980s, really.
Venom – Kicked Outta Hell. I’ve always thought of Venom as something of a joke; they were much better known for their inane Satanic lyrics than for musical ability or great riffs, so their fan base had a lot of people attracted to the controversy rather than the tunes. Their album Black Metal gave the genre its name, but black metal, which just refers to metal with Satanic or sometimes occult lyrical themes, is itself dumb. It’s all for attention, and if in 2026 you still think that stuff is either cool or controversial, man, you’re about forty years behind the times. So I was surprised to hear that this new track, from a lineup with just one original member, is actually a decent song, sitting right in the middle of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (into which Venom sometimes gets lumped) and early speed or thrash metal. Go figure.
I haven’t yet fallen in love with the most recent Fotocrime album; it started out as a darkwave-ish project by Ryan Patterson but it’s converged more on the post-hardcore hard rock he’s played for much of the last couple decades, across Coliseum, Black God, and so on.
(His brother is Evan Patterson of Jaye Jayle, Young Widows, and other bands; they played together in Black Cross.)
Fotocrime’s first couple of albums are super fun in that ’80s retro kind of vein; I liked the last album but one, Accelerated, as well. But it’s certainly true that Patterson is no Jaz Coleman. Ah, but who among us.
Thanks for continuing to do these music posts, Keith. I had no idea there was a new Failure album… excited to give it a listen during tomorrow’s workday, but bummed they’re missing Austin on their current tour.
Lambrini Girls stink
uh, okay?