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Music update, March 2026.

March ended with a rush of new releases and I’m still working my way through them, on top of the LPs that have already come out in April – this feels like the first big release period of 2026, with Arlo Parks, Angine de Poitrine, Snail Mail, The Twilight Sad, Brigitte Calls Me Baby, Courtney Barnett, deary, Flea, Butler Blake & Grant, Neurosis, and Avalon Emerson putting out albums in the last month that I need to listen to or that were on my to-do list.

As always, if you can’t see the widget below, the playlist is available on Apple Music and Spotify.

Young Fathers – Don’t Fight the Young. The latest War Child Records album HELP(2) has an incredible roster of names, but most of the songs are clearly throwaways for the artists who wrote and recorded them, a marked step down from their usual material. Young Fathers’ contribution, however, is on par with some of their best work, and more importantly, it sounds exactly like their usual stuff. They actually wrote several songs for the project, and if this is any indication, I hope the others show up on a future album or EP.

Snail Mail – Tractor Beam. Snail Mail is Lindsey Jordan, whose third album Richochet came out at the end of March. This single is more polished and better produced than her earlier stuff, giving her guitar a richer texture, although her vocals are still quite clear.I’ve only listened to about half of the album so far, but it’s my favorite by her to date – the stronger production values help her vocals quite a bit, and I’m getting some Velocity Girl vibes from her melodies now that they’re cleaner and more forward.

Julia Cumming – Please Let Me Remember This. Cumming is the lead singer and bassist for Sunflower Bean; her first solo album Julia is out on the 24th. The first single, “My Life,” was fine, but this one is eight levels higher, especially musically, as there are layers and layers here, not just of different instruments but of varying beats and rhythms that tap into some 1970s pop and even light jazz.

Brigitte Calls Me Baby – I Can Take the Sun Right Out of the Sky. I adored the first two singles from BCMB’s sophomore album Irreversible, while this third one is more solid than plus for me, getting them a little too far into Smiths homage territory. The first half of the album is much stronger than the second, with the first two singles as well as “The Pit” and “Truth is Stranger Than Fiction,” while the back half started to lose some steam and felt slightly more derivative of the ‘80s new wave sounds that inspire so much of their music.

Spencer Thomas – The World is Fucked and I Love You. Thomas is a multi-instrumentalist from Mississippi who seems to be able to write songs in any genre you’d like; here he goes hard into synth-pop, sounding like Heaven 17 with a Morrissey guest vocal (1980s Moz, not the current shithead version). I really love the cover of his new album Cynical Vision.

Pond – Terrestrials. Like most great Pond songs, this one starts out in an inauspicious fashion and then blossoms into a bigger sound when it hits the chorus. It’s not quite “America’s Cup” or “Neon River,” but it’s a strong lead single for this Aussie psychedelic-rock band’s upcoming album, also called Terrestrials, due out June 19th.

The Twilight Sad – Attempt a Crash Landing. I need to get to their latest album, It’s the Long Goodbye, but the tracks I’ve heard so far have been some of my favorites ever by them. I think I’d been too skeptical of them based on the name, but their music over the last decade or so has blended gloom with richly textured guitars and even some hints of industrial music.

SPRINTS – Trickle Down. A solid punk song of protest against late-stage capitalism and the lie of trickle-down economics (which is the disgraced philosophy behind both of Trump’s major tax cuts). Maybe not as immediate as SPRINTS’ best stuff, but still good.

The Afghan Whigs – House of I. Not sure if this is a one-off track or if it heralds another new album, but Greg Dulli – who still sounds fantastic – called it a “banger” and I think he’s right.

Tigers Jaw – Primary Colors. I see Tigers Jaw called emo and punk-pop, but I don’t know that either fits – here they’ve got classic pop melodies over a heavier guitar track that draws on post-hardcore. The contrast is the real hook.

TVAM – Love Like Glue. TVAM’s debut album, Psychic Data, was #2 on my list of the best albums of 2018, but I missed his 2022 album High Art Life completely and would have missed his latest, Ruins, if one of you hadn’t pointed me to it. I still prefer his first LP, which was more melodic and immediate, but Ruins is strong enough and really brings me back to the late goth/new wave sound; this track sounds like it came from somewhere in between Ministry’s shift from “Every Day Is Halloween” to the industrial sound of The Land of Rape and Honey.

Trashcan Sinatras – Bad Husband. This new track from these Scottish folk-rockers features Tracyanne Campbell, lead singer and co-founder of Camera Obscura; it’s the second single so far from their new album Ever the Optimist, due out on July 31st. I’ll forever be grateful to Beavis & Butthead for introducing me to them via their mockery of the video for “Hayfever.”

Courtney Barnett – One Thing at a Time. Barnett’s first album in five years, Creature of Habit, came out on March 26th; the three singles all point to a return to the more uptempo indie rock of her earliest work (her double EP and then her debut album). Her collaboration with Waxahatchee, “Site Unseen,” is the best track on the new album.

Metric – Time is a Bomb. I remember Metric’s first album and how XM’s Alt Nation overplayed the pretentious song “Succexy;” that was 23 years ago, and now their tenth LP, Romanticize the Dive, is coming out on the 24th. I’ve come around on Metric as they’ve also shifted their sound slightly more towards mainstream alternative, although I think Emily Haines is a better singer than lyricist.

Jessie Ware – Automatic. Ware might be my favorite straight-up pop singer right now, as her current style, dating at least back to What’s Your Pleasure?, blends disco, funk, and ‘70s pop, mixed with some great hooks, enough to overcome the occasional lyrical clunker. This is the third single from her album Superbloom, due out on the 17th. It reminds me of a specific track from the 1970s, but I can’t put my finger on it.

Jorja Smith – The Price of It All. This soaring ballad comes from the soundtrack to the limited series Bait, created by and starring Riz Ahmed, so why exactly have I not heard of this before? Someone’s done a piss-poor job of marketing it. Anyway, Smith remains one of my favorite vocalists, and I especially love when her voice isn’t competing with a drum machine that drowns her out.

Arlo Parks – Get Go. A small departure for Parks, with a twee-pop backing track and notably upbeat melodies in the vocals. Her third album Ambiguous Desire came out on the 3rd.

Maria BC – Channels. This track is barely over a minute but gives me a chance to recommend their new album Marathon, which is definitely more of a single document than a set of tracks, with their voice still reminding me a ton of Alejandra Deheza of School of Seven Bells.

Miki Berenyi Trio – Island of One. Berenyi was the lead singer/guitarist for the shoegaze legends Lush, who took a sharp turn into alt-pop with their final album Lovelife and called it a day. Her latest band includes her partner Kevin McKillop, with their debut album dropping last year; it was more shoegaze-light, with her voice still a highlight. This is apparently a standalone single ahead of a new tour.

Pye Corner Audio feat. Andy Bell – Cycle. This popped up on my Release Radar because of the presence of Bell, founding guitarist of Ride and current bassist for Oasis. This track, from PCA’s upcoming album More Songs About the Sun, is shoegazey electronica; Bell contributes guitar and vocals, and he’s apparently on three other songs on the record as well.

Soft Cell feat. Nona Hendryx – Out Come the Freaks. Soft Cell was Marc Almond and David Ball, best known for their cover of “Tainted Love,” and they had reunited after a twenty-year hiatus in 2022, recording three albums before Ball’s death last year. That third record, Danceteria, comes out at some point this year, with a tour to follow, but it’ll be the last new music under the Soft Cell name according to Almond. Oh, as for Nona Hendryx, you know her, too: She was one-third of Labelle, best known for “Lady Marmalade.”

Les Big Byrd – Hökvind. I wasn’t familiar with this Swedish psychedelic rock band before stumbling on this homage to space-rock pioneers Hawkwind. It’s bottom-heavy and intricate with a real groove to it.

The Black Crowes – Profane Prophecy. Definitely the Crowes’ first appearance on one of my playlists. I’m one of the basic Black Crowes fans: I had the first album before they got famous, loved the bluesier stuff and hated “She Talks to Angels,” played the shit out of “Remedy” when that came out, and pretty much gave up on them around the release of Amorica (with the manufactured controversy over its album cover convincing me they were a joke). I happened to see a positive review of A Pound of Feathers, their newest album, and thought, “how bad could it be?” It’s fine, not as good as their first two albums, but it’s got a few memorable numbers, led by this uptempo song.

Jehnny Beth feat. Mike Patton – Look at Me. The great Jehnny Beth of Savages and Anatomy of a Fall pairs up here with the Faith No More/Mr. Bungle lead singer Mike Patton on a weird, experimental noise-rock track with an interesting video that seems to show Beth cracking up.

Armored Saint – Close to the Bone. Armored Saint is still around! I had no idea. Granted, I was never as big a fan of their heyday, as the tracks I heard were not their best (like “Chemical Euphoria,” played to death on Headbanger’s Ball). They’re still going, singer John Bush still sounds good, and their ninth album, Emotion Factory Reset, drops on May 22nd.

The HU – The Men. This Mongolian folk-metal band has released two new tracks this year, and they’re openers on two different tours in the U.S. later in 2026 (one of which includes Marilyn Manson, unfortunately) so I assume an album is coming. Their cover of Iron Maiden’s “The Trooper”, translated into their native language, from a year or so ago is pretty badass, too.

Sepultura – The Place. Sepultura are calling it a career, releasing a four-song EP called The Cloud of Unknowing later this month that includes this crunchy, almost groove-metal track along with the mellower “Beyond the Dream.” Bassist Paulo Jr. is the only remaining original member, and I don’t think they’ve really been the same band – not worse, just different – since singer/guitarist Max Cavalera left in 1997.

Cruel Force – Whips-a-Swinging. ThisGerman band started out as yet another blackened speed metal band, but morphed into a more old-school speed metal/early thrash sound in the late 2010s. They’re back with a new album, Haneda, that sounds very 1982ish, like a band that might have inspired Kreator rather than one that was inspired by them.

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→ March 8, 2026
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Music update, February 2026.

Whew, February turned out to be a loaded month, especially with experimental or art-rock bands, along with a decent supply of new metal and more singles from the newest War Child charity album HELP(2). As always, if you can’t see the widget below, you can access the playlist on Apple Music or Spotify.

Temples – Jet Stream Heart. This British psychedelic-rock band is good for at least one absolute banger per album, sometimes more, with this track following “Cicada,” “Holy Horses,” and “Shelter Song,” among others. The guitar riff that drives this sucker is the earworm of the year so far.

Savages – Prayer. Savages’ second album Adore Life turns 10 this year, and it’ll serve as their final music, aside from this one-off track and a bizarre piano-ballad cover of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid.” It’s a damn shame, as their first album Silence Yourself was an outstanding work of feminist post-punk.

Arlo Parks – Heaven. Another lovely vocal track from the Mercury Prize-winning British singer/songwriter, although I’m still not as big a fan of her electronic-backed songs as her folkier early work. Her third album, Ambiguous Desire, comes out on April 3.

flowerovlove – Casual Lady. An absolute gem of a pop track; recommend this to people in your life who unfortunately love the washed-out pop of Sabrina Carpenter. The hooks are better, the lyrics are wittier, and it hasn’t been produced within an inch of its life.

Jorja Smith – Don’t Leave. Smith’s best track since her last album, 2023’s Falling or Flying, is a jazzy R&B/grime track that is, as usual, powered by her indelible voice.

Brigitte Calls Me Baby – I Danced with Another Love in My Dream. They sound so British, but this new wave-revivalist quartet is from Chicago, and I think they’re about to get huge, with the first two singles from their sophomore album Irreversible (due out on the 13th) both among the best tracks of this year – and last year, too.

Trashcan Sinatras – Bitter End. I assumed this Scottish band was done, as they hadn’t released any music since an EP in 2022 and hadn’t put out a full album since 2016, so this song, very reminiscent of their third album A Happy Pocket, was a pleasant surprise. There’s apparently a new album in the offing but I can’t find any details.

Crystal Tides – Better Weather. Crystal Tides are unsigned and released their album Toothpaste independently, cracking the British top 40 albums chart last month without the typical support you get from a record label. It’s power-pop in the vein of the Lottery Winners, and this is the album’s best track.

The Reds, Pinks and Purples – Heaven of Love. I wasn’t familiar with this band, led by Glenn Donaldson, which will release its latest album Acknowledge Kindness on April 24th. This song sounds like the Cure decided to experiment with shoegaze’s atmospheric sounds, but not the heavy distortion.

Swim Deep – Pieces of You. Speaking of shoegaze, this British band will drop its fifth album, Hum, in June, with this lead single sneaking in some jangle-pop melodies and a generally more upbeat vibe than you typically get from the shoegaze genre.

Puscifer – Pendulum. I always forget this is Maynard James Keenan’s side project because it’s so unlike anything from Tool or A Perfect Circle – and I was never a huge fan of either band. This is weird, but in a very good way, a minimalist art-rock track that showcases Keenan’s baritone.

King Tuff – Twisted on a Train. I’ve heard plenty of King Tuff’s music before but I believe this is his first appearance on one of my playlists. I just like the guitar riff.

Bedelia – Valley Sadness. This is the first single from Bedelia, a trio of members of Fleshwater, Ethel Cain, and other bands you’ve never heard of. It’s dream-pop, with spacey (fine, ethereal) vocals and a sweet melody through the chorus.

Lucia & the Best Boys feat. Lauren Mayberry – Lonely Girl. Including CHVRCHES singer Mayberry on your track isn’t a guarantee to get it on my playlist … but the song is actually pretty good even before her guest verse. There’s a little Wolf Alice here, and Lucia Fairfull’s vocals in the chorus remind me of Jehnny Beth from Savages.

Charli xcx feat. Sky Ferreira – Eyes of the World. I don’t know if Ferreira’s second album, Masochism, will ever see the light of day, but getting her on a Charli xcx track – especially one this searing – has to help at least generate some buzz.

Greg Foat, Jihad Darwish, Moses Boyd – Skipping Tones. This showed up on my Release Radar because of Boyd, a jazz drummer whose work I’ve appreciated for a decade; his “Shades of You” was my #1 song of 2020. He’s part of this new project with Foat, a jazz pianist and composer, and Darwish, a multi-instrumentalist whose talents include playing the double bass, sitar, and guitar. Their album Opening Time came out last August, but I only caught it because of the new version, Opening Time (Library Edits), that dropped last month.

1000 Rabbits – Virgin Soil. This British quintet, formerly known as Rabbitfoot (although Virgin Soil would be a better name than either of these), adds a violinist to the usual guitar-bass-keys-drums combo. Their first single starts with a quirky art-rock vibe before a sudden crescendo to a big post-punk finish.

Hen Ogledd – End of the rhythm. This Welsh experimental folk-rock quartet, which includes the solo artist Richard Dawson (not the Family Feud host, he’s dead), just released its first third album Discombobulated, which includes this clever offbeat track … and a nearly 20-minute song called “Clear pools.”

Angine de Poitrine – Fabienk. A reader asked last month if I’d heard this Québécois duo, who perform their experimental rock/jazz hybrid in disguises and under pseudonyms; the next day, they appeared on my Release Radar, because the algorithm is listening. I hear Battles, Altin Gün, even a little King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. They’re called math rock and they’re using microtonal guitars, but it’s also just catchy.

Ezra Collective feat. Greentea Peng – Helicopters. HELP(2), the latest record to support the efforts of War Child International, features 23 songs from a broad array of artists, including Arctic Monkeys, Fontaines DC, Olivia Rodrigo, Depeche Mode, and Arlo Parks. This song is one of the better ones I’ve heard so far, although it’s mid as Ezra Collective tracks go.

plantoid – Parasite. More experimental jazz-rock, which seems to be the flavor of the month for February, here with a more pronounced rock guitar in front. This song actually has words, though.

Mateus Asato – Cryin’. Some fun instrumental guitar work from this Brazilian guitarist who Wikipedia tells me rose to fame through posting videos of his playing on Instagram.

Blackwater Holylight – How Will You Feel. I’m new to this doomgaze (is that a thing?) trio, but I’m into it – it’s dark and atmospheric, but rather than veering towards death metal with extreme vocals, they offer melody and the added instrumentation of Sunny Faris’ voice.

Green Carnation – Sanguis (Blood Ties). Prog metal from Norway with a dash of growled vocals in the last third of the track, which also has a Hammond organ and a very Creeper-esque melody and vibe throughout.

At the Gates – The Fever Mask. At the Gates are pioneers of the melodic death metal sound, with their 1995 pre-breakup album Slaughter of the Soul one of the pillars of the subgenre. I liked their earlier stuff more than their music since their return; singer Tomas Lindberg, who died in September of 2025 of cancer, always had a higher-pitched death growl style, but it became screechier as he got older (and maybe because of his illness). Their final album with Lindberg, The Ghost of a Future Dead, comes out on April 26. I’ll also mention Worm’s Necropalace as an incredible album of music that unfortunately gets too extreme for me in its vocals. Former Megadeth/Cacophony guitarist Marty Friedman guests on the album closer.

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→ February 8, 2026
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Music update, January 2026.

This playlist includes a handful of tracks from December 2025 that I heard after I compiled my top 100 tracks of the year or that didn’t make the cut, plus songs from this January, through songs released on the final Friday (the 30th), but not anything released this month. As always, if you can’t see the playlist below you can access it on Apple Music or Spotify.

Courtney Barnett feat. Waxahatchee – Site Unseen. This second single off Barnett’s upcoming album Creature of Habit features Katie Crutchfield, so it couldn’t be more in my personal wheelhouse.

Brigitte Calls Me Baby – Slumber Party. BCMB’s sophomore album, Irreversible, is due out on March 13th; they do one of the best new wave-revival sounds out there, honoring the genre without sounding overly derivative of it. It’s catnip for me.

Arlo Parks – 2SIDED. Parks will release her third album, Ambiguous Desire, on April 3rd; she has yet to miss for me, with this song leaning more into a dance sound beneath her unmistakable voice.

Daughter – Not Enough. This Irish trio’s album Not to Disappear turns ten this year, so they re-recorded one of the tracks that didn’t make the cut, “Not Enough,” which showcases Elena Tonra’s haunting voice over a typically sparse backing track that hints at electronica, folk, and shoegaze.

Makthaverskan – Pity Party. I’d never heard of this rock band from Gothenberg (a town best known for producing melodic death metal), but I love this song, which has some dreamgaze and post-punk elements, and is the lead single from their upcoming album Glass and Bones, which will be their first new album in five years.

Ratboys – What’s Right. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of Ratboys, in part because of Julia Steiner’s warbly, sometimes off-key vocals, but their best stuff can be pretty catchy folk-tinged alt-rock. Their latest album Singin’ to an Empty Chair came out on Friday.

DEADLETTER – It Comes Creeping. I loved DEADLETTER’s very Madness-like 2024 track “Mere Mortal;” and this song is in a very similar vein. Their second album Existence is Bliss comes out on February 27th.

Flea – A Plea. Flea, best known as the bassist who replaced Derf Scratch in Fear, is about to release his first solo album, Honora, in March; it’s a jazz album, featuring six original tracks and four covers, and the two singles to date – this one and “Traffic Lights” – are both fantastic, featuring Flea on bass and trumpet, with Thom Yorke providing vocals on the latter song.

Whitelands – Blankspace. Whitelands is a shoegaze band from London – aren’t they all – who just released their fifth album, but second on a proper label, at the end of January. Sunlight Echoes also includes an appearance from Lush’s Emma Anderson on “Sparklebaby.”

Tigers Jaw – Head is Like a Sinking Stone. Another new-to-me artist, Tigers Jaw hails from Scranton and they’re also about to put out their first album in five years, Lost on You.

The Cribs – Never the Same. I think the main thing I knew about the Cribs was that they’re one of the eighty-nine bands Johnny Marr has joined since the end of the Smiths. They’ve been around for over 20 years now, with their ninth album Selling a Vibe coming out last month; this is the best track I’ve heard, while the album as a whole gets a little one-note.

The Twilight Sad – Designed to Lose. It’s the Long Goodbye, The Twilight Sad’s first album since three members left the band, leaving only founding members James Graham and Andy MacFarlane, will be out on March 27th, a big day for new albums, as it turns out. This song is pretty vintage Twilight Sad, dark and a little gothic-new wave but also still informed by pop.

Butler, Blake & Grant – Lonely Night. That would be Bernard Butler (Suede), Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub), and James Grant (Love and Money). They released a self-titled album last March, while this is a folk-rock reworking of a song Blake wrote for Teenage Fanclub that that band recorded as “Dark & Lonely Night.”

Billy Bragg – City of Heroes. “When they came for the immigrants/I got in their face/When they came for the refugees/I got in their face/When they came for the five-year-olds/I got in their face/When they came to my neighborhood/I just got in their face.”

Arctic Monkeys – Opening Night. A midtier Arctic Monkeys track off the upcoming Help(2) charity album to benefit War Child, featuring other tracks from Olivia Rodrigo, The Last Dinner Party, Damon Albarn, Fontaines DC, and more.

The Format – Boycott Heaven. The Format just released their first new album in 20 years; they were Nate Ruess’ original band, before he and Jack Antonoff formed fun., which released that one album (note: and one before that, which I missed) and then broke up. I’ve always liked Ruess’ voice, even when they got stupid with autotuning it, and this track showcases it well in a great indie-pop vein.

SAULT – Chapter 1. SAULT’s latest album is full of … salt. It’s clearly a response to Little Simz’ Lotus, which was her album about how SAULT leader Inflo borrowed a seven-figure sum from her and didn’t repay it; here Inflo leans further into his religious act, with songs like “God, Protect Me From My Enemies” and “Lord Have Mercy,” along with hackneyed lyrics like “They’re jealous of what’s in your brain” and “Must go higher. I refuse to fight with fire.” But damn, nobody does ‘70s soul/funk revival like SAULT does.

TIGRA & SPNCR – Do It Like This. If you’re old enough to remember the 1980s rap duo L’Trimm, which had a couple of minor hits in “Grab It” and “Cars with the Boom,” Tigra was half of that group (as The Lady Tigra), and she’s back with an EP called Black Rice. Bunny appears on a different track, “Guillotine.”

Home Star – Come To. This track, by Evan Lescallette of the band Marietta, is perfectly fine punk-pop-emo whatever, but I couldn’t ignore an artist named Home Star.

Blackwater Holylight – Bodies. Metal in general is a male-dominated genre, and doom metal even more so, with the occasional female vocalist but very few all-women bands. Blackwater Holylight is three women, from Oregon, who put out three albums from 2018-21 and then took five years off before their fourth album, Not Here Not Gone, came out at the end of January. This track blends heavy, crunchy guitar lines with ghostly vocals to make it all much creepier than just some guy doing the Cookie Monster voice.

Maria BC – Marathon. Maria BC is an experimental singer/guitarist from Oakland whose music starts out as ambient but often goes in unexpected directions; here, their vocals sound like Alejandra Deheza of School of Seven Bells, set over dark guitar sounds like some of Alcest’s best work.

The Hu – The Real You. The Hu are a Mongolian folk-metal band that incorporates native instruments and throat singing into their music; they’ve toured with Iron Maiden and even covered “The Trooper.” Their third album will be out later this year, and yes, it’s pronounced like “the Who.”

Port Noir – Noir. Port Noir is a progressive rock band that has always at least toyed with metal, but their upcoming album The Dark We Keep seems to lean all the way into the heavy stuff – they’ve actually said on their Instagram that it’s the heaviest album they’ve ever made. Also in the metal space, The Ruins of Beverast has some great guitarwork on their newest album, but the death growls here are way too prominent for me; Kreator’s Krushers of the World had some solid stuff but also got a little clownish, as on the title track; and Sylosis’s “Erased” had some strong thrash riffs but got too metalcore for me.

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