{"id":11153,"date":"2026-03-08T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=11153"},"modified":"2026-03-09T15:52:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T19:52:25","slug":"music-update-february-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/08\/music-update-february-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Music update, February 2026."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>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 <em>HELP(2). <\/em>As always, if you can\u2019t see the widget below, you can access the playlist on <a href=\"https:\/\/music.apple.com\/us\/playlist\/klaws-february-2026-music-update\/pl.u-WabZpgjIl99gP\">Apple Music<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/playlist\/3QPZPaynzkXRBPburLpb6T?si=a76459872a52466c\">Spotify<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe allow=\"autoplay *; encrypted-media *; fullscreen *; clipboard-write\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"450\" style=\"width:100%;max-width:660px;overflow:hidden;border-radius:10px;\" sandbox=\"allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.music.apple.com\/us\/playlist\/klaws-february-2026-music-update\/pl.u-WabZpgjIl99gP\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Temples \u2013 Jet Stream Heart.<\/strong> This British psychedelic-rock band is good for at least one absolute banger per album, sometimes more, with this track following \u201cCicada,\u201d \u201cHoly Horses,\u201d and \u201cShelter Song,\u201d among others. The guitar riff that drives this sucker is the earworm of the year so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Savages \u2013 Prayer.<\/strong> Savages\u2019 second album <em>Adore Life<\/em> turns 10 this year, and it\u2019ll serve as their final music, aside from this one-off track and a bizarre piano-ballad cover of Black Sabbath\u2019s \u201cParanoid.\u201d It\u2019s a damn shame, as their first album <em>Silence Yourself<\/em> was an outstanding work of feminist post-punk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Arlo Parks \u2013 Heaven.<\/strong> Another lovely vocal track from the Mercury Prize-winning British singer\/songwriter, although I\u2019m still not as big a fan of her electronic-backed songs as her folkier early work. Her third album, <em>Ambiguous Desire<\/em>, comes out on April 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>flowerovlove \u2013 Casual Lady.<\/strong> 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\u2019t been produced within an inch of its life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jorja Smith \u2013 Don\u2019t Leave. <\/strong>Smith\u2019s best track since her last album, 2023\u2019s <em>Falling or Flying<\/em>, is a jazzy R&amp;B\/grime track that is, as usual, powered by her indelible voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Brigitte Calls Me Baby \u2013 I Danced with Another Love in My Dream. <\/strong>They sound so British, but this new wave-revivalist quartet is from Chicago, and I think they\u2019re about to get huge, with the first two singles from their sophomore album <em>Irreversible<\/em> (due out on the 13<sup>th<\/sup>) both among the best tracks of this year \u2013 and last year, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Trashcan Sinatras \u2013 Bitter End. <\/strong>I assumed this Scottish band was done, as they hadn\u2019t released any music since an EP in 2022 and hadn\u2019t put out a full album since 2016, so this song, very reminiscent of their third album <em>A Happy Pocket<\/em>, was a pleasant surprise. There\u2019s apparently a new album in the offing but I can\u2019t find any details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Crystal Tides \u2013 Better Weather.<\/strong> Crystal Tides are unsigned and released their album <em>Toothpaste<\/em> independently, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cqxd847z885o\">cracking the British top 40 albums chart last month<\/a> without the typical support you get from a record label. It\u2019s power-pop in the vein of the Lottery Winners, and this is the album\u2019s best track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Reds, Pinks and Purples \u2013 Heaven of Love.<\/strong> I wasn\u2019t familiar with this band, led by Glenn Donaldson, which will release its latest album <em>Acknowledge Kindness<\/em> on April 24<sup>th<\/sup>. This song sounds like the Cure decided to experiment with shoegaze\u2019s atmospheric sounds, but not the heavy distortion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Swim Deep \u2013 Pieces of You.<\/strong> Speaking of shoegaze, this British band will drop its fifth album, <em>Hum<\/em>, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Puscifer \u2013 Pendulum. <\/strong>I always forget this is Maynard James Keenan\u2019s side project because it\u2019s so unlike anything from Tool or A Perfect Circle \u2013 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\u2019s baritone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>King Tuff \u2013 Twisted on a Train.<\/strong> I\u2019ve heard plenty of King Tuff\u2019s music before but I believe this is his first appearance on one of my playlists. I just like the guitar riff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Bedelia \u2013 Valley Sadness. <\/strong>This is the first single from Bedelia, a trio of members of Fleshwater, Ethel Cain, and other bands you\u2019ve never heard of. It\u2019s dream-pop, with spacey (fine, ethereal) vocals and a sweet melody through the chorus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Lucia &amp; the Best Boys feat. Lauren Mayberry \u2013 Lonely Girl. <\/strong>Including CHVRCHES singer Mayberry on your track isn\u2019t a guarantee to get it on my playlist \u2026 but the song is actually pretty good even before her guest verse. There\u2019s a little Wolf Alice here, and Lucia Fairfull\u2019s vocals in the chorus remind me of Jehnny Beth from Savages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Charli xcx feat. Sky Ferreira \u2013 Eyes of the World. <\/strong>I don\u2019t know if Ferreira\u2019s second album, <em>Masochism<\/em>, will ever see the light of day, but getting her on a Charli xcx track \u2013 especially one this searing \u2013 has to help at least generate some buzz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Greg Foat, Jihad Darwish, Moses Boyd \u2013 Skipping Tones.<\/strong> This showed up on my Release Radar because of Boyd, a jazz drummer whose work I\u2019ve appreciated for a decade; his \u201cShades of You\u201d was <a href=\"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/24\/top-100-songs-of-2020\/\">my #1 song of 2020<\/a>. He\u2019s 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 <em>Opening Time<\/em> came out last August, but I only caught it because of the new version, <em>Opening Time (Library Edits)<\/em>, that dropped last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1000 Rabbits \u2013 Virgin Soil.<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hen Ogledd \u2013 End of the rhythm.<\/strong> This Welsh experimental folk-rock quartet, which includes the solo artist Richard Dawson (not the <em>Family Feud<\/em> host, he\u2019s dead), just released its <s>first<\/s> third album <em>Discombobulated<\/em>, which includes this clever offbeat track \u2026 and a nearly 20-minute song called \u201cClear pools.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Angine de Poitrine \u2013 Fabienk.<\/strong> A reader asked last month if I\u2019d heard this Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois 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 G\u00fcn, even a little King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. They\u2019re called math rock and they\u2019re using microtonal guitars, but it\u2019s also just catchy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ezra Collective feat. Greentea Peng \u2013 Helicopters. <\/strong><em>HELP(2)<\/em>, the latest record to support the efforts of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.warchild.net\/\">War Child International<\/a>, 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\u2019ve heard so far, although it\u2019s mid as Ezra Collective tracks go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>plantoid \u2013 Parasite.<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mateus Asato \u2013 Cryin\u2019.<\/strong> Some fun instrumental guitar work from this Brazilian guitarist who Wikipedia tells me rose to fame through posting videos of his playing on Instagram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Blackwater Holylight \u2013 How Will You Feel. <\/strong>I\u2019m new to this doomgaze (is that a thing?) trio, but I\u2019m into it \u2013 it\u2019s dark and atmospheric, but rather than veering towards death metal with extreme vocals, they offer melody and the added instrumentation of Sunny Faris\u2019 voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Green Carnation \u2013 Sanguis (Blood Ties). <\/strong>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>At the Gates \u2013 The Fever Mask.<\/strong> At the Gates are pioneers of the melodic death metal sound, with their 1995 pre-breakup album <em>Slaughter of the Soul<\/em> 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, <em>The Ghost of a Future Dead<\/em>, comes out on April 26. I\u2019ll also mention Worm\u2019s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/music.apple.com\/us\/album\/necropalace\/1849662961\">Necropalace<\/a><\/em> 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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\u2019t see the widget below, you can access the playlist on Apple Music or Spotify. Temples \u2013 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1495,1235,167,1127,979,757,852],"class_list":["post-11153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2026-in-music","tag-experimental-music","tag-indie","tag-jazz","tag-melodic-death-metal","tag-metal","tag-music","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11153"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11156,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11153\/revisions\/11156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}