{"id":11215,"date":"2026-06-03T16:29:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T20:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=11215"},"modified":"2026-06-03T16:31:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T20:31:52","slug":"music-update-may-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/03\/music-update-may-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Music update, May 2026."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thirty-six tracks might be a record for one of my monthly playlists. May was loaded beyond the normal boost from having five Fridays, and I think it\u2019s going to be a tremendous summer for new music given how many albums were teased with strong singles this past month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a side note: NPR appears to have put an AI-generated track by a fake band on its latest New Music Friday playlist. I can\u2019t promise I\u2019ll never be fooled, but I do not intend to ever put an AI-generated song on any of my playlists on purpose, and if I do so, I\u2019ll own up to it. They\u2019re spreading like ice-nine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As always, if you can\u2019t see the playlist below, you can access it on <a href=\"https:\/\/music.apple.com\/us\/playlist\/klaws-may-2026-music-update\/pl.u-8aAVj4VtL66VY\">Apple Music<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/playlist\/2yJUUtIfUMtcIuhLu8F6LB?si=6c5aa72777bf4e36\">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-may-2026-music-update\/pl.u-8aAVj4VtL66VY\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>KNEECAP \u2013 Carnival. <\/strong>I loved the movie <em>Kneecap<\/em>, but I thought the group\u2019s music was a little more of a novelty \u2013 they were certainly serious about their politics, but the music itself wasn\u2019t that sophisticated. Their latest album <em>Fenian<\/em> turns that entirely on its head; as it\u2019s smart, experimental in places, and surprisingly polished, without losing the urgency and power of Mo Chara and M\u00f3gla\u00ed Bap\u2019s lyrics. It\u2019s one of the best albums of the year, buoyed by a cavalcade of guest appearances, with some incredible hooks as on this song as well as the title track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The Waterboys \u2013 Don\u2019t Even Have to Say His Name.<\/strong> A one-off track by Mike Scott \u2013 the singer, not the 1986 Cy Young Award winner \u2013 that\u2019s about you-know-who without ever having \u201cto say the motherfucker\u2019s name.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Blondshell \u2013 Heart Has to Work So Hard. <\/strong>Blondshell just put out her second album last year, but she\u2019s back with this new, way more uptempo rock track that\u2019s one of her best songs yet. There\u2019s a new album and a big tour coming, but there are no details on the LP yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>DMA\u2019s \u2013 Heatin Park.<\/strong> This Australian trio started out as a very Oasis-like rock band, with \u201cFor Now\u201d and \u201cToo Soon\u201d among their best early songs, then tried an electronic sound for a few years, but now they\u2019re back with what appears to be a return to their roots. Their new album, just called <em>DMA\u2019s<\/em>, comes out August 7<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Mystery Jets \u2013 Black Sage. <\/strong>This is Mystery Jets\u2019 first new track in over six years, with their last album releasing in April of 2020, so just in time to sink into the abyss of the pandemic. The British indie-rock band will release their seventh album, A Hole To See The Sky Through, in August; I don\u2019t think I\u2019d ever heard anything from them before, but I love the Amazons-style guitar riffs here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Ceremony \u2013 Other Hells.<\/strong> Ceremony\u2019s last album was my #1 LP of 2019, their post-punk\/new wave <em>In the Spirit World Now<\/em>, with the opening 1-2 punch of the title track and \u201cTurn Away the Bad Thing.\u201d They\u2019d released all of two songs since then before this single dropped in late April, and this one harkens way back to their early hardcore punk sound. No word yet of a new album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Yard Act \u2013 Redeemer.<\/strong> My favorite group of Gang of Four fans return with a darker track that still features singer James Smith\u2019s wry, sesquipedalian lyrics, ahead of their third album, <em>You\u2019re Gonna Need a Little Music<\/em>, due out on July 17<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Y \u2013 Duplicate. <\/strong>Y is a fairly new band that crosses many genres and talks about it a lot in interviews, but it ain\u2019t bragging if you can bring it. Their music is interesting, and unusual, and seems to combine elements of several musical styles while also pushing the boundaries of what you hear in a typical radio-length rock song. This is the first track off their second EP, <em>ENTER<\/em>, released in early May. T was unavailable for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>1000 Rabbits \u2013 White Horse.<\/strong> There\u2019s some wildly inventive music coming out of the UK right now, with My New Band Believe, KNEECAP, Dry Cleaning, Yard Act, Plantoid, JJerome87, and 1000 Rabbits, just to name a few artists, all putting out new music so far in 2026. 1000 Rabbits is a five-piece experimental rock band from Suffolk who\u2019ve put out three singles so far, all rather out there in arrangement and song structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Genesis Owusu \u2013 Life Keeps Going.<\/strong> I liked Owusu\u2019s last album more than his newest, <em>Redstar Wu &amp; the Worldwide Scourge<\/em>; this record seems more electronic, more dance-oriented, although the lyrics are more political and more (appropriately) angry than his previous work. This is the best song I\u2019ve heard from the album, with the best hook, even though it\u2019s one of the most dance-oriented tracks on the record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Chanpan \u2013 confessions part ii.<\/strong> Chanpan are a trio of Asian-American musicians who try to blend drum &amp; bass, jazz, and indie-pop with occasional dashes of other genres. The driving bass line is the big hook here on their second single of 2026, with one EP, <em>Endlessly<\/em>, to their credit before this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Weird Nightmare \u2013 If You Should Turn Away. <\/strong>Weird Nightmare is the side project of Alex Edkins of METZ, and just dropped its second album, <em>Hoopla<\/em>, at the start of May. This song is almost a 180 from METZ\u2019 music; it\u2019s mellow, jangly, and subtly catchy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>youbet \u2013 Ground Kiss.<\/strong> Shoegazey bedroom-pop from Nick Llobet and new bassist\/vocalist Micah Prussack; Pitchfork referred to part of their sound as \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/pitchfork.com\/reviews\/albums\/youbet-youbet\/\">country-grunge<\/a>\u201d and I had a similar thought on this specific track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>feeble little horse \u2013 Dior.<\/strong> &nbsp;FLH released their third album, <em>bitknot<\/em>, on May 26<sup>th<\/sup>, with this extremely Smashing Pumpkins-esque track as the lone single that I could find. It\u2019s more straightforward than thir last album, 2023\u2019s <em>Girl with Fish<\/em>, at least.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Swim Deep \u2013 Mud.<\/strong> The second single from this shoegaze\/dream pop band from Birmingham is one of their strongest yet. Their fifth album, <em>Hum<\/em>, comes out in June, almost exactly two years after <em>There\u2019s a Big Star Outside. <\/em>If you\u2019re going to go for a slower tempo like this, vast guitar sounds like Swim Deep has on \u201cMud\u201d help give the song some textural contrast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>TV Star \u2013 The Package.<\/strong> Speaking of \u201ccountry-grunge,\u201d that may apply to this TV Star track even more than it does to youbet\u2019s. It\u2019s got the acoustic guitars of the former, the lo-fi distortion of the latter, and vocals that sound like early Miki Berenyi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Failure \u2013 Crash Test Delayed. <\/strong>With <em>Location Lost<\/em>, Failure has now released more albums since they reunited (four) than they did before they broke up in 1997 (three). This track reminds me quite a bit of Pinback, which is funny because 1) Pinback debuted after Failure\u2019s first hiatus began and 2) I only really like one Pinback song, \u201cFrom Nothing to Nowhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Lip Critic \u2013 Shoplifting.<\/strong> There\u2019s definitely a media\/label push behind this dance-punk band\u2019s second album, <em>Theft World<\/em>, as their tracks have shown up on all sorts of playlists, both curated and algorithmic, over the last month or so. <a href=\"https:\/\/stereogum.com\/2488702\/lip-critic-announce-new-album-theft-world-hear-legs-in-a-snare\/music\">The story behind the new album<\/a> may be better than the album itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The High Curbs \u2013 RACER #23.<\/strong> Fun California surf-punk with a great melody and perfect run time. Also, check out the band name\u2019s acronym.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>False Advertising \u2013 Next Big Thing.<\/strong> I wasn\u2019t familiar with this British duo, which features the niece of the original lead singer of Madchester band Inspiral Carpets, before this song, which comes off <em>The Sorry Window<\/em>, their first album since 2019. It\u2019s close to a punk, with the slightly sung-talked cadence of many post-punk bands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MUNA \u2013 Eastside Girls.<\/strong> MUNA\u2019s latest album <em>Dancing on the Wall<\/em> is more MUNA-y, but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s necessarily better, and I much preferred Katie Gavin\u2019s solo album to this. \u201cEastside Girls\u201d is the best track here, and also a good example of the direction of this LP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Radhika \u2013 Since Yesterday.<\/strong> I don\u2019t include many covers on these playlists because they\u2019re often boring and\/or cash grabs. This is neither: It\u2019s a cover of a wonderful 1980s new wave track by the one-hit wonders Strawberry Switchblade, sung in a late-60s folk-pop vein by an Indian-Scottish singer from Glasgow. Music is fuckin\u2019 awesome, man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Arab Strap \u2013 You You You.<\/strong> Like a dark synth-pop track sung by Brian Cox. And I\u2019m into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Jorja Smith \u2013 What\u2019s Done is Done.<\/strong> Smith\u2019s vocals win every time, even when the music is just mid as it is on this electronic track. Also, she\u2019s blonde now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Alabaster DePlume \u2013 Bringing up the Nakba.<\/strong> DePlume is a saxophonist &amp; jazz musician who often adds spoken-word lyrics with strong political content to his songs \u2026 or just gives them highly political titles, like this one, which refers to <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nakba\">ethnic cleansing during the 1948 Palestine War<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Knats feat. Geordie Greep \u2013 Carpet Doctor.<\/strong> Knats are a \u201cnu jazz\u201d trio from the UK who sprinkle in various rock subgenres on top of many of their tracks; their latest album, <em>A Great Day in Newcastle<\/em>, was produced by Greep, former lead singer\/guitarist of black midi, who also appears on this track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Ezra Collective feat. Pa Salieu \u2013 Only Love.<\/strong> Salieu is the star of this track \u2013 less than two years after he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/pa-salieu-sentenced-to-33-months-in-prison-for-part-in-mass-brawl-3359757\">was released from prison<\/a> \u2013 with the Mercury Prize-winning Ezra Collective fading a little into the background with music that feels more jazzy than jazz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Tamikrest \u2013 Imanin.<\/strong> Tamikrest is a desert blues (or assouf) band from Mali with a sound very similar to that of the Nigerien musician Mdou Moctar. They hadn\u2019t released anything since 2020 before their sixth album <em>Assikel <\/em>came out last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>They Are Gutting a Body of Water w\/Horse Jumper of Love \u2013 charter spec. <\/strong>TAGABOW just put out an album in October, and now they\u2019re back with this track, which alternates My Bloody Valentine-level shoegaze with what sounds like detuned guitars playing arpeggios without distortion alongside mumbled lyrics. It\u2019s almost metal in its own strange way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Gurriers \u2013 Nobody\u2019s Coming to Save You.<\/strong> Noise-rockers from Dublin who clearly take some inspiration from post-hardcore bands like Thrice, while the chorus here reminds me quite a bit of Irish shoegaze revivalists Just Mustard. This is the title track from the band\u2019s second album, due out September 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Monolord \u2013 Iodine.<\/strong> I\u2019m new to this Gothenburg doom metal band, whose sixth album, <em>Neverending<\/em>, just came out on Friday, but I love what I\u2019ve heard from them so far, including this, \u201cYou Bastard,\u201d \u201cOozing Wound,\u201d and \u201cIt\u2019s Neverending.\u201d It\u2019s heavy, Pallbearer-level stuff with occasional dashes of the melodic death metal that\u2019s a hallmark of Gothenburg bands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats \u2013 I\u2019ll Cut You Down.<\/strong> I thought this was a pretty dumb name for a band, but there\u2019s some history here, as their music is heavily inspired by the proto-metal band Vanilla Fudge, which devolved into Cactus, whose lead singer Rusty Day later had a band called Uncle Acid and the Permanent Damage Band. This Uncle Acid is from Cambridge, England, and their sound is bluesy hard rock mixed with doom metal and, appropriately, a dose of psychedelia, so the result is lighter than that of Monolord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>All Them Witches \u2013 Red Rocking Chair.<\/strong> The opening track from this hard rock\/blues\/stoner band\u2019s latest album <em>House of Mirrors<\/em>, whichcame out on Friday, is a very slow burn, bordering on doom metal in pace and heaviness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>If These Trees Could Talk \u2013 Blurry Creatures.<\/strong> This \u201cpost-metal\u201d band is a metal band. I hope that clears that part up. It\u2019s instrumental, layered, with elements of post-hardcore (a genre name I accept), with more focus on atmosphere than melody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Karmanjakah \u2013 Diamond morning. <\/strong>This Swedish progressive metal band produces highly technical, textured metal tracks that incorporate less traditional elements like synths and choirs, while also working in some of the dropped-tuning riffs common to extreme metal. (I\u2019ve seen their music called \u201cthall,\u201d a subgenre of technical metal.) I\u2019m into the big riffs near the end here and the way the song builds on its earlier textures for a finish that feels conclusive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Cemetery Skyline \u2013 Dream Delusion.<\/strong> A bonus track from the new deluxe edition of this metal supergroup\u2019s lone album to date, <em>Nordic Gothic<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thirty-six tracks might be a record for one of my monthly playlists. May was loaded beyond the normal boost from having five Fridays, and I think it\u2019s going to be a tremendous summer for new music given how many albums were teased with strong singles this past month. As a side note: NPR appears to [&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":[1495,359,1096,609,167,1127,757,852,787],"class_list":["post-11215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2026-in-music","tag-alternative","tag-doom-metal","tag-hip-hop","tag-indie","tag-jazz","tag-metal","tag-music","tag-progressive-metal","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11215","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=11215"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11217,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11215\/revisions\/11217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}