{"id":11449,"date":"2026-10-02T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=11449"},"modified":"2026-10-01T23:59:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T03:59:21","slug":"music-update-september-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/02\/music-update-september-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Music update, September 2026."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lot of big albums coming in October, I think, so September turned into a solid month of new music, with many of these songs coming from albums\/artists I haven\u2019t had on playlists this year. This doesn\u2019t even include new albums that came out in the last few weeks from Beck, Blondshell, The Tubs, Gurriers, or Slow Pulp; the first two didn\u2019t do much for me, and I still have to listen to the last three. As always, if you can\u2019t see the widget below, you can access the playlist on <a href=\"https:\/\/music.apple.com\/us\/playlist\/september-2026\/pl.u-GgA5zLms1kkWm\">Apple Music<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/playlist\/3roji9hBBex02NiWWhNl4m?si=b1488b31bb534acc\">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\/september-2026\/pl.u-GgA5zLms1kkWm\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>CHVRCHES \u2013 Roses.<\/strong> I think this is my favorite CHVRCHES track since their second album, <em>Every Open Eye<\/em>, and maybe since their debut record, which this song really evokes musically. There\u2019s more going on here lyrically than most of their output, even just in quantity \u2013 Lauren Mayberry is way more present here, which is nearly always a good thing. I don\u2019t love the production on the chorus, but otherwise this feels like they\u2019re recalling \u201cThe Mother We Share\u201d and \u201cGun\u201d as they lead up to album #5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The War on Drugs \u2013 Who\u2019s That.<\/strong> I can vouch that this song sounds amazing live, having seen TWoD\u2019s incredible show at the Queen here in Wilmington, which was packed because you don\u2019t often see a band this big playing at a smaller venue like that. Every time I see this song\u2019s title, though, I want to say \u201cBROWWWWWWWWWN!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Moses Boyd feat. Amber-Simone \u2013 Criticise.<\/strong> Jazz drummer\/composer Boyd announced his second solo album <em>Songs for Sinners<\/em> will drop on October 30<sup>th<\/sup>; this funk-tinged track is a big step up from the first single, \u201cSay Yeah,\u201d and gives me more hope that the album will be a worthy follow-up to the tremendous, boundary-pushing <em>Dark Matter<\/em>, which gave me <a href=\"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/24\/top-100-songs-of-2020\/\">my favorite song of 2020<\/a>, \u201cShades of You.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Wishy \u2013 Sensational.<\/strong> Wishy\u2019s second album <em>Nature\u2019s Pill<\/em> ought to be their big breakout, with two incredible singles already in \u201cLovesick\u201d and \u201cAll the Rage\u201d along with a couple of other above-average tracks like this one and \u201cMona Lisa.\u201d It\u2019s power-pop with a jangly edge to it, fun and funny lyrics, and some great back-and-forth among the vocalists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Lambrini Girls \u2013 Bang Bang Bang.<\/strong> This British punk duo announced its second album, <em>No Refunds<\/em>, will be out on January 15<sup>th<\/sup>; this song has a tremendous, high-octane guitar riff driving it, while Phoebe Lunny\u2019s sung-shouted lyrics are, as always, both witty and incisive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Anxious \u2013 Secret Weapon.<\/strong> This emo-ish band released its second album, <em>Bambi<\/em>, early in 2025, and they\u2019re back already with two new singles, \u201cDon\u2019t Move\u201d and this one, that sounds more like harder 1990s alternative than the emo tag usually applied to them. (I feel like we\u2019re far enough from the first emo wave that bands doing it now should get a new tag.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Tom Morello feat. KNEECAP \u2013 Unconquered.<\/strong> Morello\u2019s latest solo album <em>Everyone Gets Everything They Want<\/em> just dropped on September 25<sup>th<\/sup>, with some uninspiring collaborations (Serj Tankian\u2019s song is particularly bad), and then this one that seems almost obvious in hindsight given the Irish group\u2019s politics. It helps that Morello provides a strong guitar riff behind them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Sampa the Great \u2013 Simon Says.<\/strong> This Zambian rapper calls herself great, but it\u2019s no lie. \u201cYou say all my demons is coming\/I say all my demons is dead\u201d feels like a great call-and-response for live shows. Her third album, <em>Nu Zamrock<\/em>, comes out on the 30<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Rakim, Kurupt, &amp; Masta Killa \u2013 I\u2019m Good.<\/strong> This hip-hop supergroup dropped <em>The Godbody LP<\/em> on September 18<sup>th<\/sup>, and on this and all of the tracks I\u2019ve heard, Rakim towers over the other two rappers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Tiakola feat. Jorja Smith \u2013 Jet Lag.<\/strong> Tiakola is a Congolese-French rapper, formerly a member of 4Keus, while Smith is one of my favorite singers in any genre and just released a new album this summer. This collaboration has her rapping more than singing, with her lines in English and his in French. It\u2019s pretty catchy, with a UK garage beat behind their lyrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Locust feat. Natasha Morrow and Neil Halstead \u2013 Long Distance Lover.<\/strong> Locust is 60-year-old Mark Van Hoen, an electronic music artist from London, who just released his 13<sup>th<\/sup> album, <em>Spectral+<\/em>, in September. This song features Halstead, guitarist and one of the vocalists in Slowdive; and Irish singer Morrow, whose voice isn\u2019t totally up to the challenge here, although I found the song catchy enough to put on this list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Adult DVD \u2013 Jesus Christ Supercar.<\/strong> A surprising banger that draws on early new wave\/post-punk while still sounding reasonably modern. \u201cI thought I was Jesus but the drugs wore off\u201d is one of the best lyrics of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>GIFT \u2013 Hand to the Flame.<\/strong> GIFT announced a new album, <em>Frenzy for the Thrill<\/em>, due out January 15<sup>th<\/sup>, with this lead single bringing their standard psychedelic-rock approach to a more uptempo beat, with more prominent guitars and a poppier melody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>World News \u2013 The Way It Goes.<\/strong> That little note on the last beat of every fourth measure feels like it\u2019s straight out of 1984. They\u2019ve got a great sense of melody, and lean hard into their 1980s influences, with <em>Fader<\/em> comparing them to Talk Talk and the Smiths. They\u2019re more melodic and upbeat than those bands, though. <em>In Purgatory<\/em>, their long-awaited (by me) debut album, comes out on the 15<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>This is Lorelei \u2013 The Kid with the Crown.<\/strong> I haven\u2019t loved Nate Amos\u2019 solo stuff, but this song kicks ass. It\u2019s like Belle &amp; Sebastian tried to write a bluegrass song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Sharp Pins \u2013 Face of Youth Today.<\/strong> Sharp Pins is 21-year-old Kai Slater, whose songs \u201care low-fidelity to the point where they often sound as if they&#8217;re being played from another room of your apartment.\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/post-trash.com\/news\/2025\/11\/19\/sharp-pins-balloon-balloon-balloon-album-review\">Hat-tip to Post-Trash for that quip<\/a>.) Imagine if early Cloud Nothings was more inspired by 1960s pop than noise-rock and punk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Beabadoobee feat. Hayley Williams \u2013 Nothing to Prove.<\/strong> <em>Pylon<\/em> might be Beabadoobee\u2019s best album to date; it\u2019s at least as good as her last two records, maybe a little more polished, although that cuts both ways. I have been disappointed to see how much of the publicity around the record seems to focus on her looks, which, who cares? This isn\u2019t 1985 and MTV doesn\u2019t play music any more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Sports Team \u2013 Billy.<\/strong> I loved Sports Team\u2019s 2022 album <em>Gulp!<\/em> and was very disappointed by their 2025 album <em>Boys These Days<\/em>; this track, for now a non-album single, sits somewhere in between the two, with more energy than the latter album and more humor, although it\u2019s not quite as catchy as \u201cDig\u201d or \u201cThe Drop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Soccer Mommy \u2013 Rings of Saturn.<\/strong> One of Soccer Mommy\u2019s better singles, this marks her first new music since 2024\u2019s <em>Evergreen<\/em>, with a very \u201890s vibe and a vocal line that reminds me a ton of \u201cTractor Beam\u201d by Snail Mail \u2026 with whom Soccer Mommy is touring this fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Morphine \u2013 Cocoon.<\/strong> Morphine seemed like they were on the verge in the 1990s, with \u201cThursday\u201d and \u201cHoney White\u201d gaining some crossover success, when lead singer\/bassist Mark Sandman died after suffering a heart attack while performing on stage in Rome in 1999. The remaining members have completed the album <em>Cocoon<\/em>, started in 1998 but never finished, and will release it on December 4<sup>th<\/sup>, marking the first album of \u2018new\u2019 material from the band in 26 years. Totally unrelated, but I saw some pictures of Sandman when reading about the new album and going down a bit of a Morphine rabbit hole, and I keep thinking, man, he looks like he might have had Marfan syndrome. I don\u2019t know anything about this stuff, so take that with a grain of salt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Kiwi Jr. w\/Protomartyr \u2013 Landscape with Limousine.<\/strong> I did not see this collaboration coming, but it works, producing a song that sounds a lot like \u2026 hard-rock Pavement?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Gilla Band \u2013 Alogia.<\/strong> I\u2019m still working through Gilla Band\u2019s album <em>Pugnello<\/em>, which has received glowing reviews, but is a difficult listen; I believe <em>Paste<\/em> called them \u201cpost-punk\u201d but they\u2019re borrowing from way more traditions than that, including early industrial like Throbbing Gristle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Lost in Kyiv \u2013 Tr\u00f3ia.<\/strong> Theycall themselves\u201cpost-rock,\u201d which I assume is because nobody wants to be \u201cprog rock\u201d in 2026 because people might think King Crimson, and that\u2019s not the vibe here at all. It\u2019s closer to prog metal, inspired by Russian Circles, with some Wheel or Porcupine Tree or even Dream Theater. Their latest album <em>We\u2019re All Going to Be Fine<\/em> came out in June; this track is off the Pelagic Records compliation album <em>The Dungeon Tapes<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>I Built the Sky \u2013 The Start of Something Beautiful.<\/strong> I Built the Sky is the project of Australian guitar wizard Rohan &#8216;Ro Han&#8217; Stevenson, who just released another album of progressive instrumental metal called <em>Promise Me You\u2019ll Thrive<\/em>. It\u2019s heavier than the sort of instrumental guitar records I loved as a teenager \u2013 I\u2019m thinking of Steve Vai\u2019s <em>Passion &amp; Warfare<\/em> in particular \u2013 but I love both the virtuosity of his playing and the ambition of the songwriting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Coroner \u2013 The Favorite Game.<\/strong> This isn\u2019t a new track, but it was actually new to me because it only appeared on their 1995 compilation album, also called <em>Coroner<\/em>, and I really just know their albums (primarily their last two before their breakup, <em>Mental Vortex<\/em> and <em>Grin<\/em>, two of my favorite metal albums ever). This comes off the upcoming EP <em>Ex Nucleo (The Remastered Extraction),<\/em> which will include five tracks from <em>Coroner<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Godflesh \u2013 Master and Slave.<\/strong> The opening track from Godflesh\u2019s latest and penultimate album, <em>Decay<\/em>, is mostly instrumental, and reminds me of their debut album <em>Streetcleaner<\/em> but slower and sludgier. Singer\/guitarist Justin Broadrick, who wrote and produced this entire album, underwent abdominal surgery this spring and is no longer able to sing live, so Godflesh won\u2019t be touring, and this entire album has about 150 total words of lyrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Sleep \u2013 Arrival of the Industry Ships.<\/strong> The longest of the five tracks on Sleep\u2019s newest album <em>Hempispheres<\/em> is deeper and doomier than the rest; the album has received middling to poor reviews for the mediocre lyrics (I get that, but also, no one is listening to Sleep for the lyrics) and, I think, because Matt Pike isn\u2019t the guitarist any more. I\u2019ve written this before, but given his embrace of antisemitic conspiracy theories I\u2019d rather have Sleep without him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lot of big albums coming in October, I think, so September turned into a solid month of new music, with many of these songs coming from albums\/artists I haven\u2019t had on playlists this year. This doesn\u2019t even include new albums that came out in the last few weeks from Beck, Blondshell, The Tubs, Gurriers, or [&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":[1495,359,609,167,1127,852,787,1114],"class_list":["post-11449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2026-in-music","tag-alternative","tag-hip-hop","tag-indie","tag-jazz","tag-music","tag-progressive-metal","tag-thrash","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11449","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=11449"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11450,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11449\/revisions\/11450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}