Here are the best albums of 2026 so far.

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Angine de Poitrine – Vol II
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Photograph: Samuel Snow

Have you ever met up with friends and realized you all dreamed about each other the night before? Angine de Poitrine feels like the kind of band that came together from the shared dreams of a prog fan who loves complex, flashy music, someone who went to All Tomorrow’s Parties too many times and believed the hypnotic weirdos playing at 3pm could be pop stars if given a chance, and a kid who just discovered riffs and now can’t get enough of them. That hunger was satisfied by two guys from Quebec, dressed like Mr Blobby meets Hugo Ball, whose wild, interlocking drums and dual-necked guitar/bass won over a small but dedicated fanbase. The leap in ambition from 2024’s simpler Vol I to this year’s wonderfully unpredictable Vol II is the stuff dreams are made of. Read our interview.

LSOtto Benson – Peanut
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With a pretty basic bedroom-indie setup—acoustic and electric guitars, bass, drum machine, synth, and vocals—US singer-songwriter Otto Benson creates a warm, twilight world that feels like a den made of blankets, pillows, and electric candles. His voice and the country-tinged songs have the soft weight of drooping eyelids, but the excellent melodies keep you from actually falling asleep.

BBTChalk – Crystalpunk
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Photograph: Tatiana Katkova

The breakbeat hacker-tech sound of the Prodigy, Propellerheads, and the kind of music heard on the Matrix soundtrack has been brought into the 21st century.This Belfast duo pours raw passion into every track, topped with Ross Cullen’s goth-pop vocals that echo Dave Gahan. Highlights of this instant industrial-pop classic include “Béal Feirste,” a techno-tempo tribute to their hometown with an Underworld vibe, and “Can’t Feel It,” which will tear roofs off this festival season. Read our interview.

Olof Dreijer – Loud Bloom
Close followers of the former Knife member’s work will already know much of Loud Bloom, released across various EPs over the past few years. You might resent Dreijer for repackaging them into his debut solo album, if the results weren’t so joyful and life-affirming. On one hand, I could tell you how this zippy, Technicolor record draws from global club rhythms like kuduro and cumbia, featuring vocalists from Sudan to South Africa. On the other, it’s just as fair to say Dreijer’s trademark synth sounds feel like a party in a coral reef: hard, bright, wiggly, and irresistibly alluring. Read the full review.

Dry Cleaning – Secret Love
Dry Cleaning’s third album is filled with awful designers spouting empty platitudes about their work, edgelords whose cynicism turns into gory violence, influencers pushing harmful wellness advice, and a string of seemingly ordinary characters whose lives are about to fall apart. All this comes through lyrics packed with weird lines and non-sequiturs, delivered in Florence Shaw’s trademark deadpan voice. Meanwhile, Dry Cleaning’s sound—delivered in impressively tight bursts—expands from their past vinegary post-punk guitars into ominous electronics, with hints of folk and funk. It’s inventive, unique, and more emotionally engaging than their reputation as sprechgesang indie’s chief oddballs might suggest. Read the full review.

Wendy Eisenberg – Wendy Eisenberg
For most indie-leaning artists, releasing a beautiful Americana record full of love songs would hardly be noteworthy. But for Wendy Eisenberg—a prodigious, complex guitarist known for their knotty, digressive songwriting, whether solo, with their bands Editrix and Birthing Hips, or as part of Bill Orcutt’s quartet, exploring rock, jazz, and more—the genre loyalty, clarity, and overflowing heart of this self-titled release hit like a shock of cold water. Having found a fully realized love with fellow musician More Eaze, Eisenberg said, “My ultimate goal is for these songs to sound beautiful because of their complexity.” The album is a finely tuned, unpredictable dance of walking bass lines, soulful pedal steel, and chiming guitar, full of tension and strange time signatures—but it’s also full of songs that feel like timeless classics, radiant with melodic and spiritual resolution. “Every day, angels sing songs to me, tell me it’s finally here,” Eisenberg sings on “It’s Here.” “It’s here, little Wendy.” Read our interview.

Avalon Emerson – Written Into Changes
American musician Emerson first made a name for herself in underground clubland with psychedelic techno journeys like The Frontier and One More Fluorescent Rush, then added a parallel career in new-wave vocal pop. Her latest album in that style is subtly but deeply rooted in the former, with songs pressing relentlessly forward even at slower tempos, full of lyrics that explore friendship, romance, and the perspective you gain as your 30s slip away.

Carla dal Forno – Confession
Inspired by a romantic fixation, the Australian coldwave singer-songwriter delivers a series of vignettes that trace this intense connection from prickling excitement to listlessness and doubt. The emotional uncertainty is heightened by the fact that the backing music doesn’t always match the feelings expressed in each song.Alongside prowling post-punk, there’s also much cheerier dub reggae and 80s-style indie-pop—contrasts that ring true to how love can hold so many other emotions within it. Read the full review.

Mabe Fratti and Bill Orcutt – Almost Waking
Guatemalan cellist Mabe Fratti and American experimental guitar veteran Bill Orcutt had never met before she mentioned him in an interview and he reached out to collaborate. You’d never guess they were new friends from the deep connection on their resulting album. It starts as if they’re bringing each other to life, then breaks into wild energy; a tense, frantic middle section gives way to wide-open spaces. By the track Todo Puede Ser Error, Fratti’s voice shines like stained glass, held together by the tangled lead of Orcutt’s guitar. Warm and hopeful, Almost Waking borders on sentimental at times—an unexpected emotion for either artist that shows how remarkably they spark each other. Read the full review.

Phil Geraldi – Rural Deceased Undiscovered
Los Thuthanaka’s Wak’a isn’t technically eligible for this list since it’s an EP, but don’t let that stop you from diving into the Aymara duo’s raw, blissful sound. When you need a comedown from its pounding intensity, check out California composer Phil Geraldi’s latest: Rural Deceased Undiscovered draws from the same pastoral well but spreads those country influences across a canvas as vast as Los Thuthanaka’s is tight—a shimmering mix of pedal steel and wistful, warped acoustic guitar.

Hekt – Forever
For all the boundary-pushing music coming out of Copenhagen, the scene wasn’t exactly full of bangers—until producer Jesper Nørbæk released his debut album as Hekt. Made with heavy collaboration from duo Smerz, Forever revels in tacky, sugary club excess: EDM drops, trance urgency, plastic sheen, ridiculously silly bass, yearning anonymous vocals, and smart avant-garde touches that, crucially, avoid overthinking cheap thrills (cue Danny L Harle as a witness). Pair it with Dreijer’s Loud Bloom for heady summer fun.

Bruce Hornsby – Indigo Park
If you haven’t been following Bruce “The Way It Is” Hornsby’s later career, Indigo Park might surprise you. Still best known in the UK for polished 80s AOR, he’s long been a fixture in the musical left field, big on improvisation and experimentation that draws as much from jazz and modern classical as rock. Accordingly, Indigo Park is all over the place in the best way: warped R&B with guest vocals from Bonnie Raitt; off-kilter New Orleans jazz featuring the late Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead; psychedelic piano ballads; weird chord sequences and sudden shifts in mood and tempo. It’s adventurous, strange, and incredibly engaging. Read our interview.

Grace Ives – Girlfriend
Bad recovery stories tie everything up neatly and declare happily ever after. Good ones know that sobriety isn’t an ending but a living thing that needs constant care. (See also: Lena Dunham’s Famesick.) Grace Ives’ big third album buzzes with the chaos and misadventure of facing how messy life has become and trying to put the shattered pieces back together—and the miracle is how she does it without judgment, and without downplaying the appeal of the highs. Sounding recklessly, beautifully alive, Girlfriend is a whirlwind of playful beats and warm orchestral swells, the rush of the club and the muttered inner voice of someone doing their best to hold themselves together, all shot through with fitting pop grandeur. Read the full review.

Lerado Khalil – Black Flag
Uttering his lyrics in a jaded, slurred, narcotized croak, it’s often hardIt’s hard to make out what the underground Minnesota rapper is even saying, but when paired with producers who lean into distortion and blurry, ghostly sounds—including a standout beat from cloud rap legend Clams Casino—he becomes a captivating presence. His subtle way with melody only adds to it: Khalil can turn a half-mumbled phrase into a hook.

Kim Gordon – Play Me
You might expect an alt-rock legend from the 80s and 90s to reject the modern world, and the former Sonic Youth bassist does exactly that on Play Me: tech bros, Spotify playlists, MAGA, and wellness influencers all get called out over the course of the album. But what really stands out is how in tune Gordon still is with today’s music. It would be easy to lean on nostalgia and rework Sonic Youth’s signature sound for 2026, but Play Me continues the path of her solo work, backing her unmistakable voice with music inspired by trap, dub, electronica, and hip-hop—with striking results. Read our interview.

The Lemon Twigs – Look for Your Mind!
The D’Addario brothers aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel. As always, their influences—from Merseybeat to Big Star to the Beach Boys—are very clear on their sixth album. But they’re such ridiculously skilled songwriters that their obvious fandom is a joy to hear. Every track on Look for Your Mind! sparkles. Modern life creeps into “Bring You Down” (“they’re gonna take my job and give it to a metal machine,” they protest), but for the most part, the album lives in its own innocent world, where the 21st century feels like science fiction. It’s a pleasure to visit.

Mandy, Indiana – Urgh
The title alone would make this the defining album of a terrible year. Even more impressive was how powerfully the Manchester- and Berlin-based band channeled that disgust through their churning industrial noise, pounding percussion, and the delivery of French frontwoman Valentine Caulfield—so rhythmically tight it feels like a cage closing in. Even French speakers might struggle to catch every word in the chaos, but her writhing horror at complacency, rape culture, and other injustices was unmistakable. Read the full review.

Mitski – Nothing’s About to Happen to Me
There are plenty of millennial singer-songwriters writing self-reflective lyrics set to music that blends pop and alt-rock. It just so happens that Mitski does it better than anyone else—a fact made clear on Nothing’s About to Happen to Me, an album that’s by turns wrenching, funny, heartbreaking, and thought-provoking. The sound moves between indie, alt-country, and grand 70s orchestral styles. The lyrics are superb, and the moods she creates linger long after the songs end. She sounds as unhappy as ever—longing for solitude or anonymity while dealing with romantic despair and global success—but she remains captivating company. Read the full review.

Kacey Musgraves – Middle of Nowhere
Kacey Musgraves made her name singing about life on the margins in rural Texas before 2018’s Golden Hour turned her into a pop star. After a couple more albums that tried to appeal to a wider audience with diminishing returns, she returned to her own dusty, singular path on this gorgeous and refreshingly specific seventh record. Across these weary, wry songs, she suggests that solitude can be healing—but also that it’s not for the faint of heart, not for wannabe cowgirls or cowardly lovers who pretend they’d rather run than commit. The truth of this heartbroken album is that at least no one can hurt you when you’re alone. And for all its comfort with isolation, Middle of Nowhere sounds beautifully welcoming.Coming, blending finely tuned country with Tex-Mex, norteño, and the pristine sound of loneliness—pedal steel. Read the full review.

My New Band Believe – My New Band Believe
After Black Midi’s whirlwind of alt-prog wound down after three albums, its members scattered in very different directions. Cameron Picton—who leads My New Band Believe with a wide circle of collaborators—landed in a soft, all-acoustic chamber pop bed. With hints of Van Dyke Parks and Jim O’Rourke’s most accessible work, the arrangements are dizzyingly intricate and rhythmically flexible, but they never overshadow Picton’s romantic, honest songwriting. Read the full review.

Picture – Eeeeeeee
In an impressive show of quality control, the UK techno-ish label Short Span only launched in March 2025, but all 12 of its releases so far have been unmissable. Danish producer Picture’s amusingly titled album—with tracks like Tyyyyyyyyy, Waaaaaaaa, and Qeeeeeeee—stands out as the best. Some tracks hum with constant tension, like industrial machinery doing its job; others hit hard with four-four beats, but Picture adds a soft peach-fuzz layer, slightly softening the impact and making them wonderfully tactile. Short Span’s other 2026 highlights include Mammo’s gentle deep techno album Lateral, and Yu Su’s Foundry, which moves through ambient music, experimental pop, dub techno, and lively electro. (Eeeeeeee is only available on vinyl, or digitally via Bandcamp.)

Powerplant – Bridge of Sacrifice
No album deserves the label “a ripper” more than this one from Theo Zhykharyev, a Ukrainian expat in London. He writes and performs nearly every part of an opus where garage rock meets hardcore punk, psychobilly, and black metal—like a scene on a Transylvanian hillside under a full moon. Among the fist-pumping fuzz-rock riffs, there are plenty of slower moments too, where Zhykharyev shifts into amateur-dramatic Phantom of the Opera mode. Read our feature.

Pozer – Crossroads
The Croydon rapper grew up surrounded by the drug trade and its violence, and his debut mixtape is full of harsh weaponry and cold fatalism. His fast-paced flow, delivered over equally upbeat Jersey club beats, feels like an attempt to push through the horrors. But beneath the bravado, there’s a note of sorrow in his voice that reveals their emotional toll on him. The result is a kind of social realism that UK culture sometimes avoids: unredemptive and brutally honest. Read our interview.

Reckonwrong – How Long Has It Been?
The chiming Rhodes piano, rainy atmosphere, and bruised, boyish vocals on Alex Peringer’s debut full-length suggest a cult crooner tucked away in a corner of a forgotten seaside town, with arcade machine lights flashing over his innocent, lovesick ballads. With shades of Robert Wyatt, How Long Has It Been? is a world away from Peringer’s earlier, delightfully off-kilter club-focused releases. But even if you’ve never heard those, his luminous songcraft is no less striking. Read the full review.

Robyn – Sexistential
Behind the awful title of Robyn’s ninth album lies a wealth of delights. Both Max Martin and Metronomy’s Joe Mount are on board, and Sexistential’s left-field electro-pop bangers easily match the standard set by her masterpiece, 2010’s Body Talk. Her lyrics are just as smart and funny: the title track touches on the strange experience of hooking up while going through IVF, phone sex as therapy is explored on Talk to Me, and she reflects on the nature of pleasure in Dopamine. The only criticism is that, at half an hour, Sexistential is too short. Read theFull Review

Jill Scott – To Whom This May Concern
View image in fullscreen. Photograph: Kennedi Carter

The risk of leaving 11 years between albums is that expectations get so high that nothing you release can live up to them. But Jill Scott’s first album since 2015’s Woman is an absolute joy. Her voice still sounds incredible, and her rapping is sharp with real attitude—maybe shaped by some well-known struggles over the past decade. (“I married a bitch,” she says at one point.) The music blends great songwriting with experimentation. There’s neo-soul, but also bluesy big band swing, tough hip-hop-infused funk, and on The Math, some impressively out-there abstraction. Read our interview.

Shabaka – Of the Earth
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Of the Earth is the first release on Shabaka Hutchings’ own label, and the first album where the British jazz star plays and produces everything—including sax, which he returned to after switching entirely to flute on last year’s Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace. Like its predecessor, Of the Earth is an album you want to fully lose yourself in. It’s filled with stunningly beautiful textures and atmospheres, driving dance rhythms, and the unexpected sound of Hutchings rapping. It feels like a kind of culmination, a point where all of Hutchings’ varied talents come together perfectly.

Tony Bontana – My Name
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Bontana is Birmingham’s most hardworking rapper, with nearly 60 releases on his Bandcamp page since 2020—not to mention plenty more, like his brilliant side project Everything Is Psychedelic. My Name is the perfect introduction to his work. He pours his heart out in passionate speeches about social injustice and personal struggle, often with a dry sense of humor. The beats are just as good, with decaying blues, soul, and 80s R&B samples pulled from the bottom of a compost bin, then shaped around lo-fi drums. Read our interview.

Thundercat – Distracted
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Thundercat’s fifth studio album has a heavyweight guest list—Tame Impala, Lil Yachty, the Lemon Twigs, A$AP Rocky, Willow Smith, plus a posthumous appearance from Mac Miller—but it’s still very much Stephen Bruner’s show. This is a dizzyingly eclectic 45 minutes where house music sits next to soft rock, classic jazz-infused hip-hop, psychedelia, soul, shoegaze, R&B, and P-funk. It’s all held together by his incredible musicianship, the emotional honesty in his lyrics—about self-sabotage, failed relationships, and the real possibility he might have ADHD—and the sheer force of his personality. Read our interview.

Underscores – U
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In a year so far marked by big pop names—Harry Styles, BTS, Drake—putting out pretty underwhelming albums, here’s something from left field. The latest from hyperpop artist April Grey is a far more interesting, accomplished, and better-written pop album than anything the major league has done in 2026. It’s a little toned down compared to its dense, complex predecessor Wallsocket, which gives Grey’s songwriting more room to breathe. But its quirky and thrilling sound—a fizzy mix of EDM, Auto-Tuned vocals, 90s R&B references, acid house, and dubstep-inspired electronics—still keeps a sense of chaos. Read the full review.

Frequently Asked Questions
Here is a list of FAQs about the best albums of 2026 so far written in a natural helpful tone

General Questions

Q How are you defining best albums of 2026 so far
A Its a curated list based on critical acclaim commercial performance cultural impact and fan reception It covers albums released between January 1 and the present date in 2026

Q Is this list subjective
A Yes completely Best is always a matter of opinion but we try to reflect a broad consensus from critics and listeners Your personal favorites might be different and thats totally fine

Q How often do you update this list
A Typically we update it monthly or whenever a major highly anticipated album drops that clearly belongs in the conversation

The Albums Selection Process

Q Which albums are currently on the list for 2026
A The specific list changes but recent frontrunners include Echoes in the Static by Nova Rayne Midnight Garden by The Lost Hours and Crimson Tide by DJ Verve For the most current list check the main article

Q What genres are represented
A We try to cover a wide range So far the 2026 list includes indie rock electronic pop experimental hiphop folk and neosoul

Q Why isnt on the list
A There are two main reasons either their album hasnt been released yet or it didnt score as highly with critics or fans compared to the others It might be a great album but the competition is very strong this year

Q Are there any debut albums on the list
A Yes A standout debut in 2026 is Kintsugi by Luna Mariposa which received nearuniversal praise for its raw songwriting

Practical Tips

Q I want to listen to these albums Where should I start
A If you like pop start with Midnight Garden If you prefer experimental sounds try Echoes in the Static For something more laidback Kintsugi is a good choice