Albums of the Year so far 2026

i thought maybe we could start this thread for 2026 even though it's a lot earlier than when Michael B started last year's thread. i loved having it around to look into things outside of my awareness that other people found excellent. and i wanted an excuse to post about this synth / sax ambient-ish album that came out last week to a wider group of people, which is deeply, wildly beautiful and only after a few listens i feel will be in my top 10 this year.

caterina barbieri, bendik giske - at source
https://caterinabarbieri.bandcamp.com/album/at-source

ty, bookmarked

I loooove this new Esplendor Geometrico album

https://www.rotordiscos.com/catalogo/el-pulso-del-acero-shinkansen/5177/

and this thing

https://passepartoutduo.bandcamp.com/album/pieces-from-places

It's still very early, but this is the best thing I've heard overall so far this year:

https://music-from-memory.bandcamp.com/album/aqu-ticos

So far this year, I'm straight repping my city of Toronto with a new EP by my fave new band, Potions, and their debut EP, potions95:
https://potionspotionspotions.bandcamp.com/album/potions95

RIYL Grizzly Bear, Sam Amidon, two-singer song-for-song tradeoffs, young jazz guys playing freak-folk with a touch o' Gastr

Sending the batsignal out to my friend fgti since if he hasn't heard this group yet he needs to--his old bandmate Matt "Prince Nifty" Smith mixed it

Tomeka Reid, Pat Thomas & XT, Wendy Eisenberg, Ivo Perelman’s albums with Nate Wooley & Wadada Leo Smith, Sunn O))), More Eaze, Bill Orcutt…

I havent listened to many new albums this year but Ive liked these

Dry Cleaning
Mod Lang
Gumshoes

maara - “ultra villain”

Natural Magic - II
https://naturalmagic.bandcamp.com/album/ii

^ the last record that Stirmonster was involved in before we lost him, kind of like Neu doing cosmic rustic psych with a bit of a dubby groove. very organic music to let your mind wander to. yes there are probably a lot of other records out there that would also fit that description (Peaking Lights maybe?), but this is really well done

Top tier:

Jill Scott
Floorplan - Fabric mix

Good:
Dry Cleaning
Momoko Gill
Courtney Marie Andrews
Charli XCX
Iron & Wine
Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore

didn’t realize the momoko gill was out yet!

an album i will plug:
gena (liv.e & karriem riggins) - the pleasure is yours

maara - “ultra villain”

― ||||||||, Wednesday, March 4, 2026 7:10 AM (fifty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes

also:

ratboys: singin' to an empty chair
picture: eeeeeee

placid angles: canada

i love that courtney marie andrews album too

florian hecker - natural selection
xaviersobased - xavier
joyce manor - i used to go to this bar
i promised the world - s/t ep
roc marciano- 656

The Jill Scott's wonderful.

also love shane parish’s new album of finger style autechre covers (appropriately titled autechre guitar)

also love shane parish’s new album of finger style autechre covers (appropriately titled autechre guitar)

Tomeka Reid

^^^^ I haven't heard the full album yet but the Bandcamp preview tracks are incredible.

Currently extremely into:

The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis - Deface the Currency
The Ruins of Beverast - Tempelschlaf

The new Bill Frisell record 'In My Dreams' with his trio + a string trio (live, although it does not sound like a live record) is def on there.

And Ron Carter's album with a giant modern gospel group, 'Sweet, Sweet Spirit'.

stuff I've enjoyed so far:

Ben Vince - Street Druid
Shackleton - Euphoria Bound
Daniel Bachman - Revolutions
PVA - No More Like This
Velv.93 - Maidstone
DJ Sundae - Mirrors
Running Out of Time - Cash Back

Natural Magic - II
https://naturalmagic.bandcamp.com/album/ii

^ the last record that Stirmonster was involved in before we lost him, kind of like Neu doing cosmic rustic psych with a bit of a dubby groove. very organic music to let your mind wander to. yes there are probably a lot of other records out there that would also fit that description (Peaking Lights maybe?), but this is really well done

― Reggaeton Sax (NickB)

Oh this is how I just found out stirmonster passed away. :( He was a legend. So sad to hear this.

also enjoyed John T. Gast - Infant but that's technically 2025 i guess

co-signing the Natural Magic and Fabiano do Nascimento/Eddie Ruscha albums as well

oh shit moka, i'm sorry. it is heartbreaking :(

enjoying the maara

xps also loving the ben vince and velv.93 records

Tomeika Reid is my fav of the year so far

dance! skip! hop! | Tomeka Reid | Out Of Your Head Records https://share.google/IJqkIzPg7A6RaydeZ

this is a terrific new post-punk album from the folks behind Aussie punk bands Total Control and R.M.F.C.:

https://staticshockrecords.bandcamp.com/album/station-model-violence

oh hell yeah, thanks!

Really enjoying the Station Model Violence album so far (as someone pretty divorced from the Aussie 'egg punk' scene/who is unfamiliar with the bands, beyond Mikey Young mastering all the interrelated projects, so it seems)--am esp enjoying how both it as well as R.M.F.C.'s catalogue use 12-string guitar as a textural poppy post-punky secret weapon

totally, the 12-string rules (usually played by Mikey afaict)

Looks like Buz the R.M.F.C. guy is on 12-string, at least if this first SMV gig from 2024 that I just watched is any indication fwiw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6hJvnbJl5M

ah ok! Buz was drumming when I saw them (and his sister (I think) played sax, it ruled)

(them = RMFC)

Perhaps I'll use this thread to spotlight Pieni exit which is the new album by Finnish artist Malla. I chucked a vote at lead single "Toista tilaisuutta ei ehkä tuu" in last year's trax poll, which is broadly representative of the album as a whole: clubby, slightly wintry, lovelorn pop. There's a track with a refrain that sounds so much like peak Luomo ("Resepti") and I think my favourite track of all might be "<3 sanaa", an echo-y high BPM raveup.

other favourites thus far would include:

Girlfriend - Honey Water (accomplished R&B)
Hemlocke Springs - the apple tree under the sea (refer to the thread I started)
Charli XCX - Wuthering Heights (predisposed to love this as a True Romance truther)
Maria Arnal - AMA (Catalan post-Rosalía artpop album)

Melissa Aldana - Filin
Tomeka Reid Quartet - Dance! Skip! Hop!
The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis - Deface the Currency
Rob Zombie - The Great Satan
Teratoma - Longing Voracity
Immolation - Descent

And I gotta throw in a plug for something that's coming out on my own label:

Ava Mendoza - Alive Alone, Alive Together (a live album, half solo material and half duos with Hamid Drake; coming out 5/22)

Oh, one more:

Melvins with Napalm Death, Savage Imperial Death March

Glad to hear that Melvins/Napalm Death record is good!

Station Model Violence absolutely rules

Early favorites for me:

Barry Walker Jr - Paleo Sol
Wet Tuna - VAST
Blackwater Holylight - Not Here Not Gone
Hallas - Panorama
Eximperitus - Meritoriousness of Equanimity
Ratboys - Singin' to an Empty Chair
Converge - Love is Not Enough

(haven't played the new Messthetics or Cryptic Shift yet, but expect good things)

caterina barbieri, bendik giske - at source
https://caterinabarbieri.bandcamp.com/album/at-source

― map, Tuesday, March 3, 2026 8:18 PM (one week ago)

I'm moving slowly this year, but this is fantastic

Co-sign on the new Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis. Better, weirder and fiercer than before.

new sideshow album tigray funk absolutely lives up to the hype. been a fan of his for a while, and this is his best work by far.

enjoying barbieri/giske and tomeka reid bunches, thankin u ilx

fans of long hypnotic cosmic drone-y electronica: i recommend giving Nathan Dawidowicz - Fluff a spin

this is a terrific new post-punk album from the folks behind Aussie punk bands Total Control and R.M.F.C.:

https://staticshockrecords.bandcamp.com/album/station-model-violence

― alpine static, Thursday, 5 March 2026 17:44 (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is fantastic

^ The Bandcamp description is great. Listening to "Heat" now.

"Heat" is an insanely good song. I'll probably linger on it for a while before checking out the whole album.

Natural Magic and Station Model Violence pair together well, I'm down with the 2026 motorik revival

Good to see the word is finally getting out re Luomo

faves so far have probably been Octo Octa, Dry Cleaning, Roy Montgomery, Mitski, Tanya Tagaq

Mandy Indiana - URGH
Lip Critic - Theft World
Dry Cleaning - Secret Love
The Field - Now You Exist
underscores - U
dalek - Brilliance of a Falling Moon
Octo Octa - Sigils for Survival
Kurt Vile - Philadelphia’s been good to me
Shackleton - Euphoria Bound
hemlocke springs - the apple tree under the sea

In addition to some already mentioned (Ratboys, Avalon Emerson, Robber Robber) I really like Blame the Clown by Twisted Teens. New Orleans garage punk with pedal steel. I saw them play a few months ago, good live show too.

Barbieri / Giske is stunning for an EP

HORSE LORDS

So far, with plenty more highly promising fare imminent, here's everything I've scored at least 9/10:

Janis Lago - Janis
Major Parkinson - Valesa Chapter II: Viva The Apocalypse!
Apollo Bitrate - Three Bewildered People In The Night
Furii - Pyromancy
Station Model Violence - s/t
Logan Posthumous - The Peasants' Revolt
Oiseaux - Cries𝅘𝅥𝅮
Buy-In - `'

Investigate if you like music that's a lot, I guess

obviously Station Model Violence is the only crossover with anyone else's lists but that's fine, I have my lanes

Luomo
Horse Lords
Nicosta Steel
MoM/Lee Perry
Cramps
Radon Abatement
sunn O)))
Wet Tuna
Guests
Station Model Violence
Natural Magic

reissue/archival releases by F/i, Laughing Hyenas

great year so far

(Luomo is cheating as noted above)

lots to listen to, actively downloading some of this stuff as i type. my faves so far:

DJ Plead- Please
Beatrice M.- Sinking
traumprinz- Life
Shackleton- Euphoria Bound
Daniel O’Sullivan & Richard Youngs- Persian Carpets
Scorched Bogon- Back at the Deep Hole
Kareem Ali- The Essence

most of the rest are EPs.

ok I gotta try with Persian Carpets again

I get it might not be for everyone. I would give it a whirl on a bright morning

You might like the Scorched Bogon record too sleeve

loved the DJ Plead on one listen, need to return to it

yea enthusiastic co-sign for dj plead

also kelela’s album belongs in the convo

Alison Cotton's The Gods Laugh is outstanding

Also feeling the Scorched Bogon record during this early morning listen

It doesn’t really “change” much over its length but it does what it’s doing remarkably well and sometimes that sort of plodding fried jamscape is what I need.

Wow, thx for the heads-up re: Scorched Bogon!
Nicely mirrors the Cancer House album on Motion Ward, not only in its jammy slowcoreness, but also being a guitars-and-drums outlier on a predominantly electronic/tape-manipulations-based label.

volition immanent: “too late”
wendy eisenberg: “wendy eisenberg”
lone: “hyperphantasia”
enno velthuys: “music from the other side of the fence” (reissue)
KMRU: “kin”
fabiano do nascimento & e ruscha v: “aquáticos”
exxûl: “sealed into none”
força maior: “morte lilás”
isabel pine: “fables”

Jesse Hackett - Nocturnes (Hive Mind Records) ..... like a long-lost OST from a '70's film .... gorgeous music

in the past 1.5 months my top five has completely shifted. wild year :)

Please share.

Nirosta Steel- My Skyscraper (retrospective)
Neba Solo and Benego Diakité's 'A Djinn and a Hunter Went Walking
Chanel Beads-Your Day Will Come 2026
Downtown Boys-Public Luxury
Swamp Dogg - Swamp Dogg Contemplates the Afterlife

Neba Solo and Benego Diakité is Malian traditional sorta but more than that

Chanel Beads is "cloud rock" kinda Alex G but different

Downtown Boys go beyond hardcore punk on this bilingual new one

Swamp Dogg is soul

Nirosta Steel worked with Arthur Russell

Please share.

― jmm, Friday, July 17, 2026 1:05 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

well maybe i'm a little embarrassed bc my top three are all from the same label lmao

That Solo/Diakite album is great...

Yes, thanks for the tip on that curmudgeon!

test

didn’t work

Jeff Parker is ruling my year thus far.

Here's where I'm at.

Converge – Love is Not Enough
Exxûl – Sealed Into None
Midriyasi’s Kult – Italian Dark Sound
Poison Ruïn – Hymns From the Hills
Rhododendron – Ascent Effort (👑)
Scimitar – Scimitarium II
Spell – Wretched Heart
Station Model Violence – Station Model Violence
The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis – Deface the Currency
The Ruins of Beverast – Tempelschlaf
Various Artists – Metal Lourd
Worm – Necropalace
Zorn – Return to Castle Death

the Cloud Machines album by Berndt / Schmidt is pretty kickass, surprised that it's not on any of these lists. please pardon me if I'm mistaken.

Haptic did a nice, vaguely AMM-like thing called Ecliptic. Haptic releases are typically good to excetional, though. on the same label (Granny Records), Suspended Movement by Savvas Metaxas is superb.

the Zero Talk 3×CD by Kevin Drumm & Taku Unami is surprisingly good, deceptively heavy and transportive. it definitely makes up for the (seeming) dud that is Sheer Hellish Miasma II. maybe I haven't listened to SHM II loudly enough (?) ..it just sounds thin and overly dense. like a draft beer that's all head / foam and no body

this Essential Key album on Not Not Fun is totally chilled out lofi 80s bliss... RIYL the first eleventeen eston album

https://essentialkey.bandcamp.com/album/sons-of-freedom

jmm, thanks for the heads up on that Rhododendron album, great stuff!

Right? It doesn't seem to be getting much attention. I liked their previous one too, but this one sounds more focused and refined to me, and jazzier.

Need to go through a bunch of albums listed by critics in a Billboard poll on Latin music that I linked to in Latin thread . I am sure some of those 26 albums will impress me.

I'm really enjoying the following recently:

O'Flynn - Kairos

It's poppy and beautiful, I guess this is my "poptimisism" record of 2026? Yet it's a pure dance album? I really like O'Flynn and this and his last album Shimmer slap. Dude's like a more sugary Overmono with some Burial-on-anti-depressants vibe

Daniel Lanois - Belladonna Nocturne

Gorgeous ambient dub and jazzy album that takes a lot of beautiful turns. Pretty stunning and not sure if this is a comeback or not, but I hadn't heard anything Lanois has done in 30 years so it was a bit of a surprise

dgoHn - Tessares

Wasn't familiar with dgoHn (pronounced "John") but he's apparently been writing and producing some very lovely acoustic forward drum and bass (drumfunk?) for a while now. Seems very influenced by jazz and math rock and scratches some real percussive itches

a free jazz demo (a trio, recorded during 2007) used to send to concert organisers in Berlin (?) published on Bandcamp this past May ... it's ace. the electric guitar playing (plus tone / timbre) reminds me of Skin Graft bands, Deerhoof, Iceburn, Nomeansno (et al) industrial churn crossed with Derek Bailey's fits/flights and scribbling rakeage, among others. the drumming is insanely good, responsive, creative (it sounds like they're fielding and filing everything being thrown at them by the guitar on "Türsturz") ... trombone playing is nicely varied, spare/staccato/punctuative at parts and fittingly dynamic all around. it's killer stuff. apologies that it doesn't qualify as an album of the year.

Aufsturz

Johannes Bauer trombone
Michael Griener drums
Olaf Rupp electric guitar
Johannes Bauer trombone
https://scatterarchive.bandcamp.com/album/aufsturz

I just received the 4 CD box of John Tilbury recordings called At home (Another Timbre) ... it's beautiful. The recording quality is excellent, and the pieces are lovely. The variety of the pieces is fantastic. Dude is the lord of finesse, of piano playing.

Thanks for the Lanois heads-up, octobeard! Black Dub and Flesh & Machine are old favorites.

Agreed, the Lanois is really good. I love all the high-passed cut up piano. I've tried with his solo stuff before because it always sounds great on paper (Brian Blade! Venetian Snares!), but it doesn't stick with me. Sort of like Bill Laswell. Ok, the Venetian Snares one was pretty cool.

dgoHn - Tessares

Will check this out, he's long been one of my drumfunk break science faves. There was a Resident Advisor podcast a few years back that was sick.

Six or Seven Ways Towards Becoming Undone - Camila Nebbia and Chris Corsano
Almost Waking - Mabe Fratti and Bill Orcutt

i've been really taken by the fratti / orcutt album.

parts & labor - set of all sets

Slayyyter
Underscores
Alewya
Kelela
Grace Ives
Malla
Fcukers
Charli (wuthering heights)
Aldous Harding
Kelsey Lu

is roughly my top 10 I think, I could sub Madonna in there somewhere too perhaps. The Nirosta Steel album is great but idk whether to classify that as a 2026 album

octo, check out his Omni Series from 2008 (especially the Purple Vista one) for more Lanois ambience/steel guitar loveliness xps

Top 11

Dry Cleaning - Secret Love
Styrofoam Winos - Any River
Angine de Poitrine - 2
Cocanha - Flame Folclore
Gumshoes - Happy New Year
Mr Fingers - Leev Yr Mynd
Chanel Beads - Your Day Will Come
Seamus Fogarty - Shops
Xylitol - Blumenfantasie
The Lemon Twigs - Look For Your Mind!
Boards of Canada - Inferno

Ships not Shops!