New-To-Me Albums I Loved in 2026

No one is doing lonesome Ambient Americana quite like Phil Geraldi. This shit is so inspiring; he can do so much with so little musical information. This record feels like a decent LSD trip that's teetering on the edge of a bad one -- just scary enough to make you center yourself every few minutes to lock back in.

Choice Trax: Quartzite Stereo Band, Which You Are You, Beauty Mark

Q: What's better than a hyper-hardcore band with one drummer?
A: A band with two drummers AND two dudes who play the MIDI pads -- this is the correct answer and Lip Critic is that fucking band.

WHAT THE FUCK!

Choice Trax: Talon, Charity Dinner, Legs In A Snare

This is the best hyper-pop/rap record I've heard since the certified STL classic, Cali Cartier Best Dog, released way back in 2018. It is a near-perfect harmony of post-Kanye melodic trap, SoundCloud Gecs-aligned hyperpop, P'ierre Bourne type-beats, and late '90s/early '00s EDM video game soundtracks.

Slayr is already on his way to the top, but I'm so fucking stoked to see what he does next.

Choice Trax: Brain Fog, Toxic, Eyesight

This album is so confusing to me.. it's divorced dad radio rock, through and through, but it's also just so unique. It's gazey, heavy, and riffy but not to an unbearable degree of corny-ness. It even has some proto-twinges of that clangy, metallic Stratocaster rock that would be made uber popular by the NYC indie-band-which-must-not-be-named, lest King Julian appear in the bathroom mirror...

I just know I would've been obsessed with this in 2006, but at least I get to love it now!

Choice Trax: Rabbit Hole, Lie Down, Strange Eyes

RECIPE - [HEX; Or Printing...]

Caution May Cause: Diabolical Doom Guitar Ambient Masterpiece

INGREDIENTS

• 1 Part Neil Young's "Dead Man" Soundtrack
• 2 Heaps Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian"
• A Dash "Might have to sell the farm" Depression sentiments

Jesus Christ, was I a lonesome trucker in another life, bound to wander the Black Hills alone forever? This made me question everything. Listen to the whole thing alone in the car on a forgotten highway. Vaporwave for hicks and rural types.

Why have I never heard of this record before? This has got to be one of the best albums of 1997. This is some got'damn beautiful pop music! I will shout about this one from the rooftops for years to come, I'm sure.

Choice Trax: Never Say Never, Gagged And Tied, Long Island

This is some girly pop NYC pop sludge for the ages! This album will perfectly accompany my last year of my 20s; I'm sure of it. Also - bonus points for all the wrestling references.

Choice Trax: Jobber to the Stars Pt. 1, Summerslam, Raw Is War

LET ME IN! LET ME IN! LET ME IN!

This record is the perfect in-between of the more accessible '90s lofi guitar pop and the weirdo Velvet Underground/Beatles-worshipping art rock of the Elephant 6 Collective. I love this whole thing.. why were these guys not as famous as Pavement or Apples in Stereo?? Life's just not fair!

Some of the tracks also remind of one of my favorite modern bands, Magic Potion.

Choice Trax: Novelty in Two, Carmen Cross, Serpentine

The dude from Twin Peaks (the band from Chicago, not the TV show) is tearing up the solo work these days. There's really great, laid back psych-pop on this record. I really like the mixing and tasteful use of samples/synth elements.

Choice Trax: My Own Mess, Keeping Score, Tell Me Something Good

These little DIYers in Nashville have really been killing it lately. This very-modern-Appalachian album has got that Gen Z folkgaze thing down pat. Escalator is such a breathtaking piece of music!

Choice Trax: Escalator, Detroit, NTS

luv u, Donny T!! Thanks for keeping crooner rage alive for all us elder zoomers. This shit is gonna be on rotation until the next one comes out. I liked it almost as much as Hardstone Psycho which is saying something!

Choice Trax: ATM, Body, K9, Excavator

Definitely not my favorite Rocky record by any means.. but when it hits, it REALLY fucking hits. The music videos and media rollout for this record are legendary.

Choice Trax: HELICOPTER, AIR FORCE (BLACK DEMARCO), FLACKITO JODYE (must-watch video)