Best Ever Albums

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

MadhattanJack — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 17:13:21 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 07/30/2026 21:13

What July 31, 2026 releases would Ariana Grande sue you for using your l33t haxx0r skillz to not-so-legally obtain in advance? Why not all of them! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Ariana's new album, Petal, will probably hoover up most of the media attention this week, and word on the street is that it sounds just like an Ariana Grande album should sound. So we'll just pretend that doesn't exist and move on. Apparently there's also some sort of Green Day movie coming out called Nimrods, but the greatest-hits soundtrack album contains only one new track ("I'm Never Gonna R.I.P."), so I'll just treat that as a "single" for now. On top of that, there's a new Shearwater album, The New World — and it's a good one too, with plenty of their usual nature sounds in the background. It helps that by now I've learned not to get up in the middle of their albums thinking I left the windows open.

Unfortunately, there's no obvious pick-of-the-week here, so I felt like I should fall back on old fanboy loyalties and give the nod to the new comeback LP from 80s Welsh guitar-pop-rockers the Darling Buds, Same Sun | Same Sky.

You might remember their big late-80s hits like "Hit the Ground," "Crystal Clear," and my personal fave, "It Makes No Difference." Then again, you might not. They actually got back together about a decade ago, but only managed one 4-song EP (Evergreen) at the time. This new LP seems to be just about as good as anything they did back in the day, though there's no one track that's on the level of "It Makes No Difference." Also, there's some question as to whether that character in the title is supposed to be a vertical bar ("|"), or just a regular slash. But hey, it makes no difference to me! I feel nothing... at all! Ahhh-huh!

But there's more.

Trashcan Sinatras, Ever the Optimist
It's their seventh studio LP, and their first since 2016's crowdfunded Wild Pendulum. They don't seem to have lost their ability to write great pop songs, so that's good. Track 2, "Games For The ZX Spectrum," is the obvious single here (if singles still matter to anybody) and it may be the best song I've heard from them, including their big 1990 hit "Obscurity Knocks." I'm a bit concerned that the song title may confuse people (the Sinclair ZX Spectrum was one of the earliest 8-bit home computers), but for all I know it could be that one missing clever touch they've needed all along to finally put them over the top and make them The Biggest-Selling Band of All Time.
Mallory Hawk, Chinook
Stereogum chose this as their Album of the Week (subscribers only, sorry), and hey, why not? She's a very talented indie-folk/pop/rock singer from Philadelphia with a voice reminiscent of Juliana Hatfield's. She seems to be doing her level-best to avoid being easily categorized or pigeonholed into a particular genre, doing things like track-sequencing from introspective acoustic folk ("Four O' Clocks") directly into a near-punk rave-up ("Caretaker") without even asking for permission from the Style Police. (Thankfully, the Style Police are highly susceptible to bribery, so I'm sure she'll be fine.)
The Durutti Column, Renascent
It's Vini Reilly's first album back after a 15-year hiatus, and... well, I'm just going to come right out and say it, he wasn't that good a guitar-player to begin with, but over the last few years he's suffered a series of strokes that have unfortunately degraded his playing ability even more. (I know, I know, I'm a horrible person.) Nevertheless, it's a pretty good Durutti Column LP, and if you liked the older stuff, I don't think you'll be disappointed.
The Cleaners From Venus, Beryl & Ruff Go Shopping
Martin Newell & Co. have been making more than an album per year for over a decade now (especially if you include the stuff he's released under his own name), most of it recorded on a Tascam 8-track Portastudio in his kitchen. As a general rule, I tend to like everything he puts out, but over the years the lo-fi production has become sort of distracting, not least because I know he could sound so much better if he just upgraded that kitchen.
Crush Fund, GO
I guess I can't be certain, but from what I gather Crush Fund is an all-transwomen punk band, from New York City, and this is their debut album, though it's digital-only for now (they apparently released a limited-edition CD combining their first two EPs in 2024, so maybe this is their second album if you count that). It's not all hardcore, but quite a lot of it is, and they do have a lot to be pissed off about. So yeah, four trans women doing hardcore punk, how can you not like that? I mean, sure, maybe if they sued you for illegally obtaining a copy of their album in advance, that I could see, but I suspect they'd be more than willing to settle out of court in exchange for an apology and a promise not to do it again.
Family Stereo, The Thread
Family Stereo is the nom de plume of Blake Watt, son of Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn, aka Everything But the Girl. He does lite-pop, folk-rock, almost-easy-listening type stuff, mostly. Like everyone else, I was hoping for Love Not Money Pt. II, but I'm guessing he doesn't want to be seen as a "nepo-baby."
April Spring (released July 26), Making Memories With Fireflies
Here's another one for the "bands with misleading names" list, since it's a blackmetalgaze act from Denver, where Spring doesn't really happen until mid-May at the earliest. (Maybe that's the whole point, though.) They're significantly less heavy than Deafheaven, but it's the same basic idea, though the vocals are more strangled-sounding than screamo. (Is there a "strangle-o" subgenre? There should be.)

Last but not least, there's...

Collective Soul, Touch and Go
This one was actually released back on Record Store Day (Apr. 18), but that was a limited vinyl-only pressing, and I totally ignored it at the time (along with lots of other people, apparently). If I even saw it at all, I must have thought it was some kind of reissue, but either way... no! It's new stuff! As it happens, Collective Soul never really stopped making records, they just never managed to outsell their earlier ones. This LP is supposed to be an homage of sorts to 80s new wave pop, especially The Cars. They don't actually sound much like The Cars, but I guess that's never stopped them before.

All in all, not too shabby, though I'm not seeing a lot of cool obscure and/or last-minute stuff in the hopper like I did last week. And next week looks to be slower, though there are new albums scheduled from Ceremony, The Anchoress, The Mountain Goats, Strawberry Alarm Clock (yes, they're still around), and Wedding Present guitarist Rachael Wood. 😄

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

MadhattanJack — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 04:14:16 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 07/26/2026 08:14

Here's a few more from the "obscure stuff" pile, including a couple I missed from the previous week or three. None of these are actually bad, but after you get past the first four or five on this list, let's just say I wanted to hear them all the way through first.

Gloss (from July 17), Bitter and Insolent
This is an all-female nugaze/grungegaze quartet from Perth, Australia. They actually identify themselves as an "all-femme queer shoegaze and dreampop" act, but you know, tomato, tuh-mahto. This band is the best argument for moving to Perth that I've ever encountered, but admittedly that might not be saying much.
Portraits Of Tracy, Q: From Where Do Our Primal Instincts Originate? A: MTV!
You sort of have to hear this one to believe it, and it's not what you'd expect based on the album cover. Also, regardless of how much I like the album, I have to disagree about the source of our primal instincts.
Attic Salt, Stay in the Midwest
The third album from a power-pop-punk band from Springfield, Illinois with a female co-lead singer, and I'll just be brutally honest, their male co-lead-singer should probably just let her do all the lead vocals. Very fun album with no bummer/downer tracks, and no songs over 3 minutes, but it still avoids sounding dumb or silly. (The album cover is an homage to an old Beach Boys compilation album, namely Made in U.S.A., but I'm not sure if this is deserving of extra points. It might be.) It's too bad this album didn't come out a week earlier, since the title might have prevented me from moving to Perth.
Milkswarm, Boywalk
This is the second LP from a somewhat chaotic-sounding noisepopgaze quartet from Chicago, so that's two Illinois bands in a row. There's a small amount of sprechgesang involved, and so far they've yet to press up any physical releases, but no matter — they've got a fairly distinctive sound, and overall I like them. Terrible album title, though. (Their first LP was called "Sodakink" too, so this could be their Achilles' heel.)
Lisa Molinaro (from July 17), Blind Trust
Here's the debut LP from Portland, OR native Molinaro, whom you'll all remember as having played viola for Modest Mouse. (I don't think she's still doing that, but it isn't because of a restraining order or anything like that.) It's kind-of dreampoppy, kind-of chamber-poppy, and some very nice tunes. As you can see on the album cover, she has an awesome hairdo, and since that's what drew my attention to the LP on Bandcamp, I'd say this is yet another great example of why you should make your hair look as big as possible on album covers.
Suede Grooves (from July 21), Enough
This is the second 5-song EP from this Portland, OR shoegaze-lite duo. The singer on tracks 1 and 2 has a high tenor voice that's extremely reminiscent of Ian Masters from the Pale Saints, so much so that I had to check to make sure they weren't signed to 4AD Records. Unfortunately, the other singer takes over after that, and his voice is probably the reason 4AD didn't sign them.
Odor Eater, But For Who?
Another Portland, OR act (I swear I'm not doing this deliberately), this is a male-female duo that do mostly-danceable, occasionally catchy retro motorik-style synthpop. Their album covers are awful and their band name is worse, and don't even get me started on the "who vs. whom" rule, but musically they're great!
Mould, Hoping as a Coping Mechanism
Not Bob Mould, but that's okay... sort of... this Bristol, UK (finally!) group would be a post-punk band if their singer didn't sound so old-school punkish — I wouldn't call him a a "Johnny Rotten imitator," but he's in the same vein. Thankfully, we all like old-school punk too, right? Don't we? (Maybe don't answer that.)
The Bradipos Four, Reverb Gang
Here's a classic-retro, and yes, quite reverby surf-rock guitar-twanger band from Caserta, Italy. They've been together for about 30 years and this is their 7th album, so they know what they're doing surf-rock-wise, despite being from Italy. The town of Caserta is about 35km north of Mt. Vesuvius, and I don't think you can surf there, but there are Tyrrhenian Sea beaches about 40km to the west that might have waves on windy days if you get there early. Cowabunga!
Bliss Abyss (from April 17), Bliss Abyss
I'm only including this one to point out that people are still, to this very day, giving themselves shoegazey band names and tagging themselves as "shoegaze" on streaming sites despite not really being shoegaze at all. "Bliss Abyss" is really a power-pop band from Oakland, and they're not bad, they're actually quite good (at power-pop), but they're also not going to sell a lot of records/streams/downloads if they're misleading potential fans like this. Truth in packaging, folks — not something to blow off!
Sound Effects Of Death And Horror, A Martian Odyssey
This appears to be a solo act — a guy named "John" who lives in the UK and does 80s-style synthwave instrumentals that are somewhat lacking in low-end frequency response. So you just have to take his word for it that this is a "Martian" odyssey and not just incidental background music for a walking tour of Ipswich or something like that.

Also, a new Shannon Lay album, Past the Veil, is supposed to be coming out on Tuesday, and this coming Friday it's Ariana Grande, Trashcan Sinatras, the Durutti Column, and the return of the Darling Buds. After that, I think we might be entering a bit of a "lull period," but I've been wrong about that before, so... fingers crossed, I guess!

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

MadhattanJack — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 16:46:46 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 07/23/2026 20:46

What July 24, 2026 releases are YOU... now, see that, I've already lost my train of thought.

Obviously whenever there's a new Robyn Hitchcock studio album released, especially an "electric" one, the easy thing for me would be to say "nothing else matters dammit, this is the album!" or something casually dismissive (of everything else) like that. But of course, I don't do the "easy thing," I do the thing that... well, now that I think of it, I guess I really just do the easy thing.

Robyn Hitchcock, The Confuser (all tracks already streaming now, so you have no excuse)
Robyn's last album, 2022's Shufflemania, sounded a bit "loose" because he brought in lots of different backing musicians for almost every track. This time he's got the same three guys on bass drums 'n' guitar for the whole thing (with only Kimberley Rew and Gillian Welch doing guest-shots), and the resulting LP is not only tighter, but more upbeat and energetic, helped along by a mostly cleaner, more stripped-down production sound. Depending on which Robyn you prefer, this could be the best thing he's done (aside from the Venus 3 and Soft Boys reunion albums) since 1999's Jewels for Sophia, maybe even earlier. I prefer "Rockin' Robyn," of course.

Meanwhile, there are albums out this week from The Strokes (Reality Awaits); the aforementioned Charli XCX (Music, Fashion, Film, not necessarily in that order); Cypress Hill (Dios Bendiga, their first all-Spanish-language LP); and "60 is the new 35" standard-bearer Shania Twain (Little Miss Twain, her 7th studio LP, not including the two or three albums' worth of demos and other material they released to exploit her huge 90s popularity). Unfortunately the Stefano Guzzetti covers album was moved to Aug. 21, because Stefano cannot be pinned down, and how dare you even try! Also, Australia's Ed Kuepper has a new live album to go along with his new 6-song EP with The Aints, Autocannibalism (that's a real thing by the way, but I wouldn't suggest trying it yourself unless you're one of those "MAGA" people). And while this thread isn't supposed to be for pricey reissues, I feel compelled to say there's a new box set of all the Mojave 3 albums, remastered on vinyl, because it's never too soon to pick out things to put on your Christmas list. (Oops, I just re-checked and it's sold out already. Never mind! 🙁 )

And that's not all! We also have...

Lockstep, I Know What I Saw
These guys are awesome. They're a doomgazer trio from Nashville, this is their debut album, and there's practically no trip-hop involved whatsoever. What a relief! They seem to be more on the "heavy slowcore" side of the genre, so they might even appeal to metal fans. (Not metalheads though, since those folks are on a whole different level.)
Ian Sweet, Shiverstruck
"Ian Sweet" is the nom de plume of Jillian Medford, a somewhat waifish-sounding indie-rock, almost-post-punk singer from Los Angeles. I'm not going to complain about the gender-incongruous name because I probably wouldn't have noticed her previous albums if she'd released them under the name "Jillian Medford" either, but c'mon, "Ian Sweet"? I can't help but think this name is holding her back, because someone who sounds this good and can write songs like these should be much better known than she is. She needs one of those non-gender-specific "transgressive" names, like "Eartheater" or "Destroyer." "Ian Sweet" sounds like a name for an octogenarian UK glam-rocker from the 1970s.
Spearmint, Chase Me
It used to pain me that we lived in a world where no one had heard of Spearmint, because I'd not only heard of them, I owned a copy of their first album, A Week Away, and I even liked it, but despite all that I somehow never managed to score a date with Zooey Deschanel. (I think I still have the album somewhere, though...) They've still got the same lineup they had back in 1985, and all their albums are good... just not quite "great." Historically speaking, there are too many 70s-retro touches, the vocals are "just okay" really, there aren't enough hooks and dynamics, and there are few (if any) short bursts of chaos or discordance to "liven things up." As for this album though, there's only one preview track (which is very good) and a single or two, and based on those I'd say they sound better on this album production-wise than they have in years. Maybe ever. We'll see!
Pete Yorn, All The Beauty
I've always sorta liked Pete, which I realize might be damning with faint praise, but while I haven't heard everything he's recorded, it's fair to say that he's released some good stuff and also some bad stuff. Word on the street is that this LP is likely to be counted amongst the good stuff, and if the two pre-release singles and the preview track ("1986") are accurate representations, I'd have to agree. He even sounds less bored than usual, but I think he'll remain recognizable to most of his fans. (I still really like his version of "Moon River," by the way. Almost as much as Audrey Hepburn's!)
Josaleigh Pollett, If I Let It Quiet
This is the fourth album from Pollett, a sort-of "leftfield" art-pop/dreampop (with occasional crunch) singer from Salt Lake City, Utah. This one sounds a lot like 2023's In The Garden, By The Weeds, which is a good thing. Actually, this one might be a little more polished-sounding, which is... also good? Definitely worth a listen if you're into this sort of stuff, which I guess I obviously am.
Blue States, Where the Fades Meet
The Bandcamp pages for Andrew "Blue States" Dragazis (originally from Greece, now based in London) still tag him as downtempo electronica, but I suspect that was from when he was first starting out in 1999 and they just haven't gotten around to updating them recently. (See this BEA chart by ButterThumbz for a handy intro to downtempo and related genres, by the way.) Since then, Dragazis has evolved into more of a mod-psychedelia guy, not quite 60s pastiche, but clearly influenced by that hip-cool Swingin' London sound. Probably won't appeal to everybody, but it kind of surprised me, at least.

I have a list of five or six others that I might post later, along with a two or three I missed from earlier, but posting everything all at once... that just seems completely excessive, if you ask me. It would be nice if they'd space these releases out a little better, but the music industry not only refuses to listen to my advice, I think it really does this just to spite me. It's a lot like the US Government in that respect. 🫠

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

MadhattanJack — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 03:37:07 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 07/23/2026 07:37

Cheddar wrote:

I was not expecting to see a Charli XCX album in the New Releases section for tomorrow. After Brat I am all in on checking out what she has to offer.

Oh, this album is going to be a lot better than Brat. There were four songs on Brat that were over three minutes long, but this one only has two!

Even the videos are better.

Link

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

Cheddar — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 02:05:31 GMT

Author: Cheddar

Posted: 07/23/2026 06:05

I was not expecting to see a Charli XCX album in the New Releases section for tomorrow. After Brat I am all in on checking out what she has to offer.

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

MadhattanJack — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 20:24:42 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 07/17/2026 00:24

What July 17, 2026 releases do you suspect might be involved in the massive international idiocratic conspiracy?

This week actually looks pretty good. There are new albums from Steve Lacy (Oh Yeah?), Yard Act (You're Gonna Need a Little Music), Tricky (Different When It's Silent), Sophie Hunter (Stereoscope), and Gracie Abrams (Daughter From Hell), all of which sound like they could have hit potential, even the Yard Act album — though I'm not 100% sure yet about the Sophie Hunter LP, because they've been very secretive about that one. The two advance singles sounded fine, though. (Not my "thing" genre-wise, but still... fine. Better than what I could do, anyway.)

By the way, the new Kasabian album, Act III, has been moved back to Sept. 4, but apparently special hotlines have been set up for people who might attempt to harm themselves because of the delay.

There's stuff for the geriatric set too this week, with 70's AOR dinosaur-rockers Foreigner coming back with a new LP entitled In the Eye of the Storm, and non-dinosaur (but still geriatric) Patti Smith Group guitarist Lenny Kaye with his very first solo album, Goin' Local. He says the title refers to his wanting the record to sound like it was made in New York by real, local New Yorkers, but honestly, what else was he going to do? He's lived there practically his whole life. Regardless, I really like what I've heard of it, which only makes it seem more unfortunate that it took him this long to record it. Thankfully he's only 79 years old, so he's probably got time for at least another single or two. (I'm going to regret writing that if anything bad happens to him in the near term...)

As I mentioned earlier, I didn't think anything was going to displace the Swapmeet album as my pick-of-the-week, and I was right, but three others came close. This week was unusual too, in that there was practically nothing among the new 'n' obscure stuff that I thought was worth mentioning, other than Swapmeet itself.

Swapmeet, Mount Zero
They're a somewhat-fun guitar-based indie-rock/post-punk band from Kaurna Land in South Australia near Adelaide (which is pretty remarkable in itself), and this is their debut LP. I wouldn't say there's anything revelatory about it, I just really like it. They're clever without being pretentious, I guess. That's always a good explanation...
Tricky, Different When It's Silent
As you all probably know, Tricky is a rapper, not a singer, but most of his songs have vocal melodies written in, so he brings in guest vocalists to sing them. Usually these vocalists are female, and he has women singing on two of the tracks here, but the main guest singer this time is a young-ish guy from Tricky's old neighborhood in Bristol named Mitch Sanders. Not what you'd probably expect, but he does a good job. (Apparently he isn't related to Bernie Sanders, Deion Sanders, or Colonel Sanders — you can tell because none of those guys can do a decent falsetto.) The advance hype says this is Tricky's best album in at least 20 years, but of course it would say that, it's advance hype, it has to say that. Still, I was impressed with the preview tracks, some of which have some real crunch to them. (No word yet on whether or not Mitch is responsible for the crunch.)
Eartheater, Heavenly Body: If I'm The Bottle You're The Message
This one actually came out a couple of days ago. Eartheater is the nom de plume of Alexandra Drewchin, who has now made seven albums — she's kind of an ambient-pop, new age folktronica artist. She recently got married, bought her family's old farmhouse that they'd had to sell back in 2015 (and where she was born), became pregnant, and made a whole album about the pregnancy, basically (that's her on the album cover). Congratulations to the happy couple by the way, since the birth apparently went off without a hitch, the baby is doing fine, and the usual dumb-ass rumors that most tall female celebrities are subjected to on the internet regarding sex organs and what-not have presumably now been scotched. Meanwhile, I would say this album, while extremely well-made and impressive, is more new-agey and "ethereal" than her previous material — there are drum machines throughout, but you don't get a persistent beat until track 9 ("Favorite")... so she's now officially on the list of artists whose names are completely misleading, along with Skullcrusher, Tapeworms, Freak Slug, the Trailer Trash Tracys, and (arguably) Destroyer.
The Menzingers, Everything I Ever Saw
These guys from Scranton, PA made a splash in the 2010s with their albums On the Impossible Past and After the Party, but I wouldn't say it was huge splash. For good or ill they've been pretty consistent with their material for about 20 years now, and the culture has definitely shifted more than they have. This is their 9th LP, they still kind of toe the line between pop-punk and emo, and I still don't love the vocals, but overall it's a good record and they seem like nice-enough guys.

Finally, there's a 40-year comeback this week from the United States of Existence, a psychedelic-pop revival/throwback/pastiche band from Baltimore who technically made an album in 1986, so this is 40 years later and they've got a new one called Lavender Glory Trip. It's not bad. I think they tried to get it to sound like a genuine-sounding 1968 production, but had "mixed success," as they say. (Needs more fuzz pedal!)

Next week, of course, there's the new Robyn Hitchcock album, The Confuser, which I guess is his answer to Nick Lowe's 2001 album The Convincer. (They're pals, so it's okay.) Nobody is going to outrank that on any list I make, but there are also new LPs from Charli xcx, The Strokes, Spearmint, and Pete Yorn, plus a covers album from Stefano Guzzetti. Should be a good week! 😄

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

MadhattanJack — Sun, 12 Jul 2026 21:49:31 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 07/13/2026 01:49

I didn't expect to like the new Jack White album, but I guess I do? Not my usual thing, but it's probably the most fun he's sounded since the "Icky Thump" days. Someone must have told him to stop taking himself so seriously. (He did a pretty good job on Saturday Night Live a couple weeks ago, and he was in that video Stephen Colbert made just after his last show on CBS too.)

Anyways, I threatened to post more new albums, and it turns out I did miss a few, plus there were some surprise drops. All but one of the five releases below are from male-female duos, by the way. I'm sure that's just a coincidence...

CUTS, Only Love Remains
CUTS are from Bristol, and it's unclear as to whether it's supposed to be an actual duo or a solo-act dude with the same female backup, and sometimes lead, singer (Patti Aberhart) on every album. Either way, this is a quality shoegaze record, and it probably would have beaten out Sundayclub for my pick-of-the-week if I'd been aware of it. (Not entirely my fault though — they moved the release date on this one, it was originally supposed to come out last month. They also released the title track as a single over a year ago, and that sometimes causes additional confusion.)
SPC ECO, Phased
I already mentioned their last album here, noting that it was "not really the best LP they've ever done." This isn't either — they're slowing things down even more, and I'd have to say they're almost completely tripgazer now, moving more towards ambient darkwave (or something like it)... and any resemblance they had to Curve or any other 90s-era OG dreamy-shoegaze band is pretty much gone, outside of the vocal similarity. That doesn't mean they're suddenly "terrible" or anything like that, but they're not as great as they used to be, in my opinion at least. Quite prolific, though!
Baby Smith, Lately, Love is Dead
This is the debut album from a kinda-oddball Europop duo, from Berlin by way of Australia. The instrumentation here is somewhat light, maybe even minimalist, with a dreampop-sounding female singer and well-above-average songcraft. Usually I might skip this sort of record for being too "laid back," but it has a certain... panache. (There's no Discogs page yet, but I'm pretty sure they're a real band... they have a fun little video, at least.)
My Raining Stars, Toy Club
This is a fairly nice-sounding jangly popgaze LP by a solo-act guy from France; not quite "twee," but in the same ballpark. I don't hate the vocals, but as is so often the case, the vocals are the weak point here. He should hire a female singer and become a duo like everybody else, dammit!
Violette, Soft Hearted
This duo from Birmingham, Alabama does 50's, maybe early-60s twangy/torchy pop, along the lines of Duane Eddy, Petula Clark, or Sonny & Cher, but with occasional synth bloops to remind you it's a modern retro-pop recording. They've probably seen too many David Lynch movies for their own good, but I have no objection to their approach... I just don't hear a lot of catchy hooks, memorable choruses, big orchestral swells, things like that, which might give their material some "zing."

Finally, there was a new Xiu Xiu record released on Friday, namely Eraserhead Xiu Xiu, which is their "reimagining" of the Eraserhead soundtrack. It's basically an ambient/musique concrete/darkwave record, perhaps vaguely similar to the original, with a rather pallid version of "In Heaven" tacked on at the end. I've never really liked Xiu Xiu and this hasn't changed my mind about them, but I did want to mention it in case there are any fans reading this.

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

Cheddar — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:59:56 GMT

Author: Cheddar

Posted: 07/10/2026 04:59

I'm pretty excited for the new Jack White album after how great No Name was.

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

MadhattanJack — Thu, 9 Jul 2026 23:33:21 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 07/10/2026 03:33

What July 10, 2026 releases do you, blah blah blah, etc., etc?

Obviously, any time there's a new Rolling Stones album, like this week's Foreign Tongues, the music media (or what's left of it) has to take notice. I don't, though, so I'm just going to ignore it. Meanwhile, we've got new albums from Jack White (Frozen Charlotte, which I'm guessing is not a reference to Charlotte, North Carolina or its hockey team) and Suki Waterhouse (Loveland), who is not as famous or as well-regarded musically as the Rolling Stones or Jack White, but who has to be mentioned because her name reminds me of Price Waterhouse, one of the Big Four global accounting firms who secretly control the entire world. (I'm kidding! It's probably only about 90 percent.)

Also, I'm afraid we have to talk about Finn Wolfhard. Most of us know him from his role as nerdy-kid "Mike Wheeler" on Netflix's Stranger Things, but it turns out he also sings and makes records, and his new LP, Fire From the Hip, comes out tomorrow too. It would be easy to dismiss this as just another actor-vanity project, but I haven't gotten to where I am today by doing the "easy" thing. (Indeed, I've gotten here by never doing anything whatsoever.) The fact is, this isn't a bad album — I haven't heard all of it, but the preview tracks clearly show a deliberate attempt to get that sort of spiky, lo-fi "DIY bedroom" sound reminiscent of 60s-era Beatlesque twangy-Rickenbacker guitar pop that we all love so much. Maybe a bit too much... So I checked who the (co-)producer was, and sure enough, it's Kai Slater of Chicago's Sharp Pins. "Big whoop," you say, but Sharp Pins were critic's darlings last year, and that choice is going to give Wolfhard a lot more musical credibility than he might have had otherwise as just another stupid actor.

As for my "serious" picks, I've got six:

Sundayclub, Sundayclub
It's the debut LP from a dreampopgazer duo from Canada with a female singer who sounds just like Sabrina "Blondshell" Teitelbaum. How can this not be my pick of the week? It's practically automatic.
She's Green, Swallowtail
I posted about this one earlier — the screwups with the release date and the tracklist on Bandcamp (where it's still a 4-song EP) still haven't been corrected. Maybe tomorrow, but it's not a good sign, as it shows that whoever's responsible for the business side of this band isn't getting the job done, and when that happens, the bands often don't last. That said, my opinion of the record hasn't changed, either — as much as I like them, if the three tracks I haven't heard yet aren't significantly better than the four I have, this is going to be my least-favorite release of theirs. (That still puts it above a whole lot of other stuff, though.)
Luke Haines, Izzy Wizzy Let’s Get Bizzy
You all remember him from The Auteurs and Black Box Recorder, but he also makes a lot of these "tribute to an era" solo albums. Apparently this one is about English TV magic shows for kids during the 1960s and 70s (the title is a quote from The Sooty Show, used by Sooty the Bear in place of "abracadabra"), and how they might have influenced an entire generation of kids in the UK to become weirdos, drug addicts, and... OMG, Britpop fans! So, pretty much the usual sort of thing you'd expect from a Luke Haines album — it's a good record, but it helps if you've heard some of the previous ones and know what to expect going in.
Parts & Labor, Set of All Sets
Here's an interesting band from (where else?) Brooklyn, who sound like what you'd get if a post-punk, almost-noisepop, almost-nugaze band from 2005 hired a pair of symphonic prog-rock singers from 1975 and tried to make a go of it, because... why not? At least it's different, which is something most bands can't claim for themselves these days. (Or ever, really.) This is their first album after a 15-year hiatus — the last one, 2011's Constant Future, was produced by Dave Fridmann who was famous for records like the Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin and The Delgados' Hate, where he had a habit of overdriving the low end and generally making things sound more bombastic than may have been strictly necessary. This album sounds both less psychedelic and less bombastic, which seems to suit them better.
Sad13, 1331
Sad13 is the solo project of Speedy Ortiz singer/guitarist Sadie Dupuis, from Philadelphia. She injured her elbow in a bike accident a couple of years ago and had to undergo extensive rehab in order to play the guitar again, but she assures us that she's fine now and that the significant increase in the use of electronic instruments on this, her third solo effort, has nothing at all to do with the injury. (Mind you, I'm not complaining or anything.) She calls this a "mixtape" though, so maybe it's not a real album either — it's 13 tracks, but the whole thing runs only about 16 minutes. Frankly, the whole thing is very suspicious. We might want to keep an eye out, in case Tiktok videos start to appear.
Panda Bear & Sonic Boom, A ? of WHEN
Apparently this one is available as a 10-track download on Bandcamp and pandabearofficial.com, or you can buy it at record stores or on Amazon.com as a 5-track EP... but it won't be available for streaming anywhere, even on Bandcamp. (This is probably not a good way to maximize the album's BEA ranking points.) I'm guessing the vinyl and CD versions come with download codes for the other five tracks, but with these guys, who knows. And since I'm not going to be able to actually hear it, I'm left with just saying that most of it is supposedly centered around "harp loops" provided by Mary Halvorson, and the title track is probably a cover of track 2 from In Living Colour's Collideoscope LP, which in turn was presumably named after track 5 from the Psonic Psunspot album by the Dukes of Stratosphear, aka XTC. This is not enough of an XTC connection to get me to buy the record (sorry), but other XTC fans reading this thread might still still want to know.

I might post a few more later, depending on circumstances... but if not, next week looks a bit less interesting — to me, at least — despite, or perhaps because of, new LPs from Steve Lacy, Tricky, and Foreigner (yes, that Foreigner). I'll probably ignore all those in favor of Australia's Swapmeet and their new album Mount Zero, but hopefully more stuff will pop up in the meantime. 😄

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

MadhattanJack — Wed, 8 Jul 2026 04:47:19 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 07/08/2026 08:47

albummaster wrote:

Just to say always love your write-ups and enjoy this thread very much 8)

Thanks! 😄

We're just past the midpoint of the year, so I figured this would be as good a time as any to post this list of six releases that somehow got overlooked during the past 6 months.

Jesca Hoop, Long Wave Home:
I'm a little surprised nobody else picked this one up since she's a fairly big name, but in any event, it's another fine album (her seventh, I think) from Hoop, the somewhat quirky folk-rock singer from Santa Rosa, California who has apparently relocated to Manchester, England, at least for now. (I should probably do that too, though I doubt most Mancunians would go for the idea.)
Keep Shelly in Athens, V:
This is a nice-sounding dream-pop/electrogaze duo from Athens, Greece, who since 2016 have had a singer named Jessica Bell as one of their two members. She sings in English, making it easy to mistake them for a UK or American band. The "V" refers to this being their fifth album, so it's also easy to mistake them for a band that likes Roman numerals. I've been on the fence about them because they sound like they could have greatness potential (track 4 on this album, "Better Said," is a good example), but too much of their material is just standard folk-tinged guitar pop. Still, not bad.
Radhika, Cine-Pop:
This is the first album by Radhika Meera Dade, from Glasgow, whose father, Sushil "Future Pilot AKA" Dade, used to play bass for the Soup Dragons. He was also in the BMX Bandits for a while, as well as The Burns Unit (along with criminally-underrated Delgados singer Emma Pollock), so I suppose Radhika could be accused of being a "nepo-baby" — but it's a very good guitar-based atmospheric pop album nonetheless, and she does have a lovely (if somewhat waifish) voice. The LP features appearances from many well-known Glasgow scenesters, including members of the Pastels, Teenage Fanclub, and Camera Obscura, and since all of them are friends of her dad, that probably won't do much to dispel those "nepo-baby" allegations.
The Sheila Divine, The Middle Ages:
These guys are (or rather, "this guy is") from Boston, and they started out as more of a shoegaze act but are now a more conventional anthemic alternative-rock band. Also, they seem to have become less of a "band" and more of a solo act with just the original bandleader, Aaron Perrino. They (or Aaron, at least) call themselves "the Buffalo Bills of Music," presumably because they keep losing in the Championship game. I've never actually seen any evidence of this band having played in a Championship game, though I could have easily missed that too if it was for one of those "filler" sports they show on ESPN2 sometimes, like Belt Sander Racing.
The Jack Rubies, Visions In The Bowling Alley:
This is the second Jack Rubies "comeback album," the first being 2024's Clocks Are Out of Time. I was one of the very few people on Earth who bought not one, but two of their three albums from the 1986-90 period and liked them, so I now consider myself uniquely qualified to say that this new one is pretty much in the same vein as their previous stuff. Good tunes, but unfortunately the production sound seems a little flat this time around, like they had the studio monitors turned too far up and failed to check what it sounded like at normal volume. Sounds okay if you play it really loud, but why would you? It's not like it's metalcore or anything like that.
Midrift, Silhouette (Amazon link):
This one, I'm a little dubious on. They're what I would call a "grungegaze" band with emo tendencies from San Francisco, this is their first album (after having released several EPs), and they apparently think of themselves as a shoegaze act influenced by My Bloody Valentine. Um, no, they don't sound like that at all, but they're also not bad if you like your grunge with a certain amount of reverb and limited guitar-solo activity. The singer's sense of melody is rather limited, but that never stopped grunge bands in the past... All in all, there might be some hit potential for these guys, and indeed their streaming numbers are fairly impressive. Personally I think they should stick to making EPs, though — after more than 4 tracks, they start to sound too repetitive. That, or maybe throw in an acoustic or orchestral number just to break up any perceived monotony.

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

albummaster — Fri, 3 Jul 2026 04:34:53 GMT

Author: albummaster

Posted: 07/03/2026 08:34

Just to say always love your write-ups and enjoy this thread very much 😎

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

MadhattanJack — Thu, 2 Jul 2026 20:30:28 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 07/03/2026 00:30

What July 3rd, 2026 releases do YOU wish were real, and not just some fake thing I made up for cheap laughs because I'm hopelessly insecure and strongly suspect that nobody is reading this thread anymore?

If there was ever a week to take off and forget all about this stuff, this is it. We're looking at an almost-historic dearth (I always liked that word) of new releases this week, with just two new studio albums by acts most people have heard of — Madonna and Deep Purple. The sad thing is that there are people will see the new Madonna album and think, "wow, what a great week for new releases!" without actually checking how many there actually are.

Earlier I mentioned a new Robyn Hitchcock "live" album, Live at Acheron, which I would normally be pretty excited about. It's not really a live album though, it's a live in studio album, which is to say he walked into the Acheron Recording Studio in East Nashville with an acoustic guitar and just recorded a bunch of his 80s favorites — along with two covers, of Syd Barrett's "Gigolo Aunt" and the Beatles' "A Day in the Life" — with no audience, no overdubs and no backing musicians. All well and good, I suppose, but he'll have a new full-band studio album called The Confuser out at the end of the month, and I'm not going to pretend I'm as excited to hear this one as i am to hear that one.

I should also say that the new Deep Purple album (Splat!) isn't bad. It's true that the three members who are still around from the classic "Mark II" lineup are 80 years old now, but apparently they can still play, it has a pretty cool album cover, the keyboardist (Don Airey) uses organ synth patches to sound just like Jon Lord, and Ian Gillan still sounds like... Ian Gillan! His vocal cords have barely aged a day! (The guitarist, though, I'm not so sure about — he seems to prefer "textures" to outright riffage for some reason.) All in all, they really don't sound that different from the band that made Machine Head, though I wouldn't expect another "Smoke on the Water" or "Highway Star."

There's also a new record from Adam "Low Cut Connie" Weiner called Livin in the USA, which I'm going to say is the pick-of-the-week purely for political reasons. Musically it reminds me of straight-up 70s/80s AOR, like some of Billy Joel's or Huey Lewis's more upbeat singles, complete with saxophones and everything. Supposedly they put on a pretty good live show... Hopefully this one gets some media attention, if only for the lyrical content — otherwise, it's probably a little too old-school Dad-rockish for mainstream commercial success.

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

I'm tempted to not even mention the rest, but here they are anyway:

Wax Minds, Funatic Asylum: In addition to having the most impressively hideous album cover I've seen this year, this "weird-punk" outfit from Bremen, Germany, is actually a lot of fun. I think the word "weird" is used here to try to prepare you for how the guitars sound, but it probably won't be enough.
Smirk, Speculative Fiction: A more conventional all-guitars punk record, by a solo act from Connecticut, or maybe Brooklyn. There's some promise here, but I actually think a more bigger, more post-punk sound would benefit the material. (I'm just sayin'.)
Hey Thanks., Avoidance: Here's an 80s-retro synthwave band with "New Romantic" (which is also retro) leanings, from New Orleans, Louisiana of all places. They write some good tunes, and this is their second album — I should note that on their first (2022's Start/Living), they called themselves "Hey Thanks!" with an exclamation mark. That could cause some confusion. My guess is that whoever owns the copyright on the exclamation mark must have complained.
Miko, Petals and Marbles: Miko is the nom de plume of Rie Mitsutake, an avant-poptronica singer (at least that's what I call it) from Tokyo. (Not to be confused with Young Miko, who is actually from Puerto Rico.) For most Western ears this stuff is probably a little too repetitive and maybe a little too "bloopy" too, but if you like Japanese music in general, especially of the electronic variety, I'd say it actually has a pleasing hypnotic effect to it. (For me, it's a nice change from all that hyperpop stuff so many Japanese musicians have been producing lately.)
Wash, Wash (released on June 30th): Wash were a group of 90s OG shoegazers from Perth, Australia, and if you've ever been to Perth it won't surprise you that they were the only shoegaze band there at the time. These recordings of them are mostly demo-quality and a little harsh-sounding, despite being cleaned up for this release... but I thought I'd mention them anyway because I'm kind of a "history buff."

Finally, there's the self-titled album from Ondanaconda. Most of you have heard the expression "it's turtles all the way down"; this band from Geneva, Switzerland is just like that, only it's jaw harps all the way down. Yup, a four-piece band, all four playing jaw harps. And it's not bad, either! I like it more than your typical Eurodisco/EDM record, at least.

Anyway... that's all I've got! "Five and eleven," as they say...

Next week looks a lot better — apparently the full 7-track LP version of the She's Green album is coming out, plus we've got the Rolling Stones, Jack White, Luke Haines, Xiu Xiu, Sad13, and Sundayclub, plus a compilation of live tracks from Rain Parade.

Until then! 😄

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

MadhattanJack — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 22:30:40 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 06/27/2026 02:30

No surprise drops today, really. There's a new LP called This Charming Life by Communist Sex Magic that I'm pretty sure wasn't pre-announced, but that doesn't make it a "surprise," does it. The communists have been trying to use magic to force me to have sex with them for months, and I just won't do it. I've got standards, dammit! 😐

In other updates, the Temples' Bliss album has gotten some good reviews, but also a couple of pretty bad ones — Tim Sendra at AllMusic.com called it a "near total misfire," and Ruben Cross at FarOutMagazine.co.uk really trashed it, saying the album "is, unfortunately, so proud of its obnoxiousness that it bellows out its most abject qualities." So... I guess that's not good. (I still like it, though.)

I also mentioned that "expectations are a bit low" for the Telescopes' new album, and that the one preview track hadn't been "all that great." Having now heard the whole thing, I can say that expectations should have been much lower, since virtually all the tracks on it are "not that great," and I really shouldn't have added it to the BEA database in the first place. (Sorry!) Still, some people do like this sort of thing, I think? Kind-of? That's if you take enough drugs, obviously.

There was also supposed to be a new album from The 5.6.7.8.'s today called Run Run Run, and it looks like it did come out, but it's physical-media-only — at least for now, and also Japan-only. (You might remember them as the band playing "Woo Hoo" during that big fight scene in the movie Kill Bill Part II.) Apparently they're celebrating their 40th anniversary, or something to that effect. Congrats to them!

Finally, the Georgia Gets By album, Heavy Meadow, did make it onto Amazon Music and some of the other streaming services (still not Bandcamp though), so now that I've heard that, I have to say it's one of the prettiest records I've heard in quite some time — but it's even slower and quieter than I'd thought, and it gets slower and quieter as it goes along. It's a good album for sitting on your porch at your backwoods home in October and watching the leaves turn their Fall colors, I'l say that for it. (October's just over three months away, so you'll probably want to get on this right now so you'll be prepared.)

So until next week, stay safe, and avoid communist sex magicians unless you're sure your insurance portfolio covers that stuff.

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

MadhattanJack — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 02:33:40 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 06/26/2026 06:33

One more:

Chanel Beads
Your Day Will Come (2026)

Sharp-eyed avant-pop fans with good memories might recall that Chanel Beads (aka Shane Lavers from New York, New York, "the city so nice they named it twice") released an album in 2024 that was also entitled Your Day Will Come. Apparently Shane here has little or no regard for the logistical and organizational problems of informational websites that attempt to catalogue album releases and make sense of people's discographies in the face of their insistence on clever "stunts" to draw more attention to their musical output. That said, it's an interesting little art-pop/art-rock record, mostly 4/4 and guitar-based but definitely a bit "leftfield," as they say. I hope I'm not being too offensive by stating that his voice sounds like it didn't quite "change" when he hit puberty, but that said, he does a good job with the vocals and I tend to be too offensive most of the time anyway. All in all, not up there with Temples and Beth Orton this week for me, but certainly on par with the other stuff I mentioned.

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

MadhattanJack — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 16:52:44 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 06/25/2026 20:52

What June 19th, 2026 releases do YOU intend to use in YOUR campaign to conquer the galaxy and crush a million worlds under your mighty boot-heel? (Tomorrow?)

This is a ridiculously big new-releases week, with some people counting as many as 400 of the things, all in one go. And to make things worse, next week there's a new Madonna album, so a lot of the media attention is being hoovered up by that already while this week's stuff gets the short shrift. Shame on you, Madonna!

If we put Madonna aside for the moment though (and who hasn't?), I guess the big album this week is the new one from Muse, The Wow! Signal. Now, I'm not a big fan of these guys, and this album isn't going to change that, but I'm actually more concerned about the title since there are at least two bands named "The Wow Signal" out there as well as at least ten albums called that by other bands. Don't they have Google? This is a major act! And what's wrong with, I dunno, "The Holy Shit Signal"? Anyway, I think this is album #12 for them.

Then there's the "new" album by the Butthole Surfers, After the Astronaut. This is actually a "lost" album that was recorded in 1997, slated to be released as The Last Astronaut in 1998, but then shelved by Capitol Records for about, oh, 29 years or so. Now it has been unearthed, cleaned up, properly mixed and mastered, etc., etc., with the correct artwork and the original title and everything, coming out on digital and white vinyl, just in time for most of their original fans to play at their retirement parties. Nice work! Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of these guys either, but I guess I never did learn how to surf.

This week's pick-of-the-week will have to be another toss-up (sorry!) between Temples and Beth Orton.

Temples, Bliss:
You might remember these guys from their highly-regarded 2014 debut album, Sun Structures, one of the best non-Dukes-of-Stratosphear 1966-68-era British psychedelic pop pastiches, like, ever — good enough to make it into the BEA Overall Top 1,500, even. Of course, you can't keep making the same pastiche over and over again, so during the past 12 years they've gradually modernized their approach with lots of synthesizers and drum machines and stuff like that. I still really like their songs though, and their singer still has that clear high tenor while refusing to sing into a clear-sounding microphone with proper EQ applied, so that's... good? Probably.

Beth Orton, The Ground Above:
If I were a music critic, I'd recommend this over the Temples LP because it's just a better album in terms of lyricism, sound/vocal quality, and general craftsmanship. I haven't heard all the others she's done, but I'd say this is just as good as Central Reservation and Sugaring Season (the two I'm most familiar with), and it may even be better — I'll know when I hear the whole thing (she didn't pre-announce this until just last week). Just a really well made LP, but definitely not as fun 'n' catchy as the Temples album.

As for the (best of the) rest...

The Telescopes, Static Charge
Normally I'd get reasonably excited about a new Telescopes album — this is their 19th LP though (in 38 years) so it's not like there's a shortage. Also, the release dates got all mixed up, and they only put up one preview track, which frankly isn't all that great. So, expectations are a bit low for this one.
Georgia Gets By, Heavy Meadow
Here's the full-length debut LP from New Zealand's Georgia Nott, who also sings for The Broods. The Broods are more of an electropop act though, whereas this is more folksy and acoustic, and though it often veers into "Americana" territory, the songs are much more real and memorable, and her vocals are fantastic. Again I'm concerned about the title though, since "Heavy Meadow" has been used already by multiple bands and albums (not to mention that it's a pun), and I'm also concerned that it only seems to exist on Spotify at the moment. Sometimes people just need extra time, I guess.
Las Robertas, All We Need is Now
This six-piece band from Costa Rica does psychedelic guitar-oriented dreampop, sort of, with all the lyrics in English. Pretty good, overall — the only problem I have with this one is that they shouldn't need six people to sound like they do. At least one person is probably in there just to play tambourine or something. Also, the vocals could be better.
Proun, Maybe Luck
Proun is a fairly interesting trio from Austin, TX, who I'd describe as "folkie-post-punk." It's another debut album where the instrumentation is minimal so that the songs will be recognizable when played live by just the three of them, but there's some fairly intricate guitar work in there that helps make up for it. The name "Proun" refers to a Russian art movement that popped up around the time of the Bolshevik revolution, so maybe they're Communists or whatever, but it might also be an oblique reference to the word "pronoun." We just don't know.
The Pretty Reckless, Dear God
Holy smokes, this is some high-energy bad-girl hard-drivin' rock 'n' roll, straight from New Yawk City. Why can't I meet women like Taylor Momsen where I live? It's so unfair... It's their 7th album, and I'm guessing the title track is not a cover of the XTC song from 1986. Maybe that's for the best.
LOWREV, It's Hard to Lie to Strangers
Nice, somewhat-twee indie-pop/rock debut album by what appears to be a solo act, from Pittsburgh, PA. The singer, Joshua Fiedler, reminds me of The Auteurs' Luke Haines a little bit — because I'm sitting there thinking, "okay, the vocal fry is pretty accurate, but how does he keep it going the whole time?" Pretty good guitar work too, actually.
Cate Kennan, Shadows
She's from Los Angeles and makes a kind of ambient southwestern dreampop, like Julee Cruise used to do for David Lynch movies, only with fewer synthesizers. I like it, it's her second album, but it's not a revelation or anything.
Daydreamers, Have You Tried Screaming?
This is a fairly commercial four-piece Britpop/Britrock band from London, and I believe this is their debut album. There's a fairly clear Coldplay influence, and that's probably all you need to know going in, really. Earlier this month we had that album from Overpass that was in the same vein, so maybe Britpoprock is making some sort of comeback. Woo-hoo.
Some Velvet Sidewalk, Critters Encore
They're back after 30 years, and they sound pretty much the same, which is to say "energetic, but not very tight or meticulous in their musical approach." But hey, if you liked them before, you'll like them now, right? Of course! Why not.

Finally, there's this new album called Escape From God, by a solo artist named Bella from Alberta, Canada who goes by the stage name bea bea. It's almost-unlistenable lo-fi emo garage-o-rama, and she might even be a "furry" (not that there's anything wrong with that). Whether or not she actually succeeded in her escape attempt is anyone's guess (God has a pretty tight security system), but if you ask me she probably double-named herself "bea bea" just to get our attention here on BestEverAlbums.com. Well, guess what — it worked! I fell for it! Nice job, Bella.

Next week there's the aforementioned Madonna record, plus a new Robyn Hitchcock live LP, and... a new Deep Purple album! You can never get enough of those, I guess.

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

MadhattanJack — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 21:44:26 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 06/20/2026 01:44

imacgill wrote:

FYI...The Strokes album has been delayed to July 24th https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/the-strokes/the-strokes-new-album-is-delayed

However, based on the two preview tracks they have released for the album,I am in no rush to listen to it..

Dang, that sucks — that's the same week as the new Robyn Hitchcock album! Bastards! 😠

Still, I guess it's not surprising... Julian Casablancas is 47 now, and when you get older it just takes longer for strokes to get the job done.

Anyway, no surprise drops today (or at least none that I'm interested in). There's an apparent screwup this week though, with the new LP from Soft Palms, In Echo — BEA member Davy added it here today (thanks, man!) with a release date of Sept. 16, but there it is on Bandcamp right now with all tracks available, saying it was released last week, with the "album release" today, whatever that means. I don't know what's going on there, but it's a fun little record, especially if you like upbeat post-punk bands with waifish-sounding female singers (i.e., if you're like me).

Soft Palms
In Echo (2026)

There's also a new LP that I hadn't noticed from Swim Deep called Hum, which I'm only seeing on Spotify and Soundcloud at the moment, but it's not bad — they're in the Belle & Sebastian, Go-Betweens, Lightning Seeds, Beach Fossils kind of dreamy/jangly, somewhere between soft-rock and post-punk sort of mold, based on just a first impression at least. (Also, they're not to be confused with Swim School, which I guess is who you'd want to listen to first before trying any of the Swim Deep stuff.)

Lastly, I neglected to mention the new album from a new-ish band, Chainlacing, entitled Messuage — because of course you can't just spell the word "message" correctly if you want to use it as an album title, that would just be absurd. I think this might be their debut LP; they're from Boston and they call themselves a "dungeon dream pop" band, which is pretty accurate, as it turns out — I didn't mention them earlier because the preview tracks were kind of, you know, just okay, but now that I'm hearing the whole thing, I'm a little more impressed. Not for fans of upbeat pop music, though — they're slowcore and a bit goth, maybe a lot goth on two or three tracks, but the vocals are mixed pretty low so if they're singing about demons or blood-drinking or whatever, you'll probably never know they're doing it. They actually remind me of Clan of Xymox a little bit, except the drums and/or drum machines are mixed lower, presumably to give them more shoegazer credibility.

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

imacgill — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 19:18:17 GMT

Author: imacgill

Posted: 06/19/2026 23:18

So... slim pickin's, right? Summer can often be a lull period for new releases, but next week we've got The Strokes, Muse, and The Butthole Surfers, among others, so maybe this is just a one-week thing.

FYI...The Strokes album has been delayed to July 24th https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/the-strokes/the-strokes-new-album-is-delayed

However, based on the two preview tracks they have released for the album,I am in no rush to listen to it..

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

MadhattanJack — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 01:02:20 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 06/19/2026 05:02

What June 19th, 2026 releases are coming out tomorrow for which YOU have a diabolical master plan in the final implementation stage that would allow you to hear them as soon as possible? (Or just stream them from the usual places, starting... right about now, actually?)

This week we've got a new Chris Stamey album called Modernism; it's mostly a covers album, but there are three originals on it, so that's something. No preview tracks, so I have no idea what it sounds like, but I'm sure it's fine. He doesn't make bad records, but I can't say I've ever been a huge fan or anything... There's also a new one from Daniel Lanois, Belladonna Nocturne, which carries on nicely from most of what he's done in recent years — jazzy, dreamy, pleasant, a few interesting moments, and as far as I can tell, all instrumentals. Very nice. And as if that wasn't enough, there's another new Pye Corner Audio (aka Martin Jenkins) album called More Songs About The Sun, which probably isn't something to get too excited about since he's quite prolific and most of his stuff sounds pretty much the same, really. (Not a bad thing, I hasten to add.) On this one he's collaborating with Andy Bell though, of Oasis and Ride fame, so maybe that will get people to check it out.

There are also three new albums this week from three different generations of UK popsters:

Haircut One Hundred, Boxing the Compass: They're claiming this is "the real follow-up to Pelican West!" except that in all likelihood nobody who's still alive remembers Pelican West. (I was alive when it came out, in fact I almost bought a copy, but that doesn't mean I remember it.) Based on their recent teaser singles, I'm not all that excited about this new one either, though I've been impressed with some of Nick Heyward's solo albums, starting with North of a Miracle — which is actually a really nice pop record.

Graham Coxon, Castle Park: I believe this is his 11th solo album, and it's definitely one of his better ones, though he still isn't much of a singer. This one sounds more like 60s-era Merseybeat than most of his solo records, though admittedly I haven't heard all of them. Personally, I might have preferred another Waeve album, since both of those so far have been really good, but I guess the guy's gotta follow his muse or whatever...

The Veils, Fragile World: They only announced this a couple of days ago and they've kept a lid on it with no preview tracks, but supposedly it's not quite as "quiet and introspective" as the last one (Asphodels), it's closer to the one before that, And Out Of The Void Came Love, which was still pretty quiet and introspective. I'm not going to give up on them because of this quiet-and-introspective thing, but I'm also not getting my hopes up, to be honest.

So... slim pickin's, right? Summer can often be a lull period for new releases, but next week we've got The Strokes, Muse, and The Butthole Surfers, among others, so maybe this is just a one-week thing.

Because Repo says he's on vacation, and because Olivia Rodrigo got everyone interested in The Cure again, my pick-of-the-week will just have to be The Foreign Resort's new album, Endurance. (You know, vacation, "foreign resort"... okay, it's not funny, but I had to try.)

The Foreign Resort
Endurance (2026)

In case you're unfamiliar with them, well, they're from Denmark and they sound like The Cure during their 1983-87 period. A lot. Not on every track, and they might be a little more coldwave-ish than The Cure were in general, and not super-gothy, but still... it takes me back, y'know? What can I say, I'm old and full of nostalgia.

Happy listening, everybody! 😄

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

MadhattanJack — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 18:43:50 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 06/12/2026 22:43

Cheddar wrote:

I'll highlight the new Jesse Welles album Masks Off, which I still need to add to the site once I rate it. He is the definitive folk voice of our time in my opinion, and he continues to blow me away with the music that he releases regularly in a stripped down, acoustic form on YouTube. I've been listening to Masks Off for most of the day and it is excellent! I'm not sure if I like more than Devil's Den or Middle from last year, but it's up there for sure. Early highlights for me are Red (one of my favorites of his for a while, honestly), Masks Off, and Siddhartha. I'm so glad we have a voice like his for this current generation.

Oh yeah, I like him! "The modern-day Woody Guthrie"... He's the guy who did the Join ICE song, too. �'�

If you have a Discogs account, you could probably do him an even bigger favor by consolidating the page with his "Jeh Sea Wells" albums with the page that has all his "Jesse Welles" albums, along with the page with all the albums he did as just "Welles." It's confusing, though arguably it's his own doing, using all those names... BEA doesn't have any of the Jeh Sea Wells stuff in the database either, but I just went ahead and made Jesse a member of "Welles" (that's how Discogs has it currently — it should be an alias, right? Those are basically solo albums).

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

Cheddar — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 18:08:40 GMT

Author: Cheddar

Posted: 06/12/2026 22:08

I'll highlight the new Jesse Welles album Masks Off, which I still need to add to the site once I rate it. He is the definitive folk voice of our time in my opinion, and he continues to blow me away with the music that he releases regularly in a stripped down, acoustic form on YouTube. I've been listening to Masks Off for most of the day and it is excellent! I'm not sure if I like more than Devil's Den or Middle from last year, but it's up there for sure. Early highlights for me are Red (one of my favorites of his for a while, honestly), Masks Off, and Siddhartha. I'm so glad we have a voice like his for this current generation.