Only saw this post now because of BEA's new feature of seeing forum posts linked to releases. But I really appreciate you for shouting out and listening to my compo-EP. Thanks. New stuff on the way.
Cool! I tend to like the guitar-based stuff you do more than the synth-based stuff (this is true for everyone of course, not just you), but more people should listen to Highdrate from last year, which is even more impressive in addition to being a full-length LP. You've even got saxophones in there! Your singing has improved a lot since you started too, which is always nice. (And if you're using auto-tune, which I don't think you are, my advice is to never admit it.)
What September 4, 2026 Releases are likely to give YOU a stroke at Midnight?
Nothing to add (or apologize for, even) from last week — there was a new Beach Vacation album called Delayed Affection, but of course that's why I delayed showing it affection until right now. If bands want me to mention them immediately, they should give their albums titles like "Instant Gratification" or "Immediate Writeup," so that I'll know.
This week is a lot like last week — not a lot of big names, no clear 'n' obvious pick-of-the-week, but some decent stuff, some of it by people you've heard of. Hard to say what's likely to get the most music-media attention, but it might actually be the new Dexy's Midnight Runners album, Love, which bandleader Kevin Rowland is saying will probably be their last. It's...okay. I'm not gonna criticize.
Last week I arranged the marquee stuff "chronologically" by the age of the artist, and the "oh-by-the-way" stuff in categories at the end, and... nobody complained! So I'm going to do that again, only... even more rigidly organized.
The Geriatric Set
The 84-year-old Arthur "Crazy World of" Brown has a new album called Nature, a collaboration with Bastille frontman Dan Smith. Not bad for someone born in 1942, but I suspect Dan is doing most, if not all, of the songwriting here and probably playing most of the instruments as well. There's also a new Slaughter And The Dogs album called White Heat — their last proper LP was 2016's Vicious, and they still play live, so I guess they never really went away. They were part of that cohort of mid-70's UK pub-rock bands that decided to make the transition to the punk scene, along with the Stranglers, Only Ones, Eddie & the Hot Rods, and so on, and at this point they're probably best known for being the Sex Pistois' opening act at the famous Manchester Free Trade Hall gig in July 1976.
Last week I also mentioned Lulu, still looking great at 77, who was supposed to have a new LP called Let the Girl Sing Out tomorrow. Apparently somebody remembered that she'd already put out an LP in April of this year, so the new one got moved to January 15, 2027. (Sorry, Lulu fans!)
The Overwrought 35-60 Demographic
The new album from Arab Strap, Half-Told Tales, sounds like it's going to be good, veering semi-wildly (as they do) from punkish shouting to introspective folksy guitar-strumming, and they haven't lost their Scottish accents either, so I can certainly recommend that. There's also Kasabian's new LP, Act III, which had been delayed a few weeks — it sounds like this one's going to be not so good, unfortunately. It's their third album since replacing original frontman/domestic abuser Tom Meighan with also-original member Sergio Pizzorno. Sergio isn't a bad singer; he sounds a bit more nasal than Meighan, but some people prefer that. The fact is, I've just never been impressed by these guys. There are some fairly cheesy electro-dance tunes included here, and while the album has 13 tracks, 3 of them are just short instrumental "interludes" to separate the album into three "acts" — something about an "opera" they're trying to conceptualize, apparently. Good luck with that!
Australia's Natalie Imbruglia, who was big in the late 90s/early 2000s but hasn't been quite so big since, has a new LP called Algorithm, her first since 2021's Firebird. No word on whether or not the music on it was composed algorithmically, but you can never be too careful these days. So I guess she's back, and there's also a new one from Ellie Goulding, a big star in the UK but not so much elsewhere, called I Know Too Much. She's got a lot of fans, but it still just sounds like standard-issue electro-girlpop to me.
Birmingham, UK four-piece pop-punk band Johnny Foreigner have a new album called Forwards! I suspect they're pretty good live, but they've always struck me as... I dunno, "busy-sounding," maybe? Almost like math rock, but with more (and perhaps too much) enthusiasm. There's also a new LP from Audrey Horne, which is the stoner/hard-rock band made up of five guys from Norway, not the naughty-but-nice high-school-girl character from 90s TV series Twin Peaks, as played by Sherilyn Fenn. Their new album is called Achilles, and I'm really just mentioning it so readers won't get tricked into listening to it just because their name is an indirect David Lynch reference.
Still Able to Consume Dairy Products — for now
Lily Seabird, a semi-grungey solo folk-rock singer from Burlington, Vermont, has a new LP called Lightspheres On Their Way, which I'm fairly enthused about since I've been waiting to get my new lightspheres from the Lightspheres.com online store for weeks. (Something about backorders due to tariffs or something.) Her voice isn't "pretty" or "lilting" or anything like that — yet again, I'm reminded of Juliana Hatfield, I can't help it, I'm programmed that way — but it works with this material, and if anything they should turn it up in the mix. Then there's Sweden's Dottie Andersson, whose new album Andersson Funeral Home is a similar kind of indie-folk-rock LP, though it's a bit more lo-fi and the vocals are much more subtle, almost never rising to shout-level. Nice tunes, but not a must-listen unless you're in Sweden, where the laws probably require it.
This Week's Actual Picks:
Sacramento's Soft Science had the top spot in the bag until I learned of a new Immersion album. What can I say? I'm nothing if not loyal to my "peeps."
Immersion, What Is Lost Will Return
We've already mentioned Wire several times in this thread, so y'all know I'm a fan, with two of their albums and one of Colin Newman's solo LPs in my all-time Top 100. Immersion is a duo made up of Newman and his wife Malka Spigel (ex-Minimal Compact), both of whom are firmly in the geriatric set themselves. It's also the only Wire-related project going at the moment — unless you consider Wire itself to still be active (Wire's last studio LP was 2020's Mind Hive). Sound-wise, Immersion more closely resembles Githead, Newman & Spigel's former band with two other guys (Scanner's Robin Rimbaud and Minimal Compact's drummer Max Franken). But as long as ol' Colin does most of the lead vocals, and he and his collaborators aren't just doing something totally atonal, noise-based, or just bad (his 1997 solo LP Bastard was probably the best example of him doing the latter), it's probably going to sound Wire-ish enough for me. MAX POINTS! (Okay, not really.)
Soft Science, Sand
These California female-fronted shoegaze-popsters (three guys and two gals) remind me a lot of the High Violets, who are (or were) from Portland, Oregon, but the High Violets haven't put out a new LP in ten years. So getting this is... well, let's just say "highly reassuring and refreshing." Soft Science has actually been around since 2011 (this is their fifth album), and I'm going to have to listen to the rest of their earlier stuff now because while I suspect this is the best thing they've ever recorded, I can't really back that up until I've properly (re-)familiarized myself. Either way, a fine LP from a band that deserves more attention.
Diary, Spiral Bound
Diary is a five-piece shoegaze-psychedelic band from Brooklyn who have been around since at least 2017, and they've released three (I think) EPs and numerous singles/tracks, but this is their first full-length album. It's good, maybe a bit on the commercial/stadium-rock side of things, with the singer getting uncomfortably close to Bono/Chris Martin territory, but I can't say it doesn't have a certain swaggery charm to it.
Polymoon, Mariposa Magic!
Polymoon is another five-piece band, this time from Finland, who look and sound like they've been listening to a lot of Hawkwind albums. Especially the ones from their heavy-psychedelic period (though I realize some will maintain that they never had a non-heavy-psychedelic period). I ended up liking this a lot more than I thought I would. I might even like them better than Hawkwind itself, to be honest... Their previous two releases were both 6-song EPs, but this one has 7 tracks, so in it goes.
Masked Band Dept.
PRESIDENT, Blood of Your Empire: This masked band is fairly insistent on having their name spelled in ALL CAPS because several hundred other bands are named "President" using regular mixed case. They're an electropop act that occasionally throws a guitar chord or two in there to help listeners stay awake, but in my case, this strategy didn't work so good.
Shelf Rescues
Sharp Pins, Mod Mayday 23: Recorded in 2023 after the release of Turtle Rock, these Portastudio demos predate what's on their much-better 2025 albums Radio DDR and Balloon Balloon Balloon. I'm not sure why they released them, to be honest... it's the same catchy Beatlesque guitar pop they're known for, but this stuff needs a proper studio treatment to get that sparkle and shininess, both of which are lacking here. "For fans only," I suppose.
Prolapse, Mary Anne Hobbs Sessions 17.12.97-24.03.98: I'll never like their band name, and the album title isn't helping much either, but these noisy/droney post-punks from Leicester are nevertheless a good choice if you like to be overwhelmed by trebly guitar noise. Why this material was shelved for 28 years is anybody's guess, as long as anybody's guess amounts to "it wasn't very commercial."
The Go, Free Electricity: These garage-rockers came from Detroit, and decided early on that they were going to carry the proto-punk torch, or flag, or whatever it is, about 25-30 years after the Stooges, MC5, and Mitch Ryder all stopped being especially relevant. This was supposed to be their second LP, recorded in 2000 and shelved for being too "raw," presumably. There was a bootleg of it in 2011, but this version has been spruced up and sounds a lot better, not that most of their fans are likely to care much about sound quality.
Next Week:
As mentioned earlier, next week is the 25th Anniversary of 9/11, so there's almost nothing coming out, especially from the USA. There are new LPs from Bloc Party, The Proclaimers, The Tubs, and This is Lorelei, and maybe some other stuff will pop up, but I might as well just take the week off really. Maybe I'll go to Barbados!
Nothing to add (or apologize for, even) from last week — there was a new Beach Vacation album called Delayed Affection, but of course that's why I delayed showing it affection until right now. If bands want me to mention them immediately, they should give their albums titles like "Instant Gratification" or "Immediate Writeup," so that I'll know.
I agree that an apology is unnecessary in this case. The explanation is exhaustive. Clearly, the selection process for the select group for each week's summary is very rigorous.
It's even more understandable why last week's Masked Band Department column didn't include Marci's release, Mask Lady and Late Night Girl.
No one promised that a performer's stage image, which takes years to develop, could be so easily replaced by a cover or album title.))
I admit, I myself, until recently, treated this column too lightly. Until my intuition drew me to the omniscient one for clues.
I'm sure everyone here understands what the AI answered to my naive question: how many masked musicians attracted attention in 2026?
Then, without suspecting anything, I decided to check the interest in these artists in the charts.
After this, I couldn't help but wonder: is it enough for musicians to perform in masks to become the best in 2026?
The AI's response consisted of fairly straightforward recommendations, including:
No, simply wearing a mask is absolutely not enough for musicians.
Without quality production, the mask's image will quickly lose its novelty.
The mask must be part of the band's deep lore (history). Listeners in 2026 value storytelling—the creation of an entire fictional universe around the artist.
Successful artists build strong fan bases through social media, ARGs (real-life quests), and exclusive content, challenging fans to unravel the mysteries of their identities.
MadhattanJack wrote:
... but I might as well just take the week off really. Maybe I'll go to Barbados!
Good choice! I hardly ever leave this place myself, though I'd be hard-pressed to find it on a map, if you know what I mean.))
DommeDamianImperfect, sensitive Aspie with a melody addictionProfile where the flowers grow.
Cool! I tend to like the guitar-based stuff you do more than the synth-based stuff (this is true for everyone of course, not just you), but more people should listen to Highdrate from last year, which is even more impressive in addition to being a full-length LP. You've even got saxophones in there! Your singing has improved a lot since you started too, which is always nice. (And if you're using auto-tune, which I don't think you are, my advice is to never admit it.)
Anyway, keep up the good work, man! :)
TYSM. I had no idea you listened to Highdrate (cause it has no ratings), let alone you liked it. Two of the tracks are on the compo-EP that came out at New Year's. It's a concept album, and if anybody listens to it (which I thank you in advance) and don't know the story, I will post it as a comment on the album page. And thank you for the comments on my singing. Every single note I sing (other than the falsetto chorus on Hydration's Ghost II You) are in full voice. Autotune is completely banned in my process, but I do sometime use pitch correction once every 3rd song.
Hope everyone out there have a good one. _________________ My Top 100 :
www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=4...amp;page=1
I'm sure everyone here understands what the AI answered to my naive question: how many masked musicians attracted attention in 2026?
Then, without suspecting anything, I decided to check the interest in these artists in the charts.
After this, I couldn't help but wonder: is it enough for musicians to perform in masks to become the best in 2026?
The AI's response consisted of fairly straightforward recommendations, including:
No, simply wearing a mask is absolutely not enough for musicians.
Without quality production, the mask's image will quickly lose its novelty.
The mask must be part of the band's deep lore (history). Listeners in 2026 value storytelling—the creation of an entire fictional universe around the artist.
Successful artists build strong fan bases through social media, ARGs (real-life quests), and exclusive content, challenging fans to unravel the mysteries of their identities.
This subject actually came up in late June of this year, referring to Sleep Token and this forum post specifically. The fact is, there are a lot of masked bands out there, but most people only know about Slipknot and maybe MF Doom. And it's a difficult issue, because on the one hand, people probably feel really bad for these people having to get up onstage under all those hot lights and perform fort two long hours in heavy, sweaty, uncomfortable masks. At the same time, nobody specifically asked them to do that, and in many cases, potential fans find the masks "creepy" and off-putting and wish they had never started wearing them in the first place.
So... I guess I (or anyone here, really) could make a handy chart of "favorite albums by masked bands," but as you've pointed out with respect to Marci, some musicians only wear masks for one album. So that creates a situation where you're arguing over whether someone like her should be added to the same list as bands who have been wearing them over the course of a multi-album career. Naturally I'd say "Hell NO!" but not everyone is likely to agree with me. In fact, most people never actually agree with me at all, about anything.
This subject actually came up in late June of this year, referring to Sleep Token and this forum post specifically. The fact is, there are a lot of masked bands out there, but most people only know about Slipknot and maybe MF Doom. ...
To me, this seems simply mystically strange. I was absolutely certain this theme was connected to the popularity of the band Angine De Poitrine, which currently ranks second on BEA's list of the best albums of 2026 (so far).
Only Gorillaz, whose use of masks in promoting their brand can be considered a benchmark, outranks them.
As for Marci, I didn't find anything interesting in the Tops project featuring her. But her promo single Liquid Heartbeat somehow ended up on my playlist of the week. However, the rest of the album failed to capture my interest.
Last week, the opposite happened with LA Priest's album - Into The Sky.
I had no expectations, and the album as a whole was largely unappreciated.
But I liked the second track, "No Other," which wasn't released as a single.
I even thought it sounded like Hot Chip music with Alexis Taylor's voice.
The all-knowing intellect came to the rescue again.
Quote:
There is no direct connection or collaboration between LA Priest (Sam Eastgate/Sam Dust) and Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip frontman). However, both artists release their music on the renowned independent British label Domino Recording Company.
Surprisingly, there were even too many albums I was anticipating this week.
Perhaps, after Barbados, I'm still just getting into the rhythm of the approaching year-end review.
But so far, I haven't been captivated by a single track from my protégés, such as:
Only Gorillaz, whose use of masks in promoting their brand can be considered a benchmark, outranks them.
So... you consider digitally-drawn cartoon avatars to be equivalent to masks? 🤔
They do play live, but they don't wear any sort of physical costumes or masks onstage, they just project the cartoon versions of themselves in the background while they play the songs. By the same token, you might have to consider ABBA a masked band too, because lately they've been replacing themselves with holograms — which they call "ABBAtars."
Maybe I'm hopelessly old-fashioned, but I just think that to qualify for the Masked Band List, you have to actually wear something over your face.
Maybe I'm hopelessly old-fashioned, but I just think that to qualify for the Masked Band List, you have to actually wear something over your face.
Your department, your rules!))
Quote:
When people think of the band Gorillaz, they most often picture four cartoon characters.
These cartoon characters have become the face of the band, appearing in music videos, on album covers, and even projected onto the stage as holograms during live performances.
Quote:
When people think of the Swedish band ABBA, they first picture the four members, whose first letters make up the band's name.
Not a mask per se, but Billy Woods and Mach-Hommey can still go to a McDonalds or 3-Michelin Star restaurant in any city without a second thought— any park, sports game, community event, parade, bar, club, hotel, airplane seat—
Anonymity has perks—
I imagine DOOM was the same—
The members of Daft Punk, during their peak, etc— _________________ Doubles & Conch
Also, I'm going to work on a smidge of a shuffle on this somepoint soon, but maybe just give it a skim and pluck 2-3 releases you haven't heard—
Top 100 Music Albums of 2026 by Hayden
It's been a subtle year, and it won't ever go down as an all-time great, but there's been some good stuff over the past few months— _________________ Doubles & Conch
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MadhattanJack
DommeDamian
Hayden
