Art PopAlternative R&BIndietronicaExperimental Hip HopGlitch PopIndie RockEmo RapNeo-PsychedeliaAlt-Pop
IMPRINTColumbia
The artistbrakence is Ohio singer-songwriter and producer Randall Findell. His self-produced music moves between guitar-based songwriting, intricate electronic production and the expressive vocals of contemporary pop and emo.
The recordmarroW is a self-produced studio album whose tags span art pop, alternative R&B, indietronica and experimental hip-hop. Guitar-based songs share space with glitch-pop and psychedelic ideas, extending the overlap between rock and electronic music in his earlier work.
The artistNMIXX are a six-member JYP Entertainment group: Lily, Haewon, Sullyoon, Bae, Jiwoo and Kyujin. Their releases put group vocals at the center of a hybrid pop sound that moves among dance, rap and electronic styles.
The recordStrange Muse is a midweek EP released through JYP. Its K-pop and dance-pop foundation branches into alt-pop, pop rap and electropop, placing it among this week’s short-form, genre-crossing pop releases.
The artistStrawberry Guy is the name used by Welsh-born, Liverpool-based songwriter Alexander Stephens. His music centers on melodic, softly delivered songs, with dream-pop atmosphere and symphonic arrangements around the voice.
The recordGive Me A Dream is a studio album of dream pop and indie pop released through AWAL. The artist’s release notes emphasize piano, voice and sweeping strings, with hope and the search for beauty recurring in the songs.
The artistK/DA are Riot Games’ virtual pop group, built around League of Legends characters Ahri, Evelynn, Akali and Kai’Sa. Real singers and rappers perform the music behind the group’s animated identities and videos.
The recordFIRESTARTER is a Riot Games EP spanning K-pop, dance pop and electropop. House and EDM-trap tags add a club-oriented strand to the release’s pop and rap framework.
Dance-PopElectropopElectronic Dance MusicHyperpopJersey Club
The artistpassengerprincess is a songwriter and producer also found online as 4kcarpet. The project works in electronic pop, with hyperpop, dance-pop and club-derived styles around its self-produced songs.
The recordPUPPYLUV!!! is a studio album written and produced by passengerprincess. Dance pop and electropop provide its main frame, with hyperpop and Jersey-club tags pointing toward its more electronic and rhythm-led material.
The artistGus Dapperton makes indie pop with colorful arrangements and vulnerable songwriting. Earlier albums Where Polly People Go to Read and Orca established that approach; his fourth record now places a stronger emphasis on dance music and collaborative pop production.
The recordAn eleven-track album arriving through ALTER, 4 Dear Life draws its momentum from dancefloor-minded pop. Ledbyher, A-Trak, spill tab and hard life contribute, while “Queen” turns Dapperton’s frustration with gendered expectations and the state of the world into a personal release.
The artistMarie Ulven Ringheim is the Norwegian songwriter behind girl in red, now presenting a blue-themed chapter of her project. Her music sits between bedroom pop, indie pop and direct singer-songwriter writing, with a strong connection to queer online audiences.
The recordBLUE is a compact four-song EP, running roughly eleven minutes from its title track through “missing person,” “worst case” and “clean slate.” The release accompanies Ulven’s blue visual rebrand, while her streaming catalog continues to credit girl in red.
The artistPrincesa Alba is the Chilean pop artist Trinidad Riveros, whose work combines dance music, visual performance and a carefully constructed public persona. Her current material brings irony and self-parody into an increasingly expansive Latin electropop sound.
The recordMALAGRADECIDA examines fame, creative exhaustion and the pressure to remain authentic. Made with Francisco Victoria between Chile and Mexico, the album revisits 2000s electropop and electroclash, with guests including Javiera Mena, Gepe, iza tkm and María Daniela y su Sonido Lasser.
The artistClaud Mintz is a Brooklyn-based singer, songwriter and producer, also a member of Shelly with Clairo and collaborators. Their earlier albums Super Monster and Supermodels established a personal indie-pop world that this third record approaches with a more playful outlook.
The recordCo-produced with John Congleton, these ten songs seek moments of pleasure and community amid emotional and political weight. Claud’s release notes connect new romance and everyday observations with a decision to stop letting an old relationship determine the music.
The artistDJ Suzy is a Stockholm-based project whose Bandcamp profile presents a deliberately minimal digital persona. AOTY tags the music as alternative pop, alternative R&B and bedroom pop; more detailed biographical information was not located for this edition.
The recordKira Krash was issued on October 23 through the artist’s Bandcamp page. The sparse release presentation offers little production or thematic explanation, so the genre tags are the clearest browsing guide; the report does not infer a concept from the title.
The artistWestwood is the self-releasing artist credited on Luxury, with a catalog also containing Glamour: Deluxe and singles such as “Crying Alive” and “Kiss.” Reliable biography is scarce, so this entry avoids attaching details from other musicians sharing the name.
The recordLuxury is a twelve-song, twenty-nine-minute album released under Westwood’s own name. Apple Music classifies it broadly as alternative. Detailed album notes and a verified artist biography were not located, making this a catalog-led inclusion rather than a fully contextualized recommendation.
The artistovine hall is the alternate project associated with glaive, used for looser releases, demos and material outside his main catalog. Community histories trace a series of short EPs and singles under the name, situated around digicore and hyperpop.
The recordDearie is a two-track release featuring “i gave my diamonds all away” and “Whole Team Straight.” AOTY tags it across trap, cloud rap, folk pop and indie folk, suggesting a crossing of internet-rap and acoustic-pop territory rather than a conventional full-length album.
The artistLAUNDRY DAY identify their current band as Jude, Sawyer, Henry and Henry on their official profile. Their catalogue moves between independently released albums and shorter projects, with 4x4 arriving after the EARWORM era and alongside their Larger Than Life touring activity.
The recordThis four-song, sixteen-minute EP is a separate release, credited to Polo and Fomo under exclusive license to FADER Distribution. Its tracks include Inner Child, Sounds So Soulful and Speaking Through the Silence; detailed production notes were not located.
The artistHot Freaks are a Minneapolis indie-pop group whose older single Puppy Princess found a new audience years after release. The current lineup joins Leo Vondracek’s vocals with Sarah Alfano on bass, Cody Brown on drums and Celeste Heule on keyboards.
The recordSoft Body combines newly written songs with older unreleased ideas traded between band members in different states. Recorded with friends in Minneapolis, it pairs relationship anxiety, jealousy and longing with brisk melodies, marking a more deliberate regrouping after their viral resurgence.
The artistWinona Oak is a Swedish singer-songwriter whose catalogue includes the debut Island of the Sun and the more recent Salt EP. Her current work places candid accounts of grief, heartbreak and repair within an increasingly organic pop and singer-songwriter setting.
The recordBloom is her second album, bringing eleven songs together around recovery and opening up after difficult experiences. It includes the singles Horses, Bones and Breaking Point, plus the closing Next Mistake with maye, and arrives through Nettwerk.
The artistLondon-born singer-songwriter Michael Kiwanuka works across soul, folk and psychedelic rock. His warm vocal style and band-centered songwriting have connected those traditions since his 2012 debut, Home Again.
The recordKiwanuka’s fifth album was largely self-produced with his band. Soul ballads and folk-rooted songs sit alongside strings and rougher, live-in-the-studio textures, making this an intimate entry in his catalogue.
The artistLaila! is Brooklyn singer Laila Smith, whose debut single Like That! arrived in 2023. Her artist biography describes a home-recording practice and a self-produced debut, Gap Year!, with much of that earlier album made in her bedroom.
The recordThis new release sits between alternative R&B, neo-soul and bedroom pop in AOTY’s tags. The primary release page provides its songs and date but little explanatory copy; approach it as a new chapter from an artist already working across singing and self-production.
The artistJohn Legend is a singer, songwriter and pianist whose polished soul and R&B connect gospel roots with contemporary pop. Muse pairs his voice with longtime friend Pharrell Williams, extending a collaboration first rekindled through Legend’s appearance on Clipse’s music.
The recordProduced in full and co-written by Pharrell Williams, Muse brings together gospel, classic soul, doo-wop, Afrobeat and hip-hop. The sixteen-track album was made in Paris; “Bodies On The Floor” reunites Legend with Clipse in a story of conflict and reconciliation.
Folk RockChamber PopAlternative RockAmbient PopSinger-SongwriterEthereal WaveIndie Rock
IMPRINTX8
The artistOlēka is the project of vocalist and producer Autumn Beviacqua, an artist associated with Quadeca’s X8 Music. Her music brings singer-songwriter forms into atmospheric alternative and art-rock settings.
The recordHuman Error is her debut album on X8, with Beviacqua credited as producer and writer. Folk rock and chamber pop provide its center, while ambient-pop and ethereal-wave elements give the songs a hazier surrounding atmosphere.
Ryan Gabos hears a celebratory and contemplative farewell that preserves the group’s experimental personality without merely repeating its past. He emphasizes how the pop writing and mortality-themed sound collages reinforce one another.The Big Takeover · Read review ↗
Psychedelic PopNeo-PsychedeliaPsychedelic RockSunshine PopPsychedelic FolkSound CollageSlacker RockChamber PopProgressive Pop
IMPRINTElephant 6
The artistThe Olivia Tremor Control are a psychedelic band closely associated with the Elephant 6 community in Athens, Georgia. Co-leaders Bill Doss and Will Cullen Hart built their music around pop songwriting, home-recording experiments and sound collage.
The recordThe band’s third and final album assembles a long-developed body of recordings into a 27-track double album. Its psychedelic pop and rock sit beside collage, chamber-pop and folk elements, with sessions spanning multiple periods of the group’s history.
The artistkey vs. locket is the rock-focused project of Brazilian singer-songwriter Laura Almeida, previously known as twikipedia. The project puts acoustic and electric guitar writing alongside emo, indie-rock and math-pop influences.
The recordTurn Sour is an independently released studio album written and produced by key vs. locket. Midwest emo and math-rock tags describe its guitar-based center, while screamo and indie-rock elements suggest a wider dynamic range.
The artistUgly are a six-piece band formed in Cambridge in 2016. Their music has grown through extensive live performance, combining art rock, progressive pop and jazz-rock ideas in busy, ensemble-driven arrangements.
The recordThe South Façade is the band’s debut album, developed over nearly three years following the Twice Around the Sun EP. It brings their live-evolved material into a full-length collection of art rock, progressive pop and jazz-inflected rock.
Indie RockSlacker RockCowpunkSinger-SongwriterNoise Pop
IMPRINTSUCK
The artistCaroline Rose is a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose work crosses indie rock, pop and country-rooted styles. This release also introduces SUCK Records, Rose’s own imprint and a new home for their music.
The recordProduced with John Congleton, the album places indie and slacker rock alongside cowpunk and noise-pop elements. Rose’s release notes frame its songs through everyday American settings and characters, from parking lots to mini marts.
The artistStand Atlantic are an Australian band working across pop punk, alternative rock and pop rock. Their releases favor melodic hooks and the energy of a touring rock band.
The recordGODBREATH is a studio album issued through Virgin Music Group. Alternative-rock, pop-punk and pop-rock tags place its songs in a melodic guitar-band setting, with the accompanying review focusing on love and the lessons of experience.
Art RockDarkwaveSynth PunkNew RaveSynthpopArt PopGothic RockIndustrial Rock
IMPRINTLucky Number
The artistHMLTD are a London collective led by singer Henry Spychalski. Their theatrical approach crosses art rock, synth punk, darkwave and cabaret, with electronic production as important as a traditional band setup.
The recordFANGS follows The Worm and replaces an abandoned, more conventional band recording with a new approach. The resulting album brings art rock into contact with darkwave, synth punk, gothic rock and industrial textures.
The artistGrumpy began as Heaven Schmitt’s solo project and now operates as a Queens band with shared roles in recording, production, artwork and video. Their approach combines DIY community with an appetite for vocoders, fuzzy pop, theatrical gestures and genre-hopping arrangements.
The recordUnfindable Ring follows a romantic adventurer whose pursuit of grand gestures eventually leads back toward friendship and home. Its songs use time travel, longing and the realities of trans life in America, moving between shoegaze, Americana, electronic textures and intimate balladry.
The artistThe Cat’s Miaow formed in Melbourne in 1992, initially as the home-recording duo of Bart Cummings and Andrew Withycombe before Kerrie Bolton and Cam Smith joined. Their concise indie-pop circulated through singles, cassettes and compilations rather than conventional studio albums.
The recordInspired by recent archival compilations and reunion shows, the quartet recorded new material for what their label identifies as their debut studio album. Fourteen brief songs revisit yearning, regret and self-discovery, with brushed drums, spare writing, phased guitars and subtle synthesizer details.
The artistWater Damage is a large ensemble built around a ten-member core including Thor Harris and Mari Maurice. Its collective method privileges sustained group playing and physical momentum, with numbered Reel titles identifying performances rather than imposing narrative concepts on them.
The recordRepair gathers four extended performances with guests Wendy Eisenberg on electric guitar and Ricardo Dias Gomes on electronics and bass. The release notes describe varying configurations within the ensemble, including a garage-rock detour and an explicit connection to the Stooges’ Down on the Street.
The artistTommy Lefroy is the songwriting duo of Wynter Bethel and Tessa Mouzourakis. For their first full-length record, they wrote the material themselves, co-produced with Stephen Sesso and worked with Mike Crossey on executive production and mixing.
The recordThe debut uses the idea of a precariat living with insecure futures to connect personal, social and political unease. Its twelve songs address contemporary instability alongside love and womanhood, with recording at Blue Canyon Studios and one writing contribution from Jonah Summerfield.
The artistThe Buoys are a Sydney four-piece fronted by Zoe Catterall, with Courtney Cunningham, Hilary Geddes and Tess Wilkin. Their guitar-driven songwriting developed across several EPs before the 2024 debut Lustre, and extensive touring remains central to the band’s identity.
The recordTheir second album uses the feeling of having too many mental tabs open to explore burnout, relationships and modern-life overload. Produced by Chris Collins, its eleven songs draw inspiration from pop-rock peers, Roman poetry, personal dreams and 1980s cult films.
Hattie Lindert praises the apparent ease of Fine’s songwriting, her intimate self-produced mix and the band’s craftsmanship. Familiar pop and lounge forms become ambiguous and exploratory without losing their melodic clarity.Pitchfork · Read review ↗
Singer-SongwriterNeo-PsychedeliaDream PopHypnagogic PopIndie Folk
IMPRINTEscho
The artistFine is Danish songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Fine Glindvad Jensen. Based in Copenhagen, she makes song-centered music that draws on folk, dream pop and the blurred edges of older pop styles.
The recordHer second solo album contains thirteen songs written, produced and recorded by Fine. The material moves through dream-pop, folk and psychedelic territory, with open space and a collage-like approach to scenes and ideas.
The artistFenne Lily is an English singer-songwriter based in Brooklyn. Her work centers on voice, guitar and close observation, moving between intimate indie folk and the fuller sound of songs played with a band.
The recordWin Win is her fourth studio album and her first for Nettwerk. Recorded live in the studio with her band, it places indie-folk and singer-songwriter material in a warmer, collective performance setting.
The artistClara Mann is a London-based British folk songwriter who grew up in rural France and southwest England. Choral and classical music were early influences, followed by the DIY music scene she encountered in Bristol.
The recordWishbone is Mann’s second album, produced and mixed by Fabian Prynn. Its songs explore the hope and uncertainty of falling in love, with guitar, viola, double bass, cello, banjo, piano and synth surrounding her voice.
The artistMaryland songwriter Michael Nau is known both for his solo records and his work with Cotton Jones. His music draws together folk, soul, country and psychedelic pop, often with a homespun recording feel.
The recordPopfly was produced by Nau and Benny Yurco, with family members among the contributors. Folk melodies, tape-warped textures and psych-pop appear in songs developed over time at home and in the studio.
The artistShovel Dance Collective are nine London-based musicians drawn together by the traditional music of Britain, Ireland and beyond. They approach folk material collectively, connecting its musical force with its social and political history.
The recordEverything in Readiness places traditional songs and tunes alongside field recordings, tape manipulation and collective improvisation. The group’s own album page describes an interwoven approach to narrative, with bells, birds, strings and clarinet among its materials.
The artistBernie Taupin is the lyricist behind much of Elton John’s catalogue and a songwriter with a longstanding interest in American storytelling traditions. His solo work offers a different perspective: the familiar writer stepping forward as both singer and composer.
The recordHis first entirely self-written album draws on reflections prompted by his memoir Scattershot. Recorded in Nashville with producer Frank Liddell, its ten folk-oriented songs include appearances by Brandi Carlile, Lee Ann Womack and Taupin’s daughter Georgey.
The artistJeffrey Silverstein is a New Jersey-born, Portland-based songwriter working where folk, cosmic country and repetitive rock grooves meet. A recurring circle of Pacific Northwest collaborators has become central to his recordings, including Ryan Oxford, Alex Chapman and Dana Buoy.
The recordDoggone is his fourth album and first for Full Time Hobby. Nine songs explore community, aging, place and defining success on one’s own terms, with pedal steel, synthesizers and guest vocals from Devendra Banhart and Merle Law extending the core band.
Erin Lewis enjoys the duo’s chemistry but finds some early sample combinations poorly integrated. She hears the second half become more coherent as the writing turns toward artistic legacy and the costs of success.The Arts Desk · Read review ↗
Pop RapJazz RapChipmunk SoulBoom BapNeo-SoulConscious Hip Hop
IMPRINTAPESHIT, Mass Appeal, EMPIRE, Hi Level
The artistAmerican singer, drummer and producer Anderson .Paak teams up with rapper Cordae. Frequent collaborators since “RNP,” they bring together soul-band musicianship, melodic rap and conversational songwriting.
The recordTheir first full-length collaboration brings jazz rap, boom bap and neo-soul into a pop-rap setting. The record circles success, friendship and responsibility, with .Paak’s singing and rhythmic feel alongside Cordae’s verses.
The artistYeat is American rapper and producer Noah Smith. His style is built around heavily processed melodic vocals, unusual ad-libs, synthetic production and the bass-heavy sound of trap and rage rap.
The recordLuh Leakyz Vol. 1 is listed as a compilation, with trap, plugg and rage as its main stylistic markers. It belongs with the rap releases here; compilation status alone does not identify a record as a reissue or expanded edition.
Experimental Hip HopAbstract Hip HopWest Coast Hip Hop
IMPRINTSub Pop
The artistShabazz Palaces is the experimental hip-hop project of Seattle rapper and producer Ishmael Butler. Its music combines free-form poetry, abstract production and psychedelic textures, making it a longstanding home for exploratory rap on Sub Pop.
The recordIt’s A Style Sport follows 2024’s Exotic Birds of Prey. Sub Pop’s release notes describe a more reflective and direct side of Butler, while the album retains his abstract, experimental approach to rhythm, language and atmosphere.
The artistLISA is a rapper, singer and dancer who rose to prominence in BLACKPINK. Her solo work, released through the RCA and LLOUD partnership, moves between rap-led performances, high-energy pop vocals and contemporary R&B.
The recordPRESS PLAY is an EP on RCA and LLOUD. Pop rap and trap are its main tags, with contemporary R&B broadening the musical setting around LISA’s vocals and verses. It is included here as a new short-form release.
The artistMegan Thee Stallion is the Houston rapper whose Tina Snow alter ego emphasizes icy confidence and tightly controlled freestyle delivery. Named in tribute to Pimp C’s Tony Snow persona, Tina returns here through a series of short performance-led releases.
The recordThis release collects the Tina Tuesday freestyle material, including “Is You Cool?” and “Thin Ice.” The latter slows down a fragment of Limp Bizkit’s “Break Stuff,” extending Megan’s Southern rap approach into a rap-rock sample without turning the project into a metal release.
The artistLa Fève is a French rapper associated with the Walone collective. A SoundCloud background and the Nocturne EP series led to KOLAF with producer Kosei, followed by the breakout mixtape ERRR and its widely heard single “Mauvais Payeur.”
The recordFINIS-LES gathers twenty-three tracks across just under an hour. AOTY places the record around trap, French hip-hop, cloud rap and jerk rap; Apple Music credits WALONE and Sony Music France. The album shares its title with an earlier single.
The artistEasykid is an urbano artist whose catalog includes +Xqa, Sorry, Estoy en Mi Darkera and I'M PART. AOTY places his current work across reggaetón and neoperreo, with traces of rap rock, digicore and glitch pop.
The recordEight songs make up soy un fatalista, a twenty-one-minute release featuring “Y si peleamos,” “Herida de Gravedad” and “Joven promesa.” J Balvin guests on “Bluyineo.” Its broad genre tags suggest a release to approach through urbano and reggaetón rather than conventional rock.
The artist406ahmad is a producer working in trap and plugg, with a catalog organized around the Life of Ahmad series and the 40.6FM identity. Community biographies identify him as Kuwaiti producer Ahmad Dehrab; official catalog metadata confirms the project’s production-centered presentation.
The recordLIFE OF AHMAD 3 spans sixteen tracks and thirty-eight minutes, bringing together a rotating cast around 406ahmad’s production. The tracklist includes Nine Vicious and Dragnutz appearances, with songs moving from “Love In The Air” to “Different Fashion - Outro.”
The artistChe Noir is a Buffalo rapper and producer associated with Poetic Movement Records. Her artist page identifies both roles, while her release catalogue places this project alongside records such as Food for Thought and The Lotus Child.
The recordIt Takes A Village is a new full-length release on Poetic Movement Records. The artist’s page supplies the tracklist and October 23 date but no extended release essay; its rapper-producer context offers a firmer entry point than an invented account of its themes.
The artistWilliam Basinski is a classically trained musician and experimental composer with a long history of work in New York and California. Tape, repetition, decay and slowly changing musical forms are recurring parts of his practice.
The recordPassing the Cup of Sorrows is a single, roughly forty-minute piece for solo piano and subtle electronics. Inspired by a concept from past-life regression, it draws on the quiet, asymmetrical patterns associated with Morton Feldman.
The artistHysterical Love Project is the collaboration of Brooklyn Mellar and Ike Zwanikken, who previously released Lashes through Motion Ward. Zwanikken also records under his own name and as Ike, placing this partnership within a broader independent electronic practice.
The recordThe duo wrote and recorded ten pieces for this Motion Ward album, from the brief Gorse to the seven-minute closer The Moraliser. Release copy describes guitars, refrains, electronic fragments and a persistent low-end pulse balancing contentment with unease.
The artistMetoronori is the recording project of Hikari, who writes and performs this music. This release connects the artist’s coastal surroundings in Chiba with a personal vocabulary of places, fragments and voices.
The recordA shoreline walk becomes a sequence of restaurants, boats and echoing spaces. Its title plays on Japanese words for a reef and a PIN; the release essay links everyday disconnection with quieter environmental and personal losses.
The artistLoidis is one of the recording names used by producer Brian Leeds, also known as Huerco S. and Pendant. This project explores the meeting points between house, dub, minimal dance music and atmospheric electronic production.
The recordFrom the Toolkit of Lovers is an extended album on Incienso, drawing on microhouse, dub techno, minimal techno and tech house. Leeds presents it as a new exploration of musical ideas accumulated across his years of recording.
The artistJazzy is a Dublin dance artist and vocalist working at the intersection of house and pop. Her debut arrives after a run of club-focused singles, with a sound that places personal storytelling inside bright electronic production.
The recordPeace & Patience combines euphoric house and late-night pop across thirteen tracks. Created between Dublin, London and Los Angeles, the debut reflects on her origins, supporting relationships and the time needed to find her voice; Chris Lorenzo joins her on “Invisible.”
The artistSammy Virji is a British DJ and producer associated with UK garage and bassline. His work increasingly connects large international dancefloors with the playful changes of direction, bass pressure and rhythmic swing that underpin his club sets.
The recordThis surprise eight-track album follows Same Day Cleaning and draws on touring life. Virji describes its key changes and breakdowns as deliberate echoes of moments in his DJ sets, with contributions from Joy Anonymous, Wet and Hans Glader.
The artistRyan Hemsworth is a Canadian producer and DJ whose collaborations span artists such as Alex G, Tinashe and Mitski. His work has crossed pop, rap and electronic settings, while his Secret Songs label has also supported emerging musicians.
The recordHis first solo album since 2018 brings guitar to the foreground without abandoning bass-heavy electronics. Shoegaze, lo-fi, rave and heavier distortion meet collaborators handed unexpected musical roles, including Sarah Tudzin’s vocal on One Step and Tegan and Sara on Never Learned.
The artistUTILITY is a Sydney producer, creative director and the founder of Trackwork. Long-running collaborations connect his work in experimental composition, rap and underground club music with scenes across Australia, Africa, Europe and the Americas.
The recordThe debut album brings MC Yallah, Brodinski, Vv Pete and others into cross-regional exchanges. The artist describes a meeting of deconstructed rap, ambient collage and bass-heavy sound-system music, built through sustained collaboration rather than a single local scene.
The artistFormed as the house band of Dakar’s Baobab Club more than fifty years ago, Orchestra Baobab brings Afro-Cuban rhythms into conversation with Senegalese traditions, Congolese rumba and jazz. Its current lineup combines veteran players with a younger generation.
The recordRecorded entirely in Dakar, this is the orchestra’s first new studio album since 2017. New songs and fresh versions of older compositions celebrate home, heritage, love and resilience; Strut’s release notes describe a continuity carried forward by relatives and longtime collaborators.
The artistSurprise Chef are an Australian instrumental quartet rooted in Coburg, outside Melbourne. Three members share both a house and the self-built analogue College of Knowledge studio, anchoring their cinematic jazz-funk in a close working relationship and a DIY recording environment.
The recordTheir fifth studio album, and first for Concord Jazz, forms a roughly forty-minute suite influenced by the adventurous scoring of 1960s and 1970s Italian giallo films. Thirteen pieces connect the familiar instrumental groove framework to a darker, stranger cinematic premise.
The artistLike Roses are a Berkeley, California emo and pop-punk band built around Amy Schmalkuche’s emotionally direct singing. Their Bandcamp tags also reach into post-hardcore; Kerrang! describes the current group as a duo with bassist Kayla Gonzalez.
The recordThis eleven-song debut turns endings and relationship upheaval into bright, rough-edged pop-punk. Kerrang! hears jangling guitars and grungier undertones beneath its singable choruses, with songs such as “Nowhere,” “Wrist” and “Buried” balancing vulnerability against forward motion.
The artistArt d’Ecco is a Canadian songwriter whose shifting personas have moved through art-pop, glam rock and nocturnal character studies. His current Vancouver-area band includes musicians drawn from jazz and music education, expanding the palette beyond a solitary retro-rock identity.
The recordRecorded with his band live in the room and co-produced with Eric Shea, Scheele’s Green channels anxiety about technology, power and social collapse into art-rock and post-punk. Its title invokes the fashionable arsenic pigment as a metaphor for seductive, destructive progress.
Experimental ElectronicIndustrialExperimental RockDrum and Bass
IMPRINTThrill Jockey
The artistDis Fig is producer and vocalist Felicia Chen, whose path runs from New York’s DIY noise scene to Berlin’s experimental electronic underground. Collaborations with The Bug and The Body sit alongside solo work combining heavy electronics with exposed, expressive vocals.
The recordHer first solo album since 2019 builds eleven dramatic scenes around humanity’s ability to create beauty and devastation. Psaltery, strings, piano and accordion meet distorted electronics and deep bass; guests include the wind between, LUηG, Lee Buford and Liam Andrews.
The artistArsenik and Abyusif bring together two distinct voices in Egyptian rap. Arsenik is a self-taught rapper and producer associated with Asyut and technical lyricism; Abyusif is an influential, evolving figure in Egypt’s lyrics-driven hip-hop scene.
The recordA compact seven-track collaboration lasting twenty-one minutes, WW3 is tagged hardcore hip-hop and boom bap on AOTY. It moves from “MVP” and “Mongini” to its title track and “Superman 2,” with Ahmed Santa appearing on “5msat.”
The artistDead Gowns is the songwriting project of Geneviève Beaudoin, based in Portland, Maine. Her dark, intimate folk and indie rock centers her voice and guitar, with collaborators adding bass, drums, keyboards and textural detail around emotionally unsettled songs.
The recordBeaudoin’s second full-length grew from the end of a close friendship during a trip to Las Vegas. Recorded in a farmhouse near the White Mountains, its songs follow grief and memory with production by Sam Kassirer and Colin Lester Fleming.
The artistLennon Stella grew up in a musical Ontario family before moving to Nashville and finding television fame alongside her sister Maisy. Her solo work has gradually shifted from pop and R&B toward intimate folk songwriting informed by Connie Converse and Nick Drake.
The recordProduced by Andy Shauf, Stella’s second album arrives six years after Three. Two. One. Its twelve songs explore attachment, approval, breakups and family change with contributions from Simon Wilcox and Ethan Gruska, emphasizing close, writerly arrangements over her earlier pop polish.
The artistBlack Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi joins vocalist Jorn Lande for a full-album collaboration. Iommi’s down-tuned riff writing meets Lande’s dramatic heavy-metal singing, with Becky Baldwin on bass and Karl Brazil on drums.
The recordFrom the Dark pairs traditional heavy-metal songwriting with doom-weighted riffs. Lande shares writing credits throughout, giving the record a consistent band lineup and vocal presence rather than a rotating cast of guest singers.
The artistWolves in the Throne Room were founded by brothers Aaron and Nathan Weaver in 2002. Their atmospheric black metal takes nature and landscape as central subjects, with a sound shaped around scale, repetition and mood.
The recordEstuary is a studio album on Century Media, Artemisia and Relapse. Atmospheric black metal remains the foundation, with gothic-metal elements and reviews noting additional thrash and doom passages across the record.
The artistFrontierer are a transatlantic heavy band connecting Edinburgh, Scotland and St. Louis, USA. They work where mathcore, djent and electronically processed noise meet, with abrupt rhythmic changes and dense distortion central to their sound.
The recordUltraviolet Parasite is a studio album tagged mathcore, djent, glitch and avant-garde metal. The combination puts digital processing inside a heavy-band framework, with the available review emphasizing its intensity and chaotic arrangements.
Symphonic MetalDeathcoreBlackened Death MetalMelodic Black MetalViking Metal
IMPRINTCentury Media
The artistMental Cruelty are an extreme-metal band whose music brings deathcore together with black-metal and symphonic elements. Their sound combines harsh vocals and heavy breakdowns with more elaborate, melodic arrangements.
The recordEchoes of a Forlorn Land is a Century Media studio album tagged symphonic metal and deathcore. Blackened death-metal, melodic black-metal and Viking-metal tags describe the additional strands around that core.
The artistBIG ASS TRUCK I.E. are a hardcore band from California’s Inland Empire. Truck imagery, large riffs and breakdown-heavy arrangements are central to their identity, with releases now issued through Nuclear Blast.
The recordFOUND ON ROAD DEAD is an EP released on October 20. Beatdown hardcore and metalcore are its main tags, with the release announcement presenting it as a collision of hardcore riffs, breakdowns and the band’s vehicular theme.
The artistPolyphia are a guitar-led band formed in Plano, Texas. Guitarists Tim Henson and Scott LePage write intricate parts over rhythms influenced by hip-hop, trap and electronic music as well as progressive rock and metal.
The recordBE NOT AFRAID is a studio album whose tags span EDM trap, progressive metal, new rave and future bass. The available review describes a darker, synth-heavy and dubstep-influenced direction within the band’s guitar-centered sound.
The artistIGNEA are a Ukrainian melodic metal band based in Kyiv, with storytelling at the center of their identity. Vocals, keyboards and guitars combine progressive and symphonic elements with heavier metal textures; Helle Bohdanova fronts the recorded lineup.
The recordMonumental explores nostalgia across nine tracks, with guest appearances from Combichrist and Hiraes. Keyboardist Yevhenii Zhytniuk produced the album, and Jacob Hansen mixed and mastered it. The release follows Dreams of Lands Unseen and expands the band’s melodic, progressive metal catalog.
The artistFvneral Fvkk formed in Hamburg in 2015, drawing its members from the city’s extreme-metal underground. Epic doom is its musical frame, while its lyrics focus specifically on documented abuse, corruption and crimes associated with religious institutions.
The recordThe second full-length follows 2019’s Carnal Confessions. Its label describes solemn, large-scale riffing, mournful melody and clean tenor vocals, extending the band’s critical religious subject matter into a darker and more expansive doom-metal setting.
The artistHalf Me are a German heavy band combining hardcore intensity with metalcore and djent. Their Arising Empire releases emphasize dense riffs, volatile vocals and an oppressive atmosphere, with slower passages providing tension alongside the more direct aggression.
The recordThe band’s second album, Dogma, examines a society participating in its own collapse through fear and division. Fourteen tracks include “King” and the more restrained “Psalm,” presenting guilt, betrayal, blind faith and self-destruction through heavy, confrontational arrangements.
The artistGet The Shot are a Quebec City hardcore band formed in 2009, with a long DIY touring history. Their sound pulls hardcore into the speed of thrash and the weight of death metal, placing live intensity at its center.
The recordCrucifixion Depiction introduces a refreshed lineup across four tracks, running just under twelve minutes. The title song confronts loss, failure and a dream’s collapse; the surrounding material pushes the band’s hardcore, thrash and death-metal blend into a compact, aggressive release.
The artistForbidden identify themselves as a San Francisco Bay Area thrash band. The release credits name vocalist Norman Skinner, guitarists Craig Locicero and Jeremy Von Epp, drummer Chris Kontos and bassist Matt Camacho, placing a concrete lineup behind the familiar band name.
The recordThe self-titled album contains eleven songs, including Single Point Failure, Burning the Lungs of Earth and Flower of Life (Chaos by Design). The official Bandcamp page supplies the lineup and tracklist, with little additional narrative about the recording.
Atmospheric black metalBlackgazeAppalachian black metal
IMPRINTFiadh Productions
The artistDespite its choral name, The Blood Mountain Black Metal Choir identifies itself as a one-person antifascist black-metal project from Appalachia, based in Atlanta. Its previous catalogue includes a folklore demo and a split released in 2025.
The recordThe debut LP directs black metal's familiar death-and-decay imagery toward American imperial violence. Credits include additional voices on Bring Forth the Guillotine and Austin Lunn's banjo on Altamaha, giving the political premise a concrete Appalachian musical connection.
The artistManic Street Preachers are a Welsh rock band known for combining alternative-rock songwriting with political, literary and personal themes. The Holy Bible is one of the defining records in their catalogue.
The recordThis live album documents performances of The Holy Bible at London’s Roundhouse in December 2014. It revisits the studio album as a complete concert performance, so it appears here with live and returning releases.
SoulPop SoulRhythm and BluesNeo-SoulJazz PopBrill BuildingBlue-Eyed Soul
IMPRINTIsland, Universal UK
The artistAmy Winehouse was a British singer and songwriter whose music connected jazz, soul, rhythm and blues and pop. Her second album, Back to Black, brought that sound to a worldwide audience in 2006.
The recordThis twentieth-anniversary edition returns to Back to Black with demos, B-sides and a complete 2007 Amsterdam concert. The original studio album remains its center, with additional material offering a view of the songs’ development and live performance.
The artistIno Casablanca is a Barcelona-born artist whose music crosses rap with Caribbean and Mediterranean dance rhythms. After projects including DEMNA, TAMARA and EXTASIA, he has developed a communal, celebratory approach built around movement and genre-crossing pop instincts.
The recordEXTASIAAAAA expands the 2025 EXTASIA material into a twenty-track, two-disc package, pairing ten new songs with the earlier release. New collaborations include Naïka and Supremnova. Its themes range from the rush of a breakthrough year to belonging and fear of commitment.
The Black Parade (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)
EmoAlternative Rock
IMPRINTWarner
The artistMy Chemical Romance built a theatrical strain of emo and alternative rock around dramatic characters, big choruses and narrative albums. The Black Parade remains their best-known concept record, following a dying figure called The Patient through memories and reckoning.
The recordThis twentieth-anniversary edition adds six bonus tracks to the original 2006 album: three rare B-sides and three performances from the 2007 Black Parade World Tour. The live material includes “Someone Out There Loves You,” long known to fans as “Stay.”
The artistWendy Eisenberg is a Brooklyn guitarist, vocalist and composer whose practice moves between songs, improvisation and jazz. This quartet brings together bassist Trevor Dunn, violinist Mari Rubio and drummer Ryan Sawyer, players whose backgrounds extend well beyond folk.
The recordEisenberg stretches two existing songs about memory into extended new performances, preserving their structures while allowing sections to become solos and larger improvisational spaces. The experiment asks when slowing a song changes its identity into ambient music, jazz or something less settled.
The artistSamara Joy is a jazz vocalist whose Verve catalogue includes Linger Awhile and Portrait. Here the focus moves from a studio setting to the direct exchange between her voice, her working band and an audience inside a small jazz club.
The recordRecorded during her band’s April 2026 Blue Note Los Angeles residency, this five-track live release pairs standards including Round Midnight, Yesterdays and Lush Life with No More Blues and its reprise. Verve describes the collection as an EP.
The artistRaatokaappi is a Helsinki-based project whose own Bandcamp tags place it in experimental noise, harsh noise and sound art. Its visible catalogue begins with a September 2026 demo and continues with several October releases.
The recordThis two-piece EP runs just under eighteen minutes, with tracks titled Kuoriutuminen and Kuoleminen. The artist provides no explanatory release essay, making the insect-order title and stark two-part structure the available points of entry.
IMPRINTPrivate Regcords; cassette on Shooting Tzars
The artistTroutflies are an English songwriting project with a previous album, The Dancing Years, released in 2025. Their cassette label places them in its Yorkshire network of fringe music and identifies the band as the writers, performers and producers.
The recordThe second Troutflies album was recorded during a single late-April week in a London flat. Its cassette-label description invokes anti-jangle songwriting, toy instruments and a delirious domestic atmosphere; the original digital edition contains twelve songs.
The artistLamplight is Ian Williams's songwriting project, working here with trusted collaborators including Carolina Chauffe of hemlock. After leaving one home for another, Williams returned to Roanoke, Virginia, and developed much of this material through an intensive daily writing practice.
The recordThe second Lamplight album follows upheaval, renewed connection and the persistence of love through everyday objects. Recorded in Vermont and Brooklyn, it expands intimate songs with harmonies, horns, strings and harmonium rather than presenting a lone acoustic performance.
The artistvidro are a three-piece band formed in Kyoto in 2025. Their release announcement describes alternative rock incorporating shoegaze and post-rock elements, and points to their official artist account at vidro_kyoto for further news.
The recordTheir first EP gathers six songs, including earlier singles and the advance track 坩堝. The release announcement describes lyrics and sounds evoking stars and space, with emotional expression built around fluctuations in sound.
The artistDinger describe themselves simply as making rock music. Their small YouTube channel documents original-song performances and live sets, while their Instagram announcement presents Voyager III as their debut project rather than a third studio album.
The recordThe eight-track debut places Pale Blue Dot, Neon Cowgirl and Banana Peel beside a coded title and the opener Trespasser. Early AOTY listeners discuss sequencing and atmosphere, offering some concrete entry points without a substantial professional-review trail.
