Most anticipated 2026 albums

What albums are people actually looking forward to in 2026? Seems like it might be a good year. Curious what’s on everyone’s radar right now.

A few I’m looking forward to:
• Dry Cleaning - Secret Love
• Ratboys - Singin to an Empty Chair
• Broke Royals - Campr

Definitely looking forward to new Dry Cleaning. I hope that they change up the formula at least a little bit, but it should be good even if they don't.

What will likely be the final Blondie album is on the docket for 2026. I would hope that Debbie & Chris wouldn't plan to continue recording under the name with Clem gone, anyway, and putting out the final album in the 50th anniversary year of their debut would be nice symmetry.

If Charli xcx's entire Wuthering Heights soundtrack album is cut from the same cloth as the John Cale collab, it should be a good one.

Olivia Rodrigo is a good kid, and she apparently has a new one planned for this year.

I've liked everything I've heard by Softcult, and they have an imminent release scheduled.

Ladytron has a new album scheduled for Spring, as do Makthaverskan, Nothing and the Notwist.

Sugar and Heavenly might be planning new albums? Stereogum has them on their anticipated albums list with links to articles about their reformations, neither of which say anything specifically about new albums.

Drop Nineteens

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever

Pia Fraus

The Cure is making rumblings that they're already ready for a new one, but I expect that one to join My Bloody Valentine and Sky Ferreira on the perennially imminent but never actually arriving list, though I would rate the Cure as slightly more likely than the other two.

Not really in the Looking Forward To column, but I see that Madonna is planning Confessions on a Dancefloor Pt. 2. Nothing reeks of desperation more than a call back to the last album anyone gave much of a fuck about. I still say her best move would be to just throw in the towel on trying to keep up with the youngsters and go into the studio with bro-in-law Joe Henry producing and see what happens. And U2 has apparently returned to Eno's warm embrace and are vowing a new release, and he usually steers them to at least try to be interesting, so hopefully any new album would not be a vapid faceplant like Songs of Experience, an album devoid of anything memorable or any reason to exist besides needing to fulfill the Innocence/Experience duology. So anyhow, it would be a monumental abuse of the phrase "looking forward to" to apply it to either of these threatened albums, but I remain open to being pleasantly surprised if some late period spark of life were to appear on them. It seems unlikely, but I'm a glass half full kind of guy, even though deep down I expect the glass to be half full of yak piss.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2026 11:23AM by breno.

Three of the albums on my anticipated list have come out, and I'm happy to say all three of those are pretty danged good in my opinion.

Dry Cleaning - Secret Love. Nothing Dry Cleaning does is ever going to punch me in the face again like their first e.p. did, because short of a complete overhaul of their sound, nothing will ever be that surprising again. I know their formula now, but that really shouldn't matter - I know lots of band's formulas, and I've never turned up my nose at a Damned album sounding like a Damned album, so Dry Cleaning sounding like Dry Cleaning shouldn't be a hurdle, though I can't escape the thought that they're maybe the post-punk version of Ken Nordine. But they do that so damnably well that it's hard to complain. The band continues to cook like Gang of Four crossed with Wire and Clinic, and Florence Shaw is talking more melodically and with more purpose than her earlier cut & paste ramblings. It's objectively a good album that I do enjoy very much, but sometimes when the band is really in a groove, it's hard not to wish there was a vocal melody and not just some English lady blithely conversing about whatever, no matter how enjoyable she may be.

Softcult - When a Flower Doesn't Grow Speaking of bands with a formula that I know inside out but don't get tired of, Softcult's formula is at least 35 years old, which is a decade or so older than the Arn-Horn sisters themselves. Their sound is predominantly a mix of shoegaze and dream pop, which is something I don't even pretend to be objective about anymore. If an album sounds like something the enchantingly beautiful Buffy would've rang up for me at Appletree Records in Springfield, IL in 1992, I'm going to love it. I honestly can't think of a single dream pop/shoegaze album that doesn't make me happy to hear. So this was a can't miss for me, and the fact that Softcult mix some occasional Breeders and Bikini Kill into their Sundays, Madder Rose and Lush is just swell.

Charli xcx - Wuthering Heights Charli had kind of lost me on the last few albums as she cemented her spot as the queen of hyperpop, which I've documented pretty well as just being too much for my aged ears to comprehend, all percussion and synths that sound like my speakers are blown out and vocals chopped into unpleasant chunks of robot talk by Autotune. But this is maybe the most 20th Century sounding album Charli has made, which I realize is a very old man bit of praise. She's talked about wanting to make a Lou Reed album, which this is emphatically not, but John Cale is here, and even though he's only on one song, his aesthetic colors the whole album. While the gloomy, Goth-y Cale showcase "House" is a bit of an anomaly musically, Charli puts it in the lead-off position for a reason. The rest of the album is predominantly the dance pop Charli is known for, but it's dance pop with droning, churning string sections with a mostly pervasive dark mood. "If Madonna had recorded Peepshow instead of Siouxsie" is not an accurate description at all, but it kind of gets at it. This is by far my favorite Charli album, and I know that that's because it's the one most influenced by the old farts I prefer, but that's fine. It's very damn cool for someone of Charli's age and genre to say "Fuck it, get me John Cale on the phone." We're only halfway through February, but I'll be surprised if Wuthering Heights isn't one of my five or ten faves of the year.

So anyhow, good on ya so far, 2026.

Beverly Glenn-Copeland-LAUGHING IN SUMMER
Charli XCX-WUTHERING HEIGHTS
Paranoid Style-KNOWN ASSOCIATES
Converge-LOVE IS NOT ENOUGH



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2026 11:55AM by steevee.

Barry Adamson - Scala!!!
Julian Lage - Scenes From Above
Carolyn Trowbridge - Found Memories (a local vibraphonist and member of my beloved Alex Coke/Carl Michel Sextet who did a preview show in November for this record that was one of my favorite shows I saw all year)
Tomeka Reid Quartet - Dance Hop Skip

All of these come out this month. I’m not really aware of anything beyond that.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/04/2026 06:58AM by Michael Toland.

Is Reid's album on Cuneiform?

No, it's on Out Of Your Head, the same label that released the album by her Hemphill Stringtet.

Just looked into the next Blondie album, and with contributions from Johnny Marr and Glenn Matlock, it def looks interesting.

But has “new” Blondie ever really deserved the goods comparable to their ‘70s/‘80s heyday? And I’m fine with veterans still cranking em out - if Devo, Neil Young, Tom Waits among others release anything new, I’ll check it out, and (with diminished expectations) will probably like some of it. I’d kinda forgotten about Public Enemy, but was looking into a more recent album, and Chuck still has some interesting things to say. But having seen the new Blondie live a few times, and heard a few things on the radio, nothing has stuck. Like, not even close. Any thing I need to revisit?

You're not missing anything truly vital if you take a pass on reunited Blondie, but they're not a waste of time, either. There's a lot of good stuff spread out over the reunion albums - none of it threatens to surpass the high points of their glory days, but the best of it can go on updated best of comps without sticking out like a sore thumb. Standouts off the top of my head are "Maria," "Good Boys," "Sugar on the Side," "Rave," and "Doom or Destiny", but there are other tracks nearly as good. Nothing they've done since reuniting is an embarrassment to their legacy - except maybe their extremely pointless cover of "Relax," which should've been a throwaway b-side instead of taking up real estate on Ghost of Download. Blondie was one of, if not the most important band to me in my high school years, until I discovered Ultravox, anyway, so I will always have time for whatever they do - I'm always happy to hear from them.

Of the reunion albums, the best of the bunch overall is probably Pollinator. The weakest is Panic of Girls, where the retirement of Jimmy Destri fucked up the songwriting and performance chemistry of the band, and they compounded that when unwisely chose a producer who for some dumbass reason thought Clem Burke needed to sound like a budget drum machine. There's some decent songs on there, but they don't pop. I'm not saying Panic of Girls would've threatened Eat to the Beat if Mike Chapman had produced it, but it would've held your attention anyway.

If you loved Blondie in their heyday, the reunion albums are worth spending time with. If you just liked them okay, then just stop at AutoAmerican.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/04/2026 11:49AM by breno.

The Format

And their new album is post-fun., obviously, so it's really going to suck having to hear newbies (some of whom weren't even born yet pre-fun.) raving about it. Nate Ruess has done the major label thing and collabs circuit - happy for his continued success: playing ACL in April - but even happier they stayed off the major label this time around.

Panic Shack

UK band that I could have sworn made some "2025 bands to watch" list, or I suppose it would now be "2026 bands to watch."

Willie Nelson

Willie Nelson released TWO albums in 2025 and TWO albums in 2024, so I think it's reasonable to expect two more in 2026.

Charley Crockett

I really wish the major label and Grammy nomination (in an unnecessary category) will help him, but he's still going to be trapped in AAA/college/Americana. Sucked for Sturgill Simpson and it sucks for Charley Crockett.

I'm interested in hearing a new RBCF for sure.

I learned today The Twilight Sad have a new album releasing in March. Very interested in that. I thought their last one was excellent.

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever? Me too.
Mirah has a record coming out in February.
Joe Pernice has a new record out, not technically a Pernice Brothers record, but kinda.

Add Failure to the list. New album scheduled for release in April.