STAFF PICKS
DARIO –
ASH – Seefeel
JAKE – My New Band Believe
KIMBER – Seefeel
MARY – Funkadelic
ZACH – Lip Critic and Weird Nightmare
DREW –
PAT-

BLACK KEYS – Peaches CD/LP/CASS (Warner Records) 
The Black Keys Peaches! is the Akron duo’s fourteenth studio album (their sixth since 2019), a visceral and raw 10-song collection described by singer Dan Auerbach as the band’s most natural record since their 2002 debut, The Big Come Up. In similar DIY spirit, the album was recorded with all musicians playing in same room with few overdubs, as is the first record mixed entirely by the band themselves since 2006’s Magic Potion. The songs chosen reflect Auerbach and bandmate Patrick Carney’s obsessive record-collecting habit, which in recent years has escalated into an ongoing series of Record Hang DJ-set dance parties where they spin vintage 45s for packed, high-energy dancefloors in the coolest spots across the globe. The cover art for Peaches! is based around an iconic image from Memphis-born photographer, William Eggleston, and marks the return of Patrick’s brother, Michael Carney, overseeing the art direction.

AMERICAN FOOTBALL – American Football LP  (Polyvinyl Records)  
When the idea of recording a 4th album came up (for the second time), American Football knew things were going to get darker. Blending atmospheric textures with emotive, post-rock style catharsis, LP4 is unlike anything American Football have recorded thus far, yet it fits right in with their evolving and beautiful catalog. Recorded during a 10-day retreat at Panoramic House in Stinson Beach, CA, LP4 finds the band intentionally walking into the abyss – themes of divorce, upheaval, and uncertainty are at the forefront, yet the band sounds more engaged and legitimized than ever before. It’s a gorgeous and elaborate album, one that takes it’s time to show you it’s beauty, while hinting at the darker parts that are trying their best to stay hidden.

KNEECAP – Fenian CD/LP (Heavenly)  
KNEECAP return to bend genre, language, and rules. The most talked about artists in the world are turning the page. A new chapter, new sounds, new manifestos. A blistering album that revels in darkness while bursting through the void with illuminated revery. This is FENIAN. Produced by Dan Carey (Fontaines D.C., Kae Tempest, Wet Leg), FENIAN upends expectations with an expansive sonic palate, traversing acid house, trip-hop, dubstep, and more.

MAYA HAWKE – Maitreya Corso CD/LP  (Mom & Pop Music)  
Recorded in New York between Reservoir Studios in New York City and Dreamland in upstate New York, the album was co-produced by Christian Lee Hutson and Jonathan Low. It stands as an ode to Maya’s musical community, created alongside close friends and collaborators Benjamin Lazar Davis, Will Graefe, Michael Riddleberger, and Odessa Jorgensen. The album’s packaging draws from Maya’s own watercolor paintings, developed in collaboration with Shane Gelinas.

HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER – I’m People CD/LP (Chrysalis)  
The brand-new album from Hiss Golden Messenger and the first release with Chrysalis Records. I’m People is a vivid, deeply human album born from a period of rupture, renewal, and vast American wandering. Written across Bolinas, the North Carolina Piedmont, and a Santa Fe motel room, the record traces the artist’s search for clarity through landscapes both external and internal. These songs move through heartbreak, aging, fatherhood, desire, disillusionment, and the hard-won hope that remains after the spirit has been scraped bare. Produced with Josh Kaufman at Dreamland, a decommissioned church outside Woodstock, the album carries the warmth of musicians playing live in a circle, stained-glass light filtering across guitars, drums, and upright bass. Contributions from Bruce Hornsby, Sam Beam, Marcus King, Sara Watkins, Amy Helm, Eric D. Johnson, and members of Dawes enrich a sound world that feels immediate, vulnerable, and fully alive.

SEEFEEL – Sol.Hz CD/LP (Warp Records)  
Seefeel return with their first full-length album in fifteen years – a beautiful, hazy and blissed out collection of fractured melodies and vaporous textures. In some ways, this can be regarded as Seefeel’s ‘dub’ album – the deceptively cloud-like arrangements of Mark Clifford are somewhat ambient adjacent at low volume, but blasting out of a proper sound system, the cavernous bass undertow and skillful employment of effects are more apparent, messing with the listener’s perception of time and audio placement. As always with Seefeel though, it never drifts too far into cold experimentalism or synthetic texture, the heavily manipulated vocals of Sarah Peacock lending the tracks a vital human element, with processed guitar loops allowing slivers of melody to drift through the trails of delay.

LIP CRITIC – Theft World CD/LP (Partisan Records)  
Lip Critic’s 2024 Partisan debut Hex Dealer was one of the most-hyped experimental releases of that year (Like the B-52s on ketamine -Paste) and signaled the Brooklyn band’s arrival as a borderline-batshit creative force. Theft World is their next chapter, built again from the chaos of two drummers locked in psychic combat, a sampler that sounds like it was struck by lightning, and frontman Bret Kaser’s paranoid preacher energy. But where Hex Dealer leapt from one absurdist vignette to the next, Theft World plays like a fully locked-in transmission. Themes orbit around the concept of theft, not just as a political force or digital dilemma, but as a surreal, emotional constant. Club rhythms and hardcore breakdowns pull as much from Tyler the Creator’s Igor and Korn as they do Skrillex and Soul Coughing, coming together to soundtrack a world that’s constantly being striped apart and resold.

YOUNG THE GIANT – Victory Garden CD/LP (Fearless Records)  
Young the Giant is an American rock band from Irvine, California known for their dynamic live performances and a sound that blends soaring vocals, intricate instrumentation, and introspective lyricism. The band is composed of Sameer Gadhia (lead vocals, Jacob Tilley (guitar), Eric Cannata (guitar), Payam Doostzadeh (bass), and François Comtois (drums). Since their breakout in 2010 with the platinum-certified singles ‘My Body’ and ‘Cough Syrup,’ Young the Giant have become one of alternative rock’s defining voices, blending anthemic energy with deeply personal storytelling.

KACEY MUSGRAVES – Middle Of Nowhere CD/LP (Lost Highway)  
Middle of Nowhere is the sixth studio album from eight-time Grammy Award-winner Kacey Musgraves and is made for two-stepping. The collection draws from a love of Texas dancehall classics, humorous takes on the human condition, and the space where traditional Country borders many sounds, including Norteño and even Zydeco. Fresh yet familiar, and classically Kacey: honest, fearless, immersive, and always ready to wink at life’s twists and turns.

WEIRD NIGHTMARE – Hoopla CD/LP (Sub Pop)  
Every band worth it’s salt has a member who worked in a record store. In METZ, the fearless noise rock trio who released five full-length albums on Sub Pop between 2012 and 2024, it was singer and guitarist Alex Edkins. Slinging indie rock and hardcore records in his hometown record store while attending university, Edkins became an ardent student of rock ‘n’ roll from the psychedelic 1960s to the DIY 1990s and beyond. Hoopla, the catchy, melodic second LP from Edkins’s solo project Weird Nightmare, mixes and matches these influences in fun and exhilarating combinations, displaying his sophisticated musical mind. Bursting to life with hooks and earworms, Hoopla is that one tape that never gets ejected from the car stereo, but plays on repeat, soundtracking the summer.

FUNKADELIC – Free Your Mind & Your Ass Will Follow CASS/CD/LP/2xLP [Reissue/1970] (Org Music)  
Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow is the second album from funk innovators Funkadelic. Arriving in 1970 mere months after their trailblazing debut, the record saw the band honing their songcraft, while still allowing plenty of space for mind-bending exploratory jams. The album’s origin story famously involved a single marathon session on LSD. It marked the official introduction of legendary keyboardist Bernie Worrell, and would go on to chart at No. 92 on Billboard’s Pop chart. As part of Org Music’s Westbound Records reissue series, this edition restores the album’s full sonic impact across multiple formats. All vinyl variants are all analog, mastered direct from tape to lathe by Dave Gardner at DSG Mastering, and come in gatefold jackets. The 2xLP version was mastered at 45 RPM, offering the highest fidelity listening experience, and comes in a case-wrapped jacket. Gardner and restoration specialist Catherine Vericolli archived and restored the original master tapes at 54 Sound Studios in Ferndale, Michigan, with assistance from in-house engineer Nick King.

EMILY NENNI – Movin’ Shoes CD/LP  (New West Records)  
Whenever Emily Nenni is onstage, she welcomes everybody to the dancefloor. The California-born, Nashville-based singer-songwriter wants the honkytonk to be a place of escape, where fans can shed their troubles for a few hours and feel safe and free. “I’m always watching the dancefloor and making sure everybody’s being respectful.” Or, as she sings on the supremely funky title track to her new album Movin’ Shoes, “Here’s where you dress for you and dance the way that you want to.”

TORI AMOS – In Times Of Dragons CD/LP (Decca)  
In Times of Dragons is a metaphorical story about the fight for Democracy over Tyranny, reflecting the current abhorrent non-accidental burning down of democracy in real time by the ‘Dictator believing Lizard Demons’ in their usurpation of America. – Tori Amos

TAJ MAHAL – Time CD/LP (Thirty Tigers)  
When five-time Grammy award winner Taj Mahal intersects with The Phantom Blues Band, it’s one of those rare joints that hits you before you even know you’ve been hit. They walk in, plug in, and the whole room shifts. Studio assassins, road lifers, groove keepers and somehow still hungry. They are an internationally renowned Two-Time Grammy Award winning group. Taj Mahal’s fearless, open-hearted spirit still shadows the whole thing with that genre-hopping joy. He leads you down the road with a history lesson and the Phantoms carry it with honor to the Griot. Mahal sings and plays harp as he fronts an all-star lineup of legendary musicians with the three ringleaders for the Phantoms-Johnny Lee Schell, the soulful gunslinger with tone for days, Tony Braunagel keeps the whole ship steered straight and on time, every time, and Larry Fulcher, the anchor, the heartbeat, the quiet storm on bass. Additionally, Jon Cleary, with that unmistakable New Orleans piano swagger, Mick Weaver, a session master who’s playing slides in with an undeniable velvet magic, and in the horn section, Joe Sublett on sax and Les Lovitt on trumpet bring the orchestration into the full view of this genre.

MY NEW BAND BELIEVE – My New Band Believe CD/LP (Rough Trade)  
As the bassist and sometime frontman of black midi, Cameron Picton and his bandmates practiced an explosive form of musical world-building, weaving complex storytelling through thrilling passages of controlled chaos. When the group called it quits in 2023, the artist didn’t immediately feel like making a solo record or jumping back into another band. It was from this position of a not-quite team player, not-quite bandleader that Picton entered the studio and the seeds of My New Band Believe gradually began to emerge. The moniker serves as an open invitation, a subtle nod that if a listener is willing to meet the music on it’s own terms, they’ll be rewarded for taking a flying leap into the dark. The group’s self-titled debut is a massive and hallucinatory record. It is a collection of music that swerves through wildly different emotional and thematic registers, all the while unraveling an endlessly compelling thread of dream logic. Picton is an unreliable but charismatic narrator, and together with an all-star cast including 7 members of caroline, Kiran Leonard, Caius Williams, Steve Noble, he guides the listener through a rapidly unfolding multi-verse of the band’s making.

ALCEST – Ecailles De Lune LP [Reissue/2010] (Prophecy)  
Alcest took an audible step towards their black metal roots with their sophomore full-length Écailles de Lune (Moon Scales) without losing any of the trademarks that had evolved on their debut album Souvenirs d’un Autre Monde. The French post-black metal pioneers created a sound of lucent, dreamlike quality and otherworldly beauty that has equally defined them and been refined by them ever since.

HEAD & THE HEART – Head & The Heart (15th Anniversary) LP [Reissue/2010] (Head And The (Chord))  
Deluxe double LP reissue of The Head And The Heart’s debut album. Featuring the original album remastered on the first LP, plus seven bonus tracks on the second LP. The bonus tracks are a combination of previously unreleased demos and live tracks, plus one live track available for the first time physically, and one previously unreleased studio track. The Head and the Heart is the self-titled debut album from Seattle folk-rock band The Head and the Heart, originally self-released in 2010 before being picked up and re-issued by Sub Pop in 2011. Built around harmonious vocals, piano, violin, and folk-rock instrumentation, the album captures themes of connection, wanderlust, and introspection across tracks like ‘Lost in My Mind,’ ‘Down in the Valley,’ and ‘Rivers and Roads.’

BRING ME THE HORIZON – Thats The Spirit LP [Reissue/2015] (Sony Legacy)  
Bring Me the Horizon’s groundbreaking fifth studio record, That’s The Spirit. Featuring some of the band’s most successful singles such as ‘Throne,’ ‘Drown’ and ‘Follow You,’ it is an album that saw the band transcend from UK-alternative mainstays to global superstars.

DEXTER GORDON – Dexter Calling (Blue Note Tone Poet Edition) LP [Reissue/1961]  (Blue Note Records)  
Recorded in 1961, Dexter Gordon’s second Blue Note album, Dexter Calling, solidified the tenor saxophonist’s career rebirth with a joyous return to form. Dexter holds forth at the helm of a quartet with Kenny Drew, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones moving nimbly from hard-charging swing to stunning balladry. This stereo Blue Note Tone Poet Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket.

MAVI – Pilot LP (Loma Vista)  
Mavi returns with The Pilot, a bold, freeform mixtape marking his evolution from introspection to elevation. Collaborations with Earl Sweatshirt, Smino, MIKE & Kenny Mason, Mavi steps into new airspace. Confident, expansive, and full of motion. A statement of freedom and endurance, The Pilot proves Mavi isn’t landing; he’s taking off.

GABRIELLE CAVASSA – Diavola LP (Blue Note Records)  
With her riveting Blue Note debut Diavola, vocalist Gabrielle Cavassa makes her artistic arrival with an album that unveils her range as a band leader, a songwriter, and a fearless song interpreter who treats each gesture with subtlety and reverence. Co-produced by Joshua Redman & Don Was, Diavola is a collection of original songs and luminous arrangements that features an extraordinary cast of collaborators with Jeff Parker on guitar, Paul Cornish on piano, Larry Grenadier on bass, Brian Blade on drums, and Redman on tenor saxophone.

MCCOY TYNER – Asante (Blue Note Tone Poet Edition) LP [Reissue/1970] (Blue Note Records) 
McCoy Tyner had been increasingly looking to Africa for inspiration on his Blue Note records of the late-60s. With 1970’s Asante he brought those influences to the fore with the swirling percussive rhythmic bed of Billy Hart and Mtume, along with Buster Williams, Ted Dunbar, Andrew White and the vocals of Songai. This stereo Blue Note Tone Poet Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe tip-on jacket.

YOUBET – Youbet CD/LP (Hardly Art) 
The best teachers never stop learning. They listen closely, stay curious, and let what they discover shape how they guide others. On their new self-titled album as Youbet, longtime music educators Nick Llobet (he/they) and Micah Prussack (she/her) proudly act as both explorer and guide, sharing three-dimensional musical sculptures so confidently and esoterically their own that they couldn’t have been released under any other name but Youbet.

L’ORANGE – Mad Writer LP [Reissue/2012]  (Old Soul Music)  
For the first time in nearly 15 years, The Mad Writer is back on vinyl. Vocal performances from Blu, yU, Has-Lo and Erica Lane. Dedicated to originality, L’Orange stitches together a sound that acknowledges his penchant for classic film noir and shadowy motifs. L’Orange albums are often cinematic and narrative in structure, exemplifying the artist’s highly conceptual creative process.

ROLAND BRIVAL – Creole Gypsy LP [Reissue/1980]  (Soundway Records)  
A seminal piece in the jigsaw puzzle of Caribbean music. Recorded in Martinique in 1980, Roland Brival’s visionary fusion of spiritual Caribbean jazz, poetry and Creole consciousness flows through Rhodes, saxophone and traditional percussion.

SOFIA KOURTESIS – Dj-Kicks: Sofia Kourtesis LP (K7)  
For Sofia Kourtesis, joy is a living practice. It’s evident in her effervescent stage presence and bombastic sets, which confidently traverse through house, electro-pop and melodic techno. The Peruvian DJ and producer has forged a vibrant and illustrious career that has taken her to all corners of the globe. Kourtesis’s debut DJ-Kicks mix is a potent blend of the beautiful, complex emotional soup that has made her connect so deeply with her fans. Four new exclusive tracks by Sofia Kourtesis, Exclusives by Jon Hopkins, Myd, Laurence Guy, Axel Boman, JOY (Anonymous) & more.

OOIOO / LIGHTNING BOLT – Horizon Spirals / Horizon Viral LP (Thrill Jockey)  
OOIOO and Lightning Bolt are both bands whose music is wholly unique and whose creators’ influence would be impossible to overstate. 2 Epic OOIOO SONGS and 5 Blistering Lightning Bolt Songs ! YoshimiO, OOIOO’s founder and bandleader, has been a guiding force in uncompromising art across the continuum of rock and improvised music for four decades, from her work in UFO or Die to The Boredoms to SAICOBAB and beyond. Lightning Bolt’s Brian Chippendale and Brian Gibson have remained unparalleled in their ability to transmute frenetic whirls of percussion, gargantuan fuzz and dizzying melody into monolithic vistas. THE HORIZON SPIRALS / THE HORIZON VIRAL is a split that captures the parallels in ethos between these two ensembles, their sense of gleeful abandon and freight train momentum, in inspiring detail.

MICROWAVE – Much Love (10 Year Anniversary) LP [Reissue/2015]  (Side One Dummy)  
Microwave’s instant classic Much Love is turning 10 this year, and to celebrate, we’ve collaborated with the band on a special, limited edition anniversary reissue, including the original record in it’s entirety alongside a second LP featuring unreleased live and alternate renditions of every track on the record! With brand new gatefold artwork as well.

MCLUSKY – I Sure Am Getting Sick Of This Bowling Alley LP (Ipecac Recordings)   McLusky are a band who were a band, weren’t a band, then are a band again. They formed in the late nineties and unformed, for the first time, in 2005, after three albums, opinions of which can be found on the internet. The path to re-becoming a band started in 2014, with the band playing sporadic shows to raise money for a local venue threatened with closure and after some misadventures, which can be put down to life in it’s most wonderful forms, in 2025 they released their first record in twenty years, and now in 2026, they continue with more new music in the form of this 6-song mini album.

DIO – Holy Diver (Rhino Reserve) LP [Reissue/1983] (Rhino)  
Featuring the original lineup of Ronnie James Dio, Jimmy Bain, Vivian Campbell and Vinny Appice, Dio’s multi-Platinum 1983 debut LP features the enduring tracks ‘Rainbow in the Dark’ and ‘Holy Diver.’ This Rhino Reserve edition was pressed from lacquers cut from original analog masters by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab. 180-grAm Premium-Quality Vinyl

DIO – Last In Line (Rhino Reserve) LP [Reissue/1984]  (Rhino)  
Featuring the original lineup of Ronnie James Dio, Jimmy Bain, Vivian Campbell & Vinny Appice, Dio’s Platinum-certified 1984 sophomore album became the group’s highest-charting release. Featuring ‘Mystery,’ ‘We Rock’ & ‘The Last In Line,’ this Rhino Reserve edition was pressed from lacquers cut from original analog masters by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab.

COMING NEXT WEEK!
BY STORM – My Ghosts Go Ghost LP
MIKE AND EARL SWEATSHIRT – Pompeii // Utility CD/LP
BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE – Remember The Humans CD/LP
SOCIAL DISTORTION – Born To Kill CD/LP
BASEMENT – Wired CD/LP
ALDHOUS HARDING – Train On The Island CD/LP
LEMON TWIGS – Look For Your Mind CD/LP
MUNA – Dancing On The Wall CD/LP
LINDA PERRY – Let It Die Here CD/LP
THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS – World Is To Dig LP
WEEN – Quebec LP Reissue
WEEN – White Pepper LP Reissue
Sault – Chapter 1 CD/LP
CAMERA OBSCURA – Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi LP
STEPHEN SANCHEZ – Love Love Love CD/LP
HURRAY FOR THE RIFF RAFF – Live Forever LP