What Our Music Critic Is Listening To

Today’s a big day for the popheads: Olivia Rodrigo’s new single, “Drop Dead,” is out. It’s her first release since 2024, and the first song off her forthcoming album, “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love.” The music video features her prancing through Versailles wearing a nightie and wired over-ear headphones (the kids really do love the nineties), as she sings about feminine intuition and stalking her crush on the internet.

Rodrigo’s not the only one with new music out; the first quarter of 2026 has already seen album drops from Harry Styles, Robyn, A$AP Rocky, and others. We caught up with Amanda Petrusich, a critic for The New Yorker, to help us discern the bops from the flops. She shared what she’s liked, what she’s found to be underwhelming, and what upcoming projects she’s excited about (Lana Del Rey! The Strokes!).

The following conversation has been edited and condensed.

Let’s start with today’s big music news. What do you make of Olivia Rodrigo’s new single?

“Drop Dead” is precisely what I want and expect from her: a cinematic, super hooky, vaguely new wave-ish pop song about the absolute and eternal humiliation of having a big old crush. “I know that the bar closes at eleven / But I hope you never finish that beer” is such a great opening line—she is always so vivid and funny when writing about the lunacy of love and attraction. It’s not a major reinvention, musically (she’s committed to those Blondie-esque spoken verses and a wide, swooping bridge; the song was co-written with Amy Allen and Dan Nigro, who also did most of “Sour” and “Guts”), but it works for me.

Also in Gen Z music news this week: Noah Kahan’s new Netflix documentary is out, ahead of his album release later this month. You wrote about it! What do you make of Kahan at this juncture in his career?

I’m really rooting for him. He strikes me as a person with an unusual amount of humility and grace. I like what I’ve heard of the new record, too—it’s tender, propulsive, smart. It was co-produced by Aaron Dessner, who’s a useful foil for someone like Kahan, who maybe leans sort of earnest and crowd-please-y. Dessner’s production is moody, and it gives Kahan’s songs some existential heft.

Over all, how is this year in music shaping up?

Lately, whenever I’ve been asked this, I can’t help but think of the closing lines of a poem by Charles Bukowski: “Everything burning, / everything wet, / everything fine.” There are always great records coming out, but in terms of cultural sea change, man, it feels really slow right now! Pop is in a transitional moment. With the exception of Kendrick Lamar (and occasionally Drake), hip-hop has largely ceded its purchase on the charts, and, instead, we’re seeing a lot of easy-listening ballads sung by people far too young, in my opinion, to not be doing something weirder and more inventive.

Do you have any favorite releases so far?

The past couple of years have felt so flashy and pop-forward and vulgar (in a great way, of course) that I am now retreating to my safe space (wayward losers with guitars). I understand that Zach Bryan is a contentious figure these days, but I really like his new album, “With Heaven on Top.” He sings a lot about the vagaries of being a celebrity (“Fame and other corny shit” is how he puts it), which can get tiresome, but he’s got a kind of hothead-dirtbag swagger that, regrettably, I find interesting.

There’s also a great record coming out next month called “Birds of Paradise,” by a New Orleans-based singer named Thomas Dollbaum. It’s just exceptionally deep and lovely—dusky, melodic, just a little bit dangerous-sounding. Big watching-a-thunderstorm-from-the-front-porch energy.

Have there been any disappointments?

I find Harry Styles wildly talented and generally very compelling, but I wish he’d taken a bigger swing this year. I want his music to be as inscrutable and forward-thinking as his brand is. My (delusional) hope was that “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally” would somehow resemble the Blue Nile’s “The Downtown Lights,” or Dexys Midnight Runners’ “Come On Eileen,” or late-aughts Grizzly Bear, or even “Sound of Silver”-era LCD Soundsystem, whereas it’s mostly just giving, “Hey, you are at the drugstore.” (For whatever it’s worth, the self-titled début by My New Band Believe—a proggy, circuitous project from the former Black Midi bassist Cameron Picton—perhaps scratches that itch more successfully.)

Which projects have most interested you intellectually, as a critic? Have any stood out artistically, even if they maybe aren’t in your daily rotation?

Admittedly, “URGH,” by Mandy, Indiana (a noise-rock band that’s split between Manchester and Berlin, with a vocalist who sings in French), is too violent, gnashing, and seductive for my everyday listening (these days, I’m more likely to wind down by doing the “la-da-da-dee” from Bob Dylan’s “Wigwam”), but I think it’s cool as hell. Inexplicable, loud, kinetic, vicious. Great.

In a post-“Brat” world, it feels like there’s room for pop that’s high-concept and a little IYKYK-coded, though aside from the Addison Rae record, which came out in 2025, I don’t know that we’ve fully seen that class of artists emerge from the ether (or, more realistically, TikTok) yet.

We asked our readers to send us what questions they have for you. A couple of them wanted to know what you thought about the accusations that the hype around the band Geese was a PsyOp.