Angine de Poitrine, \u2018Vol II\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Angine](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Angine-de-Poitrine-Vol.II_.jpeg?w=300\")
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\n\n\tThis Quebec duo\u2014shrouded in polka dots and playing rhythm-heavy microtonal math rock\u2014became viral sensations in March, thanks to a video of bassist-guitarist Khn de Poitrine (he plays a double-necked axe strung with both setups) and drummer Klek de Poitrine demolishing a half-hour set. But their second full-length delivers on the hype with wit and verve, with cuts like the woozy yet propulsive \u201cMata Zyklek\u201d and the speedy \u201cYor Zarad\u201d showcasing the pair\u2019s ability to combine the disparate weirdnesses of prog, punk, and guitar heroism into giddy mini-epics.\u2013Maura Johnston <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nA$AP Rocky, \u2018Don\u2019t Be Dumb\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"A$AP](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
![\"A$AP](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/AsAP-Rocky-Dont-Be-Dumb.jpg?w=300\")
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\n\n\tA$AP Rocky\u2019s long-awaited return <\/a>is slick and overstuffed, from the Tim Burton-designed artwork to cameos from Damon Albarn of Gorillaz and Oscar-winning composer Danny Elfman, as he conveys his evolution from scrapping on the streets of Harlem to luxuriating in wealthy, starstruck domestic bliss. He indulges his maximalist tastes, from chanting alongside Slay Squad on hardcore banger \u201cSTFU\u201d or playing Bonnie and Clyde with Doechii over a jazzy arrangement of piano and drums on the zippy \u201cRobbery.\u201d Hate on Rocky for being the kind of overconfident talker who sparks beef with former friend Drake on \u201cStole Ya Flow.\u201d But it sounds like he\u2019s having fun and he convinces the listener to join the party, too.\u2013Mosi Reeves<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nBaby Keem, \u2018Casino\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Baby](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Baby-Keem-Casino.jpeg?w=300\")
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\n\n\tIn the past, fans viewed Baby Keem as a familial prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Kendrick Lamar, someone whose youthful verve on hit singles like \u201cFamily Ties\u201d felt like a refreshing antidote to his second cousin\u2019s intensely thoughtful persona. But Keem has his demons, too, and he expunges them with Casino<\/em><\/a>, an album centered on his troubled childhood in Las Vegas. \u201cI was seven years old, waiting on you in pajamas\/You said you would come home, should\u2019ve never made that promise,\u201d he harmonizes in a broken, sobbing cadence on \u201cNo Security.\u201d Keem thinks like a producer, and he arranges his songs into a portrait of a young man troubled but not bowed by his past. He yelps, mutters in a rage\/plugg flow and sings, but there\u2019s a lightness that lingers in his voice.\u2013M.R.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nBad Gyal, \u2018Mas Cara\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Bad](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Bad-Gyal-Mas-Cara.jpeg?w=300\")
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\n\n\tTwo years in the making \u2013 an eternity for today\u2019s Latin pop standards \u2013 Bad Gyal\u2019s second album exudes a pervasive feeling of VIP luxury, from the sensuous panache of the neo-bachata \u201cDa Me\u201d to the sweet synth filigrees in the EDM-flavored \u201cFa$hion Killa.\u201d The Catalan star follows her muse instinctively, shimmying from genre to genre, but it is the rich texture of her voice that steals the show \u2013 bathed in the golden glow of dancehall, veering into darkly hued reggaet\u00f3n voltage on \u201cChoque,\u201d with Chencho Corleone. Dismissing Gyal as a commercial diva would be a mistake; her stylistic appetite is edgy and futuristic.\u2013Ernesto Lechner<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nBlackpink, \u2018Deadline\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Blackpink,](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Blackpink-DEADLINE.png?w=300\")
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\n\n\tThe K-pop queens of Blackjack make their comeback on Deadline<\/em>,<\/a> three years after their last album Born Pink<\/em>. All four\u2014Jennie, Ros\u00e9, Lisa, Jisoo\u2014are in the mood to stunt, always what they\u2019re best at, oozing glam charisma. It\u2019s a fast 15-minute EP,\u00a0 featuring their 2025 single \u201cJump,\u201d plus the Eighties new wave tribute \u201cChampion,\u201d the vengeful guitar ballad \u201cFxxxboy,\u201d and the party banger \u201cGo,\u201d with a writing credit from Coldplay\u2019s Chris Martin. \u201dMe and My\u201d warns you to watch out and hide your man when Blackpink roll up to the club. Jennie toasts \u201cpretty privilege,\u201d in her \u201chottie season,\u201d and boasts, \u201cDaisy Dukes make me speak my mind.\u201d\u2013Rob Sheffield <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nBoards of Canada, \u2018Inferno\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Boards](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Boards-of-Canada-Inferno.jpeg?w=300\")
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\n\n\tBack in the Nineties, few would have dared to dub Boards of Canada \u201ctrip-hop,\u201d and maybe they shouldn\u2019t have. But BoC\u2019s lazy breakbeats and woozy air points straight in that direction \u2014 and period charm has always been their greatest strength. Nobody is better at making these kind of limpid lullabies. Tracks like \u201cYou Retreat in Time and Space\u201d \u2014 hell, even the title is trip-hop \u2014 and \u201cInto the Magic Land\u201d define the environs of Inferno. Their first album since 2013 <\/a>is lush, rich, and cinematic\u2014and goes past genres as well as embodying them.\u2013Michaelangelo Matos <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nZach Bryan, \u2018With Heaven on Top\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Zach](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Zach-Bryan-With-heaven-on-Top.jpeg?w=300\")
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\n\n\tBryan swung for the fences with this 25-track opus<\/a>, with songs about running with the bulls in spain, reckoning with his life on long plane flights, the burden of the past and the weight of the future. \u201cSkin\u201d is an almost troublingly visceral breakup song, while the Tom Petty-steeped \u201cSlicked Back\u201d pays tribute to the grounding influence of his new wife. He channels this whirr of emotions into his most ambitious music yet, going from subtle indie-folk to sweeping Americana rock. And with the controversial single \u201cBad News\u201d he turned the bummer of doom scrolling into a daring political statement.\u2013Jon Dolan<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nBTS, \u2018Arirang\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"BTS,](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/bts-arirang.jpg?w=300\")
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\n\n\tBTS make their long-awaited return on Arirang<\/a><\/em>, their first new album in over five years. Now that they\u2019ve fulfilled their mandatory military service, BTS are going hard, with production from Diplo, Flume, Ryan Tedder, Tame Impala\u2019s Kevin Parker, Mike WiLL Made It, and JPEGMAFIA. They celebrate their roots, naming the album after a legendary Korean folk song while interpolating another in \u201cBody to Body.\u201d \u201cInterlude\u201d is a tribute that\u2019s simply the toll of the sacred bell of King Seongdeck, one of Korea\u2019s revered cultural treasures, cast over 1200 years ago. Yet they break free in \u201cFYA,\u201d with the party chant, Like Britney, baby \/ Hit me with it one more time!\u201d\u2013R.S.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nCa7riel & Paco, \u2018Amoroso Free Spirits\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"ca7riel](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ca7riel-y-paco-amoroso-free-spirits-cover.jpg?w=300\")
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\n\n\tThe Argentine duo\u2019s second album expands on their self-professed, ongoing \u201csocial experiment.\u201d Ca7riel and Paco use FREE SPIRITS as a platform to express their dissatisfaction with celebrity and wealth. Fortunately, the same tenets that informed their lightning-in-a-bottle Tiny Desk session are still present: a remarkable degree of harmonic complexity, Ca7riel\u2019s ultra-cool guitar licks, and an opulent production sheen that teeters between the silky and the synthetic. An eccentric duet with Sting, \u201cHasta Jes\u00fas Tuvo Un Mal D\u00eda\u201d celebrates the goofy exuberance of Eighties rock radio, and the summery Brazilian groove of \u201cVida Loca\u201d is genuinely affecting. The boys\u2019 provocative antics can get annoying at times, but their love of sophisticated music is infectious \u2013 and redemptive.\u2013E.L.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nBill Callahan, \u2018My Days of 58\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Bill](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Bill-Callahan-My-Days-of-58.jpg?w=300\")
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\n\n\tStaying true to form, Callahan\u2019s latest contains self-analytical songs about maturing (\u201cPathol O.G.\u201d), fatherhood from both his recently deceased dad\u2019s and his own perspective (\u201cEmpathy\u201d), and living up to his wife\u2019s expectations of him (\u201cThe Man I\u2019m Supposed to Be\u201d). Where the music he recorded decades ago using the name Smog was sparse yet exacting, the folky arrangements of My Days of 58 sound loose and live, thanks to Jim White\u2019s drumming and lively horn and string arrangements that enhance Callahan\u2019s confessional and often hilarious lyrics. \u201cWe take life seriously, laugh in the face of death,\u201d he sings on \u201cThe Man I\u2019m Supposed to Be,\u201d but he punctuates that thought at the end with a falsetto \u201chee-hee.\u201d \u2014Kory Grow <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nCardinals, \u2018Masquerade\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Cardinals,](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Cardinals-Masquerade.jpg?w=300\")
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\n\n\tThis Irish band has a highly original sound \u2014 knife-sharp indie guitars plus wheezing, sighing accordion \u2014 and a prize frontman in Euan Manning, whose shivering intensity can bring to mind a young Thom Yorke or Jeff Buckley with more of a feral edge. They\u2019ve got some damn catchy songs, too. \u201cOver at Last,\u201d \u201cShe Makes Me Real,\u201d and the title track are mini-epics full of raging, yearning emotion. On \u201cBarbed Wire,\u201d they sing about debauched nights out on the town; on \u201cThe Burning of Cork,\u201d they reference their hometown\u2019s history of colonial violence. It adds up to one of the year\u2019s most replayable rock debuts, and a band with tons of potential.\u2013Simon Vozick-Levinson<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nCola, \u2018Cost of Living Adjustment\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Cola,](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Cola-Cost-of-Living-Adjustment.jpg?w=300\")
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\n\n\tThe Canadian art-punk trio Cola specialize in dystopian guitar grooves, exploring all the ways that the capitalist grind can corrode the soul. They made their name with 2022\u2019s Deep In View <\/em>and 2024\u2019s The Gloss<\/em>. But this time they go all the way, with their radically original third album, Cost of Living Adjustment<\/a><\/em>. Cola jump right out at you in the irresistible \u201cHedgesplitting,\u201d with shoegaze guitar\/synth shimmer and a sampled hip-hop drum loop. \u201cConflagration Mindset\u201d rages about the L.A. fires, while \u201cMuch of a Muchness\u201d dissects the social-media blues, with Tim Darcy sneering, \u201cIt\u2019s all eros and ones \/ All digits, no thumbs.\u201d--R.S.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nLuke Combs, \u2018The Way I Am\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Luke](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/luke-combs-review-cover.jpg?w=300\")
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\n\n\tOn his latest<\/a>, the country megastar takes his various sides\u2014sensitive balladeer \u201cGiving Her Away\u201d), beer-chugging bar band leader (\u201cAlcohol of Fame\u201d), gruff country-rock outlaw (\u201cBack in the Saddle\u201d)\u2014and somehow makes them all fit into a neat whole. On \u201cEver Mine,\u201d a song with Alison Krauss, he shows he can even dip into bluegrass and traditional American music and make it seem natural and unforced. After keeping quiet since his crossover \u201cFast Car\u201d success, the 36 year old has re-emerged with a convincing case for his place as the foremost family friendly star in country music star in 2026.\u2013Jonathan Bernstein<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nAlvaro Diaz, \u2018Omakese\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Alvaro](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Alvaro-Diaz-Omakase.jpg?w=300\")
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\n\n\tPuerto Rican rapper \u00c1lvaro D\u00edaz<\/strong><\/a> is considered one of Latin music\u2019s most unpredictable, omnidirectional artists, but his masterful, mind-bending album Omakase <\/em>is a step up, even for a guy who\u2019s always been ahead of the musical curve. He mashes up heartbreak, dembow, and cumbia, and morphs traditional plena into weird chord progressions from avant producer El Guincho<\/strong><\/a>. There\u2019s stories of break-ups and heartache; some of the best are \u201cPerdiste el Emmy,\u201d featuring Tainy<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s signature sentimental synths, and \u201cNo Podemos Ser Amigos,\u201d which blends hints of drum \u2018n\u2019 bass and electronic flourishes. Plus, he gets even more of his galaxy-brained friends and rising acts to join in: Mexican trio Latin Mafia, R&B singer Jesse Baez, Chilean upstarter Akriila, and hidden vocals from Rauw Alejandro.\u2014 Julyssa Lopez<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nThomas Dollbaum, \u2018Birds of Paradise\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Thomas](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Thomas-Dollbaum-Birds-of-Paradise.jpg?w=300\")
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\n\n\tThere hasn\u2019t been a more exciting burst of Southern-inflected guitar rock this year than this full-length from the New Orleans-based songwriter Thomas Dollbaum. Like so many exciting Southern indie records as of late, MJ Lenderman makes a cameo, but it\u2019s Dollbaum\u2019s songwriting and sense of melody that makes this a genuine keeper: See the haunted, howling refrain that concludes \u201cWaterbird,\u201d or the stormy stomp-rock of \u201cPulverize,\u201d or the immediate anthem \u201cDozen Roses.\u201d If you like any combination of guitars, Southern gothic storytelling, or just big bursting choruses you might want to sing in a bar late at night, this is the album for you. \u201cIn this great land of dying,\u201d as he sings, \u201cI\u2019m happy to be alive.\u201d\u2013Jon Blistein<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nDrake, \u2018Maid of Honour\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Drake,](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/drake-maid-of-honour.jpg?w=300\")
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\n\n\tThe crown jewel of Drake\u2019s three-album barrage, Maid of Honour<\/em> is where the sprawl sharpens into feeling: fluid, club-lit, and cross-genre, with Drake turning house, dancehall, queer nightlife, and regional Black sounds into a persuasive argument for his cultural fluency. It\u2019s his strongest work in years because the bangers carry the thesis \u2014 making the body move before the discourse can catch up. The album draws from Black musical traditions that are often maligned in the mainstream for existing outside the rigid, often hyper-conservative, hyper-masculine boundaries of commercial music. Queer nightlife, dancehall, and house music, all undeniably Black cultural innovations, braid seamlessly across the album\u2019s nimble 45-minute runtime.\u2013Jeff Ihaza<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nDry Cleaning, \u2018Secret Love\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Dry](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Dry-Cleaning-Secret-Love.jpg?w=300\")
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\n\n\tThe third album from the U.K. post-punk band Dry Cleaning hits a peak balance of deadpan lyrics and equally deadpan guitars. Vocalist Florence Shaw cooly speaks her lyrics with the emotional connection of someone reading a coroner\u2019s report as she unpacks topics like foodie neurosis or the boredom and rage of our doomscrolling reality. With the help of producer Cate Le Bon, the band delivers her postcards from the edge with music that\u2019s appropriately ironic and mordant, but also varied and at points even kind of rousing, from the Eighties college-pop strum of \u201cBlood\u201d to the street-rock strut of \u201cThe Cute Things.\u201d\u2013J.D.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nHilary Duff, \u2018Luck\u2026.Or Something\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Hilary](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/hillary-duff-album-artwork.jpg?w=300\")
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\n\n\tA former child star releasing a comeback album isn\u2019t that revelatory, but a former child star releasing a great<\/em> comeback album is exceedingly rare. Luck\u2026.Or Something<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Duff\u2019s first new album in over a decade, is the sparkly synth-pop surprise we didn\u2019t know we needed so badly. The record, made with her husband Matthew Koma, offers a realistic and vulnerable glimpse at where her life is now \u2014 many years after Lizzie McGuire<\/em>, \u201cCome Clean,\u201d and that \u201cWith Love\u201d dance that became viral in the TikTok era \u2014 as she sings about motherhood, marriage, and just needing that damn glass of orange wine. \u201cI\u2019m a mom and I pick up my kids at school and pack lunches every day and it\u2019s so hard,\u2019\u201d Duff told us<\/a>. \u201cWhat I was interested in talking about is the shift in how it makes me feel, as a person.\u201d Mission accomplished.\u2013Angie Martoccio<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nAvalon Emerson, \u2018Written Into Changes\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Avalon](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Avalon-Emerson-Written-Into-Changes.jpg?w=300\")
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\n\n\tLove is everywhere on Avalon Emerson\u2019s ethereal <\/strong>sophomore album, Written Into Changes<\/em>, whether it\u2019s embodied by an ice cold brewski, sunny drive down the freeway, or the kind eyes of her closest friends on her birthday. Though Emerson cut her teeth as a DJ across the globe, morphing Knife-esque techno musings into mixes with Erykah Badu drops, the music she pens with her band the Charm is breezy and indebted to the Eighties; think New Wave, soft rock, and dream-pop. Even when love tears her apart, she finds a way to sew herself back together, and make it all sound like the humid summer evening under the stars. \u2013Jaeden Pinder<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nErnest, \u2018Deep Blue\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Ernest,](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Ernest-Deep-Blue.jpeg?w=300\")
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\n\n\tOne of Music Row\u2019s most reliable and inventive songwriters levels up as a solo artist on this smooth-country collection that redefines what it means to be laid back. But Ernest (full name: Ernest K. Smith) isn\u2019t sailing seas already charted by Kenny Chesney and Zac Brown Band on Deep Blue<\/em>. He\u2019s adding some much-needed gravitas to country\u2019s penchant for beachy escapism. The title track is a fiddle-forward heartbreaker \u2014 \u201cYeah, you always wanted m\u0435 to drown anyways,\u201d he sings \u2014 while \u201cLorelai\u201d finds Ern\u2019 still flying a flag for the woman who \u201cwrecked my world.\u201d Not every sunset in life is a pretty one.--Joseph Hudak<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nFoo Fighters, \u2018Your Favorite Toy\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"foo](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/foo-fighters-yft-album-cover.jpg?w=300\")
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\n\n\t\u201cDon\u2019t forget, we\u2019re lucky if we get out alive,\u201d Dave Grohl reminds us on \u201cSpit Shine,\u201d a seething blur from Foo Fighters\u2019 12th album.<\/a> Few rockers understand that sentiment as poignantly as he does, and Your Favorite Toy<\/em> he channels that feeling into high-energy garage-rock. With three guitarists and new drummer Ilan Rubin replacing the late Taylor Hawkins, the band knocks through ten, fast, loud, very catchy songs that can be haunted (in \u201cOf All People\u201d he runs into a drug dealer he can\u2019t believe is still around), but always feel like their thrashing towards a resilient epiphany.\u2013J.D.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nKim Gordon, \u2018Play Me\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Kim](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Kim-Gordon-Play-Me.jpg?w=300\")
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\n\n\tKim Gordon has been a punk legend for over four decades now, ever since Sonic Youth, but she\u2019s riding higher than ever. Play Me <\/em>continues her bizarre-yet-perfect collaboration with L.A. producer Justin Raisen, best known for working with artists like Kid Cudi, Lil Yachty, and Charli XCX. She sneers over the industrial trap beats, with savagely funny satires of modern American culture. In the title tune, she recites the names of Spotify mood-themed playlists, from \u201crich popular girl\u201d to \u201cjazz in the background\u201d to \u201cchilling after work,\u201d while \u201cBye Bye\u201d has Dave Grohl pounding the drums. Play Me<\/em> makes it seem like Gordon is just getting started.\u2013R.S.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nGorillaz, \u2018The Mountain\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Gorillaz,](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Gorillaz-The-Mountain.jpeg?w=300\")
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\n\n\tDamon Albarn has been making magically multifarious pop songs with a rotating cast of all-stars for 25 years in the cartoon side project that turned into his main creative outlet. But he\u2019s never made a Gorillaz album as moving as The Mountain, which began with a revelatory trip to India with co-founder Jamie Hewlett and turned into a profound exploration of grief featuring guest appearances from former collaborators like Dennis Hopper, Tony Allen, Dave Jolicoeur, and Proof. Those ghostly presences, calling in from the great studio in the sky to mingle with newer friends like Trueno and Black Thought, make this an emotionally resonant landmark in Gorillaz\u2019 catalog.\u2013S.V.L.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nAldous Harding, \u2018Train on the Island\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Aldous](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Aldous-Harding-Train-on-the-Island.jpg?w=300\")
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\n\n\tThe least surrealistic lyric on \u201cI Ate the Most,\u201d the lead track on Aldous Harding\u2019s fifth album, goes, \u201cI feel that I feel the most,\u201d and somehow that confession makes the already quiet and contemplative song somehow more chilling and intimate. A master of musical sleight of hand, Harding has a way of elevating the songs on Train on the Island <\/em>into little masterpieces of vulnerability, such as the way she bends her voice on \u201cOne Stop,\u201d singing \u201cWhy wouldn\u2019t I want to meet you\/Why wouldn\u2019t I want to hold you?\u201d like she\u2019s having a nervous breakdown. John Parish\u2019s production adds texture to Harding\u2019s songs, which at times recall PJ Harvey and early 2000s Radiohead, but it\u2019s Harding\u2019s left-of-center perspective that makes this a stunner. \u2014K.G.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nJ Balvin and Ryan Castro, \u2018Omerta\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"J](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/J-Balvin-and-Ryan-Castro-OMERTA.jpeg?w=300\")
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\n\n\tOmerta<\/em> marks the first-ever collaborative album from two of the biggest voices in Colombia, J Balvin and Ryan Castro. It also feels like a natural progression of the pair\u2019s close friendship, which developed over the past five years as Balvin mentored rising star Castro. As a result, the LP moves through the genres that identify each artist: rock, dancehall, and, of course, reggaeton, tracing the trust that collaborators have been able to find in each other. Named after the Italian phrase for a code of silence, Omerta<\/em> emphasizes these close ties and the importance of family.\u2013Maya Georgi \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nJ Cole, \u2018The Fall-Of\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"J](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/j-cole-art-review.jpg?w=300\")
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\n\n\tIf The Fall-Off<\/em> really is J. Cole\u2019s final album, he leaves with something fittingly weighty: a two-disc opus that moves like a novel, full of soulful warmth, anxious nostalgia, and the contradictions that have always made him compelling. The first, Disc 29, chronicles his return to his native Fayetteville at the age of 29, flush from industry success; the second, Disc 39, documents a similar trip home, but this time as a married father of two children. Dense, frustrating, and beautifully human, it\u2019s less a victory lap than a self-interrogation \u2014 animated by Jermaine Cole himself, in all his wit, flaws, and stubborn moral restlessness.\u2013J.I.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nNoah Kahan, \u2018The Great Divide\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"noah](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/noah-kahan-The-Great-Divide-Album-Art.jpg?w=300\")
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\n\n\tWhere do you go after the season of the sticks? It\u2019s a question Noah Kahan asks himself time and time again on The Great Divide<\/em><\/a>, the 17-track odyssey that arrives four years after he broke through with that addictive ditty about Vermont. He\u2019s a fully-fledged rock star now, Ray Bans on his face, navigating stardom while still trying to keep his loved ones close. \u201cEvery clich\u00e9 about music has proven so true for me,\u201d he told us in his Rolling Stone<\/em> cover story<\/a>. \u201cLike, \u2018You can get everything you want, and it\u2019s still not going to do it!\u2019\u201d Highlights include \u201cDoors,\u201d \u201cAmerican Cars,\u201d \u201cDashboard,\u201d and \u201cWe Go Way Back,\u201d but it\u2019s a cohesive no-skips record, best played on long drives through the woods \u2014 as Kahan intended.\u2013A.M.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nElla Langley, \u2018Dandelion\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Ella](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Ella-Langley-Dandelion.jpeg?w=300\")
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\n\n\t\u201cChoosin Texas\u201d was already country\u2019s 2026 song of the summer when it dropped back in fall of 2025. Turns out Langley, a 27-year-old Alabaman, had an album\u2019s worth of songcraft nearly as good to back it up, including another sweet Miranda Lambert co-write (\u201cButterfly Season\u201d), an ear-wormy girl-crushy confession in the spirit of \u201cJolene\u201d and Little Big Town\u2019s \u201cGirl Crush\u201d (\u201cBe Her\u201d), and, in case you doubted her roots, a note-perfect reading of Kitty Wells\u2019 classic \u201cIt Wasn\u2019t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.\u201d As we wrote, Langley\u2019s slump-less sophomore LP<\/a> could do for classic country style what Laufey and Billie Eilish have done for post-WWII jazz-pop, just in time for WWIII.\u2013Will Hermes<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nMelanie Martinez, \u2018Hades\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Melanie](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Melanie-Martinez-Hades.jpeg?w=300\")
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\n\tThis Quebec duo\u2014shrouded in polka dots and playing rhythm-heavy microtonal math rock\u2014became viral sensations in March, thanks to a video of bassist-guitarist Khn de Poitrine (he plays a double-necked axe strung with both setups) and drummer Klek de Poitrine demolishing a half-hour set. But their second full-length delivers on the hype with wit and verve, with cuts like the woozy yet propulsive \u201cMata Zyklek\u201d and the speedy \u201cYor Zarad\u201d showcasing the pair\u2019s ability to combine the disparate weirdnesses of prog, punk, and guitar heroism into giddy mini-epics.\u2013Maura Johnston <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tA$AP Rocky\u2019s long-awaited return <\/a>is slick and overstuffed, from the Tim Burton-designed artwork to cameos from Damon Albarn of Gorillaz and Oscar-winning composer Danny Elfman, as he conveys his evolution from scrapping on the streets of Harlem to luxuriating in wealthy, starstruck domestic bliss. He indulges his maximalist tastes, from chanting alongside Slay Squad on hardcore banger \u201cSTFU\u201d or playing Bonnie and Clyde with Doechii over a jazzy arrangement of piano and drums on the zippy \u201cRobbery.\u201d Hate on Rocky for being the kind of overconfident talker who sparks beef with former friend Drake on \u201cStole Ya Flow.\u201d But it sounds like he\u2019s having fun and he convinces the listener to join the party, too.\u2013Mosi Reeves<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tIn the past, fans viewed Baby Keem as a familial prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Kendrick Lamar, someone whose youthful verve on hit singles like \u201cFamily Ties\u201d felt like a refreshing antidote to his second cousin\u2019s intensely thoughtful persona. But Keem has his demons, too, and he expunges them with Casino<\/em><\/a>, an album centered on his troubled childhood in Las Vegas. \u201cI was seven years old, waiting on you in pajamas\/You said you would come home, should\u2019ve never made that promise,\u201d he harmonizes in a broken, sobbing cadence on \u201cNo Security.\u201d Keem thinks like a producer, and he arranges his songs into a portrait of a young man troubled but not bowed by his past. He yelps, mutters in a rage\/plugg flow and sings, but there\u2019s a lightness that lingers in his voice.\u2013M.R.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tTwo years in the making \u2013 an eternity for today\u2019s Latin pop standards \u2013 Bad Gyal\u2019s second album exudes a pervasive feeling of VIP luxury, from the sensuous panache of the neo-bachata \u201cDa Me\u201d to the sweet synth filigrees in the EDM-flavored \u201cFa$hion Killa.\u201d The Catalan star follows her muse instinctively, shimmying from genre to genre, but it is the rich texture of her voice that steals the show \u2013 bathed in the golden glow of dancehall, veering into darkly hued reggaet\u00f3n voltage on \u201cChoque,\u201d with Chencho Corleone. Dismissing Gyal as a commercial diva would be a mistake; her stylistic appetite is edgy and futuristic.\u2013Ernesto Lechner<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tThe K-pop queens of Blackjack make their comeback on Deadline<\/em>,<\/a> three years after their last album Born Pink<\/em>. All four\u2014Jennie, Ros\u00e9, Lisa, Jisoo\u2014are in the mood to stunt, always what they\u2019re best at, oozing glam charisma. It\u2019s a fast 15-minute EP,\u00a0 featuring their 2025 single \u201cJump,\u201d plus the Eighties new wave tribute \u201cChampion,\u201d the vengeful guitar ballad \u201cFxxxboy,\u201d and the party banger \u201cGo,\u201d with a writing credit from Coldplay\u2019s Chris Martin. \u201dMe and My\u201d warns you to watch out and hide your man when Blackpink roll up to the club. Jennie toasts \u201cpretty privilege,\u201d in her \u201chottie season,\u201d and boasts, \u201cDaisy Dukes make me speak my mind.\u201d\u2013Rob Sheffield <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tBack in the Nineties, few would have dared to dub Boards of Canada \u201ctrip-hop,\u201d and maybe they shouldn\u2019t have. But BoC\u2019s lazy breakbeats and woozy air points straight in that direction \u2014 and period charm has always been their greatest strength. Nobody is better at making these kind of limpid lullabies. Tracks like \u201cYou Retreat in Time and Space\u201d \u2014 hell, even the title is trip-hop \u2014 and \u201cInto the Magic Land\u201d define the environs of Inferno. Their first album since 2013 <\/a>is lush, rich, and cinematic\u2014and goes past genres as well as embodying them.\u2013Michaelangelo Matos <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tBryan swung for the fences with this 25-track opus<\/a>, with songs about running with the bulls in spain, reckoning with his life on long plane flights, the burden of the past and the weight of the future. \u201cSkin\u201d is an almost troublingly visceral breakup song, while the Tom Petty-steeped \u201cSlicked Back\u201d pays tribute to the grounding influence of his new wife. He channels this whirr of emotions into his most ambitious music yet, going from subtle indie-folk to sweeping Americana rock. And with the controversial single \u201cBad News\u201d he turned the bummer of doom scrolling into a daring political statement.\u2013Jon Dolan<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tBTS make their long-awaited return on Arirang<\/a><\/em>, their first new album in over five years. Now that they\u2019ve fulfilled their mandatory military service, BTS are going hard, with production from Diplo, Flume, Ryan Tedder, Tame Impala\u2019s Kevin Parker, Mike WiLL Made It, and JPEGMAFIA. They celebrate their roots, naming the album after a legendary Korean folk song while interpolating another in \u201cBody to Body.\u201d \u201cInterlude\u201d is a tribute that\u2019s simply the toll of the sacred bell of King Seongdeck, one of Korea\u2019s revered cultural treasures, cast over 1200 years ago. Yet they break free in \u201cFYA,\u201d with the party chant, Like Britney, baby \/ Hit me with it one more time!\u201d\u2013R.S.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tThe Argentine duo\u2019s second album expands on their self-professed, ongoing \u201csocial experiment.\u201d Ca7riel and Paco use FREE SPIRITS as a platform to express their dissatisfaction with celebrity and wealth. Fortunately, the same tenets that informed their lightning-in-a-bottle Tiny Desk session are still present: a remarkable degree of harmonic complexity, Ca7riel\u2019s ultra-cool guitar licks, and an opulent production sheen that teeters between the silky and the synthetic. An eccentric duet with Sting, \u201cHasta Jes\u00fas Tuvo Un Mal D\u00eda\u201d celebrates the goofy exuberance of Eighties rock radio, and the summery Brazilian groove of \u201cVida Loca\u201d is genuinely affecting. The boys\u2019 provocative antics can get annoying at times, but their love of sophisticated music is infectious \u2013 and redemptive.\u2013E.L.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tStaying true to form, Callahan\u2019s latest contains self-analytical songs about maturing (\u201cPathol O.G.\u201d), fatherhood from both his recently deceased dad\u2019s and his own perspective (\u201cEmpathy\u201d), and living up to his wife\u2019s expectations of him (\u201cThe Man I\u2019m Supposed to Be\u201d). Where the music he recorded decades ago using the name Smog was sparse yet exacting, the folky arrangements of My Days of 58 sound loose and live, thanks to Jim White\u2019s drumming and lively horn and string arrangements that enhance Callahan\u2019s confessional and often hilarious lyrics. \u201cWe take life seriously, laugh in the face of death,\u201d he sings on \u201cThe Man I\u2019m Supposed to Be,\u201d but he punctuates that thought at the end with a falsetto \u201chee-hee.\u201d \u2014Kory Grow <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tThis Irish band has a highly original sound \u2014 knife-sharp indie guitars plus wheezing, sighing accordion \u2014 and a prize frontman in Euan Manning, whose shivering intensity can bring to mind a young Thom Yorke or Jeff Buckley with more of a feral edge. They\u2019ve got some damn catchy songs, too. \u201cOver at Last,\u201d \u201cShe Makes Me Real,\u201d and the title track are mini-epics full of raging, yearning emotion. On \u201cBarbed Wire,\u201d they sing about debauched nights out on the town; on \u201cThe Burning of Cork,\u201d they reference their hometown\u2019s history of colonial violence. It adds up to one of the year\u2019s most replayable rock debuts, and a band with tons of potential.\u2013Simon Vozick-Levinson<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tThe Canadian art-punk trio Cola specialize in dystopian guitar grooves, exploring all the ways that the capitalist grind can corrode the soul. They made their name with 2022\u2019s Deep In View <\/em>and 2024\u2019s The Gloss<\/em>. But this time they go all the way, with their radically original third album, Cost of Living Adjustment<\/a><\/em>. Cola jump right out at you in the irresistible \u201cHedgesplitting,\u201d with shoegaze guitar\/synth shimmer and a sampled hip-hop drum loop. \u201cConflagration Mindset\u201d rages about the L.A. fires, while \u201cMuch of a Muchness\u201d dissects the social-media blues, with Tim Darcy sneering, \u201cIt\u2019s all eros and ones \/ All digits, no thumbs.\u201d--R.S.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tOn his latest<\/a>, the country megastar takes his various sides\u2014sensitive balladeer \u201cGiving Her Away\u201d), beer-chugging bar band leader (\u201cAlcohol of Fame\u201d), gruff country-rock outlaw (\u201cBack in the Saddle\u201d)\u2014and somehow makes them all fit into a neat whole. On \u201cEver Mine,\u201d a song with Alison Krauss, he shows he can even dip into bluegrass and traditional American music and make it seem natural and unforced. After keeping quiet since his crossover \u201cFast Car\u201d success, the 36 year old has re-emerged with a convincing case for his place as the foremost family friendly star in country music star in 2026.\u2013Jonathan Bernstein<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tPuerto Rican rapper \u00c1lvaro D\u00edaz<\/strong><\/a> is considered one of Latin music\u2019s most unpredictable, omnidirectional artists, but his masterful, mind-bending album Omakase <\/em>is a step up, even for a guy who\u2019s always been ahead of the musical curve. He mashes up heartbreak, dembow, and cumbia, and morphs traditional plena into weird chord progressions from avant producer El Guincho<\/strong><\/a>. There\u2019s stories of break-ups and heartache; some of the best are \u201cPerdiste el Emmy,\u201d featuring Tainy<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s signature sentimental synths, and \u201cNo Podemos Ser Amigos,\u201d which blends hints of drum \u2018n\u2019 bass and electronic flourishes. Plus, he gets even more of his galaxy-brained friends and rising acts to join in: Mexican trio Latin Mafia, R&B singer Jesse Baez, Chilean upstarter Akriila, and hidden vocals from Rauw Alejandro.\u2014 Julyssa Lopez<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tThere hasn\u2019t been a more exciting burst of Southern-inflected guitar rock this year than this full-length from the New Orleans-based songwriter Thomas Dollbaum. Like so many exciting Southern indie records as of late, MJ Lenderman makes a cameo, but it\u2019s Dollbaum\u2019s songwriting and sense of melody that makes this a genuine keeper: See the haunted, howling refrain that concludes \u201cWaterbird,\u201d or the stormy stomp-rock of \u201cPulverize,\u201d or the immediate anthem \u201cDozen Roses.\u201d If you like any combination of guitars, Southern gothic storytelling, or just big bursting choruses you might want to sing in a bar late at night, this is the album for you. \u201cIn this great land of dying,\u201d as he sings, \u201cI\u2019m happy to be alive.\u201d\u2013Jon Blistein<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tThe crown jewel of Drake\u2019s three-album barrage, Maid of Honour<\/em> is where the sprawl sharpens into feeling: fluid, club-lit, and cross-genre, with Drake turning house, dancehall, queer nightlife, and regional Black sounds into a persuasive argument for his cultural fluency. It\u2019s his strongest work in years because the bangers carry the thesis \u2014 making the body move before the discourse can catch up. The album draws from Black musical traditions that are often maligned in the mainstream for existing outside the rigid, often hyper-conservative, hyper-masculine boundaries of commercial music. Queer nightlife, dancehall, and house music, all undeniably Black cultural innovations, braid seamlessly across the album\u2019s nimble 45-minute runtime.\u2013Jeff Ihaza<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tThe third album from the U.K. post-punk band Dry Cleaning hits a peak balance of deadpan lyrics and equally deadpan guitars. Vocalist Florence Shaw cooly speaks her lyrics with the emotional connection of someone reading a coroner\u2019s report as she unpacks topics like foodie neurosis or the boredom and rage of our doomscrolling reality. With the help of producer Cate Le Bon, the band delivers her postcards from the edge with music that\u2019s appropriately ironic and mordant, but also varied and at points even kind of rousing, from the Eighties college-pop strum of \u201cBlood\u201d to the street-rock strut of \u201cThe Cute Things.\u201d\u2013J.D.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tA former child star releasing a comeback album isn\u2019t that revelatory, but a former child star releasing a great<\/em> comeback album is exceedingly rare. Luck\u2026.Or Something<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Duff\u2019s first new album in over a decade, is the sparkly synth-pop surprise we didn\u2019t know we needed so badly. The record, made with her husband Matthew Koma, offers a realistic and vulnerable glimpse at where her life is now \u2014 many years after Lizzie McGuire<\/em>, \u201cCome Clean,\u201d and that \u201cWith Love\u201d dance that became viral in the TikTok era \u2014 as she sings about motherhood, marriage, and just needing that damn glass of orange wine. \u201cI\u2019m a mom and I pick up my kids at school and pack lunches every day and it\u2019s so hard,\u2019\u201d Duff told us<\/a>. \u201cWhat I was interested in talking about is the shift in how it makes me feel, as a person.\u201d Mission accomplished.\u2013Angie Martoccio<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tLove is everywhere on Avalon Emerson\u2019s ethereal <\/strong>sophomore album, Written Into Changes<\/em>, whether it\u2019s embodied by an ice cold brewski, sunny drive down the freeway, or the kind eyes of her closest friends on her birthday. Though Emerson cut her teeth as a DJ across the globe, morphing Knife-esque techno musings into mixes with Erykah Badu drops, the music she pens with her band the Charm is breezy and indebted to the Eighties; think New Wave, soft rock, and dream-pop. Even when love tears her apart, she finds a way to sew herself back together, and make it all sound like the humid summer evening under the stars. \u2013Jaeden Pinder<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tOne of Music Row\u2019s most reliable and inventive songwriters levels up as a solo artist on this smooth-country collection that redefines what it means to be laid back. But Ernest (full name: Ernest K. Smith) isn\u2019t sailing seas already charted by Kenny Chesney and Zac Brown Band on Deep Blue<\/em>. He\u2019s adding some much-needed gravitas to country\u2019s penchant for beachy escapism. The title track is a fiddle-forward heartbreaker \u2014 \u201cYeah, you always wanted m\u0435 to drown anyways,\u201d he sings \u2014 while \u201cLorelai\u201d finds Ern\u2019 still flying a flag for the woman who \u201cwrecked my world.\u201d Not every sunset in life is a pretty one.--Joseph Hudak<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cDon\u2019t forget, we\u2019re lucky if we get out alive,\u201d Dave Grohl reminds us on \u201cSpit Shine,\u201d a seething blur from Foo Fighters\u2019 12th album.<\/a> Few rockers understand that sentiment as poignantly as he does, and Your Favorite Toy<\/em> he channels that feeling into high-energy garage-rock. With three guitarists and new drummer Ilan Rubin replacing the late Taylor Hawkins, the band knocks through ten, fast, loud, very catchy songs that can be haunted (in \u201cOf All People\u201d he runs into a drug dealer he can\u2019t believe is still around), but always feel like their thrashing towards a resilient epiphany.\u2013J.D.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tKim Gordon has been a punk legend for over four decades now, ever since Sonic Youth, but she\u2019s riding higher than ever. Play Me <\/em>continues her bizarre-yet-perfect collaboration with L.A. producer Justin Raisen, best known for working with artists like Kid Cudi, Lil Yachty, and Charli XCX. She sneers over the industrial trap beats, with savagely funny satires of modern American culture. In the title tune, she recites the names of Spotify mood-themed playlists, from \u201crich popular girl\u201d to \u201cjazz in the background\u201d to \u201cchilling after work,\u201d while \u201cBye Bye\u201d has Dave Grohl pounding the drums. Play Me<\/em> makes it seem like Gordon is just getting started.\u2013R.S.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tDamon Albarn has been making magically multifarious pop songs with a rotating cast of all-stars for 25 years in the cartoon side project that turned into his main creative outlet. But he\u2019s never made a Gorillaz album as moving as The Mountain, which began with a revelatory trip to India with co-founder Jamie Hewlett and turned into a profound exploration of grief featuring guest appearances from former collaborators like Dennis Hopper, Tony Allen, Dave Jolicoeur, and Proof. Those ghostly presences, calling in from the great studio in the sky to mingle with newer friends like Trueno and Black Thought, make this an emotionally resonant landmark in Gorillaz\u2019 catalog.\u2013S.V.L.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tThe least surrealistic lyric on \u201cI Ate the Most,\u201d the lead track on Aldous Harding\u2019s fifth album, goes, \u201cI feel that I feel the most,\u201d and somehow that confession makes the already quiet and contemplative song somehow more chilling and intimate. A master of musical sleight of hand, Harding has a way of elevating the songs on Train on the Island <\/em>into little masterpieces of vulnerability, such as the way she bends her voice on \u201cOne Stop,\u201d singing \u201cWhy wouldn\u2019t I want to meet you\/Why wouldn\u2019t I want to hold you?\u201d like she\u2019s having a nervous breakdown. John Parish\u2019s production adds texture to Harding\u2019s songs, which at times recall PJ Harvey and early 2000s Radiohead, but it\u2019s Harding\u2019s left-of-center perspective that makes this a stunner. \u2014K.G.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tOmerta<\/em> marks the first-ever collaborative album from two of the biggest voices in Colombia, J Balvin and Ryan Castro. It also feels like a natural progression of the pair\u2019s close friendship, which developed over the past five years as Balvin mentored rising star Castro. As a result, the LP moves through the genres that identify each artist: rock, dancehall, and, of course, reggaeton, tracing the trust that collaborators have been able to find in each other. Named after the Italian phrase for a code of silence, Omerta<\/em> emphasizes these close ties and the importance of family.\u2013Maya Georgi \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tIf The Fall-Off<\/em> really is J. Cole\u2019s final album, he leaves with something fittingly weighty: a two-disc opus that moves like a novel, full of soulful warmth, anxious nostalgia, and the contradictions that have always made him compelling. The first, Disc 29, chronicles his return to his native Fayetteville at the age of 29, flush from industry success; the second, Disc 39, documents a similar trip home, but this time as a married father of two children. Dense, frustrating, and beautifully human, it\u2019s less a victory lap than a self-interrogation \u2014 animated by Jermaine Cole himself, in all his wit, flaws, and stubborn moral restlessness.\u2013J.I.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tWhere do you go after the season of the sticks? It\u2019s a question Noah Kahan asks himself time and time again on The Great Divide<\/em><\/a>, the 17-track odyssey that arrives four years after he broke through with that addictive ditty about Vermont. He\u2019s a fully-fledged rock star now, Ray Bans on his face, navigating stardom while still trying to keep his loved ones close. \u201cEvery clich\u00e9 about music has proven so true for me,\u201d he told us in his Rolling Stone<\/em> cover story<\/a>. \u201cLike, \u2018You can get everything you want, and it\u2019s still not going to do it!\u2019\u201d Highlights include \u201cDoors,\u201d \u201cAmerican Cars,\u201d \u201cDashboard,\u201d and \u201cWe Go Way Back,\u201d but it\u2019s a cohesive no-skips record, best played on long drives through the woods \u2014 as Kahan intended.\u2013A.M.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cChoosin Texas\u201d was already country\u2019s 2026 song of the summer when it dropped back in fall of 2025. Turns out Langley, a 27-year-old Alabaman, had an album\u2019s worth of songcraft nearly as good to back it up, including another sweet Miranda Lambert co-write (\u201cButterfly Season\u201d), an ear-wormy girl-crushy confession in the spirit of \u201cJolene\u201d and Little Big Town\u2019s \u201cGirl Crush\u201d (\u201cBe Her\u201d), and, in case you doubted her roots, a note-perfect reading of Kitty Wells\u2019 classic \u201cIt Wasn\u2019t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.\u201d As we wrote, Langley\u2019s slump-less sophomore LP<\/a> could do for classic country style what Laufey and Billie Eilish have done for post-WWII jazz-pop, just in time for WWIII.\u2013Will Hermes<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\nA$AP Rocky, \u2018Don\u2019t Be Dumb\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nBaby Keem, \u2018Casino\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nBad Gyal, \u2018Mas Cara\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nBlackpink, \u2018Deadline\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nBoards of Canada, \u2018Inferno\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nZach Bryan, \u2018With Heaven on Top\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nBTS, \u2018Arirang\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nCa7riel & Paco, \u2018Amoroso Free Spirits\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nBill Callahan, \u2018My Days of 58\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nCardinals, \u2018Masquerade\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nCola, \u2018Cost of Living Adjustment\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nLuke Combs, \u2018The Way I Am\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nAlvaro Diaz, \u2018Omakese\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nThomas Dollbaum, \u2018Birds of Paradise\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nDrake, \u2018Maid of Honour\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nDry Cleaning, \u2018Secret Love\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nHilary Duff, \u2018Luck\u2026.Or Something\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nAvalon Emerson, \u2018Written Into Changes\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nErnest, \u2018Deep Blue\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nFoo Fighters, \u2018Your Favorite Toy\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nKim Gordon, \u2018Play Me\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nGorillaz, \u2018The Mountain\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nAldous Harding, \u2018Train on the Island\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nJ Balvin and Ryan Castro, \u2018Omerta\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nJ Cole, \u2018The Fall-Of\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nNoah Kahan, \u2018The Great Divide\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nElla Langley, \u2018Dandelion\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nMelanie Martinez, \u2018Hades\u2019<\/h2>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n