As a longtime Tinashe fan, it's been really gratifying to see her go independent and wind up with the highest charting album of her career, but more importantly, Popstar is really fucking good. It was slightly frustrating that the last couple times she released music, they were these 20-minute mini-albums, but Popstar makes the most of its 40 minutes. There are no low points, but for me so far the high points are "Cloud 9," "Empty Stadium," and the whole stretch from "Crash Out" to "Nobody Wanna Dance Anymore." It really feels like she's been doing this long enough to have a real ear not just for different kinds of beats but how to juxtapose themselves with each other, so you've got Arca and Ricky Reed and Illangelo and DJ Camper productions on the same album that sound totally different but really good together. 

Melbourne-based singer-songwriter Julia Jacklin has been on such a great run with her last three albums, not sure if her first album for 4AD, The Gem, is her best yet but it's up there for sure. The closing track "I Wish" is so direct and simple and devastating, was just kind of amazed by it the first time I listened to the album. Also really love the guitar tone on "The Hardest," the way the harp is draped over a taut rhythm section on "Real Life," and how delicate and detailed her vocal on "Angel Vision" is. 

I was a big fan of Kendrick Lamar's GNX and particularly the way he went all-in on West coast production and relatively unknown L.A. guest rappers for the first time in his career. All the guys who had features on the album got a big bump in visibility, and nobody's capitalized on as well as "Peekaboo" guest AZ Chike, who's over 30 and already had a deal with Atlantic, but signed a new deal with Warner and dropped a great album. Much was made of how Kendrick was an executive producer on No Rest for the Wicked but doesn't guest on it, but I think that choice totally works, you get to really focus on AZ Chike's bars and his story (although this album does have a genuinely great Tyler, The Creator verse). I love the bit on "Sky Rockets" where he gets his mother on the phone to laugh over a grim little anecdote with him, and "Lamb Truck Keys" is one of my favorite Pharrell tracks of his prolific 2026. 

Texan singer Jae Stephens made one of my favorite EPs of 2025 and I'm glad that Def Jam finally gave her a chance to drop a whole album, she's kind of in that Janet Jackson lineage like Tinashe but her sense of humor drives her songs a lot more. The day the album came out, Johan Lenox told a hilarious story about Jae Stephens speaking in a British accent for an entire recording session, and now I can't unhear how much she sings in a British accent, or how much her music reminds me of UK girl group pop. 

Tove Lo's last release, the Heat EP with SG Lewis, was really good, so I kinda hoped Lewis would produce some of her new album. He doesn't, but it does kind of continue in that dancefloor-ready vein, even if my favorite songs are midtempo tracks like "I'm the Cake" and "If I Could I Would," which ends with Tove Lo humming a melody that I suspect is an homage to the classic "My Favourite Game"  her fellow Swedes, the Cardigans. I kind of wish the 50-second intro track "A Lot of Feelings, No Solutions" was a full song, it feels like it cuts out right when the momentum is building. 

Slovak singer Adéla Jergova was one of the girls that auditioned for Katseye on the reality show "Dream Academy," and it feels like everything worked out well with her not getting picked for that opportunity. It's hard to picture Adela fitting into a group easily, and she quickly got a solo deal, and released a full-length album and got her first Top 10 hit, two milestones that Katseye are still waiting on. Adela is working that edgy-but-introspective Eurotrash vibe that Tove Lo and Charli XCX really pioneered for the modern pop era, but she's good at it too, it's cool to see her thrive. "Therapy" is an interesting vulnerable song, but it also has the same rambling-in-AutoTune-over-some-chords format of "Ally's Song" by Lil Dicky. 

 

I really liked MNEK's 2018 debut album Language, but in the years since then he mostly did writing and producing and some guest vocals for other artists. So I'm happy that his work on Zara Larsson's Midnight Sun cleared the way for him to finally release a second solo album, "Oh No!! All The Boys!!" and "Lust4!!" are great. 

I was a little confused why Beabadoobee's biggest 2026 single, "All I Did Was Dream of You," isn't on her new album. It makes more sense after hearing the album, which is overall more uptempo and indie rock, and in any case it worked out since Pylon is her second #1 album in the UK and first top 10 album in America. I love the sound of this record, "Sun Has Set" are "Radio" are some of my favorite things she's done since Fake It Flowers, and Hayley Williams and Bea's voices sound great together on "Nothing To Prove." 

The Chrome Hearts are basically members of Promise of the Real along with Spooner Oldham from the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. Neil Young's first Chrome Hearts album, last year's Talkin to the Trees, was a sometimes difficult listen due to odd or clumsy lyrics, but Second Song is pretty lovely, I really enjoy the sound of Oldham on Farfisa and pump organ. Young's pretty far beyond any concerns of 'comeback' albums at this point, but I think this is one of the most accessible albums he's made since Harvest Moon. 

Riley Green has been on a steady upward trajectory the last couple years, his fourth album is by far his highest charting to date and he recently became a coach on "The Voice." There's a nice unforced charm to his Alabama drawl, and he sticks to pretty earthy Dann Huff production instead of going too far in a pop country direction. 70 minutes is a bit too long for an album that just does one unambitous thing well, but at least the back half of the album has great songs like "P.O.S." and "Radio Road" to make it worth sticking with.