#noise-pop

#noise-pop

'Tape 05' certainly boasts Boards of Canada's unique, evocative style; with an ambient crawl featuring strings and a thick atmosphere of sound, it's a nerve-touching turn from the duo.

Jessie Ware's Superbloom sounds like the sonic embodiment of a city street exploding with magnolia and cherry blooms as the air warms in spring. There's the love-drunk disco pop the singer perfected on her 2020 breakout album, the sumptuous proto-house recalling Paradise Garage, and the floral, cinematic soundscapes of '70s funk.

'Drop Dead' is a dreamy synth pop song co-written by Amy Allen and produced by her regular collaborator Dan Nigro. Rodrigo describes it as the first chapter in the story of her album.

Oneohtrix Point Never has released a two-track single, led by an original called 'Dim Stars.' The B-side, 'For Residue (Extended),' is a meditative version of the Tranquilizer track.

We're highlighting some of 2026's most outstanding albums to date by rounding up the ones that have earned high scores and Best New Music designations with a quick list of RIYLs.

Purity Ring's sound features glassy synths and heavy bass, creating a delicate yet dangerous atmosphere that resonates with listeners.

Knumears is releasing their debut album Directions on April 3, showcasing their unique sound within the Los Angeles screamo scene. The album is available through Run for Cover and Summer Shade.

The opener "Not Not Not" is almost goofy, its chaotic melodies constantly dancing around each other in a perpetually disorienting way. It lurches forward asymmetrically, grooving like a flat tire.

Girl Trouble are the Northwest's garage rock demigods, revered by all from Neko Case and Mudhoney to Soundgarden and Beat Happening. On As Is, their first album in over a decade, vibrato guitar collides rollin' and tumblin' into bedrock beats and black crow vocal calls; it's rock'n'roll done in a backwoods style.

You could go anywhere in America and argue with some success for the cultural impact wrought by most of the once-subcultural stars of Lizzy Goodman's oral history of New York's post-9/11 rock scene, 'Meet Me In The Bathroom.' Or, for God's sake, Jeff Chang's history of hip-hop, 'Can't Stop Won't Stop.' But to explain this era to someone who hasn't devoted their psyche or youth to 'indie rock,' you'd need to spend a whole dinner, and maybe a few drinks afterwards, justifying why the tentpole events that 'Us v. Them' returns to multiple times in its 300-page run mean anything.

Rocketship's debut album, A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness, sits at the crossroads of indie pop, marking a transition from raucous exuberance to a more tender, literary form.

Natanya tears genres open and rebuilds them in her own image. Her drums swing loose and jazzy over heavy 808s; synths drift dreamily before snapping into gritty guitar riffs. Writing, producing and arranging all her own work, she weaves together neosoul silk, R&B groove, indie edge, and flashes of grunge, all carried by a buttery falsetto that nods to Aaliyah, Amy Winehouse, Janet Jackson and early Destiny's Child.

The category's been going around social media for a bit, but there's even a domain exclusively for Cigarette Mom Rock. There, the meaning of the genre is described as a "feminine counterpart to 'divorced dad rock,'" but is also meant to conjure up images of your own hard-working '90s mom, driving you to baseball practice with the windows down and a cigarette in one hand.

Pop punk lifers New Found Glory are back with their 12th album, Listen Up!, their first album since guitarist Chad Gilbert began cancer treatment and an album that the band says was shaped by that ongoing experience. "We wanted to make something that really focused on how lucky we are," Chad says. "We've all gone through serious stuff in our lives, and I think the lyrics on this record are more meaningful and purposeful than ever. It's a positive outlet that hopefully keeps people going."

When he's not making proggy folk as a solo artist, Richard Dawson gets his skronk on as part of proggy new-wave art-rock group Hen Ogledd. Despite my attempts to do so in the previous sentence, the band are hard to succinctly describe: they can pivot from warm synthpop to mossy faerie folk to baggy Manchester shuffle beats to dense prog and even flashes of hip hop. Hen Ogledd are weird, but also welcoming.

In 'Bad Moons,' the unpredictability lies not in the lyrics like usual, where Mike Kinsella admits he's 'just two little boys in a trench coat' in that languorous voice he can't shed. Instead, the lasting impression comes from his bandmates' graceful turns through delicate post-rock. Aqueous harp and piano eventually give way to a fishing net of guitars, each minimalist line woven tighter than the next.

Inner Magic is the duo of former Chromatics guitarist Adam Miller and former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Jeff Schroeder. They met in 2024 and bonded over their love of '80s UK indie legends Felt, krautrock and the Vinnie Vincent Invasion, and then decided they should make music together.