New Releases & Staff Picks - 3/27/26

STAFF PICKS
 DARIO - Irreversible Entanglements
ASH - 600% Dynamite Soul Jazz Comp
 JAKE - Këkht Aräkh, Irreversible Entanglements, and Flea
KIMBER - José González, Pan American, and Twilight Sad
MARY - Courtney Barnett, New Pornographers, and José González'
ZACH - Daphni and Courtney Barnett
DREW - dälek and ADULT. 

COURTNEY BARNETT - Creature Of Habit CD/LP (Mom & Pop Music)  
In the hands of Courtney Barnett, fragments of everyday life become rich and riveting. A deft lyricist and virtuosic guitarist with inimitable musicianship, Barnett first found critical acclaim with 2013's The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas and broke into the mainstream in 2015 with her debut album, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit. Garnering a coveted Best New Artist Grammy nomination and numerous other accolades, the album stands as a generational classic. Barnett followed her debut with 2017's Lotta Sea Lice, an acclaimed collaborative record with Kurt Vile, and eschewed the vignettes of her early records on 2018's Tell Me How You Really Feel, her humid, political sophomore record. In 2021, she released Things Take Time, Take Time, a remarkable artistic step forward. On March 27th, 2026 Courtney will release her 4th studio album, Creature of Habit. 

TWILIGHT SAD - It's The Long Goodbye CD/LP (Rock Action)  
Beloved Scottish band The Twilight Sad make their long-awaited return with It's The Long Goodbye, their sixth studio album and second to be released via Mogwai's Rock Action Records. It's The Long Goodbye is an album full of heart, intensity and emotion that deals with themes such as grief, loss and mental illness, and draws the listener in close with James Graham's distinct, raw and impassioned vocals and Andy MacFarlane's soaring guitars. Including the blistering single ‘Waiting For The Phone Call,’ and featuring the legendary (and self-proclaimed The Twilight Sad fan) Robert Smith, It's The Long Goodbye marks the next evolution of The Twilight Sad following 2019's critically acclaimed It Won’t Be Like This All The Time. Recorded in London's Battery Studios with Andy Savours (My Bloody Valentine, Black Country New Road) and mixed by Chris Coady (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Slowdive, TV On The Radio, Future Islands).

NEW PORNOGRAPHERS - Former Site Of CD/LP (Merge Records)  
A woman is trapped on a cruise ship. A preacher decides to go down with his town. A man at the florist finds himself lost in the meaning of the arrangement. These and other people at personal and societal extremes are the subjects of ten timely, timeless short stories collected as meticulously crafted pop songs by The New Pornographers on their forthcoming album, The Former Site Of. The album, like Continue as a Guest, finds The New Pornographers-bandleader A.C. Newman, Neko Case, Kathryn Calder, John Collins, and Todd Fancey-expanding their already rich catalog in surprising fashion. Joined by legendary session drummer Charley Drayton (Divinyls, Keith Richards, Fiona Apple), the space contained in a New Pornographers song has never been this clearly articulated or generously textured, giving a distinct pulse to the characters whose lives spill out in Newman's tender, evocative lyrics.

JOSE GONZALEZ - Against The Dying Of The Light CD/LP (Mute)  
Mute is excited to announce the release of José González's 2026 album, Against the Dying of the Light. Where Gonzalez's previous record Local Valley turned inward toward place, language, and personal reflection, Against the Dying of the Light widens it's gaze, becoming an urgent call to preserve the light of humanity with all it's flaws, at a moment when technology increasingly shapes how we think, feel, and relate to one another. Across the album, González works within a deliberately minimal framework, pushing his familiar palette to new heights through subtle variation, restraint, and detail. Each song unfolds with it's own distinct character, proving how much emotional and musical range can be achieved within self-imposed limitations. Written in English, Swedish, and Spanish, the record reflects his Swedish-Argentine roots and frames it's humanist message as a global one rather than a purely personal or political statement.

ROBYN - Sexistential CD/LP (Young) Sexistential is the most ecstatic record that Robyn has ever made, the sound of one of contemporary music's most influential artists coming home. After the club music meditations of 2018's Honey, the album features nine playful pop songs that tie back to her era-defining Body Talk trilogy, designed to feel like a spaceship coming through the atmosphere at a really high speed and crash landing, she says. That's how I felt, like I'd had all these experiences searching too far out into space, and now I'm crashing back into myself.  Co-produced with longtime collaborator Klas Åhlund, and featuring Max Martin among the writing credits, Sexistential heralds one of the decade's most celebrated comebacks.

SNAIL MAIL - Ricochet CD/LP (Matador Records)  
On Ricochet, the third album from Snail Mail, Lindsey Jordan returns to assert herself as a generational songwriter, clear-eyed and honest as ever. Time has passed, but she remains a sensitive soul, and here her incisive introspection is tethered to newly expansive and hypnotic melodies and ornate string arrangements. While writing Ricochet, Jordan found herself fixating on concerns she'd previously pushed out of her mind, namely death and what happens after. These 11 songs are colored by the anxiety of watching life slip through your fingers, as well as the vulnerability of loving deeply rather than frenetically. Ultimately, Ricochet is an album about realizing-and accepting-that the world still turns no matter what is going on in your tiny life.

FLEA - Honora CD/LP (Nonesuch)  
After a nearly five-decade (and counting) career as one of his generation's defining rock bassists, Flea releases his first full-length solo album, Honora, March 27, 2026, on Nonesuch Records. Time and space have finally allowed him to return to his first musical loves: jazz and playing the trumpet. Honora features guest musicians Thom Yorke, Nick Cave, and Jeff Parker, featuring a backing band of Anna Butterss, Deantoni Parks and additional contributions from Mauro Refosco and Nathaniel Walcott.

MELANIE MARTINEZ - Hades CD/LP (Atlantic)  
Multi-platinum singer, songwriter and filmmaker Melanie Martinez returns with Hades, her long-awaited fourth studio album and first full-length release in three years. Following a career-defining run that has generated over 30 billion global streams, 5.54 billion YouTube views, and a worldwide audience of 62.2 million+, HADES arrives as the next chapter in a momentous ascent.

IRREVERSIBLE ENTANGLEMENTS - Future Present Past LP (Impulse Records)  
Free jazz collective Irreversible Entanglements return with their second Impulse! Recording, Future Present Past. Largely recorded at the historic Van Gelder Studio, the album sees the quintet meld atmospheric jazz, global music traditions and spoken word into our shared story of existence - futures full of possibility, the present with all it's uncertainties, and pasts as wellsprings of ancestral wisdom.

KING TUFF - Moo CD/LP (MUP)  
“Moo is the first wide release on my new label MUP! When I decided to make a new record, it only seemed right to go back to what brings me the most joy, which is, Rock & Roll music... All in all, Moo is a full circle moment. A return to form. A return to rock. A return to Vermont. A return to myself. Reconnecting the dots. Restarting the engine. Plugging in the stack. Finally letting King Tuff be King. Fucking. Tuff.”

WOLF PARADE - Apologies To The Queen Mary LP [Reissue/2005] (Sub Pop)  
Sub Pop and Wolf Parade present a new, pink-vinyl pressing of their landmark album Apologies to the Queen Mary. This edition brings the long out-of-print album back to it's original, single-LP format hot on the heels of the 2025 TV show Heated Rivalry, which introduced the album's single ‘I'll Believe in Anything’ to a vast new audience, making the song a bona fide viral hit. The album's catchy, energetic urgency immediately established them as one of the defining forces of 2000s indie-rock. Two decades on, Apologies to the Queen Mary has lost none of it's vitality and continues to win over new generations of fans.

FCUKERS - Ö CD/LP (Ninja Tune)  
ö is the hugely anticipated debut album from New York City's white-hot duo, Fcukers. Having quickly built a reputation for their electric live shows and irresistibly catchy hooks, Shanny Wise and Jackson Walker Lewis have gone from playing standing-room only shows at Baby's All Right to packed out stadiums supporting Tame Impala, Justice, and Dom Dolla and selling out their own 1k+ headline shows in the space of just 2 years! After 2024's Baggy$$ EP, which spawned the band's biggest hit ‘Bon Bon’ as well as earworm ‘Homie Don't Shake,’ all eyes have been firmly on the pair to find out what happens next, and Fcukers do not disappoint. A brief meeting with Kenneth Blume (FKA Kenny Beats) - fresh off producing Geese's Getting Killed - turned into a whirlwind session at Blume's studio, where they recorded the entirety of their new album.

TIGERS JAW - Lost On You (Hopeless Records)  
Influential rock band Tigers Jaw’s Lost On You, electrifyingly captures the beauty of simply letting go, remembering that you've survived what you've already experienced, and knowing that you'll get through life's latest transitions. Produced by longtime collaborator Will Yip (Turnstile, Scowl) builds upon the critical success of 2021's I Won't Care How You Remember Me, refining their vulnerable yet self-assured style with newfound dynamics, textures, and tones.

DÄLEK - Brilliance Of A Falling Moon  (Ipecac Recordings)  
Experimental Hip-Hop legends dälek return with their latest full-length album, Brilliance of a Falling Moon. Taking it's name from a section of Erik Larson's 2011 novel In The Garden of Beasts, the album paints a fiery portrait of life and resistance in fascist America. Conceived, composed, and produced by Will Brooks (aka MC dälek) and Mike Mare, Brilliance of a Falling Moon is a sprawling, uncompromising record that speaks to the political timbre of the day.

DON CABALLERO - American Don: Deluxe 3xLP [Reissue/2000] (Touch & Go Records)  
Original 2xLP recorded by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in 2000 and remastered by Bob Weston in 2025 - Never-before-released live studio album, True Live Tapes, recorded by Greg Norman in 2000 and mastered by Bob Weston in 2025. These true live tapes show the songs exactly as we played them on the road where they were developed between June of 1999 and July of 2000. Now, 25 years later, the Greg Norman tapes have been dusted off, baked, and transferred to digital. With the aid of modern restoration tools, and the expertise of Sir Bob Weston, we were able to re-mix and master these recordings for the first time.

KEKHT ARAKH - Morning Star CD/LP (Sacred Bones)  
Morning Star finds Këkht Aräkh arriving at a truer, more refined version of himself. Recorded between Berlin and Stockholm, the album emerges from a period of intense personal and artistic growth, blending aggressive black metal passages with immersive, textured soundscapes that feel both intimate and vast. Since his origins in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, Dmitry (a.k.a. Crying Orc), the sole mastermind behind the project, has sought a distinctive path within black metal. This vision unfolded through his debut Through the Branches to Eternity EP (2018) and the albums Night & Love (2018) and Pale Swordsman (2021), establishing a signature tension between ferocious, visceral black metal and delicate, introspective ballads. On Morning Star, this dynamic reaches new depth. Created at a point of artistic clarity, the album explores a rawer, more personal emotional palette, shaped by stress, anxiety, and long stretches of writer's block, giving it rare immediacy and vulnerability.

BAND OF HORSES - Everything All The Time (20th Anniversary Edition) LP (Sub Pop)
Achieving musical transcendence is a tricky feat. If it happens - a big if - it does so naturally, and perhaps nobody knows that better than Band of Horses, whose landmark debut Everything All The Time still, after twenty years, feels as vital and, dare we say, transcendent as when it came out in 2006. Guitarist/vocalist Ben Bridwell formed Band of Horses in Seattle in 2004, after the end of his nearly ten-year run in northwest melancholic darlings Carissa’s Wierd. Now, on the occasion of the 20th birthday of the album, Sub Pop and Band of Horses present the definitive snapshot of the band circa Everything All The Time. For this anniversary release, the album has been fully remastered, with the artwork refreshed and expanded into a gatefold jacket with liner notes by Phil Ek. And the album is accompanied by an additional LP of bonus tracks, including the 2005 tour EP, a trove of previously unreleased studio and live tracks, and rarities like “The End’s Not Near” (as featured on The O.C.) and a demo version of “The Funeral.”

EBO TAYLOR - Will You Promise / Maye Omama 7" (Colemine Records)  
Ebo Taylor, the Ghanaian guitarist, composer, bandleader, and producer is a seminal figure when it comes to highlife music. Remined is proud to present these two classics as a 45 for first time, in conjunction with Mr. Bongo. Will You Promise and Maye Omama are both taken from Taylor's 1976 release My Love And Music. Grab doubles and watch the dance floor fill up.

ADULT. - Kissing Luck Goodbye CD/LP (DAIS)  
ADULT. Is not cooperating. For over 25 years, the dystopian Detroit synth-punk institution founded by Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller has embodied steadfast frustration, distrust, and apprehension. One might expect the edges to soften with time, but ADULT. Is not interested in the comforts of legacy. The duo's music has never sounded as visceral, urgent, and downright angry as it does on the culminating, uncompromising Kissing Luck Goodbye. Built with upgraded gear and a new library of sounds, the material is crushingly dynamic, louder-yet-clearer, with Kuperus' commanding delivery given greater prominence in the mix, outlining an arsenal of vivid, caustic calls, chants, and musings.

FREE THROW - Moments Before The Wind CD/LP (Wax Bodega)  
Since forming in 2012, Free Throw's story has been simple: keep going. New records, longer tours, bigger rooms-it's always been another step upward for the Nashville-based quintet, whose 2014 debut, Those Days Are Gone, has become an era-defining classic in the emo-punk genre, launching them onto global tours with Hot Mulligan and New Found Glory and slots at Slam Dunk, Riot Fest, and The Fest. Every milestone has pushed them ahead, but on their sixth LP, Moments Before The Wind, that constant charge gradually slows, suspended mid-step, mid-thought, mid-life.

VARIOUS - Soul Jazz Records Presents 600% Dynamite! Ska Soul Rocksteady Funk & Dub IN LP (Soul Jazz)  
New 2026 Edition of 600% Dynamite, part of Soul Jazz Records classic compilation series of Jamaican music, featuring killer reggae in all styles - ska, soul, rocksteady, dancehall, funk and dub. Originally released in 2003 this album has been out of print for nearly 20 years, making it one of the most-collectible of Soul Jazz Records' Dynamite! Series.

MASAHIRO TAKAHASHI - In Another  LP (Telephone Explosion)  
On his sixth LP In Another, Toronto-based, Japanese-born, musician and composer Masahiro Takahashi (髙橋政宏) continues the collaborative expansion of his sonic universe that listeners witness on his 2023 release, Humid Sun. Here he enlists a rotating ensemble of ten guest artists from Toronto's vibrant music community, including his label mate Joseph Shabason, who also serves as the album's co-producer and engineer. Spurred by his longtime admiration for chamber pop spanning the High Llamas and Free Design to the Beach Boys, Takahashi deviates from the underlying processes of his past two outings, trading Ableton sequences for lead sheets, focusing on creating robust melodic and harmonic foundations first. This difference is audible straight away; the album opens with a dialog between upright piano and plucked double bass that's so gentle and transparent you can hear the breath of the players.

VAN HALEN - 5150 LP [Reissue/1986] (Rhino)  
Van Halen began a new chapter 40 years ago with the release of 5150, the first album featuring the lineup of Sammy Hagar, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, and Michael Anthony. 5150 marked the band's first #1 album with hits like 'Why Can't This Be Love,' ‘Dreams,’ and ‘Best Of Both Worlds’ and continued their streak of multi-Platinum releases.

DAPHNI - Butterfly LP (Jiaolong )
Daphni's fourth studio album Butterfly at first picks up where his last album, 2022's Cherry left off. Though a sizeable gap for Daphni releases, between Cherry and Butterfly however of course sits Honey, the latest Caribou album and one that saw the more instantaneous and dance floor leaning traits of Daphni peaking through the cracks more than ever before. This blurring of the lines leads to an intriguing collaboration in Butterfly's lead single "Waiting So Long" (feat. Caribou). An unlikely duo -- in that both artists are the same man, Dan Snaith -- it is not so much an identity crisis, ego trip, or the result of a chemical spill in the Snaith laboratory. It's simply a track that Snaith felt for the first time belongs to both aliases, and might appeal to fans of both. Daphni music has always been Snaith's way of hitting directly to the core of the dance floors he spends so much of his time playing to, and those dancefloors have been steadily expanding as his name grows, with the music following suit. This album however also draws from further back with a definite kinship to the very first Daphni album, the invigorating bag of ideas that was Jiaolong.

BILL ORCUTT - Music in Continuous Motion LP (Palilalia)
Music in Continuous Motion, Bill Orcutt’s latest entry into his 21st-century repertoire of quartet guitar music, pointedly steps away from the cut-and-paste constructivism of Music for Four Guitars into a sonic stratum that's yearningly melodic, resolutely human, and built for performance. Conceived for a 2026 NYC concert, Music in Continuous Motion shares the concision of its predecessor—but rather than the discrete, mechanistic precision of Music for Four Guitars, the tracks on Music in Continuous Motion unify—each song weaving four gleaming threads into the warp and weft of an evolving, complex texture that employs simple, repeating motifs to build new melodies from counterpoint itself. It accomplishes this in the most efficient manner possible: most of these 12 tracks hover around two-and-a- half minutes, each iterating first the substrate, then the melody and its variations, then slamming shut like a clockwork music box.

BOSSE-DE-NAGE - Hidden Fires Burn Hottest LP (Flenser)
There's a tendency in metal to mistake aggression for honesty, volume for depth. To confuse the performance of darkness with its actual weight. Hidden Fires Burn Hottest, the new album from San Francisco-based post-black metal band Bosse-de-Nage, sidesteps this entirely. It’s the group’s most fully realized work yet, precisely because it refuses to be pinned down. Bosse-de-Nage have been working with The Flenser for over fifteen years. They were one of the first bands the label ever partnered with and have the longest active relationship in the label's history. But unlike most bands who build momentum through constant touring and visibility, Bosse-de-Nage has largely existed apart from the music world's usual machinery. They've evolved on their own terms, in relative isolation, allowing the work to develop without outside pressure or influence. What began rooted in black metal anonymity has mutated into something that actively defies categorization. The aggression is still there, but it's no longer the point.

DAMAGED BUG - Zuzax LP (Deathgod)
“Forty or so Damaged Bug tunes from the past seven years were orphaned / unfinished, which is pretty rare for me. I just kept having other things going on and life kept getting in the way. And frankly, the songs were all over the place so I didn’t see a thread in there, but in light of current events in the world, I feel like it’s every artist’s calling to construct personal messages cloaked in a moments of escapism. That’s what this record is for me—was something to clear the decks a little bit in my studio and relax my mind and keep the wolf from the door. It’s a bit of a joyous / sad record dealing with hope and forgiveness, two things which I hope end up more in my life. “It’s abstract and poppy, fried and sugary. “It exactly how I feel at the moment fried and skewed. “Good luck out there and I hope this turns off the torrent for you, for a moment .”— John Dwyer

NOAH HOWARD - The Black Ark LP [Reissue/1972] (Superior Viaduct)
In the pantheon of classic free jazz, Noah Howard’s The Black Ark looms large. Recorded at Bell Sound Studios in New York City in 1969—just prior to the alto saxophonist’s relocation to Europe—the album was eventually released in 1972. The Black Ark exhibits not only the power and imagination of Howard’s playing, but also his breadth as a composer and bandleader. Listeners expecting unrelenting blasts of “energy music” might be surprised to find a cohesion atypical of free jazz; amidst the wild, impassioned solos, Howard weaves in Latin rhythms and fat-bottomed grooves.

PAN AMERICAN - Fly The Ocean In A Silver Plane LP (Kranky)
“The music on this record is a reflection of journeys and travel. The real world kind and the metaphorical ones as well. Having experienced the arrival of my children, the decline and departure of my parents, and the many years of venturing out and returning home in my own life, travel feels like the perfect tropology to consider the mysteries we inhabit. Travel and its impressions, rituals, superstitions—the possibilities and risk-all open up onto the landscape of our biggest questions, fear and wonder. “Two songs established the spine of this music. Songs I’ve always loved, it seems even before I’d heard them.”

COMING NEXT WEEK
THUNDERCAT - Distracted CD/LP
CHARLEY CROCKETT - Age Of The Ram CD/LP
JOHN ANDREWS AND THE YAWN - Streetsweeper LP
BON IVER - Volumes: One Selections From Music Concerts CD/LP
BUDOS BAND - Self Titled LP Reissue
ARLO PARKS - Ambigous Desire CD/LP
PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS - Rare & Deadly CD/LP
SUNN O))) - Sun O))) CD/LP
MOONCHILD - Waves CD/LP