There’s some good news and there’s some bad news.

I’ll start with the bad news, because I don’t like to dwell. I mean, I do dwell — I constantly dwell, I’m so good at dwelling. But I don’t like to do it. And today is actually a happy occasion.

What do you think is the most casual, low-key, unobtrusively charming way of saying “my mom was just diagnosed with Alzheimer's so the rest of my life feels really unimportant in comparison and that's why my newsletter is so late”? Any ideas? I don’t know, either. It’s my latest life plot twist, and scheduling might be a little erratic while I figure things out.

We’ll move on to the good news. Today1 marks two years since I launched New Bands for Old Heads in written form. I feel simultaneously proud and undeserving. There are almost 20,000 of you here — I want to give each of you a kiss on the forehead. Thank you, for real.

Next week, I plan on sharing something kind of neat I’ve been working on the last few months to keep this mixed emotions party going. If I did my job right, it will make it a lot easier to navigate my recommendations now that I’ve accumulated two full years of them.

But for today, my longtime friends and writing companions and Juan Rodriguez2 are joining me to share the albums we’ve been listening to the most in 2026 so far.

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The 20 Best Albums of 2026 So Far

Hot take, but I think even 20 albums are too many. If you’ve been here since the start of the year, you know I’ve really been trying to hone my “deliberate listening” craft - which means curating my own curation. I’m sick of massive lists. They do nothing for overwhelm.

So as per usual, the title is misleading. I prefer to save the “objective” best (whatever that may mean) for the end of the year. In the summer, we talk about the albums we’ve listened to the most. The ones we keep coming back to even though new music Fridays are eternal and relentless. Maybe you’ll find something to obsess over, too.

I NEVER RANK. ALBUMS ARE LISTED ALPHABETICALLY BY ARTIST’S FIRST NAME. NUMBERING IS ENTIRELY FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE.

1. Cindy - Another Country

Tough Love, May 18th 🇺🇸

GENRE: Slowcore/Indie Pop
RIYL: Duster, Galaxie 500, The Velvet Underground

There is a charming paradox at the heart of Cindy’s music, elevating them above many indie pop peers. While their music is soft, it never feels weak, and while it is slow, it never feels boring. The faint echo of Americana and the barely-there melodies — like an old AM radio station whose frequency is frustratingly out of reach — make Another Country a captivating listen and a triumphant embodiment of the idea that less is so often more. (David Coleman)

Start with: “Procession”

2. deary - Birding

Bella Union, April 3rd 🇬🇧

GENRE: Dream Pop/Shoegaze
RIYL: The Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, Lush

Birding follows the Cocteau Twins template to a tee, seemingly daring listeners and critics alike to find a better descriptor than the all-too-obvious “ethereal.” But deary are smart enough to inject some variety, which they achieve by incorporating heavier, almost explosive passages. When they dip their feet into the murkier waters of shoegaze, the results evoke vaunted genre heavyweights, such as Slowdive and Lush. (David Coleman)

Start with: “Alma”

3. Eaves Wilder - Little Miss Sunshine

Secretly Canadian, April 17th 🇬🇧

GENRE: Indie Rock/Dream Pop
RIYL: Mazzy Star, Kula Shaker, The Beatles

I’m so glad that I didn’t realize until I was already months-deep into my obsession with this album that Eaves Wilder is the daughter of Caitlin Moran and Pete Paphides. I’m not immune to names tarnished by the industry plant/nepo-baby stain, either, but you should ignore it entirely for the sake of this mesmerizing, psychedelia-tinged debut. The singer takes a lot of inspiration from Wolf Alice and other sweeping, space-filling grungy art pop. You can hear the ‘60s and ‘90s battling it out for top billing — a little like Kula Shaker with Mazzy Starr’s voice.

Start with: “Daisy Chain Reaction”

4. Francis of Delirium - Run, Run Pure Beauty

Dalliance Recordings, May 28th 🇱🇺

GENRE: Chamber Pop/Grunge
RIYL: Natalie Merchant, The Cranberries

You’ll hate me for this, but my inability to get on board with Phoebe Bridgers and her entire Saddest Factory crew and various friends, compatriots, and soundalikes has pretty much culminated right here. I don’t know what to tell you except that if you love Phoebe, Mitski, Julien, et al, you’ll love Francis of Delirium (and yes, it’s weird that I do, too). It’s true, she does sound like a pastiche of ‘90s college radio just like they say, but it’s also an unfair comparison. The emotional swells will punch you in the gut. I loved her 2024 debut – this is one better. Lucy Dacus better watch her back.

Start with: “Damned”

5. The Itch - It’s The Hope That Kills You

Fiction Records, April 10th 🇬🇧

GENRE: Indie Sleaze/Dance-Punk
RIYL: Talking Heads, Daft Punk, The Rapture

I had this album playing practically on a loop when it first came out, but I might need a neutral party to tell me if it’s actually any good. The fact is that if you were going to parody almost every single one of my musical tastes in one band, you’d probably end up with The Itch. Their debut has everything: early 2000s sleaze, anxious Talking Heads rhythms, sardonic lyrics with a British accent, the danceability of Daft Punk and The Rapture but with Bloc Party’s gloom. It’s tailor made for 20-something me; let me know if it hits the spot for you, too.

Start with: “Can’t Afford This”

6. Frankie Archer - The Dance of Death

So Young Records, June 5th 🇬🇧

GENRE: Folk, Electro-Trad
RIYL: Franz Schubert, English traditional folk, St. Vincent

If you think that what’s been missing from modern music is baleful yet upsettingly catchy verse about ritualistic murder, then you’re in luck. The Dance of Death begins with the familiar crash of Death and the Maiden opening D minor chord. After that, the stage is set — you know exactly how the story will go. Frankie Archer’s songs are completely untethered, both emotionally and temporally. At times, a kind of hypnotic portal to Northumbria in the middle ages. At others, rooted to our present moment with ungrounded electricity.

Start with: “Death and the Maiden”

7. Lime Garden - Maybe Not Tonight

So Young Records, April 10th 🇬🇧

GENRE: Indie Pop/Dance-Punk
RIYL: Arctic Monkeys, LCD Soundsystem, Lily Allen

Told through a night out, the Brighton-based four-piece embrace their individuality and leave no apologies over a zippy 30 minutes that leave you wanting more. Rarely does the album let up, melding Arctic Monkeys-like swagger (“Downtown Lover”), dance-punk (“Body”), and wiry, bass-driven post-punk (“Lifestyle”). Lime Garden isn’t shy about their influences, sure, but what many of those artists lacked at the time, soaring choruses that linger for days, they deliver in spades. (Juan Rodriguez)

Start with: “Lifestyle”

8. Makthaverskan - Glass and Bones

Welfare Sounds & Records, April 3rd 🇸🇪

GENRE: Post-Punk
RIYL: Love Is All, The Smiths, Alvvays

Autocorrect-defying Gothenburg band Makthaverskan (rough translation: women holding power) are commonly described as a punk or post-punk outfit, but their sound is much harder to pin down, featuring elements of jangle, power pop, goth rock, C86, shoegaze, and dream pop. Glass and Bones’ effervescent standout “Pity Party” compresses the lot into three and a half minutes of transcendent bliss. (David Coleman)

Start with: “Pity Party”

9. Marisa Anderson - The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music

Thrill Jockey, May 22nd 🇺🇸

GENRE: Folk
RIYL: William Tyler, acoustic wizardry, global folk music

Having seized an opportunity to explore Harry Smith’s archives of ethnographic folk recordings, Portland-based guitarist Marisa Anderson set to work on The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music. The globe-trotting collection features nine interpretations of pieces from Smith’s collection, with a conscious focus on works from countries that the USA has been in conflict with since 1970. Highlights include the sprawling “Quodlibet,” based on Bābā Qerān’s dambura music, which has its roots in Afghan and Uzbek teahouses, and the ghostly drone of “Pair of Duduk,” which Anderson adapted from a 1960 recording from Turkmenistan. If you find yourself craving something a little different, this comes highly recommended. (David Coleman)

Start with: “Quodlibet”

10. media puzzle - New Racehorse

Impressed Recordings, April 17th 🇦🇺

GENRE: Egg Punk
RIYL: Devo, Beck, actual literal horses

I’m pleased to add yet another notch to my super massive, super secret playlist of Australian musicians. I can describe this record as egg punk — that frenetic brand of punk rock that sounds like Devo on adderall — and call it a day. But compared to, say, Snõõper or Prison Affair or Gee Tee, media puzzle are oddly not particularly keyed up. They also take more risks, interspersing curious samples throughout and playing with timing and song structure. Conceptually, if not sonically, it’s a bit reminiscent of Beck’s Mellow Gold.

Start with: “Knowledge”

Giveaway Intermission!

Normally, giveaways are only for paid subscribers. Today we’re celebrating, so everyone is welcome.

First up, Domino is giving away a vinyl + sticker + charm prize pack for the upcoming Panda Bear & Sonic Boom release. This album won't be available on streaming.

Next, our friends at Cherry Red Records are giving away four Dinosaur Jr. re-issues: Where You Been, Green Mind, Hand It Over, and Without A Sound. Four winners can each choose a record (Deluxe CD or color vinyl variant).

enter here

Winners announced July 10th.
Paid subscribers entries count twice!

11. MIDDLEMAN - Following the Ghost

Evil Speaker Records, February 13th 🇬🇧

GENRE: Indie Rock
RIYL: The Replacements, Dinosaur Jr.

London’s MIDDLEMAN play a brand of alternative punk better associated with ’80s US underground rock bands on their debut LP. With its tight but loose mix, Following the Ghost — led by vocalist Noah Alves’ Paul Westerberg-like snarl — balances muscular, fuzz-laden rockers (“Distractions”) and open-hearted rippers (“All But the Flame”) into a brash yet controlled sound. (Juan Rodriguez)

Start with: “All But the Flame”

12. Ora Cogan - Hard Hearted Woman

Sacred Bones, March 13th 🇺🇸

GENRE: Neo-psych/Dark Americana
RIYL: Karen Dalton, Fleetwood Mac

Blurring the lines between folk, psychedelia, and cosmic country, Hard Hearted Woman offers a powerful entry point into Cogan’s quietly bewitching world. Wrapped in her soft, wistful vocals, songs like “Limits” and “Outgrowing” have a jazzy swing to them, swaying as delicately as a passing breeze. Whereas on the strings-laced “Honey,” one of the more timely statements here, Cogan resists anti-trans legislation without resorting to preachy platitudes. (Juan Rodriguez)

Start with: “The Smoke”

13. Pigeon - OUTTANATIONAL

Copyright Control, May 1st 🇬🇧

GENRE: Afrobeat/Funk-Punk/Krautrock
RIYL: William Onyeabor, Grace Jones, Can

Led by charismatic, West African frontperson Falle Nioke, the Margate, UK band effortlessly expands their sound and vision on their genre-bending debut album. The five-piece — featuring members of SAULT and Michael Kiwanuka — rides with feel rather than thought, but that descriptor might even do a disservice to a thoughtful body of work that serves as a spiritual meditation on heritage and continuity. (Juan Rodriguez)

Start with: “Black James Dean”

14. RJD2 & Supastition - According To...

RJ’s Electrical Connections, February 27th 🇺🇸

GENRE: Hip Hop
RIYL: DJ Shadow, MF DOOM

According To… slipped under most people’s radar, but this underrated collaboration between veteran producer RJD2 and lyrical maestro Supastition is one of the strongest Hip Hop records of the year. RJD2’s production integrates classic boom bap with deft scratching and energetic breakbeats, while Supa works his magic across a series of grown-up themes that will appeal to people who remember the best days of ’90s Hip Hop with great fondness. (David Coleman)

Start with: “Carte Blanche”

15. Robber Robber - Two Wheels Move the Soul

Fire Talk, April 3rd 🇺🇸

GENRE: Post-Punk/Shoegaze
RIYL: The Prodigy, Elastica

Robber Robber has been on my personal “bands to watch” list since I snubbed them for my 2024 EOY list, so I’m thrilled to have a chance to course correct. A record like this one reveals itself more with each listen. The first time through, I could only think of contemporaries like YHWH Nailgun and Water From Your Eyes to compare them to. But from the grit and the noise emerge distinct echoes of more familiar sounds, like The Prodigy and Elastica. “New Year’s Eve,” which is currently vying for my favorite track of 2026, sounds like “Connection” having an existential crisis.

Start with: “New Year’s Eve”

16. Star Moles - Highway to Hell

Historic New Jersey, February 26th 🇺🇸

GENRE: Indie Folk/Bedroom Pop
RIYL: Sandy Denny, Weyes Blood, Arthur Russell

Highway to Hell, the third LP Philadelphia’s Emily Moales, is the bedroom project I always dreamed of. Rooted in piano-led minimalism, Moales taps into a subconscious exploration of the everyday with her dream-like storytelling. Maybe it’s her quiet melancholia that draws me so naturally to her work, though there’s a playful whimsy here as well. (Juan Rodriguez)

Start with: “Time”

17. Suitor - Saw You Out with the Weeds

Feel It Records, March 20th 🇺🇸

GENRE: Post-Punk
RIYL: Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sonic Youth

Wait, did you say you’ve had enough post punk? Sorry, I couldn’t hear you over that muddy bass tone. Also, riddle me this: when new bands start sounding more like each other than their older influences, does that mean the sound has gotten watered down, or does it mean a dawn of a new era? Because yeah, Suitor harken back to Siouxsie and Kim Gordon, but they also spread outward to Dry Cleaning and Sweeping Promises. Discuss. Decide. I’ll be here rocking out.

Start with: “Still Life”

18. THUMPER - Sleeping With the Light On

Self-released, February 20th 🇮🇪

GENRE: Indie Rock
RIYL: The Strokes, The Stereophonics, The Dandy Warhols

THUMPER’s latest is this year’s Velveteers, at least when it comes to my own obsessive listening habits. This 50+ minute album breezes by, banger after banger, propulsive with energy as it is. Though I’ll admit my initial reaction was, “so, this is just The Strokes?”, the joke really is on me after the record easily became my most listened album of 2026 thus far. Maybe if The Stooges had been an early 2000s Britpop band, we’d have something like THUMPER — more riotous than the Dandy Warhols or Stereophonics, more punk rock than Weezer.

Start with: “Bad Mood”

19. TV Star - Music For Heads

Father/Daughter Records, April 24th 🇺🇸

GENRE: Neo-Psych/Alt Rock
RIYL: Blind Melon, The Cranberries, The Stone Roses

I don’t know how to explain it exactly, but I’m pretty sure TV Star simply traveled here from 1993. Remember the most optimistic and movie-trailer friendly of The Cranberries’ songs? Remember Blind Melon’s bee girl? Music For Heads was recorded in that same era. I can’t prove it. We don’t have the technology. But I know it to be true. (Thanks to the last week’s listening party audience for absolutely nailing the RIYL for this band!)

Start with: “Out of My Bag”

20. Vince Staples - Cry Baby

Loma Vista, June 5th 🇺🇸

GENRE: Hip Hop, Rap-Rock
RIYL: Gorillaz, N.E.R.D.

Is this a safe space to admit my age-inappropriate crush on Vince Staples? I don’t care, really. I’ve been a fan since Summer ‘06 (the album, not the year), but now he’s blending genres like an absolute pro – rock, funk, post-punk? Oh, be still my heart. I was hooked from the opening track, reminiscent as it is of the Black Eyed Peas, with its repeated pleas of “promise me you won’t gun me down” bookended with invocations to Kanye West, Dirty Diana, Prada, Gucci. On what might very well be the song of the summer, you’ll feel guilty for dancing: “Record spinning, turn up the volume/Music make you feel just like cotton…” Fucking hell. The revolution will be televised, and Vince Staples will be both VJ and MC.

Start with: “Cotton”

Not enough?!

Fine, dammit.

What old heads are listening to this week:

Not to brag, but New Bands for Old Heads readers have pretty great music taste. And the ones who are obsessed with music enough to join the Discord server have especially amazing music taste. I joke that I made a music newsletter just to keep up with new music, but it’s about 80% true at this point.

I’d like to make this a regular feature, actually. I’m extremely nosy.

Your favorite songs of 2026:

I asked paid subscribers to share their favorite songs of the year so far… but no more than three apiece! This is the result. I made some great new discoveries here. I just sneaked my own top three in when you weren’t looking, too.

The best tracks of 2026:

I made sure to include tracks from each album in this post in my ongoing Best of 2026 playlist. Check here to get it on every platform (and to find all of my playlists, of course).

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Wake up, babe, we’re glamorizing hipsters again.

Vice has released its definitive guide to the “Hipster Music Era.” Twitter is litigating the legitimacy of “stomp clap” and its dubious standing in the “real” hipster’s iTunes library. People are still losing their shit about how an amorphous, nameless music era was re-dubbed “indie sleaze.”

“Five years into the ‘sleaze’ revival, the movement that shaped the 2000s is also coming to define the 2020s.” -

You couldn’t escape even if you wanted to.

Me, I’m perfectly satisfied to see the trend cycle come back around… as long as the requisite 20 years have passed. And guess what? Girl Talk’s Night Ripper just turned 20. We’ve officially crossed the Rubicon.

I came of age during this era. I recognized myself in Vice’s timeline. I was listening to almost all of that music, in roughly those years. But that doesn’t mean they were writing about me.

People like me, we weren’t the coastal cool kids. We were not tastemakers. The Cobrasnake wasn’t taking photos of us. We were not stylish like Alexa Chung or the Olsen twins.1

If anyone called us hipsters, we bristled at it.2 You could decide if you were punk, goth, or emo, but other people made you a hipster. Frankly, we barely understood the word, but we knew for sure it wasn’t a compliment.

Still, the “hipster music era” is the one that shaped us. And seeing it canonized and handed back to us all glossy and neat is super fucking weird.

So let me tell you what it was like to be an unnamed extra during that time — what it was like to fall in love with music in the early 2000s.

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September 2002:
I’m hanging out in my friend’s dorm room. Somebody down the hall just got a hold of a new EP by a band none of us has ever heard of. They sound unreal. How can one guitar and one drum set sound so massive? I get chills. I play “Mystery Girl” obsessively for a year. When I finally get to see The Yeah Yeah Yeahs in 2003, I don’t realize until the song ends that I’ve been holding hands with a stranger the whole time.

Fall 2003:
Peaches is insane live. It’s wild that she’s playing at our tiny school. One minute she’s popping blood capsules that run down her chin. The next minute somebody’s running up on stage to feed her Fritos. This is better than getting spit on by Karen O.

May 2004:
I drive back to my hometown just to see Metric open for The Stills.3 Emily Haines pulls me up on stage to dance with her for “Dead Disco.” I’m twice her size; it kind of ruins my stupid Courtney Cox moment. She’s drunk. I don’t stick around for The Stills. Next time I see her, Metric is headlining. A group of us share a cigarette with her outside after the show. She compliments my friend’s shirt, but I think she’s talking to me (I’d stenciled the cover of Old World Underground onto my t-shirt myself) so I say “thank you!” at the same time that he does. I feel like an idiot.

Summer 2004:
I’m in the passenger seat of my friend’s busted-up Toyota. We’re parked behind a seedy dive that serves cocktails in dixie cups. He says he’s got something new he wants me to hear. I barely make it halfway through Jay-Z absolutely massacring one of John Lennon’s prettiest songs before I tell him to shut it off. What the hell is this shit? Six months later, I will write up a glowing review of The Grey Album as part of my application for an online music magazine.

November 3rd, 2004:4
Yesterday, I waited 5 hours in line to vote. Tonight, we’re letting out our collective vitriol at a Le Tigre/Gossip double billed show. Kathleen Hanna is a balm. I write about it in my LiveJournal later: “It did help me feel better, even if we’re royally fucked.”

April 2005:5
I don’t know if anything will replace my love of Strong Bad emails (my Chucks still have Trogdor sharpied all over the white rubber), but I’ll give YouTube this much – it has actual music videos. I’ve been watching M.I.A.’s “Galang” again and again. She’s dressed like the discount Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and a dozen copies of her are dancing in front of neon spray-painted backgrounds. My review of Arular is actually getting published.6

May 2005:7
Daft Punk was playing at my house until I started losing my edge. At an off-campus cookout, somebody is spinning The Normal’s “Warm Leatherette” and it’s the sexiest, the funniest, the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. My third eye opens. All art punk suddenly makes sense. I have ascended to another plane. Now I DEFINITELY get it when James Murphy says “I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.” I WAS THERE.

October 2005:8
Cat Power comes to play at the student union. She’s a mess, but we’re with her. We’re entranced. Shaking at the piano, she stops mid-song and bids us sit on the floor. We do – it’s sticky. I feel a little bit sorry for her. I barely know the boy next to me, but we lean on each other for support; structural, but maybe also emotional. The show ends late and another friend tells me “this is typical Chan Marshall.” I’m seething with jealousy. He met her backstage then and she uttered just three words to him: “Lou Reed, man. Lou Reed.”

Fall 2006:
I tell that I’ve been wanting to write an essay about how the mashup has replaced the cover song in the cultural zeitgeist. I never do it.9

August 2007:10
I’m heading to the Pitchfork Music Festival on a press pass. I know, right? This is the wrong time in history to be a 23-year-old girl with zero journalistic experience (and zero backbone) attempting to rub elbows with Pitchfork’s editor. I never muster the courage to introduce myself. I also get my ass handed to me both by journalists and the fans hugging the barrier for “being in the press pen with a point-and-shoot.” I tell them to fuck off but I want to cry. I make awkward small talk with Gregg Gillis. I point at his hat and tell him we’re from the same hometown. I’m never showing my face in public again. In a month, I will start law school.

Summer 2008:
International Law is just an excuse to have a summer abroad and go deeper into debt. On the bus from Luxembourg to Brussels, one of my classmates figures out a way to listen to the radio on her MP3 player. It feels like we’ve been disconnected from music for ages. This song is SO catchy but we miss the name of the band. We sing the song to each other for days so we can look it up the next time we find an internet café. “They call me hell/They call me Stacy/They call me Her/They call me Jane/That’s not my name/That’s not my name…”

Fall 2008:
I’m trying to boot and rally at my own damn party. My playlist is perfect; I can still hear it going in the living room. A disembodied voice: “I think this is Le Tigre?” I yell back from the bathroom floor: “IT’S BIKINI KILL!”

Wed, 3 Dec 2008 at 22:51:

Law school was a cultural dead zone for me.11 I fell off the musical map for years, and emerged only tentatively after I passed the bar.

Vice says that 2009 was “definitely, inarguably, when the hipster era peaked.” That’s certainly convenient for my temporary tap-out, isn’t it?

Whatever you want to call this time period — whatever you think of its music, its fashion, its parties, its grime, its ironic affectation — it’s what built my taste. It’s how I started to understand connections between new music and old.

Hearing LCD Soundsystem back to back with The Normal is what eventually sent me down my very first post-punk rabbit hole. When Ted Leo stitched “Maps” together with “Since U Been Gone,” it didn’t just help me hear how similar the songs were, it also began cracking my “too good for pop music” shell.

And yes, Girl Talk12 burst open a world of sampling and old school hip-hop beyond my limited MTV memories. The “hipster era” taught me to listen to music as much as it kept me up partying.

I spared you from a million other discovery vignettes. Of dancing to The Knife’s “Heartbeats” and crying to José González’ cover. Of cleaning kitchens to the Ratatat remixes. Of listening to Lady Sovereign, somebody’s latest find from studying abroad in London, on the floor of a dingy apartment above the five and dime.

Now I want to hear about yours, from whatever era raised you.

Leave a comment

P.S. My end-of-year lists picked back up again in 2013 and haven’t stopped since. If you want to judge more of my pre-NBfOH taste, or maybe fill in some of your own recent music gaps, I could be persuaded.

You may also like:

This essay is one of my favorites from the archive, and I’m dusting it off not just because most of you missed it, but because whether you like it or not, (anti)poptimism refuses to die.

Rock revival is back in the cultural ether. After a few heady summers back in the club, mainstream appetites are hungry for rock again. Even pop princess Charli XCX is literally making Rock Music now. It’s a perpetual cycle, and we’re seeing the pendulum swinging back already from when this essay was originally published.

So yes, we’re technically talking about pop music, but this discussion applies to almost anything that might set off your internal “absolutely not” alarm. Be it taste, exhaustion, or hype aversion, there are reasons why we all might turn up our noses at music before giving it a real chance. Here, Rita (aka , musician and author of Fear of Music) shows us a useful little crowbar for prying open a song you thought had nothing for you, especially if you thought it was too facile or otherwise “beneath” you.

Keep your ears open, kids.

xo

Gabbie

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What is poptimism?

(And maybe… what is pop?)

A-ah, pop music! Don’t we all have an opinion on it? It’s great, it’s primitive, I’ll sell my kidney to buy a show ticket that costs $1,000, you’re crazy, this is the best poetry since Shakespeare, what a shallow piece of garbage!

You get the point.

I gotta say, I’d never heard the term “poptimism” until Gabbie brought it up in the comment section of my post about The Bee Gees. It was only later that I found out people use “poptimism” in direct opposition to so-called “rockism” — think of it like choosing to shake it off instead of living on a prayer.

Now, is poptimism good or bad? Kind of both - or rather, it depends on whose head you’re in.

Does pop music matter? Yes.

Is pop music the only kind of music that matters? Hell no.

Loving any kind of music is great, but the cultural implications about said music always change dynamically. A couple of years ago, I read ’s “Music: A Subversive History,” in which he promotes an idea of an institutionalization cycle that music experiences – an idea that has stuck with me ever since.

Essentially, it implies that all highbrow music at some point was underground, ostracized, frowned upon by the ruling class, treated as a disruptive element to society. After a new, rebellious type of music inevitably becomes popular (despite all the effort to shut it down), the elite have nothing left to do other than jump on the bandwagon and pretend they’ve approved of it all along.

This is exactly the moment when the music that was once a symbol of rebellion becomes part of the establishment. It is now omnipresent, prescriptivist, rigid and stale.

A new rebellion is brewing somewhere in the gutters. This cycle seems awfully reminiscent of this whole dynamic of rockism and poptimism. Rock is dead, long live pop.1

But is the death of pop actually close? To be quite honest, I don’t think so.

The thing is, pop as such is an insanely broad genre. Taylor Swift is pop. ABBA is pop. Sabrina Carpenter is pop. Fleetwood Mac, for all intents and purposes, is pop. The Bee Gees are pop. A lot of the Beatles’ material, if you ask me, could be classified as pop.2

This, in turn, reminds me of the scene at the end of the “Get Back” documentary where John, Paul, George and Ringo are playing their rooftop show in the center of London.

There’s a split-screen showing the band’s crew as they interview bystanders, and they’re asking questions like: “Do you like what you’re hearing?” “Can you guess who’s playing?” “What do you think of The Beatles?” “What do you think of their new material?”

People mostly speak of the band with great affection. But then there’s one young guy, dressed in office attire, hair combed neatly to the back, drenched in hair gel. He takes a lot of pleasure in telling the interviewer how much the Beatles suck and how he’s so special for seeing right through them. Their music is just beneath him.

As time has shown, this guy is in the minority. Ultimately, his “expert” opinion doesn’t matter.

Yet on a certain level we might be able to understand him. And modern day antipoptimists aren’t so different from him.

What about fandom?

Back in the day, hordes of young girls were so excited to see The Beatles live that they would leave the seats of the venue drenched in piss after the shows. They would scream so loudly that neither the audience nor the band themselves could hear the actual music, which is ultimately why the Beatles stopped performing live.

At this point, are the fans actually in love with the music, or with the idea of their idols?3

Radical fandom hasn’t disappeared. Today, it’s taken on some new forms — potentially concerning parasocial relationships, perhaps.

For the antipoptimists in the room, ask yourself this:

Do you hate the music that much, or do you actually just hate the fans?

Is it possible that you want to extra-hate the music in order to distance yourself from the kind of fan behavior that doesn’t sit right with you?

I am not much of a modern pop-music fan myself. While there are definitely some gems in the mainstream music landscape that I find awesome, I mostly look at the products of pop-industry dispassionately, with more of an analytical interest. I have never intentionally listened to a Taylor Swift song, or a Sabrina Carpenter song, or a Chappell Roan song.

But when I hear one, I understand - from a pure songwriting perspective - why people would like them so much. I invite you to try the same.

Let’s look at it based on two examples that Gabbie gave me for analysis…

Deconstructing Pop Songs

SONG NO. 1. “SHAKE IT OFF” by Taylor Swift4

I once did a decomposition of this song for a Substack livestream on hyper-popular songs. While I personally don’t connect with it on an emotional level, I think it’s a textbook example of a masterfully written pop song.

I invite you to give it an “academic listen” and pay close attention to how it develops.

The song starts with a groovy beat, then adds minimal ostinato instrumentation complemented by instantly high-energy vocals. The verse vocal figure repeats a few times, and before you can get bored of it, the song goes into the bridge and then the chorus.

Now, the chorus melody is nothing if not infectious. Once you’ve heard it, you’re never gonna forget it. It can be argued whether this is great or horrible but for the purpose of my analysis this is just an empirical fact. I say: “Haters gonna…”, - and your brain goes: “…hate, hate, hate, hate, hate”.

While we’re at it, notice how more instruments are added in the chorus and how once we go into verse two, just for a couple of lines, everything but the brass ostinato cuts out. Dynamics, yay! Now that the beat comes back seconds later, our brains are gonna feel happy.

As we move deeper into the second verse, Taylor adds a counter melody repeating the verse lyrics - more new details, and at the same time more of the familiar stuff - an ingenious move for a pop song to stimulate our brains’ love for both repetition and subversion of expectations (read more on it in Dan Levitin’s “This Is Your Brain on Music”). Then, before you know it, her vocals are harmonized - again, melodies that we’ve already heard but with a new twist.

And then we get to chorus number two - and this time the instrumental is fuller than in the previous one. We have a whole brass section added to the mix. And right after, we’re given this entirely new post-chorus section hammering the “shake it off” of it all into our minds.

Moving on - another new section with a spoken-word delivery. It’s distorted, it’s sassy, it’s groovy - and it’s all unknown. It tickles our brains and it makes us long for the resolution to something we already know - the chorus. And boy does it resolve into that chorus! It does so with a big “Yeeeeaaaaahhooooohhh!” and this last chorus is full of supporting harmonies, countermelodies - every “side-story” the song has been teasing is happening at once. It’s a full explosion of joie de vivre, right there.

And mind you: I don’t like this song. However, it is likeable. In fact, if the research laid out in “This Is Your Brain on Music” is right, our brains are basically wired to like it, the way that it’s built.

SONG NO. 2. “VON DUTCH” by Charli XCX

Alright, this song I find genuinely fantastic - it’s probably my love for Magdalena Bay and experimental pop speaking. While I had inadvertently stumbled upon “Shake It Off” before, I’d never heard “Von Dutch” until Gabbie showed it to me. As I was listening to it for the very first time, I found it hard to believe that this song comes from the most hyped album of 2024. Screw it, I was sincerely overjoyed that songs with such an unhinged devil-may-care production make it into the mainstream.

Curiously, I think the two songs I’m analyzing today are sort of the antipodes of each other. “Shake It Off” is a shiny, perfect, ideally formulaic pop-song with a shiny, perfect, ideally formulaic production. “Von Dutch” is like a deformed alien smuggled straight out of Area 51.

I was sincerely overjoyed that songs with such an unhinged devil-may-care production make it into the mainstream.

Here, we’re also dealing with great songwriting. “Von Dutch” is very easy to sing along to. Its main melody is very repetitive, hitting the same note on every syllable, right until the end of each line where it drops by a tone. This monotony makes it all the more satisfying every time we stumble upon a line where instead of going down, Charli goes up a fifth - a huge leap compared to how the rest of the vocal melody is built.

That being said, it’s really the production that sets this song apart and gives it such a high relisten value. Just like in “Shake It Off”, “Von Dutch” plays with intensity, dynamics and instrument combinations.

In the intro we only hear the drum-machine beat, the string synth and the monotonous vocal melody. The song slowly starts to build up with the repetition of “I’m your number one” (ha, repetition!) and then, suddenly, the beat drops and that’s the moment when IT ALL HAPPENS.5

Why suddenly? Because the way it happens is so trippy it subverts every expectation you might have had. Technically the vocals treat the first beat of the measure as the downbeat, but it seems like the drums and the bass REALLY drop only on the second beat. This creates a weird, jagged feeling; a deformed alien you can’t stop looking at.

Pretty soon another sound comes into the mix - one that should be extremely unpleasant taken out of context - a weird screeching sample that reminds me of a massive train doing an emergency braking maneuver. Here it creates this amazing push and pull sensation, while the beat and especially the bass give the song a crazy groove - akin to a kamikaze motorbike ride - the screeching braking sample acts as sort of a resistor.

Later in the song, the groove drops out for what seems to be a bridge section only to explode again and stay for the rest of the track until it finally dissipates in a high-pass filter.

“Wow” is all I can say here.

“If you have shame, you’re lame.”

What’s the moral of this story? Listen to whatever music you want - there is no shame in liking something or disliking something. Adore Taylor Swift or don’t, lose your shit (piss?) about The Beatles or don’t. It’s all there for you - you only have to press play.

For discussion…

• Are we, in fact, seeing the death (or slowing, at least) of pop and an upswing of rock?

• What songs did you find a new appreciation for after examining them more carefully?

• Is there an artist or genre you’ve written off because of the fans rather than the music itself?

• Give an example of “the exciting part” of a particular song that gives you chills - the part WHERE IT ALL HAPPENS, as Rita says.

Leave a comment

Last week’s roundup featured cute little index cards to help you understand more easily which new releases you’ll enjoy. I made four more of them, because May was stacked.

Below, enjoy some indie pop, African-infused krautrock, grungy shoegaze, and soulful electronica. Do it now, because Friday was the single beefiest release day in 2026, and you’ll want to make room to digest it (and all the midyear lists that are already hitting your inboxes) ASAP.

Or don’t, because music should be enjoyed at whatever pace feels good.

Later skaters.

xo,

Gabbie

P.S.

• The Best of May playlist is here.

• All the other Best Of roundups are here.

• All the NBfOH playlists are here.

• The directory of all the bands I’ve recommended (ever!) is here.

Upupayāma - Honesty Flowers

• Start with: “Mystic Chords of Memory”

POM - Enlightened, baby

• Start with: “LOVERS”

Mad Honey - Bridge Over Cumberland

• Start with: “Somehow”

Elder Island - Hello Baby Okay

• Start with: “Bang”

What’s that is wearing? Bet you wish you could have a sweet lid like he does. Well GUESS WHAT SUCKER, NOW YOU CAN!

Send me photos of yourself wearing NBfOH merch for 3 free months of paid access + a chance to win a digital album of one of my Best Of the Month picks!

Ready for something different?

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Remember when I complained about how little context release calendars have? And then I made an adorable imaginary info card that I would use in my fantasy new album tracker?

Sorry, I’m not announcing a new website or anything like that — I’m only slightly delusional! But I am going to do a related experiment in this album roundup.

If you like the new format, maybe I’ll keep it up. If you don’t, don’t tell me about it — I accept only compliments, not criticism 🥰.

For newbies, a quick reminder that I tend to ignore most major releases in the so-called “indie mainstream,” (or indeed the actual mainstream) even if I happened to love them. My goal isn’t to put you on the most esoteric music by any means necessary. But you don’t need me to tell you about the new Paul McCartney, Violet Grohl, or Boards of Canada, either.

What were your favorite records from May? Share with the class!

Leave a comment

The Best Albums of May 2026

9 albums. 1 Playlist. No rankings.

Legend:

🎯 → if you only have time for one…
📼 → most nostalgic/accessible
🧩 → most challenging

Keep scrolling for the May playlist.

Modern Woman - Johnny’s Dreamworld

• Start with: “Offerings”

Cocanha - Flame Folclòre

• Start with: “Clam”

7 albums to go!

Still to come — IDM revival, teenage punks, Swedes on the dance floor, Indonesian soul, and more melodramatic grunge.

Paid subscribers also get access to the full band directory, exclusive playlists, vinyl and ticket giveaways, and a Discord server for tons of community recs and listening parties.

Don’t forget join us at 5pm Eastern on Sunday June 21st for our next radio hour!

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We’re just coming off a three day weekend in the U.S., one that’s supposed to kinda sorta kick us off into an unofficial start of summer. Here in Philadelphia, though, it’s been cold and rainy and miserable.

I can’t will joy and sunshine into being.1 But I can make it sound like summer by conjuring up seven nostalgic scenes. Maybe you’ll remember them. Maybe you won’t. But each one is accompanied by new music that will help set the mood either way.

Keep scrolling for a playlist of all your summer songs.

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ONE.

The sound of a block party on a 90 degree, 90% humidity day. Three of your neighbors are cooking out on the sidewalk, probably raising the temperature at least three degrees in your immediate vicinity. You wipe BBQ sauce off your chin with the back of your hand, sticky with lemonade.

• Jill Scott - Be Great
  RIYL: Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle

• Qveen Herby - MY SZN
  RIYL: TLC, Lauryn Hill

TWO.

The sound of a beach vacation, of stumbling across the hot sand after baking in the sun so long that sweat and sunscreen congealed into little pools under the backs of your knees on your plastic chair. You would have gotten up sooner, but you had to find out how your book ended. Now you’re sun drunk and psyching yourself up to dunk your head under the frigid ocean water.

• Lala Lala - Does This Go Faster?
  RIYL: Björk, Portishead — trip hop gone pop.

• Σtella - Adagio
  RIYL: Greek folk music, Fleetwood Mac, Sade, The Ronettes

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THREE.

The sound of staring wistfully out the window on a sunny Thursday afternoon before a long weekend, then suddenly learning your last meeting was canceled. Cross reference to: the sound of the last day of school before summer vacation.

• Home Star - Weekends
  RIYL: Weezer, Fountains of Wayne

• Tucana - Sun’s Coming Up
  RIYL: Jawbreaker, The Get Up Kids

FOUR.

The sound of a backyard wedding circa 2011. Each picnic table is decorated with fairy lights and mason jars wrapped in paper bags. Every woman in attendance is wearing rose gold jewelry. Every man, a waxed mustache.

• Junior Varsity - Cross the Street
  RIYL: The Go! Team, The Ting Tings

FIVE.

The sound of having your girlfriends over for a pregame before it gets cool enough to abandon the A/C and venture outside for the actual party. You share cheap vodka and Four Lokos and crowd around the mirror to do your makeup that will sweat off on the dance floor in a few hours anyway.

• Surfbort - Hot Dog
  RIYL: Viagra Boys, Le Tigre, X-Ray Spex

• Orla Gartland - Late to the Party
  RIYL: Fiona Apple, Imogen Heap, St. Vincent

• Haute and Freddy - Shy Girl
  RIYL: David Bowie, Pet Shop Boys, Kate Bush

SIX.

The sound of enjoying a drink on the stoop after the first summer thunderstorm has passed, the air heavy with petrichor. You swat at mosquitos and daydream about having exactly half a cigarette, wondering whether to send that “WYD?” text to a recent bad decision.

• Smerz - Feisty
  RIYL: The Blow, The Knife, recession-era indie sleaze

• TV Girl - Summer 2000 Baby
  RIYL: The Avalanches, St. Etienne

SEVEN.

The sound of the first overstuffed tote bag of summer fruits from the farmer’s market toppling over onto the kitchen counter because of your impatience. You gobble a peach up over the sink like a messy little piglet playing in its trough. This is the greed they spoke of in the bible.

• Palehound - My Evil
  RIYL: The Breeders, Bob Dylan, Elliott Smith

• She’s In Parties - Summer Haze
  RIYL: Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, williams

There’s 90 minutes of this in a playlist. Songs for dancing to, sweating to, and spacing out to.

The songs are new, but I hope they sound oddly familiar.

Playlist!

Head to the Directory to find the playlist on other platforms.

Coming up…

Discord members had a preview of this playlist yesterday at our monthly listening party. If you don’t want to miss the next one, mark your calendar for June 21st.

We also have a monthly book club! June’s pick is Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto. You have plenty of time to grab the book at the library and join us for a chilled out discussion throughout the month at your leisure.

The link to the Discord server is here (for paid subscribers only).

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We know it’s something we used to have a lot more of, back before the 24 hour news cycle and phone addiction and music streaming took over. We know we used to have richer social lives that naturally revolved around music. We know that the big bad Music Industry has changed a lot in recent years, and how we approach music — how we approach most things, to be fair — is a lot more solitary now.

We know that “community” is a good thing in theory. More human connection, less money in corporate pockets. But we’ve also gotten awfully used to convenience.

If music needs community, what are we actually willing to do for it?

and I started talking about that this week. I’ll be honest, though — we didn’t get as far as we hoped. It’s a really meaty subject and we’ve got a lot to say.

But we did begin to touch on a lot of topics/questions I know you’ll also have opinions about:

• How do we stratify music listeners: passive, active, fans, stans, collectors, etc.?

  • What does each group of listener realistically have the capacity or willingness to give: attention, money, advocacy, time, labor, taste-making, emotional investment?

• How do we stratify musicians: emerging artists, working musicians, established artists, famous artists?

  • What does each group of musician realistically have the capacity or willingness to give: access, collaboration, mentorship, visibility, social capital, labor?

• What does the disappearance of a real “middle class” of musicians mean for artists, fans, touring, releasing records, and long-term sustainability?

• What will be the fate of new community-based “fixes” for this problem?

  • Subvert.fm promises to be a co-op music platform. Can it actually succeed?

  • Does the average person care enough about fair pay for musicians to switch from streaming? Is it enough if only Bandcamp users do?

• What would a healthier music ecosystem look like if fans, musicians, curators, writers, labels, and venues all understood what they can realistically offer each other?

Speaking of…

Carré has started a new collective-based record label: SICK.

The premise is simple. Established artists collaborate with emerging artists on original singles. Emerging artists get mentorship and exposure, everyone builds more connections and flexes their creative muscles, and the end result is incredible new music. Sick.

The problems are predictable. I’ll stop giving everything away because I want you to give you some reason to watch, but I’ll leave you with this —

Who do we have more faith in when it comes to building a music community: musicians or fans?

Carré has a clear answer in mind. I’m undecided. We’re both cynical, but trying to stay hopeful. And we’d love to know what you think.

Catch up on all of our thoughts in the replay above and tell us which thread you want us to unravel next.

Leave a comment

xo

Gabbie

P.S. I didn’t give much of a heads up for this livestream, so the replay is free for everyone. In the future, I’ll keep a video archive for paid subscribers (and give you a healthy heads up about when to catch lives so you don’t miss them!).

There’s a reason I ask you guys in chat or Discord most Fridays what new music releases you’re most excited about, and it’s not (just) because I’m trying to make conversation. Usually I’m using you to find out what actually came out that week and what’s worth the bother.

Did I start a newsletter and build a 19,000 person reader base just to help myself keep up with new music? Possibly. It’s working, isn’t it?

You know what doesn’t work, though? Release calendars. Not unless your preferred method of music discovery is throwing a dart at a wall.1

I am so wholly out of touch with how sane people keep up with new music that I have no earthly idea what role release calendars play, if they enter the equation at all.

What I do know is that as somebody who has to pay attention to new releases every Friday (semi-)professionally, I find them almost entirely useless. And if I were a casual listener — a civilian, if you will — I would be really fucking annoyed.

My Kingdom for a Genre Tag!

Raise your hand if you’ve actually discovered a new band thanks to a release calendar.2

Release calendars could easily double as new artist discovery tools, but they give us nothing.

Realistically, you’re only scanning them for recognizable names, and you’re only recognizing most of the names if you’re already “in the biz” or otherwise hyper locked in to new music. If only industry insiders recognize most of those names, then what are those calendars but smug gatekeepers? They’re serving half of their potential purpose.

I’ll grudgingly forgive the lack of standardization or completeness — it’s not like there’s a single source that announces to media outlets on January 1st when all of the year’s records will be released. And even if they did, every magazine has a different niche and different audience to cater to.

What I can’t forgive is the almost complete lack of context.

Part of the release calendar’s inherent smugness is the assumption that everyone knows the artists on the list. Not just that, but because there’s rarely a priority signal of any kind, there’s also an assumption that everyone knows which albums are most highly anticipated and why.

I reject that notion outright. My brand of anti-gatekeeping accepts that some people have, in fact, been living under rocks (and like it that way).

“Tracking new release calendars can be a slog and is useful only up to a point. Sure, it’s nice to know what’s coming out soon, but if your biggest issue is that you haven’t heard of most of these artists in the first place, it might be better to wait on the other end of this particular production line, where everything has already been sorted, digested, processed, and tabulated by the Pitchforks and Stereogums of the world to let you know what’s what.” -New Music Discovery 101

Invariably, the music topping all my lists at the end of the year comes from bands that I knew absolutely fuck all about at the beginning of the year. Not to toot my own horn, but I’m pretty plugged in and I’ve likely heard of more obscure, pre-debut, up and coming artists than the average person. A sizable percentage of you are probably reading this newsletter precisely because you rely on me to tell you about those kinds of artists. And I’m still hearing crickets when I read these new release announcements.

Who, then, is the release calendar for? At least as a prognostic tool?

People who don’t actually need to discover any music, that’s who.

The lack of context extends beyond the missing genre labels. It’s helpful to see the occasional notation that an release is actually an EP, and there are a few outlets who will notate live albums and reissues, too. But that’s as far as it goes. How nice would it be to have debuts highlighted? Or a quick “for fans of”?

No Ripcord’s release schedule is the best I’ve encountered, and I’m only partially saying that because I had input into its design. If you read New Bands for Old Heads via e-mail, you’ve already seen it (and potentially use it?) for yourselves. It comes closest to the idealized calendar in my imagination — I may not agree with all of the genre labels, but at least it has them! The flag stickers are also a cute touch, even though they’re mostly just reminding us how anglocentric the average curatorial focus continues to be.

Still, it’s not enough.3

Maybe I’m inventing problems where there aren’t any. Maybe this is a complete non-issue for you. So what if release calendars are inscrutable? That’s what music critics are here for. That’s what curators are here for. That’s what I’m here for! Maybe the whole point of release calendars is to scan for the artists you already know about and move on.

But damn, what a wasted opportunity. There’s a staggering amount of new music being released every day, and I could use all the help I can get filtering the signal from the noise.

Let me show you what I came up with.

The Release Calendar of My Dreams

As long as I’m wishing for a metaphorical pony here, I might as well give you everything I desperately want in one place when I’m scanning for new music every week. This is truly the context motherlode.

My mockup ended up looking like a very Glossier-coded little app. I have no idea what to call it.

Imagine a site filled with cards like this one. Somewhere behind the scenes, you can filter and sort by release date, genre, etc.

The cards are split into two parts. The top has the key album info, while the bottom has extras and clickable links.

Here’s what I envision it will include, roughly in order from most to least likely to appear on current release calendars and/or aggregators:

• Artist name

• Album name

• Release date

• Label

• Release Type

  • LP, EP, live album, reissue, single, debut, reunion

• Genre

• Album art

• Country

• Links

  • to Bandcamp, to official sites

• App integration

  • Not just for streaming services, but also for things like email notifications or RSS or Last.fm or whatever else people want to use

• Popularity

• RIYL Comparisons

  • “recommended if you like” or “for fans of” is a context goldmine

• Sorting/filtering

  • Not in my little mockup, but presumably somewhere on the full imaginary website, as already mentioned

• Connections

  • e.g. is it a solo project?

Is creating something like this realistic? I guess not, or it would already exist.4 But if I were doing this music thing full time, you’d better believe I’d be giving you at least half of it.5

What To Use Instead

Honestly, I’ve practically stopped looking at any calendars in advance. I wait until the day before a release day6 and frantically scan all of these websites. I quiz you guys to see what you’re excited about. I ask the Discord. A few days later, I use my weekly go-to outlets to find out what’s already come out. Preparing proactively hasn’t worked out well historically, especially when you factor in surprise drops.

I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with using release calendars as a catch-up and retroactive discovery tool, but they’re not ideally suited for that purpose, either. While we wait for somebody to capitalize on my rantings, here are a few alternatives I personally use.

MOPS

built one of my favorite and most visually appealing/intuitive new release trackers. It focuses primarily on indie, alternative, and Brazilian music.

Every Monday, she publishes a collection of last Friday’s releases, featuring:

• Album art

• Genre descriptors

• Streaming links for instant listening

• Bandcamp, Wiki, and official website links

• Country of origin flags

• Save-for-later buttons

You can also find her here on Substack.

mops newsletter

Your weekly guide to new music https://www.mopsnews.me/

By Mariana Neri

NEW MUSIC TRACKER

’s sparsely-named tracking tool does exactly what it says on the tin.

The site is still under development and will have more features and integrations in the future, but for now, the sorting and filtering features are what make it stand out for me.

Current functionality/features include:

• Album art

• Popularity ratings

• Genre tags

• Streaming links for instant listening

• Full artist discography

More?

There’s no end to the music catch-up and discovery tools out there. There are almost as many ways to discover new music as there is new music itself.

Obvious picks include AllMusic, Bandcamp, and Rate Your Music.7

There are also the critic aggregators, like Metacritic and AOTY, which I used to use religiously and have now completely given up. If you just want to know which albums the critics are yapping about the most, these are still your best bets.

offline crush

Cool Sites for Real Music Discovery

From vinyl to streaming to whatever TikTok is doing to our brains, every shift in technology has reshaped how we find and experience music. The tools evolve constantly, and so do the ways we stumble across new songs…

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a year ago · 22808 likes · 339 comments · ✧ brooklyn 𓆏

I trust you’ll also fill me in on your favorites.

Every month, I round up nine of my favorite releases to make it easier for you to catch up on what you might have missed.

I knew going in that April wasn’t going to go to plan. I spent half of the month traveling, and no matter how much I tell myself that I can totally, definitely keep my usual routine while I’m several time zones away, the fact is that I don’t even have a usual routine at home.

I did briefly consider cramming everything in at the last minute, but then I remembered ’s sage words:

…doubly so if I ask for it directly, I hope.

So, I’m doing something slightly different this month.

Instead of a clean, tidy, alphabetized “best of,” I’m essentially giving you a peek at the mess inside my brain before I’m ready to curate. Since I haven’t listened to as much as I normally would have, I’m still sorting through it all: what’s getting the most hype, what I was most excited for, what I keep coming back to, what seems to be flying under the radar, what I haven’t had enough time with yet, etc. You get it.

I’m also going to need your help to fill in some gaps, so I’m leaving the last section for you to write in the comments.

Click around as you please!

• Most Hyped

• Most Anticipated

• Most Underrated

• Most Listened

• Most Potential

• Community Favorites

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Psst — you can find all previous Best Ofs here.

Most Hyped:

Angine de Poitrine - Vol.II

I knew that this mysterious, masked Quebecois two piece had really made it when my boyfriend — the same guy who told me it was a silly idea to start this newsletter because nobody would ever read it — sent me their KEXP performance and told me to “check out this band.” I really had to restrain myself that day.

They even briefly impressed my cousin when we met up in Bologna last week. He has a degree in bass performance and we have exactly zero overlap in our musical tastes. When we (inevitably) heard the album start playing at a bar, it piqued his curiosity. “This is polyrhythmic. Interesting.” I told him it was just two guys and showed him a video of their polka-dotted costumes and multi-necked guitars. He lost interest after that, but I’m certain that this record will top just about every indie publication’s end of year list.

Most Anticipated:

Friko - Something Worth Waiting For

Longtime readers might remember that Friko’s debut, Where we’ve been, Where we go from here was one of my absolute favorite records of 2024. I’m always a little nervous about sophomore releases from promising new bands, but this is a truly astonishing album. Everything I loved about the first — the raw emotion, the continuation of the early 2000s orchestral indie rock sound, especially Arcade Fire — is back, sharper and more dramatic than before. Placeholder album name aside, this is another AOTY contender.

Doesn’t look awesome in her New Bands for Old Heads tee? Don’t you wish you could be as cool and amazing as she is? Well GUESS WHAT SUCKER, YOU CAN!

Most Underrated:

Melanie Baker - Somebody Help Me, I’m Being Spontaneous!

I have no recollection now of how I came across this debut, but I’m determined to get her brand of polished slacker rock in front of more ears. Her music is a sugar rush, a Saturday morning cartoon. I find myself craving it even though it might not be entirely good for me. Is it right for grunge music to be produced in such a crystalline way? Arguably not at all. But the album’s conceit seems to be a caricature of ‘90s nostalgia (did you catch the Truman Show reference in the album title?), and it works. The style seems to pull more from other artists inspired by ‘90s alt than by ‘90s alt itself (Wet Leg, Courtney Barnett), and somehow I’m still overjoyed to be listening. Just try it.

Most Listened:

These are the four albums I obsessed over and listened to the most last month, regardless of “objective” quality.

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Ciao, ragazzi! This week and the next, I’m in Bologna taking Italian lessons for no particular reason except that life is short. While I’m away, I’m trying to slow everything down. No set plans outside of class. No eating on the run. No compulsive new album listening. I even thought briefly about not publishing. Instead, I asked one of my favorite music writers, , to tap in while I’m tapped out. It just so happens that she wrote about exactly the kind of unhurried enjoyment I want to channel. Kismet, perhaps? But also an extension of the homework assignment I set for all of us back in January.

Enjoy. A presto.

-Gabbie

P.S. All footnotes are mine ;)

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Remarkably, yes. Even after force-feeding you a 10,000 word, 20 year old article (that I didn’t write!), then picking up where that article left off and walking you through about a dozen albums that span all 40+ years of twee’s history, I still have more to say. Sheesh!

This week will be easier though, don’t worry. Yes, there will be more to read if you’re up for it, but mostly you just have to sit back and listen. Let the jangly, chime-y guitars wash over you.

Here’s what I’ve cooked up. Click to skip around. Relax. Enjoy.

Every Song from “Twee as Fuck”

• The original “Twee As Fuck” Pitchfork essay I kept foisting on you name drops A FUCKING TON of music, but expects you to go searching for it yourself. As far as I know, nobody else has compiled all of it before. Until now! You’re welcome.

NME's C-86 Cassette Compilation

• I mentioned “NME’s infamous C-86 cassette comp that brought jangle pop into British indie consciousness” in 1986 — now you can listen to it yourself.

NBfOH’s Twee For All Times Playlist

• My own mix of five decades of twee. Try to figure out what’s old and what’s new!

10 More Records for Twee Converts

• It’s very rare that my friends and fellow No Ripcord writers , Rivers, and Juan Rodriguez are able to agree on a music genre. Somehow, twee/jangle/indie pop unites us. I asked them around to help me share ten more of our favorite albums — from 1981 to 2026.

Psssst — don’t forget you can show off your NBfOH merch to win paid access and free music.

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At the tail end of 2005 (practically the dark ages1) I came across a shiny new essay on Pitchfork called Twee as Fuck: The Story of Indie Pop. I hadn’t yet become disillusioned with the now controversial publication. It was holy, and I was rapt.

I also had no idea what twee was. 10,000 words later, I became a woman obsessed.

YouTube was brand new in 2005, but streaming wasn’t really a thing yet. I was luckier than most: I had access to my college intranet, and thus a direct line to almost every other student’s iTunes library. That’s how I managed to cobble together most of Nitsuh Abebe’s recommendations, all with questionable metadata and erratic volume levels.2

I took these songs with me everywhere. I listened to them at night when I was trying to fall asleep. I have vivid memories of lying in my hostel bunk in Prague one frigid January3 trying to drown out a very loud snorer sleeping above me with the gentle chimes of Talulah Gosh. Winters were as long in my college town in northeast Ohio as they were in northwest Czechia, and so I came to associate the sound of twee — the jangly guitars, the saccharine vocals — with a sort of pristine, chilly melancholia.

This music opened up a new world for me. I already knew about The Magnetic Fields, but the grandeur of 69 Love Songs now expanded back into the shimmering mist of The Wayward Bus/Distant Plastic Trees. Suddenly, magically, I also became aware of The 6ths (another of ’s projects) and I lost myself into what seemed like days, weeks, years of cheerful anti-love songs.4

Now I want to open that world up for you.

“Twee as Fuck” Revisited (and Updated)

I’ve been handwringing for weeks about how best to (re)introduce you to twee.

I suppose if I want to be glib, I could do it in a few sentences:

Twee is what happened when punk rock kids traded their leather and denim jackets for cardigans and turned their rage into wistful sighing. They had just as much love for DIY, and no more talent for music. But they rejected aggressive egos and (male) posturing in favor of the cute, the charming, and the naive. They loved pop’s catchiness, but not the gloss. They loved punk’s simplicity, but not the anger. Twee became its own adorable beast.

But you need more.

The perfect guide to twee already exists. 21 years later, it’s still on the internet in all its long form glory. Yes, I could give you the crib notes. I could walk you through its origins: how it branched off from punk rock; NME’s infamous C-86 cassette comp that brought jangle pop into British indie consciousness; the parallel evolution of Sarah Records in the UK and K Records in the Pacific Northwest… there’s a lot to uncover.

How sad would it be for all of us if I had to summarize an essay, though? Surely we’re all better than that. Instead, make yourself a cup of coffee, find a free hour, and settle in to read it. All of it. Read it with the same sense of enthusiasm, awe, and delight that I did at 21 years old. In fact, I advise resuscitating your old iPod and downloading each recommended track one by one as you go.5

TWEE AS FUCK

Once you’ve thoroughly immersed yourself — or even if you’ve decided to skip it entirely — you can meet me back here for a slightly different sort of genre guide:

Part 1 - The Twee As Fuck Top Four

• Curating Pitchfork’s curation down to bare bones basics

Part 2 - Tweevolution [2000s & 2010s]

• What’s been going on since 2000ish?

Part 3 - New Bands for Twee Heads [2020s]

• New bands carrying the torch of old twee

What better way to get an appreciation for a genre than to listen your way through it?

All records are listed chronologically.

Part 1: The Twee As Fuck Top Four

Choosing only four records to represent a decade of twee masterpieces was an agonizing exercise. I ended up picking the records that I felt best represented the two most iconic twee record labels of the time (K and Sarah), one record to represent the Scottish contingent, and a slightly more household name that’s still putting out records today.

Beat Happening - Jamboree [1988]

Inside twee are two wolves - one light, represented by Sarah Records, and one dark, represented by K Records, the brainchild of Beat Happening’s frontman Calvin Johnson. Beat Happening is the mascot of the punk-leaning, almost comically under-produced, sardonic, off-kilter, and often off-key path. The xeroxed zine come to life. The stylistic choice was quite intentional (Mark Lanegan co-produced this particular record, in fact). You’ll hear whispers of other eventually influential PNW genres starting to form: riot grrrl and grunge, most notably. For an infinitely rewarding rabbit hole, I highly suggest following all of Calvin Johnson’s threads — off to bands like Tiger Trap his short lived proto-riot grrrl label mates/signees (who would later spin off into The Softies, among others), then Bratmobile, their collaborators who debuted at Johnson’s International Pop Underground Convention in 19916, and off to Bikini Kill who shared the same stage… and on and on. I think you can write the rest.

• Start with: “Indian Summer,” “Bewitched”

• Also try: “Our Secret”

The Field Mice - Snowball [1989]

On the other side of the Atlantic, Sarah Records was releasing a lighter side of twee. Snowball is one of their more important records. If you expected more of the adorable, bedroom sound, here’s where you’ll find it. With their jangly guitars and indelible bass lines, The Field Mice are like a far sweeter version of The Smiths. The low production, DIY aesthetic is still very much present, but here there be sugar and spice and everything nice (in place of Beat Happening’s slime and snails and puppy dog’s tails). Much more palatable and pretty, certainly. They were arguably the progenitors of the (eventually) overused trope of the awkward, bookish boy who pines for the manic pixie dream girl. You may recognize the very first track as St. Etienne’s “Kiss and Make Up”; but theirs is the original, and only one year earlier!7

• Start with: “Couldn’t Feel Safer,” “Let’s Kiss And Make Up”

• Also try: “Emma’s House”

Heavenly - Le Jardin De Heavenly [1992]

If there were ever any “stars” of twee, then perhaps they would be Heavenly. Another of Sarah’s finest, they’ve been around in one form or another for at least 40 years (admittedly with a 30 year gap; they just released a new album barely a month ago), first as the equally infectious Talulah Gosh. Far more chipper and pop-centric than moodier Beat Happening and wistful Field Mice, Heavenly channels ‘60s music more directly: surf rock guitars, yé-yé girls and girl groups, twist and shout. Calvin Johnson released Heavenly’s records on his own label, which brought them modest acclaim beyond their own shores. It’s tough to call any band of the original twee class “big,” but their influence is undeniable: you’ll hear their legacy in Cub, The Cardigans, and Los Campesinos!, to name just a few. A standout of this album is also an example of how it bridged the oceanic twee divide: the K/Sarah crossover episode that is “C Is The Heavenly Option”8, in which Calvin Johnson joins Amelia Fletcher to sing a teen magazine quiz.

• Start with: “C Is The Heavenly Option”, “Our Love Is Heavenly”

• Also try: “P.U.N.K. Girl”

The Pastels - Mobile Safari [1995]

If the Scottish twee scene had a family tree, The Pastels would be at the root. Stephen Pastel’s 53rd & 3rd label hosted the likes of Talulah Gosh, The Shop Assistants, and Kurt Cobain’s favorite: The Vaselines. It’s tempting to describe their “shambling” style as a midpoint between the K/Sarah dark/light divide (and remember, I pulled that distinction out of my ass; I don’t know who else would subscribe to it!). But it’s not so far off from the truth. They have a charming messiness about them, a disconnect between their percussion and vocals that aligns well with the Calvin Johnson spirit. But the upbeat tempo and chiming, catchy melodies are more in tune with the “pristine pop” of Sarah. No need to compare, though. This was the way of the Scottish scene.

• Start with: “Yoga”, “Strategic Gear”

• Also try: “Nothing to Be Done”

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Part 2: Tweevolution

What twee and twee-inspired albums came out after the records lionized by Pitchfork’s primer? Many didn't even hear about Twee until this later era, but there was a lot more going on even at this supposed height than you may have realized.

The Moldy Peaches - S/T [2001]

What would an anti-folk album be doing on a twee retrospective? Well, honestly, how did anti-folk come to be associated with the NYC sleaze of the early 2000s, anyway? (That’s a rhetorical question. We know how.) To the extent that twee was about sparseness, DIY, cutie patooties, crushes, and hand drawn photocopied album covers, Kimya Dawson and Adam Green were keeping it alive. I also maintain that they’re one of the main reasons it eventually developed into its later quirky, “adorkable” ModCloth-clad incarnation. After all, Juno walked so (500) Days of Summer could run.9

• Start with: “Lucky Number Nine,” “Downloading Porn With Davo”

• Also try: The Juno soundtrack, I guess, or Kimya Dawson’s solo work. This was The Moldy Peaches’ only album

Saturday Looks Good To Me - All Your Summer Songs [2003]

I threw this album on again for the first time in over two decades just for the sake of this article, and memories of how I described them to a friend at the time came rushing back to me: they sound like a sock hop played underwater. How could I possibly beat that? In seriousness though, frontman Fred Thomas was a fixture of the Michigan DIY scene, and it makes sense that there’d be a stronger, more audible connection to the Detroit soul music of the ‘60s and ‘70s. Think of this as twee through a more Motown, Phil Spector lens.

• Start with: “Alcohol,” “Ambulance”

• Also try: “The Girl’s Distracted”

The Blow - Poor Aim: Love Songs [2004]

On the one hand, it’s slightly disingenuous to call Khaela Maricich’s minimalist electropop twee. On the other hand, when I was hemming and hawing about whether to keep this album in the mix, I remembered that it was released on — you guessed it! — K Records. In fact, she was embedded in Calvin Johnson’s Olympia world, and even toured with him on Phil Elverum’s (Mt. Eerie/The Microphones) Paper Opera tour in 2001. So. Res ipsa loquitur. Plus, the absolute grip that this album had over me in my early 20s cannot be overstated. In many ways, these songs are even more precious and spare than most twee — just one girl, her synth, her drum machine, and her limerence to keep her company (“Hey boy - why you didn’t call me?/I waited for days, I can’t believe you didn’t call”). It almost feels like an exposed, tongue-out-of-cheek response to 69 Love Songs.

• Start with: “Hey Boy,” “Come On Petunia”

• Also try: “What Tom Said About Girls,” “Parentheses”

Strawberry Whiplash - Hits In The Car [2012]

This Glaswegian duo took their name from Strawberry Switchblade and Meat Whiplash, and their direct musical cues from the rest of C-86 and their descendants. This record stands out from its genre mates for its fuzziness. At times it almost veers into My Bloody Valentine territory (check out “Sleepy Head”), though it might not be approaching the full wall of sound. Dabbling in shoegaze is an interesting take on twee, one that they’ve extended onto last year’s People Like Us.

• Start with: “Picture Perfect”

• Also try: “Who’s In Your Dreams?”

Alvvays - S/T [2014]

After a bit of genre bending, we’re back in some seriously familiar Sarah Records territory with this delightful debut. This is more pristinely polished indie pop than it is twee, per se, which makes sense given their influences (The Smiths, Belle & Sebastian, The Magnetic Fields, and Celtic folk music besides). You’ll no doubt remember the heartrending “Archie, Marry Me” with all its lush reverb. After this retro record10, the band kept increasing the production value in future releases, culminating in 2022’s exceptional Blue Rev; perhaps the best album of the 2020s so far.

• Start with: “Archie, Marry Me”

• Also try: “Belinda Says”

  

Part 3: New Bands for Twee Heads

Another critical record label for indie pop through the decades (that still happens to actually exist!) is Slumberland. Their roster has featured Velocity Girl, Black Tambourine, Stereolab, Boyracer, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, and an endless parade of other indie pop darlings. These days, if you want to find your favorite new twee band, you can throw a dart at their lineup and find one. It’s enough to make me feel like some of my selections are a bit of a gimme.

The Umbrellas - Fairweather Friend [2024]

This is the record that sent me plunging head first back into twee after so much time away. As soon as I heard Matt Ferrera’s voice on the opening of “Three Cheers,” I thought, “this sounds like Beat Happening’s been tuned up.” I can only imagine how appealing that will be to the vast majority of you who can’t understand for a moment why anyone would listen to tuneless vocals. In any event, this is a tight and polished indie pop record that channels the shambling, unpolished twee of its predecessors. Far more like The Magnetic Fields than The Vaselines.

• Start with: “Three Cheers!”, “Games”

• Also try: “Near You”
  

Neutrals - New Town Dream [2024]

Neutrals may be based in the Bay Area, but their lead singer/guitarist’s Glaswegian background is impossible to hide. Both his accent and the particular shambly/jangly style are front and center. There are echoes of Television Personalities, but the cranked up bass and slight disaffection in the vocals belie a strong post-punk influence as well. Not that strange, perhaps, given twee and post-punk’s shared punk roots.

• Start with: “Wish You Were Here”, “That’s Him On The Daft Stuff Again”

• Also try: “Half Shut Knife”
  

Jeanines - How Long Can It Last [2025]

I like my indie pop with a little bit of grit, which Jeanines delivers without damaging any of their sweetness. The more I listen to this duo, the more they remind me of early Belle & Sebastian tracks. I find that much like The Umbrellas, they have the uncanny ability to write songs that feel entirely out of time. If you told me that this album had been recorded in 1966 or 1989, I would have believed you.

• Start with: “Coaxed A Storm”, “Satisfied”

• Also try: “Winter in the Dark”
  

Sharp Pins - Radio DDR [2025]

Outside of the phenomenal Slumberland roster, we have Kai Slater, the phenom/wunderkind behind not one but two of last year’s stellar breakout indie acts: Lifeguard and Sharp Pins. This is the first of two 2025 Sharp Pins releases, and a testament to Slater’s dedication to the spirit behind twee, if not the literal sound. I’ve previously described his records as reminiscent of Guided by Voices covering the Beatles - lo-fi, yes, but perhaps better described as the slacker rock version of twee than the sugary DIY pop of the first wave.

• Start with: “Circle All The Dots”, “When You Know”

• Also try: “Popafangout”

cootie catcher - Something We All Got [2026]

For another departure from the Slumberland roster and a bit more of an experimental option, Cootie Catcher offers up a blend of glitch-pop and indie pop. As and I explained a few weeks ago, they “take that distinctive twee, DIY sound of K Records in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s and make it their own. Their eclectic mix of jangly guitars and twitchy/glitchy ‘twee-tronica’ makes for a very satisfying unpredictability.”

• Start with: “No biggie”, “Puzzle pop"

• Also try: “Friend of a friend”

What did I miss?

Trick question. I missed so, so much. That’s why you’ll have to come back next week. But still, I want to know: what are your favorite twee bands and records?

Leave a comment

More???

Yes. So much more. Playlists and poking deeper into the nooks and crannies of twee. Next week, I said! Next week!

But! Since next week’s post is going to be for paid subscribers, how about a chance to win a few free months of paid access (and some free music)?

Send me a photo of yourself showing off your NBfOH merch; win fabulous prizes.

Until next time.

xo

Gabbie

If you’re new here, you’re joining 19,000+ other people who are getting excited about new music again. Start here if you need to get oriented. You can also check out the playlist guide or the directory for way more.

🌟WHAT’S AHEAD🌟

-Best Albums of March 2026
-Monthly Playlist

Hopefully you didn’t notice, but I took a short break from posting last week. I needed a tiny breather.

While I was out, I finally relented and spent some time plugging the newsletter on (gulp) Facebook, the last remaining viable social medium I hadn’t already tapped, and also the least palatable.

Starting from scratch anywhere is humbling, but I had completely forgotten the kind of commentary that used to plague my videos when I first started New Bands for Old Heads on TikTok four years ago. Facebook reminded me. (And this time, people were using their real names to do it! Smart!1)

“This isn’t music, it’s noise.”

“Why would I listen to a band that sounds like another band? You’re literally saying they’re derivative.”

“How dare you compare this shit to [old untouchable rock band].”

Hot take, but people like this aren’t music lovers.

Tastes vary; you’re not required to like everything (or most things) that you hear. But loving music inherently requires an open mind. It presupposes an understanding that inspiration is intrinsic to the process of creation. It allows room for both imitation and experimentation. It is able to appreciate even when it can’t understand.

Music lovers are able to say “this isn’t for me, but that doesn’t make it fundamentally bad.”

Tell me what being a music lover means to you.

Leave a comment

Now that I’m off my soapbox, let’s cool down with the best of last month.

As usual, I’d like to mention that while March was packed with huge releases, you won’t see them here, no matter how much I may have loved them.

Looking for Courtney Barnett, The New Pornographers, Kim Gordon, Haute & Freddy, The Twilight Sad, Snail Mail, Robyn, or other mega-hyped indie rock and pop that came out in March? That’s lucky for you, because you can read about them pretty much anywhere else. I don’t need to tell you about them, no matter what I thought of them.2

Since we’re so inundated with incredible new albums, I (usually) try to focus on the ones I loved that are a bit less frequently discussed.

• All of the other month-by-month best of lists are here.

• ➡️ Best tracks of ALL of 2026 (so far) can be found here.
  

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The Best Albums of March 2026

9 albums. 1 Playlist. No rankings.

Legend:

🎯 = if you only have time for one…
📼 = most nostalgic/accessible
🧩 = most challenging

Keep scrolling for the March playlist, which features a standout track from 44 albums (eep!). Something for everyone.

Cat Clyde - Mud Blood Bone

This is a different sort of roots rock record, where Clyde explores her Métis (that is, mixed indigenous Canadian and European) heritage. The album’s pacing and stylistic ebbs and flows — from heavier blues to gentler folk rock and even garage rock — reflect the very literal, physical journey she was on while she wrote it. Somewhere between Robert Johnson and Big Thief, you’ll find her.

• Start with: “Man’s World”

Still to come — new adventures in post punk, a strange spin on slacker rock, jazz-forward hip hop, and three very different ways to get your groove on.

Paid subscribers also get access to the full band directory, exclusive playlists, vinyl and ticket giveaways, and the lively Discord community. Join in.

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This year’s New Colossus festival is all wrapped up, but the music discovery is only just beginning. Good news for anyone feeling some FOMO after Tuesday’s post.

It’s only slightly less overwhelming to flip through a 200-band rolodex now that you’re not working on a deadline. Luckily for you, , and I are back with a quick weekend bonus post and a curated selection of some of our favorites from the 2026 New Colossus Lineup to take all the stress off.

Read more

Are you new here? Amazing. Welcome. You’re joining nearly 19,000 other old heads discovering new music together. If you want to get your bearings, start here. Or head straight to the band directory or playlist guide.

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Is This Thing On?

Have you heard the one about the band with millions of monthly listeners who could only sell 12 concert tickets?1 That’s because most of those listeners were background streamers — the artist was probably just featured on a café or chill-out playlist. They didn’t actually have any real fans.

Streaming has created an epidemic of passive listening.

In other words, it makes it very easy to treat music like background noise. No attention required.

Listening passively is what prevents listeners from forming real relationships with artists and the music they make. Without that relationship, there is no fandom — everything just gets distilled into metrics. Who owns the most records. Who went to the most shows. Who racked up the most minutes on Spotify Wrapped that year. Hollow badges of honor at best.

Much of the ✨discourse✨ around this problem focuses on what musicians and “the industry” can do to increase revenue and make the business of music more sustainable.

“The music industry has spent a decade obsessing over how to get a million people to listen to a song once. The next decade will be defined by artists figuring out how to get 1,000 people to care forever.” -

But listeners have a role to play, too.

“Caring forever” can’t be entirely incumbent on the artist. We’ve gotten used to media being perfectly curated and delivered to us on an algorithmic platter; the expectation now is that the music should find us. But when we put in some effort, the payoff is much bigger than anything an algorithm can serve up.

Put another way — if passive listening is the disease, active engagement has to be the cure.

A week ago, a handful of us in the New Bands for Old Heads Discord server found ourselves on a mini-meetup to the New Colossus Festival in New York City. It basically turned out to be anti-streaming exposure therapy — the exact opposite of algorithmic convenience.

Music Festivals Are Dead; Long Live The Music Festival

Before we explain what exactly New Colossus is, we have to explain what it isn’t.

Imagine your standard, open-air music mega-festival. What could be more emblematic of fandom? What could better epitomize active engagement with music than funneling into a field with thousands of your nearest and dearest to see your favorite headliner strutting across a jumbotron hundreds of feet away?

Well, it’s interesting you should ask.

Maybe streaming isn’t quite dead yet, but these are the kinds of music festivals that have been toppling like dominoes for years. Just last year, over 100 festivals were cancelled worldwide, including some that had been running for nearly two decades. And it’s probably because they’re borrowing from the streaming playbook.

Streaming has turned music consumption into an ATM transaction — money goes in, music comes out (if you’re lucky!) — and many of these festivals seem to be replicating that same passive, transactional experience.

What kind of community can you really experience at a mega-festival overrun with influencers and tech bros? And even outside of the Coachellas and SXSW’s of the world, you're still standing in a field surrounded by strangers, many of whom are more interested in talking through sets or taking selfies than the actual music. It’s no wonder many people would rather make a playlist and call it a day.

Well, there are music festivals, and then there’s New Colossus.

Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses: The New Colossus

At most festivals, you buy a ticket to see the headliner. At New Colossus, there are none.

The schedule is packed with nearly 200 emerging artists playing across a dozen Lower East Side bars and art galleries. You come confused and overwhelmed; you leave a fan.

Music discovery is the entire point.

So much of the thrill is that simply showing up isn’t enough.

As an attendee, you’re invited to create your own game plan every single day:

Pick one themed genre showcase and stick to it, or bounce from venue to venue? Catch all the international shows, or stay local? Follow a particular record label showcase? Stick around and have drinks with the band after a set?

This sense of discovery happens in real time. Show up early for a band you know, and you might find a new favorite. Hang around after a set, and you may discover another. There’s simply no way to be a passive consumer of this scene.

New Colossus makes curators of us all.

200 Bands Walk Into a Bar

We had been planning this trip to New Colossus for weeks. Months, maybe. Even as card-carrying music nerds and veteran festival goers, we were completely overwhelmed.2 Each of us made our own spreadsheet schedule with Talmudic annotations. We compared notes, listened to each others’ recommendations, and built playlists to map out our plan of attack.

One early evening, we trekked over (in pouring rain!) to a venue farthest off the beaten path from the cluster of other LES clubs. I wanted to see Talon, a band I’d tipped at the end of last year and didn’t want to miss. The room was completely empty when we walked in.

MK Charron, the lead singer, greeted us warmly. “Are you performers?”

No, just writers. New Bands for Old Heads. “Oh, I know you guys! Our music has a lot of ‘90s influences!” She had so much energy, it didn’t matter that her band might end up giving us a private performance.

By showtime, a dozen more damp patrons filtered in. MK announced they were going to give all of us a great show — and immediately dove into a backward handstand before the band absolutely demolished their set.

What sounds more enticing — a social media post of a band at an outdoor festival shot from miles away, or seeing someone shred a guitar on the floor of a dive bar, inches from your worn-in Converse?

We are witnessing the death of the “Mass Audience” and the birth of the “Micro-Community.” -Joel Gouveia

“Come see us again tomorrow — it’s my birthday!” MK belted over riotous applause. That’s when we knew all of our meticulous planning had been useless. We had to see them again.

Everyone Is With the Band

That feeling of connection we felt with Talon wasn’t unique. New Colossus is designed to make these connective moments happen. Unlike bigger festivals where there’s a literal barrier between artist and audience, at New Colossus, the artists are also fans. They become audience members the second their set is over.

There’s a kind of shared obligation among everyone who attends. Artists, industry members, fans, soon-to-be-fans — everyone is in it together. The playing field feels level in a way that just doesn’t happen at a massive festival… to say nothing of streaming auto-generated playlists!

What an event like New Colossus reveals is that the antidote to streaming’s anonymity isn’t bigger algorithms or better playlists. Instead, we need eye contact in small rooms and human connection to help us trade passive listening for active discovery.

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All You Really Need Is An Internet Connection

Events like New Colossus make active listening stupidly easy. The founders of the festival designed it with that premise in mind:

“It sucks going to festivals to feel like it’s a movie theater where people are running in and out. You want people to stay for the whole event, because that’s how music discovery happens.” -Lio Kanine

But it’s not the only option.

Going to more live shows is an obvious first step. Not skipping the opener is another. Opening bands are increasingly local, and often curated to fit the headliner you bought tickets for, so it’s a no brainer. And if you haven’t stuck around to meet the band at the merch table after, you’re missing out.

But you don’t even have to leave your house to be less of a passive consumer.

Online communities have fueled fandoms for decades. Forums and chat rooms that eventually became Reddit threads and Discord servers… all perfect places to swap recommendations, make gig buddies, or just yap.

You’re reading an article written by people who met in exactly one of those online communities. Even if you don’t join us in person next year, maybe you’ll come hang out online3 and swap music recs.

Remember, it’s community that turns listeners into fans. It doesn’t really matter if that community happens IRL.

Join the Discord

Later this week, we’ll share a curated list of the best bands we discovered at New Colossus this year and all of the others we were devastated to have missed. Stay tuned.

Mark your calendars…

• March 22nd at 5pm Eastern is the next NBfOH Radio Hour

• You have until March 27th to enter the Brigitte Calls Me Baby vinyl giveaway and Heavenly Concert Ticket giveaway

Jump around, jump around, jump up jump up and get down:
•Giveaways
•Events
•New Releases

Occasionally my cup runneth over with goodies that I don’t know how to artfully tuck into a normal weekly post, so I like to throw a quick weekend digest your way.

Think of it as a little palate cleanser before next week’s colossal New Colossus rundown.

This digest also happens to be on Friday the 13th, so it’s inherently terrifying!

Boo?1

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Giveaways!

We’ve got two: one old, one new.

Vinyl!

The new Brigitte Calls Me Baby is out today. They sound like a mix of Roy Orbison and The Smiths, and they can be yours.

Paid subscribers can win a copy of the new record on vinyl. There will be TWO winners! (Ooo, ahhh.)

brigitte calls YOU baby

Live Music!

If you’re in the Philly area and you missed the window to grab a Heavenly ticket for April 17th, you’re in luck. I’ve got one left.

I wish I could come with you, but alas. You’ll have to tell me about it after. Enter below.

i'm jealous

I’ll keep both giveaways open until March 27 and announce them in the Best of March Albums Post at the end of the month.

Upcoming Events!

March is turning out to be an unusually bustling month over on the Discord server. Let’s formalize the invitations.

Radio Hour

Every month, I pull together a surprise mix of new and old songs for a themed hour of discovery and chat. It’s low key, low pressure, and it’s scheduled to work with most time zones (Sunday, 5pm Eastern). Come hang out!

Book Club

It’s not too late to join the March book club — we’re reading Wylding Hall (easily completed in just a few days) and discussing it together in the Discord. It’s mostly asynchronous; hop in when you like.

here there be discord access

New Music!

I admit I wasn’t particularly excited with the first batch of new March releases, but the rest of the month is about to redeem itself.

I’m highlighting some of my most anticipated picks for the remainder of March (including today!) below. You’ll add yours in the comments, won’t you?

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I’ve started asking some guests to help me tackle these topics from their perspectives. Today, please welcome , comic writer and author of 20th Century Ambient to New Bands for Old Heads.

xo
Gabbie

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If you’re new here, you’re joining nearly 19,000 readers discovering new music that sounds like their old favorites. Start here if you need to get oriented. You can also check out the playlist guide or the directory for lots more.

🌟WHAT’S AHEAD🌟

-Best Albums of February 26
-Playlist
-Concert ticket giveaway

Now we’re starting to cook with some gas.

February’s slow start gave way to a deluge of phenomenal releases at the final hour. March promises much the same.

Predictably, the analysis paralysis in settling on just nine albums for each of these monthly roundups has been giving me heart palpitations. So I’m going to formalize a practice that up until now I could only categorize as a habit:

If you’ve already been oversaturated with hype about a new release, it’s likely we’ll be skipping it here.

I'm not averse to double-dipping, but I'd rather bring you music recs from real people than regurgitate whatever's making the rounds in the press.

So yes, you might not see some of the heavy hitters below (Mitski, Ratboys, Mandy Indiana, et al.).1 But why do you need me to reinforce opinions you already hold? Aren’t you here to learn about new music you haven’t heard yet?2

I thought so.

What were your February favorites?

Leave a comment

ICYMI…

The Best Albums of February 2026

All of the other month-by-month best of lists are here.

➡️ Best tracks of ALL of 2026 (so far) can be found here.

9 albums. 1 Playlist. No rankings.

Legend:

🎯 = if you only have time for one…
📼 = most nostalgic/accessible
🧩 = most challenging

Keep scrolling for the February playlist.

📼 Station Model Violence - S/T

I believe it was reader who turned me on this fantastic Australian group. If my post-punk primer left you wanting more, or maybe just left you more confused about the boundaries between post-punk and new wave, Station Model Violence is a great blend of those two styles. It certainly won’t help clarify anything, but it’s hard not to enjoy the grit of the Gun Club or Neu! mixed up with the dark danceability of New Order. Start with: “Leisure”

Voka Gentle - Domestic Bliss

What a breath of fresh air this record is. A patchwork of avant-pop styles and influences that pulse and thump together into something truly delightful and unexpected. I want to give you some kind of reference point to help get oriented, but it’s slippery; there are pieces of Kraftwerk and These New Puritans, all with a Mute Records production pedigree. Start with: “Torpedo Mike”

vegas water taxi - long time caller, first time listener

You were expecting Remember Sports to show up on this list. I don’t blame you! It’s a great record, but you’ve heard enough about it already. For more country-soaked indie rock, let’s venture across the pond, where Ben Hambro’s band is (curiously) crafting some earnest Americana with heavily sardonic lyricism. I do love a study in contrasts, and who could possibly resist a track with a name like “ozempic (celebrity weight loss anxiety blues)”? Start with: “chateau photo”

Still to come — a comeback 30 years in the making, even more Australian innovation, mind-bending avant-folk, and a Britpop revival you haven’t heard anywhere else. (Plus, a concert ticket giveaway!)

Paid subscribers also get access to the full band directory, exclusive playlists, vinyl and ticket giveaways (like the one below!), and the Discord community. Join in.

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Pssst… don’t miss the⚡⏩Best Tracks of 2026! ⏪⚡

Not sure which playlist to start with? I made a playlist personality quiz1. It’s stupid. It’s fun. It’s free.

If you’re new, it’ll help orient you with a few playlists picked out just for you.

subscribe to take the quiz!

Navigate:

Genres + Eras | “Best Of”s | Mixtapes | Community Playlists

Most playlists available on: 🍎Apple, ☁️SoundCloud, 💿Qobuz,
🌊Tidal, ▶️YouTube. Find those links in the directory.

Directory!

The directory also includes every single band I’ve ever recommended in the newsletter. It’s pretty sweet.

Ok, on to the playlists —

Genres + Eras

New music that sounds generally like the older stuff listed here.

⭐ = core playlist

• ‘60s (Mod, Motown, Surf, Space Age Pop) - post | playlist

• ⭐ ‘70s (Soul, Disco, R&B) - playlist

• ⭐ ’80s (Synth, New Wave) - playlist

• ⭐ ‘90s (Alt, Riot Grrl, College Rock, Shoegaze) - playlist

• ⭐ Classic Rock - playlist

• Egg Punk2 - playlist

• Hip-Hop - playlist

• Indie Sleaze - post | playlist

• Pop - playlist

• Post-Punk3 - post | playlist

• Soul (reviving Daptone’s golden era) - post | playlist

• Twee - post | playlist

• ⭐ Y2K (reviving 2000-era top 40) - post | playlist

• Yé-yé (French pop) - post

“Best Of”s:

Yearly

• 2026 - Best Tracks

• 20254 - Best Tracks | Midyear | EOY 1 | EOY 2 | EOY 3 | EOY 4

• 2024 - Best Tracks | Midyear | EOY 1 | EOY 2 | EOY 3 | EOY 4

• 2023 - Best Tracks

• 2022 - Best Tracks

Monthly

• May 2026 - post | playlist

• April 2026 - post | playlist

• March 2026 - post | playlist

• February 2026 - post | playlist

• January 2026 - post | playlist

• October 2025 - post | playlist

• September 2025 - post | playlist

• August 2025 - post | playlist

• July 2025 - post | playlist

• June 2025 - post | playlist

• May 2025 - post | playlist

• April 2025 - post | playlist

• March 2025 - post

• February 2025 - post

• January 2025 - post

Mixtapes:

Mostly “If You Like [X], Then You’ll Like [Y]” posts + companion playlists (new music that sounds like specific older artists).

🎤 = guest playlist

• All Your Summer Songs (new music for feeling summer nostalgia; RIYL for a huge variety of summery sounds)

  • post | playlist

• If You Like [X] Then You’ll Like [Y]: The OG (Gang of Four, New Order, Veruca Salt, Smashing Pumpkins, Pavement, Radiohead, Lauryn Hill, Elliott Smith)

  • post | playlist

• ‘90s Counterculture (introducing to non-hit genres of the ‘90s: grunge, britpop, shoegaze, big beat, trip hop, twee)

  • post | playlist

• Album Scores Are Meaningless (great albums that only got an average 7/10 meta-rating)

  • post | playlist

• Experimental (a mixtape for Anja Huwe of X-mal Deutschland)

  • post | playlist

• Female-Fronted Bands (“won’t someone think of the men?”)

  • playlist

• 🎤 Folk (New Canadiana, by )

  • post | playlist

• Foreign Language (3 hours of new music, none in English)

  • post | playlist

• Gen X Nostalgia (a mixtape for )

  • post | playlist

• Guilty Pleasures - post | playlist

• 🎤 Lilith Fair (What New Bands Belong on the Lilith Fair Stage in 2025?, by )

  • post | playlist

• New Band/Old Band (the basics of how my brain works; new/old pairings)

  • post | playlist

• Pop-punk (Dragging out of his 2000s rut)

  • post | playlist

• Problematic Artists (Problematic older artists paired with modern non-problematic equivalents)

  • post | playlist

• Romance & Drama (A shimmery mixtape for )

  • post | playlist

• Slutty Summer (All your hot summer jamz)

  • post | playlist

• Teen Movies (reviving the sound of the late ‘90s teen romcom)

  • post | playlist

• “Uncool” Music (a mixtape for Justin McElroy of My Brother My Brother and Me)

  • post | playlist

• Witchy Disco (my take on the Fall playlist)

  • post | playlist

Community Playlists:

• Known Unknowns - Community-generated playlists featuring your favorite unknown & underrated artists.

  • Vol 0

  • Vol 1

  • Vol 2

  • Vol 3

  • Vol 4

  • Vol 5

  • Vol 6

  • Vol 7

• Directory-only extras:

  • The Disco - a multi-era dance party

  • Discord Community Music Recs - old heads share their favorite music of all time

The best way to support New Bands for Old Heads is to become a paid subscriber. If this newsletter ever turned you on to a band you wouldn’t have found otherwise, please consider upgrading. Support your friendly local (human!) music curator, and help keep the playlists bountiful across all platforms. Learn more here.

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If there’s one thing we’re obsessed with on the left, it’s being as ethical as possible.

If there are two things we’re obsessed with, it’s making sure everybody knows just how ethical we’re being.

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That leaves very little room for imperfection.

A year ago, I wrote about my failed attempt to quit Spotify. With every ICE ad and AI-generated track, using the behemoth streaming platform becomes less and less defensible. And yet even as I watch many others (very publicly) cancel their subscriptions, and even as my own guilt accumulates to a fever pitch, I’m still forking over my monthly fee.

How can I – how can anyone – possibly justify it?

Increasingly, the implication1 is that it’s not possible. Either you stop using Spotify (and probably all streaming), or you don’t care about artists, full stop. In other words, divesting has moved from the realm of “preferable” to “morally mandatory”.

I saw a TikTok (stay with me) a while back that questioned the familiar refrain: “I’d be vegan except for the cheese”.

@itsmekateveeI never talk about veganism very explicitly but I’m just saying if it’s one thing stopping you then just like don’t be stopped, do it except for the one thing

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The young woman in the video shruggingly implores us: “If that’s how you really feel, DO IT. Nobody’s stopping you. Go vegan except for the cheese.” Like, what’s the problem? Why are we so all or nothing? Isn’t perfect the enemy of the good?

“I don’t know when we all got consumed by the need to portray “goodness” but it sure is making everyone seem like performative bores. We know that our online personas are just shells of who we are; yet, we focus so much on how to present these shells. As if all the facets of a person can be summed up in one Instagram profile.“ -Carré Kwong Calloway

Personally, I’m sick of being told that using streaming is tantamount to not giving a shit about musicians.2 But I wanted to recruit somebody with a more finely calibrated moral compass to discuss that question with me.

Lavender Sound

I'm changing the way I listen to music

If 2025 was the year of music listeners and musicians alike removing their music from Spotify, 2026 needs to be 2025 Part Two (a phrase I will absolutely never say again). Some…

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6 months ago · 32 likes · 17 comments · Max Freedman

: I think the idea that using streaming means you don’t care about artists, or that you’re a bad person, completely lacks nuance and grace.

For as long as we’re forced to participate in capitalism, streaming is the most comprehensive way to access recorded digital music. None of the passionate music listeners I know have enough money to buy all the music they want to listen to. They can’t afford to be virtuous people who avoid Spotify.

It’s only through streaming that you can test-drive an album before buying it. The days of hearing a couple of singles on the radio and buying the CD before having heard the rest are gone.

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: I’m an outlier, but I’ll still use myself as another example. I pay for Spotify (and Apple, and Tidal, and Qobuz, and SoundCloud, and YouTube) because that’s where my audience is and I want to make music discovery accessible to the most people in the most places. I also only link out to Bandcamp on my actual posts whenever that’s possible to do (and hundreds of people buy albums and concert tickets because of my recommendations).

Because Spotify’s catalog is largest and their UI is easiest to navigate, especially for playlists, having my “curation headquarters” on Spotify is what makes sense for me right now, especially while I can’t quit my day job to do this. It sucks, but until I’m able to devote my life to music curation full time, I have to stick to what saves me the most time.

Convenience is often overlooked in these conversations, but it’s probably the biggest reason people stick with streaming even when they’re opposed to it in theory.3 We can talk about morals all day long, but there’s not much more to it than that. The average consumer puts their needs first. Introduce any kind of friction point, and you’ll lose.

This is why I balk at the “quit Spotify or you’re a monster” implications. Is literally everybody who chooses their real life convenience over a stranger’s theoretical livelihood, regardless of the context around it, morally bankrupt? A sizable portion of you currently reading think the answer is “yes,” even though we all do this every day.

But what I actually want to ask you —

Does opting out actually make a measurable difference in a world where artists are still reliant on this system?

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: Oh yeah, I’m under no illusion that if I alone canceled the one music streaming subscription I have (YouTube Music4) it would make a sizable, impactful difference. I do think that if a mass of other folks were to join me, then there would be an impact, but we’re talking tens of millions.

“Spotify won’t notice my individual absence from its platform any more than Amazon missed my online orders or Walmart has noticed I don’t ever step foot within its doors. The point is that I sleep better knowing my own small, everyday decisions are made with as much socially positive forethought as possible.” -Tony Fletcher

I feel that my actions are making a tangible difference because it puts me in a position to eventually be part of a mass movement to compel these platforms to listen to their users’ wants and needs, ranging from “stop being fascists” to “pay your artists.” That mass movement isn’t here yet, but maybe, just maybe, my example can encourage others.5

On a related note:

To what extent do you think it’s incumbent on us to educate our readers and the broader listening public?

I’m thinking of my one friend who’s as passionately far-left and up on the news and ~discourse~ as I am but didn’t know that Spotify was running ICE recruitment ads until they saw me post about it on my Instagram story.

: I think of fast fashion as an analogous example. I regularly see comments on social media brushing people off as annoying or even ableist/classist for pointing out how problematic it is to buy fast fashion. Plenty of people are perfectly aware that companies like Shein effectively employ slave labor, but the call of the $5 dress is just too strong to resist.

I’d go so far as to say that streaming is the fast fashion of the music world.

It’s cheap, it’s easy, it’s constantly being churned out in mass quantities, it’s delivered to us instantaneously, and we are prone to consuming it without regard to the artist/designer. Maybe we haven’t reached peak educational saturation yet, but I don’t think the reaction will be different. Shein isn’t going to suffer and neither will Spotify.6

I’m not trying to say that it’s pointless to educate people. Just that awareness doesn’t automatically change behavior, and even when it does, it usually impacts us more than it impacts “the system.” And if awareness doesn’t reliably change behavior, it’s hard to argue that divestment is morally mandatory rather than morally admirable.7

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: I do think there’s something to be said when folks using Spotify or other platforms don’t know about their ethical problems. The bliss of that kind of ignorance is pretty American, like real “living in the core of empire” vibes, to be communist about it, It feels icky that anyone could consume things without knowing about the awful actions and beliefs of the companies whose products and services they’re buying. No matter how well-meaning that person is.

But I get that the effect of my withdrawal from streaming has been more on me than on anyone or anything else. I wouldn’t say being off streaming has done me harm, but it does mean that I haven’t listened to, say, a full U.S. Girls album in a while, since they’re among the handful of artists who only allow a few songs per album to be streamed on Bandcamp. It’s a big-time change to my relationship to music consumption.

That’s a problem I don’t yet know how to solve without buying every album that I’m at least a little bit interested in. My budget is limited, which means that I’m not as able to invest time in releases I’m enjoying at first blush but might come to absolutely love with further listens.

What’s inarguable is that streaming platforms offer unparalleled music access.

Do you think that being against streaming also equates to being against widespread music access?

: I’ve written before about intentional listening or putting parameters around listening, so it’s not inherently bad to set limits. However, limitation doesn’t mean lack of access.

If we want new artists to succeed, we should also want it to be easy to access their art. This is the anti-gatekeeping ethos, after all.

It’s noble to want to dismantle a system that inherently devalues that art, but realistically it’s also impossible. Once Pandora’s box is opened, the monsters don’t go back inside.

It’s worth noting that the growing desire for “old tech” - the children yearn for analog, I’m told, and there’s a growing interest in things like modding iPods with bluetooth and modern storage capacity.

But with the odd exception, this generally happens alongside streaming, not as a total replacement.

In any case, I don’t want to give up just because I refuse to take a purely black and white position on this. Quitting is admirable, but is it a requirement?

How can people “go vegan except for the cheese” when it comes to getting rid of streaming?

What are some things we can do if we actually do care about artists, but aren’t ready to divest from streaming completely just yet?8

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: My gut response is that the streaming equivalent of going vegan except the cheese is just to use the free version of Spotify. I can’t think of another option even though I don’t necessarily like it for myself.

The free version of a streaming service will break up the albums I’m listening to with ads, and that interferes with my listening experience. I’m always listening to music when I write or edit. For example, before I bought CMAT’s EURO-COUNTRY, I tried streaming it on YouTube while writing. The ads were completely disruptive to my work, but they wouldn’t be if I were cooking, walking, or exercising.

I think it’s worth bearing the ads to not have a cap on the number of times I can listen to a release before buying it, which will continue to be my ultimate goal for releases I truly love. And of course it’s worth it to increase the chances of the artist gaining a fan, even if they aren’t getting paid.

Hold me accountable — this will take me a while to start doing.

It does feel like admitting some amount of defeat in my quest to quit streaming.

After all, these platforms still make money off ads. As a passionate music listener who also writes about music, I need to stand in this unfortunate middle ground.

: The world is one big gray area, and that’s a great place to start.

I have a few other ideas, though, mostly leaning in to the idea that things don’t have to be all or nothing. Hopefully readers can add their own.

1. Pause your subscription every once in a while. If you can’t go free completely, fine. Pause for a month now and then. Use the extra money to buy an actual album.

2. Don’t subtract; add. If money isn’t the main concern, then make this an additive exercise. If you’ve listened to an album more than X number of times (two, three, ten) then it’s time to buy it. Test out a few less problematic streaming services and see if you prefer them, then make the switch.

3. Go to more concerts. Go early and see the opener. Buy merch.

4. Stop listening passively. Don’t use AI-generated playlists. Sign up for bands’ mailing lists. Read their newsletters. Donate to their Patreons. Whatever! Just be more engaged.

5. Promote and participate. Write about music if you like writing. Share bands on your social media if you’re on social media. Tell your friends IRL if you’re not.

What’s your version of “vegan except the cheese” when it comes to Spotify?

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