The 20 Most Anticipated Albums of Winter/Spring 2026
The best part of every new year is looking ahead to all of the great music on the docket for release in the coming months. And since it’s only the first week of January, we haven’t even come close to seeing everything that’s on the way—just this week, countless releases from some of our favorite artists have been added to the schedule. To keep it simple, however, we’ve kept it to a manageable number. Here are our picks for the 20 most anticipated albums of winter/spring 2026.
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Dry Cleaning – Secret Love
(Jan. 9; 4AD)
UK post-punk group Dry Cleaning released two back-to-back excellent records with 2021’s New Long Leg and the following year’s Stumpwork, and ahead of their third LP, they offered up one hell of a single with “Hit My Head All Day,” which landed on our list of the best songs of 2025. They’ve released a handful of other songs from their upcoming Cate Le Bon-produced album since first delivering that standout single, including “Let Me Grow and You’ll See the Fruit,” which is gorgeously hypnotic in its array of repeating arpeggios.
Pre-order: Turntable Lab (vinyl)
A$AP Rocky – Don’t Be Dumb
(Jan. 16; AWGE/Polo Grounds/RCA)
A$AP Rocky’s been promising Don’t Be Dumb for a long time—he said it was finished back in 2022—so it’s hard not to say “we’ll believe it when we see it.” But he’s at least been dropping a steady stream of singles as we approach the release of his first new album in eight years (!), including the moody, Alchemist-produced standout “Ruby Rosary,” the psych-pop of “Punk Rocky” and the booming “Highjack,” featuring an unexpected appearance by singer/songwriter Jessica Pratt. All of which is to say: We don’t really know what to expect, but we look forward to finding out.
Pre-order: Turntable Lab (vinyl)
Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore – Tragic Magic
(Jan. 16; Infiné)
Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore each make blissful ambient music with their instrument of choice—Lattimore as a harpist, and Barwick as a vocalist most often heard in a gorgeous array of layers. The two artists have worked together before, but this is their first full-length album made in collaboration, which apparently came together in only nine days. In a press release they expressed how they experienced a kind of “musical telepathy,” which you can hear on the gorgeous leadoff track “Perpetual Adoration,” a stunning piece that shows how well their particular combination of sounds works.
Pre-order: Rough Trade (vinyl)
Xiu Xiu – Xiu Mutha Fuckin’ Xiu Vol. 1
Xiu Xiu are pretty great at covers—see their past albums Nina and Plays the Music of Twin Peaks for further evidence of this particular talent. And a year and a half down the road from their last album, 13″ Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto With Bison Horn Grip, they’ve got another set of reinterpretations to share, including their takes on songs by The Runaways, This Heat, Soft Cell, Talking Heads, Screamin’ Jay Hawins and more—all of which seem like exactly the kinds of songs that are ripe for Xiu Xiu to leave their stamp.
Pre-order: Turntable Lab (vinyl)
Joyce Manor – I Used to Go to This Bar
Joyce Manor’s one of the best punk bands of the past two decades, but over time they’ve opened their sound up to become even more versatile—perhaps we can just call them one of the best rock bands at this point. The early singles from I Used to Go to This Bar bear that out, whether the power pop hooks of “Well, Whatever It Was,” or the breezy jangle of “All My Friends Are So Depressed,” which shows how lush their sound has become. Yet it’s the third single, “I Know Where Mark Chen Lives,” that returns to the anthemic punk they’re known for—they still got it!
Pre-order: Rough Trade (vinyl)
The Soft Pink Truth – Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever?
(Jan. 30; Thrill Jockey)
Every album by The Soft Pink Truth has a few things in common: every album title is a question, every record is the work of its sole member Drew Daniel (also of Matmos), and yet each one has an impressive array of guest musicians. His latest, Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever?, is no different, featuring everyone from members of Horse Lords to the Ebu String Quartet. On this latest project, Daniel merges dance music with orchestral and classical sounds, the likes of which can be heard on the lush, string-laden disco of first single “Mere Survival is Not Enough.”
Pre-order: Rough Trade (vinyl)
Daphni – Butterfly
(Feb. 6; Jiaolong)
Caribou’s Dan Snaith debuted Daphni over a decade ago as a means of creating a discrete identity for the more explicitly club-oriented music he creates. Though, it’s worth noting, the barrier between those two worlds has been blurry for a while, particularly after 2024’s BPM-heavy Honey. Nonetheless, Snaith delivers beats that aim a little more directly for the pleasure zone with Daphni, and five singles from his fourth album with the project have already been released, including eerie banger “Sad Piano House” and the soaring dancefloor anthem “Waiting So Long” (which “features” Caribou—how does that work exactly?). Suffice it to say, this one sounds engineered to feel amazing.
Pre-order: Turntable Lab (vinyl)
Mandy, Indiana – URGH
(Feb. 6; Sacred Bones)
Mandy, Indiana delivered one of 2023’s best debuts with the outstanding i’ve seen a way, and they’re returning two years later with a new set of songs—their first for Sacred Bones—that represents the most fully collaborative music they’ve created to date. Not that it’s any less booming or intense—lead singles “Magazine” and “Cursive” are as intense as their music gets. But there are also some interesting surprises in store as well, including an appearance by billy woods on “Sicko!” That’s a pairing we can get behind.
Pre-order: Rough Trade (vinyl)
Ratboys – Singin’ to An Empty Chair
(Feb. 6; New West)
Ratboys earned Treble’s album of the year honors for their 2023 album The Window, which was an all-time personal best for the Chicago indie rock group. And after a heavy touring cycle in support of the album, including dates opening for The Decemberists and playing Wilco’s Solid Sound fest, they return with their first album for New West Records, Singin’ to An Empty Chair. Led by singles such as the hard-driving “Light Night Mountains All That,” one of our favorites of 2025, it finds the band entering an exciting new chapter.
Pre-order: Rough Trade (vinyl)
Charli XCX – Wuthering Heights
(Feb. 13; Atlantic)
Charli XCX follows her endless Brat summer with a Bronte winter, as she prepares the release of her soundtrack to the upcoming film adaptation of Wuthering Heights. Given the two singles she’s released thus far—the avant-garde “House,” featuring the legendary John Cale, and the ’80s-tinged art-pop of “Chains of Love”—it’s a safe bet she’s shifting gears on this one. Either way, it’s bound to be one of the biggest pop releases of the season.
Pre-order: Turntable Lab (vinyl)
Converge – Love Is Not Enough
(Feb. 13; Epitaph)
When Converge last delivered a full-length album, they did so as a collaboration with Chelsea Wolfe and Cave In’s Stephen Brodsky on 2021’s Bloodmoon: I, an album of longer and slower compositions that showcase the group’s underrated ability to write a powerful dirge. Love Is Not Enough is something else entirely, featuring no guest artists and clocking in at just around a half-hour, with the sequencing arranged to “keep ramping up,” as Jacob Bannon described it. And that’s no small feat, given that the opening title track is some of the most explosive hardcore Converge have delivered in some time.
Pre-order: Rough Trade (vinyl)
Worm – Necropalace
(Feb. 13; Century Media)
Florida death-doom outfit Worm made a big impression with their 2021 album Foreverglade, followed by a standout split with dream-doom duo Dream Unending. Now, the group make their debut with heavy metal powerhouse label Century Media with Necropalace, which promises to be their biggest album to date. For evidence of that, look no further than the epic 10-minute title track is a dramatic showpiece that gives us a glimpse into the ornate madness they’ve been cooking up.
Bill Callahan – My Days of 58
(Feb. 27; Drag City)
We have a general rule around here: If Bill Callahan releases an album, we listen to it. And that most certainly goes for his next album, My Days of 58, which is shaping up to be a particularly brooding and reflective set of music, as evident from the dark, slow-burning “The Man I’m Supposed to Be,” featuring the poetic honesty and quiet intensity that only a singer/songwriter like Callahan can provide. It features the musicians that accompanied Callahan on his YTI⅃AƎЯ live tour, bringing his haunting songwriting to life with a richly arranged full-band sound.
Pre-order: Rough Trade (vinyl)
Crooked Fingers – Swet Deth
(Feb. 27; Merge)
Eric Bachmann last released music under the Crooked Fingers mantle 15 years ago, and has since released music under his own name as well as releasing his first new album with Archers of Loaf since the 1990s. Swet Deth, name courtesy of Bachmann’s son, sees him in the company of a team of collaborators that includes Sharon Van Etten and The National’s Matt Berninger, on a set of solo material intended to sound like a full band. The first single, “Cold Waves,” featuring Superchunk’s Mac McCaughan, is infectious but understated, though not that far from the hook-laden indie rock Bachmann’s been making with Archers of Loaf.
Pre-order: Rough Trade (vinyl)
GENA – The Pleasure Is Yours
(Feb. 27; Lex)
Late last year, neo-soul singer Liv.e and hip-hop producer and drummer Karriem Riggins announced their upcoming collaboration as GENA with the release of “Circlesz,” which they shortly thereafter announced was the first single from their debut full-length LP, The Pleasure Is Yours. And with second single “HOWWEFLOW,” a slice of soulful analog R&B with boom bap crackle and old-school bump, the duo are seemingly gearing up for one of the new year’s most promising debuts.
Bonnie “Prince” Billy – We Are Together Again
(March 6; No Quarter)
Will Oldham seemingly never takes a break for long, and he keeps on inching a little closer to that three-dozen mark with his discography as Bonnie “Prince” Billy. His latest, We Are Together Again, is something of a nod to a reunion of various musicians in the Louisville scene he came up in, as the album features members of Duchess as well as previous collaborator Catherine Irwin. And its first single, “They Keep Trying to Find You,” even has some of the haunted atmosphere of his I See a Darkness days.
Pre-order: Rough Trade (vinyl)
Ladytron – Paradises
(March 13; Nettwerk)
Liverpool synth-pop vets Ladytron took a long break after the release of their 2011 album Gravity the Seducer, but since returning with their 2019 self-titled album, they’ve kept busy. Now prepping their eighth album for release, the band said that they wanted to make a record that scratched a particular itch, specifically a “disco” record, at least their version of it. And based on early single “Kingdom Undersea,” a pulsing synth-pop banger with a hefty dose of house piano, they seem to have found that euphoric groove pretty easily.
Pre-order: Rough Trade (vinyl)
Robyn – Sexistential
(March 27; Young)
It seems that 2026 begins much like 2025 did—by looking ahead to a highly anticipated electro-pop record with a sexy portmanteau in the title. After previewing her upcoming LP last year with the single “Dopamine,” Robyn has finally revealed the details of her long-awaited follow-up to 2018’s Honey. The pop legend’s latest is said to reconnect with the sounds of her Body Talk era, and new single “Talk to Me” definitely carries a similar vibe.
Pre-order: Rough Trade (vinyl)
Wesley Joseph – Forever Ends Someday
(April 10; Secretly Canadian)
UK singer, songwriter, producer and rapper Wesley Joseph makes his Secretly Canadian debut with Forever Ends Someday after a pair of releases that established him as a shape-shifting and versatile artist that weaves between electronic, pop, R&B and rap with ease. Late last year he released the upbeat Nicolas Jaar collab, “If Time Could Talk,” and followed it with “Peace of Mind,” an atmospheric highlight featuring Danny Brown. And based on these two songs alone, there’s a lot to be excited about
Pre-order: Rough Trade (vinyl)
Peter Gabriel – o/i
(TBD)
Two years after the release of i/o, his first LP in two decades, Peter Gabriel is returning with a companion album to that celebrated comeback. As of right now, Gabriel hasn’t announced an actual release date for the album, but like with i/o, he’ll be releasing singles periodically, with a new one dropping on every full moon. Which means this album won’t actually show up in full in the spring. Regardless, it’s one of our most anticipated albums of the year, whenever the finished record finally arrives.
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