The 8 Best Psychedelic Albums of Winter 2026
We often forget that psychedelic music takes on more forms, embraces more sub-genres, than any other music style. It’s a tall order to even count them all: psych-pop, psych-rock, psych-soul, psych-rap, desert/stoner rock, acid rock and freakbeat are a small sampling of psychedelic music offshoots.
(Yours truly spoke about this exact topic a few weeks ago, after Pat Leonard—host of the Ohio-based WCRS LP-FM program The Ear Opener—interviewed this writer about psychedelic music. He decided the candidate he wanted to interview based on this The 13th Floor column on Treble. Listen to the interview.)
In the spirit of that discussion, and because we aim to present you with diverse types of psychedelic music in every edition of The 13th Floor, this installment features a greater variety of said subgenres than any previous installment.
Black Lung – Forever Beyond
Upon their formation in 2014, Black Lung came out of the gate as the most promising new band in the doom metal mecca of Baltimore. As is almost always a smart move with a group finding its sea legs, Black Lung kept it simple with their self-titled debut by using the traditional rock band configuration and instruments: four musicians; guitar, bass and drums. Slowly but surely, Black Lung began to incorporate new accoutrements—harmonium at first, then keyboards, mellotron, synthesizers and even harmonica—on their subsequent releases. In doing so, Black Lung didn’t totally shed their doom-metal skin; however, they continued to push their sound to the outer limits. With Forever Beyond, the title of which alludes to their limitless ambitions, Black Lung have fully embraced their psychedelic proclivities. In doing so, their experimentalism reaches greater heights than ever before; such exploratory tendencies are one of the main characteristics of psychedelic music. Somewhat similar to Jason Spaceman embellishing and expanding his vision for Spiritualized with each successive album, Black Lung incorporated not only the aforementioned add-ons but also the bouzouki and cello on Forever Beyond. This bold record could’ve fallen into the trap of grandiosity or pretentiousness. So credit is due to Black Lung for the gradual approach they took to realize the record’s highly ambitious vision.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
Desert Collider – Generation Ship: Endless Drift Through Infinity
It’s a dead giveaway that an album is psych-centric when its song titles include “Far Centaurus: Drifting without Guidance through Interstellar Space,” “Nomads of the Red Sun,” “Orphans of the Sky” and “Floating Space Hand.” Perfectly — perhaps even insistently — planted in psychedelic music’s desert-rock offshoot, Federico Costanzo’s guitar tones could be easily mistaken for Josh Homme’s (cf. “Floating Space Hand” and “ThumpeRRR” in particular). Ample evidence includes the fluttering, high-end twinkles that interplay with the distortion-packed, low-end thumps. (It’s unclear whether, like Homme, Costanzo also plugs his guitar into bass amps to get that bottom-heavy sound.) And what would a psych-rock album be without an epic excursion? Desert Collider check that box too, with the two-part, near-19-minute “Orphans of the Sky” that opens Side A and Side B. It’d be a bit much to call Desert Collider the next coming of Kyuss, but the mostly acoustic and toned-down “Nomads of the Red Sun” would’ve found a home on the latter band’s Blues for the Red Sun. The trippy (and compositionally tricky) “Sonic Carver” puts Desert Collider’s range on full display, while the album-closing “Nebuchadnezzar” is fuzzy riff perfection. Generation Ship: Endless Drift Through Infinity is a strikingly strong debut by the foursome from Italy. (Why desert rock has taken root and is currently flourishing in Europe more than the States is a conversation for another time.)
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
Shintaro Sakamoto – Yoo-hoo
While Black Lung and Desert Collider are bringing the heavy with their new albums, Japanese steel guitarist Shintaro Sakamoto is soaking himself in the warm hot tub of psychedelic music’s gentler side. The composer, producer, writer and singer released an obscure oddity of an EP in 2021, The Feeling of Love (never has a vocoder sounded so strange), followed by his dainty chill-wave LP, Like a Fable, the next year. The once-prolific artist finally returns with Yoo-hoo—and the wait pays off. While Sakamoto dipped his toes in the waters of decidedly offbeat and even warped psychedelic music, blues, soul and many more genres during his 37-year career, we forgot his knack for writing more conventional material. Perhaps he had placed a bet with someone that he could make music so listenable and tender that it could melt into the background instead of distracting the listener with experimental hijinks. Whatever the case, Yoo-hoo is a relief of a record for those pining to hear Sakamoto’s light-as-a-feather take on psychedelic music — and, given the name of the album, maybe this effort allowed him to exhale too because he stopped trying to reinvent the wheel.
Listen/Buy: Spotify
Casey Wells – “Beating Heart” single
It’s been a spell—perhaps going back as far as Ariel Pink—that we’ve heard psychedelic music sound so airy and soothing. Hailing from Charleston, South Carolina, Wells carries about 10 years of recording experience under his belt (as a solo artist, at least). And, while it’s a generalization with plenty of exceptions, songs as quietly confident as “Beating Heart” are almost always authored by artists with many notches in their belt. Wells seems to have a curious obsession with circles, circular objects and circularity in his song craft, which serves his music quite well: The repetition in, and shape of, his songs are nifty tools for maintaining the attention of the listener in an era plagued by the course of attention deficit disorders, distractions and a culture clamoring for our attention in “immediately right now breaking news stay tuned” fashion. Wells’ music provides the antidote to, or at least a respite from, the degradation of our attention—and really, what better way is there to rise above all the enshitification than through delicate songs? The lyrics to “Beating Heart” instruct the listener to consider where they belong and set themselves apart—which, given the aforementioned times in which we currently live, the tech bros and other corporate masters would consider blasphemous concepts. Examining one’s self is one of the main tenets of psychedelic music, and Wells proves through his artistry that he’s well aware of that fact.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
Him Horrison – Starting Not to Hurt
Him Horrison, clearly a play on the name “Jim Morrison,” is a project consisting of one individual (MSPAINT vocalist Deedee) whose only relation to the Door is a shared affection for psychedelic music. Him Horrison’s kinky preference is of the genre’s poppier, more synth-based strain. In other words, the artist’s material vacillates between “far out, man” space odysseys and folk music that is firmly grounded in the here and now. In refreshingly honest comments Deedee made publicly surrounding the release of this record, he divulged that he lacked self-confidence and pride in himself to the point that he would break away from this endeavor. But herein lies the healing power of psychedelic music, which originated as a means of letting one’s imagination supersede their ego and ultimately reach self actualization. With Starting Not to Hurt, Deedee hasn’t quite reached that finish line just yet—though as the album title suggests, he’s taken at least one step forward and is on the right path, difficult actions that are flippantly bandied about all too often in an age of terror, fear, depression and anxiety in which we currently live.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
Abronia – Shapes Unravel
Entering a saloon, you can’t quite put your finger on it, but something feels a little … off. It feels haunted—perhaps by the ghost of Wyatt Earp. After all, it is called the Oriental Saloon, and you’ve found yourself in Tombstone, Arizona. On the one hand, everything seems on the up and up. Card games are being played without interruption, just as the band standing in for the absent pump-organist are lulling patrons into a state of vulnerability. (It’s easier to make coin off them when they’re not paying attention.) The six-piece band that came down from Portland to play this out-of-time house show utilized three guitars, melodica, big drum, flute and sax, starting with the raucous “New Imposition.” Like the sots in the bar who grow more lethargic and less conscious as their day drinking sessions proceed, so does Abronia’s set list, which grows dustier and more low key as the hands on the clock follow their programming. Pedal steel takes center stage (“Mirrored Ends of Light,” “Weapons Against Progress”), lulling the leather-skinned cowboys into a state of half-sleep, and it’s then that Abronia proceed into psychedelic passages while the bar-stool-sitters fall further into blackout. When the band concludes its ethereal set, those who stir awake at the bar realize the ruse. This isn’t the Oriental Saloon, even if some of Abronia’s songs incorporated Eastern drone. They’re in Westworld.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
Altin Gün – Garip
It’s often forgotten that psychedelic music used to be—and still can be—for the masses. One of the rare genres that can be equally satisfying when listened to by one’s self or in a group, there is a social aspect to the music that can be unlocked if the band performing it holds the right key. Count Altin Gün among one of the bands that have that trinket in their pocket. But don’t chalk it up to luck—the Turkish psych-groove five-piece have honed it over six albums. And they didn’t compromise in doing so; vocalist Erdinç Eçevit—who also handles bağlama and keys—sings exclusively in the Turkish language. And, turning the concept of kitsch on its head, the band’s catalog consists of Turkish folk cover songs power-washed with psychedelic rock. It can’t just be elbow grease that’s responsible for Altin Gün having succeeded with this, to put it very mildly, eccentric strategy. Their reverence for Turkish folk band Neşet Ertaş—whose songs they cover throughout Garip—is apparent with every humble note on this adventurous gem of a record. I haven’t been as hooked on a sound like this since the days of Macha.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Turntable Lab (vinyl)
RY-GUY – like a river EP
Who would’ve guessed that Chevrolet would recruit a British psych-pop musician obsessed with expressionism, surrealism, his Guyanese/Caribbean heritage—and who incorporates Senegalese djembe rhythms—for the automaker’s never-ending ad campaign? Oh, wait … that was Bob Seger and his song “Like a Rock.” Like a river, however, features—by a very long shot—more piano than any other LP in this roundup of psych recommendations. And like a river should capture RY-GUY copiously tickling the ivories, given his training as a pianist early in his life. Also during his youth, he toiled for countless hours in his bedroom, making 4-track demos all by himself. While RY-GUY still lacks a recording contract and issuing his releases on his own, presumably much to his delight, his music is finally catching on. Accordingly, RY-GUY and the rest of us are all the better for it.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
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