We are always listening to what’s next, but we’re only human, and these are the records that are stuck on repeat. We’re highlighting some of 2026’s most outstanding albums to date by rounding up the ones that have earned high scores and Best New Music designations with a quick list of RIYLs (that’s Recommended If You Like) and links to our coverage.
Unlike our year-end lists, this one is organized in reverse chronological order. To help you keep track of the year’s best music, we’ll be updating it periodically throughout the remainder of 2026.
July
RIYL: K Wata; Basic Channel; expensive mineral water; playing six degrees of Erika de Casier; vowels; stereo field day; dub techno as architecture
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
RIYL: Maps to the Stars; Ottessa Moshfegh on the runway; Y2K indie guitar tones; A. G. Cook; “Song 2”; rambling voice memos between friends; being earnest in a sponsored TikTok post
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal
RIYL: Freak-folk, whimsy, sibling telekenisis, scoring your life like a quirky indie film
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal
RIYL:☝︎♏︎□︎♍︎♋︎♍︎♒︎♓︎■︎♑︎🖴︎ ⬧︎□︎●︎♎︎♏︎❒︎♓︎■︎♑︎🖴︎ ◻︎♋︎❒︎🙵 ♎︎♋︎⧫︎♏︎⬧︎🖴︎ ♌︎♏︎●︎●︎ ⧫︎□︎■︎♏︎⬧︎🖴︎ ♋︎❍︎♌︎♓︎♏︎■︎⧫︎ ♒︎□︎◆︎⬧︎♏︎🖴︎ ❍︎♋︎🙵♓︎■︎♑︎ ♋︎ ❒︎♏︎♋︎●︎●︎⍓︎ ●︎□︎■︎♑︎ ◻︎●︎♋︎⍓︎●︎♓︎⬧︎⧫︎🖴︎ ♌︎♏︎♓︎■︎♑︎ ♐︎●︎◆︎♏︎■︎⧫︎ ♓︎■︎ 🕈︎♓︎■︎♑︎♎︎♓︎■︎♑︎⬧︎
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify
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RIYL: Shoegaze guitars; R&B melisma; Parable of the Sower; being a Gemini; Janet Jackson fronting Portishead; coming home to yourself
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal
RIYL: Alice Coltrane; ECM Records; Jon Hassell’s concept of “Fourth World”; dog-eared atlases; aquariums; lazy rivers; the wind in the reeds; reed instruments; mind melds
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal
RIYL: Arthur Russell; leftfield private press records from the ’80s; Evans Pyramid; New York disco; Jonathan Richman; Zero 7; trusting the process; double entendres
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal
RIYL: 44 years of hits; living legends; arguing that Confessions on a Dance Floor’s Pitchfork score is too low; comebacks; The Comeback; Kylie Minogue; Honey Dijon; Renaissance; Absolut, Grindr, Mistr; Gay Guy Music Video Night; trying not to say “mother” for an entire minute 64 minutes
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal
June
RIYL: Cloud rock; fake jazz; Downtown New York; listening to emo records privately; Alex G; when Robert Smith whispers in Cure songs; Lil Peep
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal
RIYL: Wearing the same pair of designer jeans for a week straight; Drain Gang’s Trash Island; Airbnb ’fit pics; crying to Meek Mill; DMV crank; driving fast; POMPEII // UTILITY
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
