INDISPENSABLE NEW MUSIC PICKS
June 2026
by Kristine England
Jun 30, 2026
Widowspeak
Roses
The Brooklyn husband and wife duoformed in 2010 are back with their seventh album. Recorded on the Greek isle Hydra, Roses features hazy vocals, Americana-tinged songs about matters of the heart, with dreamy vocals and guitars flitting across genres. Pop Matters notes, "Widowspeak further hone their songcraft while again offering entrancing soundscapes…In terms of melody, atmosphere, instrumentation, and vocals, Roses represents some of the band’s most moving work."
FEATURED TRACK: "If You Change"
The Bobby Lees
New Self
After a three-year hiatus, the New York trio is back with a defiant new record, aptly named New Self. After the break, the burnout is gone and bigger and better, and with a mindset to match their newly regained intensity. Joyzine agrees, heralding the album as "loud, scrappy, catchy, and packed with attitude."
FEATURED TRACK: "New Self"
Oral Habit
A Broken Chord
The Brighton, UK trio was once described by The Guardian as "impressively full-on." Mixing psychedelic rock with freakbeat, krautrock, and punk, the new record is as murky and abrasive in the best 60s garage tradition. Critics are hailing the group's growing confidence on this full-length debut.
FEATURED TRACKS: "Thin Trippin'"
Dour
Agora
With a distinctly goth-rock feel, Agora ("now" in Portuguese), the debut album from Vancouver's Dour, is thematically as dark as the band's name. With disaffection as the order of the day, the dark soundscape is an appropriate accompaniment. Line of Best Fit describes the sound as "like an endless enclosed space. The feeling is simultaneously claustrophobic and wandering, like a maze."
FEATURED TRACK: "Towers"
Temples
Bliss
Psychedelic rock is possibly my favorite genre, and Temples' latest foray is an interesting take on it. This time around finds the Kettering, UK group adding some electronics and a funky, fuzzy bass lines. The group's fifth album even has danceable numbers, inspired by rave culture, with Indie is Not a Genre declaring, "Their synths are as sticky as the nightclub floor."
FEATURED TRACK: "Jet Stream Heart"