zero vu

EDIT: This list started with 6 releases that are standouts among 2026 alternative albums, which I was inherently uncomfortable with. The number 6 is, historically, terribly unlucky. As a result, I added to the original 6 to present a much more comfortable Top 7 records for 2026!

We’re halfway through a strong year in music, the perfect time to start considering incredible 2026 alternative albums. My listening is lagging only a little bit behind, made possible by unemployment: I have NOTHING BUT TIME to listen. I’m still churning through June releases but this list should be a good marker of top alternative listens through…let’s say early June.

The year 2026 started with a bang. On January 1, The Interpretation Cultures released their debut full length from Indonesia. Things continued apace throughout May with fantastic albums by Kevin Morby and Aldous Harding. And the 2nd quarter included unexpected (by me) returns to form by Social Distortion and Broken Social Scene.

Moreover, I may have identified my favorite record of the year in the first three months of 2026, and that is just not like me.

Evaluating the best 2026 alternative albums so far

Let’s get right to it…I’ve downloaded parts of 125 or so albums so far this year. And I’ve bought 25 or 26 releases from which I compile this list of top 2026 alternative albums. I only put albums on any kind of list I publish if I have bought it to support the artist.

A few records that I really like didn’t make what is honestly a pretty arbitrary Top 7 albums. Some of those are included in a supplemental list at the end of this post.

The albums are not in order of preference, although maybe they kind of are.

MEMORIALS (All Clouds Bring Not Rain)

Consider me positively blown away by All Clouds Bring Not Rain by MEMORIALS.

This is the second record from Verity Susman (Electrelane) and Matthew Simms (Wire) and much more of a party than 2024’s Memorial Waterslides. I felt like the debut had too many experimental tangents that didn’t hold my attention.

Clouds is an absolute tour de force from the electrifying prog of openers “Life Could Be a Cloud” and “Cut Glass Hammer.” When the big band trumpets begin to punctuate the percussive freakout of “Mediocre Demon” at 2:00, I almost lose my mind. Following that, “Bell Miner” isn’t too far removed from this same mashup of chamber folk and 70’s psychedelia. Finally, just for good measure, “Wildly Remote” could be an English lullaby.

All Clouds Bring Not Rain is non-negotiable for your 2026 alternative albums collection.

Buy All Clouds Bring Not Rain from the Bandcamp page for MEMORIALS.

The Blue Herons (Demon Slayer)

The Blue Herons have been releasing music since 2020 although they only recently entered my jangle consciousness. I believe Demon Slayer is the proper full length debut from the transatlantic Gretchen DeVault (US) and Andy Jossi (Switzerland). Demon Slayer is a perfect medley of indie pop confections not far removed from The Sundays experimenting with shoegaze interludes.

This month, The Blue Herons released the Melancholia Version of “Willow,” which in its stripped back and re-recorded version even more perfectly captures DeVault’s ethereal vocals. Below is the original where you can hear some of Jossi’s shoegaze walkaway. Check out both versions at their Bandcamp page.

Buy Demon Slayer by The Blue Herons from Shelflife Records here in the U.S. and from Too Good To Be True in Europe.

Buck Meek (The Mirror)

Big Thief’s Buck Meek released the early favorite for song of the year in January with the folk stomp of “Gasoline.”

I was excited to hear the rest of the record when The Mirror followed “Gasoline” in February. The domestic vignettes Meek shares in songs like “Can I Mend It?” and “Heart in the Mirror” almost distract from his pillow-soft and childlike vocals. Closer “Outta Body” is a Paul Simon-styled standout among standouts.

Buy a vinyl copy of The Mirror or a Buck Meek ladybug t-shirt at the Big Thief website. Get a digital or CD copy of The Mirror at Meek’s Bandcamp page.

Kevin Morby (Little Wide Open)

The musical and chronological center of Kevin Morby’s Little Wide Open are the three songs “Natural Disaster,” “100,000,” and “Little Wide Open.” The trio of songs run a full 20 minutes, forming a sort of mesa in the middle of Morby’s 8th solo album.

The composition of “Natural Disaster,” in particular, is epic in a way that Lucinda Williams’ guest vocals are almost lost. The track “100,000” boasts one of Morby’s simplest and most memorable guitar hooks. And on “Little Wide Open,” you can’t help but hear a modern Bob Dylan. After an aching, pregnant pause, Morby concludes, pleading with the immutable nothingness of eternity:

Time, please be kind to me.
Time, we’re not enemies though it seems.
Time, we share the same dream,
To stretch on forever toward eternity.

Morby’s Little Wide Open is an instant classic, another considered, sublime love letter to the American Midwest.

Buy your copy of Little Wide Open, a For Crying Only handkerchief or “This is a Kevin Morby” hat at the artist’s website.

Harry Styles (Kiss All the. Time Disco, Occasionally)

A few years ago, a friend told me he went to see Harry Styles with, I believe, his daughter. He called either the album or that concert a top experience of the year. I had neither a positive nor negative reaction at the time because I didn’t know a single Styles song; he was just the One Direction progeny to me.

Cut to 2026 and I now have a reaction…Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally is a dynamite pop record. The downbeat organ that opens “Aperture” is a whole vibe. A Hot Chip vibe to be specific. He has covered the band live, and I hereby rejoin the 2023 calls for a collaboration – imagine the exposure for Hot Chip opening for Styles all over the world.

I won’t join the aggrieved blog litigation of exactly how self consciously Styles has reinvented himself. I only encourage you to listen to the electro funk on “Ready, Steady, Go!” or “Season 2 Weight Loss.” Or hear the crooning, cinematic “Come Up Roses” and try not to love it entirely.

Get a copy of Kiss All the. Time Disco, Occasionally or a Respect Your Mother! t-shirt at the Harry Styles website.

Aldous Harding (Train on the Island)

I was listening to back episodes of a music podcast this week I quite like called Indiecast.

Previewing the 2nd quarter, one host referenced Aldous Harding, upon which fellow host and longtime critic Steven Hyden remarked he wasn’t very familiar with Harding. This took me quite by surprise since they are both 100x more musically literate than I am. This has less to do with a blind spot for the host and more with a sobering truth of independent music in the 21st century: You can’t listen to everything.

By way of introduction, we are twelve years and five albums into Harding’s career as New Zealand’s most idiosyncratic indie folk singer-songwriter. Her record Warm Chris was #5 on my 2022 top albums list and was, I thought, the best of her career. Harding layers inscrutable lyrics atop esoteric melodies reminiscent of Cate Le Bon with the awkward theater of Kate Bush.

Train on the Island is somewhat front-loaded with more traditional, slightly oddball Harding compositions. Then the second half of the album offers breezier and more propulsive tracks like “What Am I Gonna Do?” and “Venus in the Zinnia,” recorded with former bae Huw Hawkline. Still, the back half of Train on the Island does slow down for “San Francisco” and “Riding That Symbol.”

You can get hard copies of Train on the Island from 4AD. Finally, an epilogue: With an 87 on Metacritic, Train on the Island was a strong choice for Indiecast co-host Ian Cohen’s 2nd quarter picks.

Weird Nightmare (Hoopla)

Weird Nightmare is the solo project of Alex Edkins of METZ. It is a blast of 90’s indie guitar rock with anthemic ambitions married to the street urchin hedonism of Tim-era Replacements. Very little of Hoopla is breaking new ground and yet — it is one of my very favorite records of the year, such are the fist-pumping choruses.

I love this promo copy from Weird Nightmare’s Bandcamp page:

“At its heart, this album is an optimistic, shining light in our strange time. Through Weird Nightmare, Edkins wants you to know that he is still in love with the world, and he invites the listeners of Hoopla to feel the same. Take this chance to seize a glimmer of widescreen pop magic in our used-up old world.”

This duet with Ontario’s Julianna Riolino is so damn good, I will have to track back to her 2025 release Echo in the Dust, and its 2026 deluxe re-release. “Bright City Lights” is a hint of where Weird Nightmare could land in a pop universe. Riolino takes lead at about 90 seconds and it is (bright city) lights out!

Buy Hoopla, the soundtrack for your summer at Weird Nightmare’s Bandcamp page.

Best 2026 alternative albums so far honorable mentions

Eddy Current Suppression Ring (In Light of Recent Events)

Melbourne garage rock greats, whom I should add to my main Best Of So Far list, and still might.

Shapes of People (Under the Rainbow)

England’s cutest jangle pop couple return with a superior, slightly more electrified sophomore album. Does this remind me a bit of XTC’s Skylarking?..very much so!

Twisted Teens (blame the clown)

What list of best 2026 alternative albums so far would be complete without a band that sounds like Fat White Family’s Lias Saoudi fronting The Kinks.

The Black Watch (Varied Superstitions)

I buy almost everything these days from America’s favorite power pop baritone, John Andrew Fredrick…novelist, renegade, super nice guy.

Hannah Lew (Hannah Lew)

An album of non-stop synth pop bangers. Stick around for the chorus at about 90 seconds.