2026 Mid-year Top 20 (and more)

Another swell year for music so far. I made a Top 20 and then listed a bunch of other albums I'm digging:

1. Jill Scott - To Whom This May Concern (Blues Babe)

2. The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis - Deface the Currency (Impulse!)

3. Bedouine - Neon Summer Skin (Bedouine/Thirty Tigers)

4. Gorillaz - The Mountain (Kong)

5. Ratboys - Singin' to an Empty Chair (New West)

6. underscores - U (Mom + Pop)

7. Wendy Eisenberg - Wendy Eisenberg (Joyful Noise)

8. Courtney Barnett - Creature of Habit (Mom + Pop)

9. Paul McCartney - The Boys of Dungeon Lane (UMG)

10. RAYE  - THIS MUSIC MAY CONTAIN HOPE. (Human Re Sources)

11. Kelsey Lu - So Help Me God (Dirty Hit)

12. Olivia Rodrigo - you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love (Geffen)

13. The Greenberry Woods -  It's all Good, Sugar... (Big Stir)

14. Lande Hekt - Lucky Now (Tapete)

15. Storey Littleton - At a Diner (Don Giovanni)

16. Joe Pernice - Sunny, I Was Wrong (New West)

17. Kacey Musgraves - Middle of Nowhere (Lost Highway)

18. Kevin Morby - Little Wide Open (Dead Oceans)

19. Michelle David & The Tru-tones - Soul Women (Record Kicks)

20. Robber Robber - Two Wheels Move the Soul (Fire Talk)

Other record I've really dug so far (in alphabetical order):

Tyler Ballgame - For the First Time, Again (Rough Trade)

Yaya Bey - Fidelity (drink sum wtr)

Big Richard - Pet (Signature Sounds)

Charli XCX - Wuthering Heights (Atlantic)

Melanie C - Sweat (Red Girl)

The Claudettes - Garage Glamour (Pravda)

cootie catcher - Something We All Got (Carpark)

Julia Cumming - Julia (Partisan)

Momoko Gill - Momoko (Strut)

GUV - Warmer Than Gold (Run For Cover)

Danny L. Harle - Cerulean (XL)

Hemlocke Springs - the apple tree under the sea (AWAL)

Grace Ives - Girlfriend (True Panther)

Reva K - Welcome to 20 Something (The Revalution)

The Lemon Twigs - Look For Your Mind! (Captured Tracks)

Mandy, Indiana - URGH (Sacred Bones)

Gia Margaret - Singing (Jagjaguwar)

Thee Marloes - Di Hotel Malibu (Big Crown)

Mitski - Nothing's About to Happen to Me (Dead Oceans)

Aja Monet - the color of rain (drink sum wtr)

Plantoid - FLARE (Bella Union)

PVA - No More Like This (It's All for Fun)

Robyn - Sexistential (Konichiwa/Young)

Snail Mail - Ricochet (Matador)

Softjaw - Softjaw (Dandy Boy)

Sparklmami - in this body (Treehouse Club/Verve)

Kelley Stoltz - If You Don't Know Me, Buy Now! (Dandy Boy)

Swamp Dogg - Swamp Dogg Contemplates the Afterlife (S-Curve)

Voxtrot - Dreamers in Exile (self-released)

The Well Wishers - Expected Outcomes (self-released)