Dear listeners,
In January, I sent out a playlist of songs from upcoming 2026 releases that I was excited about. But after I did, a funny thing happened: Even more 2026 releases that I was excited about were announced. Clearly, a sequel was in store.
Today’s playlist features music from six more hotly anticipated upcoming releases. You’ll hear from an artist who took nearly four years to follow up a previous album that I loved (the electro-pop star Grace Ives) and one who took fewer than 10 months (the R&B auteur Yaya Bey). You’ll also hear an absolutely bewitching new song from Lana Del Rey, which serves as an indication that her forthcoming album “Stove” will be at least partially inspired by her marriage to the swamp tour guide Jeremy Dufrene, who has a co-writing credit on the track. It’s tantalizing to wonder what sort of album the queen of “Summertime Sadness” might make when she sounds so blissfully happy. We’ll soon find out.
Snap crackle pop,
Lindsay
Listen along while you read.
1. Lana Del Rey: “White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter”
Lana Del Rey doodles her own offbeat and highly personalized image of domesticity on this track from her long-promised new album “Stove”: “I know it’s strange to see me cooking for my husband,” she coos, before admitting, “I imagine you do know how absolutely bad I am with an oven.” Like her best songs, the whole thing seems to unfurl like a transmission straight from her very peculiar subconscious, and the effect is hypnotic, deeply romantic and a little bit spooky. As ever, no one’s doing it quite like Lana. 
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
2. Grace Ives: “Avalanche”
I’m over the moon about the prospect of a new Grace Ives album. The Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter’s last release, the exuberant “Janky Star,” was my favorite album of 2022, and the wait for its follow-up has felt excruciatingly long. But the time has come at last: Ives’s new album “Girlfriend” will be out on March 20. This single finds her picking up right where she left off, crafting melodic but idiosyncratic electro-pop that has the intimacy of a softly whispered secret.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
3. Yaya Bey: “Blue”
Last June, the Brooklyn-based R&B artist Yaya Bey released her latest in a string of excellent LPs, the conversationally introspective “Do It Afraid.” No excruciating wait for her follow-up, though: She’s back less than a year later with a new album, “Fidelity,” which is slated to come out on April 17. This flute-kissed leadoff single is a lovely ode to feeling and accepting sadness, rather than running from it: “Baby, you look blue,” Bey sings, “and baby, the sky is, too.” I love this song, and I love the specificity of Bey describing the production as “like something red-haired Kelly Rowland would sing over on one of her solo projects.” I hear it!
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
4. Ella Langley: “Dandelion”
When “Choosin’ Texas,” the gorgeously melancholy lament by the rising star Ella Langley, hit No. 1 on the all-genre Hot 100 chart two weeks ago, it was a landmark moment for women in country music. Technically Langley is only the fourth female country artist to top the Hot 100 this century, but the other three (Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood) did so with songs that blurred the line between country and pop. Langley, on the other hand, crossed over with a traditional-sounding country song, making her sudden rise to the mainstream a delightful surprise. She’ll try to prove she has staying power with a new LP, “Dandelion,” which is expected on April 10.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
5. Friko: “Seven Degrees”
The Chicago band Friko makes thoughtfully composed, unabashedly impassioned indie rock that wears its bleeding heart on its sleeve. The title of its forthcoming second album, out on April 24, makes a bold claim: It’s called “Something Worth Waiting For.” But judging from this anthemic, ever-escalating leadoff single, Friko just might fulfill that promise.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
6. Courtney Barnett: “Stay in Your Lane”
Finally, this year heralds the return of the beloved Aussie singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett, who broke out in 2013 with the wryly funny and exquisitely detailed story-song “Avant Gardener.” Barnett is such a sharp lyricist that her decision to release a collaborative instrumental album in 2023 was something of a head-scratcher, but this fiery lead single from her upcoming solo LP “Creature of Habit” sounds like a return to form — albeit with an assertion of her right to artistic independence. As she puts it over a motorik beat and the blurt of her guitar, “This never would have happened if I stayed in my lane.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
The Amplifier Playlist
“6 (More) Albums I’m Looking Forward to in 2026” track list Track 1: Lana Del Rey, “White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter” Track 2: Grace Ives, “Avalanche” Track 3: Yaya Bey, “Blue” Track 4: Ella Langley, “Dandelion” Track 5: Friko, “Seven Degrees” Track 6: Courtney Barnett, “Stay in Your Lane”
Bonus Tracks
Having spent the past two weeks tuning into the daily dispatches from Milan and Cortina, I am currently going through some serious Winter Olympics withdrawal.
Luckily, the 2026 Games offered plenty of musical moments to help us remember them by. I’m currently keeping the Olympic flame burning by listening on repeat to a mini-playlist that celebrates the excellent musical taste of the women’s figure skating gold medalistAlysa Liu: the Icelandic phenom Laufey’s poignant “Promise” (the song Liu skated to during her short program); Donna Summer’s ecstatic take on “MacArthur Park” (the soundtrack to her instantly iconic free skate); and — a choice that really proved her cool-girl bona fides — the remix of PinkPantheress and Zara Larsson’s “Stateside” (the music that accompanied her celebratory Exhibition Gala routine).
If Alysa Liu-core isn’t your vibe, though, you can always pour one out for both gold medal–winning American hockey teams by blasting “Free Bird.”
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Lindsay Zoladz is a pop music critic for The Times and writes the music newsletter The Amplifier.
The post 6 (More) Albums I’m Looking Forward to in 2026 appeared first on New York Times.
