Dear listeners,
Enough reminiscing about 2025. It’s time to embrace the unfamiliar mouthfeel — “twenty-twenty six” — of the new year. Time to accept the fresh horror that when we say “a decade ago,” we now mean 2016. Time to look ahead to the potential annus mirabilis that has just begun — and all the great music it has in store for us.
Today’s playlist is a sampling of seven upcoming albums that I’m excited to hear, all due between January and March. You’ll hear some whip-smart country from the self-described “emo cowgirl” Megan Moroney, interstellar electronic music from the pop producer extraordinaire Danny L Harle, and thrashing industrial rock from Manchester’s Mandy, Indiana, a band that, as you’ll read below, gives very literal meaning to the phrase “cavernous percussion.”
Oh how the turns have tabled,
Lindsay
Listen along while you read.
1. Bruno Mars: “I Just Might”
Though it’s been nearly a decade since he released his last solo album, the irresistibly fun “24K Magic,” Bruno Mars hasn’t exactly made himself scarce: There were Grammy-winning collaborations with both Lady Gaga and his Silk Sonic bandmate Anderson .Paak, and an inescapable 2024 duet with the K-pop superstar Rosé. After all those team-ups, it will be interesting to see what Mars has to say as a solo artist on his forthcoming LP, “The Romantic,” out on February 27. This lightly funky lead single, “I Just Might,” picks up right where he left off, offering up his signature blend of musical showmanship, charisma and wit — topped off with just the right amount of cheese.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
2. Robyn: “Talk to Me”
It’s only mid-January and we already have a strong contender for album title of the year: “Sexistential.” The Swedish pop maverick Robyn will release that one, her first album in eight years, on March 27, and she elaborates on that libidinous portmanteau on the rather audacious title track, which finds her rapping about IVF, one-night stands and, somehow, the 2008 Adam Sandler comedy “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan.” “Talk to Me,” another new single, is a bit more of a crowd-pleaser, triumphantly returning to the fembot-with-feelings sound that defined her era-defining 2010 opus “Body Talk.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
3. Danny L Harle & PinkPantheress: “Starlight”
The electronic musician and producer Danny L Harle, who first emerged as a part of the experimental 2010s British musical collective PC Music, brings classical training and an ambitious vision to his Y2K-influenced, club-ready compositions. In recent years he’s worked on pop records from Caroline Polachek, Dua Lipa and Florence + the Machine, but his forthcoming LP “Cerulean,” out Feb. 13, is his clearest and most imaginative statement of purpose yet. “Cerulean” pairs Harle’s emotive, crystalline soundscapes with vocals from some of the familiar names he’s worked with in the past, including Clairo, Oklou and, on this hypnotic and ever-escalating single, the British pop phenom PinkPantheress.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
4. Mandy, Indiana: “Magazine”
There was a very good reason the percussion on the Manchester band Mandy, Indiana’s 2023 debut album “I’ve Found a Way” sounded so pummeling: The band’s producer and guitarist Scott Fair recorded some of the drum tracks … in a cave. (Though, alas, not with a box of scraps.) This corrosive lead single, driven by the vocalist Valentine Caulfield’s urgently exorcised French-language missives, suggests that the quartet’s follow-up LP, “Urgh,” which comes out on Feb. 6, will be every bit as thrillingly intense as its predecessor.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
5. Megan Moroney: “6 Months Later”
On Feb. 20, Megan Moroney, the reigning queen of sad-girl country, will release her third album, “Cloud 9.” In addition to guest appearances from Ed Sheeran and Kacey Musgraves, the LP features this infectious 2025 hit, which showcases Moroney’s conversational delivery, husky drawl and dryly cutting lyrics. “You’re a little too late to the party, heartbreaker,” she sighs at the end of the chorus, before dropping a characteristically clever bon mot: “What doesn’t kill you calls you six months later.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
6. Ari Lennox: “Twin Flame”
On her previous two albums “Shea Butter Baby” and “Age/Sex/Location,” the D.C.-born singer and songwriter Ari Lennox honed the sound of her smooth, sultry and appealingly idiosyncratic R&B. She’ll release her first album in four years, “Vacancy,” on Jan. 23. “Set my heart ablaze,” she croons on this sweet, skittering, shape-shifting love song. “Are you my twin flame?”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
7. Bill Callahan: “The Man I’m Supposed to Be”
Finally, here’s the latest bit of plain-spoken profundity from one of my favorite working folk songwriters, Bill Callahan, who will release his latest album, “My Days of 58,” on February 27. A chill of mortality runs through this lead single, which finds Callahan pontificating in his stark baritone, “Now my biggest fear is not the dying / My biggest fear is that I’ll stop trying to be the man I am supposed to be.” Stick around for the very end of the song, when Callahan purports to “laugh in the face of death” — and then proves it with an irreverent giggle.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
The Amplifier Playlist
“7 Albums I’m Looking Forward to in 2026” track list Track 1: Bruno Mars, “I Just Might” Track 2: Robyn, “Talk to Me” Track 3: Danny L Harle & PinkPantheress, “Starlight” Track 4: Mandy, Indiana, “Magazine” Track 5: Megan Moroney, “6 Months Later” Track 6: Ari Lennox, “Twin Flame” Track 7: Bill Callahan, “The Man I’m Supposed to Be”
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Lindsay Zoladz is a pop music critic for The Times and writes the subscriber-only music newsletter The Amplifier.
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