The new year brings further new music and more ways to experience that in-person. Sadly, for indie rock fans, 2026 also started with somber news of Black Midi’s founding guitarist, Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin’s tragic death. The late musician’s family, friends, and fans took to social media to pen tributes in his honor. Many of those messages urged others to tend to their mental health.
Staunch mental health advocate Megan Thee Stallion partnered with Dunkin to launch a new wellness protein beverage line for those on a fitness journey. Although the “Savage” rapper hasn’t announced the release date for her forthcoming EP, several others have, including Anjimile, Ego Ella May, and Fcukers.
Grammy Award-nominated recording artist Destin Conrad, on the other hand, is focusing on his previously released chart-topping album, wHIMSY. The “Make It Up” singer delivered a calm, cool, and collected performance of the project on NPR Music’s Tiny Desk series. Shortly after the video concert dropped, Conrad announced an intimate tour surrounding the body of work.
Conrad isn’t the only artist set to hit the road soon. CupcakKe, Boys Go To Jupiter, The Beths, and Khamari have all announced headlining tours of their own. The Beths and Khamari’s performance schedule includes festival appearances like Governors Ball 2026.
Speaking of beloved festivals, Rolling Loud organizers shook the table announcing they would only present one US installment this year—in Orlando, Florida, this spring.
As for music news that was not as shocking, the 2026 NAACP Image Awards and iHeartRadio Music Awards‘ nomination lists featured several independent acts that dominated in 2025.
But onto our listening recommendations for the weekend, there is a wide offering from sensual R&B and bright pop to gritty rock, as well as introspective country records. This week, our top independent albums and EPs to dive into include Alice Merton’s Visions, Baby Nova’s Shhugar, Cavetown’s Running With Scissors, Corbyn Besson’s HEAD FIRST, Courtney Marie Andrews’ Valentine, Elijah Blake’s The Gemini, Frankie Bird’s Grit, Greywind’s Severed Heart City, Langhorne Slim’s The Dreamin’ Kind, and Peaer’s Doppelgänger.
Some of the album synopses featured below were provided by their respective record label.
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Alice Merton — Visions
Alice Merton returns with her third studio album, Visions, an intimate exploration of the blind faith required to stay true to yourself.
The album delves into themes of self-determination, self-esteem, and loyalty, showcasing the resilience needed to protect your own path from external pressures and expectations. Recorded across Iceland, New York, London, and Los Angeles, Visions showcases Alice Merton's signature powerful vocals and melodic songwriting, delivering both energetic anthems and introspective moments. To stream or order, click here.
Source: Paper Plane Records
Baby Nova — Shhugar cover
After listening to Baby Nova’s Shhugar, you’re going to know a lot more about the Nova Scotia indie-pop artist than you did going in. Part Lana Del Rey-esque Americana dream weaver, part acid-tongued Olivia Rodrigo acolyte, the songwriter born Kayleigh O’Connor spends much of her debut album navigating the treacherous minefields of lust, sex, and religion with unabashed NSFW observations and a deliciously dark sense of humour.
Baby Nova proves herself a master at pulling quotable quips out of compromising situations: Amid the candelit country-soul of “Do You Like That, Baby?”, she sings of desire in the language of faith, but tees up the chorus with a brow-raising line (“The way he bends me over/I don’t think that boy’s a Christian”) that would get her instantly excommunicated from the church, while the Stevie Nicks-styled “Death Wish” spares no X-rated detail in recounting the uneven power dynamics in a doomed tryst. But each candid confessional only hardens Baby Nova’s resolve, and with the big-screen ballad “Too Pretty For Buffalo”, she delivers an arm-swaying get-outta-town anthem for when you need to “kiss bye-bye to those bitches in the rear view”. To stream or order, click here.
Source: Artist Partner Group
Cavetown — Running With Scissors cover
Long the poster child for sadboi bedroom pop, British singer-songwriter Robin Skinner is in a much more mischievous mood on Running with Scissors, his sixth full-length album as Cavetown. Those who still think of Skinner as a ukulele-sporting teen troubadour will be in for a shock once they hear “Rainbow Gal,” where his tender melody is subjected to all manner of hyperpop shock therapy, with 8-bit synths and pitch-shifting effects pushing the song into digital-emo overdrive. And equally adrenalized highlights like “Reaper” and “Sailboat” seem to change shape on a verse-by-verse basis as if Skinner were whipping through different levels of a video game, demonstrating how percolating electronics and machine-processed pop-punk riffs complement his crestfallen voice as perfectly as the acoustic-guitar therapy sessions of old. To stream or order, click here.
Source: Futures
Corbyn Besson — HEAD FIRST EP
Corbyn Besson made his musical bones as a member of the boy band Why Don't We (wdw). When wdw disbanded in 2022, fans wondered what the future held for each member. Sadly for Besson, that included a tumultuous legal battle before he could pursue his solo career. Now free from the litigation, Besson is putting his best foot forward with the release of his solo debut EP Head First.
“[I’m] taking it all in,” said Besson in a statement about the project shared online. “I wanted to try to find a way to tell the story of my life, the past few years leading up to this EP — the first body of music I can actually call my own.”
Across the six tracks, Besson elevates the pop sensibilities with vibrant deviations into other cultural approaches to the genre and rebellious spunk, all while reimagining his boy band days that so many had come to love. To stream or order, click here.
Source: BMG
Courtney Marie Andrews — Valentine
Courtney Marie Andrews’ Valentine is her most fearless and expansive album yet—an exploration of love at its most complex, transformative, and demanding. Written during a period marked by profound loss, emotional upheaval, and the uncertain beginnings of a new relationship, the record captures Andrews at her most vulnerable and self-possessed. “Love is built over years, trust, and change,” she says, and Valentine reflects that hard-won clarity.
Co-produced with Jerry Bernhardt and recorded largely to tape, the album embraces full in-studio performances, drawing influence from Lee Hazlewood, Big Star’s Third, and Tusk-era Fleetwood Mac. The result is a sound that is lush, disciplined, and deeply human—never perfect, always alive.
The songs emerged during a dark chapter as Andrews navigated the near-death of a loved one, the end of a major relationship, and the intensity of a new romance. To stream or order, click here.
Source: Thirty Tigers
Elijah Blake — The Gemini
Known for his soulful storytelling and emotionally layered R&B, on his latest studio album The Gemini, Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Elijah Blake finds a way to deepen his sonic storytelling. As heard on previously released singles “White Rum” and “Work It Out,” Blake peels back his inner layers on several soul-string topics–but especially love.
Told through the lens of astrology, The Gemini, Blake navigates his intense conflicts brought forth by his split desires. The never-ending war in which the desire for romantic connection but the need for individuality causes havoc on a person’s heart. To stream or order, click here.
Source: Elijah Blake — The RKeyTek Music/MNRK Records
Frankie Bird — Grit
Rediscovering self and rebuilding your life after heartbreak is the crux of Frankie Bird’s sophomore album Grit. Across 13 songs, Bird finds her voice again, gaining back her power, and tracing the thread through past relationships to understand why they unraveled and how they shaped her for the better moving forward.
“Grit is about the courage it takes to walk away, to sit in the messy, to trust the uncomfortable in between, and to choose yourself even though it’s painful,” says Bird. “It’s about strength, softness, and everything that exists in the tension between…plus sonically rocks harder too–Grit in every sense of the word.”
To stream or order, click here.
Source: self-released
Greywind — Severed Heart City
Last year, Irish brother-sister duo Greywind kicked off a new cinescape era of enriched emo cuts with singles “Acid Rain” and “I.K.A.M.F.” That sonic exploration gave way to their new album, Severed Heart City.
“Severed Heart City is an extended allegory for the stages of trauma, and one’s inner struggle to find resolution,” say Steph and Paul. “There are many roads that lead to the heart of this broken city, but there is only one bridge out – one of acceptance and hope. Our band was created after the suicide of our uncle, and since then, we’ve been on an intense journey of achieving some of our biggest dreams to have everything ripped away from us.”
They continued: “Severed Heart City is a place where it’s ok to be sad, depressed, and feel like the whole world is against you, but it’s also a place where you make sure none of those things ever make you give up on yourself or your dreams. Only you can save yourself.”
To stream or order, click here.
Source: FLG
Langhorne Slim — The Dreamin' Kind
The Dreamin' Kind finds Langhorne Slim strapping on an electric guitar and embracing his longtime love of larger-than-life rock & roll. With its chugging power chords, 1970s-sized riffs, and richly layered arrangements, The Dreamin' Kind is fueled not only by sheer amplification but by the soul-baring songwriting that's become Slim's calling card, too. Tucked between those anthems are acoustic-driven songs that skirt the outer orbits of folk music, from the bare-boned heartbreak of "Stealin' Time" to the organic, orchestral sweep of "Dance On Thru." The result is the more explorative and expansive album of Slim's career: a record made for rock clubs, campfires, and garages alike, produced by Greta Van Fleet's Sam Kiszka, and anchored by a lifelong desire to break down new walls.
"It felt like I was blowing some old shit up so I could plant some new flowers," Slim says of the creation process. "I love acoustic music. I love folk music. But those aren't my only loves. Rock & roll has always tickled the same place in my soul as great singer-songwriter music, and I wanted to explore those influences. Raw songs that make you feel something: that's the stuff I'm after."
To stream or order, click here.
Source: Dualtone Music Group
Peaer — Doppelgänger
What do you do when life gets in the way? That’s a question slowcore trio have asked themselves since releasing 2019’s A Healthy Earth. After their tour plans were halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the group decided to use their music as a therapeutic release (see tracks like “Just Because”). Over the years, this music privately piled up. Now, Peaer is ready to share these pieces of their life with supporters by way of the new album Doppelgänger.
To stream or order, click here.
Source: Danger Collective