Music releases
New albums and EPs for the week of Friday, October 16 to Friday, October 23, 2026, plus notable announced releases for the two weeks after. Every entry links to the source listing behind it. Where a source states an artist is based in one of our cities, the entry carries that city tag.
Out this week
Friday, October 16, 2026
Fontaines D.C. · Dopamine Chamber
Review note: The fifth Fontaines D.C. album is the band's second in a row with producer James Ford, and it leans on synthesizers and drum machines where the early records leaned on guitars. Eleven tracks, one of them, "Where Is Gone?", sung with Rosalía. Critics split on the change: NME calls it an extraordinary record from the band of the decade, while The Line of Best Fit hears a group still fumbling for direction. Both agree on the fact underneath: the post-punk attack is now one tool among several, not the whole kit.
Cover: Fontaines D.C., Dopamine Chamber (XL Recordings), thumbnail via the Cover Art Archive. Official release page.
The Avalanches · No Bad Memories
Eels · Cookie Happened
Rachel Chinouriri · I Think I Spoke Too Soon
Gucci Mane · Against All Odds Atlanta
Richard Thompson · Hippies, Thugs and Heroes
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
Ryan Hemsworth · Numbskull
Friday, October 23, 2026
Anderson .Paak and Cordae · Heavy Is the Crown
Note: This is the pair's first full album together, seven years after "RNP" on Cordae's 2019 debut The Lost Boy, with the Bill Withers sampling single "A Good Day" out since September 16. It arrives under a legal cloud: Cordae's former label MMMG sued this month seeking to block the release, and reporting on October 19 and 20 said no court order had stopped it and the album remains scheduled for Friday.
Michael Kiwanuka · Fudge
Review note: Kiwanuka wrote Fudge alongside 2024's Small Changes, then held it back for close to a year while he recovered from a stroke. It is his first self-produced record since his 2012 debut, made without longtime producers Danger Mouse and Inflo, and the looseness is the point: songs built from live jams and single takes, with strings added late. NME's review singles out "Sing", where a voice still being retrained carries the chorus. Twelve tracks, and the record sounds like a man deciding what he can still do, then doing it.
Cover: Michael Kiwanuka, Fudge (Polydor), artwork by Stevie Gee, thumbnail via the Cover Art Archive. Official release page at uDiscover (Universal Music).
LISA · Press Play
John Legend · Muse
James Brandon Lewis · Calling Antonín New York
Shabazz Palaces · It's a Style Sport
Claud · Me and the Music
Sen Morimoto · Time Is on Your Side Chicago
Announced for the next two weeks
Friday, October 30, 2026
Queens of the Stone Age · Perfecth
Preview note: The band's ninth studio album runs nine tracks in 36 minutes, a tight frame for a group that usually sprawls. Three singles arrived ahead of it: "Easy Street", "Insignificant Other", and "Where the Goth Girls At?". The singles lean on groove and swing more than on the guitar heft of the early records. The question the full record has to answer on October 30 is whether 36 minutes is a discipline or a sketch.
Cover: Queens of the Stone Age, Perfecth (Matador), thumbnail via the Cover Art Archive. Official release page on Bandcamp.
DIIV · Zirp!
Dominic Fike · How to Quit Smoking
Nickelback · Everything Under the Sun
Wavves · Cherry Soda
Friday, November 6, 2026
Kings of Leon · O My Beloved
Lil Baby · Fresh
Shygirl · Swallow!
Sufjan Stevens · Worst Christmas Ever!
Alanis Morissette · Good Weather for Immaculate Conception
Paper Trail 3 sources
- MusicBrainz: release listings and dates. MusicBrainz core data is CC0.
- Wikipedia, list of 2026 albums: cross-check for dates, labels, and entries MusicBrainz does not carry yet. CC BY-SA.
- Cover Art Archive: source of the cover thumbnails on the review notes.
City tags come from stated sources, not from where an artist was born: Wikipedia describes Gucci Mane as an Atlanta-based rapper; the artist's own site, jblewis.com, says James Brandon Lewis is based in New York City; Chicago Film Archives describes Sen Morimoto as a Chicago based artist.
How we did this
Release data comes from MusicBrainz, cross-checked against Wikipedia's list of 2026 albums, and each entry links to its source entry. Four releases in this window were not listed in MusicBrainz when checked on October 21, 2026: Muse by John Legend, Calling Antonín by James Brandon Lewis, Cherry Soda by Wavves, and Good Weather for Immaculate Conception by Alanis Morissette. Those four entries rest on the Wikipedia list. Cover thumbnails are shown small, alongside review notes only, as commentary. Each is credited to the artist and label and links to the official release. Listings without a review note stay text only. No entry carries a city tag unless a source states the artist is based in that city; no Houston based artist appeared in this window's listings.