Hello and welcome to the first Spins of 2026. So much stuff has happened. There were an entire Olympics, and a bunch of other actively terrible things that I won’t bother to get into here. I’m sure that you can find many other outlets that can inform you about that.

The reason for the delay is that I had to wait for more albums to start coming out. The beginning of the year is notoriously slow for new music. Sure, new things come out, but if you want someone to listen to something better than fine, you will probably need to wait until around now. Why is this the case? I don’t know. I’m sure there is some business person who does.

In any case, let’s get started, as always, with some random thoughts before getting into the recommendations.

If the name Robert Wratten doesn’t ring a bell to you, it’s because you weren’t raised on a steady diet of Sarah Records and underground indie pop. Wratten is one of the primary vocalists of the legendary band The Field Mice. Aside from being the biggest band on Sarah and influencing many other artists (Saint Etienne covered one of their songs and made it into a club classic), The Field Mice are known for making very melancholic music. This is a trend that continued following the dissolution of The Field Mice, carrying into the various projects that Wratten founded such as Trembling Blue Stars, Northern Picture Library, and the project that I want to discuss here: Lightning in a Twilight Hour.

This project appeared in back in 2014, and since then, they have released three albums and.a few EPs. Each one continuing in the melancholy vein that was started those many decades ago in the Field Mice. Much like those albums from the 80s and 90s, the music is absolutely beautiful. When I listen to it, I’m reminded of how Tyler Mahan Coe, the host of Cocaine & Rhinestones, an excellent country music history podcast, described the music of George Jones: it’s absolutely stunning and it absolutely hurts. You have to brace yourself to listen to it, but when you do, you’re richly rewarded.

Lightning in a Twilight Hour came up for me in the passing time because I discovered they had snuck in an album under my nose last year. Dropping at the end of November, Colors Yet To Be Named is a melancholy mix of longing lyrics with jangling pop guitars and electronic flourishes. It is a beautiful album, but one that might not be right for your sunny spring day. However, it has been cold and snowy up here, so it has been a great listen. If I had been appropriately informed, this album would have made last year’s rundown. However, life can be unfair like that sometimes, so I’ll mention it here instead.

Rather than putting it into the official rundown, I’m just going to slot this here instead. There are a couple of things I wanted to point to if you are looking to get your underground game up. (If this does not interest you, Recommendations are directly below.)

The first is Manhunt, an album where Boldy James and Rome Streetz trade verses over some smooth, drumless beats. Streetz and James are probably two of the trickiest technicians in the Griselda Records orbit, so it is nice to hear them working off of each other so well. If there is one knock I have on this album, it is that it’s only 18 minutes. They got a lot done in that time; I certainly would take more from them.

The next one is Spiral Staircases. This one brings together Bay Area rapper Larry June and New Orleans rhymer Curren$y with boutique beatmaker The Alchemist. This whole project makes plenty of sense both on paper and in the ears. June and Curren$y are both smart, aspirational rappers who can flow in and out of any beat. Alchemist gives both of them a series of smooth instrumentals to work on, and they both knock it out of the park. Will this album go down in the pantheon of classic rap albums? Probably not, but it is a fun, easy listen, and we can always use more of these.

Last one I’ll note is 656, an album on which Roc Marciano raps about being quiet luxury. The man knows how to talk fly shit extremely well, and this album is just another addition to his elite catalog. If you have listened to his other albums from the 2020s, you know exactly what to expect. The real treat is hearing Errol Harden, a NYC-based rapper who has been gifted with a cosign from Marciano. Harden is very, very good on the mic. I know that he has been around for a second, so I can only hope that getting in with Roc can increase his profile.

OK, rap update over. Now, into the recommendations.

Heavenly, Highway to Heavenly

Heavenly is an indie pop band that started in the late 1980s and recorded through the 1990s. The band stopped when one of the members, Matthew Fletcher, died by suicide in 1999. In recent years, the band rereleased some of its records, and then they decided to give it another go. The resulting Highway to Heavenly shows a band that hasn’t lost a step even though they haven’t played together in almost 30 years. The guitars jangle, the tempos are fast, and the lyrics are as upbeat as ever. It’s what you would hope for from the return of a legacy act: an album that references what made them successful before while still showing that they have something new to say.

Hater, Mosquito

I discussed Hater back at the beginning of the year when I was going through my old album notes. Their album Siesta is still an indie pop favorite of mine, and the following album, Sincere, was a darker, but still powerful turn from the band. On Mosquito, they have found the balance between the lighter sound of Siesta and the more post-punk-driven sound of Sincere. Caroline Landahl still does an excellent job of conveying complex emotions through her words and singing, but the band this time around brings a little light into the surrounding bleakness. That being said, this album thrives on a palpable tension, and it is truly exciting to listen to.

PVA, No More Like This

I can’t say that I have a long-running history with this band like I do with the previous two. That said, this album sucks you in like those moody trip-hop records of the 1990s. That being said, it is not nearly as predictable as those albums are. There are industrial-style tracks, Portishead references, and allusions to the dancefloor. The whole affair is held together by Ella Harris, whose delivery is intimate, like she’s talking directly to you. I’ve gone through this album a couple of times, and I’m still very impressed by it. I found that it grew on me rather than blowing me away, so I would encourage you to take your time with it if you decide to listen to it.

Katherine Priddy, These Frightening Machines

This is a very good British folk album that caught me off guard, mostly in that I wasn’t expecting it. Priddy’s voice and lyrics are very good, and she follows very much in the tradition of the acts that preceded her (e.g., Fairport Convention) while adding her own modern touches. In addition, Priddy is an excellent guitarist, and this album has an excellent duet with Priddy and TORRES. It’s delicate, and their voices harmonize extremely well. This was an album that impressed me quite a bit, and I think that you, fair reader, will also enjoy it.

Mitski, Nothing’s About To Happen To Me

Mitski took the band that she used to record and tour The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We and made a new album that touches upon cats, Grey Gardens, and loneliness. As usual with her, the result is intricate, dynamic, and moving. This album moved like a snowball for me. I think that the beginning of this album is quite good, but I found myself more attracted to the back end, where things become slightly more unraveled and weirder. In any case, this is one of the strongest releases to come out in this first part of the year.

Melissa Aldana, Filin

Saxophonist Melissa Aldana has been making waves in the jazz scene for a few years now, and having listened to a lot of her work, this is one of the best things I’ve heard from her. Using the filin style as her basis, Aldana and her band take the listener through a set of slow, romantic ballads full of sensual solos and excellent musicianship. In addition, there are a couple of vocal additions from Cécile McLorin Salvant, adding more passion to the already powerful mood. I found this album to be transporting, which is not something that I can say for most of the albums that I’ve listened to in the past few weeks.

Bill Callahan, My Days of 58

Bill Callahan has been turning out phenomenal work as he has moved into his elder statesman phase in the world of Americana music. In 2024, he released Resuscitate!, a true barnburner of a live album. Honestly, it’s great; stop reading this and go listen to that. Also, if you listen to that recording, you’ll understand some of the underlying energy on this album. A reason for that is that he uses the band from that recording. The resulting vibe is loose, which serves as a perfect tapestry for Callahan’s examinations of being a son and a father, death, life, and his world as it exists. He calls it a living room album, and I think that is a good way of describing it.

Ratboys, Singing to a Chair

Ratboys is a band that has been sort of bubbling on the underground for a while now. Their mix of rock and country is energetic, and Julia Steiner’s vocals bring a realness to their overall sound. Singing to a Chair is named after a practice that Steiner was encouraged to do when she was going through a difficult point in her life. The lyrics speak to those difficulties, and the band does a good job of really bringing their various interests to the fore. While I’m not quite sure that this is at the level of some of the breathless reviews that I’ve read, it is a very good album.

Dry Cleaning, Secret Love

Dry Cleaning came in strong as a left-of-center post-punk band. The lyrical essays of Florence Shaw are interesting and funny, and they stood out on that first album, New Long Leg. I think they lost the plot on Stumpwork, but I think they are back onto something with this album. With the help of Cate Le Bon, they’ve created a weird, trippy album that merges post-punk with a real grab bag of 80s and 90s references. Furthermore, the new sound gives more space for Shaw’s witty observations of mundane life. I was kind of on the fence with this album at first, but I have grown to like it more with subsequent spins.

Velocity Girl, ¡Simpatico!

This is a bit of a cheat on my part as this is a reissue. That said, this is a phenomenal album that smooths out the fuzzy edges of their first album, Copacetic, but retains that record’s urgency. There are extra tracks on the record, but those are for the fans. The album itself is a really great piece of indie pop. For the record, Velocity Girl is one of the best DC bands from that 90s underground that also fostered Fugazi and Tsunami, among many others.

The Paranoid Style, Known Associates

If I tell you that Elizabeth Nelson, mastermind behind the DC band The Paranoid Style, is a fan of Mekons, it should tell you everything you need to know. Her music, much like that band’s work, turns on stylistic dimes and is full of politically charged, witty, and word-drunk lyrics. This album has a real ramshackle energy to it, but it’s legitimately charming. I have listened to the last couple of her albums, and I think she’s a very sharp commentator on the various aspects of life. This has not changed here.

Maria BC, Marathon

Apparently, Sacred Bones has decided to traffic in artists who make spooky, slightly noisy, drifting music, and honestly, I’m completely here for it. Adding to the Marisa Nadler and Hilary Woods albums from last year, Maria BC’s Marathon transports the listener into a world full of haunted corners and shadows. Maria BC’s vocals keep the songs very grounded. Another fine addition to this very specific subsection.

Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore, Tragic Magic

I almost didn’t add this here, and that would have been to my major disappointment. Barwick and Lattimore are two phenomenal musicians in their own rights. They have a great connection, and know how to blend their styles into a cohesive whole. On this album, these two women create beautiful soundscapes using their instruments of choice (synths and vocal loops for Barwick and harps for Lattimore), resulting in a transporting, beautiful experience. It’s gorgeous and technically rich.

Joel Ross, Gospel Music

Joel Ross is one of the best vibraphonists working right now, and whenever he’s on a project, he brings a lovely complexity to the sound. His own work, from album to album, has grown richer and deeper. On this album, Ross, with the assistance of his Good Vibes sextet, taps into his Christian roots and presents music that continues to play with jazz forms in intriguing ways. While it runs 78 minutes, it takes you on a full, profound journey.

When I started this, I thought I wasn’t going to have anything. Yet, I’ve given you 18 possible things to listen to. The sad part of this is that I have listened to so many bad/mid albums to get to this. In a regular Spins cycle, this wouldn’t be a problem. Yet, it’s been two and a half months. That’s trash. I need the artists to start picking their game up.

So, that’s all for the Spins. I’ll be back next week with an introduction into a French experimental artist who has done some excellent durational work. Per usual, tell a friend to read and subscribe. As well, take care of yourselves and each other. Pet a dog or cat if they are OK with it, and don’t wear Florsheim shoes.