Tag Archives: 2026

Top Five Genre Bending Albums of 2026

6 May

underscores – U

Some albums should warn you about catchy they are. “Wish You Well” will get stuck in your head. “Do It” does Timberlake better than he has in a long time. “Hollywood Forever” is propulsive.

Despite a lot of great singles though, the album is variable in both experimentation and quality. “Lovefield” has an excellent knock on wood but doesn’t do much otherwise and “Tell Me (U Want It)” is too formulaic despite a decent beat switch.

Mostly though, the album is songs like “Innuendo” that have a great groove and clever ways to punch through it.

Gorillaz – The Mountain

My favorite track here, “Manifesto,” starts with a Bollywood backing and then brings in Trueno to drop reggaeton vocals only to hard switch to jazzy rap with Proof bookended by Albarn’s crooning to tie the whole thing together. I’m sold. Albarn’s omnivorousness results in the most unexpected combinations and yet his own voice is so consistent here that the album always works.

He’s also restrained. There’s a minor sitar in The Empty Dream Machine that lifts the song just before Black Thought’s excellent verse that goes back into Damon’s wistful singing and all of the pieces are proportioned expertly.

He does fall back into unexciting britpop for good chunks of the album though and while his stuffed rolodex leads to some great tracks like Omar Souleyman and Yasiin Bey in “Damascus”, it also means that the album could have done with some curation. Honestly though, this album sins much less than many in that regard and the music is consistently solid, often excellent and frequently fascinating.

FEMCELS – I Have To Get Hotter

I Have To Get Hotter is genuinely a very funny album. Zine-style random humor can easily be fatiguing instead of funny but this maintains an internal and hilarious logic and that lets them get away with a full stanza on the wonders of JavaScript.

I could have used more interesting music but their indie rock is impressively consistent. “Monster In You” breaks from the rest to mine retro emo-rock into something quite clever but besides that stand-out, it’s a collection of quite competent music elevated by outstanding humor.

Kim Gordon – Play Me

Play Me has truly excellent production. Justin Raisen has lots of space to play in this album and he uses it very well. It feels more like a rapper / producer collab album than anything else given his energy here and Kim Gordon’s spoken-word vocalizing. She is a star and she has the power of the star here, but she uses it with restraint. Her lyrics attempt to be poetic and evocative but are mostly trite, but that’s perfectly fine in so sonic an album and when you listen to “DIRTY TECH”, it’s impossible to have any complaints.

Slayyter – WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA

I really like the punk rock evolution of “CANNIBALISM!” Hyperpop, alongside other genres of the moment, seems intent on doing something with the raw material of my childhood. Slayyter is too omnivorous to stay there though. “BEAT UP CHANEL$” takes from everything and that makes for some interesting transitions even as it doesn’t stick every landing. This genre bending really wakes you up when something like “I’M ACTUALLY KINDA FAMOUS” slips in, and while this is a very good album, it does sometimes really need that kind of jolt.

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Top Five Mostly Rap Albums to Get You Started With 2026

16 Feb

A$AP Rocky – Don’t Be Dumb

A$AP’s long-awaited release is overstuffed, bloated with filler and has some very interesting moments in the morass. This is dog-bites-man news; absolutely unsurprising. I do want to tell you about the interesting moments though.

Firstly “STOLE YA FLOW” goes hard. It’s a great song and great swagger. The jazz of “ROBBERY” is fun and I like Doechii’s Esparanza Spalding impression in it. “PUNK ROCKY” continues the dream pop of “Sundress” and I wish the whole album just delved into that instead. Both “SWAT TEAM” and “WHISKEY” have interesting moments but are let down by laziness.

So, we have about a third of the album be interesting and the rest is inoffensive but unnecessary. “PLAYA”, for instance, does nothing and goes on too long. The voiceovers are lazy storytelling and don’t fit the make-your-own-mixtape style of throwing everything in an album.

At its very best, it reminds me of the inventiveness of Yeezus but is too unfocused to hold anything like the same power.

Gabriel Jacoby – gutta child

gutta child is really excellent dirty Southern funk. It clocks in at a quick 20 minutes and doesn’t miss once over the course of it. “bootleg” shows Jacoby in a party mode while songs like “dirty south baby” skews more to funk, where he’s a bit better, but he’s a lot of fun whatever he chooses to do. gutta child showcases Jacoby perfectly and gets out once the job’s done.

KP SKYWALKA – I Tried To Tell You

KP SKYWALKA’s flow is immediate. When you hear “ITTY” or “A DROP OUT”, the breakneck flow over the leisurely flow grabs you hard. Even softened by the beats, even when the beat is Erykah Badu in “HELL OR NOT”, the flow can be punishing.

It’s a rough album though. The flows are interesting but the album is raw and overstuffed. It has plenty of weak cuts and gets repetitive. A mixtap ewould have done better to showcase KP SKYWALKA’s talent but the talent is certainly there.

J. Cole – The Fall-Off

This is J. Cole’s best album and I don’t even like J. Cole. The man has always been able to rap. There are stretches here that remind me of mid-00s Lupe. His flow on “Drum n Bass” is immaculate as he navigates an impressive rhyme scheme over a clean piano line.

There is inevitably too much of J. Cole’s trademark self-indulgence in the album. No matter his protests, you can write the history of rap without mentioning him once. J. Cole lucked into the middle of the biggest rap beef in history and apologized his way out of it.

This makes “I Love Her Again” feel false. It’s tough to make “I Used to Love H.E.R.” at the best of times and J. Cole comes off misogynistic in his version. Additionally, he’s not as central to rap as he thinks he is. His failings undercut “Run A Train” as well. Why lie about your height to make yourself shorter? Why mention Gaza if you have nothing to say about it? J. Cole’s singular focus on narrativizing himself into rap’s pantheon leaves him with nothing of value to say.

And yet, J. Cole can rap. When you put on “SAFETY” or “POOR THANG”, his ability is undeniable. He can make great music and The Fall-Off is the best music that he has ever made. He may not have made a career for the history books but he has made a lot of music well worth listening to.

Jin Dogg – Pain Makes You Better

Jin Dogg has tremendous charisma but like a lot of regional acts, he’s an omnivore for trends but has yet to synthesize them into something his own. “NEED ¥” is very easy to get into the flow of and he’s easy to groove to but the person is currently far more interesting than the rap.

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