In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on August 28, 2026.
Erykah Badu and The Alchemist, Before the World Blows: The Abi and Alan Experiment
Erykah Badu and The Alchemist have joined forces for a new joint album, Before the World Blows: The Abi and Alan Experiment. The pair co-produced the record and tracked it over 18 months in Dallas and Los Angeles. “His compositions are like classical music to me – how he layers chimes and voices and strings and horns,” Badu told The Guardian. “Our process is the same. The way we build is the same. I don’t know what it is exactly, but it’s a burning, beautiful fire. I get chills when I hear his music.” The gritty, shapeshifting record boasts guest contributions from Kamasi Washington, Earl Sweatshirt, Steve Lacy, Thundercat, Westside Gunn, and more.
Alabama Shakes, I Must Be Dreaming
After a decade-long hiatus, Alabama Shakes are back with I Must Be Dreaming. As richly arranged as it is laidback, the album includes the previously released singles ‘American Dream’, ‘Another Life’, and ‘I Feel Hope Coming’. According to singer Brittany Howard, the album title “has a double meaning to it. It could be saying, ‘I must be dreaming, because the world is so fucking crazy right now.’ But it could also mean, ‘I must be dreaming, because the world is so incredibly beautiful.’ Both those things can be true at once.”
Interpol, This Mirror Weighs a Ton
Interpol have returned with This Mirror Weighs a Ton, their first album for Partisan. Collaborating with producer Andrew Wyatt, the band warps their reliable brand of post-punk, weaving in experimental textures without straying from their formula. Recorded at Wyatt’s studio on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, it also marks the group’s first time making a record in their original home base in over a decade. “I think we are an evolving band, but we’ve done so through a kind of process of continuous arrival,” guitarist Daniel Kessler said in a recent interview. “All of our records are emotional, but in this record certainly there’s hope and playfulness along with the heaviness.”
Jim James, Wowed Out
Jim James has released a new solo LP, Wowed Out. The My Morning Jacket frontman’s latest takes on the burden of overstimulation, finding solace in unhurried arrangements and stretched-out choruses. “Lately I’ve been really into music like Alice Coltrane’s spiritual recordings, where it’s just her and organ praying together, and there’s no major event,” James explained. “I wanted these songs to feel like a journey that takes you somewhere rewarding, without always trying for some big dramatic payoff like a massive chorus or a huge guitar solo.” He added: “There’ve been times in my life where I’ve felt lost or depressed, but music has always been the thing that pulls me back. When I think about making this album, it almost feels like I was in some kind of dream and now I’m trying to remember what the dream was about. The whole thing brought me a lot of joy and comfort while I was making it, and I hope it brings everyone else a little joy and comfort too.”
Dinosaur Jr., There Near
J Mascis, Murph, and Lou Barlow have a new Dinosaur Jr. album out called There Near. The follow-up to 2021’s Sweep Into Space was crafted over the course of a year at Bisquiteen Studio in Amherst. “I bought the same amp that Chris Dixon had when we made our first album,” Mascis shared. “Chris recorded us at his house with his amp. It has a real interesting sound I haven’t gotten for a while. And it’s something I was trying to get back to on this album. The Stones started using Mesa Boogies in the ’70s after they heard Santana playing through them. Then The Clash copied The Stones, etc. As the years went on into the MK 2 and so on, the Boogie got more metal sounding. But the MK 1 has a souped-up Fender sound. You always hear how Rick Rubin always makes bands he’s producing sit down and listen to their first album and say let’s get back to that sound. So I just gave myself his advice.”
Asher White, Love Aggregates
Asher White has come through with her second LP of 2026, Love Aggregates. Following a full-length cover of Jessica Pratt’s 2012 debut, the singer-songwriter wrote and recorded the magnificent new album while 2025’s 8 Tips for Full Catastrophe Living, her Joyful Noise debut, was becoming a breakthrough. “It was the first time that I was like, Oh, someone is going to be hearing these songs,” she commented. “And also the first time that I was, like, actually upset while writing them.” Having experienced devastating heartbreak for the first time, White frames love as a continuum, explaining: “It’s a reminder that new love happens, and it does not replace nor censor the old love, it just aggregates and aggregates. And now you have this record that has snapshots from various stages of various loves, from totally abysmal open wounds to adolescent horniness and whatever else. The songs are aggregates of all of it.”
The Linda Lindas, GOTTA GET OUT
The Linda Lindas have unleashed their third studio album, GOTTA GET OUT, via Reprise/Warner Records. The band retreated to Palm Springs and Long Beach to write together in the same room for the first time, leaning into new wave and hardcore as much as their signature garage punk. They collaborated with Hayley Williams for ‘Closer’, a song “about feeling like you’re losing control of time, and watching yourself grow older from afar,” according to Bela Salazar and Lucia de la Garza. “Lately, we’ve been realizing how important it is to stay present, especially when our lives feel constantly in motion. It feels perfect that Hayley Williams was down to collaborate on this song with us, because we’ve been fans of her throughout so many of her different eras – and she’s seen us grow up over the last ten years! We’ll always be honored that we got to write and get emo with the queen of emo herself.”
Le Ren, Don’t Be Funny Without Me
Le Ren has followed up her 2021 debut Leftovers with a new LP called Don’t Be Funny Without Me. The Canadian singer-songwriter, born Lauren Spear, self-produced the record alongside Fez Gielen and Jonas Bonetta. “There are many different romantic relationships with separate people in the record. There are relationships with my friends,” she told The Line of Best Fit. “I think it’s just a lot of chaos and stumbling through this time period, making a lot of mistakes, and ultimately, the focal point being music and having this craft that I discovered that became a primary relationship for me.”
Marci, Mask Lady and Late Night Girl
Marta Cikojevic has unveiled a new album as Marci, Mask Lady and Late Night Girl, via Arbutus Records. Written and recorded with her TOPS bandmate and collaborator David Carriere, the record revolves around the idea that we all harbour a masked woman and late night girl inside: “It’s anybody and nobody,” Cikojevic said, “It’s you.” Today’s focus track, ‘Chaotic Princess’, was made with Mike Silver (CFCF), following ‘Liquid Heartbeat’, ’99 Dimensional’, and ‘Butterfly Sticker’.
Sarah Davachi, The Will of Tongues
Sarah Davachi has issued a new album, The Will of Tongues. Spanning over two hours of music across three LPs, it’s billed as the composer’s “most ambitious” effort, while also being a work of striking intimacy. Davachi performs on organ throughout the record, enlisting Whitney Johnson on viola, Eyvind Kang on viola, and Lucy Railton on cello. The LA-based brass ensemble Diapason, Switzerland-based flute collective Phaedrus, and Chamber Choir Ireland also contributed to the album. It comprises five new solo compositions for historical pipe organs, a suite of three choral pieces, a collection of “interludes” for various microtonal ensembles, and a longform chamber piece for string trio, organ, and tape.
Other albums out today:
Mastodon, Marrow Deep; Billy Strings, So Much for Goodbyes; Lara Somogyi, a [time] patterned; Ty Segall, Chrome; Alex Warren, WILDCHILD; Maripool, Rotten Luck; LA Priest, Into the Sky; Hakushi Hasegawa, Honest Feeling Album (素直な気持ちアルバム); Rod Wave, Don’t Look Down; Liim, A Sunflower Garden in Harlem Is Hard to Find; Saul Williams, Leap Life; Russian Circles, Nine; Thoom, Everyday, Everything Is at Stake; Gil Sansón, Voces del vacío resonante; Erik M., Shell Songs.
