In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on September 25, 2026.
Julia Jacklin, The Gem
Julia Jacklin has released her poignant, startling new album, The Gem. It marks the Australian singer-songwriter’s fourth album and 4AD debut, following 2022’s Pre Pleasure. “I want to love and be loved, but I also want to be free. The tension between those two things has been the central question of my life,” Jacklin said in a press release. “The Gem felt like a metaphor for the whole process, because a lot of it did feel like digging. I felt like I was doing it almost in the dark, just trusting I was going to find something.”
Gilla Band, Pugnello
Gilla Band’s auspicious, glitchy, and cathartic new album, Pugnello, has arrived. The follow-up to 2022’s Most Normal was produced entirely by the Irish quartet, and mixed by Daniel Fox, with tracking taking place between 2022 and 2026 across three studios (Hellfire, Yellow Door Music Studio, and Sonic Studios in Dublin). In the four years since their last album, each member embraced different artistic endeavors: vocalist Dara Kiely developed a love of painting, Adam Faulkner played drums for Lankum on tour, Fox became produced for bands like Sprints, Lambrini Girls, and Mandy, Indiana, while Duggan Borges formed his solo project the Null Club. The LP was preceded by the singles ‘Giraffe’, ‘Placeholder’, and ‘Alogia’.
Tinashe, Popstar
Tinashe is back with a new album called Popstar. Stacked with playfully anthemic songs, the record was previewed by the tracks ‘Pillow Fight’, ‘I’d Rather Be Alone’, ‘Melatonin’, and ‘Crash Out’. “For me, the album is so much better in its entire context,” Tinashe said in an interview with Stereogum, and on my first listen, I can only agree. “Bite-sized pieces are just really never gonna get the full idea. I hope that people take all these bite-sized moments and use that motivation to dig deeper into long-form ideas.”
Protomartyr, Hotel Usona
Protomartyr expand their nightmarish vision of America on their uncompromising new album, Hotel Usona. The post-punk band’s first album in three years comes with a bio penned by another none other than Iggy Pop, who wites: “I’ve been listening to these guys for quite a while now and I get the feeling that they are a slow growth item, something that is gaining followers, listeners, and respect little by little, over the long haul. There’s a lot of content here. The four of them can shift rhythms and harmonics very, very smoothly in a way that seems effortless. It’s the mark of fine arts in a popular group.” The singles ‘Exalted Eagles’, ‘Feed the Sewer’, and ‘Sounds We Cannot Hear’ arrived ahead of the release.
Starcleaner Reunion, Umbrella
Starcleaner Reunion have come through with their exploratory debut album, Umbrella, via Take Care Records. Growing up in the same small town of Springfield, New Jersey, vocalist and tambourine player Jo Roman, guitarists Pat Drummond and Neil Torman, and bassist Adam Kenter met in high school and played together in various configurations. Their full-length debut follows a couple of EPs, 2023’s Club Estrella and 2024’s Café Life. In the process, the band “learned a lot more about how to make the music sound like it does in our heads,” Drummond said. “How to connect the dots between how we want it to feel and how to make it actually sound that way.” Torman added: “This is maybe the first time where we were writing without any self-imposed limitations regarding how we’d translate the songs live.”
M83, I Wrote You a Letter
M83’s tenth album, I Wrote You a Letter, is here. Arriving via Anthony Gonzalez’s own Other Suns label, the lush, imaginative follow-up to 2023’s Fantasy was led by the single ‘Blister Sunrise’. Gonzalez worked with collaborators Joe Berry, Clément Libes, and Benoit de Villeneuve on the record, which he says “reflects my state of mind over the past few years. I’m deeply disillusioned by the world we’re living in. I wanted something less calculated, more spontaneous. More punk, in a way.”
Blondshell, Violins
Sabrina Teitelbaum has returned with a new Blondshell album, Violins, via Partisan. The follow-up to 2025’s If You Asked for a Picture deals with themes of violence, religion, and fraught friendships. “This record’s heavy in a way,” Teitelbaum remarked, noting that her songwriting “gotten a little bit less literal. There’s more imagery. But my main goal with this record was to have songs that hit hard. I wanted big lead lines.” She worked on the LP with producer Yves Rothman. “I felt like I wasn’t walking in the dark anymore,” Teitelbaum added. “I spend more time with Yves than almost anybody – we just have such an efficient working relationship.”
Other albums out today:
Bullion, Nearly; Tom Morello, Everyone Gets Everything They Want; Smidley, Murphy Horse; claire rousay & Martyna Basta, Hotel Room; Leon Bridges, Happiness Anytime; Soft Cell, Danceteria; Meg Lui, Instant Validation; Your Old Droog, Bread & Butter; Penelope Isles, 3; gash, at least you know what you’re laughing at; Gurriers, Nobody’s Coming to Save You; Oren Ambarchi, Cooked; Adult DVD, Adult DVD; Cara Delevingne, Not Normal; The Red, Pinks & Purples, True Love Daydream; Index, Vis Inertiae; Jam City, My World; Godflesh, Decay; 7ebra, How to Land a Plane; Lawrence Rothman, Here Lies Love / Sawdust to Stardust.
