In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on October 30, 2026.
DIIV, ZIRP!
DIIV have joined forces with A. G. Cook for their most pop-forward release to date. ZIRP! follows 2024’s Frog in Boiling Water and includes the advance singles ‘Trillions’, ‘Kid’, ‘The Fountain’, and ‘Dare Me’. In the lead-up to the release, the band has framed the record as part of a new movement half-jokingly called “The New Alternative.” Cook commented in press materials, “I became a bit obsessed with their live sound, and insisted on recording live drums before most of the songs were even finished. We spent a lot of time recording intricate guitar parts with specific guitar pedals, and as little time as possible doing anything on a computer, at least by my standards After a few rounds of that, ZIRP! emerged as a concept, and a sort of utopian, dystopian mantra. For me it became a vehicle to push the band into new territory.”
Queens of the Stone Age, Perfecth
Queens of the Stone Age are back with a proudly imperfect new album titled Perfecth. Inspired by the Japanese art of Kintsugi, the album was tracked between New Orleans and Los Angeles. h”Nothing in this world is perfect, but everything seems to be ‘perfecth’,” frontman Josh Homme explained in press materials. “And that title is funny when you’re in a group, but it ain’t so funny when you’re alone.” He added, “Every song sounds like it’s from a different world. And that’s on purpose, because it’s trying to stitch together all these emotions revolving around love, lust, foolishness, and the sort of wisdom that comes as a gift from all that.”
Sarah Meth, Something Shameful
Sarah Meth has come through with her debut full-length, Something Shameful, out now via her own imprint, Wishbone. Mesmerizing and piercingly vulnerable, the album’s characters are based around people the singer-songwriter met on a trip to New York in 2024, following her UK tour supporting King Krule. “A guy had invited me to go to New York but then he bailed, so I thought ‘fine, I’ll do it by myself,'” she recalled. I ended up meeting so many people that week who became, at different points over the years, main characters in my life. It was special being somewhere new, meeting that version of myself outside of London.”
PISS, you made me / skin on linen
Raw, uncompromising, and totally gripping, you made me / skin on linen is the debut LP by the Vancouver quartet PISS. Combining punk, poetry, sound collage, performance art, and visual art, the album blurs the line between systemic and intimate violence, structural and personal trauma. Vocalist Taylor Zantingh, guitarist Tyler Paterson, bassist Gavin Moya, and drummer Garreth Roberts recorded it in January 2025 with Colin Stewart at Hive Creative Labs.
RIP Magic, 1,2,3
RIP Magic have dropped their debut album, 1,2,3, via section1. The London four-piece – composed of Marco Pini, Felix Bayley-Higgins, Beth Boswell-Knight and Pedro Takahashi – have described it as a “rock record without guitars,” bringing together elements from dub, dance music, hip-hop, and pop. The group linked up with Southeast Tunerz, a South London car-meet crew, for a late-night listening party that saw some 20 cars blasting the record, which should tell you more about how it sounds than any genre descriptor.
Ex:Re, Save As
![ExRe - Save As [Artwork]](https://ourculturemag.com/wp-content/uploads/ExRe-Save-As-Artwork-300x300.webp)
Elena Tonra of Daughter has revived her solo moniker Ex:Re for a new album, Save As, released via 4AD. Arriving eight years after the project’s self-titled debut, the downcast yet quietly illuminating record started taking shape in 2023, when she brought sketches of songs into the studio with Fabian Prynn, the producer behind the first Ex:Re album. The new record features Josephine Stephenson on cello, Hinako Omori on synthesisers, Ben Reed on bass, and Jethro Fox on electric guitar.
Kali Malone, Burning Song
Kali Malone’s singular approach to drone music finds its most condensed form on Burning Song. The follow-up to 2024’s All Life Long was recorded at Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Germany, the historic church where J.S. Bach was cantor for the last 27 years of his life. The first musician to perform contemporary works on the church’s Bach Organ, Malone is joined on the LP by Lucy Railton on cello and Stephen O’Malley on bowed acoustic guitar.
Andy Stott, Late Loop
Andy Stott has returned with his first studio album in five years. Late Loop, which follows Never the Right Time, was made using no basslines, no reverb, and no other effects except for a delay unit. It took different shapes over time, the British producer explained: first “an experimental drone album, then something like brass band concrète, or what could have been an art installation.” Singers Alison Skidmore and Elaine Howley became a pivotal part of the process, appearing throughout the album.
Other albums out today:
Nickelback, Everything Under the Sun; Editors, Surface, Echo & Sound; Genital Shame, Wellness Plan; Radio Free Alice, What’s In Between; 2nd Grade, Girls and Boys; Rocketship, Hurt Feelings; THAO, Show Me; Dominic Fike, How to Quit Smoking; OR, Music For Empty Stadiums; John Errol, Damage; Clinic, Wild in the Streets; WHY?, Oh Golly / Yes Lord; Andy Koh, Taking the Long Way; Isik Kural, Motorcycles and Cherry Wind; Ava Rasti, No One Knows How Wild the Wind Blows.
