In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on October 16, 2026.
Fontaines D.C., Dopamine Chamber
Fontaines D.C. are back with their fifth album, Dopamine Chamber. Expanding on the aesthetics of 2024’s Romance, the new album is similarly luminous, uncanny, and elegantly produced. But further polishing the band’s sound hardly offsets its darkly alluring tendencies; dressing up reality in the throes of the apocalypse, it embraces a widescreen, corrupted intimacy that’s mostly served as a metaphor for frontman Grian Chatten in the past. Ahead of the release, the band shared the singles ‘Marianne’, ‘Tongue’, and the Rosalía collab ‘Where Is Gone?’. Read the full review.
@, Autosmile
Stunning and idiosyncratic in equal measure, Autosmile is the sophomore album by the Philadelphia duo @ (pronounced “at-sign”). Marking their first album for 4AD, it follows Stone Filipczak and Victoria Rose’s 2024 debut Mind Palace Music. “Neither of us is afraid of being over the top musically…. being unafraid of getting dramatic or comedic lends itself to really emotional moments,” Rose said in press materials. The band previewed the LP with the title track, ‘Bird’, ‘Punish My Mind’, and ‘I Know You Are (But What Am I Thinking)’.
The Avalanches, No Bad Memories
The Avalanches probe the boundaries between memory and marketing on their fourth album, No Bad Memories. Spanning 31 tracks, the follow-up to 2020’s We Will Always Love You boasts guest spots from Karen O, John Glacier, and Rivers Cuomo, as well collaborations with Barry Can’t Swim, Jamie xx, Loaded Honey, Ryoji Ikeda, Portraits of Tracy, Haruomi Hosono, Khadija Al Hanafi, and Suzanne Ciani. “Our album No Bad Memories is out in the world today,” the group said in a press release. “We’re beyond grateful for the endless enthusiasm and love our music receives after all this time. Thank you for taking the time to listen, we hope you enjoy it!”
June McDoom, Follow the Light
June McDoom has unveiled her debut album, Follow the Light, via Jagjaguwar. Conjuring a dreamworld with technical precision, the record is meticulously layered, a seamless blend – or rather, careful diffusion – of reggae, dub, and folk elements that manages to be both spacey and tactile in its intimacy. “I’m realizing how much, as an adult, you’re pushed into this work-grind lifestyle that you have to really work against the flow to try and preserve things that are childlike – ways of living that feel more natural,” McDoom said in our Artist Spotlight interview. “I think the record in general inspires you to be more free to explore the things that you’re not encouraged to on the daily, whatever that is, in a loose way.”
Dummy, do you love the color of the sky?
Dummy have followed up 2024’s Free Energy with a new album called do you love the color of the sky?. Touring in support of the Los Angeles band’s last album, which included multiple US runs and two trips to Europe, had a considerable impact on the music; Joe Trainor estimates they “played approximately 113 shows,” with Alex Ewell adding, “and on larger stages than ever before.” While maintaining an “anti-laptop on stage” approach, Trainor notes the band’s live performances will now “involve more tech,” highlighting the boundary-pushing nature of the recordings.
Sadurn, The Underworld
Sadurn have returned with their sophomore album, The Underworld, via Run for Cover. Following the band’s 2022 debut album, Radiator, it includes the previously released singles ‘can’t stop’, ‘never tell me’, ‘whole thing’, and ‘the weight’. “Right after we finished Radiator I already had new songs, but the idea that now there was some kind of expectation did change things in a negative way for me,” songwriter G DeGroot explained. “So much of my sense of self had become tied up in the band, I got kind of swept up in the pressure of these internalized ideas about what’s going to be good for you or your life.”
Sophia Stel, the greatest album of all time
the greatest album of all time is out now. The debut album by Sophia Stel, that is; the Vancouver songwriter, now signed to A24 Music, produced almost all of it herself, and it’s pretty great. “The album is about believing in yourself and believing in love and is dedicated to my brothers Luke and Royce,” she said in a press release. The dizzying yet introverted record was preceded by the singles ‘I Do’ (which made our list of the best songs of September), ‘Bitches Talk Shit’, ‘Molly in the Club’, and ‘Now I’ve Got a Lot You Know’.
Billboard Style, Pull of the Moon
Ben Guterl (Forth Wanderers) and Dan Howard (Victoryland), who first met over a decade ago, have come through with their debut album as Billboard Style, Pull of the Moon. “This album was made over so many different instances and times in our life,” Howard explained. “It’s an imprint of all the time that we have in our days, and how we structure them and make sense of them, and make meaning out of them. That’s something that we will continue to do forever.” Guterl added: “I feel like you can hear our growth together as friends and as artistic collaborators. And it’s nice to have a stamp of that. You grow with your friends over time, relationships evolve, and there’s not really anything tangible to reflect it. That’s what’s so beautiful about making music, I think, it’s this emotional snapshot.”
Other albums out today:
Angèle, Instinct; Geologist & Kyle Simon, The Sirens; Two Shell, Infinite; World News, Purgatory; fish narc, Uncle; Rachel Chinouriri, I think I spoke too soon; Lamin Fofana, Corps Perdu; Worldpeace DMT, Stick Around for Tea; Jacques Greene, JG; Mali Obomsawin, Automatic; Holy Motors, Heaven’s Night; Laura Hickli, stranger to myself; Andrew Waslylk & Tommy Perman, House with a Curse.
