Every week, we update our Best New Songs playlist with several tracks that catch our attention, then round up the best songs of each month in this segment. Here, in alphabetical order, are the best songs of October 2026.
Bassvictim – ‘White Flag’
Bassvictim want peace; that much is clear listening to the lead single from he band’s forthcoming album. But there’s a reason it’s called PEACE + WAR; that duality is at the core of a record that wields ‘White Flag’ as one of the duo’s most confrontational singles to date. As Ike Clateman’s production jabs at you with each icy thump, you have to take Maria Manow at her word when she says she’s not one to fight, though her performance is so feral her lyrics are barely decipherable. With the amount of vitriol she spits into the word “away,” it’s like she’s dragging the “silly little man” out the door herself. It doesn’t matter whether peace or war comes first: the sum sounds just the same.
Knifeplay – ‘Love Song’
Returning with a 10-minute single is a bold move, but you wouldn’t expect anything else from Knifeplay. ‘Love Song’ relishes in the longitude of the knotty romance at its center, one that time has twisted and threatened to break out of shape. “I feel how we’ve changed/ But can we forgive too,” Tj Strohmer wonders over stormy guitars, warm keys, and epic strings that serve as a reminder of the group’s grand ambitions. Other bands make slow, sad music designed for commiseration; ‘Love Song’ is a dramatic ballad about lovers who manage to turn mutual hurt into fireworks, at least for a little while.
Nine Perfect Lives – ‘Die’
There’s an unspoken intimacy between Helena Straight and Stella Wave, two members of the Brooklyn band Hello Mary, that comes to the foreground on their first single as Nine Perfect Lives. When Straight made a demo of their first single, ‘Die’, she realized it was in response to Wave’s feelings of confusion and uncertainty around her sudden relocation to Los Angeles, but refining it together solidified a creative bond they felt was “compromised in the context of Hello Mary at that time.” The track swirls equally in waves of heartache and catharsis, leaning strangely towards the latter with each repetition of the titular command.
Olivia Rodrigo – ‘expectations’ [feat. Chappell Roan]
It wasn’t one of the early singles – both of which landed on this list – but ‘expectations’ quickly stood out as the upbeat highlight on Olivia Rodrigo’s you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love. By mid-October, the song had already become an anthem of romantic disaffection for a certain demographic, and on top of giving it a proper boost, Chappell Roan was the perfect guest to spice up the remix. There was always a chance her contribution would feel slight – Roan has never just hopped on someone else’s song before – but it’s substantial and specific enough to almost fill the void of new Chappell Roan music. It’s the rare remix that blows expectations out the window.
Star Moles – ‘Born Again’
Star Moles’ latest single is shiny and propulsive, a good fit for Emily Moales’ first release since signing with Dead Oceans. But not long after it reels you in with its breezy interplay of guitar and piano, Moales’ bid at time travel takes on a curious quality: “We dressed you up real nice/ We kissed you on your head/ So you could send your emails/ Every day until you’re dead,” she sings, almost as if in the present tense. In that moment, Moales isn’t dressing up the real frustrations of modern life so much as illuminating them from the perspective of those who literally grant it, who’d raise you all over again if it meant you could be a little happier. Maybe that’s why it sounds like it was born in the wrong generation, which is nothing to complain about.
Worldpeace DMT – ‘Stick Around for Tea’
This list is in alphabetical order, but it feels fitting to finish it off with Worldpeace DMT, Bassvictim’s sprightlier cousin. Colouring ‘Stick Around for Tea’ – and giving this duo’s sophomore album its name – is a plea so sincere and childlike it sounds almost out of this world, a quality Leo Fincham and Rowan Please make good on by injecting the right amount of whimsy into the production. That may sound like a roundabout way of simply describing what’s been dubbed laptop twee, but Worldpeace DMT is better understood through the lens of memory, not genre. The title track, I’d say more than any song on the record, sticks with you long enough to conjure its own web of associations. That’s time well-invested.
