Are these the 20 best albums of 2026 so far?

There's been a fair bit going on this year.

Wars, peace talks, World Cup football, NDIS reform, Artemis II, interest rates… we could go on, but this is starting to sound like a Billy Joel song.

So, if discovering new music didn't get much of a look-in over the past six months, we completely understand.

Rather than let you suffer in silence, we've pulled together a list of 20 records from this year that are definitely worth your time.

We hope you find something you love.

Angine De Poitrine — Vol. II

If these 333-year-old time travellers haven't entered your algorithm yet, perhaps it's because you still need time to prepare yourself for the brain explosion that will ensue.

Canadian aliens Angine de Poitrine continue their microtonal math rock on their second album.

It is proof they are much more than an absurdist gimmick. They've delivered a clever and profound collection of musical musings which display their otherworldly meta-understanding of what music can be.

Listen: Sarniezz

Dylan Lewis

Bad//Dreems — Ultra Dundee

Adelaide's Bad//Dreems have nothing to lose and nothing to prove, and they embrace this freedom on their fifth and final album.

They take modern pub rock into moodier, less-is-more territory and tell stories that push further into the darkness, revealing in vivid and visceral detail the characters and mindset of a society with deep flaws and enduring scars.

Ultra Dundee is a deeply impressive album by one of the best bands of the past decade, and whose impact and influence deserves to stretch well into the next.

Listen: Shadowland

Dorothy Markek

Courtney Barnett — Creature of Habit

Courtney Barnett is still teasing apart her anxieties and neuroses, albeit with added major life changes thrown into the mix. This time, there's a self-assurance and openness to the process.

You could even call it a knowing satisfaction with how far she's come. You only need to clap ears on her epic shredding on One Thing at a Time for evidence of that.

Listen: Sugar Plum

Caz Tran

James Blake — Trying Times

There's no one making introspective minimalism as deeply affecting as James Blake.

His seventh album is bleak and despairing but hopelessly romantic and glows with an optimism and nostalgic warmth, making his ruminations on love, humanity and existential dread a bracing reflection of our current times.

Listen: Doesn't Just Happen

Caz Tran

Cooee — Messengers

The title of this album is so apt.

Cooee effortlessly intertwines stories, weaving culture, the environment and guardianship together, creating an album that is as hopeful as it is a warning.

There's a fierce determination in Messengers: take and learn from history to make the future a better place for all.

Listen: Yadingji

Liza Perkovic

William Crighton — Colonial Drift

William Crighton doesn't shy away from the big stuff, and his fourth album Colonial Drift is his most expansive and searching work yet.

Written with partner Julieanne Crighton, it wrestles thoughtfully with Australia's national identity, the weight of unresolved history, and the difficult work of imagining a shared future.

Musically, the record blends rock, blues, folk and psych into a sweeping, often cinematic sound that mirrors the landscape and themes Crighton explores.

Listen: Further Down The Road

Dan Condon

Eddy Current Suppression Ring — In Light of Recent Events

After a run of secret shows you were lucky to even hear about, Eddy Current Suppression Ring resurfaced recently — right when we needed them — playing free gigs to thousands at Fed Square and Tumbalong Park.

They're a mythic band, but it's built on the reality of their impact: the records, the gigs, and a genuine hand in so much of the music made around them.

In Light of Recent Events, their first album in seven years, shows they never truly left. Eleven tracks cut live and raw, more anxious and political than before, but carrying the same urgent joy.

Listen: Swimming Hole

Simon Winkler

Karnivool — In Verses

The Perth band's chart-topping first album in 13 years was worth the wait, exhibiting the juggernaut grooves and atmospheric intricacies Karnivool fans love while providing more direct, emotive moments.

Augmenting their labyrinthine sound with harp, strings and, most surprisingly, rousing highland bagpipes, In Verses shines with a sensitivity that so much heavy music lacks.

Listen: Drone

Al Newstead

Kneecap — FENIAN

Kneecap have built a huge audience through high energy, aggressive rap music and political activism that supporters say speaks to the most urgent issues of our time, and critics have used against them.

After such highly publicised controversies, Fenian came with huge expectations. The way this album melds the political with the personal speaks to an earnestness of a group able to meet the moment.

Tracks like Palestine, and Irish Goodbye, show they are deeper than the headlines and are trying to live their values.

Listen: Liars Tale

Michael Hing

Various Artists — Help2

A charity album that doesn't suck?!

War Child's all-star compilation begins with a smouldering Arctic Monkeys track, concludes with Olivia Rodrigo tackling The Magnetic Fields, and packs quality material in-between from established acts (Pulp, Beth Gibbons, Depeche Mode) and emerging favourites (Cameron Winter, Wet Leg, Beabadoobee).

Boasting unexpected collabs, unique covers and genre-bending material, Help(2) really does have something for everyone.

Listen: Arctic Monkeys — Opening Night

Al Newstead

Kevin Morby — Little Wide Open

Little Wild Open should be the album that takes Kevin Morby from Americana cult hero to household name.

He hits new heights with the sprawling title track, jubilant single Javelin, thoughtful ode to touring Die Young and the mesmerising and rousing album highlight 100,000.

Listen: Javelin

Ryan Egan

Mulga Bore Hard Rock — Sweet Home Mulga Bore

Mulga Bore Hard Rock play all the right notes and have all the right moves, but it's the unwavering passion for rock 'n' roll — something that can't be replicated — that makes their debut album such a triumph.

The big, heavy, chugging rock 'n' roll guitars draw you in at first. By the time it's over, their irresistible choruses will live rent free in your head. Catchy, passionate, awesome rock 'n' roll: nothing more, nothing less.

Listen: Rocking With The Legends

Dan Condon

Kacey Musgraves — Middle of Nowhere

Country pop conquistador Kacey Musgraves signals a return home on her sixth studio album, as the singer takes the vulnerability bull by the horns with her ever-astute and mighty quill.

She laments loss with hope and resolve, atop a slew of traditional and contemporary arrangements featuring collaborations with the likes of Willie Nelson, Billy Strings and Miranda Lambert.

Middle of Nowhere firmly cements Musgraves in the songwriting halls of fame.

Listen: Dry Spell

Kath Devaney

Owelu Dreamhouse — Owelu Dreamhouse

You can hear the deep love of music, and the trust between vocalist Nkechi Anele and multi-instrumentalist Nic Ryan-Glenie, all through Owelu Dreamhouse's debut.

The record carries the warmth of their shared history, but also the excitement of a new world. Drawing on soul, psychedelia, afrobeat and hip hop, it feels both direct and dreamlike. Nic's grooves are deep, the arrangements are full of colour, and Nkechi's voice ties it all together.

Listen: Stutter

Dylan Saville

Genesis Owusu — Redstar Wu & The Worldwide Scourge

The Ghanian-Australian punk-funk, electro-rap visionary's third album is the soundtrack to — and salve from — a world losing its grip, rendering 2020s paranoia and confusion in thrilling, addictive tunes that defy neat categorisation.

Audacious, aspirational and, crucially, accessible, it's a listening experience proving, yet again, that nobody in Australian music is doing it quite like Genesis Owusu.

Listen: Life Keeps Going

Al Newstead

RAYE — This Music May Contain Hope

This Music May Contain Hope is ambitious, cinematic, deeply emotional and a work of art.

RAYE is so great at capturing the human experience in all its depth. This record is not only real, intentional and authentic, but it leaves you feeling safe, seen, empowered, ready to move through any hardship and come out knowing everything will be okay.

Listen: Nightingale Lane

Claire Mooney

Robyn — Sexistential

A tight and timeless release from Robyn after an eight-year hiatus where she became a mum and had to rediscover her sensuality through the lens of motherhood.

Reuniting with collaborator Klaus Åhlund from the Body Talk era, Robyn brings her universe in close to examine her new, and sometimes alien-feeling, identity and existence. Plus, possibly the greatest reference to You Don't Mess with the Zohan in popular culture.

Listen: Talk To Me

Courtney Fry

Thundercat — Distracted

If Thundercat was any cooler, we'd have to thaw out the big fella every time he drops a project.

Distracted is not only cool with songs like No More Lies featuring Tame Impala and I Did This To Myself with Flying Lotus and a killer verse from Lil Yachty, it's also fun (This Thing Called Love featuring Channel Tres), sad at times (I Wish I Didn't Waste Your Time) and heartwarming (She Knows Too Much featuring Mac Miller). Top listen.

Listen: No More Lies

Hau Latukefu

Vince Staples — Cry Baby

Vince Staples's Cry Baby is a sonic pivot into the worlds of rock and punk while maintaining the Long Beach realist's razor-sharp rap and pop sensibilities.

Staples's writing is aptly blunt as he processes the bleak state of the American empire in another well-executed genre fusion, in the vein of 2017's electronic leaning Big Fish Theory.

Listen: Blackberry Marmalade

James Brennan

Jessie Ware — Superbloom

This disco-filled dream of an album has burrowed its way into my brain since its release.

Every track exudes confidence and joy, making it hard to choose a highlight because I love it all, including a deep-voiced introduction from actor Colman Domingo.

Listen: Superbloom

Nick Gerber

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