Here’s a rundown of recommended new releases out today, including new albums and EPs on DSPs and physical releases in record shops this week.
Nialler9 keeps a rolling list of Irish album releases for 2026.
New Albums and Releases
New Albums
Thundercat – Distracted (Brainfeeder)
Six years on from It Is What It Is, Thundercat returns with his fifth studio album, this time working with superproducer Greg Kurstin as primary collaborator. A 15-track record with a guest list that covers a lot of ground: Tame Impala, A$AP Rocky, WILLOW, Channel Tres, Lil Yachty, and a previously unreleased collaboration with Mac Miller. The combination of Thundercat’s jazz-funk bass wizardry with Kurstin’s ear for melody and pop structure is an interesting proposition. Easily the biggest release of the week.
Angine de Poitrine – Vol. II
The masked Quebec math-rock duo who have amassed millions of KEXP session views and much enthusiasm arrive in a timely fashion with their second album. Raw, nervy, replayable post-punk math-rock that rewards the attention, with dips into Primus territory. Vol II only sticks around for 6 long songs dizzy guitar and bass punchy combo and a lithe 36 minutes. Their Dublin gig sold out in seconds.
MIKE, Earl Sweatshirt & Surf Gang – POMPEII // UTILITY
A full double-album collaboration between three compelling underground hip-hop artists currently operating. MIKE and Earl have been orbiting each other’s worlds for a while and this feels like the logical realisation of that. The album comes in two halves/discs with MIKE on the first half – POMPEII and Earl taking over on the second UTILITY. They are on tour and coming to Dubin too.
Arlo Parks – Ambiguous Desire (Transgressive)
Parks’ second album is a significant gear shift, drawing on club floors in Los Angeles, New York and London for its energy and shape. Breakbeats, UK garage rhythms and late-night movement inform 12 tracks that include a collaboration with Sampha. Producer credits include Paul Epworth and Andrew Sarlo. A more physically alive record than her debut, built from dance spaces rather than bedroom introspection.
Arlo Parks plays The Academy in October.
sunn O))) – sunn O))) (Sub Pop)
The drone metal duo’s first album of new material since 2019, and their debut for Sub Pop. Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson recorded it at Bear Creek Studios in Woodinville, Washington with producer Brad Wood, best known for his work with Liz Phair, Sunny Day Real Estate and Tar. Rather than widening the cast, they’ve focused inward, stripping the approach back towards their core sound. Their tenth album overall.
Bon Iver – VOLUMES: ONE (Secretly Canadian)
A live archive release documenting the six-piece band configuration across music concerts from 2019 to 2023. For the devoted.
VOLUMES: ONE captures 10 distinctive live performances, recorded between 2019 and 2023, showcasing Justin Vernon and his band at their most whole. There’s a warmth and exuberance across the album, as well as the sort of muscular sound you can really only get at a live show. For the uninitiated and die-hards alike, these recordings could well be the defining versions of the tracks, no doubt made possible through the essential live engineering of Xandy Whitesel and performances from bandmates Jenn Wasner, Sean Carey, Michael Lewis, Matthew McCaughan, and Andrew Fitzpatrick.
Jon Hopkins & Biggi Hilmars – Wilding (Original Soundtrack)
Hopkins teams up with Icelandic composer Biggi Hilmars for this original score to accompany the 2024 documentary Wilding. Given Hopkins’ track record with atmospheric, evolving electronic music (and his recent work in the ambient/meditation space), this should be worth a go.
Nightmares on Wax – In A Space Outta Sound (20th Anniversary Edition) + In A Space Outta Dub vs Adrian Sherwood (Warp)
A double dose from Warp’s longest-serving artist. The 20th anniversary reissue of In A Space Outta Sound, the 2005 album that blended reggae and sound system roots with soul, jazz and hip-hop, arrives as a deluxe triple disc box set. Alongside it comes In A Space Outta Dub, an eight-track reconstruction by dub maestro Adrian Sherwood featuring the On-U Sound players, reimagining tracks like ‘You Wish’ (here as ‘You Bliss’) and ‘Flip Ya Lid’ (‘Flippin’ Eck’).
Dermot Kennedy – The Weight of the Woods (Island/Interscope)
The Irish singer-songwriter’s third studio album, written and recorded between Ireland and Nashville and produced by Gabe Simon, who has worked with Noah Kahan and Lana Del Rey. Dermot’s early promise has long since evaporated for me in favour of embracing the wide-net mainstream sound that easily soundtracks insurance ads but hey, this is not music made for people like me. This is a 14-track record arriving ahead of two sold-out Aviva Stadium shows in July.
U2 – Easter Lily EP (Island/Universal)
Dropped without warning at midnight on Good Friday, Easter Lily is U2’s second surprise six-track EP of 2026, arriving six weeks after Days of Ash, which landed on Ash Wednesday in February. Where that record was outward-facing, political and defiant, Easter Lily turns inward, dealing with friendship, loss, faith and renewal. Both EPs are standalone releases, separate from the band’s still-in-progress new full-length.
The six tracks are: ‘Song for Hal’, a tribute to the late music producer Hal Willner, with The Edge on lead vocals; ‘In a Life’, a celebration of friendship; ‘Scars’; ‘Resurrection Song’; ‘Easter Parade’; and closer ‘COEXIST (I Will Bless The Lord At All Times?)’, a Brian Eno collaboration written as a lullaby for parents of children caught in conflict zones. The EP is produced by Jacknife Lee, accompanied by a new digital issue of their revived Propaganda fanzine, with contributions from all four band members and liner notes written by Gavin Friday on Hal Willner.
Laurie Shaw – Felted Fruit vi
The sixth instalment in the Kerry-based, Wirral-born songwriter’s prolific psych-rock side project series. Shaw, who records from a mountain retreat in Kerry, has racked up close to 100 albums at this point. Felted Fruit has been his most freewheeling vehicle, raw and psychedelic and assembled with characteristic speed. His Year Zero made the Nialler9 top 20 Irish albums of 2018. For fans of lo-fi psych and genuinely idiosyncratic Irish music-making.
deary – Birding (Bella Union)
Debut album from the London dreampop three-piece of Dottie Cockram (vocals, guitar), Ben Easton (guitar) and Harry Catchpole (drums), out on Bella Union. The band formed during lockdown around a shared love of Cocteau Twins, Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine and self-produced the whole record. 11 tracks that range from shimmering shoegaze to lighter, airier indie-pop, with Cockram’s vocals up front throughout.The title references both the natural world and the sense of expansion and wonder the band wanted the music to convey, with an underlying thread about human impact on the environment. One to watch.
Becky Mcneice – Popular Loner 2 EP
Belfast alternative pop solo artist releases the Popular Loner 2 EP, and it blends her hyperpop-leaning dreamy electronic side with a nostalgic indie-rock vibe from her formative listening years.
Becky made us a nostalgic Irish queer/women indie-pop rock playlist this week.
“This EP is about reclaiming solitude as power. Where the first chapter explored isolation, Popular Loner 2 is about finding confidence in that space—turning the bedroom pop ethos into something you can scream live. Working with Still Searching and F3miii pushed me to explore heavier sonic territories while keeping that diary-entry honesty intact. It’s hyperpop when it wants to be, indie rock when it needs to be, and unapologetically me throughout.”
Also released this week
- A Place to Bury Strangers – Rare And Deadly
- Adrian Younge, Ali Shaheed Muhammad & Antonio Carlos & Jocafi – Jazz Is Dead 026: Antonio Carlos & Jocafi
- concealer. – This Room Could Be Heaven.
- Erik Hall, Metropolis Ensemble & Sandbox Percussion – Canto Ostinato
- ionnalee – ionnalee’s MOUTH OF A RIVER, pt. 1
- TEED – Always With A Remix
- Wendy Eisenberg – Wendy Eisenberg
- Ye – Bully
Recent posts on New Albums:
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
