April 6, 2026 by A.S. Van Dorston

New albums update Big Music with fresh takes on new wave, post-punk, garage punk, and jangle pop.

Coming off the 1986 countdown, it was relatively easy to transition to absorbing new albums because there is now so much music coming out, you can find your desired flavors from any genre. Those craving the romanticism and sweeping grandeur of the mid-80s, sometimes called Big Music, have plenty of choices.

Brigitte Calls Me Baby – Irreversible (ATO)

Chicago based Brigitte Calls Me Baby’s story begins in Port Arthur, TX, where Wes Leavins began performing Elvis impersonations. He was so good he was hired to play Elvis in the Chicago theatre production Million Dollar Quartet in 2016. I remember walking by the theater thinking that would be worth checking out. Baz Luhrman saw him perform and initially had him cast to be the voice of Elvis in his movie, until he learned that Austin Butler could handle the vocals. Leavins contributed some acoustic guitar, and significantly, met producer Dave Cobb, and began working on a solo album. Leavins wisely found a band, and the tracks were used for their first EP and debut album in 2023-24. Many say Leavins sounds like Morrissey, but more accurately, he shares the same influences — Elvis’ resonance, cries and swagger, Frank Sinatra’s breath control and lingering legato, and Roy Orbison’s head-voice lift and dramatic phrasing — all with more precise technical mastery. The jangly post-punk and quirky song titles of The Smiths are certainly an influence along with New Order, The Cure, Tears For Fears, The Maccabees and The Strokes. The mix of elements is just nuanced enough for the band to sound startingly fresh. While their second full-length makes no significant stylistic changes, it does deliver songs strong enough to continue their ascendent arc, with first single “Slumber Party,” and highlights “Truth is Stranger Than Fiction,” pulsing synths in “These Acts of Which We’re Designed,” and the bouyant “I Can Take the Sun Out of the Sky.” Nearly all the songwriting is consistently top notch, with just one lull, “I Can’t Have You All to Myself,” a dirgey ballad that feels slight. At least at the time of it’s release, this is the best album of the year so far.

Cardinals – Masquerade (So Young)

Over in Cork, Ireland, one of several post-punk adjacent bands sprouting up are Cardinals, first appearing with a single in 2022 and a self-titled EP in 2024. While some may compare their literate side (they cite Dublin author Kevin Barry as an influence) to Fontaines D.C., their accordian based folky post-punk is rooted more in spirit with the Big Music romanticism of The Waterboys, though their sound is more sprightly and scrappy than scene compatriots Lankum and The Mary Wallopers. It starts strong with four whallopers, from the bombastic opener “She Makes Me Real,” the energetic “St. Agnes,” the Pavement-ish title track and the heart-swelling “I Like You.” The second half is a bit more meandering, with the young band still feeling out their way, but anchored with two more bangers in “Barbed Wire” and “Big Empty Heart,” this album has gotten the most repeat plays the past couple months than anything else. A great debut, you too will be rooting for these Cork lads’ success.

The Twilight Sad – It’s the Long Goodbye (Rock Action)

When I first heard Glasgow based The Twilight Sad in 2007, I laughed. Their band name and style of dramatic mope rock seemed a bit too on the nose, with James Graham’s thick Scottish brogue seemingly exaggerated. While his Glaswegian/Kilsyth identity was genuine, the band evolved to focus on their musical delivery and emotional clarity rather than those alluringly rolled Rs. Two things helped shape the direction of this album. Starting in 2016, The Cure handpicked the band to support them on multiple world tours, a partnership that continues, and has expanded to Robert Smith becoming a full-blown collaborator on this album playing guitar, bass and Mellotron and helping with arragmenents. Secondly, Graham’s mother’s dementia and death shaped the themes of loss, grief and catharsis, supported by Andy MacFarlane’s dramatic, dense guitar heavy arrangements. Twenty years in, the band has aged into the gothic weightiness of their music, and produced their best album so far.

Bad//Dreems – Ultra Dundee (Gutto)

One of the most overlooked Australian bands, Adelaide’s Bad//Dreems have released their fifth and best album just in time to declare an indefinite hiatus. Drawing on the long tradition of Aussie garage punk and literate pub rock (Cold Chisel, The Angels, The Saints, Midnight Oil, The Triffids, Died Pretty), Bad//Dreems established a savage satirical wit sharper than Mick Dundee’s custom 16+” Bowie knife since their 2013 debut EP. Conceptually Ultra Dundee addresses a state of mind in Australia’s identity, both the good and bad, gritty social commentary delivered with nuanced ferocity and tenderness with their most varied, experimental musical backing. Those so inclined to let this soak in will likely be compelled to circle back to the rest of their strong catalog.

And Also The Trees – The Devil’s Door (AATT)

Another band handpicked by Robert Smith to open for The Cure, except it first happened for And Also The Trees 46 years ago. This album completes a trilogy that includes The Bone Carver (2023), and Mother-of-pearl-Moon (2024) involving a dream-state deep dive into the memory, landscape, and rural gothic emotional core of their native Worcestershire through the use newsreels, folklore and oil paintings. The band’s sonic signature has been fairly consistent since (Listen For) The Rag and Bone Man (2007), partly due to Justin Jones’ mandolin-like shimmer invoking that British rural gothic atmosphere, dark jazz structures and filmic scope. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds are often given credit for this vibe, but And Also the Trees deserves equal credit, and more so for consistently delivering top quality post-punk/psych noir (17 albums) without a single artistic stumble. From the opening track, we cross the threshhold through “The Devil’s Door” into the mythic underworld consisting of cosmic folklore of the “Seven Skies,” a “Bridge” overseen by a supernatural “Guardian,” documented with oil on canvas by “The Painter,” the haunting ancestral fear invoked by the macabre “Gallows Tree,” followed by a luminous moment in “The Golden Light” and spectral “Lost Girl.” The dream-journey cycle concludes with “The Last Hours” and the reprise of the title theme. This album is incredibly beautiful, and doomed to be completely ignored by the gnat-like attention spans of mainstream listeners.

IST IST – Dagger
These Manchester post-punkers’ gothic persona is big enough to fill at least a mid-sized venue, but Houghton’s flattened monochromatic baritone lacks the melodic range and expressiveness to cross over that threshhold. On their fifth album, this is more of an aesthetic choice than any limitation of abilities. A close listen shows a progression that includes more synthpop elements and big new wave hooks on “The Echo,” opener “I Am the Fear” and “Warning Signs” that would appeal to fans of both early Editors and even Depeche Mode.

Possible Humans – Standing Around Alive (Hobbies Galore)
This Melbourne release from October of last year has been sticking to my brain and playlist once I gave it proper attention when the dust settled after the year-end list binge. It’s the kind of jangle pop in the tradition of early R.E.M./Feelies/Yung Wu, The Bats and The Clean that scratch all my itches, of which there were plenty with no new Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever release since 2022. It’s been given the Dolewave tag which is one of those utterly ridiculous RYM generated terms. Let’s just leave it at jangle pop shall we?

Floodlights – Underneath (PIAS)
Also from Melbourne, Floodlights reached high on their third album with some fabulously anthemic music, stepping up with ambitious, orchestrated arrangements complete with trumpets that recall peak Hunters & Collectors, as well as 80s Big Music filtered through early Arcade Fire. Despite owning their second album Painting of My Time (2023), I completely missed this album when it was released March 2025. It deserved better.

Strange Passage – A Folded Sky EP (Meritorio)
This Massachusetts post-punk/jangle pop band debuted in 2019 with Shouldn’t Be Too Long and were unceremoniously cursed/dismissed with the dreaded Smiths comparison. God forbid any band with a hint of jangle and a vocalist that can carry a tune be allowed ot exist. Six years later they only had an EP worth of new material, but it’s all top notch. Let’s hope they’re playing the long game and have another full-length in ’em.

The Clockworks – The Entertainment (V2)
Galway, Ireland post-punkers follow up their 2023 debut, Exit Strategy, with a more subdued, introspective album. I blame Fontaines D.C., who got away with draining their youthful piss ‘n’ vigor energy from their debut with a downbeat but successful followup. But for most younger bands, the sophomore album is too soon to sound so sapped. They need more hard livin’ to earn this kind of world-weariness that focuses on lyrical themes but leaves the music naked, cold, and starving on the side of the highway.

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