2026 Albums

[Vyn]

I'm not skipping songs...
 

This is always a good indicator of quality for me too. My wife is the kind of person that will listen to a record all the way through, even if she hates a song. Drives me nuts. I'm like, "change that nasty shit," and she always responds with something along the lines of, "oh just let it play." Nope. Can't do that.

The kicker here is that she won't spin vinyl, she listens to CDs, so she could simply press a button on the remote. But nooo. Our musical tastes intersect here and there, but just like she isn't down for something like Burzum, I'm not down with whatever pop-star de jour that caught her ear. And then when it is an actual bad song - not simply a difference in taste - and it happens to be some kind of super-extended-dance-remix-featuring-LeQuan-$$$Money...and it's twenty minutes long...Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

[Zzzptm]

Back in my vinyl days, I specifically made tapes of records that left out tracks I wanted to skip and I played those instead of the vinyl for my uninterrupted listening convenience and pleasure. When I got a CD player, I learned how to program it to skip track 5 because that track sucked.

My wife likes to have YouTube Music play a mix for her when she's driving. When I'm in the passenger seat, I endure it. I am allowed to exert peremptory strikes, however, against the two songs that drive me totally up the wall of no return: "Evil Woman" by ELO and "Don't Bring Me Down", also by ELO. Fun fact: that last song is based on a Wilbert Harrison tune that a listener to my Saturday show likes to request. Drives me up the wall, but I play it because she pledges to support the show and my wife thinks it's hilarious that I have to endure it and I love it when she laughs.

Anyway, back to the YT Music... I *do* get to enrich her algorithm from time to time. When I mentioned Megadeth had a new album out, she let me request a track or two and that get her mix to have much more 80s metal in it. To be sure, it's the metal that YT Music's algo determines is safe enough to suggest, but I'll take more metal, especially after I've heard "Fernando" by ABBA for what feels like the gazillionth time. I don't hate it, but I don't love it, either.

Good news for me is that she doesn't like Cookie Monster metal, so we can both skip over that stuff, should it come up.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

My second purchase of the year turned up today.

The Damned - Not Like Everybody Else

A covers album comprising mostly 1960s material, some of which I know... and some I don't!

My third purchase of the year should arrive in the next few days probably by Momday...

The Macc Lads - Wild Cider Wife

[Charger]

Just got a message from Devil Electric and they're gonna be releasing a new album soon as well!

So another banger to be expected!

EDIT

What the fuck?!?! DEEP PURPLE are gonna have an album out in June of this year as well!!

That came out of nowhere!

[Zzzptm]

I'm doing a try-before-I-buy with The Damned's latest... the covers are competently done, great musicianship, but I'm not getting anything from them that makes them really stand out from the originals other than, "here's The Damned doing that song." I'm thinking of passing on that platter.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

^^^
Yes, it's competently done, but there's nothing new here, they are just songs the late Brian James liked.

I'll give it another listen but really what I want is more of the stuff they've been doing over the last 25 years

[Zzzptm]

^^^
Yes, it's competently done, but there's nothing new here, they are just songs the late Brian James liked.

I'll give it another listen but really what I want is more of the stuff they've been doing over the last 25 years

Yes, there's more oomph in their own material, for sure. Doing an album of covers is a tricky matter if your band doesn't have a unique take on them.

[Charger]

METAL CHURCH ANNOUNCE A NEW ALBUM called DEAD TO RIGHTS!

https://ratpakrecords.com/collections/metal-church


Goddamn the shipping costs though...30$ for a single cd! Damn!

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

^^^
Will it not be released through the usual outlets?

[Charger]

I do not know...
I have bought all of my MC albums straight from Rat Pack...I don't know if they have distributors in Europe...one would imagine that they do...

But I don't think I'll be paying extra 30$ shipping for autographs...

[Zzzptm]

I'm interested in new Metal Church, for sure!

[Charger]

They do indeed have a EU shop

https://metalchurch.eu/products

26€ total Signed cd + postage. Works for me...Preorder done.

[Zzzptm]

https://valleyofthesun.bandcamp.com/album/the-chariot

This new release from Valley of the Sun is likely going to be the 4th album I buy this year. The opening track is plenty heavy and I'm pretty sure the rest of the album will be good stuff.

[Zzzptm]

I was listening to the SVM and Megadeth albums a lot and I've got my ranking, with justification.

Basically, SVM's album I play through and love it. Megadeth, I play through and love it until track 10, The Last Note, and then Ride the Lightning jars up the mix. That track belongs somewhere in the first five, not the album closer. Even if it's a "bonus track", fact is it comes up as 11/11 and it simply doesn't belong there. If I move it to the front and play things through after that, the album works much better. And since the competition between that album and the one from SVM was coming down to millimeters, a factor like that becomes a deciding criteria.

After those two, I feel like there's a slight gap to the one from The Stripp and then a much bigger gap to the Valley of the Sun album. I like VotS's release, but I think The Stripp did some masterful stuff with their release this year.

1. Sky Valley Mistress - Luna Mausoleum
2. Megadeth - Megadeth
3. The Stripp - Life Imitates Art

4. Valley of the Sun - The Chariot

I don't know if anything can get in between The Stripp and Megadeth, but there's a chance. I think there's plenty of room between VotS and The Stripp and expect possibly several releases to land in between the two.

I'm feeling like Sky Valley Mistress and Megadeth have 1-2 sewn up on my list. It would take a massive upset to unseat Megadeth and an astronomical alignment of chance to beat SVM.

[Zzzptm]

I typed that and just read that the Rolling Stones are planning an album release this year. So instead of putting Hackney Diamonds into the End of the Line list, I'll be likely slotting their latest into my list for 2026 albums. They'll have producer Andrew Watt again, so I expect they'll do quite well with the recording.