This Year: An Album a Day

Featuring Paul McCartney, Wendy Eisenberg, Violet Grohl, and others

My friend Ken and I decided to listen to an album every day this year. Each week is themed. At the end of each week, we rank what we listened to. To be clear, we aren’t ranking every album that fits the theme. We are only ranking what we chose to listen to during the last seven days.

This week’s theme is “this year,” meaning albums that were released in 2026. Ken (rightfully) thought that this would be a good theme since we are almost half way through 2026. Let us know what other new albums you’ve been enjoying over the last few months.

---

#7 WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA by Slayyyter

Slayyyter’s third studio album has been getting rave reviews. Pitchfork gave it a “Best New Music” tag and scored it an 8.2 out of 10. Stereogum even called it the best record of the year so far. Ken and I weren’t really into it.

WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA is pop music as a genre turned up to 11. Tom Breihan from Stereogum said it “hits like the end-times blackout party night of our most euphoric nightmares.” Though the hedonistic production was interesting, I wasn’t in the mood for the apocalyptic black out party. Maybe next year.

#6 The Boys of Dungeon Lane by Paul McCartney

The Boys of Dungeon Lane is Paul McCartney’s ode to his childhood. As an octogenarian, that ode moves between wistful, somber, and somewhat saccharine (e.g., “Days We Left Behind”). But that’s who Paul McCartney is. The man has made some of the greatest songs in history while tapping into those feelings.

Musically, The Boys of Dungeon Lane is inventive. McCartney is still willing to mess with song structure and odd harmonies. The weird dissonance of the album’s opening chord gave me hope that we were in for a late-career masterpiece. That wasn’t the case. I don’t think McCartney tapped into being an old man as well as some other efforts we’ve listened to over the last few months, like Leonard Cohen’s You Want It Darker and David Bowie’s Blackstar.

That’s okay, though. Paul McCartney could spend the next decade making 8-minute, atonal songs on the tin whistle and nobody would have the right to complain. The man has earned the privilege to do whatever he likes.

#5 Wendy Eisenberg by Wendy Eisenberg

Before I started writing up recaps of every album Ken and I had listened to, we did a week of 1970s singer-songwriters. That week included Nilsson Schmilsson by Harry Nilsson, For Everyman by Jackson Browne, Pink Moon by Nick Drake, Sundown by Gordon Lightfoot, Court and Spark by Joni Mitchell, Tea for the Tillerman by Cat Stevens, and Parallelograms by Linda Perhacs.

Even if you’re well acquainted with 1970s singer-songwriters, you might not had heard of Linda Perhacs. Perhacs recorded her debut album Parallelograms in 1970. The mystical set of tracks received almost no notice until the 1990s when Perhacs was rediscovered, eventually prompting a follow-up in 2017. Wendy Eisenberg, whether she knows it or not, seems to be descended from Linda Perhacs.

Though Eisenberg’s self-titled recorded doesn’t lean as heavily into psychedelia as Perhacs’, its deep musical and lyrical introspection point to back to the layered, acoustic world of Parallelograms.

#4 Little Wide Open by Kevin Morby

If Wendy Eisenberg’s folksy compositions fell from the heavens inhabited by Linda Perhacs, then Kevin Morby’s are more likely to have been pulled the earth that Lucinda Williams has been digging in for years.

That’s a point that I would make even if Williams were not featured on Little Wide Open’s fifth track. Morby, who’s lived all over the United States, turned to the midwest for inspiration while he built this album. It’s a place that I hope he goes again. His lyrics on Little Wide Open paint vivid images not just of the region but of the way that the landscape in that region shapes the psyches of people that live there (e.g., “Junebug”).

#3 I Used to Go to This Bar by Joyce Manor

Joyce Manor doesn’t want to waste your time. Like all of their previous efforts, I Used to Go to This Bar doesn’t even run for 20 minutes. But that network-sitcom length of music is filled with so much energy that it feels like more than enough time for the punk outfit to properly convey their tales about being lost, confused, and in pursuit of meaning at a neighborhood watering hole.

#2 Be Good to Me by Violet Grohl

A few weeks back, Ken and I listened to albums by “artist heirs,” or artists whose parents were famous musicians. Violet Grohl was on our shortlist. The progeny of Nirvana-Foo Fighters rock legend Dave Grohl, Violet had made a splash when singing lead vocals on “All Apologies” at a 2025 Nirvana reunion. The problem for us was that her debut album wasn’t out. That problem is now solved.

Be Good to Me is a strong first effort, especially from someone you know had an easier time getting a record deal than almost anyone else. The vocals—traversing the universe of rock styles—are very powerful. The songs are well-crafted too. Not to draw too many comparisons from the world in which Violet Grohl was birthed, but some of the best songs feel like they could have come from Courtney Love at the height of her powers.

#1 Masquerade by Cardinals

If you were getting in the weeds about the songs of Kevin Morby and Joyce Manor and Paul McCartney and Violet Grohl, you would likely say they all make different styles of music. Joyce Manor, for example, is firmly in the punk world. Kevin Morby, on the other hand, draws more influence from folksy singer-songwriters.

Even so, if you were to zoom out enough, we’d like agree that all of those people make some variant of rock music. Rock music usually deals with guitars. The rhythms are often focused on a four-beat count. The chords are usually diatonic. And the compositions rely heavily on the verse-chorus form. Outside of Slayyyter, every artist we listened to this week fits that mould, including the Cardinals. That said, the Irish quintet’s debut album stands apart.

Yes, they use distorted guitars, but they also create mysterious atmospheres with the accordion (e.g., “As I Breathe”). And while they too make use of four-beat rhythms, they also turn to waltz time to add some emotional flavor (e.g., “St. Agnes”). These combinations make Masquerade feel familiar enough to make most rockers happy but distinct enough to stand apart.

---

Shout out to the paid subscribers who allow this newsletter to exist. Along with getting access to our entire archive, subscribers unlock biweekly interviews with people driving the music industry, monthly round-ups of the most important stories in music, and priority when submitting questions for our mailbag. Consider becoming a paid subscriber today!

Recent Paid Subscriber Interviews: Pitchfork’s Editor-in-Chief • Vinyl Specialist • Spotify’s Former Data Guru • Hall of Fame Songwriter• John Legend Collaborator • Broadway Arranger • Indie Label Founder• Fender Exec

Recent Album a Day Themes: Grammy Losers and Winners • Artists You Hate • Girl Groups • Actors Who Play • Ones You Missed • Switch-Ups • Comebacks • Swan Songs • Artist Heirs • Released Before 1950 • First Album, Second Act

Want more from Chris Dalla Riva? Get a copy of his book Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves wherever books are sold.