Pop Reviews
37 Pop records in the Certified Archive. Every one of them earned five rainbow thumbs-up, because we only publish reviews of records we think are great — so treat this page as a listening list rather than a ranking. Newest first.
Space Jaguar's 'Command Post' Is a Bright, Bittersweet Masterpiece of Jangle
Ten songs of hook-first UK guitar pop, written by Mark Grassick, produced by bandmate Andrew Taylor, mastered by Will Killingsworth at Dead Air. No label, no fuss, no filler.
Railcard's 'Two Steps At A Time' Sounds Like a Record You Already Own and Forgot About
Twelve songs of British jangle pop, out on Skep Wax in the UK and Slumberland in the States. The band includes Rachel Love of Dolly Mixture, Peter Momtchiloff of Heavenly, Ian Button, and Allison Thomson on trumpet and keyboards. God Is In The TV, Spectral Nights and Silent Radio all filed it as a keeper in release week.
Applied Communications' 'Bites the Big One' Is a Glorious One-Man Pile-Up of Ney Flutes and Bad Decisions
Max Wood's first Applied Communications full-length in over two decades, written and performed entirely alone, out on his own Rare Noodles imprint. Bandcamp Daily made it Album of the Day and described hearing Arabic ney flutes, calypso drums and lyrics ricocheting between Claire's Accessories and Disney villains. All nine tracks are lowercase and none of them sit still.
Jawdropped's 'Secret To Spare' Is a Sunlit, Songwriting-First Debut Worth Shouting About
Ten songs, about thirty-two minutes, tracked live by four Los Angeles friends with Colin Knight engineering and Alex Farrar mixing. No Ripcord gave it 8/10; Dork gave it 4/5; Paste called it bittersweet power pop about a city built on dashed dreams.
エミエミ's Self-Titled Debut EP Is an Unreasonably Joyful Masterpiece of Off-Kilter Pop
The debut EP from Emi Doi, a Tasmania-based artist recording as エミエミ. Eight songs, sung mostly in Japanese, with no label and no interest in the obvious route. Backseat Mafia scored it 88 and warned readers it 'should come with a government health warning.'
Haruomi Hosono's 'Yours Sincerely' Is a Warm, Unhurried Letter From a Lifelong Shape-Shifter
Hosono's 23rd studio album and his first for Ghostly International. Ten tracks moving between bossa nova, classical, doo-wop and soundtrack music. Bandcamp Daily made it Album of the Day, praising its 'special tenderness and ache.'
Sylvan Esso's 'Ow ∞' Is a Gleeful, Percussion-Drunk Record About Hurting
Twelve songs written across four years in the woods outside Chapel Hill, out on the duo's own Psychic Hotline. Six different drummers, including Glenn Kotche, Joe Westerlund, Jenn Wasner and Jake Luppen. Paste says it 'brims with delight' while looking straight at pain and mortality.
ODAE's 'MOIREMOIREMOIRE' Is a Gleefully Unstable Masterpiece of Sound Design
Fifteen tracks from Ruairi O'Brien, the Texas multi-instrumentalist who has quietly produced three separate Bandcamp Albums of the Day for other people. This is the one under his own name, and Bandcamp Daily calls it 'the best kind of puzzle box.'
The Tubs' 'Hard Life' Is an Exhilarating Masterpiece of Jangle and Spite
The London band's third album and first for Merge — twelve songs of fiddle-flecked jangle-pop sung by two warring personas. It's sitting at an 85 critic average across seven reviews, with Mojo handing it a perfect score.
CULK's 'smogstar' Turns Vienna Post-Punk Toward the Light
The Viennese four-piece's fourth album, produced by Sophie Lindinger of Leyya and My Ugly Clementine and out on Siluh. Ten tracks of German-language post-punk, dream pop and shoegaze that Bandcamp Daily made an Essential Release — looser and more mellow than anything they've done.
Asher White's 'Love Aggregates' Is a Breakup Record That Sounds Like Getting Out
White's second album of 2026 on Joyful Noise, composed, recorded, performed and mixed entirely by her across fifteen months in Providence and Brooklyn. Eleven tracks, four guest players. Bandcamp Daily called it quite possibly her best collection to date.
Blind Yeo's 'The Lemoine Point' Is a Debut That Refuses to Sit Still
A Cornwall collective's debut on Les Disques Bongo Joe, made by a rotating cast who met at a Falmouth arts hub. Eight tracks, recorded on a disused airfield. Bandcamp Daily made it Album of the Day and heard Stereolab in it.
Marci's 'Mask Lady and Late Night Girl' Is a Synth-Pop Record With Two People Living In It
Marta Cikojevic's second album as Marci, co-written and produced with her TOPS bandmate David Carriere, out on Arbutus. A semi-autobiographical split between two characters. Bandcamp Daily made it Album of the Day and called it a masterclass in sharp songwriting.
Black Marble's 'Life in Small Spaces' Picks Up a Guitar and Sounds Livelier Than Ever
Fourteen years and seven releases in, Chris Stewart still writes, records, performs and produces Black Marble entirely alone — and on album eight he finally lets guitars into the room. Eleven tracks, forty-one minutes, and a warmth his vintage-synth records only ever hinted at.
Frances Chang's 'been thinking bout confession' Builds an Orchestra Around a Hundred-Year-Old Piano
Written on a century-old baby grand and recorded between a Sunset Park apartment and a Maspeth studio, Chang's RVNG Intl. debut runs a string quartet, two saxophones and a lot of deliberate silence through her DIY instincts. Forty minutes, eleven songs, no wasted gesture.
Dent May Grows Up (A Little) on 'The Big One'
Dent May's seventh album trades bedroom-pop lo-fi for a fuller studio sound, without sanding off the melodic charm that got him here. A record about a night out on the town — the good parts and the not-so-good parts alike.
Julia Holter Reshapes Her Own Songs Into Something Newly Alive on Materia
A seven-track companion piece to 2024's Something in the Room She Moves, Materia reworks and reshapes earlier material into something that sounds entirely new. God Is in the TV called it 'a transformative experience' despite its short runtime — and they're right.
Kierrr's 'Frail = "me"' Turns a Japanese Summer Into Fractured Memory
This self-released second single from Tokyo's Kierrr is one of the most quietly unsettling things we've heard all month — distorted guitars, whispered vocals, and household-object percussion adding up to something that sounds both beautiful and about to come apart.
Hovvdy's 'Big World' Makes Small Feelings Sound Enormous
Charlie Martin and Will Taylor's move from Austin to Nashville sharpens everything about Hovvdy's sound without losing an ounce of its warmth. Their most colorful, melodically confident record yet.
Neptune's Core Turn Adulthood Into a Hook-Heavy Debut on 'Pivot'
A Chicago band's debut album about growing up, produced with a maximalist-then-minimalist instinct that knows exactly when to cut the clutter. Catchy, cathartic, and genuinely moving.
Margaret Glaspy's 'I Am Both' Strips Everything Back and Says More
Produced by Joe Henry with just four musicians in the room, Glaspy's fourth album trades the guitar-forward attack of 2023's Echo the Diamond for something quieter and more exposed, turning relationship friction into plainspoken folk-pop. No Depression called it 'a masterpiece of simplicity and directness.'
abracadabra's 'peel away' Is Off-Kilter Psych-Pop With a Warm, Radical Heart
The Oakland duo of Hannah Skelton and Chris Niles blend dubby grooves, angular synths, and Talking Heads-via-Stereolab sensibilities into their most introspective EP yet — six songs about luck, privilege, and self-reflection that never stop being fun.
Rachel Chinouriri's 'One Song Away From Crying' Turns a Breakdown Into a Banger
The London singer-songwriter announces album two with a synth-soaked dance track that hides genuine emotional wreckage inside a whispery, club-ready delivery. Instantly infectious, quietly devastating.
sachi's mirror's 'Talking in a Different Way' Is a Woozy, Gorgeous Spell
A 10-track spell of moody sampled textures, gossamer strings, and looped field recordings, out on the tiny ambient-tape institution Constellation Tatsu. Introspective without ever going cold.
The Crying Nudes' 'DJ' Is a Haunting, Thirteen-Minute Masterclass in Restraint
A deliberately mysterious project tied to Dean Blunt's World Music imprint drops a surprise sophomore album that's barely thirteen minutes long and somehow says more than records three times its length.
Sad13's '1331' Proves a One-Minute Song Can Hold a Whole Universe
Sadie Dupuis' first Sad13 release since 2020 is a DIY mixtape of thirteen songs, each under two minutes, written while recovering from a shattered elbow — and it might be some of the sharpest, weirdest songwriting of her career.
Mock Media's 'Rat Bastard' Is a Power-Pop Riot That Refuses to Pick a Lane
The Vancouver-via-Vernon band's most cohesive record yet sounds like The Cars, DEVO, and Talking Heads arguing in the same room and somehow all winning. Small label, huge hooks.
The Healing Power of Horses' 'Summer Indoors' is an Elastic, Mysterious Dream-Pop Debut
A deliberately mysterious East Anglian duo — already a BBC 6 Music Breaking Artist and Loud & Quiet Track of the Week pick — releases four songs of brittle rhythm and blown-out texture on section1, Partisan's sister label.
Panda Bear & Sonic Boom's 'A ? of WHEN' is a Sun-Dappled Marvel of Psych-Pop Craft
Noah Lennox and Peter Kember reunite and refuse to repeat themselves. Harp loops, steel drums, sirens, and Stones-y guitars in a psych-pop kaleidoscope. An endless vat of creativity, per Exclaim — and they're right.
Brokenchord's 'Lima Echo Crack!' is a Motorik Fever-Dream of Spy-Movie Psych-Pop
A Lithuanian one-man band builds a paranoid little spy thriller you can dance to. Krautrock pulse, radio-static texture, hooks smuggled in like microfilm. Scrappy, hypnotic, and impossible to shake.
Olivia Rodrigo Goes New Wave and Sticks the Landing on 'you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love'
The best pure-melody writer of her generation borrows new wave's nervous energy and post-punk's angles, and somehow gets MORE herself. Confidence looks good on heartbreak.
Chanel Beads Rewire the Pop Song on Your Day Will Come
Standard pop songwriting fed through an arcane, intoxicating machine. You'll hum the melodies for days while the undertones quietly rearrange your furniture. Gorgeously unsettling in the best way.
Avalon Emerson & The Charm Swirl Decades Together on Written into Changes
Eighties gothtronica, Bristol pop, and Nineties alt-rock woven into one seamless texture palette. Whimsy powers the swirly production, and the eclecticism spans the globe.
Kim Petras Takes the Best Detour of Her Career
Aughts pop worship colliding with deconstructed club noise and hardstyle techno. High-vis hedonism, maximum commitment, and her best album yet.
Robyn Dances Through Midlife on Sexistential
Robyn tackles motherhood and middle age with disarming candor, set to gleaming machine-pop. The title track alone — intimate voice over mechanistic synths — is vintage Body Talk-era magic.
Grace Ives Does More With Less on Girlfriend
Economical hooks, personality-forward production, zero wasted motion. Girlfriend is alt-pop that trusts a great idea to stand on its own — and every idea here is great.
underscores Goes Full Pop Star on U — And It Rules
A lean, glossy bid for pop stardom that ditches the proggy concept-album scaffolding and just delivers bangers. Sparkles like a classic late-2000s pop record while keeping the post-genre chaos on a leash — barely.