January Recap

The First 31 New (To Me) Albums I Listened to in 2026—Year Two of My Favorite New Year's Resolution Ever

In 2025, I decided that everyday, I would listen to one full album. About a month in, I decided it would be more effective, more enjoyable a resolution, if each of those albums were new to me, so I adopted a criteria that I could not know more than two songs on an album for it to be eligible. As a result, I discovered some truly incredible music, music that I still cannot believe I have gone my whole life without knowing. It also led me to the understanding that there is still so much great music that I have yet to discover in my life, and that this is absolutely a resolution that I should continue.

So far in year two, this has remained one of my favorite parts of my days, discovering new artists and songs that have already grown to hold meaning in my life. I can’t wait to continue sharing that music on this platform, in what has become one of my favorite parts of my months!

*I recognize January has been over for two full weeks, it’s been a long start to the year (not entirely in a bad way,) I apologize, and hopefully February’s recap will not be anywhere near this delayed

**Switching to Apple Music has proven much more difficult for me to adjust to than anticipated but the 2026 playlist of my favorite songs from each album is coming shortly:’)

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January 1st - Still by Erika de Casier

January 2nd - Chiaroscuro by Ocean Alley

January 3rd - Live Laugh Love by Earl Sweatshirt

January 4th - We Are Not Rappers by CashGang Mike

January 5th - Blanket by Kevin Abstract

January 6th - EUSEXUA by FKA twigs

January 7th - Man’s Best Friend by Sabrina Carpenter

January 8th - Tusk by Fleetwood Mac

January 9th - Landmark by Hippo Campus

January 10th - LIVE.LOVE.A$AP by A$AP ROCKY

January 11th - Ace by Bob Weir

January 12th - Arco Iris by Skybox

January 13th - Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers

January 14th - Star Wars by Wilco

January 15th - Black Swan by Athlete

January 16th - Everybody Good? by Black Milk

January 17th - Midas by Wunderhorse

January 18th - Overwhelmed and Underdressed by Walter Mitty and His Makeshift Orchestra

January 19th - Hotter Than July by Stevie Wonder

January 20th - Play by Ed Sheeran

January 21st - 666 by Sugar Candy Mountain

January 22nd - Chet by Chet Baker

January 23rd - A Love Supreme by John Coltrane

January 24th - Dreamland by Glass Animals

January 25th - Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party by Hayley Williams

January 26th - SWAG by Justin Bieber

January 27th - Year of the Cartographer by Quiet Arrows

January 28th - Bizarre Ride II by the Pharcyde

January 29th - How Did I Get Here? by Louis Tomlinson

January 30th - Desperado by Eagles

January 31st - Gloom Cruise by Walter Etc.

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5. 666 by Sugar Candy Mountain (8.6/10)

This year, I’ve been doing things a bit differently, and I’ve actually been scoring the albums I’ve been listening to on a scale of 1-10. Where last year my list of favorites each month was based solely on vibes, this year it’s based on a number that’s based on vibes. 666 was an album that didn’t totally stick with me throughout the month, but when I listened to it the first time, I was certainly impressed enough to give the album a rating of 8.6/10 (my selection this month was a tad lackluster). In fact, it wasn’t until I sat down to write my recap of the month that I finally listened to it for the second time, and my initial impression was reaffirmed. This album is weird, but in the best possible way. Some tracks embed themselves in your body and allow you to fully feel the instruments and vocals on all fronts, while others are so odd, borderline unsettling, like a car wreck so awful that it is nothing short of a miracle that no one was hurt.

The title track is a hell of a driver, the lyrical refrain of simply “666” over and over is so dreamlike, ethereal, it almost makes you forget you’re awake. The album then transitions from one kind of hypnosis in “666” to another kind of equally hypnotic musicality in “Atlas.” The song kind of starts mid-song, as in it just drops you in the middle of a note without warning, and there is a whole mosaic of synthesizers and other oddities that invoke that sort of unsettling feeling at times. “Who I am” was my favorite track on this album, primarily because I think it is the best representation of the spectrum of sounds and feelings present throughout 666. That song holds moments of pure dream pop, a steady guitar line that is as alternative as it gets, and vocal harmonies that could, in another life, be perfectly suited to the radio. Though 666 in general is far from radio-friendly, I think that kind of palatability, when it’s not necessarily at the forefront, does wonders for an album like this.

4. Tusk by Fleetwood Mac (8.6/10)

It’s no secret that Fleetwood Mac’s dual magnum opuses came in 1975 and 1977 with Fleetwood Mac and Rumours. I have always been told, and certainly believed that nothing else they had ever done had come close. Upon listening to my first Fleetwood Mac album outside of those two, I have come to the conclusion that that statement, while still true, is not nearly as true as I had initially believed. Their 1979 follow up to Rumours doesn’t quite match up to its greatness, but Tusk is still a fantastic album in its own right. At first, I was a bit intimidated—20 songs is a lot for a non-deluxe release. After doing some research, though (and this is part of why I hate streaming services), I learned that those 20 songs actually comprise four sides of the full album, all at five songs each. When you think of it that way, it’s a lot easier to visualize the album as the saga the band clearly intended it to be.

Admittedly, side one was not my favorite. It was good, the songs were enjoyable to listen to, but I found myself struggling to really lean into them. They were upbeat, but lacked the passion of the upbeat tracks that I was used to from these guys. Once I arrived at side two, however, there was no going back. Sides two, three, and four were about as great a follow up to Rumours as one could hope to get. “Beautiful Child” immediately made its way onto a handful of my other playlists, “Storms” is the kind of Stevie Nicks song that reminds me just how much I adore her, and the title track seems to have that upbeat Fleetwood Mac magic that may have been a bit lacking on side one. As any fan of ‘70s rock music knows, nothing could ever touch Fleetwood Mac and Rumours, but if your knowledge of this band ends there, I beg of you, listen to Tusk.

3. Ace by Bob Weir (8.7/10)

Whenever a music great passes away, I always make it a point to pay tribute in my listening on that day. I have always been a casual fan of the Grateful Dead, but never a big enough fan to dive into any of their solo work. My best friend is a major fan of the Dead, and thus Bob Weir, so even if I didn’t feel his loss as profoundly as much of the rest of the music world, the peripheral pain over his passing was definitely overflowing. I went to his solo artist page and chose an album of his to listen to in order to pay tribute, and landed on what is widely considered one of his greatest: Ace. I was surprised to have never even heard of this album before listening, and I was even more surprised by how much it just sounds like a Grateful Dead album. I’m not very well-versed in jam bands, or even really the Dead if I’m being honest, but Ace bore such a resemblance in my mind to American Beauty, and it made me love it even more.

In reflecting on this album, especially in relation to all the other albums I listened to in January, I realized that it wasn’t exactly the most memorable album. I loved “Cassidy,” and “One More Saturday Night” stuck out as well, but overall, the songs on this album didn’t totally stick in my brain as much as the songs on a lot of the other albums I listened to this month, but I think, because of that fact, Ace is the album that made jam bands really click for me. The songs don’t necessarily need to be catchy for them to work; they just need for the listener to feel them in the moment. And man did I feel—do I still feel—this album in the moment. There is a certain subset of musicians who, when their time comes, cause the world to stop turning for a moment. When Bob Weir passed last month, the world stopped turning for quite a few moments. Should anyone feel a need to understand why that was the case, I would point them in the direction of Ace, and let the music speak for itself.

2. Desperado by Eagles (8.8/10)

While classic rock is undoubtedly one of my top three favorite genres of music, the Eagles have always been a bit of a blindspot. Of course, as a guitarist, I adore “Hotel California,” but aside from that, I don’t know that there are many Eagles songs that have made their way into any of my playlists or my library really at all. Thus, an Eagles album was very long overdue in my rotation. I chose Desperado because I had heard “Tequila Sunrise” once or twice before, and because I know this album is considered essential listening, and I am so glad I did. Even with the overt country twang in some of the early tracks, something I notoriously make it a point to stay away from, it didn’t even take me one full song to understand why people love the Eagles as much as they do.

“Doolin-Dalton” had me locked in from the jump, and I was totally bought in for the remainder of the album. Unexpectedly, though, it wasn’t the guitar that really caught or even kept my attention like I maybe thought it would—it was the vocals that got to me on this album. “Tequila Sunrise” is a song that I couldn’t believe I didn’t know particularly well before listening to Desperado in its entirety. Glenn Frey’s vocals on that song embedded themselves deep in my mind, and as a long-time fan of Don Henley’s vocals (if for no other reason than “Boys of Summer”) it was the pipes on this album that blew me away. The title track, too, is another stand out that became an instant contender for what I believe to be Henley’s greatest vocal performance. Although certainly overdue and far too delayed, I’m glad this album was my formal introduction to the Eagles. And I think it’s safe to say I’ll be listening to a lot more from here on out.

1. Gloom Cruise by Walter Etc. (9.0/10)

Walter Etc., also known as Walter Mitty and His Makeshift Orchestra, are responsible for not one but two phenomenal albums that I discovered this month. Overwhelmed and Underdressed was the band’s third release under the name Walter Mitty and His Makeshift Orchestra, and when I came upon Gloom Cruise, the only album this month that broke the plane of 9/10, I actually wasn’t aware that Walter Etc. was the same band. When I first heard it, I loved Overwhelmed and Underdressed. When I first heard Gloom Cruise, claiming that ‘I loved it’ would’ve been a massive understatement. This is by far the album I’ve listened to the most since hearing it for the first time, and it’s only been about two weeks. I’ve been trying to hold off on listening to the rest of their discography until April, since my new albums in February (Black History Month) are all Black artists and March (Women’s History Month) they will be all women, but every time I listen to Gloom Cruise it gets harder and harder for me to stay patient—if the rest of their discography is anything like this album, I think Walter Etc. (and Walter Mitty and His Makeshift Orchestra) could easily become one of my favorite bands.

One of the only cool things about having switched from Spotify to Apple Music is that I often kept track of songs that came on my Discover Weekly, that I shazamed, or heard on the radio, etc. by liking them on Spotify, and when I transferred my library, all of the liked songs showed up in my new library as albums alongside all the full-length albums I had transferred, too. I listened to this album in its entirety because there was a song already in my library, and though I unfortunately don’t remember what that song was, I do know that it could honestly have been any one of the ten tracks on this album—all of them are just that great. “Stumptown Summer Heartthrob” won the battle for my number one favorite, “April 41st,” “Petunia You’re Home,” and “Tiger Lily” were all major standouts, too. I don’t know how I stumbled upon this band, who are surprisingly pretty small, but I could not be happier that I did, and I also wish they had a following about ten times larger than they do. They absolutely deserve it.

Again, sincere apologies for getting my recap of the month of January out on February 16th. Be on the lookout for February’s recap, which will be coming (probably) no later than two weeks from now. Please please please feel free to comment some recs for February and March, too! February has been all about R&B and ‘90s rap, so any recs of that nature would be much appreciated, and for March, I would love some hardcore female rock vocalists, but as always, I’m open to just about anything!