So, we’re over halfway through 2026. It’s so far been a year of political turbulence in the UK and US (what’s new?), corruption at the World Cup (also, what’s new?) and the regrettable rise of ‘looksmaxxing’ into mainstream popular discourse. But, on the bright side, 2026 has also seen the release of some incredible new music, from returning veterans like Madonna to the emergence of a new crop of artists beginning to redefine the bounds and sounds of popular music.

Below, nine Dazed team members pick their favourite albums of the year so far.

SOLOMON PACE-MCCARRICK, MUSIC WRITER:  UNDERSCORES, U. 

In the past few years, artists making hyper-digital, forward-thinking sounds have been sequestered in the label ‘hyperpop’ – falling just short of branding them pop outright. 26-year-old California-born producer-vocalist Underscores’ third album U, however, marks a point-of-no-return. Her production is unashamedly hyper, maximalist and altogether downwind of Skrillex, but it is also so undeniably catchy – so objectively good – that it’s impossible to deny it the pop label. Speaker-tearing basslines, glittering toplines, endlessly self-sampled and remixed; U is the sort of album that’ll shape a generation to come. 

But, since something also tells me I’m not the only one on the Dazed team in love with this album, I’ll add in an extra curveball: Blumengarten’s radio. Breakout German vocalist-producer duo sporting ethereal alt-pop melodies and chronically Gen Z rap production – tap in. (SPM)

JAMES GREIG, FEATURES EDITOR: KELELA, NEW AVATAR

Kelela first cut her teeth in the DC hardcore scene, before singing in indie rock and even metal bands, and in New Avatar she returns to guitar music, incorporating shoegaze and punk influences into the atmospheric, elegant R&B sound which is recognisably her own. There’s always been a strong current of melancholy to Kelela’s music, and this may be her saddest, most downbeat and reflective album yet. But there are more serene moments (like the gorgeous “new life forms”), and she’s still just as at home on the dance floor: “the bridge”, feat PinkPantheress is sexy, propulsive and subtly euphoric, and to my mind the year’s best song so far (bonus points for the truly excellent music video). New Avatar confirms Kelela as one of our most interesting and consistent artists, someone who is continuously pushing and expanding her sound while retaining an essential essence. 100 per cent pure class. (JG)

THOM WAITE, SENIOR WRITER: BASSVICTIM, ?

I was first introduced to bassvictim’s ? on a trip to Hong Kong, and when “Babcia Jadzia” – in which Maria Manow sings about her late grandmother with a lump in her throat – came on my headphones during a Star Ferry ride... reader, I shed several tears. The follow-up to 2025’s Forever doubles down on the duo’s sincere lyricism and toylike production, but does away with much of the throbbing bass, leaving just the emotional bare bones behind, and it’s even better for it. Is what’s produced by Manow and producer Ike Clateman now something we could dub basspunk? Is it electroclash? Twee-pop? Sleazepop? I find it very hard to care. But it’s music that makes me feel something.(TW)

SERENA SMITH, DEPUTY EDITOR: OLIVIA RODRIGO, YOU SEEM PRETTY SAD FOR A GIRL SO IN LOVE

Maybe I’m biased because she complimented my nose ring during our summer 2026 cover interview (I’m putting that on my gravestone), but Olivia Rodrigo’s you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love is the obvious choice for my favourite album of the year so far. Like many Livies, I was curious – if a bit nervous – to see how Olivia would approach writing about love and relationships as a young adult. How would the 17-year-old who wrote the angsty break-up ballad “drivers license” create music about an adult relationship with fewer extreme highs and lows? Well, with flair, maturity, and intelligence, it turns out.

The album’s first half chronicles the thrill of the early stages of dating – the giddiness and excitement as well as the anxiety and longing – while things take a decidedly darker turn in the second half, with tracks centring on Olivia’s experience of codependency (“purple”), despondence when your partner fails to understand your needs (“begged”), and post-break-up resentment (“cigarette smoke”). I know we still have Q3 and Q4 to go, but I wouldn’t be surprised if, come December, OR3 ended up being my favourite album of the year overall. (SS)

ISABEL BEKELE, US EDITORIAL AND SOCIAL ASSISTANT: FOGGIERAW, WITH NO DUE RESPECT

While it feels strange to call an artist with half a million Instagram followers underrated, I still feel that’s the case for Foggieraw. Earlier this year, the Ghanaian-American rapper released his third studio album, With No Due Respect, to little fanfare, or at least, in my opinion, not nearly enough fanfare. Foggieraw’s strength has always been his clever, often tongue-in-cheek writing, but on With No Due Respect, his pen has never been sharper; during my first listen, there were several times I caught myself chuckling aloud at a rhyme. While the record flew completely under the radar, I still consider it the most impressive release of the year. (IB)

JOELLE ROBINSON, SENIOR CONTENT PRODUCER: NIA ARCHIVES, EMOTIONAL JUNGLIST 

I kicked back to Nia Archives’ new album in my garden, headphones up and the sun on my face. Turns out, this is exactly how you need to listen to it. Emotional Junglist blends the wistfulness of indie rock with the rush of jungle. “Around tha Bend” opens with jangly guitars before the breakbeats kick in – a proper British collision of sound that had me feeling like I was in a teenage coming-of-age film.

Nia folds indie-rock and punk energy into jungle, creating something that feels distinctly Black British to me – unruly, hybrid and impossible to confine to one genre. The album moves from the euphoria of falling in love to the comedown of heartbreak, but my favourite is “Danger” – a raunchy, playful singalong. At this point, headphones came off, and speakers were on full. We also hear Nia’s voice a lot more; on her earlier music, her vocals felt like an occasional treat; on this album she’s as much a singer and songwriter as she is producer and junglist. There are 15 tracks, plenty to indulge in. (JR)

ISOBEL VAN DYKE, LIFE AND STYLE WRITER: NAOMI SCOTT, F.I.G

Take a scroll through Naomi Scott’s discography, and you’ll find that her most played tracks stem from Disney. In 2011, she starred in Lemonade Mouth, the Disney Channel original movie about a high school rock band, and in 2019, she played Princess Jasmine in Guy Ritchie’s (random) remake of Aladdin. Basically, her top four highest streamed tracks – including “A Whole New World” – don’t exactly exude coolness. And yet, Scott surprised us all earlier this year, releasing one of the best pop albums of 2026 so far.

Her debut album, F.I.G (Fall Into Grace), marked a distinct turning point for the actress – reinventing herself with a new career path, new rhubarb hair colour, and new public image. It’s the type of career pivot that could’ve easily seen her locked up in the dreaded Khia Asylum, and yet, F.I.G allowed her to side-step it completely, landing her in her own lane alongside artists such as friend and collaborator, Dev Hynes, Robyn and Caroline Polachek. You can hear Hynes’ influence on the album (both artists grew up in Ilford, east London, and sat down together for Dazed earlier this summer), so if you’re yet to listen, think Blood Orange meets Kylie Minogue meets The Corrs. (IVD)

DANIL BOPARAI, CONTENT STRATEGY DIRECTOR: FAKEMINK, TERRIFIED

“Terrified but we ain't scared” fakemink declares on the Julia Wolf-sampling 51 Ttashpel Pony Ave, and it almost defines his approach to his debut LP. After years of building his reputation through obscure references and internet archaeology, Fakemink’s first true studio statement feels less interested in flipping the past than constructing a world of his own. 

Written after months spent between LA and New York, the album captures the strange loneliness of suddenly becoming the person you'd always imagined. On “Wrong Relief”, he admits, “I’m in LA missing London, money in abundance,” before reducing Hollywood to an “open-air dungeon”, while “Creep” finds him confessing, “Didn’t think I’d ever find love at the Chateau.” The fantasy of fame is still there, but it’s constantly undercut by homesickness, paranoia and the uneasy feeling of being untethered from the life that made him.

Watching fakemink’s live shows over the past year, it’s felt like he’s been growing into this version of himself in real time. Songs like “Playlist”, “Night, Blooming Jasmine” and “Tell Me What You’re Missing” don’t sound like the work of an underground rapper chasing the next viral flip anymore. 

Was it ever going to live up to the self-generated hype? Probably not. But rather than build on his collection of internet-breaking bangers, fakemink used his debut studio album as an opportunity to map his own modern Inferno; a journey from hell to heaven where fame promises transcendence but rarely delivers peace. (DP)

EMILY DINSDALE, ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR: BRIGITTE CALLS ME BABY, IRREVERSIBLE

When I first heard this band, I resisted liking them because they seemed too cartoonishly like a psyop cynically created specifically with me in mind (“Make the singer look even more like James Dean and sing even more like Elvis Presley, that’s right. Make them sound 10 per cent more like The Smiths and crank up the early-2000s garage rock influence by an extra 15 per cent – perfect”). But eventually (after about 48 hours), I gave in to the inevitable and their debut album, The Future Is Our Way Out (2024), has haunted me like a lover ever since. 

Their follow-up record, Irreversible, retains the elements I loved from their first album (guitars, seductive choruses, a nostalgic, romantic sensibility, the feeling that they are operating on a different timeline), with the added menacing grandeur of 1980s new wave synths. These Acts of Which We’re Designed is the moody and darkly glamorous apex. Meanwhile, Truth is Stranger Than Fiction, Slumber Party and I Danced With Another Love in My Dream are so irresistible, they will get into your head on a cellular level if you’re not careful. (ED)