SOME FEAR • “DIA” • 2026

 

With their sophomore album, Word Eater, Some Fear moves toward a more deliberate and polished production style. While their previous work established their lo fi foundations, this record explores greater sonic density and a shift toward a higher fidelity sound.

MAD HONEY • “MOSHFEGHIAN” • 2026

Mad Honey announced their new record last month with “Reaching” and “Marie’s Song,” permeating the band’s sound with their growth and friendship. Stereogum shared the news, praising the new songs by saying, “‘Reaching’ is a soft and detached chug… 'Marie's Song' is the one that really convinced me to post this one. It's a soft, longing slowcore lullaby with some absolutely shattering vocals from bandleader Tuff Sutcliffe.”

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ifitbeyourwill Podcast #171 • The Leaf Library

The Leaf Library Have Been Right This Whole Time

Six years is a long time to believe in something. Matt, the engine behind The Leaf Library, will tell you it requires a specific kind of delusion — the ability to convince yourself, and eventually everyone around you, that the record you're making is worth the time, the money, and the slow erosion of certainty. After the Rain, Strange Seeds is proof that the delusion held.

The band's fourth album landed on Fika Records this past March, and it sounds like exactly what it is: decades of instinct refined into something weightless. Dream pop that leans pastoral, folk textures dissolving into lo-fi haze, Kate's vocals sitting just above the mix like something half-remembered. It's the kind of record that doesn't announce itself — it accumulates.

In this conversation, Matt traces the long road here: a Stereolab ad in Reading, a John Peel spin, a DIY infrastructure that taught him more about music than any lesson could. He talks about the band's finally-settled lineup, the collaborative friendship with Kate that stretches back to 1996, and a forthcoming project built around drones traded with Japanese artist Teriyuki Kurohara. He's thoughtful, self-deprecating, and quietly certain that this one cut through for a reason.

He's right. Go listen. 

the-leaf-library-the-ivy-house

Sungaze • I'm No Longer Afraid of Heights • 2026

https://www.sungazemusic.com/

Helmed by songwriters Ian Hilvert and Ivory Snow, Sungaze examine nostalgia without rose-colored glasses on their fullest exploration of Midwest emo, shoegaze, and alt-rock to date. "I'm No Longer Afraid of Heights" opens with slide guitar floating atop acoustic guitar and a steady drum beat, immediately invoking those long summer days of childhood when the world felt full of possibility, before the first chorus quietly shifts the emotional weight from comfort toward resigned hopelessness, even as Snow's vocal delivery barely changes. 

A poignant bridge confronts time's indifference head-on, propelling the song away from resignation and toward something more urgent. The music video, shot over three days in the small Ohio town that inspired the song, uses water, movement, and live performance as parallel paths toward release, with a dual ending cutting between Snow floating serenely in a childhood river spot in office attire, and crowd-surfing at a Sungaze show in a white lace dress.

Michael Feuerstack • Big Sails • 2024

michaelfeuerstack.com

Common Holly • They will draw halos around our heads EP • 2026

commonholly.com

Zoh Amba • "Another Time” • 2026

linktr.ee/zohamba

 

On Eyes Full, every song circles the idea of seeing and being seen. The album looks closely at the lives of working-class people in small towns, and its cast of characters — from a kid benumbed by medication to a man who plays hide-and-seek with God — are drawn with an aching, unsentimental tenderness. “I hope these songs touch people’s hearts,” Amba says. “They’re about people who really need to be seen and heard.” klof

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #170 • The New Cut

The New Cut: Grungy, Clunky, and Completely Themselves

Bristol's The New Cut don't fit neatly anywhere — and that's exactly the point. On this week's episode, frontman Henry Gerrard joined us from across the pond to talk about the band's new EP, their reputation as a live act, and the long road from writing embarrassing teenage songs to making music that actually tells the truth.

Henry opened up about growing up with OCD, feeling socially disconnected, and how songwriting became the language he could use when small talk failed him. It's the kind of conversation that reminds you why music matters beyond the noise.

The New Cut are gigging across the UK this April, and if you can get to a show, get there. This is a band best experienced loud.

New episode of If It Be Your Will is out now — listen wherever you get your podcasts.

https://thenewcut.lnk.to/SleepersMourners

They Might Be Giants • Outside Brain • 2026

They Might Be Giants treat the entire history of popular music as a trampoline rather than a rulebook. Like two pinballs pinging off each other through musical murals stretching into a giddy ether, TMBG moves by ricochet. On their upcoming album The World Is to Dig (due April 14th, 2026, from Idlewild Recordings), the multi-Grammy-winning duo carry on bouncing through the pop multiverse, digging into whatever they find with playful zeal. 

John Linnell and John Flansburgh continue to fire ideas off one another like particles in a perpetual motion experiment, each collision producing a new angle, a new melodic left turn, resulting in tracks packed with esoteric references, mischievous details, and left-field detours. Untethered from trends, immune to nostalgia, and equally ready to draw from Tin Pan Alley theatrics and contemporary pop culture references, The World Is to Dig is the sound of a band very much in motion; not chasing relevance but generating it on their own terms. 

 

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The Great Emu War Casualties • Public Sweetheart No.1 • 2026

thegreatemuwarcasualties.com

Tom Rosenthal • Uncontrollably • 2022

 

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above me • Soften The Blows • 2026

above me is the main songwriting vehicle for SF based artist Rick Altieri, formerly of Blue Ocean and drummer in Aluminum. A project defined by guitar driven pop songs reinforced with drum machines, sampled beats, dreamy synths and strange sound design treats.

Equally rooted in the realms of shoegaze and sample based electronica, above me doesn’t set out to reinvent any particular sound but pays homage to a wide variety of influences from mbv and Chapterhouse to Autechre and OPN.