The Best Albums of 2026 (So Far)

Posted by Jason Tate
Best of 2026 (So Far)

We are once again halfway through the year, and that means it’s time to reflect on the best albums of the year (so far). Below, you will find both our combined staff top 30, as well as individual lists from our contributors and moderators. And, as always, we hope you’ll find something new to love.

Note: You can share your own list in our music forum.

The Top Albums of 2026 (So Far)

  1. Olivia Rodrigo – You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl in Love
  2. Death Cab for Cutie – I Built You a Tower
  3. Joyce Manor – I Used To Go To This Bar
  4. The Maine – Joy Next Door
  5. The Format – Boycott Heaven
  6. Holly Humberstone – Cruel World
  7. Super Sometimes – Show the World What’s Underneath
  8. Hilary Duff – Luck… or Something
  9. American Football – LP4
  10. MUNA – Dancing on the Wall
  11. Noah Kahan – The Great Divide
  12. Koyo – Barely Here
  13. Static Dress – Injury Episode
  14. The Academy Is… – Almost There
  15. New Found Glory – Listen Up!
  16. Zach Bryan – With Heaven On Top
  17. Harry Styles – Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally
  18. Johnny Blue Skies – Mutiny After Midnight
  19. Snail Mail – Ricochet
  20. I Am the Avalanche – The Horror Show
  21. Adorn – Let Love Remain
  22. Bleachers – Everyone for Ten Minutes
  23. Kacey Musgraves – Middle of Nowhere
  24. Footballhead – Weight of the Truth
  25. Isaiah Rashad – It’s Been Awful
  26. Mumford & Sons – Prizefighter
  27. Dermot Kennedy – The Weight of the Woods
  28. Maisie Peters – Florescence
  29. Vince Staples – Cry Baby
  30. Skrillex – Soma

The Playlist

Looking for an easy way to check out all of the albums in our top thirty? We’ve got a playlist for that. You’ll find one on Apple Music and one on Spotify with one great song from each great album.

The Nerd Stat Stuff

Our final compiled list was put together using our ranking algorithm. There were 8 contributors and 121 unique albums across all of the lists. In total, 40 albums out of the 114 were on more than one list with the number one album appearing on 5 of the 8 lists.

Contributor Lists

Jason Tate

  1. Super Sometimes – Show the World What’s Underneath
  2. Holly Humberstone – Cruel World
  3. MUNA – Dancing on the Wall
  4. Footballhead – Weight of the Truth
  5. The Academy Is… – Almost There
  6. The Maine – Joy Next Door
  7. Static Dress – Injury Episode
  8. The Format – Boycott Heaven
  9. A Wilhelm Scream – Cheap Heat
  10. New Found Glory – Listen Up!
  11. The All-American Rejects – Sandbox
  12. Death Cab for Cutie – I Built You a Tower
  13. Maisie Peters – Florescence
  14. Bleachers – Everyone for Ten Minutes
  15. I Am the Avalanche – The Horror Show
  16. Koyo – Barely Here
  17. Olivia Rodrigo – You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl in Love
  18. Niall Horan – Dinner Party
  19. Hillary Duff – Luck… or something
  20. Harry Styles – Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally
  21. Story of the Year – A.R.S.O.N
  22. Zach Bryan – With Heaven on Top
  23. Noah Kahan – The Great Divide
  24. Tigers Jaw – Lost on You
  25. Young the Giant – Victory Garden
  26. NVM – Postictal
  27. Donovan Woods – Squander Your Gifts
  28. American Football – LP4
  29. Joyce Manor – I Used to Go to This Bar
  30. Adorn – Let Love Remain

My favorite album of the year so far matches up with my most played: Super Sometimes. It’s an album that reminds me of summer vacation, fresh cut grass, and an open road of endless possibilities with nothing to do except get sun burned and get my heart broken. A reminder that pop-punk lives on. And, it just makes me happy as hell to listen to.

The Stats: For the first half of the year, I’ve listened to 942 albums, 383 artists, and 8,466 songs (15,130 scrobbles). My most played album of the year so far is Super Sometimes’ Show the World’s What’s Underneath. And, my most played artist so far is Green Day. If you’d like to follow more of my listening habits, please subscribe to my newsletter or check out my blog.

Adam Grundy

  1. Olivia Rodrigo – you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love
  2. Broadside – Nowhere, At Last
  3. The Format – Boycott Heaven
  4. Greywind – Severed Heart City
  5. Ratboys – Singin’ To An Empty Chair
  6. Social Distortion – Born To Kill
  7. The Leaving – Ultimate Buzz
  8. Koyo – Barely Here
  9. Evanescence – Sanctuary
  10. Super Sometimes – Show The World What’s Underneath
  11. Sleeping With Sirens – An Ending In Itself
  12. Charlotte Sands – Satellite
  13. Snail Mail – Ricochet
  14. Johnny Blue Skies & The Dark Clouds – Mutiny After Midnight
  15. The Maine – Joy Next Door
  16. PONY – Clearly Cursed
  17. MUNA – Dancing On The Wall
  18. New Found Glory – Listen Up!
  19. Story of the Year – A.R.S.O.N.
  20. Seafret – Sea Of Emotion
  21. American Football – American Football (4)
  22. I Am The Avalanche – The Horror Show
  23. Bleachers – Everyone For Ten Minutes
  24. The Academy Is… – Almost There
  25. Young The Giant – Victory Garden
  26. Metric – Romanticize The Dive
  27. Violet Grohl – Be Sweet To Me
  28. Gorillaz – The Mountain
  29. Charli XCX – Wuthering Heights
  30. Mumford & Sons – Prizefighter

Craig Manning

  1. Holly Humberstone – Cruel World
  2. Olivia Rodrigo – You seem pretty sad for a girl so in love
  3. The Maine – Joy Next Door
  4. The Format – Boycott Heaven
  5. Noah Kahan – The Great Divide
  6. Tenille Townes – The Acrobat
  7. Harry Styles – Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally.
  8. The Academy Is – Almost There
  9. Death Cab for Cutie – I Built You a Tower
  10. Maisie Peters – Florescence
  11. U2 – Days of Ash/Easter Lily
  12. Swim Deep – Hum
  13. Kacey Musgraves – Middle of Nowhere
  14. Donovan Woods – Squander Your Gifts
  15. Dermot Kennedy – The Weight of the Woods
  16. Bleachers – Everyone for Ten Minutes
  17. Switchfoot – Forever Now
  18. Ella Langley – Dandelion
  19. Super Sometimes – Show the World What’s Underneath
  20. Bre Kennedy – The Alchemist
  21. Mumford & Sons – Prizefighter
  22. MUNA – Dancing on the Wall
  23. Sam Barber – Broken View
  24. Megan Moroney – Cloud 9
  25. Hilary Duff – Luck… or Something

Ashley Perez

  1. Lip Critic – Theft World
  2. Nine Inch Nails & Boyz Noise – Nine Inch Noize
  3. Brigitte Calls Me Baby – Irreversible
  4. TVAM – Ruins
  5. Haute & Freddy – Big Disgrace
  6. Genesis Owusu – REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE
  7. Gorillaz – The Mountain
  8. HANABIE. – HOT TOPIC
  9. Rob Zombie – The Great Satan
  10. The Twilight Sad – IT’S THE LONG GOODBYE
  11. Bibi Club – Amaro

Garrett Lemons

  1. Sam Barber – Broken View
  2. Zach Bryan – With Heaven On Top
  3. Noah Kahan – The Great Divide
  4. Bilmuri – Kinda Hard
  5. August Burns Red – Season of Surrender
  6. Adorn – Let Love Remain
  7. Dermot Kennedy – The Weight of the Woods
  8. Hillary Duff – luck…or something
  9. Koyo – Barely Here
  10. Mumford & Sons – Prizefighter
  11. Joyce Manor – I Used To Go To This Bar
  12. Luke Combs – The Way I Am
  13. Skrillex – Soma
  14. New Found Glory – Listen Up!
  15. American Football – LP4
  16. Death Cab for Cutie – I Built You a Tower
  17. Charli XCX – Wuthering Heights OST
  18. Converge – Love Is Not Enough
  19. The Red Clay Strays – Grateful
  20. The Maine – Joy Next Door
  21. ERRA – silence outlives the earth
  22. Haste the Day – Dissenter
  23. Static Dress – Injury Episode
  24. Ty Myers – Heavy on the Soul
  25. Johnny Blue Skies – Mutiny After Midnight
  26. idle threat – you’ll forget the sun
  27. John Summit – CTRL Escape
  28. Muna – Dancing on the Wall
  29. Kacey Musgraves – Middle of Nowhere
  30. Holly Humberstone – Cruel World

Aaron Mook

  1. Earl Sweatshirt, Mike, and Surf Gang – POMPEII // UTILITY
  2. feeble little horse – bitknot
  3. ear – Rumspringa
  4. Death Cab for Cutie – I Built You a Tower
  5. Modest Mouse – An Eraser and a Maze
  6. Porches – MASK
  7. Navy Blue – Sir Render
  8. Joyce Manor – I Used to Go to This Bar
  9. Boards of Canada – Inferno
  10. Olivia Rodrigo – you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love
  11. A$AP Rocky – Don’t Be Dumb
  12. Vince Staples – Cry Baby
  13. Snail Mail – Ricochet

Dustin Harkins

  1. Olivia Rodrigo – you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love
  2. Holly Humberstone – Cruel World
  3. Adorn – Let Love Remain
  4. Roc Marciano – 656
  5. The Saddest Landscape – Alone With Heaven
  6. Isaiah Rashad – It’s Been Awful
  7. Johnny Blue Skies & the Dark Clouds – Mutiny After Midnight
  8. IVE – REVIVE+
  9. Baby Keem – Ca$ino
  10. Chalk – Crystalpunk
  11. Avalon Emerson – Written into Changes
  12. I Am The Avalanche – The Horror Show
  13. Skrillex – SOMA
  14. Joyce Manor – I Used To Go To This Bar
  15. Kacey Musgraves – Middle of Nowhere
  16. Angel Du$t – Cold 2 the Touch
  17. Madison Beer – locket
  18. Zach Bryan – With Heaven On Top
  19. Harry Styles – Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.
  20. IDK – e.t.d.s. A Mixtape by .idk.
  21. Super Sometimes – Show the World What’s Underneath
  22. Goose – Big Modern!
  23. Converge – Hum of Hurt
  24. Nine Inch Nails & Boyz Noise – Nine Inch Noize
  25. Mitski – Nothing’s About To Happen To Me
  26. Raye – This Music May Contain Hope
  27. Friko – Something Worth Waiting For
  28. Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso – Free Spirits
  29. UnityTX – Somewhere, In Between…
  30. The Maine – Joy Next Door

Trevor Graham

  1. Art School Girlfriend – Lean In
  2. American Football – LP4
  3. Basement – Wired
  4. Arlo Parks – Ambiguous Desire
  5. Static Dress – Injury Episode
  6. Widowspeak – Roses
  7. Exiter – Temporary Empty
  8. Footballhead – Weight Of The Truth
  9. Isaiah Rashad – IT’S BEEN AWFUL
  10. Feeble Little Horse – Bitknot
  11. Fazed On A Pony – swan
  12. Vince Staples – Cry Baby
  13. Hammok – When Does This Place Become Our Scene
  14. Joyce Manor – I Used To Go To This Bar
  15. Lucky – Biting Heels
  16. Tierra Whack – WHACK’S MUSEUM
  17. Action Bronson – Planet Frog
  18. Hilary Duff – luck… or something
  19. Death Cab For Cutie – I Built You A Tower
  20. Nothing – a short history of decay
  21. Snail Mail – Ricochet
  22. red sun – At Their Very Best
  23. Oakwood – Blurred Away
  24. Tiger’s Jaw – Lost On You
  25. Jadasea – Holly Grove
  26. Ratboys – Singin’ To An Empty Chair
  27. Thundercat – Distracted
  28. Knumears – Directions
  29. Boards Of Canada – Inferno
  30. Holly Humberstone – Cruel World