New Album Release Round-Up: February 2026

Every month brings more new music than anyone can reasonably keep up with—even the No Ripcord team.

Our Album Release Round-Up collects the records we didn’t cover in full but still feel are worth your time. The write-ups may be shorter, but the verdicts remain sharp and critical.

Think of it as a spiritual successor to our original Quick Takes feature. No hype, no snark, just honest reviews.

Lucid Express
Instant Comfort
(Kanine)

To find solace from the overwhelming noise of city life, Lucid Express retreated to their studio, located in a mountainous area near central Hong Kong, to focus on their second studio album. On the aptly titled Instant Comfort, the quintet delivers a potent set of balmy shoegaze that offers a subtle refuge amid the conservative political climate of their hometown. The band exudes tender conviction in their overdriven guitars, ably transitioning between shimmering noise (“Setback”) and burnished melodic lines (“Faux Sweetness”) with mixing support from Kurt Feldman, producer of the Pains of Being Pure at Heart. While Instant Comfort could’ve used a little more variety to showcase its fullest potential, it effectively conveys the renewed sense of hope and energy Lucid Express feels within. – Juan Edgardo Rodríguez

Voka Gentle
Domestic Bliss
(state51)

London-based Voka Gentle (formerly Wovoka Gentle) began its life as a folk band, with distant roots in the scene that gave birth to Mumford and Sons. Fear not, though: they’re evolved into a far more interesting proposition over the course of their career. Domestic Bliss is a charming little record, packed full of ideas and unexpected diversions into genres as disparate as post-punk (“Creon 1”), gentle electronica (“You Deserve It!”), and even dance music (“Battle Music (I’m Atomic)”). At times, I even detected a faint Heaven 17 flavour, which, as a fan of the underrated Sheffield legends, is always a delight. – David Coleman

Middleman
Following the Ghost
(Evil Speaker Records)

London’s Middleman play a brand of alternative punk better associated with ’80s US underground rock bands on their debut LP. With its tight but loose mix, Following the Ghost—led by vocalist Noah Alves’ Paul Westerberg-like snarl—balances muscular, fuzz-laden rockers (“Distractions”) and open-hearted rippers (“All But the Flame”) akin to noisy melodic bands like The Men and Dinosaur Jr, respectively. While they stress blistering punk songcraft, all within a snappy 25 minutes, Middleman add plenty of tuneful hooks and guitar solos into a brash yet controlled sound that suggests a promising path ahead. – Juan Edgardo Rodríguez

Ulrika Spacek
EXPO
(Full Time Hobby)

Ulrika Spacek like to push their sound in new and interesting ways. On EXPO, their fourth LP, the Reading, England quintet proposed splicing snippets of pre-recorded material together into fairly structured songs, achieving a spacious feel that is both invigorating and contemplative at the same time. The final result is rich in sonic detail, featuring vocalist-guitarist Rhys Edwards singing softly over a bed of minimal guitars (“Showroom Poetry”) and atonal melodies (“Picto”), all within subtly changing tempos with slick drum parts. And yet, EXPO never sounds fragmented. This is a band that, after all, showed strength in crafting song-oriented psychedelia on their 2023 release, Compact Trauma, which aimed to evoke the musical essence of Deerhunter, one of their key influences. But at the core of the album’s sequencing lies a sense of formalism that, while surely freeing for a band with a penchant for taking risks, loses some emotional impact. – Juan Edgardo Rodríguez

PONY
Clearly Cursed
(Take This to Heart Records)

Toronto’s PONY find themselves in an increasingly crowded field on their third record of bubblegum grunge-pop, Clearly Cursed. While the band demonstrates enough range to torpedo potential dad jokes about one-trick ponies, they very quickly lock into a mid-2000s high school movie soundtrack vibe. Indeed, at one point, I started to wonder if I was listening to Lindsay Lohan’s Freaky Friday garage band. Even when the guitars ramp up a little, as they do on “Every Little Crumb,” Sam Bielanski’s sweet vocals seem to anchor the sound at the pop end of the spectrum, negating any attempt at tonal change and making the whole thing sound more homogenous than it actually is. Title track “Clearly Cursed” is a lovely slice of jangle pop that highlights a potential direction for PONY to pursue. – David Coleman

Heavenly
Highway to Heavenly
(Skep Wax)

Returning after a 30-year absence, Heavenly haven’t lost a step in the slightest. The Oxford indie pop institution’s spry, yet biting LP shares the shambolic charm that made them such a cherished act during their heyday. Wrapped in layers of emotion, the quintet captures a light yet piercing look at many topical issues with a feminist perspective. Whether condemning male oligarch sadsacks (“Press Return”) or coercive partners (“A Different Beat”), they show power in defiance in their bite-sized stories. Less weighty topics abound, too, of course. On “Excuse Me,” the most punk-driven track here, they presumably look back at their teenage lives through a charming meet-cute setup. These tracks resonate through lovely pop music, the core that ties together these songs, but there’s plenty of stylistic range—disco, jangle, chamber pop, Brill Building—to both chew on and delight in. It makes one lament that Heavenly stayed dormant for all this time, but what matters is that they’re here now. – Juan Edgardo Rodríguez

Crooked Fingers
Swet Death
(Merge)

When Archers of Loaf broke up in the late 90s, frontman Eric Bachmann turned his attention to Crooked Fingers, embarking on a six album run between 2000 and 2011. When his primary band reunited, Bachmann shelved Crooked Fingers, but the project’s fifteen year hiatus ends now, with the release of their seventh full-length, Swet Death. As a respected elder statesman figure in indie rock circles, Bachmann has managed to attract some top-tier collaborators, namely Matt Berninger (The National), Mac McCaughan (Superchunk), and Sharon Van Etten. Intriguingly, these guest spots—especially the Van Etten duet “Haunted,” which veers dangerously close to MOR territory—are largely forgettable. While Swet Death’s strongest moments come when Bachmann is front and centre, doing his thing, there is little here to rival his best work. – David Coleman

Fort Not
You On Repeat
(Meritorio)

Madrid’s Meritorio Records have a wonderful knack for unearthing global indie pop gems. You On Repeat, the latest record from Sweden’s Fort Not, follows in the footsteps of recent releases from Canada (Prism Shores) and New Zealand (Fazed on a Pony), and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. A charming fusion of C86-style indie pop and ’90s indie rock, with a hint of Jens Lekman’s songwriting sensibility, You On Repeat offers a welcome dose of sunshine in this interminable British winter. Students of Swedish indie pop will be able to trace its roots back through the Labrador Records roster to the likes of Happydeadmen (look them up). – David Coleman

Buck Meek
The Mirror
(4AD)

Taking into account how the rustic alt-country of his solo work differs from the trippy folk rock of Big Thief, Buck Meek makes musical choices that are not as linear as one might expect. Four albums in, Meek disrupts the rhythm he had established with both by taking a slightly new direction on The Mirror. Sharing more commonalities with the idiosyncratic pop-folk singer-songwriters of the late 90s, Meek guides his raw, mainly acoustic songwriting with tasteful electronic touches that enhance his uplifting melodies. The tracks evoke comparisons to artists like David Gray (“Pretty Flowers”) and Josh Ritter (“Heart In The Mirror”), which may provide a side glance or two but perfectly complement his high-pitched twang. Regardless, Meek brings his own flair to whatever he makes. Even in a more conventional track like “Soul Feeling,” which, with its gritty, amplified guitars, should appeal to those longing for him to return to his old ways. – Juan Edgardo Rodríguez