Arts / Music
Four new albums span folk, electronic, and indie pop
Violet Haze, Orbital Shift, The Willows, and Mercury Jeans deliver distinct takes on contemporary songwriting and production.
Three fresh albums arrive this week from emerging artists across indie rock, experimental electronics, and folk, each offering a distinct take on contemporary production and songwriting. The releases reflect current trends toward sparse instrumentation paired with densely layered vocal production, a sound that rewards close listening on good speakers or headphones.
Violet Haze, Late Peripheral
Violet Haze’s debut album Late Peripheral is a tightly wound collection of nine songs built on minimalist guitar arrangements and almost whispered vocals, with production so clean you can hear the breath between phrases. The Portland-based artist, backed by a band of session players from the experimental music scene, constructs emotional landscapes from the smallest sonic gestures: the decay of a piano note, a single synth pad, Haze’s voice layered in close harmony with itself.
The standout track, “Threshold,” builds over five minutes from a solo acoustic guitar to a wall of strings and subtle electronics without ever feeling manipulative or overwrought. Lyrically, Haze explores themes of waiting and transition with poetic abstraction, never quite naming the emotional circumstance but making its shape palpable. Late Peripheral succeeds most fully in its middle movements; some early cuts and the album’s final two tracks lack the arresting clarity of the centerpiece. Still, this is one of the more patient and affecting albums of the season.
Orbital Shift, Frequency Mapping
New York producer Orbital Shift returns with Frequency Mapping, a collection of instrumental electronic pieces that dance between ambient drone, glitchy beat-making, and something approaching maximalist techno. The album spans 12 untitled tracks, each named only for the predominant frequency range it occupies (100Hz, 250Hz, 1200Hz, etc.), a conceit that initially feels gimmicky but proves surprisingly useful as a listening map.
The production across these pieces is immaculate, with every texture earning its presence and nothing wasted. “250Hz” is built almost entirely from the processed sound of footsteps and creaking floorboards, transformed into something rhythmic and oddly danceable. “800Hz” pairs a simple sine wave bass with stuttering vocal samples and field recordings of urban traffic. The album’s central sequence, tracks 5 through 8, achieves an almost hypnotic quality through repetition and textural variation that recalls Fennesz or early Oneohtrix Point Never. Late album movements lose some forward momentum, but Frequency Mapping proves that instrumental electronic music can still surprise in 2026.
The Willows, Crooked Paths
Folk duo The Willows make their third appearance as a band with Crooked Paths, a return to the more intimate acoustic guitar and voice approach that made their 2021 self-titled album memorable. Emma Travers and Michael Cho recorded Crooked Paths in the course of six weeks across three studios in Vermont, capturing the songs live with minimal overdubs and arranged for voice, two acoustic guitars, and occasional cello.
The songwriting here is strong, built on concrete narratives and conversational dialogue between Travers and Cho’s voices. “Frost,” the album’s opening track, narrates the end of a rural relationship through the lens of a house falling into disrepair; “Riverbed” uses the metaphor of seasonal flooding to explore emotional cyclicity. The album’s 11 songs create a coherent mood without sacrificing individuality, and the guitar work on tracks like “Windmill” shows real technical growth since the duo’s last release. Some listeners may find the production lacking punch or the arrangements too traditional, but for those drawn to contemporary folk made without irony, Crooked Paths is essential listening.
Mercury Jeans, Neon Transit
Los Angeles synthpop trio Mercury Jeans offer the week’s most purely enjoyable pop album with Neon Transit, a collection of dance-inflected songs about urban loneliness, unrequited attraction, and the sublime surfaces of contemporary life. The album is unabashedly fun, built on bright synthesizers, crisp drum machines, and vocalist Isabella Cruz’s assured, conversational delivery.
“Aquamarine” and “Crossing” are instant earworms, the kind of songs you’ll find yourself humming involuntarily; “Heat Shimmer” pairs a propulsive beat with clever wordplay about desire and distance. The album’s 34-minute runtime never overstays its welcome, and there’s something refreshing about a band uninterested in irony or meta-commentary, simply delivering well-crafted pop songs with energy and heart. Fans of 1980s synthpop or contemporary indie pop alike will find much to enjoy on Neon Transit.