New Releases Radar — Week of May 22–29, 2026

Boards of Canada returned after 13 years. Drake placed three albums at the top of the Billboard 200 simultaneously. Latto hinted this might be her last record. If you needed evidence that not every Friday is created equal, this is your week.

Across five genres, it was a May window defined by artists at inflection points — arrivals after long silences, potential final statements, and a few quieter records that deserved more noise than they got. Here's what earned your listening time.

The week's headline arrival was unambiguous. Boards of Canada — the Scottish electronic duo of Marcus Eoin and Michael Sandison — released Inferno (Warp Records) on May 29, their first album since Tomorrow's Harvest in 2013. 1 Pitchfork awarded it Best New Album with a score of 8.6. Reviewer Philip Sherburne wrote: "Laced with occult imagery and enigmatic samples, the Scottish duo's immersive new album — their first in 13 years — offers some of the most captivating music of their career." 1 The album uses hexagonal imagery as its visual motif and blends esoteric sampling with wider dynamic range than their earlier work — Sherburne hears it as the most immediately satisfying BOC record since Geogaddi. The Guardian dissented sharply, calling the comeback "a big disappointment" and criticizing the religious themes and drum programming. 2 Community reaction on r/boardsofcanada landed close to the Pitchfork read, with users ranking Inferno alongside Geogaddi — second in their catalog, behind only Music Has the Right to Children.

Ed O'Brien — Radiohead's guitarist — released his second solo album, Blue Morpho (Transgressive Records), on May 28. 4 Pitchfork scored it 7.7. Reviewer Stuart Berman called it "a much more confident, cohesive follow-up," noting how O'Brien weaves Brazilian influences, vintage rocktronica, and string arrangements (the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra appears; Shabaka Hutchings plays flute) into something genuinely his own. O'Brien described the record in interviews as born out of a deep depression that followed the pandemic-interrupted promotion of his first LP, Earth (released under the EOB alias in 2020) — this one was written as a form of recovery. 4

Olivia Rodrigo — the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter who broke through with Sour (2021) — released "The Cure" (Geffen) on May 22, the second single from her forthcoming third album You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love. 5 It earned Pitchfork's Best New Track designation. The five-minute song opens on acoustic guitar before string and piano layers build; Rodrigo called it the "thesis statement" for the new album. Critic Quinn Moreland wrote: "There's no toxic ex to rage against, only her own reflection" — a pointed note about the song's inward turn compared to GUTS and Sour. 5

NPR's New Music Friday Starting 5 for May 29 also included feeble little horse (bitknot, Saddle Creek — for fans of Sonic Youth and Alex G), Greg Mendez (Beauty Land, Dead Oceans — described by Pitchfork as "a delicate, open-hearted ode to smallness"), Iceage (For Love of Grace & the Hereafter, Mexican Summer — the Danish post-punk group, for Primal Scream and Velvet Underground fans), and Kurt Vile (Philadelphia's Been Good To Me, Verve — The Guardian called it "indie rock's most easygoing dude gets existential"). 3

Latto (Atlanta rapper Alyssa Michelle Stephens) dropped her fourth studio album BIG MAMA (RCA Records) on May 29, with featured appearances from 21 Savage, Jelly Roll, Sexyy Red, Wizkid, GloRilla, Mariah the Scientist, and Teyana Taylor, among others. 6 The title track had already debuted at No. 4 on Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100. Latto previously said on X that this might be her "retirement album" — a comment that hung over the release and gave the project a different weight. No formal reviews had landed by Friday evening, but the r/hiphopheads community was active across multiple Fresh Album threads. 7

JPEGMAFIA (Barrington Hendricks, the Alabama-born experimental rapper and producer known for Veteran and LP!) received a notably critical Pitchfork review for his new album EXPERIMENTAL RAP. 8 Reviewer Dylan Green wrote that the record finds the rapper "from a provocative firestarter to a fiercely bitter heel," arguing the album's provocations have calcified rather than evolved — though Green was clear that the production "once again proves just how explosive JPEG is as a producer." The result is an album that's more interesting to argue about than to sit with. 8

The week's biggest chart news came from Drake. His single "Janice STFU" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, his 14th chart-topper — surpassing Michael Jackson for the most No. 1 singles by a male solo artist in history. 9 In the same chart week, Drake placed 42 songs on the Hot 100 (breaking Morgan Wallen's single-week record of 37) and held the top three positions on the Billboard 200 simultaneously with Iceman, Habibti, and Maid of Honour — the first artist ever to do so. 10

Other notable drops on May 29: Freddie Gibbs (the Gary, Indiana rapper known for collaborations with Madlib and Alchemist) surprise-released EP RBT via AWAL, drawing early community feedback on RateYourMusic (3.29 / 5.00 across 59 ratings). 611 Future and Tyla — the Atlanta trap veteran and the South African Afropop breakout known for her 2023 hit "Water" — released "Game Time," the official song for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. 12

The broader electronic field also had a substantial week. NPR's long list for May 29 flagged several releases worth knowing: Doublespeak (featuring Vince Clarke of Erasure and Depeche Mode fame) dropped a self-titled album on London; Shed — the Berlin techno veteran — released Rave Echoes on Dekmantel; Gigi Masin (the Italian ambient pioneer, best known for 1986's Talk to the Sea) offered Movement on Sacred Bones; and KÁRYYN (the LA-based Syrian-American vocalist and composer) delivered PHYSICS UNIVERSAL LOVE LANGUAGE (PULL) on Mute. 3

The release with the most Pitchfork column inches in the electronic-adjacent space was actually filed under Indie: leroy — the dariacore alias of Jane Remover (an underground PC Music-adjacent producer and vocalist) — self-released status update music, the fifth entry in their hyperflip series. 13 It samples over 150 artists, including Britney Spears, Tinashe, SOPHIE, and Waka Flocka Flame. Pitchfork's Kieran Press-Reynolds called the dariacore project "one of the most exciting musical developments of the decade" but found this installment more numbing than energizing: "not so much a dopamine IV drip but a full-on hydro cannon." 13 For listeners who find Jane Remover's maximalism addictive, it's exactly what they want.

The week's classical standout — and one of the most compelling releases across any genre — is Barber: Vanessa on SACD, a new live concert recording featuring the National Symphony Orchestra under Gianandrea Noseda. 14 Samuel Barber's Gothic-tinged opera gets Barber's own revised three-act version here, with Nicole Heaston as Vanessa, J'Nai Bridges as Erika, Matthew Polenzani as Anatol, Susan Graham as the Old Baroness, and Thomas Hampson as the Old Doctor. Reviewer Giorgio Koukl wrote that the recording "deserves a special recommendation, certainly for the magnificent voices, but also for the meticulous capture of the orchestral sound in all its details." 14

Also from Presto's May 29 round-up: Lahav Shani and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (Warner Classics) released a new recording of Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 "From the New World," paired with Johan Wagenaar's rarely-heard 1905 tone poem Cyrano de Bergerac — a smart coupling that gives the Dvořák a fresh context. 15 Aapo Häkkinen (the Finnish keyboardist) released a two-CD Bach Well-Tempered Clavier Book I using three period instruments — harpsichord, clavichord, and chamber organ — opting for restraint over showmanship: Gramophone described his tone as "precise, silvery." 14 And Rudolf Buchbinder — the Austrian pianist who turns 80 this year — marked the occasion with Schubert: Treasures, a collection of miniature piano pieces, most under a minute, drawing out Schubert the aphorist rather than Schubert the epic architect.

From the Gramophone "5 Must-Hear" column published May 22: Barbara Hannigan — the Canadian soprano and conductor who has built a reputation conducting while singing at Europe's major orchestras — conducted and sang with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra on An American Dream? (Alpha Classics), covering Copland, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess Symphonic Picture, and Jule Styne — Gramophone's Adrian Edwards called her "Don't Rain on My Parade" "a vocal tour de force" that will "leave you either gobsmacked or running for cover." 16

On the Classical Chartz sales survey for the week of May 25–31, Arcadi Volodos (the Russian-French pianist and multiple Gramophone Award winner) entered at No. 6 with a Schubert/Schumann recital pairing Schubert's Sonata in D major D 850 with Schumann's Kinderszenen. Volodos's note on the Kinderszenen: "I think that it is only when you grow older that you understand these pieces better and better." 17

The week's editorial standout in country is Joshua Ray Walker's Ain't Dead Yet, released May 29. 18 Walker — a Dallas songwriter and colon cancer survivor — has built his last three albums as a trilogy around the experience of illness; this is the final chapter, following Tropicana (2025, beach-country) and Stuff (a concept album told through estate auction items). No Depression's Jon Young notes the shift: where the earlier records kept their distance, Walker "finally slows down to feel his feelings." The opening track "Chasing Sunsets" is mid-tempo and spacious in a way that recalls the War on Drugs. His lyrics have always been plain-spoken; here they feel earned.

Nathan Evans Fox — a North Carolina songwriter who spent time in seminary, worked as a hospital chaplain, and moved into music full-time after his father died and his first child was born — released Heirloom, an Americana record dealing with generational trauma, economic anxiety, and religious doubt. 19 Glide Magazine's John Moore called it "raw, sharply written, and one of the year's most emotionally resonant Americana records." The song "Racecar" opens with a sample of politicians speaking after the Nashville Covenant School shooting, then uses NASCAR as a metaphor for the cycle of poverty — Moore wrote that Fox's ability to use metaphor is sharper "than almost anyone in Nashville right now." 19

Steep Canyon Rangers — the Grammy-winning Asheville, North Carolina bluegrass band — released their 15th studio album Next Act, with Steve Martin (who is, alongside his comedy career, a serious five-string banjo player with two bluegrass albums of his own) guesting on "The Heart's the Only Compass," and Edie Brickell contributing vocals to "Halfway to Reno." 20 No Depression's reviewer praised the band's partnership dynamics — the kind of ensemble chemistry you can't manufacture.

A few additional country albums arrived May 22: Thomas Csorba's Tender Country (his third LP) earned praise from No Depression as "a welcome return to the traditional country sound once embraced by Nashville," and The Deslondes — a New Orleans country group known for their loose, multi-vocalist approach — released Don't Let It Die Vol. 1 (New West Records), 12 tracks recorded to analog tape. 21 On the singles side, Brandi Carlile dropped "Life on the Run," co-written with Aaron Dessner (The National), and Dasha released "Mad About It" via Warner Records — a post-breakup dance track with a dry, sardonic edge.