I'm listening to a new (to me) album every day in 2026, and I need your help! Please suggest good albums, obscure albums, awful albums, different albums! You can find the submission link, along with the list so far, here: linktr.ee/365in26

Day 98 Saint Etienne - Foxbase Alpha I found this album really tiresome unfortunately. In theory I should really like something like this, heavily sampled, dubby basses, for-the-time unique effect use. But in the end it all coalesces into a bit of a tiresome sludge. ⭐⭐

Day 97 Meursault - Pissing on Bonfires/Kissing with Tongues An extremely frustrating album, because it's got some beautiful folk/acoustic tracks on here that are filled with a raw and real energy. And then there are all these fucking awful indietronica tracks on there too, complete vibe killers ⭐⭐

Day 96 Saucy Dog - New Gate J-Rock record that feels really really Japanese. A decent energiser, but didn't blow me away. For fans of the Royal Road chord progression ⭐⭐⭐

Day 95 KAYTRANADA - 99.9% Immaculate R'n'B vibes mixed with some really head bopping Funk House. Another Sunday banger, I've ended up with some really good stuff on Sunday's so far! Some ace features, including a decent turn from Craig David! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Day 94 Vanir - Wyrd Big heaping dose of Danish Melo-Death metal that had me rolling. Dirty great big riffs, big silly metal shit. Had a fantastic time with it. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Day 93 Full of Hell - Trumpeting Ecstasy If you'd tried to pick something more anthetical to yesterday's album you probably couldn't have done better. Loud, fast, violent, nihilistic, and delivers it all in ~25 minutes. Insane music. Great gym music ⭐⭐⭐

Day 92 Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes What a beautiful way to start the day. Beautiful, rich american folk music that lifted me up on a cold, bright morning. Deceptively intricate, but dynamic musically and lyrically. A gorgeous vibe. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Day 91 Bellowhead - Revival Modernised takes on english folk songs that did very little for me. I found the singer's voice incredibly grating, the production felt a bit too clean, just didn't gel with the vibe at all. A fun idea in theory, but possibly the wrong players. ⭐⭐

Day 90 Teddybears - Soft Machine Woof. Advertising-core, really soulless electronic music. Felt like it was trying to get me to buy a Renault Clio. The kind of shite they force retail workers to listen to all day. "We have daft punk at home". Awful. ⭐

Day 89 underscores - Wallsocket Really fun electropop/hyperpop, underscores was not on my radar at all before this and I feel like that is a failure of underscores fans. How dare you? Rude tbh. Anyway, an album that has humour, emotion, fear, tears, the lot. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Day 88 Djo - The Crux Not as much fun as Decide, but I'm still impressed with his work over all. At times made me think about Jazz Emu, and how I'd quite like to listen to Jazz Emu. ⭐⭐⭐

Day 87 Beastmilk - Climax Solid, perfectly enjoyable gothy punkesque stuff. Didn't massively move the needle for me, but a pleasure to listen to ⭐⭐⭐

Day 86 Ulver - Neverland Boring, direction less musical soundscapes. Real nap music. ⭐⭐

Day 85 Outkast - ATLiens I reckon if this had been a different day's album it might have been a 4, but it hit me as good-not-great today. Undoubtedly some of the best rap from that era that I've heard though. ⭐⭐⭐

Day 84 Low - HEY WHAT Like a religious experience, if the religion was an octave pedal. Feel like I did it and myself a disservice not listening to this on the biggest speakers I could find, at the loudest volume. Ambient, Droney, Glitchy, but with purpose and beauty. Adored it. ADORED. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Gonna be listening to HEY WHAT by Low today, give it a spin why dontcha?

Day 83 Djo - Decide I liked this way more than I expected! It's surprisingly interested in its musicality for a pop record, has some great sounding synth stuff that rides the line of new and unique, and evocative of an older record perfectly. Has a feeling of a complete record. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Day 82 Arcade Fire - Funeral I want to say this upfront, I think this is a 2 star album, but Wake Up is *such* a good tune that it bumps it. Advert-core indie, emotional stuff, but it sounds so boring to me. It's also mixed incredibly poorly, my goodness. Can barely hear some of it. ⭐⭐⭐

Doing something I don't normally do, spun the BIG WHEEL OF ALBUM SUGGESTIONS BY FRIENDS a total of 7 times and have the albums for the next week set. Why not listen along? What do you have to lose? And, yes, it really did give me two albums by the same artist.

Day 81 Cortex - Tropeu Bleu Gorgeous, sexy, fun jazz funk from the mid 70s. You can hear the hairstyles of everyone involved in this record from the second you hit play. Had me boppin throughout. Also weird to hear a famous sample in its original form out of nowhere #RIPMFDOOM #ALLCAPS ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Day 80 Moron Police - Pachinko On paper I should love Moron Police, but that's never actually played out when I've listened to them. This album is proggy, poppy, computery, broadway-y(?!), but none of the elements really hit well in combination. I wish I liked it more. ⭐⭐⭐

Day 79 Carpenter Brut - Leather Temple If you've ever listened to any Carpenter Brut then you know exactly what this is going to sound like, and that's no bad thing. The king of Darkwave delivers great sounding synths and dark pulsing rhythms. Nothing to write home about, but a fun listen. ⭐⭐⭐

Day 78 Yard Act - The Overload Utter drivel ⭐

Day 77 Becca Stevens - Maple To Paper Beautiful vocal jazz by way of acoustic folk, Becca Stevens has made an album that has an accent you recognise but is saying things you've never heard before. I was getting lost in this album, it would musically twist me and vocally soothe. Gorgeous. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Day 76 Kneecap - Fine Art Belfast trio Kneecap are famous for being massively controversial, but I don't see what they're doing that's crazier or more outlandish than most good grime artists do? Is it just cause they're Irish? Good stuff, suffers from the external factors pre-biasing it 🇮🇪 🇮🇪 🇮🇪

Day 75 A Wilhelm Scream - Cheap Heat A short, sharp blast of melodic hardcore, of which A Wilhelm Scream are masters of. Opens strong but then coasts comfortably for a lot of it. A great gym listen, but lacked the standouts they've had in the past. Good, not great. ⭐⭐⭐

Day 74 Purple Mountains - Purple Mountains Wowee, powerful stuff. Indie/alt country album with gorgeous instrumentation and absolutely devastating lyrics. Heartbreaking and beautiful, the sounds of trying to see beauty at your lowest ebbs. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Day 73 Louis Dunford - Be Lucky With apologies to my brother in law who really likes this guy, it's just no for me. I found myself wrinkling my nose at it a fair bit. ⭐⭐

Day 72 Green Day - Saviors Look, at the very least, it's not as bad as Father of all... Feels at times like asking Suno to make you American Idiot, very much just feels like a band spinning their wheels. There's nothing new or different or interesting really. ⭐⭐

Day 71 Alcest - Spiritual Instinct Submitter @sexyriker.bsky.social said of black metal "it’s always better as an ingredient than it is as a genre on its own", and this Blackgaze album proves the point perfectly. Airy, dark, gorgeous, huge sounding record that whisked me to dreich melancholy ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Day 70 Metallica - Death Magnetic Songs are often too long with not enough going on to justify it, but high energy metal that is easy to bop along with. Listened to the far superior Guitar Hero Mixes of all the tracks, as the original release is compressed and limited to shit. Sounds awful. ⭐⭐⭐

Day 69 Sabrina Carpenter - Man's Best Friend Feels exactly like what a pop record has always felt like to me, enjoyable enough but the substance of it is like candy floss, it's never going to sustain me for very long. Not as boppy as I'd like, personally. But fun and sexy, no doubt. ⭐⭐⭐

Day 68 Ela Minus - Día Well, so much for some 1 and 2⭐ albums. Was a big fan of Act Of Rebellion by Ela Minus, and this feels like a real upgrade. Analogue synths and drum machines used to conjure dark, self reflective, danceable electronic music. Some of the tones on this album, my word! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Day 67 Carole King - Tapestry Using this album as a springboard to learn about Carole King was eye opening. "She wrote *that* too?!" Came out of my mouth a lot today. A remarkable talent. This album has some excellent songs on it, perfect chill Sunday music. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Day 66 Takashi Kokubo -Music for a Cosmic Garden I just don't get on with this new age ambient drone stuff. Fell asleep about 3/4 of the way through listening to this. In fairness, it was a decent nap, so maybe it was actually a perfect album? But nah, I was bored. ⭐⭐

Day 65 Young Fathers - Heavy Heavy Three piece from Edinburgh (but I won't hold that against them) that have made an album here that defies usual genre stereotypes. I don't even know what genre I'd assign to it. Euphoric, unique music. Promise you've heard nothing like it ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Day 64 Herbie Hancock - Head Hunters I found the opening track on this jazz funk record baffling, it doesn't blend the jazz and the funk elements particularly well to my ear, but everything else is a masterclass. Wonderful sounding record too, perfectly recorded and mixed. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Day 63 Spector - Moth Boys An album who's parts were pulling it in different directions for me. Enjoyed the feel of the lyrics, kinda bored by the musical stylings. A poetry delivery system, then. ⭐⭐⭐

Day 1 - Day 49 Album Art Collage For some reason, seeing all the art together like this makes me realise how frankly enormous this project is. 365 is a big number, it turns out.

Day 62 a.P.A.t.T. - Black and White Mass A weirdo, experimental album. Think Beefheart or Zappa. I enjoyed a lot of it, much of it is quite funny, but a joke that's only funny once. Album closes with a track that wouldn't feel amiss on the Minecraft soundtrack, it's gorgeous. ⭐⭐⭐

Day 61 Steve Hauschildt - Tragedy & Geometry With apologies to my ambient electronic loving friends, this just did not hit for me. I honestly kept forgetting I was listening to it. Perfectly pleasant soundscapes, but can't imagine a time I'd want to put it on again. Forgot most of it already. ⭐⭐

Day 60 Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - Barafundle Welsh, folk-rich Indie for St David's Day. Can feel Wales pump through its veins without being silly stereotype shite. Does veer wildly from track to track at points, but an overall fun record! Patio song a massive highlight. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Fully expected February to be below January in average rating with a run of stinkers, but the three 4* albums in a row at the end made it a pretty good month over all! Enjoy these stats for nerds

Day 59 Slime City - National Record Of Achievement Glasgow's own Slime City are massively underrated, in my book. Was saving this for a day where I needed a big boost, and it delivered. Nihilistically funny, pogo dancing indie punk that I just love. Don't spend the 0.00001p in one shop, boys. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Day 58 Gorillaz - The Mountain In classic fashion, Gorillaz pull influence from many musical spheres and do more than sampling, less than imitation with them. The interweaving of south Asian sounds is seamless, as is the usual disparate cast of cameos. Ooh flimsy Steve has returned! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Day 57 Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure My dad added this to the suggestion box, and I think it says a lot about us as father and son that I think this is both "Weirdo Music" and also "Really Really Good" He listened to loads of Brian Ferry when I was a kid, but this somehow slipped past ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Day 56 Love - Forever Changes Late 60s psychedelic rock record that was exactly the kind of reset I needed on the ol' album front. Does the incredibly annoying early stereo thing of having stuff hard panned L and R, a terrible listening experience. More guitar based music needs trumpets. ⭐⭐⭐

Day 55 Seb Lowe - Half-Decent No it isn't. Woof. ⭐

Day 54 Aqua - Megalomania This album is not good. What makes it better than yesterday's ⭐ effort is that at least Aqua are doing their thing. It doesn't feel cynical, and a few times it got a little smile and a chuckle out of me. Some lyrics genuinely caught me off guard! Still, weak pop LP. ⭐⭐