Best New Indie Pop Vinyl Releases, October 2026

Julia Jacklin

Julia Jacklin recorded The Gem in the Melbourne pub of the same name, the venue where she got her start and spent countless nights playing. Her first album for 4AD pushes past the stripped-back sound she’s known for, pairing her bittersweet songwriting with what Hot Press called “polished nods to ’80s jangle-rock.”

Slow Pulp

Melodie is the third album from the band Slow Pulp and the first they’ve made with an outside producer. It’s warm, dreamy, and cohesive, tracing the personal changes each member has gone through since their last record. Opening on the acoustic “Yellow and Green” and drifting through the hypnotic sway of “Spill,” it’s the sound of a band settling comfortably into itself. Exclaim described them as building a bridge between Big Thief and “Bette Davis Eyes.”

The Tubs

The Tubs landed on Merge Records for Hard Life, their third album, produced by Nick Launay. Owen Williams’ songs about heartbreak and grief are set to ringing guitars and sharp jokes, with Lan McArdle’s harmonies lifting the heaviest moments. Paste described the title track as a mix of the Replacements, “eighties R.E.M.,” and Morrissey.

The Chutes

Chutes Too Narrow

The Chutes are San Francisco husband-and-wife duo Kenneth Turner and Erika Calderon-Turner, both longtime fixtures of the Bay Area hardcore scene through bands like Foghorn and Fentanyl. Their self-titled debut trades that aggression for 12-string jangle pop, with upbeat melodies, shared vocal harmonies, and lyrics about the realities of a long-term relationship. Released on Dandy Boy Records, it took roughly six years to finish.

Swim Deep

Swim Deep’s fifth album Hum was produced by Bill Ryder-Jones and finds the band at their most emotionally grounded yet. Written around loss and family, it runs a tight ten songs. Clash heard Slowdive in the opener’s guitar effects and R.E.M. in “Is There Something Going On?” NME called it a record that “rewards that resilience with some of their most beautiful work yet.”

The Army, The Navy

Fake Brave Life is the debut album from The Army, The Navy, the folk-pop duo of childhood friends Maia Ciambriello and Sasha Goldberg, who met in Mill Valley, California, and studied music together at Loyola University New Orleans. After building a following on TikTok, they make their full-length debut with an album that includes their most popular single, “Walls.”

Of Montreal

Aethermead

Twenty albums into their career, Kevin Barnes’ of Montreal returned to Polyvinyl for aethermead, a breakup record that strips back the project’s usual glam-funk maximalism in favor of more straightforward psychedelic pop. Acoustic guitars and bursts of distortion carry Barnes’ tales of heartbreak, and AllMusic called it the band’s most consistently strong and accessible set of songs since 2020’s Ur Fun.

The Jungle Giants

Translucent Red

The fifth album from Australian indie-pop band The Jungle Giants was written in the wake of frontman Sam Hales’ split from his fiancée, Confidence Man’s Janet Planet. It’s joy on the surface, heartbreak underneath. “Tell Me How It Feels” earned praise from Rolling Stone Australia as a cathartic, festival-ready anthem.

Prism Shores

Black

Montreal’s Prism Shores trade the hazy, nocturnal textures of their earlier records for a brighter, more polished guitar-pop sound on Softest Attack. Produced by Scott “Monty” Munro, its twelve songs mix jangle, noise, and power pop, and The Fire Note heard Teenage Fanclub, the Replacements, and Sugar in the chorus writing.

The Cords

The Cords

The Cords are sisters Eva and Grace Tedeschi from Scotland. Their self-titled debut, released on Skep Wax and Slumberland, packs thirteen jangle pop songs into about half an hour. Louder Than War heard echoes of The Shop Assistants and Tiger Trap. They’ve opened for The Vaselines, Camera Obscura, and Belle and Sebastian.