6 albums you need to hear this week
With music from Big Special, Jalen Ngonda, Niall Horan, Evanescence, Any Young Mechanic and Death Cab For Cutie.
In the age of streaming, it’s never been easier to listen to new music — but with over 60,000 new songs added to Spotify every day, it’s also never been harder to know what to put on. Every week, the team at Rolling Stone UK will run down some of the best new releases that have been added to streaming services.
This week, we’ve highlighted records by Big Special, Death Cab For Cutie, Niall Horan, Jalen Ngonda, Evanescence and Any Young Mechanic.
Big Special – O Joy
Think of Big Special’s latest as a bumper treat for fans of the Black Country noisemakers and you’re halfway there. This EP features re-worked tracks that didn’t quite fit on the previous two albums – Postindustrial Hometown Blues and National Average – but are now given their own moment at glory, including ‘SLUGLIFE’, ‘ DRAGGED UP A HILL (and thrown down the other side). It’s another welcome slice from one of Britain’s loudest and indeed best.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Jalen Ngonda – Doctrine Of Love
On his second album, Jalen Ngonda proves why he’s being rightly heralded in all the right places as a generational soul great. Doctrine of Love is almost exclusively made up of love songs that will pull at the strings of that very organ, while effortlessly harkening back to Chicago and Detroit soul with an unparalleled voice that has captured so many hearts. At the same recently told Rolling Stone UK how he isn’t consciously trying to evade the modern day. A burgeoning legion of new fans, set to grow even further when his record arrives, proves that despite those fears he’s on the cusp of becoming a very modern superstar.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Niall Horan – Dinner Party
Niall Horan has been in a more reflective state over the past few years. There’s the whirlwind romance of his current relationship, which anchors the album. He met his girlfriend at a dinner party he held about six years ago, proving that love really can just come knocking at your front door. He sounds settled and enamoured across the record, even as he contends with grief following the death of his former bandmate Liam Payne in October 2024. More than anything, Dinner Party is a celebration of life and love.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Death Cab For Cutie – I Built You A Tower
The eleventh album from the emo titans is an acute dissection of trauma and hanging on despite the odds, after frontman Ben Gibbard experienced the end of his marriage. There’s forlorn soul searching on ‘Full Of Stars’, an almighty thud on ‘Punching The Flowers’ and the overall sense that unexpected positivity can be found in the darkest of places. It’s a brilliant return.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Evanescence – Sanctuary
Despite the band’s very name ‘Evanescence’, meaning ‘fading quickly from sight or memory’ the rock titans sixth studio album ‘Sanctuary’ proves their three-decade career to be quite the opposite. The latest 12 track offering comes after a five year wait for fans, but thankfully not in vain, pairing Amy Lee’s classic haunting vocals and dark harmonies with experimental production techniques from the likes of former Bring Me The Horizon wizard Jordan Fish.
Across tracks such as the stormy ‘Beautiful Life’, this unholy union has created a sound that upon first listen, appears to lean into the warm embrace of the band’s well established roots but Instead it reaches around and grabs 2026 firmly by the throat, reminding the current heavy music landscape exactly who helped pave the way and who is here to stay.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Any Young Mechanic – The Shoe Is Ruining The Foot
As the offbeat title of their debut album may indeed suggest, this Aussie folk outfit are big on charming eccentricity. Here, it’s manifested in a collection of off-kilter folk songs that flit between Americana-flecked highlights (‘Can Sardine’) and ambitious instrumentals of ‘Pretty Strange World’. It all makes for an album that feels like folk’s answer to a welcome warm hug.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music