The Best New Music of April 2026: Noah Kahan, Kehlani, Olivia Rodrigo, Lady Gaga and Six More

April brought a folk star’s most personal album, an R&B singer’s classic-minded self-titled record, a Coachella run that doubled as a release calendar and a surprising amount of music from the experimental end of the dial. These are the 10 releases that earned a place in our rotation, from Billboard’s Friday guides and Pitchfork’s weekly lists plus our own reporting. The picks mix headliners with a few rising and underground names who deserve the same ears, and each one comes with something to press play on.

Noah Kahan, The Great Divide

Billboard says his fourth album is so sharp that it cuts deeper than anything before it, as Kahan narrates the perspectives of his friends, family and hometown and works out, in real time, what all of it has done to him. The run-up included “Porch Light,” a folk single that Billboard noted favors storytelling over a jangly guitar riff and shows Kahan dipping into a higher register. Out April 24.

The Great DivideNoah KahanListen on Apple Music

Kehlani, Kehlani

After the success of “Folded,” the lead single, Kehlani doubled down on classic-sounding R&B for a self-titled set on Atlantic, per Billboard. Pitchfork hears love as an ongoing war, from the begging of “Folded” to the withdrawal of “I Need You” and the tequila-soaked rumination of “Call Me Back.” Billboard’s critic named the closer, “Unlearn,” the album’s best: “Gospel will always be a part of R&B, and when the secular meets the sacred, incredible music comes to life.” Out April 24.

KehlaniKehlaniListen on Apple Music

Olivia Rodrigo, “Drop Dead”

The first taste of her June album swerved. Billboard says that despite a title that suggests the furious heartbreak of “Drivers License” and “Vampire,” “Drop Dead” is a lush, swoony, still-propulsive love song about a first night’s infatuation, with The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven,” which Rodrigo has covered, as its guiding light. She debuted it at Coachella as a guest during Addison Rae’s weekend-two set, The Hollywood Reporter noted. Out April 17.

you seem pretty sad for a girl so in loveOlivia RodrigoListen on Apple Music

Lady Gaga and Doechii, “Runway”

Billboard says the two had never worked together before, and it sounds like they were always meant to. The song from The Devil Wears Prada 2 turns “a dance floor into a runway,” in the words of its lyrics, over a booming, in-your-face bass line, and was co-written and co-produced by Bruno Mars. Pitchfork’s update has the full song out April 9, ahead of the film’s May 1 release.

RUNWAYLady Gaga & DoechiiListen on Apple Music

The Strokes, “Going Shopping”

The band announced its first album in six years, Reality Awaits, produced by Rick Rubin, and released the lead single just in time for its Coachella set, Billboard reported. “Going Shopping” is auto-tuned but still unmistakably retro, a song that appears to balance the band’s essence with a comment on the “reality” of popular music, and the set gave fans a chance to hear more of the record in advance.

Reality AwaitsThe StrokesListen on Apple Music

Arlo Parks, Ambiguous Desire

Her third album arrived with “Beams,” a gentle song that Billboard hears as a dance between a lingering ache and a quiet assuredness. Parks said it is about feeling discarded and carrying an old hurt, but also “trying to (slowly but surely) want better for yourself and realise that you are loveable as a whole.” Out April 3.

Ambiguous DesireArlo ParksListen on Apple Music

Jessie Ware, Superbloom

Pitchfork says the album sounds like a city street exploding with magnolia and cherry blossoms: the love-drunk disco pop of What’s Your Pleasure?, the proto-house sheen of Paradise Garage and the floral, cinematic funk of the ’70s. “I’m not the most by-the-book ‘pop star’, but I do like to play with dress-up, glamour, and fun,” Ware said in a statement. Out April 17 on Interscope.

SuperbloomJessie WareListen on Apple Music

MIKE, Earl Sweatshirt and Surf Gang, Pompeii // Utility

Pitchfork compares the 33-track double album to Speakerboxxx/The Love Below done in 10K style: a back-to-back that lets each rapper’s quirks show without breaking the groove they share. The cover art features two works by sculptor Sharif Farrag, a childhood friend of Earl’s. Here is how it was announced. Out April 3 on 10k.

Minty // Earth (official video)MIKE, Earl Sweatshirt & SURF GANGWatch on YouTube

My New Band Believe, My New Band Believe

Cameron Picton, the bassist and co-singer who gave black midi their fiddly folk, waited for a sign before starting his own band. It came as a fever dream in a hotel room in China, according to Pitchfork, which hears baroque-pop epics, twinkly piano ballads and hallucinatory folk odysseys with eerie jazz breakdowns, all with a charm that exceeds his earlier work. Out April 10 on Rough Trade.

My New Band BelieveMy New Band BelieveListen on Apple Music

Fatboi Sharif and Child Actor, Crayola Circles

The latest release on billy woods’ Backwoodz label pairs two of its most sleeper favorites: the rapper Fatboi Sharif, with his heavyweight, off-kilter bars, and the producer Child Actor, whose minimalist, jazz- and folk-influenced beats have also served Cavalier, Open Mike Eagle and Earl Sweatshirt. There are no features, skits or interludes, Pitchfork notes. Out April 24.

Crayola CirclesFatboi Sharif & Child ActorListen on Apple Music

Also on our radar

Nine Inch Nails and Boys Noize turned their Coachella set into a self-titled album as Nine Inch Noize, and Tokischa’s debut, Amor & Droga, stretched neoperreo into electro-pop and surf rock, per Pitchfork. Thundercat’s Distracted has Tame Impala and A$AP Rocky on it, and Lone’s Hyperphantasia is a pop record from “an alternate dimension.” KATSEYE’s “Pinky Up” previewed the group’s Coachella debut. Our Coachella coverage includes Karol G’s weekend-two finale and the Madonna, Billie Eilish and Rodrigo cameos.

Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.