June gave us a pop star’s third album, a rapper’s punk record, a mixtape built like a museum and a Taylor Swift song for a cartoon cowgirl. Across the month’s four Fridays, these are the 11 releases that earned a place in our rotation. They come from Billboard’s and Pitchfork’s weekly roundups and our own reporting, and the picks mix headliners with a handful of rising names who deserve the same ears. Each entry has something to press play on.
Olivia Rodrigo, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love
Billboard hears the album in two halves: songs about being a “girl so in love,” then songs where the same narrator “seems pretty sad” about it, with third single “Stupid Song” as the hinge. Pitchfork says it is “brash and bold, flinging heartbreak around until it becomes an art medium” set to ’80s new wave, string-swollen hooks and aughts Britpop. The duet with The Cure’s Robert Smith, which debuted at Primavera, gives it an extra jolt. Out June 12 on Geffen.
You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in LoveOlivia RodrigoListen on Apple Music
Vince Staples, Cry Baby
Billboard calls his 10-track record, built on live instrumentation, a “remarkably comprehensive look at the urgency, tumult and tension of present-day America,” from the prickly “Do You Know the Devil” to the militant pace of “7 in the Morning.” Three songs came with politically charged videos, and a fall tour with a live band follows. Here is the tour and the cover-art argument. Out June 5.
Cry BabyVince StaplesListen on Apple Music
Tierra Whack, Whack’s Museum
Pitchfork writes that her playful, primary-color aesthetic remains in top form on this 12-track mixtape, with “Totem,” a warning shot at doubters, and “Wax Paper,” a boom-bap track played on toy piano. It is Whack on a bars-first mission after more than two years away. We wrote up the Juneteenth drop. Out June 19.
Whack’s MuseumTierra WhackListen on Apple Music
Taylor Swift, “I Knew It, I Knew You”
Swift’s song for Toy Story 5 is a small, warm return to her country roots, written after she saw an early cut of the film and inspired by Jessie. On release night she posted a clip of her young self dressed like the cowgirl and wrote that it “felt like a musical departure and coming home at the same time,” as Billboard quotes her. She later played it at the premiere. Out June 5.
I Knew It, I Knew You (From Toy Story 5)Taylor SwiftListen on Apple Music
FKA twigs and Lil Yachty, “On Your Mind”
Her first release since winning the 2026 Grammy for best dance/electronic album, for Eusexua, is a punchy, crunchy electro track with Lil Yachty that, Billboard says, hits hyperpop mode over its three and a half minutes. She wrote it after learning visa trouble would stop her team from joining her at Coachella, and she describes in her statement how “pain can manifest into the hardest and most euphoric sonics.” Out June 19.
On Your MindFKA twigs & Lil YachtyListen on Apple Music
Kelsey Lu, So Help Me God
The cellist and singer enlisted Jack Antonoff and Yves Rothman as co-producers and Sampha, Kamasi Washington and Kim Gordon as guests, then dug into grief across layers of new wave pop, orchestral R&B and lush electronics, Pitchfork says. “This isn’t really a healing album,” she said. “It’s more of a reckoning.” Out June 12 on Dirty Hit.
So Help Me GodKelsey LuListen on Apple Music
evilgiane, #HEAVENSGATE VOL. 2
The Surf Gang head’s 23-beat sequel is a posse record. It pulls in xaviersobased, RealYungPhil, Slimesito, Harto Falión and Rico Nasty, and, Pitchfork says, its aqueous beats flow so naturally it is easy to mistake them for your own heartbeat. This is the rising end of the post-Carti underground. Out June 19.
#HEAVENSGATE VOL. 2evilgianeListen on Apple Music
horsegiirL, Nature Is Healing
What could have been a gimmick is a sophisticated debut. The Berlin-based producer never appears without her horse mask, and she plays the half-woman, half-horse character Stella Stallion. Billboard says her 15-track LP crosses ambient, house and gabber, with samples of birds, insects and reptiles. Out June 5.
Nature Is HealinghorsegiirLListen on Apple Music
Big Freedia and SOPHIE, Released at Last
SOPHIE invited New Orleans bounce pioneer Big Freedia to her Los Angeles home studio for a session five years before her death, and three songs from it are finally out. Pitchfork says the EP pairs SOPHIE’s cybernetic production with Freedia’s electric presence, and MUNA pops up on “Let Me See Ya.” “She was an artist who showed the world that living boldly is your greatest power,” Freedia said. Out June 19.
Released At LastBig Freedia & SOPHIEListen on Apple Music
Wiki, Ancient History
The New York rapper’s album is devoted to the sounds of the city’s parks system, with Your Old Droog, duendita and Salimata as guests and jazzy production from MIKE and Navy Blue. Pitchfork notes it arrived at an electric moment for the city, the Knicks’ title run. By the end, it “really does feel like New York or nowhere.” Out June 12.
Ancient HistoryWikiListen on Apple Music
Charli xcx, “Wink Wink”
Announced with an hour’s notice, the third single from Music, Fashion, Film comes with a video by frequent collaborator Aidan Zamiri, in which she swears she is “not a bad girl anymore.” Pitchfork places it after the headline-baiting “Rock Music” and the more traditionally pop “SS26.” The album is out July 24. See her Saint Laurent moment in Paris for the month’s other Charli news.
Wink Wink (official video)Charli xcxWatch on YouTube
Also on our radar
Ken Carson set July 3 for xperiment, and Future named July 10 for The Real Me. Billboard’s guides also flagged Niall Horan’s Dinner Party, Myles Smith’s debut My Mess, My Heart, My Life, Kashus Culpepper’s new EP and PJ Morton’s double album Saturday Night, Sunday Morning. Jack White teased a new album with the single “Dollar Bill.”
Sources
Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.
