Christopher D's Top 5 Of 2026 So Far
Six Months Down: The Best of 2026 (So Far)
Six months down, and the world is as chaotic as ever—luckily, the soundtrack has been flawless for those who are listening.
The first half of the year has given us records that act like complete musical grenades, mind bombs: cathartic, rough around the edges, and intensely human. Full of creativity, individuality, and escape. These are the standout releases that have defined our year so far.
Turn up the volume and drift away......
1
Swell Maps - C21
Rather Records / Tiny Global Productions
Just when you think a legendary band has run out of ways to surprise you, they rip up their own script, showering you with fragmented shards of former architecture. Emerging from the long-buried, cryptic, calculated vaults of the original Solihull syndicate, these iconoclastic post-punk legends are back to completely tear down half-century-old, splintered skeletal sketches and rebuild them through a haze of feral feedback, intelligent chaos, and heavy, beautifully flayed analog positive vibrations.
2
Mekons - Horror/Horrorble
Fire Records
Just when you think a legendary band has run out of ways to surprise you, they rip up their own script, showering you with fragments of former architecture. Fresh off the spurred heels of last year's studio album, Horror, the iconoclastic Leeds post-punk legends are back to completely tear down riffs and rebuild those exact tracks through a haze of echo, paranoia, and heavy low-end positive PMA vibrations.
3
House Of All - Inklings
Tiny Global Productions
House Of All’s Inklings is a proper, punch-up post-punk juggernaut that completely outruns the screaming shadow of The Fall with zero reliance on cheap nostalgia or novelty. Fueled by a vicious double-drum ambush, Steve Hanley's filthy and furious basslines, and Martin Bramah acting like a brilliant, Absinthe-and-prose-drunk madman, it proves this late-career inheritance is the real devil’s deal.
4
Bevis Frond - Horrorful Heights
Fire Records
Nick Saloman has been grinding away in the music world for 58 years.
It puts things into perspective—when he sings about the music industry giving him a shiny jewel-encrusted crown and snatching it right back, he’s drawing a long haul on nearly six decades of firsthand experience dealing with the business.
Horrorful Heights. A 20-track double-album behemoth.Essential listening for all neophytes tripping into Saloman’s void..
5
Blue Ash - Dinner At Mr. Billy's
Peppermint Records
Forget the "almost famous" labels -- Dinner At Mr. Billy’s pulls back the curtain like Toto on a relentless, hypnotizing blue-collar rock machine grinding out 250 sweat-stained nights a year. Combining their legendary grit-caked Sigma sessions with a towering mountain of raw, one-take Youngstown demos, this is the ultimate, long-overdue testament to Ohio's best-kept secret. Shhhh. Big Mouth.
