The Cardigans popping up
2026 Mix 26: Best of June, albums at the midyear point, a hypothetical Debbii Dawson LP, and the Cardigans popping up (twice!)
Welcome! I got another influx of new readers thanks to Chuck Eddy’s generous shout out in a music writing survey over at Nick Catucci’s site.
To folks new to the newsletter: I post a sequenced mix every week of new songs from around the world, with commentary for each track. I also usually have an essay up front. I encourage you to hunt, peck, and skip. It is futile and probably hazardous to your health to try to keep up with everything. All posts are free.
My biggest ideas around any “project” of this newsletter (beyond proving that one must indeed imagine Sisyphus happy, provided he’s allowed to listen to music while he works) are in my A-pop series from last year. I posit that US pop is experiencing growing pains around its emerging regional status in competition with the rest of the world’s popular music.
Can’t go into that too much this week, though, because I’m still on vacation! June wrap-up and midyear albums ahoy!
11 Songs I Heard in June (unranked)
10 Albums I Heard in May (lightly ranked)
Six Sex: ULTRA
I’ve written about and evangelized for this one, easily my album of the year, pretty insistently. Did I mention it’s really funny? Two genuine laughs out loud at least. Go listen to it!
Ditonellapiaga: Miss Italian
I didn’t have super high hopes for this one when I heard one of the follow-ups to her Eurovision qualifier entry “Che fastidio!” but it turns out that the album works really well qua album, scenes from an Italian pop scene in light ferment. Ditonellapiaga doesn’t lean on global trend-hopping (in fact sniffs at going reggaeton in a joke in the “Che fastidio!” video) but also skirts the usual Eurocheese despite being a good candidate for a better Eurovision that lets Canada in and kicks Israel out.
Tierra Whack: Whack’s Museum
A strong and straight-ahead rap album from Tierra Whack, whose success with a meme format out of the gate maybe hampered her follow-ups a little despite consistent glimpses of brilliance. This aims lower and hits harder, virtuosic in its own way.
Vince Staples: Cry Baby
Maybe my favorite Vince Staples album, which isn’t to say I’d vouch for it as his best. He assembles the best band that Gorillaz can’t seem to buy and puts some words worth listening to on top. Let’s just call it the rock album of the year.
Baauer: U
Big dumb dance songs without any of the deceptive erudition of recent Skrillex (whose new one is probably about as good as his last few but I haven’t listened to it intently enough to rate yet).
La Sécurité: Bingo!
The formerly Francophone Montreal indie group has an all-English collection of songs and has flattened out a little, I think, but if you like one of ‘em you’ll probably like the rest.
Alizade: Rahat Music
Looked forward to this one on the heels of the snotty snarl of “Immigrant,” and I think Alizade has perhaps wisely varied the tone across a full-length that still only clocks in at 27 minutes. But I don’t think you really need to do this, and I wonder what 13 snarls might have sounded like instead.
Cannelle: Cinna
This wound up being much harsher and weirder than I expected, which seems like an oddly safe approach. “Stereo” is a massive a single that manages to avoid the somewhat nervous-sounding post-Charli meta-pop across the rest of the album. The dissonance gets wearying and you sense that it’s been coated over the club thump like vaseline on a lens, to cover for the thinness of some of the writing.
Merveille: Wondersummer EP
A recommendation from Job De Wit, who thought that this Caribbean- and Afrobeats-inflected French R&B would be right up my street and was correct. It suggests that the future that Rihanna promised will only be realized in France, though Tayna gave it a good effort from Kosovo/Albania.
Salimata: The Happening
I put out a call for midyear albums that no one else has written about over on Bluesky and was charmed by Tara Hillegeist’s recommendation of this very New York album that suggests what Doechii would sound like if she put out…a very New York album.
Bonus “album”: The Hypothetical Debbii Dawson Happy World LP
Debbii Dawson’s Where Have All the Good Men Gone? EP came out last Friday, and as expected it’s another strong collection of songs. But it’s pretty scattershot—it feels like her RCA rollout has been frustratingly stop and start. By this point, her material from 2024 to present makes for a great full album, so I’ve put one together, sequenced as a Side 1/Side 2 LP.
The Happy World LP
YouTube | Spotify | Tidal | Deezer
Here’s my midyear album list. (Debbii Dawson’s hypothetical Happy World LP would easily make #3.)
Midyear albums:
Six Sex: Ultra
Myaap: Pixie Dust
JayJayy: Detour
Fallon: Winter Princess
Ditonellapiaga: Miss Italian
Tierra Whack: Whack’s Museum
Robounoishi (路傍の石): Album 13
HANA: s/t
Fif: The Lower Forty-Eight
LinLin: Disco Inferno
Vince Staples: Cry Baby
Baauer: U
La Sécurité: Bingo!
LØLØ: God Forbid a Girl Spits Out Her Feelings!
Juky San: ĐẪM TÌNH
Djy Biza: Art of War
DJ M13 DA ZOL: No Ritmo Do Caos
DJ Erik JP: No Clima da Sul
La Joaqui: Electra
Whodamanny: Onda Biloba
Under Consideration
Cannelle: CINNA
Liz Cooper: New Day
Julia Cumming: Julia
Djy Ora: The SGIDONOLOGIST2
Jack Harlow: Monica
RAYE: This Music May Contain Hope
Tayna: Genesis
Willow: Petal Rock Black
Yumi Zouma: No Love Lost to Kindness
Midyear EPs
North West: N0rth4ever
Vayda: Don’t Lose the Groove
EMJAY: Confesiones de las que me voy a arrepentir
Hannah Jane Lewis: Consolation Prize
Merveille: Wondersummer
Zee Nxumalo & Dlala Thukzin: Izinja Zam Vol. 1
Natoxie: Cout Scrub Riddim
YUNA: Ice Cream
Artigo016: Ritual Da Carne
Uncle Waffles & Royal MusiQ: 4 DA STREETS!
1. babyMINT: I’m Not Perfect
Taiwan
2. Bb trickz: A la mala
Spain
Starting with two very different uses of the Cardigans—one from Taiwanese girl group babyMINT, who do a goofy little dance around “Lovefool” in a way that misses some of the cool buried in the center of its own goofiness.
Bb trickz, who I am hoping is recovering from her right-wing-curious edgelording, has not yet followed in the footsteps of other internet-poisoned celebs and lost her music mojo, if her carjacking joyride of the convertible in the “My Favorite Game” video is any indication (though the EP as a whole doesn’t really crackle).
3. Liza: ゆびのうた [Yu bino uta]
Japan
4. Aiobahn, 9Lana: Letter
Japan
Two J-pop tracks with very different approaches — Liza hews toward a K-pop single as event while Aiobahn goes for low-flying sleek electro.
5. AleXa: Umami
Korea-US
I continue to be more conceptually than viscerally interested in the winner of the American Song Contest (the “US Eurovision”), AleXa, though the more interesting “A-pop theory artist” associated with a global song contest is probably Monroe, the Utahn who represented France in Eurovision this past year. What I find interesting about this song is that it sounds like someone who has only ever thought about rap as something that K-pop stars do. Hard to explain what I mean, except that at some point since the second-gen K-pop boom, rap as a style uprooted completely from hip-hop in K-pop and formed its own distinctive patter.
6. Mighty, Klassik Frescobar, Motto, Shanika: Kolay (Stick)
Jamaica/Saint Lucia/Guadeloupe
A fun dancehall track in a hodgepodge of Caribbean styles, all of which are overshadowed by bed squeaks mixed high enough in the mix that I had to skip this while I was driving.
7. Facta: T66
UK
UK DJ on Wisdom Teeth showed up on Job De Wit’s radio show. This is one of many dance songs I listen to with my kids and get lots of annoyed questions about why it doesn’t go anywhere or do anything. Very interesting to see young minds molded by the uncompromising logic of the drop.
8. Julia Sandstorm: Baby It’s OK
Sweden
I seem to stumble across a lot of good freestyle and Italodisco from Europe — Whodamanny’s whole album was a keeper. Is this a resurgence, or is it just a style that has been kicking around forever?
9. Faith Leazae: Gimme a Gas Station?
US
The line between novelty and merely low-rent can be thin, and I would say that usually the deciding factor is humor, but so much rap is so low-rent and so funny right now that it really doesn’t support a strict dichotomy. This one does seem to dip deeper into surreal stream-of-consciousness, though.
10. twopiecemadeit: Calm Down Hoodtrap
Kenya
Kenyan producer does something interesting here, or I find it interesting despite it being based on uninteresting things, namely chopping up and distorting some late-EDM-pop sounds from the ‘10s that I associate with a nostalgia dead zone. But done in a way that doesn’t really make it out of the zone, like you’re listening to some D-list DJ from 2016 on broken speakers.
11. Chzter, angely2k: Eu si te pego
Mexico
Hard clave continues its gradual absorption into the pop mainstreams of lots of different places. It’s fascinating to see how the sound needs to soften to accommodate different MC styles.
12. Mc Pogba, Triz, Dj Henrique de São Mateus: Berimbau Tava Macetando Você
Brazil
Or you could just go for the real deal, or as close to real deals as I get without surfing Soundcloud and YouTube for Brazilian funk (i.e., probably not that close). Not earth-shaking as funk goes but the lead vocal hooked me well enough.
13. Güneş: Al Ya Da Bırak
Turkey
Didn’t think much of this Turkish electro-pop but the view count and video budget make it seem like a bigger deal than I expected. I am only noticing now that the video probably needs a content warning for…needle stuff. Like if the video for Björk’s “Pagan Poetry” was adapted for BLACKPINK.
14. VuVuVu f. Mervealice: Keyif
Israel/Turkey-Germany
15. Juzu: Y Solo Tú
Ecuador-US
16. Adrian Younge: Feel the High Life
US
OK, you can relax now — there are to my knowledge no videos for these three congenial psych/funk/soul tracks perfect for the middle stretch of your weekend barbecues. If there are, I highly doubt any will include face needles.
17. hanbee: Call Me Yours
Korea-New Zealand
City pop wafts out of the boombox from a haunted cassette tape but it isn’t hauntology (that just means it never got a degree).
18. Lodú: Moróuntódùn
Nigeria
Warm Naija pop doesn’t pin itself to any particular contemporary style, feels a bit out of time.
19. ゆうらん船, Ålborg: Skagen
Japan
I did not find a strong connection between this Japanese group and the city in Denmark they are named after, or the city in Denmark the song is named for. A brief bio says they hope to someday play Denmark. Sounds attainable!
20. Makam: Good Bye Mai
Netherlands
Dutch DJ dishes dreamy dub, doesn’t dazzle, denies dancing—despite demerits, decent denouement.
That’s it! Until next time, reach for the attainable.
—Dave Moore (the other one)
Title from babyMINT: I’m Not Perfect
Ain't nobody like you out here! You are appreciated, Dave!