Paste Magazine has selected ten compelling new albums to stream this week, featuring artists from rap to experimental jazz. Highlights include Baby Keem's long-awaited Ca$ino and Hilary Duff's pop comeback luck… or something. The roundup covers diverse genres, urging listeners to discover fresh obsessions.
Paste Magazine's weekly New Music Friday feature spotlights ten new albums released around February 20, 2026, spanning rap, pop, country, folk-rock, and punk-jazz. The publication emphasizes records that demand attention, starting with Baby Keem's Ca$ino on pgLang/Columbia. At 25, Keem follows his 2021 album The Melodic Blue with tracks like “Sex Appeal,” driven by West Coast funk, and “I Am Not a Lyricist,” which addresses poverty, drug abuse, and systemic racism. Kendrick Lamar guests on “Good Flirts,” including a diss toward Young Thug. Reviewer Matt Mitchell calls it potentially the strongest rap album of the first quarter.
Hen Ogledd's Discombobulated on Weird World/Domino blends synth-pop, spoken-word, post-punk, folktales, ambient, and jazz, featuring Richard Dawson, Dawn Bothwell, Rhodri Davies, Sally Pilkington, and guest Matana Roberts. Standouts include the guitar-driven “Scales will fall” and the 19-minute “Clear pools,” compared to Sufjan Stevens’ “Impossible Soul.”
Hilary Duff returns with luck… or something on Atlantic, her first since 2015's Breathe In. Breathe Out. Co-produced with husband Matthew Koma, it evokes her 2003 debut Metamorphosis. Songs like “Weather for Tennis” and “Future Tripping” mix cheery pop with themes of relationships and nonsensical charm, such as the “Bon Ivar” line.
Liz Cooper's New Day on Sleepyhead Records shifts to experimental sounds inspired by Beck, Lou Reed, and Caroline Kingsbury, produced by Dan Molad. Tracks like “IDFK,” “Boy Toy,” “Baby Steps,” and “Sorry (That I Love You)” highlight her guitar and new piano skills, infused with queer catharsis.
Megan Moroney's Cloud 9 on Sony/Columbia follows her country hit “Tennessee Orange” and 2022's Am I Okay?, blending acoustic guitars and pedal steel under producer Kristian Bush. It explores romances and heartbreaks with subtle melodies.
Mirah's Dedication on Double Double Whammy, backed by Jenn Wasner, Meg Duffy, and Andrew Maguire, delivers warm folk-rock about personal losses and family, with direct lyrics like “Life is already hard enough / And I don’t want to throw away all of the good stuff we have.”
MX LONLEY's debut ALL MONSTERS on Julia’s War offers muscular rock with influences from Show Me the Body and Pixies, featuring Rae Haas and Jake Harms. Songs include “Big Hips,” “Shape of an Angel,” and the seven-minute “Whispers in the Fog.”
Peaches' No Lube So Rude on Kill Rock Stars, produced by The Squirt Deluxe, tackles post-Roe politics and ageism with electro tracks like “Hanging Titties” and “Fuck How You Wanna Fuck.”
Phew and Danielle de Picciotto's Paper Masks on Mute features electronic dialogues in German and English, with glitchy elements in “Paper Memories” and “Pixelwissen.”
The Messthetics & James Brandon Lewis' Deface the Currency on Impulse! builds on their 2024 debut, mixing punk and jazz in tracks like “Deface the Currency” and “Gestations.”
