Margaret Glaspy – “Reminder” (from I Am Both, 2026)
I singled out Margaret Glaspy’s “Michigan” as the best song I’ve heard this year back in June, and before 2026 is gone, I may well be making the same claim for her new album I Am Both. The urgent “Reminder” is a kind musical string-around-the-finger that, in our fraught moment, hope is not enough; simply laying low is as deadly a trap as retreating into cynicism; we “have to be willing to fight, fight, fight.” Glaspy has shared a live version of this song, just her and her guitar, that is a riveting reminder that songs as strong and necessary as “Reminder” require chops, song-craft, passion, and smarts; you should check it out. But I’m a records-trump-songs guy from way back, so what I most want you to hear is the album version created by Glaspy and producer Joe Henry. This version shares those acoustic origins but then percussion—hand drums, bass, cymbals— ratchets up the arrangement’s urgency, pulls the song away from her kitchen table and out into the streets. A bell chimes, like a timer shouting “now,” like a warning in the town square—and that’s where her self-reflection finds a community. – David Cantwell
The Womack Sisters – “Chauffeur” (single, 2026)
Kucha, Zeimani, and BG Womack are the daughters of Cecil and Linda Womack (of Womack & Womack) and can also call Bobby Womack their uncle and claim Sam Cooke as their grandfather. So… expectations for this vocal trio would be what you might call high, no? Retro soul ace Bosco Mann (head Daptone for Sharon Jones who’s worked with Thee Sacred Souls and Lee Fields), provides the Womacks a lush but rock-steady sound that brings to mind both the Pointers and En Vogue. The song is about a woman who makes a living with her chauffer’s license, but who plans to be the one driven around, someday. That may seem a bit backwards if you allow that the Womack Sisters are surely long familiar with limo rides. But this isn’t their life story; it’s a pop song—and a good one on the side of working schlubs and scrubs everywhere. “Cause it’s Friday night, and I’m a few bills light, and my rent is due.” – DC
Nino Paid – “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” (from Somewhere Over the Rainbow, 2026)
Nino Paid, a rapper out of the DMV (the DC/Maryland/Virginia scene), opens his third album in as many years with this lovely, terrifying American Dreamscape. Atop a beautiful folkie strum that’s smeared by the tears at his father’s funeral, a jittery groove flattened like his flow by the Percocet he’s popping, Nino can only measure his success on market terms—he wears Dior to church and justifies the Rollie on his wrist as “a constant reminder that I know what I’m worth.” In more lucid moments, though, he knows we’re each worth more than any of that stuff: “Somewhere over the rainbow people are happy and nobody livin’ in debt.” This hypnotizing album stacks contradictions like that, and lovely, terrifying dreamscapes too, straight through. – DC
Reba McEntire – “Ring Ring” (single, 2026)
A Kelli Pickler co-write and a Dave Cobb production, Reba McEntire’s new single is one of those zany, speedy, self-deprecating and twangy as all hell novelties that once seemed always to fill a spot or three on country playlists, back before the format went mostly humorless. “Ring, Ring” finds Reba making her one phone call after a night out that got a little out of hand, feigning innocence or at least pleading the fifth she must’ve helped finish off by herself. Turn it up. – DC
Vince Gill (feat. Cyndi Thomson) – “Eighteen Summers” (from 50 Years From Home: Eighteen Summers, 2026)
Vince Gill has been releasing monthly 50 Years From Home EPs since the fall of 2025 to celebrate his fifty years in the music business. In keeping with Gill’s storied catalog, the music across these nine volumes (and counting) ranges across styles and impulses, with Gill showing his facility with everything from big ballads to rootsy throwbacks to rumbling rockers. The title track of the most recent falls into the latter category and it’s one of the best things on the releases so far. Gill is paired here with the song’s co-writer Cyndi Thomson, who released one great album back in 2001 (!) and has popped up as artist and songwriter since then. Here, the two wish a departing child well as they head out to show “the world what you’ve become.” While such stuff could get sentimental, to both poignant and drippy effect, “Eighteen Summers” zips along over popping drums and a muted chicken-picked riff from Gill, making it as much about the excitement of the road ahead as whatever’s left behind back home. – Charles Hughes
FLO – “Cry Ugly” (from Therapy at the Club, 2026)
Best pop album of the year? It’s only August, and it may well be recency bias, but the new release from British trio FLO is sure sounding like it. Like their 2024 debut, Therapy at the Club is rooted in the sounds of the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, and the group hits all the swirls, crackles, and aches of that era without collapsing into a boring retro exercise. Part of the reason is their flashes of humor, on display from the beginning of the pulsing “Cry Ugly,” when Reneé Downer says that “it must be bullshit o’clock” when describing another bad night with a man who keeps her hangin’ on. They overlay this blues-impulse lyric on a beat that recalls the collaborations between Timbaland and Aaliyah, which is a very good thing. “Cry Ugly” is one high point of an album with many of them, making Therapy at the Club a perfect fix for those of us who are too tired to hit the club these days but are still chasing that old magic. – CH
Charlie Worsham – “Whiskeysippi” (from Once Upon a Second Time Around, 2026)
What a delight Charlie Worsham’s new album is. His first independent release, Once Upon a Second Time Around is a fitting showcase for the many talents of the country singer, songwriter, and guitarist who just earned membership in the Grand Ole Opry. (He was invited by Vince Gill, a kindred artistic spirit.) Beyond Worsham’s typical tight song-craft, supple vocals, and generous spirit, the whole thing just sounds amazing, both in terms of the vibrant productions and the commitment to inventive arrangements. The bangin’ “Whiskeysippi,” for example, bounces between boogieing verses and slamming choruses, with shredded guitar solos and a clipped vocal bridge that wouldn’t have been out of place on ‘80s rock radio. The whole thing works like a charm – “Whiskeysippi” is a turn-it-up blast that will sound perfect in these waning days of summer and for many months afterward. – CH
Lucy Dacus – “Clay Pigeons” (from Sittin’ With Blaze: A Tribute to Blaze Foley, 2026)
The late singer-songwriter Blaze Foley gets the tribute treatment on Sittin’ With Blaze, a loving collection that is bookended by versions of what might be his best and most famous song – “If I Could Only Fly” – and peaks with Lucy Dacus’ take on the other option for that honor. “Clay Pigeons” has already been done beautifully by John Prine, and Dacus doesn’t deviate from the subtle melody or the tender finger picking of previous versions. She doesn’t need to: Dacus’ hushed resonance is a perfect vehicle for Foley’s sad-and-lovely lyrics, and her voice melts into the guitar like the song’s protagonist tries to disappear into the seat on the Greyhound. “Clay Pigeons” is one of those songs that’s hard to screw up and much harder to do well. Dacus absolutely nails it. – CH
Lara Downes – “Hymn to Freedom” (from Hold These Truths, 2026)
The pianist and composer Lara Downes has released several albums that reimagine and reckon with American cultural legacies – including Some of these Days, the 2020 album based around Black sacred music that was among my very favorite releases of that year – and her new Hold These Truths continues that mission. As suggested by the title, it ponders the 250th anniversary of the United States by presenting Downes’ re-workings of writers from Aaron Copland to Willie Nelson, along with contemporary composers whose works fit perfectly in the mix. The deeply thoughtful Downes threads themes of liberation both realized and unfulfilled throughout the project, including on her stately solo performance of Oscar Peterson’s 1962 “Hymn to Freedom.” Peterson – a Canadian of West Indian descent – built “Hymn to Freedom” out of Black church traditions, and lyricist Harriette Hamilton added words that resonated with struggles both past and present: “Any hour, any day, the time soon will come/When men will live in dignity, that’s when we’ll be free.” It became an anthem and remains so. Downes stays instrumental, leaving only her graceful performance of Peterson’s enduring melody to carry the message. I don’t think anyone will miss the song’s call, so long as we’re open to hear it. – CH
Recommended reading:
-Joshua Jelly-Schapiro with an excerpt from his new book on Harry Belafonte, for Literary Hub
-Writers choose the 100 best Grateful Dead songs, for Rolling Stone
-Chris O’Leary on the death of writer John Crowley, for his Patreon
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