By WDCE Music Directors

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:: Prepare for your 4/20 with this selection of hot, new albums! If anyone’s ready to curate a vibe or two, it’s the WDCE MDs.

:: April 19, 2026

:: TOMORA — COME CLOSER

Genre: Electronic 

Release: Album

Recommended Tracks: “RING THE ALARM,” “SOMEWHERE ELSE,” “THE THING,” “IN A MINUTE”

COME CLOSER, the debut album of electronic supergroup duo TOMORA, is the product of uninhibited creative collaboration between two titans of their respective genres. Aurora’s ethereal vocals float through the album as Tom Rowlands’ (one half of the Chemical Brothers) crisp production steadily progresses. Throughout their discography, the Chemical Brothers have had a habit of intermixing tracks dominated by lowkey, psychedelic beats with ones more bombastic and crunchy. That same basic formula of softer and more intense flows throughout COME CLOSER. The album opens unassumingly enough, but will crescendo up when need be. Tomora is at its best when Rowlands’ reserved, yet prominent beats intertwine with Aurora’s voice, when her voice becomes a form of percussion. This is especially compelling on “RING THE ALARM.” The highlight of the album, however, comes at the midway point in “SOMEWHERE ELSE.” The vocals are addictive, and it really feels like Rowlands and Aurora are flexing their songwriting chops in the best way possible. The album is subtle, spacey and dreamy, a beautiful marriage of art-pop and electronica. 

— Jonathan Sackett

Castle Rat — The Bestiary

Genre: Epic Medieval Doom Metal

Release: Album

Recommended Tracks: “WOLF I,” “WIZARD,” “UNICORN,” “SERPENT”

Castle Rat — a doom metal band from Brooklyn known for their elaborate costumes, overall stage presence and sonic storytelling — could not have released their sophomore album at a better time. The Richmond Ren-Faire is this weekend and this fantastical and medieval project has become the perfect impromptu pre-game. It’s a mystical creature focused journey through the “Realm.” If you’re ready to journey with a wizard and get mythological, enter The Bestiary.

— Jonathan Sackett

Prince Daddy & the Hyena — Hotwire Trip Switch

Genre: Punk Rock

Release: Album

Recommended Tracks: “Big-Box Store Heart,” “Crash Taylor,” “Oh, Donna,” “WTEN”

Hotwire Trip Switch, the fourth album by Albany rockers Prince Daddy & the Hyena, is straight contemporary emo. It’s half-serious, but fully aware of it. My first impressions, based solely on promotional images, made me think this was going to be frat punk or white-boy rap. Thankfully, it dodges both bullets. Hotwire Trip Switch is a fun outing, reminiscent of similar sounds pulled from West Coast punk outlets. In short, the Joyce Manor-ification of punk rock needs to be studied. 

— Jonathan Sackett

Nine Inch Nails & Boys Noize (Nine Inch Noize) — Nine Inch Noize

Genre: Electro-Industrial 

Release: Album

Recommended Tracks: “Vessel”

Nine Inch Noize, composed by industrial rock duo Nine Inch Nails and producer Boys Noize, is a cinematically intense collection of tracks recorded live, in-studio, on planes and generally wherever. It has a genuine, organic feel — everything feels fresh yet corrupted. It’s dark, yet bumping. The whole project feels like it was stripped right out of Nine Inch Noize’s 2026 Coachella performance (perhaps because the setlist is the same). The audience cheering for “Closer” can’t be beat. The start was edged but when it burst, the crowd became electric. There’s no debate, the crowd elevates this album — there’s so much joy and appreciation. The spiritual successor to Alive 2007 has awakened as a crooked beast, gnarled and mature, and I couldn’t be happier. 

— Jonathan Sackett

The Strokes – Going Shopping

Genre: Indie Rock

Release: Single

Recommended Tracks: “Going Shopping”

The Stroke’s new single embraces oddity through lyrical nuances and elevated auto tune. Nonetheless, “Going Shopping” stays authentic to the band’s usual guitar riffs and rock maintenance. In a weird way, the song reminds me of the 2000s-early 2010s aesthetic “Frutiger Aero” (a meld of tech optimism, glossy surfaces, imagery depicting different natural backgrounds). Additionally, the themes in The Stroke’s new single works in harmony with The President Of The United States Of America’s 2004 song “Peaches.” Thus, “Going Shopping” demonstrates the prevailing escapist sentiment,  shared by many Americans, who are concerned by the unstable political climate, continuous environmental degradation, and implications of capitalistic ventures.

— Sophia Sciulli

Drug Bug — Hell for a Basement

Genre: Art Rock

Release: Album

Recommended Tracks: “Hell for a Basement,” “Not Worth It,” “Between Months”

This album backs up the universal acclaim of Drug Bug’s last group band, Willy Rodrigez, who released one of the best pop-emo albums of the 2020s, Wetdream. Drug Bug follows a very similar sound as Willy Rodrigez, with emotion-heavy, choked-up vocals, and intensely layered instrumentation, reaching into shoegaze levels of distortion. The title track of Hell for a Basement is the most unique. Not only is the song almost 11 minutes long, but it also transitions between multiple musical stages that are all completely different from each other, functioning like 2+ tracks but holding analogous lyrical themes. As for the overall sound of the record, each track moves in and out between slower, slackerish tones and noise-rock compositions. It’s artistic, flashy, and emo-heavy too, but it’s a great entry into a newly developing genre.

— Jacob Bennett

Gem Club — Emerald Press

Genre: Ambient Pop

Release: Album

Recommended Tracks: “Aperture,” “Swore (Emerald Press),” “Garlands”

Gem Club’s new album is their first in 12 years, and it does not disappoint. The sound of Emerald Press thrives in its simplicity, with every track only using pianos and lightly applied strings, making Chrisopher Barnes’ vocals the primary focus. The production on these tracks are very reminiscent of Labrinth’s instrumentals on the 2019 Euphoria soundtrack, or the ambient vocal inflections of Montell Fish’s 2022 album, JAMIE, though their respective R&B influences are absent Emerald Press. My favorite song, “Garlands,” is an example of this sound, where the devastating strings on the track stand next to simple, brief lyrics, which highlight sensory feelings and melancholic atmospheres, instead of a clear narrative. “Aperture” takes this idea to the max, cutting the lyrics in half and buffering each line with extensive (yet slow) piano sections, further building on the poetic style of this album’s imagery. 

— Jacob Bennett

Hayden Everett — So The Sun Can Pour

Genre: Indie Folk

Release: Album

Recommended Tracks: “Killer Whale,” “Bird Eye View,” “Angela,” “Roll On Thru”

I don’t think I’ve heard an album lean this fully into indie folk without diluting it—So The Sun Can Pour is saturated in it. Acoustic guitar runs through everything like a backbone, but it’s never flat—layered with soft synths, occasional winds, and those high, airy background strings that open the whole record up. It feels like golden hour stretched across an entire album—porch swings, late summer tipping into fall. The banjo details in “Wind Song” and “Angela” are subtle but perfect, and his voice—slightly campy, harmony-heavy—just commits fully to the aesthetic without irony. “Roll On Thru” is the outlier in the best way—more tension, more build, heavier on synth and strings, like a quiet climax before things exhale again. It all plays like a cohesive painting, not a playlist—and honestly, this is the kind of record I’d point to if someone asked what I actually like to listen to.

— Piper Turri

Frog — Frog For Sale

Genre: DIY Indie Rock

Release: Album

Recommended Tracks: “Best Buy,” “Dark Out,” “Max Von Side-Eye,” “Je Ne Sais Pas”

Frog for Sale by Frog is chaotic in a way that feels completely deliberate—like Daniel Bateman is writing faster than most people would think to edit, but still landing hooks that shouldn’t work as well as they do. The whole record pulls from that scrappy lineage (early Paul McCartney, Elliott Smith, Buddy Holly) but filters it through this lo-fi, constantly shifting setup—glockenspiel one track, MIDI horns the next, piano bleeding into acoustic into synth without ever settling. “Lois Lane” is a clear hit with its almost obnoxiously catchy chorus—but then you get something like “Max Von Side-Eye” that’s structurally bizarre and still emotionally sharp. Compared to the earlier Variations releases, this feels more layered and less impulsive, even if it keeps that “figure it out as you go” writing style they’re fond of. It’s messy, funny, and weirdly precise at the same time—and the melodies are so immediate it almost feels accidental. It’s not trying to be tasteful, which is exactly why it works.

— Piper Turri

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