March 16, 2026 by Elias Prodger (‘26)
Harry Styles- Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally
Harry Styles has awoken from his 4-year slumber and decided he wanted to be an indie sleaze hipster from 2006 Brooklyn. The LCD Soundsystem influences, the casual ties over the t-shirt, the grainy lead vocals, all feel like a new outfit that he can’t quite fit in. In his journey to become the new James Murphy, channeling everyone from Floating Points to Simon and Garfunkel, the lead single “Aperture” set the stage for a dramatic change in his sound value. Squelchy synths, Berlin club-style kick drums, the auditory palette of the record reimagines BRAT, without the charisma or full club appeal. A Harry Styles record in this vein has enormous potential if he can simultaneously channel that same charisma of his early years that made him endearing. Without that appeal, the record feels flat and gentrifies the sound it seeks to embody.
Mitski- Nothing’s About to Happen to Me
Mitski, at her peak of theatrics and emotional depth, falls into the trap of safety and late-stage career stagnation. Coming off her first Billboard hit in 2023 with the TikTok smash “My Love Mine All Mine,” it was clear that the path forward in Mitski’s career was to bury the abrasion of her early work like on her indie breakthrough, Bury Me at Makeout Creek. The exception to that rule, the second track “Where’s My Phone” remains the record’s craft highlight, while remaining the most sonically gruff. The rest of the record falls into a trance of middling instrumentals. The lyrics, like on almost every Mitski album, are cutting and raw, but are not enforced or made more impactful by the album’s polish. Mitski at her best is rough, distorted, and brutally honest in lyrics and in sound, and this album falls slightly short in delivering her best qualities.
A$AP Rocky-Don’t Be Dumb
A$AP is back and sounds as jagged and essential as he ever has. The synths are chunky and sawtooth, the drum machines are angular and compressed to death, and the deliveries are punchy with that signature Rocky restraint. Almost 8 years past his latest studio release, 2018’s Testing, the longest hiatus of his career was able to justify tracks like “Punk Rocky,” his wooziest and most off-kilter track to date, paired with bassist Thundercat and composer/drummer Danny Elfman for an all-time SNL performance. Stacked with a unique and eccentric feature list, its palette borrows influence from indie rock to industrial hip hop, and creates one of this year’s most sonically exciting hip-hop records and a blast of fresh air in the mainstream.