Hello and welcome to 2026! Today marks the year's first entry in Today's Release Highlights, where the Needle Drop writers room gets to shout out some new releases they want to draw your eyes and ears to.

Today still being so early in the year, we just have a little baby entry today – four releases. But don't let the paltry size of the list distract you from some discovery!

Dig in!

Clémentine March – Powder Keg [PRAH Recordings]

London-based French artist Clémentine March is all over the musical map on her checkered third album, a grab-bag of songs loosely themed on ideas of intensity and when it does and doesn’t serve us well. Borrowing its title from a line in Bonnie Tyler’s megawatt power ballad “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, Powder Keg draws on everything from disco and samba to Brazilian pop and experimental jazz, sung in English, French, and Portuguese. Aided by a stellar ensemble including MF Tomlinson, Naima Bock, Katy J Pearson, Alabaster DePlume, and Dana Gavanski, it’s a lot to take in at first, but March’s own voice – often disorderly, sometimes weary and direct – emerges as the anchor that holds it all down. – Alan Pedder

Dry Cleaning – Secret Love [4AD]

Dry Cleaning, the England-based post-punk outfit, return with their third LP Secret Love, produced by Cate Le Bon (Deerhunter, Kurt Vile, Wilco). The album finds the band at their sharpest, fully retaining their signature sound while subtly pulling in classic rock influences, including flashes of The Rolling Stones, all wrapped in pristine, punchy production that really pops. The lead single, album opener, and longest track, “Hit My Head All Day”, clocks in at just over six minutes and does exactly what a great opener should: it sets the tone and primes you for everything that follows. It’s an immediate statement of intent. And yes, if you can get past the deeply uncomfortable album art, a painted rendering of frontwoman Florence Shaw having her eyes cleaned by an unseen figure, Secret Love is a genuinely lovely listen. Just… maybe don’t think too hard about the eye stuff while it’s on. – Ricky Adams

Euphoria Again & Dogwood Tales – Destination Heaven [Born Losers Records]

Tapped into mellow, crunchy indie-folk guitars with an overarching Americana glow, the collaborative project Euphoria Again and Dogwood Tales leans fully into folky nostalgia on their new collab LP Destination Heaven. The album continues the alt-country tilt that’s been steadily rising across the indie world over the past few years, pairing laid-back warmth with lived-in grit. It’s the perfect soundtrack for a long drive through post-roadside American boom towns, places stuck in time yet somehow feeling like they’ve always existed that way. Fans of The War on Drugs, MJ Lenderman, and J Mascis will feel right at home here. Destination Heaven is the chill, twangy mid-winter record we didn’t know we needed. – Ricky Adams

Jenny on Holiday – Quicksand Heart [Transgressive]

Up to now Jenny Hollingworth has best been known as one half of fine young cannibals Let’s Eat Grandma, an experimental pop duo she formed while still in school. Relaunching as Jenny on Holiday, her solo debut Quicksand Heart dials down that project’s thornier angles to deliver a clear-eyed synth-pop record that centers a playful lust for life, driven by an urge to “have more fun making music again.” There’s vulnerability here too, but it often comes wrapped brightly, contagious in its striving for hope and broad appeal. – Alan Pedder