Notable vinyl releases out this Friday - March 20, 2026

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Change, they say, is the only constant in life. Fittingly, multi-hyphenate musician Avalon Emerson sounds at home harnessing the steady flux of her existence on Written into Changes, the memoiristic second album released under her Avalon Emerson & the Charm moniker. A work of rigorous invention and revision, the album's themes of personal and relationship evolution "came into clarity after they were all done," according to Emerson.The making of Changes was, appropriately enough, very different from that of & the Charm. While that album was, in Emerson's words, "soft and bedroomy," the energy was upped this time around, as Emerson carefully considered how this material would work in a live context. The resulting body of work is band-driven but groove-heavy and dance-adjacent. The break-beat-assisted "Eden" has a "baggy" sound that's reminiscent of dance-rock hybrids of the late '80s and early '90s. The witty "How Dare This Beer" was written in loving tribute to the Magnetic Fields. "'87 to '94 is my idea of the best era of music," says Emerson. "And with Nathan, our musical taste overlaps quite a bit."Nathan is Nathan Jenkins, aka Bullion, who co-produced & the Charm and returned to handle the bulk of it's followup. Much of the recording took place in Braintree, England, in the winter into spring of 2024. The two tracks co-produced with Rostam Batmanglij ("Jupiter & Mars" and "Earth Alive") were cut in Los Angeles. Synth touches were added at the Synth Cabin at Rosen Sound in Glendale, California. While the collaborative creation of Written into Changes diverged considerably from Emerson's dancefloor-tailored solo productions, the influence of dance music is splashed all over it. Emerson was fixated on her music's low end as she crafted it. "Bass was definitely a priority," she says.Emerson wrote the melodies and lyrics on Written into Changes, and the majority of the latter were sourced from her personal life. "It was a goal with my lyrics this time around to be a little bit more direct," she says. The title track, one of the artist's favorites, is about her move from Berlin to Los Angeles in 2020. The frenetic "Happy Birthday" has a sunny spirit anchored by gently devastating lyrics like those of the refrain: "Too young to die / Too old to break through." That track arrives having been club-tested-Emerson has already dropped it into her sets at clubs like Panorama Bar at Berlin's Berghain and Brooklyn's Nowadays. Both "Eden" and "Country Mouse" are odes to Emerson's relationship with her wife, Hunter while "I Don't Want to Fight" and "Earth Alive" are "about realizing you can't change people and trying to take them for who they are, and sometimes that means loving them from afar," she says.Written into Changes is an album about not just accepting change, but embracing it with a full wingspan. Progression is a theme both on record and behind the scenes, so that "written into changes" describes a conscious approach to expression and life itself.

As Green-House, musicians Olive Ardizoni and Michael Flanagan engage human nature and the natural world through joyous, dynamic synthesis. Overlaying frequencies and expressions like camouflage, their deeply layered collaborative process begins with either artist; Ardizoni is often drawn to melody, Flanagan to harmonics. The power lies in how their ideas helix together, achieving a depth greater than the sum of it's parts. For their first LP with new label home, Ghostly International, Green-House grows and refines their vivid instrumental songcraft with uncharted, genre-defying freedom and movement, a more active, percussive, and emotion-filled energy, marked by flowing bodies of sound and sweeping vistas. Hinterlands tunes into the beauty of the world with defiant, radical sincerity. Since 2020, across a catalog of acclaimed releases via the scene-creating Los Angeles imprint, Leaving Records, the duo has pursued a curiosity in environments, reaching for innate and faraway spaces by way of organic and synthetic instrumentation, high-definition sound design, and "idiosyncratic melodies crafted with the patient and methodical hand of a gardener," writes Pitchfork. Green-House doesn't fit neatly into any single category. Ardizoni and Flanagan aren't aligned with New Age ideologies or spirituality, and the ambient tag feels increasingly limited given all that's going on in their songs, which skew closer to the realms of IDM or even modern classical on their new album. What remains inherent is an open sense of wonder, "the idea of legitimizing certain emotions within music that often aren't taken seriously in art, like happiness and joy," says Ardizoni, whose eclectic personality shines through even without lyrics.

The iconic and influential electronic pop group Ladytron returns with a new album 'Paradises' - their first since 2023's critically acclaimed 'Time's Arrow'.Spanning dance and indie movements since their formation in Liverpool at the end of the last millennium, Ladytron have earned a unique position by carving out new sonic and conceptual space, and refusing to abide by formula or trend. In the early 2000s, the fiercely individual group were placed at the forefront of the so-called electro-clash scene (which now enjoys another revival), but with time, they came to appreciate the pop cultural moment that they had reluctantly become part of.The new album follows a period of renewed cultural presence for the band. Their 2002 single "Seventeen" unexpectedly went viral on TikTok, introducing Ladytron's sound to a new generation and amassing hundreds of thousands of fan-made clips. Their legacy was further acknowledged recently with "Destroy Everything You Touch," one of their most celebrated tracks, featured in the GRAMMY-nominated original Motion Picture Soundtrack of cult movie Saltburn, reaffirming Ladytron's enduring appeal.

LUKE COMBS is one of one -- standing alone as a rare combination of everyman relatability and extraordinary artistry. Grounded, genuine, and effortlessly authentic, he is the kind of artist who feels familiar the moment you hear him, yet whose voice, vision, and achievements are unmistakably singular. At just 35, Combs has already rewritten the record books: 20 consecutive #1 singles, the first country artist to headline and sell out multiple nights at Wembley Stadium (let alone three consecutive ones), the first country artist to headline both Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza, and the first to achieve two songs surpassing a billion streams on Spotify with four singles certified RIAA Diamond. Even amid such milestones, Combs retains a rare talent for making the familiar feel fresh—delivering songs that resonate with surprising clarity and emotional honesty. The Way I Am , out March 20 on Sony Nashville, is a 22-song collection that showcases everything that makes Combs unmistakable: from his raw, resonant voice and masterful storytelling to songs that balance heartfelt vulnerability with anthemic energy. The album dives deeper than ever into the life behind the spotlight, exploring the push and pull of fatherhood and the challenge of balancing family and career, self-belief, the quiet battles of mental health, and the clarity that comes from remembering what truly matters. The Way I Am captures Luke Combs as a generational talent at the peak of his craft and as a global musical force that comes along once in a lifetime.

more eaze is the moniker of Brooklyn-based composer, orchestrator, and multi- instrumentalist, mari maurice. A renowned collaborator both in performance and on recordings, maurice’s own work is a fantasia, a reflection of her curious and explorative musical mind, encompassing entire spectrums of sound from a wide sonic pallet of electro-acoustic textures, folk traditions, and pop forms that pirouette into fully realized ecosystems. sentence structure in the country is a definitive statement of the matchless quality of more eaze’s skill as player and musical thinker. The album relishes the ecstatic in performance and collaboration with an inviting wit and incisive compositions, imbuing tenderness, frustration, and joy into each passage. The title is an acknowledgement of the vernacular that shaped maurice’s musical production. As Coltrane said, “It all has to do with it.” maurice grew up playing fiddle in traditional folk and country tunes, and while playing on her album is entirely different, her reverence for the evolution of folk forms and her playing remain integral to those performances. Informing her production choices were maurice’s well- chosen collaborators: Wendy Eisenberg on electric guitar, piano and voice, Henry Earnest on electric guitar, Alice Gerlach on cello, Jade Guterman on acoustic guitar, and Ryan Sawyer on drums. sentence structure in the country is a collection of compositions, each beautifully realized, self-contained worlds. maurice’s dexterous, tasteful arranging lays bare her influences and obsessive fascinations with remarkable congruency while foregoing any sense of indulgence. Her music holds a density not only in the lush compositions and embellishing flourishes, but also for those moments of spare, minimalist beauty. sentence structure in the country is a textural marvel, a mosaic of ethereal electronics and loamy acoustics sculpted around deeply moving, enduring songs. A1. leave (again) A2. distance A3. bad friend A4. crunch the numbers A5. biters B1. the producer B2. a chorale B3. healing attempt B4. sentence structure in the country B5. move

After several years of silence, Nathan Fake makes a powerful return with Evaporator, his first album on InFiné. Written in six weeks during the summer of 2024, the record distills two decades of exploration into a lucid, tactile form of daytime electronica — radiant, physical, and full of air. Emerging from the nocturnal pulse of Blizzards and Crystal Vision, Fake turns toward light and openness. His analog synths and rhythmic architectures shimmer with space and energy, dissolving density into motion. Tracks like “Bialystok” and “Slow Yamaha” pulse with kinetic precision, while “Yucon” and “Sunlight on Saturn” drift into dreamlike ambient clarity. Built entirely on his ancient Cubase setup and recorded largely in single takes, Evaporator captures Fake at his most instinctive and human. Collaborations with Clark and Dextro deepen the sense of dialogue between sound and emotion, between control and surrender. This marks not only a major comeback for one of the UK’s most singular electronic artists, but also the start of a new chapter: Fake will tour the album with a brand-new A/V live show created in collaboration with Berlin-based visual artist Infinite Vibes, expanding his luminous sound into a full sensory experience. A luminous fusion of electronica, ambient, and leftfield techno, Evaporator is Nathan Fake reconnecting with instinct, clarity, and daylight — and taking it back to the stage.

Cynicism is a little too popular right now. Winning arguments are more prized than finding solutions. It’s all an unfair representation of humanity. Cynical Vision is my most modern record in sound and substance about the place we’re in presently. I’ve turned some of our latest dooms into satire so we can look at it through honest eyes. We have– at least in our society– gone down a pretty wacky path and can’t steer the ship right until we acknowledge it. I hope this record is cathartic and resonant while being lighthearted and fun. I made it with my friend and producer Nate Nelson who was a fabulous engineer while I had a ball playing most of the instruments. We didn’t think too hard about it. We just made art for the times. A1. This Is Your Life Now A2. Hoeny Burne A3. Grab Enlightenment By The Horns A4. The World Is Fucked And I Love You A5. Video Farm B1. Honeymoon Suite B2. Jim B3. Reborn B4. Cynical Vision B5. So Lucky When The Music Plays

underscores announces her third album U, via Mom+Pop Music. A self titled album of sorts and the culmination of all her work to date, U draws from the many eras of underscores’ creative trajectory, from dubstep and future bass to jazz chords and guitar driven maximalist pop, forming her most focused, emotionally charged and sharply defined statement yet. Featuring the singles Music, Do It, and Tell Me (U Want It), U further expands the intricate, high impact world she continues to build.