The Lead Sheet ~ 3/3/2026

The Lead Sheet is your guide to this week’s new music - taking a look at newly released albums, who made them, and how listeners are responding.

Damon Albarn’s hip-hop experiment Gorillaz are back this week with their highly anticipated ninth album, The Mountain. Albarn originally created Gorillaz to explore rhythms he felt he couldn’t use in his other massively successful group, Blur. Since then, Gorillaz has explored many genres, including R&B, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Rock, and Dark Pop, to name a few. The Mountain’s range is equally wide, taking inspiration from south and east-asian music, it begins with massive sweeping bansuri (a type of Indian flute), sitars and sarods (a fretless stringed instrument) that bend and slide with gorgeous melancholy. Thematically, The Mountain confronts death, loss, and grief, but is ultimately optimistic. Drawing from the Hindu concept of Samsara, The Mountain views death not as an end, but transition. Vocals are shared between Damon’s buttery baritenor, and several featured Indian singers, including 92 year old music legend Asha Bhosle, current Guinness World Record holder for most studio recordings. The Mountain is receiving glowing critique across the board, though may not hold as much radio-appeal as previous records. Gorillaz just launched a massive album tour, spanning the UK, Europe, and North and South America this spring through fall. 

After a ten year album hiatus since 24K Magic, popstar Bruno Mars released his fourth studio album, The Romantic, to positive, but tepid critical reception. The new project is packed with Mars’ signature funk sound, taking inspiration from 70’s acts like The Chi-Lites and Santana. Clocking in at nine-tracks and thirty-four minutes, The Romantic is a quick listen, and lead single I Just Might debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100, but overall listeners find the album technically perfect, but taking little risk. Consensus seems to be that it’s not bringing much newness to the table, with some calling it perfect “waiting-room” music. Despite some blandness, the album is a huge commercial success, earning twenty-six million streams in its first day on Spotify. The Romantic features a variety of sounds; mariachi bolero, 70’s soft soul, and percussive, party-funk. Bruno Mars will kick off a global tour for The Romantic starting April 10 in Las Vegas, Nevada, but will have legs in Europe, The UK, and United States and Canada. 

Mistuki Laycock, A.K.A. Mitski released her eighth studio album this week, Nothing’s About to Happen to Me. A concept album, Nothing’s About to Happen to Me focuses on a fictionalized, reclusive woman living in an unkempt house. To further this central idea, Mitski creates feelings of isolation and paranoia through songs like “Where’s My Phone?”, a chaotic anxiety-pop track with disorienting, frantic guitars, and “I’ll Change For You”, a depressing song that offers self-erasure in exchange for acceptance. Over the course of the album’s eleven tracks, our main character spirals into a more sinister disorder. Critics are calling Happen to Me some of Mitski’s most ambitious and conceptually cohesive work in her discography, and the record receives high marks across several aggregates. Mitski will begin a uniquely structured tour to support the album, spending several nights in key areas rather than jumping city-to-city. On tour, Mitski will spend about a week in New York, Los Angeles, and Sydney, Australia with a stop or two in Europe along the way. 

Iron and Wine, Sam Beam’s indie-folk alias released Hen’s Teeth, his eighth album on Friday to generally favorable reviews. Beginning as a humble lo-fi project in 2002 in South Carolina, Iron and Wine has since grown into a fully realized ensemble, now with orchestral arrangements and elevated production quality. Hen’s Teeth is a spiritual sibling to 2024’s Light Verse, and was recorded during the same session at Waystation Studio in Los Angeles. However, where Light Verse was airy and ethereal, Hen’s Teeth blends jazz and folk with earthy, dark grit. Hen’s Teeth also features folk trio I’m With Her on tracks “Robin’s Egg” and “Wait Up”, and Beam’s daughter makes her recording debut, providing harmonies and backing vocals for several songs. Listeners and critics appreciate Hen’s Teeth’s exploration of jazz, and emotional authenticity, and agree that Iron and Wine’s lyricism is in top form, with emotional vulnerability. Iron and Wine is currently on tour in New Zealand and Australia, with a United States leg planned for Summer and Fall. 

An exciting new duo, GENA, debuted their first album this week, titled The Pleasure Is Yours. Gena consists of L.A. based singer-songwriter Liv.e, and veteran jazz drummer, Karriem Riggins. After meeting through a collaborator, the two quickly discovered they had a similar process for improvisation, and quickly developed a musical shorthand. The Pleasure Is Yours captures that lightning in a bottle; called “unapologetically raw”, Liv.e’s smoky vocals and casual delivery perfectly balance out Riggins masterful, complex rhythms and clever subdivisions. The Pleasure Is Yours’ 16 tracks make up roughly forty-three minutes, with standout songs like “Circlesz”, a sultry soul-pop single and “This Is So Crazy”, which features blistering guitar solos and frenetic, heartpounding drums. GENA has begun a series of limited live performances, but at the moment are not planning a global tour .

Gorillaz - The Mountain

Released Feb 27, 2026

Kong Records

Bruno Mars - The Romantic

Released Feb 27, 2026

Atlantic Records

Mitski - Nothing’s About to Happen to Me

Released Feb 27, 2026

Dead Oceans Records

Iron and Wine - Hen’s Teeth

Released Feb 27, 2026

YG Records

Gena - The Pleasure Is Yours

Released Feb 27, 2026

Lex Records