The Lead Sheet ~ 4/14/2026

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. This week’s issue is a British invasion, featuring artists from England with exciting new music. 

Brighton based indie-pop group Lime Garden released their second full album on Friday, titled Maybe Not Tonight. The new record shifts away slightly from the lo-fi sound that flavored their first album, One More Thing, leaning into dance-pop and mainstream grooves. Maybe Not Tonight is also a concept album – the record revolves around the emotional highs and lows of a night out following a big break up. The new LP takes the listener on a journey through the impulses and regrets of one’s early 20’s, exploring messiness with self-aware, witty lyrics. Critics see the new direction as a confident step up for Lime Garden, who describe themselves as “wonk pop” and sometimes draw comparisons to Wet Leg and Charli XCX. Maybe Not Tonight is a quick listen clocking in just under thirty minutes, and was produced in collaboration with Charlie Andrew, known for his work with Wolf Alice and Alt-J. Lime Garden is currently on tour for the album, slated to perform in the UK, Ireland, Europe, and North America from now through November. 

Also releasing her second album this week is alt-pop singer songwriter Holly Humberstone, whose new record Cruel World is making waves with great reception. Humberstone won the 2022 Brit Award for Rising Star, and her debut album Paint My Bedroom Black released to widespread acclaim in 2023. Cruel World examines the duality of joy, and the idea that extreme happiness must share space with extreme sadness. Stand out tracks include “To Love Somebody” inspired by her sister’s experience with heartbreak, and “Die Happy”, a romantic dark-gothic pop single with a Nosferatu inspired music video. Cruel World is sweeping with critics, including a 10/10 rating from Rolling Stone and fans hailing it as a bonafide “no-skip” album. In support of her new project, Humberstone is currently on her “Cruel World” North American Tour, which will also have a few stops in Canada and the UK. Holly Humberstone will also play Coachella April 19th. 

As a total surprise, Enter Shikari dropped a sudden eighth album, Lose Your Self. Known for pioneering “electronicore”, a fusion-genre that combines elements of metal and EDM, Enter Shikari has amassed a cult following in their home country of England and the rest of the UK. The group’s frontman, Rou Reynolds, describes Lose Your Self as their heaviest, darkest record yet, and is meant to be listened to in one sitting, rather than appreciated as a collection of latest singles. The new LP, like the band, is fiercely political, offering contemporary comments on AI, humanitarian crises, and wealth inequality. Lose Your Self concludes with a three-part symphony, “Spaceship Earth”, a metaphorical warning in which humanity plays the part of a doomed spaceship crew, taking their vehicle (Earth) for granted, but the message is ultimately hopeful. Fans of Enter Shikari, called “Lions”, see Lose Your Self as a brilliant return to form, perfectly encapsulating the group’s strengths in dance-pop, rock, and metal. Enter Shikari will play several intimate shows in The UK in late April, and kick off a North American tour in the summer through fall, eventually wrapping up in the UK and Europe in November. 

British alt-rock band Tigercub released their fourth LP, Nets to Catch the Wind to generally positive critical reception. The band is often compared to acts like Muse and Queens of the Stone Age, firmly planted in anthemic, maximalist indie rock. Critics are calling Catch the Wind urgent and accessible, grabbing the listener more readily than 2023’s moody slow-burn, The Perfume of Decay. Fuzzed out guitars and dreamy falsettos pepper the album, creating walls of sound with tight harmonies and high dynamic contrast between verses and choruses. Fans seem to agree that Nets to Catch the Wind is the strongest, most cohesive work from Tigercub to date, marking a step-up in production quality and clarity from previous installments. After a successful album launch show at KOKO in London, the group will tour North America in the Fall and move to Europe and the UK early winter. 

Cameron Picton, former bassist and vocalist for the now broken up Black Midi, made his first release under his new musical identity; naming both his collective and first album My New Band Believe. Eponymous albums are common for debuts, perhaps more confusing in this case given the inclusion of “My New Band” in both the name of the band and its first album. Despite the syntactical ambiguity My New Band Believe is praised by critics as nothing short of a masterpiece, outshining the former group and revealing a musical evolution for Picton. My New Band Believe outlines a massive pivot to almost entirely acoustic instrumentation, featuring precisely finger-picked guitars, string sections and woodwinds. The LP is described as “theatrical folk” and takes inspiration from musicians Jim O’Rourke and Robert Wyatt. My New Band Believe features a large group of revolving artists, such as caroline and Mary Jane Leach. My New Band Believe will tour the album in the UK in April and May and North America in summer through the fall. 

Lime Garden - Maybe Not Tonight

Released April 10, 2026

So Young Records

Holly Humberstone- Cruel World

Released April 10, 2026

Polydor Records

Enter Shikari - Lose Your Self

Released April 10, 2026

SO, Silver Screen Records

Tigercub - Nets to Catch the Wind

Released April 10, 2026

Loosegrove Records

My New Band Believe - My New Band Believe 

Released April 10, 2026

Rough Trade Records