The Lead Sheet ~ 9/22/2026

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  

Pop songstress Carly Rae Jepsen returned this week with her eighth album, Day and Night. The two-disc double album features twenty-four tracks and over a hundred minutes of music, making it her largest official release to date. Part of the album’s concept is two distinct halves; a “Day” side and “Night” side, which feature distinctly different atmospheres. The “Day” side is breezy, with organic instrumentation, and takes heavy inspiration from ‘70s psychedelic, dream pop, and folk. The alternative “Night” side is sleek and synth-dominant, leaning into house and nu-disco. The album centers around loose themes of aging and existentialism, and the balance between the daytime routines, and nighttime indulgence. Reviews have been incredibly strong, with critics praising Jepsen for the expansive work, calling it her strangest and boldest yet. Fans also appreciate the massive new body of music, as well as the Day and Night’s wide range. Jepsen has not announced a companion album tour, but will play a headlining slot at the All Things Go Music Festival in New York on September 27th, and may announce a tour later this year or next.

After a seven-year hiatus, Beck is back with his fifteenth LP, Ride Lonesome, which dropped on September 18th. The new work represents a stark sonic shift for Beck, who for the last decade has focused on dance-pop with the use of drum loops and synths, but Ride Lonesome explores acoustic minimalism through folk and Americana. The new record functions as a personal song cycle through grief, isolation, and eventual acceptance in the aftermath of a shattered relationship. Gone is his signature ‘90s ironic edge and in its place a deeply vulnerable, earnest search for closure. The album benefits from features like country singer Sierra Ferrell, who lends vocals on the title track, as well as multi-instrumentalist Blake Mills and jazz legend Stanley Clarke, who add layers of sophistication to its composition. Critics have widely embraced Ride Lonesome, and see it as the final installment in Beck’s unofficial “Heartbreak Trilogy”, which also includes 2002’s Sea Change and 2014’s Morning Phase. Beck will launch his official Ride Lonesome tour starting September 22nd, which is set for twenty-five performances across North America through early November. 

Filipino-British alt-pop icon beabadoobee (Beatrice Laus) has entered a new era with the release of her highly anticipated fourth album, Pylon. Moving away from the polished pop of 2024’s This is How Tomorrow Moves, Pylon embraces a raw rock sound, weaving in elements of grunge and midwest-emo. Recorded with a live band, Pylon showcases a fierce contrast between beabadoobee’s breathy, cooing vocals and explosive, distorted riffs. Joined by alt-rock behemoths Haley Williams of Paramore, Turnstile’s Brandon Yates and Chino Moreno of Deftones, Pylon packs massive punch, and tackles the theme of deep isolation of navigating one’s mid-twenties in the modern world. Fans have embraced standout tracks “Switchblade” and “Sun Has Set” for their blistering guitar-driven angst, while major outlets rate the album highly and commend beabadoobee’s aggressive dive into a new genre, calling it her most confident and adventurous work yet. Beabadoobee will kick off her first ever arena tour with a North American leg in October, with a second leg in the UK, Europe, and Australia November through March. 

Also going all in on grunge this week is Portland-based singer-songwriter Emma Ruth Rundle, whose sixth LP These Killing Times has received widespread critical acclaim since its release on Friday. These Killing Times was inspired by the collective dread and political turmoil of recent years, and functions as a protest piece against systemic corruption, AI, Christian nationalism, and war. Co-produced with Sonny Diperri, These Killing Times trades solo minimalism for sweeping, full band arrangements, with high contrast between wailing rock choruses and elegant, lonely piano motifs. There’s also jazz influence with saxophone infusions, and crushing sludge metal throughout.  Critics liken the sound to that of Alice in Chains, and listeners find the album well paced and a return to form, though some find the final eight-minute sludge metal track “Human Kindness” a bit jarring lyrically. Rundle recently announced plans for an international, multi-phase album tour, with an initial solo stint in October, then a North American phase from November to December, followed by a UK and Europe leg in spring of 2027. 

Miley Cyrus, now going by the mononym Miley, released her tenth studio album this week, titled Bass Persuades. Over the last two decades, the singer has undergone many reinventions, but the new LP seems to follow a broader trend in modern music themes: digital exhaustion. Musical artists occupy a unique position; they are often who the public looks to for poetic clarity about hot-button topics, but are also firmly centered in the digital media space that their art may seek to criticize.  On Bass Persuades, Miley communicates a nostalgia for a time before smart phones, invoking the communal spirit of early MTV and classic club culture. She further explores these themes through an experimental mixture of genres like industrial, electronic synth, dark pop and minimalist acoustic. Reception so far has been pretty mixed; the album’s darker moments are effective and hard hitting- for example, “Different Religion” has a sinister atmosphere that complements Miley’s raspy alto, but the album suffers from an overall lack of cohesion that has some fans calling it rushed and unambitious compared to 2024’s Something Beautiful. As of right now, Miley has not announced plans for a supporting album tour, but will play a few concerts at the Hollywood Bowl in mid October, and has expressed a desire to establish a residency of live concerts rather than exhausting world tours.

Carly Rae Jepsen - Day and Night

Released September 18, 2026

Interscope Records

Beck - Ride Lonesome

Released September 18, 2026

Beabadoobee - Pylon

Released September 18, 2026

Dirty Hit, Interscope

Emma Ruth Rundle - These Killing Times

Released September 18, 2026

Errant Child 

Miley - Bass Persuades

Released September 18, 2026

Atlantic Records