The Lead Sheet ~ 6/30/2026

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. 

English rock trio Muse are back this week with their tenth LP, The Wow! Signal, which is already hailed by critics as one of their most creative works in decades. While not a concept album, it is loosely themed after the bewildering 1977 radio transmission that was detected and intercepted by astronomers at Ohio State University. The 72-second audio (nicknamed the “Wow Signal”) seemed to confirm an intelligent source, and reignited alien fever. The final track, which shares the album’s title, cleverly samples and incorporates this audio into an orchestral waltz. Muse is known for their grandiose, large scale lyrics, but The Wow! Signal offers a juxtaposition of deeply personal and vulnerable lyrics with sweeping, anthemic space sounds. The project experiments with genre combinations, fusing nu-metal with prog-rock, electronic with gospel, and even some chromatic, spy-movie scales and progressions. Critics and Muse fans are calling The Wow! Signal a triumphant return to form, celebrating its theatricality and emotional, diaristic verses. Muse is on tour in North America now through August 31, with a European leg slated for November.

Chanel Beads, a.k.a. Shane Levers released his sophomore album, confusingly, with the exact same title as his debut, Your Day Will Come. Your Day Will Come (2024) and Your Day WIll Come (2026) share some sonic DNA, including a slacker-indie-rock profile, dreamy, shoe-gaze vocals and the use of live strings. But while the 2024 release was a smaller, bedroom-pop project, the 2026 record is more community driven, featuring appearances from other indie figures like Tchad Cousins, Isaac Eiger, and Mari Maurice. Your Day Will Come (2026) is also louder and more in-your-face, kicking off with a track fittingly titled “Drums Only”. Critics agree that despite the annoying stunt with the title Your Day Will Come (2026) is nimbly composed, and brilliantly flows with subversive pop-hooks and complex ideas, while maintaining listenability and a laid-back attitude. Chanel Beads will tour the new album in North America starting September 12th through October 14th, with a performance at Italy’s C2C festival at the end of the month. 

After a five year wait, hard rock group The Pretty Reckless released their fifth album, Dear God this week, to excellent reception. Helmed by former actress Taylor Momsen, The Pretty Reckless have established themselves as a prominent force in modern rock, and are known for their distinctive blues-infused grunge sound. While their previous work dabbles with dark sounds, Dear God pushes deeper into themes like mortality, addiction, and survival. Dear God also exhibits a wide range- from foreboding, heavy tracks like “For I Am Death” to more understated acoustic numbers like “Dragonfire”. The album’s tracklist is also structured intentionally out of order, kicking off with “Life Evermore Pt. 2” and closes with “Life Evermore Pt. 1”. When listened to on repeat, the album’s end flows seamlessly into its beginning, reflecting the cyclical nature of life. Consensus amongst listeners and critics is that Dear God is a cohesive, mature piece, and a welcome expansion of The Pretty Reckless’ discography. The band will tour the new record starting July 1st through September 29th, with shows in the United States and Canada. 

American singer-songwriter Ryan Beatty’s highly anticipated fourth album, Sweet Fortune dropped on Friday to immediate acclaim. Beatty’s recent tandem Grammy win for his songwriting contributions to Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter launched his momentum, going from indie-darling to certified A-list collaborator. As critics and audiences have leaned in, Sweet Fortune sticks the landing. Sweet Fortune likewise functions as the start of a new musical arc, trading his grief-stricken sad-boy sound for a joyous celebration of queer love. Musically speaking, Sweet Fortune expands on ideas from his 2023 record Calico; While still rooted in warm country and folk, Beatty incorporates broader instrumentation, including layered horns, lush orchestral sections, and backup vocals by indie-pop sensation Clairo. Beatty’s confident compositions have some already calling for “album of the year” consideration, but Sweet Fortune doesn’t chase radio appeal with any big summer hits. Beatty’s upcoming album tour will begin mid-September through October of this year in North America, with a subsequent UK and European leg thereafter. 

The darkly-humorous alt-punk group, Butthole Surfers, released a long-lost, near thirty-year-old record this week. Their 1998 album After the Astronaut had been trapped in contractual limbo following a heinous legal case with their former manager, who seemed to intentionally sabotage the group’s relationship with their 90’s label, Capitol Records. Capitol kept the rights to the music, and it was only recently that the band finally regained legal ownership after running out the contract’s clock. Partnering with friends at Sunset Blvd Records, After the Astronaut finally gets a proper global release, after three decades in a vault. After the Astronaut is the follow-up to 1996’s commercially successful Electriclarryland, which had the group’s biggest hit, “Pepper”. After the Astronaut moves in an experimental electronic direction, diverting from Electriclarryland’s mainstream appeal for industrial drum loops and psychedelic grooves. While After the Astronaut may have a fascinating origin, critics in 2026 see it more as a flawed time-capsule of the era, rather than a lost masterpiece. Had the album successfully launched, it likely would have been seen as ahead of its time, but in today’s context, doesn’t break new ground. Butthole Surfers have unfortunately retired from touring, but the band’s frontman, Gibby Haynes, will play a series of shows in New York in August, and special performances at Austin, Texas’ Levitation Festival in September. 

Muse - The Wow! Signal

June 26 2026

Warner Records, Helium Records

Chanel Beads - Your Day Will Come

June 26 2026

Jagjaguwar

The Pretty Reckless - Dear God

June 26 2026

Fearless Records

Ryan Beatty - Sweet Fortune

June 26 2026

Warner Records UK

Butthole Surfers - After The Astronaut

June 26 2026

Sunset Blvd