The Swim Team’s Favorites of May 2026

/

There’s new music coming out constantly, and oftentimes it can feel hard to keep up. Part of this is the constant swirl of social media and how fast everything moves, but it’s also a byproduct of how streaming platforms like Spotify are set up. If you’ve ever found yourself surprised to learn that your favorite band released a new song months ago, that’s kind of by design. Maybe there’s a record that you had on repeat earlier in the year but were only reminded of its existence because you scrolled deep enough back in your own library. These services would much rather keep you in their playlists and algorithmically generated radio stations than have you seek something out and make an intentional choice about what you listen to. 

Once you factor in all the other forms of entertainment vying for your attention, it can feel like an insurmountable task trying to stay up to date with any of it. I don’t wanna be “old man yells at cloud,” but part of me can’t help but think it was better when you’d get a CD or buy an album on iTunes and listen to it for weeks at a time. 

While most of us here at Swim Into The Sound spend a fair amount of time returning to old faves and digging into backlog blind spots, we’re also music nerds who love keeping up with the latest stuff and getting into needless debates over the buzzy band of the moment. Each month, The Swim Team will round up our favorite albums and songs in hopes of helping you keep up to date, see what you may have missed, or find something new you might love. 

If you find yourself wishing “I wish I were better at keeping up with new music,” this list is for you. If you find yourself overwhelmed when you open up your streaming service of choice, this list is for you. If you find yourself valuing actual human recommendations over whatever the streaming powers that be have elevated to the top, this list is for you. Fuck your algorithm, find something new. 

Records We Dug

  • American Football - American Football (LP4)

  • Bladee - Sulfur Surfer

  • Boards of Canada - Inferno

  • Broken Social Scene - Remember The Humans

  • Crash of Rhinos - Logbook

  • DERBY - Ambrosia

  • dogseesgod - Go Dog!

  • Father Dionysios Tabakis - Paradise Metal (Review)

  • Feeble Little Horse - bitknot

  • FILM - Permanence

  • Future Teens - Still Life

  • Greg Mendez - Beauty Land 

  • The High Curbs - HIGH SPEED

  • Heavy Metal Chess Club - I Think It'll Haunt Me

  • Kacey Musgraves - Middle of Nowhere (Caro’s Pick)

  • Kevin Morby - Little Wide Open (Doyle’s Pick)

  • KOYO - Barely Here

  • Kurt Vile - Philadelphia’s Been Good To Me

  • Long Relief - Win Some, Lose Some

  • New Idea Society – Fire On The Hill (Review)

  • Pancho - PANCHO EP

  • Peach Rings, Those Dogs - Hangout Forever

  • Pictoria Vark - Live at TNK

  • Porches - MASK

  • Rhododendron – Ascent Effort (Review)

  • Simon Joyner – Tough Love (Review)

  • Static Dress — Injury Episode (Britta’s Pick)

  • Sub*T - How My Own Voice Sounds

  • Thomas Dollbaum - Birds of Paradise (Taylor’s Pick)

  • Touch Girl Apple Blossom - Graceful

  • villagerrr - Carousel

  • Widemouth - No Gasoline (Review)

  • youbet - youbet

Songs We Loved

  • Babe Rainbow - “Polymuscalsaccharide”

  • Big Freeria, SOPHIE - “Blaze That Ass”

  • Caroline Rose - “Yip Yip Yow”

  • Charli xcx - “SS26”

  • Cheekface - “I Don’t Work Here”

  • Downtown Boys - “Sirena”

  • Elephant Jake - “‘98” (Review)

  • Emperor X - “Superbus” (Braden’s Pick)

  • Genghis Tron - “Born Prey”

  • Grace Mitchell - “Head On”

  • Gollylagging - “Jackknife”

  • Good June - “Bear With Me”

  • Grey Matter - “Benefits” 

  • Growing Pains - “Swimming”

  • Harrison Gordon - “Pretty”

  • Iceage - “The Weak”

  • If These Trees Could Talk – “Blurry Creatures” (Review)

  • Jawdropped - “Monday”

  • Josaleigh Pollett, Crowd Shy - “The Witness”

  • Ken Pomeroy - “Look at Miss Ohio”

  • Kurt Vile - “Zoom 97”

  • Lambchop - “Weakend”

  • LaterGator - “Windows XP”

  • Lawn Enforcement - “Burden - 2026 Remaster”

  • Liquid Mike - “Drowning Machine”

  • Manor Gates - “found an enemy”

  • Modest Mouse - “Third Side of the Moon”

  • MONO - “Gerbera”

  • Mopar Stars - “Lifetime of Pain”

  • The Mountain Goats - “Charlie Sheen Reaches Out to the Feds”

  • New Idea Society - “Dancing Horse”

  • Otis Shanty - “For Once”

  • Ovven - “Dishes - acoustic”

  • Picture Show - “Long Gone”

  • Riley! - “Another Round of Radical 'Ritas, Please”

  • Sincere Engineer - “Fast Forward, Rewind”

  • Småland, Mogwai - “Det är aldrig för sent att ge upp (Mogwai Remix)”

  • Snarls - “One Wish”

  • Swiss Army Wife - “Emergency Contact” (Review)

  • they are gutting a body of water, Horse Jumper of Love = “charter spec”

  • Thomas Dollbaum - “Dozen Roses”

  • Those Dogs - “TOO LATE!!”

  • tommy oeffling - “Handstand Song for Ethan”

  • Tourneforte - “Needy”

  • Tracey Nelson - “86”

  • Tummyache - “Interstate Dr” (Caroline’s Pick)

  • Ween - “Bad Day In Brownsville”

  • Westside Cowboy - “Kick Stones (The Boys)”

  • Whitney - “See You Later, I’m Gone”

  • Wild Pink - “A Round of Applause At The End of the World”

  • Vince Staples - “White Flag”