The Swim Team’s Favorites of June 2026

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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

  • Barricade - No Spirit 

  • Bellows - “Que Bello!”

  • Coma Regalia - All The World’s Most Beautiful Liars

  • Cold Court - \ ( ^ _ ^ ) /

  • Corners of the Sky - Corners of the Sky

  • CS Cleaners - What’s That?

  • Dari Bay - Surprise Wish

  • Death Cab For Cutie - I Built You a Tower

  • Downtown Boys - Public Luxury

  • Emperor X - Unified Field (Review)

  • Farseek - Settle In

  • Fiddlehead - Baby I'll Change

  • Flowers For Emily - Elijay

  • Genghis Tron - Signal Fire

  • The Get Alongs - Second To None

  • Grumpster - Honeydew

  • Haggus – The Mincecore Manifesto (Review)

  • Harmony Tividad - Lifetime

  • it could be worse - a door you close yourself

  • Jessica Lea Mayfield - Miss Obliteration

  • King Rat - The Words That Cut Me

  • knitting - Souvenir (Review)

  • La Sécurité – Bingo (Review)

  • Labrador - The Rosy Red World

  • LaterGator - It’s All Temporary

  • Medieval Found Footage - Abagnale (Taylor’s Pick)

  • Modest Mouse - An Eraser And A Maze

  • MONO - Snowdrop

  • Olivia Rodrigo - you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love (Caro’s Pick)

  • Or Sobre Blau, Ubaldo & Kiran Leonard - Making Friends (Britta’s Pick)

  • Piebald - Tales for the Rages (Review)

  • proun - Maybe Luck

  • Seahaven - Seahaven

  • Sincere Engineer - Probable Claws

  • Snarls - In Heaven There’s Rainbows

  • Staring Contest - World Of My Dreams  (Caroline’s Pick)

  • Styrofoam Winos - Any River

  • Swiss Army Wife - I Love You, But I Hate It Here

  • Tierra Whack - WHACK’S MUSEUM

  • Topiary Creatures - Greenhouse Oubliette (Ciara's Pick)

  • Vince Staples - Cry Baby

  • YHWH Nailgun - Magazine

Songs We Loved

  • A Place For Owls, phoneswithchords - “To Be Found”

  • Angela Autumn - “Mountain Stream”

  • Blondeshell - “Violins”

  • Brennan Wedl - “Pretty Little Fantasy”

  • Bring Me The Horizon - “Black & Blue - 2026 Repented”

  • boycomma - “Comme Ci Comme Ca”

  • Carly Rae Jepsen - “On Wires”

  • Charli xcx - “Wink Wink”

  • Compandas - “I Just Quit My Job at the Liquor Store” (Review)

  • Compandas - “Theme Song to Compandas”

  • Crush Fund - “Open Secret”

  • Dogwood Tales - “McMemories”

  • Elephant Gym - “Highway”

  • El Eleven Ten - “Disorder”

  • Fly Over States - “641A”

  • Future - “Radio”

  • Happy Birthday Mr. Baskets - “Seven Dollars” (Noëlle’s Pick)

  • Harrison Gorgon - “Not Working! Not Working!”

  • Highland Light - “Your Face”

  • Hurry - “Moving After You”

  • Jim James - “Come Again”

  • Josaleigh Pollett - “Like a River” (Review)

  • Lily Seabird - “Election Day”

  • Meg Stalter, MUNA - “GAY”

  • Michigander - “Taxi”

  • Petey USA - “Like a Mantra”

  • Phoebe Bridgers - “Lost Boys”

  • PUP - “If This Is It”

  • Queen of Jeans - “Still Learning”

  • Radiator Hospital - “Wall Between Us”

  • Riley! - “Two Bucks”

  • Russian Circles - “Empath”

  • Sadurn - “whole thing”

  • Sam and Louise Sullivan - "Down On Love"

  • SHOPLIFTER - “Light Pollution”

  • Slow Fiction - “Satellite” 

  • Slow Pulp - “Better Man”

  • Sorcha Richardson - “Illinois Again”

  • Squirrel Flower - “Reelin” 

  • This Is Lorelei - “Billy Came Back”

  • Ween - “Boston Chicken”

  • Wild Pink - “Big Box”