Most Anticipated of 2026
We knocked on doors, made cold calls, and turned over every stone we could find under that snow to dig up 26 albums we are anticipating in 2026. We love doing this article because we do it better than most (yeah, I said it). Why is it that the Cups N Cakes Most Anticipated list is the best? It’s because we try really hard to go above and beyond simply relaying the information clogging up our email. All the music media journalists get that info so we also try to find stuff nobody knows about yet. Furthermore, we like to deliver exclusive premieres in this article and we are doing that again today. The 2026 list sets a Cups N Cakes record with 12 premieres in one article (plus one little sneaky-peeky of a song in progress!)
Enjoy!
Angine de Poitrine
The mysterious duo Angine de Poitrine are returning in 2026 with a short, six-track album entitled VOL.II. It follows their critically acclaimed debut release called (you guessed it) VOL. I. The Saguenay, Quebec band recently found their way onto our list of the Best Live Shows of 2025 as they’ve been blowing minds across the province of Quebec.
We know that VOL. II will arrive on April 3rd and that the song “MATA ZYKLEK” which arrived at the end of last year will be on it. We also know a second single will arrive in early February. Until then, check out what has Quebec audiences swooning and hit play below.
Bennett Mitchell !Exclusive Premiere!
Rearranging, the fourth album from Calgary’s Bennett Mitchell arrives on January 23rd. The record was written all over Western Canada as Mitchell bounced around like a nomad before moving into the hundred-year-old lodge of his families ranch and becoming a farmhand for a neighbouring ranch. Half the songs feature Calgary stalwarts Chris Dadge, Nate Waters, Brock Geiger, Eric Cinnamon and Cam Buie while Mitchell recorded the others by himself. Mitchell described Rearranging as :
“an immensely vulnerable record that we made that shows exactly how I feel about living in this world.”
We are so very excited to share an exclusive premiere of the final song to come out before the whole album drops next week. Check out “Ticket To Drive” below and hit the pre-order button in the player to support the artist.
Cootie Catcher
Last year we caught wind of a fun, twee-pop act from Toronto whose music buzzed with bright electronics over lofi indie-rock. The album was called Shy at first and we played it a ton, the whimsical quirkiness had us hooked for a better part of the spring. The team at Cups N Cakes was very excited to hear that a follow-up is arriving so soon. Something We All Got drops on February 27th via Carpark Records and will be available on vinyl, CD, and cassette.
Three singles have been released so far, hit play below to hear them all. Then when you fall in love with this band like we did last year, smash that “pre-order” button to show your support.
Calvin Love !Exclusive Premiere!
For his seventh studio album, Edmontonian Calvin Love went down to Los Angeles to record with Reverend Baron at The Ladder Factory. With Love acting as producer, he brought together an all-star live band consisting of Josh da Costa (drummer for Drugdealer), Brent Randall (Vanity Mirror), Davey Chegwidden (percussionist for De La Soul, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, Too Short), Jeremy Brian Gill (saxophonist for Curtis Harding), Daniel E. Garcia (Reverend Baron) on lead guitars, and multi-instrumentalist Laena Myers (White Fence, Orville Peck, El Mariachi Bronx) on violin.
Based on the three songs released so far, we are confident in saying that Throw My Shadow To The Sun is shaping up to be the best thing we’ve ever heard from Love. Late-night 80s adult contemporary vibes tug at the back of your mind with timeless 60s pop nods à-la-Orbison solidifying Love’s ultra-cool, crooner persona. Out of everything listed in our “Most Anticipated” article, these three songs have Jeff, our founder, most excited…
Except… What’s that?… A fourth!?!
Yes! We are very excited to deliver an exclusive premiere of the lead-off track from Throw My Shadow To The Sun. Check it out below and be sure to pre-order today!
Christo Graham !Exclusive Premiere!
Christo Graham is one of Canada’s most gifted singer-songwriters but, sadly also one of Canada’s most under-rated. Moving from delicate folk-pop tunes that bring to mind the psych-folk explosion of the 60s to McCartneyesque piano ballad perfection to finger-pickin’ campfire country crooning, Graham has an innate ability to craft melodies that are better than most.
His new album is called Good Covers and it was a family affair. It was engineered and mixed by Graham himself in a time of transition; he had just welcomed a newborn and was preparing to imminently move to a new home. He completed bass and acoustic takes with a one-week old strapped to his chest, while his four-year old engineered the drum recordings, and his wife Kelly lent harmonies to a few tracks.
We are very excited to deliver an exclusive premiere of the third single ahead the albums January 30th release date via the label We Are Busy Bodies. Enjoy the gorgeous tune “You Are Your Own Small Town” and support the artist by pre-ordering Good Covers digitally or on vinyl.
Crack Cloud
Crack Cloud are an enigma, a Canadian band that never plays Canada. I’m not even sure if they have much of a following in the country they call home as all their touring efforts are spent in Europe. As far as I can tell they still live in the Great White North with a 2024 interview siting frontman/drummer Zach Choy was back living in Calgary so we’re including them on this list.
The new album is called Peace And Purpose and reports state that it was written and recorded in Choy’s basement between November 2024 and 2025 on one microphone and with a variety of junk instruments and speakers. By the sounds of that, we presume this is a return to early Crack Cloud aesthetics. The lead single is certainly a departure from anything we’ve heard from the band so far, it’s stripped down, acoustic and somewhere in the vein of heart-on-sleeve art-folk. Check it out below and pre-order Peace And Purpose today.
Cryptozoologists !Exclusive Premiere!
In 2020 we discovered a weird art-rock band called Cryptozoologists and became utterly obsessed with the album they released that year, Pond Life. It was named to our “Honourable Mention” list for Best Albums of the year and the track “This Year’s Punks” came in at #26 on our Top 50 songs of the year. We’re so excited to share the news that Cryptozoologists are returning with a new album called Backwater Station on January 23rd.
The new album finds the band at their most honed and confident, a culmination of a decade of irreverent and angst-fueled songwriting in Whitehorse’s fast-changing social landscape. Lyrically, frontman Zach McCann-Armitage zeroed in on harsh realities of life in Whitehorse, examining everything from the mundane to the profane and penning it all in a literary style akin to the likes of Dan Bejar or Carey Mercer (or maybe my mind goes to those two for their idiosyncratic vocal styles which McCann-Armitage also shares). Regardless, the art-rock instrumentation of the band is a perfect backdrop to McCann-Armitage’s musings.
We are very excited to get to premiere the song “Puke on the Sidewalk”, a track that examines the ugly, the gross, and the decidedly, un-wilderness-ness of their hometown which is dubbed “The Wilderness City.” Check it out below and then visit the Cryptozoologists Bandcamp page to pre-order Backwater Station.
Dominique Fils-Aimé
So yes, this release may not fit in with the rest of our selections. Dominique Fils-Aimé is a JUNO award winner and not exactly an underground act that the Cups N Cakes Network specializes in boosting. But! We have been championing Fils-Aimé since we first heard the 2019 masterpiece Stay Tuned! and I’ve gotta say, this artist has not succumb to success in anyway shape or form. I’ll be damed if I cannot say I’m stoked to hear the new album from Dominique Fils-Aimé even if it means admitting that the JUNO committee has actually gotten something right… ever!
Seriously, Dominique Fils-Aimé is a Canadian treasure and we cannot wait to hear My World Is The Sun which arrives on February 20th. As luck would have it, the pre-order went live this morning along with the second single, “The River”.
Doohickey Cubicle !Premiere!
Beloved Vancouver synth-pop duo Doohickey Cubicle will be returning with new music in 2026. The band, which consists of Alli Deleo and Francis Hoope are hoping to not only deliver the follow-up to 2024s Super Smeller but also return to the stage after an extend hiatus due to Hoope being diagnosed with cancer and going through treatment. In the words of Deleo:
“We have been on a so called "hiatus" since 2023 in terms of putting ourselves out there to tour etc, but we are feeling excited to put on and be part of more shows this year - because isn't gathering all we have left? At least we feel like we need it more than ever. “
The album which was self-produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered will be called Good At It and is expected to arrive in the summer. It will feature long time collaborator Mark Sutherland on sax, and Jess Jones on drums. The band was so gracious to us and agreed to make a single live on Bandcamp today for the purpose of this article. We can confirm that this track is from the upcoming record, hope you enjoy!
Franco Rossino !Exclusive Premiere!
Last year we fell in love with the solo output from Franco Rossino. We are not sure if we’ve heard the last from Dumb, the band he’d become known for, but some of us here at Cups N Cakes believe the two albums Rossino released in 2025 where the best things he’s ever done. Jeff, our founder, actually put them in his favourite albums of the year list!
From the start, Rossino has stated that this is a trio of records so naturally we are extremely excited to hear the third. From a brief chat with Rossino, we are able to tell you that the album is called #3 and it’s expected to arrive in the summer via Monotapes. Unlike the first two, this one has more of a rock-band sound with Rossino drawing inspiration from The Buzzcocks. It also features some help from his friends with a guitar solo by Dan Thow on “The Cars” (a tribute song to The Cars), Max Freeland of Pardoner on lead guitar for “Getting High to the Music”, Adrian Teacher of Apollo Ghosts doing backing vocals on “Missing All The Beats”, and the closest thing to a new Dumb song is “Snake Oil” as all of Rossino’s bandmates in Dumb join him on that track.
And if all that intel wasn’t enough to get you pumped, Rossino has given us an exclusive premiere of the track “The Cars”, only available to stream right here!
Golden Age Of Wrestling
Musically, Jeff Cancade can do no wrong. Best known as the queer underground pop sensation, Devours — when Cancade isn’t getting audiences shaking their asses, they're exploring other electro-realms with The Golden Age Of Wrestling. Always instrumental, TGAOW is a project where Cancade can let go of the Devours pop persona and speak with wild electronic experimentation.
Sweet Chin Music is the fourth studio album from The Golden Age Of Wrestling and is their warmest and most hopeful record to date. Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Cancade in an abandoned wrestling ring in East Vancouver, the album (which arrives on February 12th) draws inspiration from old school video game scores, Hollywood soundtracks, and classic ambient music.
The first single is called “revenge body (denton, tx)” and can be played below. If you like what you hear, please hit the “pre-order” button to support the artist.
Grimelda !Exclusive Sneaky-Peeky!
Everyone’s favourite noise-art-punk brats, Grimelda, are set to return with a collection of new-old songs. The duo of Blair Colwell and Skyler Cafferata are preparing an EP entitled Too Bad that will be a collection of unreleased songs from the bands past (even going back to when they were called The Faps), a couple covers, a couple new tunes, and perhaps even a remix or two. The release isn’t completed yet but Grimelda were happy to share an unfinished song called “Plastic Death” for this article. When asked about the track, Cafferata shared these insights:
“We wrote this song a few years ago and you can watch us play it on a livestream we released during the pandemic that we did NOT get sued for. Calling someone a terrorist is libel just fyi no matter how much terror they enact. We've probably only played it a couple times since then. But it's a cool song so I wanted to test my production skills. The drums are the single take from the livestream that was recorded in a tiny shitty room. No editing, just enhancement with samples, gating, parallel compression, etc. My live guitar is obviously still in there as well but I overdubbed like crazy and added in an actual bass track. Sounds pretty deece, eh? Which is a relief since we're producing this EP ourselves. Too Bad is particularly special because it spans the entire life of the band. In a sense it will serve as a love letter to friends who have been onboard since the beginning as well as a tease for what the next album could sound like.”
(please note that this is not the song in its final form, the band shared an instrumental version as the vocals are not yet done… that’s why its called a “sneaky-peeky!”)
Holy Fuck
Holy Fuck! it’s Event Beat.
The sixth album from the legendary electronic-dance-rock band, consisting of Brian Borcherdt, Graham Walsh, Matt 'Punchy' McQuaid, and Matt Schulz, will drop on March 27th, a little better than six years after their incredible record Deleter was released. In the small write up on Bandcamp, we’re told that they kept every element as live as possible, emphasizing improvisation and raw percussion over click tracks and loops. This highly anticipated release will surely have us dancing all year long!
Check out the first single below and pre-order now if you want the limited edition red vinyl. (only 5 remaining as I write this)
Hut Hut !Exclusive Premiere!
Rising up from the ashes of Winnipeg indie-darlings Boats who enjoyed mild success in the early 2010s, Hut Hut burst onto the scene in January of 2020 with a great debut album called Hut Hut Hut. Unfortunately something else burst onto the scene at the same time that brought the world to a halt. Six years removed from that debut, Hut Hut return with “Hut Hut”. The album is set to drop on February 5th and it leans into louder territory according to singer Mat Klachefsky:
"We've been playing music for a long time, and we probably shouldn't be doing this anymore, but I don't know how to stop. This record is definitely louder than the last one. I think I'm regressing and playing the type of music I should have been playing in my early twenties."
Enjoy an exclusive premiere of the track “Oh No Oh Shit” and pre-order “Hut Hut” today.
Jo Passed
It’s been eight year since we last heard from Jo Passed and given the story behind this album, we are truly excited for it to arrive. Jo Hirabayashi–the singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer behind Jo Passed suffered from burnout and anxiety and scrapped multiple versions of this record on his way out of a dark time in his life.
“One of the biggest factors was taking space to actually find myself creatively,” says Hirabayashi. “I turned a tough time into creativity and found my way back to myself. Two years later, I've got an album I love. Taking that time was worth it, and I hope this record inspires others to be kind to themselves and patient with their own pace.”
The album arrives on January 23rd via Youth Riot Records and will be available in all physical formats.
L.n. Baba !Exclusive Premiere!
l.n baba is the moniker for Edmonton guitarist and songwriter Keanan Swan-Azmon— some of you may know Keanan from his stint as the guitarist for Fitness, while the especially hip are already in the know about his fantastic 2019 record Rubber Eye. That album was its own brand of quirky masterpiece, a dark and angular 9 track LP that showed one of Edmonton’s best songwriters stepping out on his own. It brings us great pleasure to say that the long-awaited follow-up is here in just over two weeks.
Onion is a bit of a sonic departure for l.n. baba; most of the songs here are stripped down, showing off Swan-Azmon’s idiosyncratic and totally compelling guitar playing and vocal performances. It’s a wise decision— anyone who has seen l.n. baba live can speak to the intensity with which Keanan performs, and the album is all the better for that approach.
Today, we’re pleased to host an exclusive premiere of one of the tracks on the first half of the record. “Sisyphus” is maybe the clearest hint at what was rolling around in the songwriter’s head through the creation of the album; it’s dense with meaning and metaphor, all carried by Keanan’s ability to write guitar parts that defy logic, performed with a focus and intensity that’s impossible to look away from.
The album is being released as part of a dual album release show with fellow Edmonton songwriter Kip Lily (who is one to watch out for herself) on January 31st at the Aviary; if you’re in Edmonton and like music, there’s no better place to be in the waning days of January.
La Sécurité
Not much more to say, if you follow Cups N Cakes you’ll know that we love this band. We put their very first release on our Best EPs of 2022 (even though is was only a two song single!) and then their debut album was near the top of our Best Albums of 2023 list! The buzz was real and the band signed to Bella Union to handle their music internationally while Montreal imprint Mothland continues to serve their best interests in Canada and the USA.
With the Bella Union signing in mind, it’s getting a little tougher to parse out details for La Sécurité. However, we were able to secure the knowledge that the new album is called Bingo! and it will be released on June 12th. Furthermore, we are able to confirm that the two songs they released last year (“Ketchup” & “Detour”) will be found on the record. Check them out below.
Lammping !Exclusive Premiere!
Last year, Toronto’s shape-shifting psych project Lammping released Never Never, the first in a four album series. It was an utterly unique release that featured a wild mash-up of boom-bap beats and rockabilly psych, punctuated by the guest appearances from Bloodshot Bill. For the second in the series, the duo of producer Mikhail Galkin (a.k.a. DJ Alibi) and drummer Jay Anderson have enlisted Drew Smith (Dr. Ew, The Bicycles) and Chris Cummings (Marker Starling) to further explore different psych avenues.
Galkin describes the new records as: “CSNY harmonies over early-’90s hip-hop drums, fuzzed-out guitars, and synth textures,” then further explains: . “It started out as a pretty, almost yacht rock record, but the more we recorded, the darker and heavier it got — it’s like a heavy-psyched out yacht rock album, if the yacht was sinking the whole time.”
That’s officially my favourite album descriptor of all time! The record is called RISKY and it arrives digitally and on vinyl February 6th via We Are Busy Bodies. Both the band and label have been very kind to give us the chance to deliver an exclusive premiere of the song “Highest Height”. Check it out below and hit the pre-order button to nab RISKY on ultra-limited vinyl.
Ora Cogan
I’ve always thought Ora Cogan has it… whatever “it” is. There’s always been something that draws you in when she sings but her music never blew up like I thought it would. When Cogan announced her upcoming record and released the first single, I realized why. Cogan hadn’t found the right genre, now she has. “Honey” is psychedelic country at its finest and listening to it was an “ah-ha” moment. This is a perfect song and I cannot wait to hear the rest of this album.
Entitled Hard Hearted Woman, the album was written in Nanaimo BC, a town I’ve been calling the best music scene in Canada the past couple years (on a per capita basis at the very least). She recorded with her band plus guests from both the country and experimental worlds. They sessioned with David Parry (Loving) at Dream Club in Victoria, B.C., Cogan’s studio in Nanaimo, and remotely with Tom Deis. The result is an album we are heavily anticipating!
Arriving on March 13th via the legendary Sacred Bones Records, Hard Hearted Woman, is available to pre-order digitally and on two different vinyl variants. Check out the first single below.
PISS
The band that blew eardrums and caused jaws to be dropped across Canada in 2025 with an intense live show of Earth-shattering noise-punk will be delivering their debut album this year. Yes, it’s confirmed but unfortunately that’s all we can say. It will be out this year, likely near the end of the summer. Okay, that’s officially all we were allowed to say. Until then, find out why all the music pundits in Canada have been swooning over PISS with this live video from a performance on November 20th of last year.
Samantha Savage Smith
We last heard from Calgary’s Samantha Savage Smith in 2022 when she released her incredible album Fake Nice, which ended up the list of our Favourite Albums from that year. Cups N Cakes is excited to report a new album will definitely arrive this year. The record is called Little Place and it was recorded with Chris Dadge at Child Stone Studio and features Dadge, Nate Waters, Brock Geiger & JJ Mayo as Smith’s band (with a couple vocal appearances from Bennett Mitchell). When we asked Smith about the album she said:
“I’ve been calling it my “country record” though it’s not at all country haha. I just used old country and folk tunes as a compass of inspiration… so it all ended up being pretty vulnerable and honest as all heck.”
We don’t have a release date to share but we can tell you that the single “My Friends”, which was released late last year is from the album and we’ll get to hear more songs soon as the album cycle ramps up.
Spank Williams !Exclusive Premiere!
Vancouver outlaw Spank Williams has earned a reputation as one of the rowdiest, rootin’-est, tootin’-est, country acts in Western Canada. His live shows are bonkers — full of beer guzzlin’, dancing, and other audience participation. On June 16th he’ll be delivering his long awaited album, Spank Williams Tries His Best. Regarding the release, Williams states:
“I started recording this album 2-3 years ago as a little record to get out in 4-6 months, of course I over-thought it and now it's 2026. This is the best LP we've put out so far but it's strange, I still feel guilty about not having an album that accurately details how it feels and sounds to hear us as a live band.” He continues by explaining: “It is inspired by Ween more than anything. I always loved how their records felt messy but still like an LP. I swear I will give you concise pristine albums in the future, but for now, this LP is the end of my messy unfocused drug addled schmorgesborg era.”
Cups N Cakes is very excited to give the world it’s first taste of Spank Williams Tries His Best with an exclusive premiere of the song “I’m A Piece Of Shit.”
Status/Non-Status
Count me as a huge fan of the art Adam Sturgeon creates. The projects he works within always feel bigger than the sum of their parts. Status/Non-Status (formerly WHOOP-Szo) seems more like a collective of like-minded spirits. Maybe that’s why the music always sounds genuine, the listener feels involved. Every time I run into Sturgeon, I feel like I know him even though we’ve only ever really chatted a few times. I can’t quantify where this come from but Status/Non-Status have this energy harnessed and it’s special.
On February 6th they are releasing Big Changes via You’ve Changed Records.
The first single features contributions from Kevin Drew and Zoon and is described by Sturgeon as a “self explanatory examination,” further explaining:
“I was starting to feel really disillusioned at the time of writing this song. Confused about the state of music and the complex world we are living in; the grind to make each day work. I decided to disappear, bunker down at home, stay in, write songs about it and invite my friends over to visit and play along. I wrote over 40 songs and this was one of the first to come out of me."
Check it out below and hit the pre-order button to nab one of two LP variants.
Sunglaciers !Exclusive Premiere!
This year will see Calgary art-rock/post-punk band, Sunglaciers drop their follow-up to 2024s Regular Nature nearly exactly two years to the day! To say we are excited for this would be an understatement. We absolutely love this band and cannot wait to hear their brand new album, Spiritual Content, which will arrive on March 27th via Montreal’s Mothland. We’re told that the new album “explores modern day life with nine haptic songs that capture fleeting yet endearing moments in time, their narrative bent, twisted, and distorted into highly evocative musical pieces.” The quartet were joined by Chad VanGaalen in studio to provide some extra help with production as well as an array of extra instrumentation. Mixing and mastering was done by Mark Lawson (The Unicorns, Zoon, Basia Bulat, etc.) and ex-Besnard Lakes Richard White did the vinyl mastering duties… yup that’s right! There will be vinyl. Pre-order ability should be coming very soon!
Until then, you can get a taste of the new album today because the band and label were extremely gracious to us! They allowed us to deliver an exclusive premiere of the first single ahead of their schedule! Enjoy and keep you eyes peeled to their Bandcamp page as pre-orders will go live soon!
Trevor Sloan !Exclusive Premiere!
Toronto’s Trevor Sloan writes airy and light, 60s psych-folk that is instantly transportive in all the best ways. Infusing intimate vocals with acoustic instruments and old synths, he has a knack for nostalgic instrumentation that evokes the feeling of a lost 1970s soundtrack. Known less for touring and more for releasing recorded works, we’ve been enamoured by his ability to mirror singer-songwriters of the 60s and 70s while adding a modern flare that make his albums sound immediate and present. His latest album is called Sparrows Sing While Leaves Decay and it’s set to arrive on May 22nd.
Cups N Cakes is so excited to announce this album and also premiere its first single, a song called “Cup of Sunlight”. Enjoy the track below and then get lost in Sloan’s past albums by supporting him through his Bandcamp page. Trust us, these albums will help get you through the long Canadian winter.
Truster
Not many people may know the name Truster but those that do have not forgotten the intense and foreboding doom the band brought to the stage when they were melting minds in the late 2010s. I was shocked then stoked when I got an email from Bandcamp about the single “Wretch Collector”. Me being the nosy Nelly that I am… I reached out to find that there is an album ready but also news of a lineup change. I’ll let Stacy from the band explain:
“Truster consisted of a different lineup before Covid, where at the time, I was also playing in Feed Dogs with Jordan LaFleche and Kevin Wunderlich. Both bands took a long hiatus as we all figured out what was going on in the world. When it was time to return to making music, the other members of Truster and Feed Dogs were no longer able to make it work. Thus, Feed Dogs died and Truster reformed with Kevin on drums and Jordan on bass. It has been a perfect fit. It took a while to get back into the swing of things of writing music after such a long break, but we are so happy to finally be back, releasing music and playing shows. We missed it!!! “
And we missed you! The band have an album completed that is called Creeping Thing. No definite date is set for release as they discuss the album with potential suitors but we’ve been told they want to release it no later than the summer. Until then, the first single is “Wretch Collector” and you can check it out below.