The Best Songs Released in July 2026

We’re posting this round-up a little later than usual…but we were busy at Lollapalooza last weekend! Now that it’s August, we’re officially in the second half of the year (crazy!) and we just shared our list of the best albums of the year (so far), and we also reviewed the new albums from Madonna, Ariana Grande, Charli xcx, Love Spells, Eartheater, Steve Lacy, and Olivia O’Brien: plus we interviewed Baby Queen and Trophy Wife about their new albums. Hope you find something new to enjoy!

Noteworthy album & EP releases:

Isn’t It Sweeter?, Ally Salort
Spilling My Guts, Alyssa Grace
Ambre
soft pop, Amy Shark
Equilibrium II, Anitta
petal, Ariana Grande
Lifetime, Baby Rose
I Hope You Don’t Remember Me, Baby Queen
My Reckless Abandon, Bella Kay
Cherry Valley Forever, Carter Faith
Music, Fashion, Film, Charli xcx
This Is How You See Me Now, Dolder
Heavenly Body: If I’m The Bottle You’re The Message, Eartheater
Fire From The Hip, Finn Wolfhard
Tweaker Poem, Frost Children
Hiding Places, Genevieve Stokes
Lovesweet, girlsweetvoiced
Daughter of Hell, Gracie Abrams
I Don’t Know How But They Found Me…Again!, Jensen McRae
In Retrospect, JORDY
new avatar, Kelela
Happiness Anytime: Part. 1, Leon Bridges
Hiding Places, Lily Meola
LOVE IS THE LAW, Love Spells
pretty ruthless, Macy Todd
Confessions II, Madonna
In Retrospect, Masego
Emotional Junglist, Nia Archives
I Can See, Nick Hakim
Pixie, Olivia O’Brien
Q: From Where Do Our Primal Instincts Originate? A: MTV!, Portraits of Tracy
RX, Rico Nasty
swallowtail, She’s Green
Oh Yeah?, Steve Lacy
Loveland, Suki Waterhouse
Reality Awaits, The Strokes
Pathetic, Trophy Wife
Beard, Syd
A*Pop, Tyla
The Thread, Willow

In chronological order:

“The Art of Letting Go” – Ambré
Release date – July 17

29-year-old India Ambré Perkins, known for her music under the stage moniker Ambré, has been making music for several years now and also collaborating on music with artists like Kehlani and H.E.R., but I admittedly hadn’t heard of her stuff until discovering her new album, PEYOTE, which dropped on July 17 via Roc Nation. Fans of musicians like Dijon, Mack Keane (who co-wrote and co-produced the track), or Syd will certainly find something they vibe with on the album, and the clear standout for me on the project is “The Art of Letting Go.”

The song follows the breakdown of a relationship and the tumultuous nature of a relationship coming to and end, and coming to terms with the feelings that come from both parties involved. The chorus has one of my favorites lyrical lines I’ve heard in a long time: “It goes from evergreen to remembering a memory of her,” a wonderful, succinct way of wording how taking someone for granted can eventually lead to just remembering the memory of someone you once loved. – Kristin

“Camera” – Charli xcx
Release date – July 21

Charli xcx and I probably have less than five things in common, but when it comes to relating to her new single “Camera” from her excellent new album Music, Fashion Film, it’s that we both share a crippling anxiety about wanting to be successful while being entirely too self-aware about how you’re perceived and how you’re viewed because of your age.

Despite Charli’s music often coming across sonically as fun and club-ready, some of her best work from the BRAT era are quite introspective, whether it’s about feeling lesser than her pop star counterparts or struggles around the ambivalence of motherhood. That’s probably why I love “Camera” so much: it’s an authentic, personal look at how Charli feels as a 34-year-old woman striving for greatness when so many people around her are 10-15 years younger than her (I say this with zero shade, I’m approaching 32 and constantly feel intimidated by 18-year-olds). But at the end of the day, doing what you love and what makes you feel alive is the most important, and the rest will figure itself out on its own. – Kristin

“That’s Fine” – Baby Queen
Release date – July 24

After a few years off from releasing music. South African by way of the UK pop artist Baby Queen released her new album, I Hope You Don’t Remember Me, on a new label with a new collaborator. We had a chance to talk about the creative process behind making it a few weeks ago, and I got a lot more insight on what the project is about. One of my favorites from the project is definitely “That’s Fine,” a synth-y, string-filled track that is as much of an ear worm you could get.

Baby Queen—whose real name is Arabella Latham—has mentioned that The 1975 has been an influence to her music in the past, and even though she didn’t necessarily reference them directly on this album, I certainly hear it on “That’s Fine,” melodically and production-wise. It’s fun, silly, and relatable when it comes to putting your eggs in one basket after a new romantic interest that just…doesn’t feel the same way about you as you do them. And if you can’t relate to the lyric: “Now when I see your face, it’s only on a screen” you’re just lucky you’ve never been turned down in the digital age. – Kristin

“Talk To Me, Zara” – Robyn, Zara Larsson
Release date – July 28

Robyn tapping Zara Larsson to remix her song “Talk To Me” from her highly underrated album Sexistential is easily one of my favorite collaborations of the year so far. It’s also a follow-up of the two’s collaboration on Zara Larsson’s remix album, Midnight Sun: Girls Trip, where she enlisted Robyn for a feature on the song “Puss Puss.”

They first debuted a performance of the song at one of Robyn’s tour stops in Copenhagen, and officially released it a couple weeks later. The remix is, in my opinion, even better than the original, and the bright, synth-y, club-ready production is a fun lane that I’d love Zara to take on her next project. Zara even has a songwriting credit on her feature of the remix version, making it a true collaborative effort between both Robyn and Zara, who are both from Stockholm, Sweden: nineteen years apart but certainly similar in genres. – Kristin

“Under” – Porch Light
Release date – July 31

Minneapolis alternative rockers Porch Light have been on my radar after discovering their music on this year’s Lollapalooza lineup, where I had the chance to interview them before their debut performance on the BMI Stage. The single is a bit harder than some of their other singles released thus far, which channel artists like Paramore, NewDad, and Florence Road, and the song came together after the band “Just really wanted to make a face-melting song I could scream on,” lead singer Jackie Uhas mentioned in a press release for the song.

Uhas’ vocals, which are gritty and powerful, are the clear standout of the song, giving her and the rest of the band a prime opportunity to simply, rock out (insert the ‘rock out’ emoji here). With a debut album on the way, Porch Light is about to embark on a North American headlining tour with dates at iconic venues like the Troubadour, Bowery Ballroom, and a special hometown show at Minneapolis’ First Avenue. Expect to hear much more about this band soon. – Kristin

“brand new chanel$” – Slayyyter
Release date – July 31

While most of us are certainly still riding the high of Slayyyer’s standout album WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA, which dropped this past March, she was back in the studio to release a new single, “brand new chanel$,” somewhat of a companion piece to the song “BEAT UP CHANEL$.” The song is based on a breakup she experienced only a few days before the release of the album after discovering her then-partner was cheating on her.

The song, which has an upbeat, positive sound with melancholy lyrics, is more traditional-pop leaning than several of the genre-bending songs on WGIA. The song perfectly encapsulates the dissonance of feelings she’s working through: one side of the coin, she’s approaching the high of a breakthrough moment in her career: the other, grappling with the pain of betrayal by a significant other. “I see how you move…but I’ve been standing still” is my favorite line from the song, which, to me, means that she’s been aware of this person’s behavior but couldn’t make a decision to cut them off. “brand new chanel$” is a lead single from her semi-announced album Worst Man in America…which currently has no release date. – Kristin

Check out all of our monthly round-up posts HERE.