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BRITPOP – Robbie Williams

Dance Rock/Euro Pop

Let’s start with the return of Robbie Williams and the 1990s. You might have forgotten both. I have to admit that part of the new album doesn’t thrill me at all, but there is enough of good, energetic music to make listening worthwhile. I have picked the best tracks for you, I hope. The album title tells you what kind of music you can expect, and Williams performs with a great dose of self-confidence. but also self-awareness this time. The album includes that missable official FIFA anthem for the coming World Cup. But you might as well get used to hearing it….

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Don’t Call Me Baby – Sabine McCalla

New Orleans Americana

Next, a musical trip to the city of New Orleans and singer Sabine McCalla’s debut album. I would argue it is hard to pin down McCalla genre-wise, and why should we? This is a warm, impressive, extremely varied album from an artist we are bound to hear from again, so just enjoy it and let every track surprise you.

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Esperança – Nancy Vieira & Fred Martins

Capeverdean folk/Deep Brazilian Pop

I have just spent more than three weeks in beautiful Portugal, and listened to the unhurried music of Cape Verdean and Brazilian artists Nancy Vieira & Fred Martins. If you really need to wind down, get into this silky voice-and-guitar collection. I picked up quite a lot of Portuguese while I was in the country, but never enough to understand much of the Portuguese lyrics. That didn’t matter much, the album still offers peace, quiet, without ever sounding sparse.

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locket – Madison Beer

Pop

Justin Bieber supposedly discovered Madison Beer when she started posting cover songs on YouTube in 2012. Fast forward to 2026 and her third solo album, and she still sounds like a teen-pop artist at times. However, quite a few of the Locket tracks are considerable more mature and interesting than her previous stuff. The music is elegant and polished, and her vocal performance is confident and controlled.

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The Parlour – Picture Parlour

UK post-punk

It’s time for glamrock from one of the most hyped band of the year so far, Manchester-based (almost) girl band Picture Parlour. Lots of energy both in the vocals and the prodction itself; this is so much on the other side of the scale than Nancy Vieira/Fred Martins and even Madison Beer. Still, I enjoy the ride, hopefully you will, too.

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Sanger fra et menneske – Terje Formoe

Norwegian folk

My friend Terje Formoe never rests, and throughout the last decade he has released a fair number of albums of narrative, lyric‑driven intimate folk songs in the singer‑songwriter tradition. His latest (translated «Songs from a human being») is in my view his best to date. Some tracks, like the anthemic «Bortenfor alt», comes with lush full orchestra arrangement, perfectly matching Formoe’s sensitive voice and his able lyrics.

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Scenes From Above – Julian Lage

Contemporary jazz guitar

Julian Lage was a child prodigy and performed at the Grammy Awards at the age of 12, and has since been regarded as one of America’s finest jazz guitarists. His new album is gentle and beautiful, not necessarily with tunes that stick in your mind, but rather offering moods and atmosphere. I love listening to his soothing music.

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Sinners – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

I was not at all surprised when the original soundtrack for «Sinners» won an Oscar for best original score, I was more surprised when the song «I Lied to You» did not win best orignal song. Because this is a truly original album, as is the film, covering more genres than any new album out, and not only Delta Blues. I love listening to the Irish ballads and American tracks as well. If you wake up one day feeling bored, listen to this album from start to finish, you’re bound to feel invigorated.

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Tomorrow’s Yesterday – Karin Krog

Norwegian jazz

One of the greatest living jazz vocalists, Karin Krog, has recorded a new album at the age of 88. That’s hard to beat. It is in no way a sensational collection, rather it is secure, timeless album, with quite a few notable interpretations of jazz standards, performed in Krog’s inimitable style.

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The Wind Doesn’t Blow This Far Right – Lisa O’Neill

Irish Singer-Songwriter

One would think that the troubling times we live in would foster a number of protest singers and politically charged songs. The 1960s taught us the values of politically conscious artists. Lisa O’Neill could have fitted in perfectly, that’s why it is so important to listen to her now. The title song of her EP is the best example, a lament for humanity, full of anger and defiance.

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Your Picture – The Sha La Das

Souldies

It is possibly the doo-wop sound of the Sha La Das that gives me the feeling that this band has been around forever. Well, Bill Schalda has been around for a while, since the 1960s, but he quit the music business for decades, before forming Sha La Das with his three sons in 2018. Doo-wop can be summed up as «a 1950s vocal harmony style of rhythm and blues, built around a tenor lead, close‑harmony backing voices singing nonsense syllables, simple chord changes, and teen‑romance lyrics», which is what you get on «Your Picture». In small doses this is enjoyable and impressive.

Bonus 1 🐣

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I love Jason Segel and Harrison Ford’s warmhearted comedy series Shrinking. I equally love the soundtrack, not only the main title theme by Benjamin Gibbard (now in my list as well) , but the collection of fantastic tracks the producers have found to use in the series. Here is a playlist made by Romanoid Androidoff (sic). When you need a break from Music Hunter for a short while, switch to this, there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy it as much as I do.

Bonus 2 🐣

I am eagerly awaiting Paul McCartney’s new album, Dungeon Lane, which I will share with you when the time comes. Here is the first release from the album, a lovely ballad that couldn’t have been written and performed by anyone else.

Bonus 3 🐣

My daughter Karoline Wallace has released her new album Eon, a mix of modern jazz, folk and pop, highly experimental. I am so touched that she has also used one of my unreleased songs, «Live for Today», as a background for one of the tracks. The themes for the album are rocks, geology and indefinite time, so she has used rumbles as an introduction to the song itself.

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The Honeydrippers Vol. 1 – The Honeydrippers

Rock’n’roll

Welcome to the shortest classic I have ever shared with you, it is fair to call it an EP. The Honeydrippers is the 1981 brainchild of Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin, who wanted to form a rock band with a traditional rhythm and blues basis. He got people like Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Brian Setzer and Paul Schaffer involved and turned the idea into a supergroup (much like George Harrison and his friends did with Travellin Willburys). There are no original songs on the album, but it has a distinct sound, and with Plant’s powerful voice up front, what is there not to love? It is a perfect sing-a-long-record, and I remember it being compulsary at any party in the early 1980s. On the remaster version in 2006, the record company added a live version of «Rockin’ at Midnight». I couldn’t resist adding it to the list, so you get to hear the Roy Brown tune twice.

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Annie Lennox

The second artist in my very personal Artist Hall of Fame is one of the greatest voices ever, Annie Lennox. She har received more prestigious awards than this, of course, both as a solo artist, and as member of the duo Eurythmics, with Dave Stewart. She has performed some of the most iconic pop and rock hits ever with Eurythmics, but I commend her as much for her many brilliant covers – I would say she reshapes and reimagines some of the songs, giving listeners like me an all new experience. Among the best examples are Paul Simon’s «Something So Right» and Procol Harum’s «A Whiter Shade of Pale». This is also an artist with a conscience, her latest engagement for the Palestinian cause is a recent example. I have regretted never attending a concert with her, nor with Eurythmics, but one can always hope the opportunity rises in the future.