Welcome to Listening Habits, a column where I share the music I’ve been fixated on recently.
We are a quarter of the way through 2026. Time is just flying by while we all wait to see if global catastrophe will befall us. Fun stuff. Obviously, what we all really need is a soundtrack.
What can be said about the year in music after just three months? There's a lot of anxiety, but also a clear desire to free oneself from said anxiety. There seems to be conscious attempt by many to make "end times" music, which sometimes means dwelling in the abyss of the soul, and other times means partying till the party's over, oops, out of time. The human experience contains multitudes.
Here are my picks for the best music of the first quarter of 2026.
Baby Keem - "Good Flirts" (ft. Kendrick Lamar & Momo Boyd)/"Birds & The Bees"
Keem tried his best to make something more personal and deep with his 2026 project Ca$ino, but I once again find myself more charmed by his playful records. "Good Flirts" captures the thrills of flirting with someone you desire, even if they don't desire you like they used to. On "Birds & The Bees," Keem channels his goofball sensibility into a silly jam about his sex life. Keem's secret power is that he is a lot of fun, with his cartoon rap voice and high energy, and he brings the lighter side out of his mopier cousin, Kendrick Lamar. You always need a silly guy in the crew.
French Montana & Max B - "Ever Since U Left Me"
I am both charmed and a bit mortified at how much 2016 nostalgia there is in music right now, in no small part because it makes me think about where my life was in 2016. But if there's a song that would've fit right into the rotation of Rosebar in Washington, D.C., back in those days, it's definitely this one. With its glaringly obvious sample, "Ever Since U Left Me" is a celebration of the reunited friendship between Max B, recently released from prison, and rap superstar French Montana. This record shouldn't work but it does, because of their chemistry and earnestness.
Joyce Manor - "I Used To Go To This Bar"
Joyce Manor's new album, which shares the title of the above single, showcases a band that has perfected its craft. Designating these guys as something like "third-wave emo" feels condescending at this point. They're simply great power-pop artists. The new album captures the melancholy of adulthood and moving on from being a dumbass for a living. It's a good nostalgia trip that doesn't let you forget that it's just a trip.
Ama & Brent Faiyaz - "Need It Bad"
No disrespect to ICON, which I liked just fine, but the best Brent Faiyaz performance of this year is this song with Ama. The two of them meld well together on this classic, late-night-lusting R&B record, their vocals laying on a bed of production that could've shown up on a Maxwell album.
BIA - "WE ON GO (Rage Mix)"
If you want a soundtrack for global annihilation, you're not gonna do much better than this one. BIA's latest is all aggression, rage, and anarchy. Music to destroy and be destroyed to. While the original track came out last year, her recently released EP of remixes are great additions to the OG, particularly the one with fellow rager TiaCorine.
Kim Gordon - "Dirty Tech"
I admit, I'm still charmed by the legend Kim Gordon rocking out to shit that sounds like Mike Will Made-It made it. It brings a whole new performance style out of her, which unites her old Sonic Youth distortion mysticism with contemporary club records. It is art music for the dystopian present. And I find these beats a lot more manageable than her attempts at Playboi Carti-core on her last album.
Earl Sweatshirt, MIKE, Surf Gang - "Leadbelly"
The rap album of the year so far comes from Earl and MIKE alongside the burgeoning super producers Surf Gang. But that album came out in April, which technically isn't in Q1, so we will have to discuss it at a later point. For now, the previously released "Leadbelly" gives a good preview of the dark majesty of this collaboration. It's music that sounds like an exotic wasteland, over which Earl and MIKE take victory laps and spin extravagant stories. What a dichotomy. Perfect for these times.
Jim Legxacy - "idk idk"
I get it, man. Idk either. Jim is making the best out of it, though, of that I'm sure.
Arlo Parks & Sampha - "Senses"
Two delicate, angelic voices quake over this sensuous record. Two voices that can transmit ecstasy with no drugs involved. We could all use a little nirvana right about now.
Kacey Musgraves - "Dry Spell"
In this house, we stan Kacey Musgraves.
The Song Of The Moment (And A Critic's Note)
Originally, I had planned to use this week's column to prostrate myself before you by revisiting Rihanna's ANTI on its 10th anniversary. You see, 10 years ago I had to do one of those one-listen reviews for the album, and in that review I remember being highly dismissive of the whole thing in classic, snide, "annoying music critic guy" ways.
I can only go off memory here, though, because after extensive searching, this review is nowhere to be found online now. Thanks to corporate conglomeration and the collapse of the blog internet, I and many of my colleagues have seen our work erased or unfindable. On the one hand, I should be grateful that my misguided review is no longer around to pollute the waters. On the other, I think there's value in seeing the fallibility of critics through their in-the-moment takes on different subjects. While criticism can be an art, it is also a job, one that does not always allow you to sit with things long enough to produce your most considered opinions.
It only took three listens of ANTI for me to recognize it as a masterwork in mainstream pop songwriting—the perfect alchemy of Rihanna's detached cool and islander ethos with contemporary rap and pop production. Her cover of Tame Impala's "New Person, Same Old Mistakes" is still a hypnotic gem. Records like "Sex With Me" and "Work" are incredibly sexy in a way that only Rihanna can be—too sexy for even Drake to ruin. "Needed Me" and "Consideration" go harder than most of the rap records released that year. I don't necessarily buy the narrative that Rihanna was merely a singles artist before this—I'm a big fan of Talk That Talk—but ANTI remains magical, and at least so far, a perfect mic drop. I hope some dumb, rushed critic didn't convince you otherwise.
If you would like to contribute something or ask a question for future installments, email me at israel@defector.com.
