What We’re Listening To This Week: May 15, 2026
Story by:
Chris Guest
Each week, the Live Music Blog team takes stock of what’s been populating their playlists and getting endlessly stuck in their heads from the week that was. These can be new releases, obscure tracks in niche genres, or classic albums dusted off due to nostalgia (or because they’re simply awesome). Enjoy what we’re listening to this week… and listen along with us if you so choose!
Untrue – Burial (2007)
Spectral, haunting, and seminal: These three words typify this masterpiece of the IDM/ambient techno genre that Burial has made his own playground. I first heard this album in college, a few years after it was released in 2007, and it blew my mind.
I had never heard vocal samples used in such interesting, ghost-like ways, nor had I heard drumbeats sequenced, crunched, and manipulated into such ethereal and unusual-sounding tones. This is one of those rare electronic albums that works well as background music while you do other tasks, while also being incredibly rewarding if you focus solely on it and it alone. If you haven’t given this album a listen and you enjoy any kind of electronic music, do yourself a favor and give this a spin.
Top Tracks: “Archangel,” “Etched Headplate,” “Ghost Hardware,” “Untrue”
Listen Next: Endtroducing…. by DJ Shadow, Rounds by Four Tet, Splazsh by Actress, Luxury Problems by Andy Stott
Skylarking – XTC (1986)
Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, Skylarking is a fascinating concept album that also represents XTC’s finest hour. While the propulsive energy of the album’s storyline helps this album’s run time simply zoom by, the incredible songcraft on display from the group’s primary songwriter Andy Partridge and secondary songwriter Colin Moulding are what truly make the album hum.
Highlight songs abound, though my personal favorite is “That’s Really Super, Supergirl,” which boasts an incredible arrangement, a towering lead vocal from Partridge, stunning backing vocals that surprise you when they go “Supergirl!” during the chorus, and, perhaps most importantly, the best guitar solo ever recorded by the group.
While the band (especially Partridge) did not get along with this album’s producer, the inimitable Todd Rundgren, their can be no denying that he wrangled incredible performances from the band—ultimately leading to the group’s best overall effort.
Top Tracks: “That’s Really Super, Supergirl,” “Grass,” “Earn Enough for Us,” “The Meeting Place,” “Dear God”
Listen Next: English Settlement by XTC, Argybargy by Squeeze, The Modern Lovers by The Modern Lovers, My Aim Is True by Elvis Costello
Rubber Soul – The Beatles (1965)
Though it isn’t The Beatles’ best album (that goes to Revolver in this writer’s humble opinion), the Fab Four’s second release of 1965 sets the stage for dizzying creative highs that would follow across the remainder of the 1960s for the group.
With a few trappings left of the group’s country, folk, Motown, and pop influences still left clinging to the group as they continued to transcend all of them with their own towering achievements in songwriting and a plethora of musical innovations, Rubber Soul serves as a delightful blending of everything that came before for the group while pointing ahead to the future.
The album’s track list reads like a mid-career greatest hits package, though there are few low points on an otherwise flawless release. A towering achievement that has aged exquisitely from the best band ever.
Top Tracks: “Drive My Car,” “Nowhere Man,” “The Word,” “In My Life,” “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown),” “If I Needed Someone”
Listen Next: Revolver by The Beatles, Buffalo Springfield by Buffalo Springfield, Younger than Yesterday by The Byrds, Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers by Gene Clark
Shrunken Elvis – Shrunken Elvis (2025)
A repeat album in the What We’re Listening To series?! I’m sorry, I just can’t quit this album in 2026! I’m a sucker for ambient music that employs pedal steel guitar and other intriguing, organic instruments in a genre that normally relies on synth washes or staticky field recordings to provide an enveloping womb of sound, and that’s exactly what Shrunken Elvis’s 2025 debut album provides in spades.
With a plethora of highlight tracks, my personal favorite being “An Old Outlet,” this album will continue to get repeat plays as I eagerly await any new material from this up-and-coming ambient outfit.
Top Tracks: All of them, really, but “An Old Outlet” is my personal favorite.
Listen Next: High Line by SUSS, Slider: Ambient Excursions for Pedal Steel Guitar by Bruce Kaphan, Water Still Flows by Rich Ruth, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You by Ethel Cain
Another Week Full of Great Music
What did you listen to this week? It’s never a bad time to revisit some of your favorite songs and albums or branch out into something you thought you’d never listen to. If you’re in need of inspiration, explore our “What We’re Listening To” archives:
Header Photo Courtesy porcupiny/Wikimedia Commons
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