From Laurel Canyon to Chiswick High Road, from Rancho De La Luna to a warehouse in Tottenham, many of your favourite artists have been hard at work crafting the soundtrack of 2026. Over the next 10 pages, we bring you the inside track on forthcoming albums by STEVIE NICKS , COURTNEY BARNETT , ALABAMA SHAKES , THE ROLLING STONES , BILL CALLAHAN , BUZZCOCKS , LANA DEL REY , SUNN O))) , ROBERT PLANT , IRON & WINE and many more. “It’s a really special time for music…”

We might have lost metal’s founding fathers, but the next generation proved that the music lives on

Black And Blue UMC/POLYDOR

Featuring tributes to curry and fantasy battles involving… rats?! here are all the records our critics loved this year

STRANGER THINGS FIVE’S VOLUME ONE ROCKED OUR WORLD. SFX SPEAKS TO THE TEAM BEHIND THE SHOW ABOUT THOSE HUGE REVELATIONS – AND WHAT’S COMING IN VOLUME TWO

74-75: Night Life / Fighting UMR