Also on shelves this Friday, October 16, 2026, are releases by Eels and Arnold Turboust.
Angèle Instinct (Columbia/Sony Music)
Maintaining all of her intimate and daring lyricism, the singer broadens her universe into electronic textures, aided by collaborators such as Caroline Polachek, SebastiAn, Justice, and Soulwax. Angèle, now 30, sings what she wants, in both French and English, sometimes blending the two with audacity, and she does not hesitate to pay tribute to the vibrant French Touch she listened to during childhood. Although the album was largely conceived at the piano, it opens itself to other influences and sensibilities.
By Sophie Rosemont. Read the review of Instinct.
The Avalanches No Bad Memories (Modular Recordings/Polydor/Universal)
With No Bad Memories, the Australian trio continues, with flair, to blend genres and universes with varying degrees of success. After We Will Always Love You (2020), their third LP that made the vastness of space the new frontier of their sound, The Avalanches pivot back toward a more prosaic universe: the world of advertising jingles, early iPods, floppy disks, and the ticking time bomb born of liberalism and market economics. Ironically titled No Bad Memories, this fourth album marks in their discography a shift toward a more aggressive, or at least more erratic, approach to their sampling techniques.
By Théo Dubreuil. Read the review of No Bad Memories.
Eels Cookie Happened (E Works/PIAS)
Still a reliable source of indie rock melodies, the American Mark Oliver Everett keeps his heart on his sleeve and offers a warm melancholy. “Your car is broken/Your dog is sick and it’s cold/Your boss can’t wait to fire you/I’m ready.” The track I’m on Standby, a hushed ode to friendship, sums up why Mark Oliver Everett has continued recording since the mid-1990s under the Eels moniker. With his warm midtempo indie rock compositions, he shows up to accompany the bleakest moments in our lives and to lend a hand so that we can cling to them, rise again… and perhaps rise with him. Typically, anyone who crafts a deeply moving ballad about mortality (the poignant All Forgotten, with its clouds of poetic strings) would rightly attract close watch from their circle.
By Vincent Brunner. Read the review of Cookie Happened.
Fontaines D.C. Dopamine Chamber (XL Recordings/Wagram)
Having carved their path with Romance, the Dublin five-piece led by Grian Chatten continues to ascend thanks to a relentless adaptability that allows them to shift from trip-hop to new wave without abandoning the sound of their origins. Fontaines D.C. now operate outside any fixed category. Romance, their fourth album destined for glory, left a significant mark. And it must be admitted that between a clear aesthetic, an unapologetic commitment, and a string of unstoppable anthems, the band had everything needed to seize mass triumph. After two years of success and a global tour, the quintet’s integrity remains intact. No matter their scale, the Ireland-born rock stars belong as easily in front of three pub pillars in Dublin as in front of a crowd in one of Tokyo’s largest venues.
By Valentin Gény. Read the review of Dopamine Chamber.
Arnold Turboust La Vie romantique (Panthéon/Universal)
Vibrant melodies, eagerly anticipated reunions with Étienne Daho and Zabou Breitman, and other duets with Flora Fishbach, Alain Chamfort, and Judah Warsky: the co-author of Tombé pour la France and Épaule Tattoo returns with an album that is at times philosophical, at times aquoibonist. Turboust’s records endure as the years pass, and the glowing compliment from Françoise Sagan about the pop singer still rings true, just like a seventh record that is both obvious, inspired, and altruistic – no fewer than six duets across eleven tracks on La Vie romantique. “La vie romantique to stay current both at the beach and in the city, the elegant life, the beautiful life, a life of almost imaginary, dreamed sensitivity, the life, indeed!” sums up the artist with a boyish grin.
By Franck Vergeade. Read the review of La Vie Romantique.
