MusicnGear Picks: The BEST Songs of 2026 So Far
A roundup of some of my favourite songs of the year so far!
Featuring: Jaime French, Dolly Thorne, Jorge Wilson, Momo Boyd, Rochelle Jordan, Satya, Foxtide, Aki Oke, Jontan, Kim Petras & Yazida & Yazida.
I hand-selected some songs that just blew me away this year with their creativity, their beating heart and soul; their commitment to trying out something new and exciting in a music climate that rewards mimicry and buries anything unique.
JAIME FRENCH - The Hunter
There is a lot of music being released every moment of every day, and as a result, a lot of it starts to blend together (especially when a certain sound becomes popular and everyone starts chasing/mimicking that sound).
Jaime French is not doing this - instead, she is paving her own path, forging her own way through the thicket, and this sense of self has resulted in a sound that feels like a breath of fresh air.
I immediately got goosebumps when I heard ‘The Hunter’ for the first time - it is dreamy in the way that The Cranberries were, with lyrics that feel like a Celtic folk tale. It goes from the murky darkness of the forest into a shimmering, ethereal light, the chorus being like a battle cry.
Connect with Jaime French
Website / Instagram / X / YouTube / Spotify
Aki Oke - lets forget we're getting older.
I actually wrote about this in a recent edition of our A Night Walk in The Underground Forest series, but I had to include it here as I believe ‘C’MON’ (the video being called ‘lets forget we’re getting older’) to be a standout song of the year.
There are a lot of songs that aim in this general direction, but just don’t hit to the same degree that this does. C’Mon’ reminded me of what has been missing all this time; it has soul, a beating heart, it will make you feel euphoric, that there is joy in sharing your music and/or art with the world. It has that unnamable thing you find in the best electronic music, the kind that lights something up within you.
Connect with Aki Oke
Instagram
Dolly Thorne - Killshot
I described Dolly Thorne in our series ‘Fresh to Death’ as being like if a ‘90s It Girl, Gossip Girl’s Jenny Humphrey, and Toni Collette all merged into one person.
‘Killshot’ sounds like it is from the era of 2010s charts when Little Boots, Lady Gaga’s ‘The Fame’, and The Ting Tings reigned supreme. The song was fully produced by Dolly Thorne, who has a razor-sharp ear for addictive electronic pop production that oozes glamor. I would have been obsessed with this as a teenager in 2008.
Connect with Dolly Thorne
Instagram
Momo Boyd - Oops
When I heard this I immediately was about to go to Twitter to proclaim that if this wasn’t in the top 10 hits of the summer, I was going to be filing a lawsuit against the entire music industry, but then I remembered what a terrifying cesspool Twitter has become, so I did what I normally do every time I think of sharing any form of opinion on there - I closed the tab and stewed.
Anyway, my time has come, and I am anointing this to be one of the best songs of the year. ‘Oops’ is taken from the album ‘Miss Michigan’ and has one of the slickest grooves I have heard in 15+ years. This has the IT factor that late 1990s/early 00s Rnb/Pop hits had.
Connect with Momo Boyd
Instagram | Facebook | X
Jorge Wilson - Life Goes On
This is taken from the EP ‘JPW’ which came out earlier in the year. There is something so epic about this song; it reminds me of an indie song that would have dominated the 2010s airwaves during the reign of Two Door Cinema Club.
‘Life Goes On’ has that quality you can’t quite put your finger on; it sounds like it plays in the background of deep blue summer memories, the vocals are some of the best I heard all this year, breaking in all the right places.
Connect with Jorge Wilson
Instagram
Yazida - cha-ching
This was recommended to me on YouTube earlier on in the year; possibly because I was on an ‘early 00s shoe diva’ and ‘early 2000s Yoga Mom’ playlist binge (during which I discovered most of Janet Jackson’s discography; that woman is a damn genius.)
Back to ‘cha-ching’ - I love the 2000s pink girly magazine vibe to it all, fused with the pink leopard print and bedazzled Bebo/My Space profile aesthetic. This melts its way into the music, the whole thing having a sparkling fuchsia quality that I love, the vocal melody making me think of PinkPantheress
Connect with Yazida
Instagram | X
Foxtide - Live by the Sun
The chorus for this goes through my head constantly. ‘Live by the Sun’ soars through the blue skies of the 1990s, playing on the car radio after Soundgarden’s ‘Black Hole Sun’ as you embark on a cross-country road trip through the States. This sounds like it was made to fill a stadium, to fill your soul, to make you want to live life to the full.
This is taken from the band's recently released album ‘Entropy’.
Connect with Foxtide
Website | Instagram
Mora Michelle - Obsessed
This is dreamy and achingly beautiful, but there is something about the haunting quality of the vocal melody set against the warm bedroom pop-adjacent soundscape that makes this all kind of eerie in a way that entrances you, makes you obsessed, even.
Connect with Mora Michelle
Instagram / X
Satya - Yellow House
This has possibly the best lyric writing I have heard all year:
“Yellow house
Lemon tree
Wooden floors
She laid face down
Yellow house
Dead birds
Pill bottles missing from the cabinet”
The juxtaposition of miniature, dollhouse-like imagery frozen in time with unspoken brutality and the threat of violence existing within this delicate image makes ‘Yellow House’ so deeply haunting. I was lucky enough to get to interview Satya earlier on in the year, which you can read here.
Connect with Satya
Website / Instagram
Jontan - The Only Man You Need
Taken from the album ‘The Yellow House’, ‘The Only Man You Need’ oozes with the warmth and sunshine of a Stevie Wonder classic. You really just have to listen and experience this for yourself; this is the perfect song for a summer evening of longing.
Connect with Jontan
Instagram
Rochelle Jordan - Doing It Too
This is, without a doubt, the best 1990s-style house track of the year, there is no one who has come close to what Rochelle Jordan is doing here. The production oozes glamour and fabulousness all tied together with an utterly divine vocal melody. The chorus is straight out of a dream of 1990s NYC.
Connect with Rochelle Jordan
Instagram / X / Facebook
Kim Petras - "Pop Sound" (Pretour)
I have written about this constantly during the year and will continue to do so relentlessly as this is one of the best pop songs of the 2000s as a whole.
This has the vast, all-consuming, addictive walls of electronics found in the likes of The Saturdays ‘All Fired Up’ - a sound operating on a scale that has rarely ever been recreated. I will forever associate this song with Theresa Duncan’s ‘The History of Glamour’ as I discovered both on the same evening.
Connect with Kim Petras
Website / Instagram / X
About Eimear O Sullivan
Eimear Ann O Sullivan is a multi-genre music producer, audio engineer and vocalist. After receiving a Masters in Music Technology from the CIT Cork School of Music, she went on to operate as a producer under the name Blakkheart. Her releases have received critical acclaim from Ireland's biggest music publications, such as District Magazine and Nialler9, alongside receiving heavy commercial radio airplay. She currently works in Cork recording studio Flashpoint CC. Previous clients of hers include the likes of Comedy Central’s Dragony Aunt star Candy Warhol, rapper Darce and Outsider YP. (Photo credit @Fabian Boros)
Contact Eimear O Sullivan at eimear.o.sullivan@musicngear.com
In this blog section we host new music releases, artist features and handpicked playlists by the Musicngear staff.
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