The 10 most exciting album and EP releases to look forward to in April
April is a busy one. In the music calendar, it always stands out as a month where greatness is offered up like a feast, perfectly timed after the lull of winter but before the buzz of summer. In the gap of spring, albums and EPs are abundant.
It makes sense. No one wants a party album in January or February, but as the weather begins to brighten and we all dare to begin to dream about summer plans and festival season, it’s the perfect time for artists old and new to emerge with something thumping, something danceable, something raging.
It gives us all enough time to learn the words before festival slots, or get into the tunes before late spring tours or even buy tickets ahead of winter jaunts around the world. But mostly, it’s a limbo month where people are hungry for something new.
In that gap, artists are more than willing to provide, and this year, seemingly more so than any other, April is jam-packed with the long-awaited return of some legends as well as the dawn of new ones to watch coming to fruition.
Covering everything from disco to electro, indie to punk, this one month has it all.
Thundercat – ‘Distracted’ (3rd April)
Fans of Thundercat never need to wait too long for a new release, seeing as he seems to collaborate with every artist under the sun. That’s not meant as a slight on the jazz bassist; his approach to music, experimental and free-flowing nature, and high-pitched soothing vocals make him the kind of artist that anyone with a penchant for good tunes wants to be close to.
Despite working with artists like Kendrick Lamar, Silk Sonic and Tame Impala, there is no doubt that Thundercat produces his best work when putting together a solo album. The limitless nature of these records and the fact that he gets a final say on everything he puts out mean that every LP he releases is packed with silky jazz goodness and injected with drops from every other genre out there.
His new LP, Distracted, promises to be one of the most exciting releases of the year, let alone in April. (Dale Maplethorpe)
Index for Working Musik – ‘Bunker Intimations II’ (3rd April)
There’s always been a beguiling esoterica at the heart of the London collective Index for Working Musik. Never trapped in dead-end academia or intellectual self-satisfaction, but rather gifted with an ability to scoop up the mystical residue that lies buried in the sediments of the city and gloriously flung against their cryptic thematic canvas.
Excavations of philosophy and culture’s off-beaten paths have been scored by a befitting polymath post-punk, able to nebulously hover between electronica wanderings, garage experimentalism and field recording collage that always strikes an evocative bullseye. Intended as a sister album to last year’s Which Direction Goes The Beam, Index for Working Musik has wrested a 50-minute chunk of improvisation from their aural ether, collating their three-day studio experiments on the upcoming Bunker Intimations II.
Offering a taste with the cavernous ‘Geordie Vision’ and ‘Going to Heaven on the End of a String’s apparitional folk, Bunker Intimations II looks set to see Index for Working Musik at their most raw and spontaneously gripping yet. (Tom Phelan)
Gretel – ‘Squish’ (10th April)
The most exciting part of the new music world is undeniably a moment like this, when a long-standing one-to-watch finally hits that crucial debut album point. For Gretel, it’s been a long time coming as her 2022 EP Slugeye rightfully caught attention and kept it there.
But on all the teasers of Squish, it’s clear that all that potential has been levelled up big time. Influenced by grunge rock and fairy tales, her signature sound has been honed, and her vocals somehow sound even better than ever. With her unique tones and the delicious richness of her instrumentals and storytelling, it’s a guarantee that this is going to be a really solid first offering. (Lucy Harbron)
Blossom Caldarone – ‘Might Smash A Window’ (10th April)
For a long time now, Blossom Caldarone has been one to watch. She’s been one to keep an eye on from her side of the stage on tour with English Teacher, as her role as the band’s resident cellist and keys player makes her captivating, bringing all those recorded textures to life on stage and giving the band their signature layered sound.
But in her own music, she’s been delivering uniqueness for years. In 2023, her EP Maybe In Love (Maybe Not) was full of fun and feeling, but with a few years of maturing, and undeniably with the influence of English Teacher’s world and the stages she’s played with them, the teasers already heard from her upcoming EP are gloriously polished yet shining with her characteristic lyrical wit. Managing to be both giggle-inducingly candid and completely timeless, she’s one of the most interesting new-gen songwriters around, and this upcoming project will be proof. (Lucy Harbron)
The Itch – ‘It’s The Hope That Kills You’ (10th April)
I remember a time when The Itch felt like an enigma, who, after playing a few shows, gained hype quickly. I saw them at Wide Awake back in 2024 and understood it all. Back then, though, they were more of an indie unit made up of cast-offs from other collapsed London bands. Either way, amidst all that buzz, they kind of disappeared, cancelled some shows, but popped up every now and then, leaving fans chasing them around like a mythical party.
When they reappeared properly, though, they clearly meant business. Now reshaped into a club-adjacent, more electro-infused outfit that’s making a uniquely brilliant mix that’s somewhere between euro-bangers and indie sleaze. It works in the club, and I’ve tested it out, and it also works on your weekly shop at Sainsburys, if you need a bit of a hype up. (Lucy Harbron)
Lime Garden – ‘Maybe Not Tonight’ (10th April)
Screw being the UK’s best girl band, Lime Garden might just be the country’s best band, full stop. On their debut, they already proved that they could sprint miles ahead of their potential, launching a record full of indie bangers and then a variety of other textures and offerings from lo-fi sad moments to glitchy electro pieces.
But now, with the teasers for their sophomore, it’s like they’re in a relay race against themselves, and once again, they’re flying ahead. The titular track alone would have been enough to make this album one of the most hotly anticipated of the year in the indie calendar as the band traced the anxieties of a night out to a big beat. However, with ‘All Bad Parts’, ‘23’ and ‘Downtown Lover’, their signature lyrical sharpness and their celebrated ability to be a million bands in one, all while always sounding so uniquely them, is out in full force. Bound to be excellent, it’s one not to miss. (Lucy Harbron)
Blood Wizard – ‘Lucky Life’ (16th April)
If you haven’t heard Blood Wizard yet, don’t worry about it, as it’ll only take about 30 seconds of your time for you to become wholeheartedly obsessed with them. Just put on ‘Daydreaming’, give it a moment, and then allow yourself to get swept up in the folk-infused Indie goodness that ensues.
The band are currently gearing up to release their new EP Lucky Life and have said that they believe the project represents a significant moment for them, one where they truly hone in on a sound that has eluded plenty of other artists. They said, “Lucky Life feels like a turning point for the project, and we can’t wait to share what’s next”. (Dale Maplethorpe)
Eaves Wilder – ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ (17th April)
Often, when you read about an artist, and you see them described as a blend between Wolf Alice, Cocteau Twins, Cream and Pearl Jam, it’s usually the case that that person just didn’t know how to describe said artist and so threw a load of different bands at a page and let them sit there. But with Eaves Wilder, damn, listen to her and tell me they’re not all embedded in that sound on some level?
Her new album, Little Miss Sunshine, is heavy, melodic, cinematic and layered. No two songs sound alike, as some inspire sing-alongs, others break your heart, and the rest open up mosh pits, but despite the different nature of these tracks, they all definitely belong on a record together. Eaves Wilder is one to keep an eye on, as her debut album is one of the greatest releases in 2026. (Dale Maplethorpe)
Jessie Ware – ‘Superbloom’ (17th April)
If you go back and listen to all of Jessie Ware’s albums in chronological order, you’ll find that the one thing which connects them (disregarding disco) is a sense of growth. No two albums are the same, they are a reflection of Ware as an artist, in that specific moment in time, and given she continues to evolve as a person, so too does her music do the same thing.
While most of her records give us something we can dance and move to, the theme and execution of her albums vary a great deal, creating a consistent inconsistency which every fan looks for in their favourite artists. With the release of her newest single, ‘Ride’, it’s evident that Ware is continuing to pursue the sexy disco chic that she has become queen of in recent years, but once again, that theme takes on a new form with this new release. In this case, that form is if Nile Rodgers were a cowboy.
We can slap genres on the music Jessie Ware makes, but it’s easier to just call it the kind of sound that makes everyone in earshot happy. With her continuous growth in mind, it’s exciting to ponder over what this new LP might bring, and it makes Superbloom one of April’s most exciting releases. (Lucy Harbron)
Truthpaste – ‘I Don’t Know Either’ (28th April)
Truthpaste are one of those bands that have risen quick, but the second you hear a tune, you understand why. With five multi-instrumentalists covering things like your guitars, your basses, your violins, your lapsteels, your synths, what they crucially don’t have is a drummer, but they have a computer for that.
The result is something interesting. There’s definitely an element of that now classic South London sound to it, reminiscent of Black Country, New Road, but less so in terms of actual sonics, and more in their broad experimentation. With so many members at play with so much musical capability, and then with that interesting texture of the electronic drum machine pinning them down, the intersection of pastoral and technical is so cool, and then the vocals and instruments being bounced between them makes it even cooler.
Wasting no time in putting an EP out, it’s sure to be a quick-fire run of their early potential, seeing the dawning of a key new act to keep an eye on. (Lucy Harbron)
