Autumn 2026 brings a rich crop of new music, from Irish noisemongers Gilla Band and shadowy producers Two Shell to the lovable Big Moon. Veteran acts such as Bob Dylan and the Sex Pistols are on tour, alongside newer trailblazers including Kelela and EsDeeKid.
Pop, rock and more
Gilla Band's new album Pugnello is released on 25 September. The two singles so far released display no letup in the intensity of their approach: Placeholder might have been shoutier than Giraffe, but both deal in thrillingly intense sonics. Their music owes as much to extreme avant garde electronics as it does to punk.
Johnny Marr's fifth solo album, The Age of Everything, arrives on 2 October, hot on the heels of his appearance at Gorillaz's lauded shows at Tottenham Hotspur's ground. The former Smiths guitarist has made an impressive fist of his solo career: Top 10 albums, gigs bolstered by his willingness to sprinkle Smiths classics throughout.
Two Shell release Infinite Now on 16 October. The London electronic duo have sent decoys to interviews and to DJ for Boiler Room; their last album, a remix collection, appeared for sale online then vanished without trace or explanation. The four tracks already available from Infinite Now are brightly hued pop-dance that's also somehow deeply weird, even unsettling.
Eagerly awaited returns
Rachel Chinouriri's second album, I Think I Spoke Too Soon, is released on 16 October. The Guardian recently called her "every pop star's favourite UK pop star": Sabrina Carpenter, Gracie Abrams, Olivia Rodrigo, Florence + the Machine and Wolf Alice have all selected her as a support act. Her second album is more synth-focused than her guitar-heavy debut.
J Cole's tour begins 19 October at the O2 Arena, London. He audibly prizes technical virtuosity as both a lyricist and MC, and his most recent releases have been steeped in hip-hop history; he even promoted this year's The Fall-Off by touring the US in a Honda Civic, selling CDs from the boot. Rumours abound that it is to be his last album.
Ezra Furman's tour begins 20 October at Cottiers theatre, Glasgow. Her most recent album, Goodbye Small Head, set unflinching self-examination to music that sounded like heartland US rock in the process of falling to pieces. She's a sharp, funny, self-deprecating and genuinely charismatic presence.
Indie and beyond
The Big Moon release Forever on 30 October. The London indie quartet's following is based on really good songs. Debut album Love in the 4th Dimension was a scrappily exuberant celebration of youth; almost a decade later, the first single from Forever, Gravity, deals with picking up your child from nursery.
Kelela's tour begins 4 November at O2 Academy Brixton, London. It's 13 years since her debut mixtape Cut 4 Me, long enough for her to become an inspiration to a new generation of artists: her recent album New Avatar featured a collaboration with PinkPantheress. Jazz, shoegaze, goth-rock, funk, neo-soul and electronica are all part of its exciting stew.
Noah Kahan's tour begins 5 November at OVO Hydro, Glasgow. Stick Season may have racked up nearly two billion streams on Spotify, but his recent album The Great Divide has remained stubbornly lodged around the Top 10 since release.
Legendary tours and debutants
Bob Dylan's tour begins 25 November at BIC, Bournemouth, and takes in a five-night residency at the Royal Festival Hall. His 2024 shows at the Royal Albert Hall carried a sense of farewell about them, but two years on, the never-ending tour is still in full swing.
Phoebe Bridgers' tour begins 26 November at Co-op Live, Manchester. Her return as a solo artist, six years after Punisher, is hotly anticipated: in the interim, her indie supergroup Boygenius won three Grammys. Her new album, Lost Weekend, is another set of heart-rending songs, haunted by the death of her father among other things, this time given a striking electronic makeover.
EsDeeKid's tour begins 3 December at Ovo Arena Wembley, London. His mixtape Rebel made the US Top 30; propelled by a deeply unexpected remix featuring actor Timothée Chalamet, so did the single 4 Raws. He turns his scouse accent to advantage as he rips through tales of snotty hedonism.
HorsegiirL performs on 4 December at O2 Academy Brixton, London. The Berlin-based DJ/singer-songwriter performs wearing a horse head mask, refuses to reveal her real identity and refers to her fans as "farmies". Her debut album Nature Is Healing is genuinely great: electropop, hyperpop and a dash of new age pastiche.
Kehlani's tour begins 8 December at the O2 Arena, London. The intro to her recent eponymous album announced she had "no fear, no filter and no apologies". What she does have is killer tunes in abundance.
Sex Pistols feat Frank Carter's tour begins 9 December at Edinburgh Corn Exchange. The gigs the Sex Pistols have played with Carter on vocals have been rapturously received: the former Gallows singer makes no attempt to imitate Johnny Rotten's characteristic vocal style.
Global sounds
Soumik Datta releases Melodies in Slow Motion on 21 October. The sarod maestro's nature-inspired album was developed during an eight-month journey across India where Datta compiled field recordings and workshopped music in local arts spaces. The album mimics the frenzied dance of honeybees through polyrhythmic percussion on Waggle Dance.
Manchester Collective's Constellations tour runs 2-10 October. The genre-spanning tour features guest performances and new works from west African griot percussionist Sidiki Dembélé and British folk violinist Rakhi Singh. An interpretation of Henry Purcell's 17th-century baroque score for The Old Bachelor is also programmed alongside the premiere of an Afrofuturist opera by composer Nwando Ebizie.
Jazz and classical highlights
The EFG London jazz festival returns for 10 days in November, running A-list and new-talent gigs across the city. American vocal stars Lizz Wright and Melody Gardot, Cuban piano firebrand Roberto Fonseca, global-jazz trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf and east London new-talent spotters Church of Sound are on a huge bill. Cross-genre vocal gala Jazz Voice returns as the festival's ever-popular opener. Various venues, London, 13-22 November.
Branford Marsalis and Dianne Reeves release Dedicated to You on 18 September. Marking 100 years since the birth of John Coltrane, the saxophonist and singer pay tribute to the jazz master by tackling his 1963 vocal duet album John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman. The album manages to find new ground in this decades-old selection of standards.
The Lammermuir festival runs 8-20 September across venues in East Lothian, featuring more than 450 artists in almost a fortnight of performances. Highlights include a residency from acclaimed US pianist Jeremy Denk, who performs six Mozart piano concertos across three concerts with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, and the UK premiere of Anthony Braxton's Composition No 19 with 100 tuba players.
Pygmalion and Raphaël Pichon perform Mozart at the Barbican Hall, London, on 9 November. The French period-performance outfit returns to London in its 20th anniversary year, joined by soloists including French soprano Sabine Devieilhe and British baritone Huw Montague-Rendall. Mozart's Great Mass in C Major takes centre-stage, alongside choral works by Bruckner, Mendelssohn and Schubert.
Perle Noire: Meditations for Joséphine takes place at the Barbican Hall, London, on 20 October. Directed by Peter Sellars and featuring Grammy-winning US soprano Julia Bullock as Baker, this event sees Baker's songs reimagined by composer and multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey, with spoken interludes from poet Claudia Rankine.
Britten's War Requiem is performed at Coventry Cathedral on 11 November, marking 50 years since the pacifist composer's death. Russian soprano Irina Lungu, British tenor Andrew Staples and German baritone Christian Gerhaher star alongside the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and vast choral forces. Kazuki Yamada conducts.
Kaija Saariaho's Adriana Mater receives its first full staging in the UK at the Coliseum, London, 28 November-12 December. Three years since her death, the 2006 opera by the great Finnish composer is performed by English National Opera in a new English translation. It is the first collaboration between ENO's artistic director Annilese Miskimmon and incoming music director André de Ridder.
