June 2026 // Happy Pride!
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Jump to the playlist on Apple Music here!
June was a month full of pride, beautiful weather, and wonderful music. I attended some different jams around the city and got to sit in for some great sessions, and I think that influenced some of the music on this list. Enjoy!
// FULL PLAYLIST
01: Hidden Jazz Quartett - “Wälzer”
02: Weval - “Days”
03: Howling - “Pieces”
04: Taylor Swift - “I Knew It, I Knew You”
05: Stevie Nicks (w/ Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers) - “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”
06: Karmanjakah - “Moon, astray”
07: Ne-Yo - “Closer”
08: Hayley Williams - “Whim”
09: After - “Nothingmore”
10: VÉRITÉ - “Solutions”
11: Zedd - “Papercut (feat. Troye Sivan)”
12: Rebecca Black - “Speakerphone”
13: nabeel - نبيل - “Lazim Alshams - لازم الشمس”
14: heaving. “if i cried out”
15: Float Omen - “Lingering Will”
16: Sentinels - “Inertia”
// SPOTLIGHTS
After - “Nothingmore”
After is one of my favorite groups that I’ve come across in recent years. Their infectious, frutiger-aero-adjacent sound brightens any day, and even their darker, more driving tracks—like “Nothingmore”—have a playful edge that keeps me coming back again and again to groove. It feels like the band truly understands and has internalized what makes a pop song satisfying down to an exact science that still has enough edge to be exciting and different. Love this track!
Zedd - “Papercut (feat. Troye Sivan)”
“Papercut” has made it onto my month-end list at least once before, which might make it one of the very first tracks I’ve doubled up on—I’m normally very careful to make sure I don’t put anything on the list twice!—but I listened to it too much this month to have it fail to make the list. Troye Sivan’s vocals ride the beat perfectly, and Zedd knows how to make a chord progression extremely satisfying. I’ve always been a big fan of Zedd’s commitment to making his albums gapless; the end of this song where the main synth line of the next track “Bumblebee” is introduced never fails to make me want to listen to the rest of the album play out (and about half the time I do). Great tune, great synth and drum programming fills, great all around. Never did understand the choice to have ATC-pilot communication samples in the bridge, but whatever. If I turn my head and squint, I can see the thematic relevance.
heaving. - “if i cried out”
It feels like a lot of bands are just making the “right music” these days. I came across heaving. a month or so ago with their track “faces of you,” which also made last month’s playlist, and I’m excited to see a new generation of nu-metalcore influenced by emo and post hardcore rising to prominent positions within the genre. The tempo changes, riffs, hyperbolic mix, chord progression(!!! that first hook!!! stunning!!!)—everything about this track is fresh while maintaining an air of respect for all that came before. I’m so excited to see what else this band is going to do in the future, because I think they’ve got a set of good heads on their shoulders when it comes to thinking about a song’s structure and identity.
