Each week, 8 new releases are selected to go head to head, with one weekly winner which will then go up against future weekly winners later in the year at the end of each quarter of the year, and then again at the end of the year to determine the ultimate winner of 2026.

Last week's results:

James Blake - Death of Love [7]

Arctic Monkeys - Opening Night [5]

Harry Styles - Aperture [4]

Dermot Kennedy - Funeral [2]

Poppy - Time Will Tell [1]

Def Leppard - Rejoice [0]

Joji - Last of a Dying Breed [0]

Snail Mail - Dead End [0]

Total votes: 19

Here are this week's contenders:

Artemas - professional heartbreaker

Bruce Springsteen - Streets of Minneapolis

Embrace - Road to Nowhere

Melanie Martinez - POSSESSION

Noah Kahan - The Great Divide

Paris Paloma - Good Girl

Skindred - This Is The Sound

The Snuts - Summer Rain

2026 Indie/Rock/Alt Track of the Week Winners

Week 1: Ladytron - Caught in the Blink of an Eye

Week 2: Mandy, Indiana - Cursive

Week 3: Gorillaz (feat. Bizarrap, Kara Jackson & Anoushka Shankar) - Orange County

Week 4: James Blake - Death of Love

Let's put an outsider vote => Melanie Martinez - POSSESSION

I was really disappointed with the Artemas song.

Paris Paloma though, she never lets me down.

Some good new releases this week - I could have voted for any of Embrace, Artemas, Bruce and The Snuts, but I went for Embrace.

Has to be Bruce, if only for using his platform for something so relevant again, even if it may ultimately end the week below the streaming era peak of his Christmas song.

Gotta be Noah for me

My personal rankings for Week 5;

1. Skindred – This Is The Sound

2. Embrace – Road to Nowhere

3. Bruce Springsteen – Streets of Minneapolis

4. The Snuts – Summer Rain

5. Noah Kahan – The Great Divide

6. Paris Paloma – Good Girl

7. Artemas – professional heartbreaker

8. Melanie Martinez – POSSESSION

Went for Bruce this week!

Last day to vote!

Final call!

I can vote in this in the next ~hour or so if you will be kind enough to not manually close it before then again (I will stop playing with fire with the deadlines of these polls one day)

done it now, thank you xox

1 Paris Paloma

2 Noah Kahan

3 Skindred

4 Artemas

5 Bruce Springsteen

6 Embrace

7 The Snuts

8 Melanie Martinez

Feels a bit unexpected that Paris Paloma has gone in a bit of a Robyn direction sonically on this song but I'm liking it! Some good lyrics from her as usual as well. The Noah song is already growing on me after thinking it was just ok from a first listen on the radio, it is very 'Dial Drunk' 2.0 so feeling like quite a safe comeback but I do actually like it more than 'Dial Drunk' tbf. The Skindred song just sounds like a dancehall artist doing a Limp Bizkit cover, it's fun though. Ok but forgettable song from Artemas. I obviously full heartedly support the message of the Bruce song and he is a legend but as an actual song it's pretty middle of the road and the lyrics are very on the nose. Did not get much at all out of the last 3 songs though so it can rank above those. x

(aside, the Arctic Monkeys song did end up growing on me quite quickly so I retract my comment on it from last week although still wouldn't be troubling James Blake for my vote, hooray for him winning the poll!)