Each week, 10 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:

Charli xcx - Always Everywhere [6]

Bleachers - you and forever [4]

Damon Albarn, Grian Chatten & Kae Tempest - Flags [2]

MUNA - Dancing On The Wall [2]

Bella Kay - Steady [1]

James Blake - I Had a Dream She Took My Hand [1]

Lykke Li - Lucky Again [1]

DON BROCO (feat. Nickelback) - Nightmare Tripping [0]

Knocked Loose (feat. Denzel Curry) - Hive Mind [0]

YONAKA - Eat You Alive [0]

Total votes: 17

Here are this week's contenders:

Dermot Kennedy - Refuge

Foo Fighters - Your Favorite Toy

Grian Chatten, Antony Glenn & Martin Slattery - Puppet

Lana Del Rey - White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter

The Last Dinner Party - Let's Do It Again!

Mumford & Sons & Gracie Abrams - Badlands

Pulp - Begging for Change

Twenty One Pilots - Drag Path

U2 - Song Of The Future

YUNGBLUD - Suburban Requiem

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

Week 5: Bruce Springsteen - Streets of Minneapolis

Week 6: sombr - Homewrecker

Week 7: Charli xcx - Always Everywhere

Went for Grian Chatten this week!

Lana sounds great, but it needs some listens to get into it. The new Yungblud song is disappointing.

Voted for the Foos!

Wanted to give an honourable mention for the new Grace Ives song, really looking forward to the album now! Janky Star is one of my favs of the decade.

My personal rankings for Week 8;

1. YUNGBLUD – Suburban Requiem

2. The Last Dinner Party – Let's Do It Again!

3. U2 – Song Of The Future

4. Foo Fighters – Your Favorite Toy

5. Lana Del Rey – White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter

6. Pulp – Begging For Change

7. Grian Chatten, Antony Glenn & Martin Slattery – Puppet

8. Twenty One Pilots – Drag Path

9. Dermot Kennedy – Refuge

10. Mumford & Sons & Gracie Abrams – Badlands

Lana Del Rey for me this week 🖤🪶

Also voted Lana - there are a few decent songs here, but this was the most unique.

More votes please!

Final chance to vote!

Will vote in this tonight, oops this week has gone by quickly x

I'll give it to the Foos, quite a decent one from them.

Lana winning this with utter shite.

LOVE the Dermot song, he's back with a bang this era but had to vote for YUNGBLUD, Suburban Requiem is gorgeous

1 Lana Del Rey

2 Pulp

3 Grian Chatten

4 Foo Fighters

5 Mumford & Sons

6 The Last Dinner Party

7 Dermot Kennedy

8 YUNGBLUD

9 twenty one pilots

10 U2

Lana winning with this utter peak. Very weird and unhinged song in the best way xx

2 bands I did not particularly expect to listen to and hear songs that sound vaguely like Viagra Boys in Pulp and Foo Fighters there - I am seeing not a lot of love online for these songs (especially the Foos) but they're appealing to me, the Pulp one is easily the most instant of these Help(2) singles so far (The Last Dinner Party's one is decent as well) and although I can see why the Foo song has been divisive / negatively received I am not often one to complain about a blown out noisy garage tune. Some good intensity and cinematic-ness to this Grian Chatten song too. The Mumford & Sons song is pretty nice, sounds very Bon Iver. Dermot Kennedy song is once again a Dermot Kennedy song but it is at least the slightly more interesting type of Dermot Kennedy song than the last one. YUNGBLUD delivering an ok Oasis ripoff. Was finding 'Drag Path' quite boring until the last minute or so, might be a grower but for now I'm not really getting the hype. U2 song is not terrible but I'm not sure I can muster up the energy to care about new music from them in current year.