STACK #258 April 2026

FEATURE MUSIC

THIS MONTH?

JOE PERNICE Sunny, I Was Wrong MGM

THE MILK CARTON KIDS Lost Cause Lover Fool ROCKET Much-loved folk duo The Milk

THUNDERCAT Distracted INERTIA

Sunny, I Was Wrong is the fourth solo album for America’s Joe Pernice, his first since his Barry Manilow celebration, Could It Be

Stephen Lee Bruner is an American bass player, producer and singer who’s better known as Thundercat. Distracted is his fifth solo album and it

T he Eagles’ fourth album, which would sell more than four million copies and launch their career into the stratosphere, was the last to feature the band’s original line-up. Singer/songwriter/guitarist Ber nie Leadon, who also contributed banjo, mandolin, and pedal steel guitar to all of the band’s previous albums, could see the writing on the wall when the band included another lead guitarist, Don Felder, taking the band in a more rock direction at the expense of their original country-rock roots. The album was a commercial success, thanks to the radio support of its four hit singles: the title song, Lyin’ Eyes, Take It to the Limit – with a lead vocal from bass guitarist Randy Meisner – and After the Thrill Is Gone , which was an exploration of the aftermath of B.B. King’s song The Thrill Is Gone . While the bulk of the material was written by Don Henley and Glenn Frey, who alternated on lead vocals, the most intriguing track is Leadon’s instrumental Journey of the Sorcerer , which was later used as the theme for Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio series, produced by the BBC in 1978. This album saw Leadon leave the band, to be replaced by former James Gang guitarist/sing er/songwriter Joe Walsh for the Eagles’ Hotel California album, which is widely regarded as the band’s masterpiece. EAGLES One of These Nights INERTIA BIL Y’S PICK

Carton Kids – Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan - are releasing their seventh studio album, which is filled with their trademark intimate indie pop filled with heavenly

Magic . The record features some cool collaborations: Deep into the Dawn (Aimee Mann), It Won’t Be Me (Rodney Crowell), I’d Rather Look Away (Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake) and It Got Away from Me (Jimmy Webb).

harmonies. “Each song takes a single moment, sometimes examined with microscopic closeness and sometimes viewed from a great distance, and lets it expand until it becomes an entire world,” Pattengale explains. “By enlarging small feelings until they’re inhabitable, the record looks for eternity not in the sweeping or monumental, but in the intimate specifics that usually pass too quickly to notice.” RINGO STARR Long Long Road UNIVERSAL Ringo Starr’s collaboration with T Bone Burnett continues to bear fruit, with Long Long Road , his third country album, another sparkling collection of Americana. Ringo might be 85, and he has been on a long, long road, but his music still conjures joy. Alongside a stack of originals, the record features a cover of a Carl Perkins gem I Don’t See Me in Your Eyes Anymore . The album also features guest appearances from Billy Strings, Sheryl Crow, St. Vincent, Molly Tuttle, and Sarah Jarosz. SKINDRED You Got This INERTIA autobiographical look at childhood poverty and family hardship - but the Welsh ragga metal band manages to inject some crowd pleasing “woops-woops” and a joyous pop sound that will transport you back to the ’80s. Skindred, who started in 1998, have had four Top 40 albums in the UK, but are yet to break big here. Skindred’s Can I Get A is one of the feel-good hits of the year. It tackles a serious subject – an

features No More Lies , a deliciously smooth and funky collaboration with Australia’s Tame Impala. And A$AP Rocky pops up on Funny Friends .

JULIA CUMMING Julia INERTIA

TRUCKFIGHTERS Masterflow MGM

This is the debut solo album for Julia Cumming, the lead singer of Brooklyn band Sunflower Bean. Highlighting her major influences – Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon, and Brian Wilson

As The Hives revealed, Sweden can rock. Truckfighters are a

Swedish stoner rock band and this is their sixth studio album, their first in ten years. The grooves are big, the guitars are fuzzy, and the sound is gloriously hypnotic. Overall, they come across much like the Swedish version of Tumbleweed.

- Julia says: “One of my main goals with this record was for it to sound fun, not morose. It’s the ultimate anti-cool album. It’s a joyous space for the misfits, and in particular, an album for girls like me, the ones who never fit into a neat little box. I want this record to be a place where those girls can find solace.” As she declares in My Life , “I sing these words for me... to drown you out.” KNEECAP Fenian INERTIA

ZAYN Konnakol UNIVERSAL

This Irish hip-hop trio have called their third album “a considered response to those who tried to silence us”. The title is a reference to the

Konnakol is the fifth solo album for One Direction’s Zayn Malik. The cover image blurs the singer’s face with a snow

leopard, as a nod to how much his Asian heritage has shaped the record. “I have always drawn on my heritage for inspiration since I first started making my own music,” Zayn explains. “This album is a development of that understanding, knowing more now than ever, who I am, where I come from and where I intend to go.” And if you’re wondering about the title, “konnakol” is the art of performing percussive sounds vocally in South Indian Carnatic music.

warriors in Irish folklore; it was also later used as a derogatory term for the Irish. “Now we’re using it to name everyone speaking truth to power.” Kneecap are loud and proud. As they declare, “The Paddies are back.”

MEGHAN TRAINOR Toy with Me SONY

Coming in MAY MELANIE C Sweat (May 1) TORI AMOS In Times of Dragons (May 1) YUNGBLUD Idols II (May 15)

America’s Meghan Trainor has packed a lot into the last decade, winning a Grammy for ‘Best New Artist’, topping the charts with All About That Bass , and working as a judge

on Australian Idol and The Voice in the UK. Toy with Me is her seventh studio set, and she says it “feels like the most honest and fearless I’ve ever been – it’s all about self-confidence, freedom and learning how to meet people where they are at. I’m learning to shake off negativity, choosing joy, and living life my way – because at this point in my life and career, I’m ready to be done worrying about pleasing everyone.”

Radio legend Billy Pinnell presents Billy Pinnell’s Musical Moments on YouTube.

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