Press Play: The Best New Songs Released in October 2026 — If You Love Indie, Alternative & Underground

Our picks for the best new songs released in October 2026 bring you new music from indie, alternative and underground artists, plus a few major-label standouts. From Dead Man’s Bones’ first song in 17 years, “Lost In The Night,” to She Wants Revenge’s darkwave return “BLACK WAX/OUR LOVE” and SANA SANA MÚSICA’s cumbia debut “Hay Que Volver,” October gave us more than 80 songs we loved, plenty of them dark enough for spooky season. If you missed last month, catch up on the best new songs of September 2026, then press play below and scroll down for our 12 favorites and the full list of every song.

Stream the Best New Music Released in October 2026

Top Songs

Dead Man’s Bones – “Lost In The Night”

Years after we photographed them at FYF, Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields bring Dead Man’s Bones back from the grave with their first song in 17 years, recorded on a farm outside LA with two guitars, two drum machines and two synths and out now on ANTI-. Skeletal synths, gravelly bass and heaps of reverb surround Gosling’s ghostly, searching vocal, and when he really opens up in the second half, the simple new wave track hints that the duo may have more in store.

Read our full take on “Lost In The Night”

SANA SANA MÚSICA – “Hay Que Volver”

The Austin trio of singer Sisi, guitarist and bassist Maximiliano, and producer Joseph introduces itself with a self-released debut single about finding your way back to home, family, your roots and yourself. It’s cumbia roughed up with rock guitar, and it takes more risks than most bands do on a whole album.

Read our full take on “Hay Que Volver”

She Wants Revenge – “BLACK WAX/OUR LOVE”

Justin Warfield and Adam Bravin preview The Loved, their first album in 15 years (Feb. 12, 2027, Perfect Kiss), with a two-part single soaked in the darkwave they built their name on. Brooding guitar, a siren-like wail and post-punk drive erase the 15-year gap within seconds.

Read our full take on “BLACK WAX/OUR LOVE”

Danielle Ponder – “Open Windows”

From her Oct. 9 album Everything Has Changed (Dead Oceans), Danielle Ponder’s ballad follows the climb out of a breakup, starting in hopelessness and ending with room to begin again. Her voice moves from a near-whisper to a full-throated release, and she makes a feeling that personal land for anyone who has had to start over.

Read our full take on “Open Windows”

Mareux – “Cadillac Casket”

Mareux’s first solo release of 2026 opens his next album, carrying over the after-dark electro-punk and somber synth ballads of 2025’s Nonstop Romance. He wrote it on piano before  Elliott Kozel (Rosalía, Eartheater) added gloss and urgency, and the result is a hypnotic synthpop love song wrapped in swirling production and distorted vocals.

Read our full take on “Cadillac Casket”

Chloe Slater – “Get Me Out”

On her debut album Riot Youth (Oct. 9, stolen juice), Chloe Slater points at political hypocrisy and blames the divide on politicians and everyday people alike. In under two and a half minutes of fuzzy indie rock, she swings from a deadpan delivery into a big, radio-ready chorus, and the switch hits hard.

Read our full take on “Get Me Out”

Justice feat. Tame Impala, SZA and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – “Flower In A Hurricane”

Fresh off the news that they’re the main composers of the Grand Theft Auto VI score, the French duo shares an Oct. 15 single that nods heavily to Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” and other ’80s staples made for the game’s Vice City setting. After a guitar-solo intro, Kevin Parker and SZA ease into a “Neverender”-style duet, King Gizzard flourish outside their comfort zone, and the same knack for blending influences that powered Justice’s Hollywood Bowl takeover makes it all click.

Read our full take on “Flower In A Hurricane”

N8NOFACE feat. Angélica Garcia & Scarlett Seraphim – “Gray Area”

The LA synth-punk artist, who we caught opening for Juliette and The Licks, pulls Angélica Garcia and Scarlett Seraphim into his world on “Gray Area,” from Tomorrow’s World, the Stones Throw album he released Oct. 16 as he kicked off his tour at the label’s 30th anniversary show. Seraphim’s deadpan delivery plays off N8NOFACE while Garcia adds melodic bridges, and the synths stretch to their breaking point like freestyle beamed in from another planet, easily one of the most colorful things he’s made.

Read our full take on “Gray Area”

The Drums & Genesis Owusu – “Blackstar”

Jonny Pierce keeps opening The Drums up to collaborators, and on the Oct. 16 single “Blackstar” (Abysmal Records) he steps back to backing vocals and instrumentation so Genesis Owusu can lead with his amped-up electronic rock. Jangly guitars turned digital, a creeping sense of doom and glossy production find the common ground between them, a long way from the surf pop of The Drums’ Just Like Heaven set.

Read our full take on “Blackstar”

DeathbyRomy – “Heavy Metal”

“Heavy Metal” sits at the heart of DeathbyRomy’s Oct. 30 album Teenage Fever Dream, a hard-hitting coming-of-age confessional about stalking and exhibitionism drawn from her own upbringing. Abrasive trap beats and industrial-metal textures blanket her most vulnerable writing until the climax, when a faux ending gives way to the beat crashing back in.

Read our full take on “Heavy Metal”

Adrian Quesada & Angélica Garcia – “Nunca”

Texas native Adrian Quesada and El Monte native Angélica Garcia reunite after “No Juego” to cover Zoé’s 2000s Mexican rock favorite about breaking free of other people’s expectations, the first taste of a tribute to the band’s 2006 album Memo Rex Commander y el Corazón Atómico de la Vía Láctea. Garcia takes the lead and holds her own against the original, her bursts of energy riding a soulful, dreamy update of Zoé’s psych-rock pace.

Read our full take on “Nunca”

Internet Girl – “HIGH AS HEAVEN”

The South African trio previews its debut album YES (Nov. 13, Pack) with abrasive synths, heavy bass and distorted vocals that break into chaotic rapping. Halfway through it slows into a heavier, relentless grind, and that shift makes it one of the month’s wildest rides.

Read our full take on “HIGH AS HEAVEN”

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Every New Song On Our October 2026 Playlist

• Dead Man’s Bones — “Lost In The Night”
• SANA SANA MÚSICA — “Hay Que Volver”
• She Wants Revenge — “BLACK WAX/OUR LOVE”
• Danielle Ponder — “Open Windows”
• Mareux — “Cadillac Casket”
• Chloe Slater — “Get Me Out”
• Justice feat. Tame Impala, SZA & King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard — “Flower In A Hurricane”
• N8NOFACE feat. Angélica Garcia & Scarlett Seraphim — “Gray Area”
• The Drums & Genesis Owusu — “Blackstar”
• DeathbyRomy — “Heavy Metal”
• OTTOFIX — “Rank Data”

• Adrian Quesada & Angélica Garcia — “Nunca”
• Internet Girl — “HIGH AS HEAVEN”
• Brigitte Calls Me Baby — “Altitude”
• Logic1000 feat. yunè pinku — “The Girl”
• Kate Brunotts, Briana Wolf, teerie & Hyperwknd — “Drowning”
• Peaches & Steve Molitz — “Fuck the Pain Away (Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival Rework)”
• Mei Semones — “Howl”
• mercury — “Roar Of The Heliac Goat”
• Nao — “Eugene”
• Pearson Sound & Marie Davidson — “Heat”
• Tipa Tipo & Celeste Krishna — “Captain Yes”
• Dev Lemons — “pace”
• Ralphie Choo — “Amarillo nena”
• THAO & Adrian Quesada — “Nguyen Nguyen Lose Lose”
• Sparklmami — “si”

• Judeline — “La Falda”
• Flaco el Jandro & Y La Bamba — “Ya No Es Lo Que Era”
• Izzy Outerspace — “4AM In The Dark”
• Chloe Slater — “The Underground”
• Death Valley Girls — “Life So Far”
• Chase & Status feat. Little Simz — “Carnage”
• Fontaines D.C. & ROSALÍA — “Where Is Gone?”
• Blu DeTiger — “Makeup”
• Angèle & Soulwax — “Trop”
• Rachel Chinouriri — “Pretty girls”
• Hex Code — “Two Lips, Two Lungs and One Tongue”
• Gabriels & Say She She — “Break It”
• Gotts Street Park & Olive Jones — “Wake Me Up”
• JVLY — “SOJU AGAIN”
• Automatic — “Shadowplay”
• Asha Puthli & Say She She — “Pawa! (Dino Soccio Extended Disco Mix)”
• Land of Talk — “Cats”
• Love, Dallas — “Moviestar”
• bed — “ズーキッド｜Zookid”
• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah — “Fever of the Mind”
• Montell Fish — “Soon”

• Lambrini Girls — “The Basement”
• Telemakus & Sparklmami — “June’s Peace”
• Haute & Freddy — “Film Noir”
• Charlie Houston — “Ladylike”
• Girl Group — “SAVIOUR/FATHER/PRINCE”
• After Louise — “Sometimes I Get Emotional”
• EsDeeKid — “Bandit”
• Gus Dapperton & Ledbyher — “Sweet Tooth”
• Elise Elvira — “You Don’t Know Me”
• Donna Dafi — “Good Morning”
• Lous and The Yakuza & Suki Waterhouse — “Close my eyes”
• Panchiko & Mei Semones — “One Car Hits Another”
• bodyimage — “Leeches”
• girl in red — “missing person”
• Pixel Grip — “Club Mania (Snap Yo Neck) (MVTANT Remix)”
• Rachel Chinouriri — “Favourite desperation”
• Orca — “Missing the subway”
• Fujiya & Miyagi — “Elasticated Waste”
• Meiv & Armand Hammer — “No Future Pt. 1 & 2”
• Trish Toledo — “¿Para Qué?”
• Lola Blue — “your hand in mine”
• The Growlers — “It Came In the Night”
• HARLEY GIRL — “I Know The DJ”
• Dev Lemons — “in the middle of the night”
• Goldie Boutilier — “THE ALLIGATOR”
• Child Seat — “Stuck”
• Cloudbelly — “Bend”

• Michael Kiwanuka — “California”
• Yorke — “Telephone Calls”
• Mei Semones — “2 Hands”
• Suzanne Sheer — “Crush”
• Walden — “Eulogy”
• K.Flay — “Blood Cells”
• Rockie Rode — “Concrete Cowboy”
• OTTOFIX — “Gas Can”

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