Paste’s 11 New Albums

Paste published an April 17 list of 11 albums it says should anchor listeners’ New Music Friday queues, led in its teaser by Winston Hightower, Lucy Liyou and Nine Inch Noize. (pastemagazine.com) The roundup ran at 3 p.m. on Friday, April 17, 2026, under Paste Staff’s byline and under the site’s “Best New Albums” label. Paste described the package as its regular Friday follow-up to a separate weekly songs roundup. (pastemagazine.com) Paste’s own music index shows the list sitting alongside other recurring service posts, including “5 songs you need to hear this week” on April 16 and another “10 new albums to stream today” post on April 10. That cadence turns the feature into a weekly sorting tool rather than a one-off critic’s essay. (pastemagazine.com, pastemagazine.com) The format is built for a release calendar that resets every Friday. AllMusic’s April 17 new-releases page, for example, also published a same-day editor-curated list, underscoring how crowded weekly album drops remain across pop, rock and independent music. (allmusic.com, pastemagazine.com) Paste’s teaser language points to a mix of emerging and established acts rather than one blockbuster release cycle. In the visible portion of the article, the first entries include beaming’s debut *horseshoe* and Frog’s *Frog for Sale*, with staff blurbs arguing for each record on style and immediacy. (pastemagazine.com) That emphasis matches how music publications now package discovery: short recommendation blurbs, named picks and fast publication on release day. National Public Radio Music ran its own April 17 “New Music Friday” album guide the same day, with critics discussing favorite records from that week’s slate. (lpm.org, pastemagazine.com) Paste has used the same framing for months. A January 30 edition said the site “kick[s] off each and every New Music Friday” with songs first and then “the most compelling new records,” showing that the April 17 package is part of an established editorial template. (pastemagazine.com) The practical takeaway is simple: if April 17’s release flood felt too big to scan album by album, Paste narrowed it to 11 names and put three of them — Winston Hightower, Lucy Liyou and Nine Inch Noize — at the very top of the pitch. (pastemagazine.com)