Happy Fresh Friday- May 15th, 2026! This week we feature the UK alternative emo group Basement with their first new release in 8 years. Fresh off of playing a free show at Los Angeles’s brand new DIY venue Milky’s, Basement just announced a massive tour featuring the modern “who’s who” in the alternative side of hardcore music. This newest release aims to reinvent their sound in a noticeable way, expanding into new territories of rock music that were far less common to explore in 2018. Considering how much of a pinnacle role that Basement’s influence had on the recent explosions of alternative rock in the hardcore scene, they’re finally receiving their deserved roses on this newest release – a must-listen for fans of really any genre of rock, something very rare to find in the fragmented streaming era.
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This week also has Drake surprising us with 3 new releases (too many) and the hype from Social Distortion’s newest album is still riding high. Let’s jump into it!
Basement- WIRED (May 8th 2026) Run For Cover Records
Although Basement is a band almost exclusively associated with with hardcore and emo, their fanbase really should be expanding much wider outside of those considering how many different forms of rock music they seamlessly blend together. Their newest record “WIRED” indicates that Basement is absolutely aware of the universal connection that their unique sound has, and they’ve returned with a mission to make the entire world aware of this as well. While they have expanded on their sound into nearly every genre of guitar music here, they stay committed to their punk roots throughout it all – even releasing the album through Run For Cover records, which has essentially become a database on the level of the Library Of Congress for modern alternative rock music.
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As soon as the album begins, it’s clear that Basement is leaning more into their grunge-y shoegaze side rather than their anthemic sing-along emo nature. Those moments are still engrained in Basement’s natural soul, but the newest album really incorporates more 80’s-90’s college rock influence from bands like Dinosaur Jr. and The Pixies with experimental uses of sludge and distorted muffled vocals. Tracks like “Deadweight” become a hypnotizing wave of distorted sludge and dream pop, with its slowed down spiraling chorus that pulls you deeper into the haze. While Basement still delivers many moments of intense emotional moments that inspire stagedives and screaming every word, this album provides more experimental moments of relief that would thrive in a live festival setting. Basement may be a hardcore-influenced emo band, but they’re becoming a force much bigger than that here as well.
With how revered Basement are in hardcore and emo circles, it’s easy to forget that they are indeed a UK band considering how those scenes are typically dominated by American artists. They explore this British heritage on this album much more than we have seen on any previous release from them, with heavy Oasis influence that could be seen as opportunistic with the recent reunion tour. However, “WIRED” gives you the impression that Basement incorporates these elements simply because they’ve been listening to Oasis nonstop and are just as hyped about the reunion as everybody else is. Tracks like “Pick Up The Pieces” really immerse the listener in this Britpop influence with tambourines, keyboards, and epic repetitive choruses that lull you into a psychedelic trance. While I did mention Oasis, this track in particular resembles Blur just as much with its distorted vocals and loud, heavy guitars that have the energy of their louder songs like “Song #2”.
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Oddly enough – Basement somehow finds a way to become even MORE offensively British by not just incorporating Britpop elements, but going full 90’s Radiohead at moments with songs like “Embrace”. Frontman Andrew Fisher takes on a Thom Yorke-esque swagger here during the softer moments of the song, adding to its operatic nature when it picks up during the massive sounding chorus.
I know it sounds like this Basement album is simply taking on the sounds of different 90’s rock music by how I’m describing it, but this is still Basement at their truest core with anthemic choruses and melancholy guitars for the more emotional moments. “Sever” brings us back to the classic Basement formula for a moment, before they return with a psychedelic jangle-pop bop “The Way I Feel”. This is probably the most catchy and cheery that we’ll ever hear Basement, almost sounding like it could have been on the newest GUV album. Basement may throw us for multiple loops with how unpredictable this release is, but they manage to pull it off tastefully without alienating previous fans.
While some of these brighter sounds may feel a bit out of place on an emo record at first, the power-pop anthem “Satisfy” reminds us that these poppier influences have always existed in the more emotional sides of punk music – especially throughout the 90’s with the popularity of Green Day and The Muffs. This song could pass as a Nimrod-era Green Day song with its melancholy melody that manages to have the most infectiously catchy chorus throughout the entire album. Basement does channel the same fearless experimentation that Green Day has throughout their career, while being even more emotional and vulnerable in the process. Their fearlessness in incorporating these brighter power-pop elements only makes their vulnerability feel more genuine here.
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“Head Alight” and “Longshot” then slow things down to a ballad tone, while still simultaneously keeping the angsty 90’s power-pop energy and an emo spirit throughout. This side of Basement is definitely a lot more “cute” than some of their heavier post-hardcore material that we’ve grown used to, but they always have had a massive-sounding atmospheric sound behind them no matter what emotion they’re diving into. These moments of the album with cleaned up vocals and tidy production are some of the most impressive moments for Basement, showing they can sound equally enormous and passionate without hiding behind distortion or noise.
Basement closes out the whole experience on an explosive note with “Summer’s End”, a track that perfectly encapsulates all of the experimental risks taken on this album with their loudest influences of guitar music on full display here. It’s ironic that the track is called “Summer’s End” considering it’s sure to be blasted at full volume by every emo and hardcore kid throughout this year’s summer, but the whole song is oozing with Basement’s signature atmospheric aura filled with a blend of angsty, somber emotions. It’s an incredibly sentimental moment of the album – an absolutely beautifully crafted ending that sums up all of the sounds Basement has influenced emo music with throughout their career. Emo music has needed Basement more than we realized in their absence, and now we’re realizing the entire world needs Basement as well.
Drake “Iceman” + More (May 15th, 2026) OVO, UMG Recordings
I know this is not going to be a popular take with Janky Smooth readers, but I WAS incredibly excited for the release of Drake’s “ICEMAN”. I personally believed the whole beef with Kendrick was incredibly tacky, and found “Not Like Us” to be an incredibly reckless song with creepy lyrics that should people should be embarrassed to sing in public. An even less popular take is that I actually believe Drake has released better music than Kendrick throughout his career. A lot of his releases are admittedly filler trash, but his gems like “Take Care” were absolute classics of 2010’s hip-hop and “Views” was single-handedly responsible for the United States finally paying attention to UK Grime and dancehall music. Hate him or love him, he’s changed the landscape of popular music in ways very few artists could even dream of achieving.
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However Drake totally dropped the ball on any hype that existed for this release by releasing THREE albums in the same day, also surprising us with “HABIBTI” and “MAID OF HONOUR”. I had previously mentioned his filler trash releases, mostly being his “mixtapes” where he dumps a bunch of B-Sides and demos on a double-disc release with no structure planned. This had to be the laziest trend amongst pop artists and rappers amongst the 2010’s, and thankfully most modern artists have cut their album lengths down significantly to avoid oversaturation. Drake apparently never got this memo on actually valuing your art as an artist and threw 2 1/2 hours of music at us all at once, at a moment where the whole world is hesitant to listen to ANY new music from him to begin with. This album rollout was his one shot at redemption with the greater public; it should have been a short and precise declaration of return that makes the haters curious about what his next move should be. He fucked that up, hard. We’re already feeling overwhelmed and sick of his return, and he never even gave it a chance to begin.
The Drake fanboys will love this move, but he obviously doesn’t care about trying to win anybody else back. He probably has enough rabid fans to where this won’t affect his bottom line, but he’s lost all ambition as an artist. Once an artist is only performing to an echo chamber of fans who would never dare criticize them, they’ve already retired in their supposed goal of creating any meaningful impact in the world.
Social Distortion “Born To Kill” (May 8th, 2026) Epitaph Records
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Personally – we didn’t hear any hype surrounding the newest Social Distortion album “Born To Kill” before its release, but it’s been one of the most talked about albums in any genre of music throughout the past week and has been receiving nonstop radio play. A Social Distortion comeback wasn’t what we had in the cards for 2026, but life is often unpredictable in that way and few bands represent the thrill of life’s unpredictability better than Social D does. They don’t try to repeat the past here by falling into the trap of elders cosplaying as rebellious punks, but instead take on a natural progression into the more bluesy and country influenced sounds that Social Distortion has already experimented with throughout their long history. Their sound still has a punk edge, it’s just more mature and tasteful here; almost like a fine wine that starts to taste completely different as it ages. They’re still the same band with the same soul – they’ve just grown up alongside their longterm fans, finding ways of adjusting with the modern world the same as everybody else is.
We hope you enjoy this diverse week of new music, as there truly is something here for everybody. Happy Fresh Friday, everybody!
