Janky Fresh Friday: Angel Du$t, Converge, Charli XCX and femtanyl

NEWS, REVIEWS

February 13, 2026

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angel du$t, charli xcx, converge, femtanyl, Janky Fresh Friday, New Release Friday, Trending

Happy Valentine’s Day to all Janky Smooth readers! Today is an absolutely unhinged day for new releases; with alternative power-pop Angel Du$t bringing us their newest album COLD 2 THE TOUCH right before their upcoming 1720 Warehouse show on 3/21. Angel Du$t is collectively one of Janky Smooth’s favorite bands and they have been for years; but we also have the highly anticipated return of Boston metalcore legends Converge, an unexpected dramatic shift in tone from Charli XCX in her original soundtrack for the Wuthering Heights film also released today, and our favorite current hyperpop outfit femtanyl finally releasing their debut album after bringing us such a great year with their Danny Brown collaborations. While many of you are out celebrating Valentine’s Day with your lovers, today is not a day to be slept on for new music releases.

Angel Du$t: COLD 2 THE TOUCH (released February 13, 2026): Run For Cover Records

Angel Du$t is an anomaly of hardcore history. Created by Justice Tripp to explore another side of his creativity apart from his efforts in Trapped Under Ice, Angel Du$t was always a melodic outlier of the modern scene. The band’s trajectory appeared to be going more melodic and more pop punk with each album, beginning with the apex of this evolution in 2019’s Pretty Buff.

Those in the hardcore scene will never forget the impact of “Bang My Drum”. That album marked a clear departure from old school Angel Du$t, replacing the pit anthem that was “Toxic Boombox” with the acoustic banger “Big Ass Love”.

That was seven years ago now, since the covid wormhole in time, and while most bands are looking for the most random directions to take their music to new places, Angel Du$t treated fans to a return to form with the album COLD 2 THE TOUCH.

The moment the first track, “Pain is a Must”, hits, you realize you’re in for the classic melodic beatdown of Angel Du$t’s origins. With the drawn out Justice Tripp vocal marrying the backing hardcore vocals that can stir any pit no matter how frozen and catatonic the crowd may appear, “Pain is a Must” rips out of the gate with a cruising riff that pummels at the right moments. You know the fists are flying at the show.

This is the sound of an old spirit resurrecting, standing up out of its grave like The Undertaker. Cold 2 The Touch feels invigorated with the same mojo as “Toxic Boombox”, flashing the listener back to a more punishing, youthful era of their brilliant hardcore pitting careers.

This song does not just pull out sonic skeletons from the band’s closet, it takes all the developments from Angel Du$t’s more pop ventures and distills them into a more effective, inspiring hardcore sound.

“I’m The Outside” grooves under the undeniably listenable vocal. Judging by the lyrics, the song appears to be about death and the afterlife, in which the soul joins the cosmos itself, making YOU the outside as opposed to being on the outside.

“Jesus Head” is twangy and flowery, almost feeling a bit tropical, definitely feeling a lot more chill. After “I’m The Outside”, this is now the second mention of Jesus in lyrics that either criticize religious selectivity for salvation or make poetry out of preparation for death, or both.

“Zero” is the strongest lyrical output on the album yet. You read Justice Tripp’s words and know he has gone through some kind of spiritual journey through hell and back. Just read this:
Stay with me
Especially when I need to be alone
Somewhere in the stratus where the star takes its last flicker
Falling for Heaven and all love is magic, all sex, all impotence, all immeasurable
The way she tastes
All immortal, all imperfection
I’d throw it all away to take back my life
Over and under again, signal in the sky
Across your inner thigh
That is where you’ll find me washed up on the shores
If I ever find a colder knife
After the storm inside subsides

These are the words of a soul yearning and burning, caught between material desires and higher understanding, not quite fitting comfortably in either realm. He has one foot in both, making elevated hardcore for all the fallen angels.

“Downfall” is a headbanger, equipped with slow beatdown moments that allow you to trudge the rim of any circle pit to establish dominance.

“DU$T” allows Tripp to hit the most sensual notes of his vocal range, taking on a sort of character that exists within some Angel Du$t songs, a sort of cosmic pleasure pimp. When the song kicks into gear, the band drops right back down to Earth from the clouds and blasts your face off with their signature Baltimore hardcore.

“Nothing I Can’t Kill” is a softer vocal track that builds into full on hardcore therapy, confessing everything, putting everything on the table, appearing nude before the world because the world’s cruelty has made them invincible to anything it could throw. Just check out these lyrics:

I’ve never felt love or been enough
Been told one million times I’ll never be anyone
Maybe you were right, maybe I was wrong
You don’t have to tell me that, I knew it all along

The song almost takes on a dub spirit, fueled by the same ethos behind Jamaican reggae where artists told stories of them against the world. That same sentiment bleeds into the next track, “Man on Fire”, starting off slow then building into one of the heaviest tracks on the album.

“The Knife”, the title object of which has been a motif across the entire album, is a short but sweet ripper that feels like the finishing touches and death blow at the end of an album that is really one long song or movie. These lyrics may point to Justice’s motivation and inspiration behind the entire COLD 2 THE TOUCH album:
Hell personified
This is the place where dreams go to die
Here comes the knife

Putting blood on a sound
Never water it down

Taking back what’s mine
Step aside, open up wide
Here comes the knife

Reverting back to the old Angel Du$t sound, Justice is willing to put everything on the line for this creative decision, reclaiming the sound and niche he carved out for himself. Doubling down that the OG Angel Du$t is the New G Angel Du$t, the ALWAYS G ANGEL DU$T.

Finally, the album closes with “The Beat”, a pure beatdown track with no other purpose than demolition. A sound was built for the duration of the album and in true hardcore fashion, once the experience is finished and everyone appears to be moshed to exhaustion, we must destroy what we have created and let it all out in one final spurt of violence.

Listening to the preview tracks before this album’s full release, I was sure the thesis of this review was simply that Cold 2 The Touch was a return to form. After a thorough listen though, this is one of Justice’s purest, most fearless creative efforts, re establishing the band as a hardcore force with the ferocity of raw humanity behind him, scars, fears, regrets, doubts, poetry and all.

Most of all, COLD 2 THE TOUCH impressed me on a lyrical level. Justice’s writing explores life and death through the perspective of some kind of criminal with a heart, with equal parts sensitivity on the inside and rock hard toughness on the outside. There was so much spirituality on a few tracks, yet he was able to ground it in human experiences and desires, from sex to violence to personal beefs.

I cannot wait to see the pits for these new tracks taking on the same necessary role that Angel Du$t’s classic songs held in the hardcore scene circa-Sound And Fury’s Pop Wig after show at the Highland Park Hi Hat. IYKYK.

Other NEW February 13, 2026 Releases:

In addition to Cold 2 The Touch, a few other notable bands released music this Friday, February 13th. They include:

Converge: Love Is Not Enough (Released February 13, 2026): Epitaph Records

The Greatest Metalcore Band Of All Time Converge has returned to deliver us their first new album in 5 years and if you know anything about how consistent their discography has been throughout their history, you know that this isn’t a record that can be missed. The album is an absolutely brutal and pummeling return to their roots, taking on a much heavier and intense approach than their last couple records that leaned more in the melancholy post-hardcore direction. Frontman Jacob Bannon is still as vulnerable and emotionally honest as ever here, but it’s nice to hear songs from Converge again where it’s impossible not to instantly imagine the frenzied mosh pit they’d create. Especially for those of us spending Valentine’s Day alone, I can’t imagine a better sort of cathartic emotional release to celebrate with.

Charli XCX: Wuthering Heights (released February 13, 2026): Century Media Records Ltd.

Brat Summer may not be anywhere near returning, but Charli XCX certainly is with her original soundtrack for the Wuthering Heights film, also released today. This album is a lot more depressed and somber than the sort of party anthems she’s been known for recently, but the raw vulnerability that she showcases on her earlier indie-pop material is more present than ever here. If you’re a fan of the real side of Charli where she doesn’t play a character, like on her track “Girl, so embarrassing”, then this is definitely the release you’ve been waiting for her to put out. I am personally sick of the Brat persona and you could not pay me to see her A24 film The Moment in theaters, so it’s refreshing to hear a return to form like this from her. She also hosts features from John Cale and a very elusive rare repeat collaboration with Sky Ferreira, so this is definitely an album worth checking out no matter what your tastes in pop music are.

femtanyl – MAN BITES DOG (released February 13, 2026): entitii records

One of the most talked about bands in hyperpop and experimental club circles at the moment; femtanyl has finally delivered us their long-anticipated first full length album. Their chaotic euphoria-pumping formula of drum n bass is undeniable, guaranteed to get any dancefloor moving at dangerous speeds; this album MAN BITES DOG is a declaration that they are fully aware of the impact they currently have on the electronic dance scene. The experimental genre-bending skills they showcased on Danny Brown’s most recent album Stardust are still here as well, with certain songs like “Video Nasty” having moments with the same industrial-influenced intensity that you’d find on most Death Grips tracks. 100 Gecs better hurry up and return from their long hiatus, because femtanyl is easily surpassing them in making the most interesting and hyperactive hyperpop music out there.