Tyler Ramsey and Carl Broemel, photo by Parker J. Pfister

Welcome back. With the first Relix Staff Picks dispatch of 2026, we’ve assembled the notable releases of the new year’s first packed release day, plus some of the scattered gems that quietly arrived in the winter lull. Read on for the highlights from this week’s batch.

Tyler Ramsey and Carl Broemel were friends and occasional collaborators for more than a decade before they convened to create Celestun. That kinship facilitated the unguarded communication and pronounced understanding that defines their full-length duo debut, guiding the now-old-hand guitarist-songwriters through intricate, expressive melodic exchanges. Their fluency, earned from their respective experiences in alt-Americana institutions Band of Horses and My Morning Jacket, lets the artists unfurl atmospheric and intimate scenes from their alternately shaggily rustic and classically precise picking. Though some vocals flowed from their sessions, their earliest intentions for the project were all instrumental; when their tenors first meet in soaring harmonies on the third track, so much has already been said.

“We don’t step on each other’s toes,” Broemel says of the duo’s natural process. “We kind of fit together like puzzle pieces. Maybe that sounds grandiose, but that’s how it feels to me when we’re playing. We don’t even have to talk about it.”

“We just mesh together in a way that I can’t even really explain,” Ramsey echoes. “I feel like there’s some magical connection between our two things, it just makes me smile and satisfies some itch as far as things that I would like to hear on the music that I write. I think he feels the same way about what I do. When I put a part to one of his songs, we both have this feeling like that what exactly what was missing.”

Courtney Marie Andrews’ Valentine is another long-awaited revelation. The indie-folk singer-songwriter describes her ninth solo offering and long-awaited follow-up to 2022’s Loose Future as “a record in pursuit of love,” and her reflection rings true across 10 tracks that announce the nuances of attachment, disentanglement and renewal. Flutes and synths slyly cast a long shadow behind her ardent vocals and guitar, all tracked direct-to-tape to lend the set a striking immediacy that suits her soul-baring storytelling. “Love, it turns out,” she said, “is a lot more than I gave it credit for.”

Elsewhere, the ever-unpredictable Americana firebrand Langhorne Slim has returned with The Dreamin’ Kind, produced by Greta van Fleet’s Sam Kiszka (Slim treated the Relix team to a set at the office yesterday, so stay tuned for that). Ambient progressive Juliana Barwick and harpist Mary Lattimore meet on the rapturous Tragic Magic, employing the vast instrumental library of Musée de la Musique to weave strands of musical history into a thoughtfully modern statement. Venerable pianist and composer Craig Taborn connected with Tomeka Reid and Ches Smith for the multifaceted ECM release Dream Archives. This was also a massive week for album announcements: Flea‘s new single from his solo debut has a Thom Yorke feature, Kim Gordon‘s Play Me is led by the blissful anthem “Not Today,” Bill Frisell is back with a new group of old friends on In My Dreams, and Yonder Mountain String Band heralded Good as True with “Brand New Heartache.” They’d have to revoke my MetroCard (RIP) if I failed to mention A$AP Rocky‘s Don’t Be Dumb, the iconic rapper and cultural force’s fourth album and first since 2018’s Testing.

The latest batch of Relix Staff Picks also includes new music from Warren Haynes, Billy Strings (with both Tony Trischka and Bryan Sutton), Buck Meek, The Black Crowes, the James Hunter Six, Pullman, Dry Cleaning, Jana Horn, Elipsis (Michael League, Pedrito Martinez and Antonion Sánchez), Shabaka, Lotus, and many more gems. Tune in here.

Got something we need to hear? Send your recommendations to rob@relix.com.