23 Apr Album Friday April 24, 2026: Kehlani, Jordan Rakei and Foo Fighters – Three Releases, Three Worlds
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Today, April 24, 2026, three artists are releasing albums that couldn’t be more different. Kehlani is dropping her fifth studio album on Atlantic Records and celebrating her 31st birthday. Jordan Rakei is releasing the Abbey Road Sessions he recorded as Artist in Residence with Nubya Garcia, FKJ, and Jungle. And Foo Fighters are unleashing a new album, “Your Favorite Toy”, into the rock year.
Kehlani: Self-Titled on Atlantic
The Oakland R&B singer’s fifth studio album bears her name. No meta-concept, no title statement, just a statement: after “It Was Good Until It Wasn’t” (2020), “Blue Water Road” (2022), and “Crash” (2024), this is Kehlani unfiltered. The feature list reads like an R&B family tree, spanning from the 90s (Missy Elliott, Brandy, Usher) through 2000s hip-hop (Lil Wayne, Lil Jon, Big Sean) to the current era (T-Pain, Clipse, Leon Thomas). Cardi B delivers the rap part that keeps the album mainstream-friendly.
The release date is deliberate: Kehlani turns 31 today. Atlantic has declared April 24 a signal date – full label backing, full media rotation. For those who’ve lost sight of Kehlani between Ariana Grande, SZA, and Jorja Smith over the past three years, this album refocuses on R&B, a genre that’s been missing in the sea of TikTok-driven short formats in 2024.
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Featured artists on Kehlani’s self-titled album – from Missy Elliott to Cardi B
Jordan Rakei: Between Us – Abbey Road as a Studio Philosophy
Jordan Rakei was the 2025 Artist in Residence at Abbey Road Studios. He didn’t use this residency to record a solo album, but instead collaborated with five different artists. One track per day, one guest per session, no weeks-long overdubs. The result is called “Between Us” and is an EP, not an album – five tracks, compact, with a weight that many overlong releases in 2026 lack.
“Each collaborator came in for one intense day of writing. No preparation, no pre-production. Just two people in a room with the best microphones in the world.”– Jordan Rakei, in an interview with The Line of Best Fit, February 2026
The tracklist: “What It Gave Me” with Jalen Ngonda, “Easy To Love” with Tom McFarland (Jungle), “It Never Ends” with Femi Koleoso (Ezra Collective), “Problems” with FKJ, and “Monsters” with Nubya Garcia. For those who have followed the soul-jazz sound between London and Melbourne in recent years – Ezra Collective, Jungle, Nubya Garcia’s own albums – this is the synthesis. The release is on Fontana, Rakei’s new label home after leaving Ninja Tune.
Foo Fighters: Continuity Rock after a Tough Year
The thirteenth Foo Fighters studio album “Your Favorite Toy” arrives at a time when the band has long since grown up. After the death of Taylor Hawkins (2022), Dave Grohl released “But Here We Are” (2023) as a way of processing his grief. The seasons of 2024 and 2025 were dedicated to touring. Josh Freese left the band at the end of 2025, and the new drummer for the album is one of the names Grohl had already recruited for the tribute shows. “Your Favorite Toy” doesn’t mark a radical change in direction – it’s Foo Fighters rock in its purest form. Riffs, hooks, Grohl’s voice, produced as always with Greg Kurstin.
Those who don’t expect any more musical surprises from the band won’t be surprised here either. What the album delivers is something different: continuity. In a time when rock bands break up every two weeks, reunite, or release documentaries about their crises, the Foo Fighters just keep playing. For the rock segment of IBB, this is a signal: rock no longer lives off events, but off the work itself. There are parallels to the drum-and-bass community, which is currently building its own revival on exactly this continuity.
Three Genres, Three Sound Worlds – But One Album Friday
R&B maximalism, soul-jazz collaboration, rock continuity. Three releases that rarely meet in streaming playlists. But that’s exactly why Album Friday remains relevant as a format. It forces listeners to cross algorithmic boundaries. Fans of Kehlani rarely land on Jordan Rakei. Listeners of Foo Fighters seldom stumble upon Nubya Garcia. On April 24, 2026, all three have the same visibility – and that’s the last piece of music culture that playlist algorithms haven’t ruined.
The chart forecast for next week is based on DACH streaming numbers on Sunday evening. Album-of-the-Year user ratings start on Saturday, Pitchfork reviews typically on Monday or Tuesday. For those who want to make the most of a review weekend, the groundwork is laid tonight. For more on the current label economy and how indie artists really earn on release day, we’ve broken it down in our Bandcamp Friday article.
Q&A after the Show
Click on a question to expand the answer.
Which of the three albums is the mainstream chart contender?
Where can I listen to the albums in the best quality?
Are there vinyl pressings of the three releases?
Will the artists tour in 2026?
Cover image source: Pexels / Miguel Á. Padriñán