Hello there, and welcome to Guitar World Editors’ Picks – our monthly guide to the guitar tracks that have captured the attentions of our editors over the past four weeks or so.
With the aid of our Spotify playlist below, we’ve rounded up all our favorite new releases from the month of April, and put them under the microscope to wax lyrical on the playing, tones, and songwriting that have set our six-string senses a-tingling.
Article continues belowMichael Astley-Brown – Editor-in-Chief
Muse are one of the reasons I picked up the guitar in the first place. But it’s been a quarter of a century since Origin of Symmetry (God, I’m old). Since then, Matt Bellamy has infused his playing with everything from out-and-out classicalism to sci-fi synth pop and dubstep. Judging from new single Cryogen, his latest obsession is Turnstile – the hardcore riff that brings the track to a close borders on pastiche. Which is a bit of a distraction from the rest of the song, which is a fun, funky take on Muse’s classic Tom Morello-meets-Radiohead formula.
If you’ll forgive me more nostalgia for the early noughties, mgk’s collaboration with Fred ‘Limp Bizkit’ Durst is such a nu metal throwback it might as well come with a pair of oversized jeans, a wallet chain and style-your-own-cornrows kit. Say what you like about mgk, but the guy knows a head-bobbing riff when he hears it.
Onto more tasteful pastures, I cannot get enough of Failure’s chord voicings on their new collaboration with super-fan Hayley Williams. Those fingerpicked chords tell such a story, and that’s before the A-list vocals even come in. It taps into both my grunge and midwest emo sensibilities. This is my musical happy place.
Finally, I have to doff my hat to Snarky Puppy maestro Mark Lettieri for his magnificent collaboration with sitar master Purbayan Chatterjee. This is breathtaking fusion – rooted in traditional instrumentation with modern production and next-level musicianship. It’s surprisingly hooky, too. If you dig Steve Vai’s forays into sitar land, this will be right up your alley.
Matt Parker – Deputy Editor
Not to be all British about the weather, but at several points in the last couple of weeks, I have been literally dazzled by the sunshine. Subsequently, I have been indulging in a host of deliciously mellow, effects-laden indie earworms that are bringing new meaning to the term ‘Spring reverb’.
First up, the formidably excellent, yet almost horizontally laid-back Widowspeak’s No Driver. It creeps up on you before erupting into a proper spiky Neil Young solo from guitarist Robert Earl Thomas that pitchily rattles, wails, and whips itself into a crescendo for a full minute before ending in a bunch of scrappy pick scraping. It’s going to piss off anyone drilling their sweep picking, but it’s brittle and human and alive in a way that I adore.
Zzzahara track Chinese Tobacco and sundayclub’s Camera Shy are both bringing in the shoegaze vibes. The former with a sort of drunk Cocteau Twins chime, the latter with a '90s rock sparkle, both of which tug at various heartstrings.
The chamber pop shimmer of Georgian’s Crackled Grounds has me excited for their June EP. It neatly melds Southern Gothic touchstones with Beach House’s spacious echoes, and a vocal that recalls First Aid Kit. I also hear a bit of the barreling melancholy and mournful, reverberating bends of Pale Seas (a UK group I still hold a candle for). It is beautifully put together.
When in the mood for something more unsettling, I’ve taken to David Torn’s 5.11 guitar instrumental, It’s Own Dimension. An experimental player who’s as renowned for his soundtrack work as his work with a wild array of names – among them David Bowie, Tori Amos, Madonna, and Tony Levin – Torn is one of those sonic architects who can create monolithic structures from layers of distorted rumble and feedback.
Finally, a frosty snowcone to Mermaid Island, whose punk earworm Ice Cream is laced with nice little leads and opens by documenting a sweary argument with god, then mutters the immortal lines: “Why is everything broken? Nothing works like it should. Can’t get anything done, but fuck I wish I could.” Which really feels like the anthem of our times rn.
Jackson Maxwell – Operations Editor
Professionally, the highlight of April (and 2026 so far, tbh) for me was getting to chat with Ben Gibbard and Dave Depper of Death Cab for Cutie, a band I’ve adored and looked up to since my early teens. The subject at hand was their upcoming album, I Built You A Tower. Marking their return to an indie label after two decades of major label smashes, the album… well, I can’t tell you too much about it (yet).
What I can talk about is the latest preview of the record, Punching the Flowers. It’s spiky, it’s urgent, it’s got that stomping fuzz riff (is that what you were expecting from a new Death Cab song? Huh?), Gibbard’s twinkling offset work in the chorus, and a feverish, dissonant break from Depper. Almost 30 years into their career, there’s a fire under the band, a fearlessness – that’s pretty damn rare.
Another record I’m psyched as hell for is Probable Claws, the upcoming fourth LP from Chicago punks Sincere Engineer. New single Twist My Tongue is pure freneticism; buzzsaw, pick-up-and-play riffs – and a bite-size, surfy, sing-along solo – as the vehicle for bulls-eye pop-punk hooks. It’s the crowded genre distilled into its most potent form – you’d have to be a real Scrooge to dismiss it.
Elsewhere, after being admittedly unmoved by most of their scant output over the last 15 or so years, I’ve been amazed by the pair of EPs U2 have put out this spring. On those previous releases, it seemed like the Edge was almost hiding behind luxurious, imposing production jobs. He’s gloriously re-emerged on the band’s new material, with Resurrection Song – from this month’s Easter Lily – in particular shining a light on the six-string textures, atmosphere, and kinetic energy he brings to the band.
Blah blah blah ‘a few notes and a delay pedal’ – listen to what a picture he paints with those notes! There’s a reason he’s counted among the greats, and it’s a joy to hear him shine again.
Matt Owen – News Editor
I have a few gigs coming up next week – and we’ve got plenty of new material for them – so I have spent the past two weeks listening and re-listening to our rehearsal recordings on an endless loop in an effort to internalise everything.
That said, I’ve found plenty of sensational inspiration in the wider music world to get me geared up for the shows. Arlo Parks’ Blue Disco, for example, is already a shoo-in for my end-of-year Spotify Wrapped playlist. It’s one of those songs I wish I wrote – simple, yet devastatingly effective; a masterclass in arrangement and instrumentation.
The synth chord pads swell underneath the most irresistible sub-y, fuzz-y bass tone I’ve ever heard. By the end, Parks – who burst onto the scene as one of the guitar world’s most exciting talents a few years ago – is ripping a solo, which is tone goals: it’s bitey, cuts through the mix, and is drenched in reverb. It’s an awesome expansion of the Arlo Parks sound.
Some other stand-out indie cuts for me this month include Sweet Hallelujah by Royel Otis. I, unfortunately, am tied up when they visit my local city later this summer, but all of my mates are going and I am definitely not at all jealous. Their breakout track, Oysters in My Pocket, is a modern, Smiths-y classic. Sweet Hallelujah is an equally infectious earworm, slightly more whimsical and laid back but big on the sprawling acoustics and anthemic layering.
And then there’s American Football, whose new single No Feeling – a collab with Turnstile singer Brendan Yates – gives me all the feelings. It’s suitably off-kilter, hop-skip-and-jumping through counterpart guitar parts. It doesn’t take cues from any of Turnstile’s more high-octane sensibilities, but it’s a match made in heaven. That new AF record can’t come soon enough.
I also want to give a shoutout to Korn, who recently dropped Reward the Scars, a totemic riff-fest released for the new Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred game. Jackson has also released a Kelly to celebrate the launch. It seems the Diablo franchise is Pretty Hot Stuff in the metal world.
Janelle Borg – Staff Writer
Visiting the picturesque island of Mallorca last week for a show with my own band led to the discovery of an underground (and underrated) scene that mostly goes unnoticed internationally. If you’re in the mood to unearth some gems, check out the roster of the DIY label Espora Records, which shines a spotlight on quite a few deserving bands and artists from this Balearic paradise.
From undiscovered artists to, well, more mainstream ones, it seems like Olivia Rodrigo is back with her quintessential razor-sharp songwriting on her third album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, as showcased by the first single from this upcoming offering, Drop Dead.
The synth-heavy track has inflections of Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me-era The Cure (Rodrigo counts Robert Smith among her associates), referenced in the lyrics, “You know all the words to Just Like Heaven,” and is a swooping, atmospheric, and cinematic slice of peak girlhood that culminates in a power-pop, ballad-esque guitar solo that’s just *chef’s kiss.*
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Moving on to (much) more off-kilter musings with South Korean indie band Leenalchi. This adventurous outfit features (wait for it) two bassists, drums, keys, and four singers – and draws inspiration from pansori, a traditional Korean style of musical storytelling often compared to opera.
Their latest offering, Here Comes That Crow, is the epitome of experimentation-meets-cross-cultural funk – and left me scrambling to find live footage of the band on YouTube. So, if you’re looking for something else to scratch the itch for angular music after watching Angine de Poitrine’s KEXP session for the hundredth time, well… you’re welcome.
My final pick of the month is the flamenco virtuoso Yerai Cortés, who’s been grafting at bringing the genre to a whole new generation for years now, including through the documentary La Guitarra Flamenca de Yerai Cortés, directed by Spanish Grammy award-winning rapper C. Tangana.
Cortés’ Popular is the perfect introduction to the artist, especially for those uninitiated to flamenco, as the avant-garde and conceptual meet the traditional, encapsulated in a name that hints at both flamenco’s humble origins as a traditional genre and the artist’s rise to fame – all without sacrificing his six-string mastery.
