November isn't just about the rain, as Guns N' Roses once sang, but about great rock & roll. At least, that is the case in 2026, with many releases (and reissues) coming out for fans of the genre to adore. Some veteran rockers will be cranking out some of the best records, most likely.
Record Store Day Black Friday is also going to happen on the 27th, and the positive is that not as many releases will overwhelm us. Instead, we can pick and choose a bit better, thankfully.
Among those choices are four albums that follow. One has already been mostly released, and another is just a look back at glory days. All are worth a listen.
Excellent rock & roll is coming your way in November
Bryan Adams - How's It Goin' (November 6)
Maybe Adams' most personal album ever; we already know of one Canadian-centric song from the record, and it was excellent. The truth is that while Adams has not retained the high level of commercial success that he had in the 1980s and '90s, he's actually arguably improved artistically in the decades since. This could be a winner of an album.
U2 - Carnaval de Luz (November 13)
As with Adams, everything heard from the new U2 album is excellent. The only issue is that the band has said that the record might draw on songs from different influences, and that could imply a bit of a disjointed work. If U2 can take all those sounds and still morph them into something that is fairly straightforward rock (in a classic U2 way), we might have one of the best albums of the year.
The Darkness - Crock of Hits (November 27)
The only non-new album on this list is Justin Hawkins and his mates' personally chosen "greatest hits" album. This suggests that a record company isn't behind selling some units to make quick cash, but that the album is one the band likes. The extended version contains a reported 43 tracks, so you are not going to be cheated on this one.
Peter Gabriel - o\i (November 27)
AudioPhix has reviewed the singles as they drop from this record, and Gabriel is releasing one song at a time with every full moon, just as he did with his previous album, so by the time this record is released, most (if not all) of the album will already have been heard. That isn't a bad thing. The icon's latest has almost all been excellent, and having one place to hear it all is the best experience.
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