Actor - The Best Of (Pre-Order)

In stores September 25, 2026.

Actor return with The Best Of, an album that trades the pastoral Americana of their previous releases for a set of crunchy, feedback-laden epics indebted to genre demarcations as varied as 1990s alternative rock, power pop, and contemporary alt-country. 

Earworm riffs delivered by careening guitars and impassioned, full-throated vocals hooks augment deceptively thorny arrangements and heartfelt lyricism; the album sounds like the band in a room but glued together and rendered in glassy clarity by an expertly high-fidelity production.  The album arrives September 25th, 2026, via Having Fun / We Are Busy Bodies.

The Best Of was recorded with producer Matt Snell and engineer Sean Pearson at Boxcar Sound. The band set up in the studio’s loft space as if playing a gig, its tall ceilings and open concept allowing them to replicate their cavernous live sound with ease. 

Before hitting the studio, the band spent an extensive period honing their material through rehearsals and demos, arriving at the studio a well-oiled machine. As a result, they tracked with minimal overdubs, preferring to be as faithful to the performances as possible. 

The mix reinforces this approach, augmenting their takes into something larger-than-life yet still grounded in a gritty, off-the-floor feel. Vocals and harmonies are foregrounded and dry, while drums and bass provide rock-solid grounding. Guitars are the focus, though, alternating between a swampy, fuzzed-out rhythmic chug and dreamy, delay-pedal picking.