9 January 2025
Here's how it works: The Recent Releases chart brings together critical reaction to new albums from more than 50 sources worldwide. It's updated daily. Albums qualify with 5 reviews, and drop out after 6 weeks into the longer timespan charts.
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Our archive of chart news from the past, and present.
Moonchild Sanelly Full Moon
This is music that demands attention, rewards repeated listens, and proves that the future of pop isn’t just bright – it’s blindingly brilliant Dork
An album full of joy and vibrancy with which to introduce a brand new superstar to a whole new audience musicOMH
Full Moon thunders on near-relentless sub-bass (Mntanami, about her absentee father) and post-dancehall Amapiano beats, with interludes of wishy-washy synthy vulnerability - a serviceable backdrop upon which this irresistibly raunchy personality reliably shines. Print edition only Mojo
"In My Kitchen" turns on an impressively dexterous, high-speed bar, while "Gwara Gwara" (A Durban dance gone global) is at once euphoric and anxious. Print edition only Uncut
Continuing on her playfully explicit, brilliantly brazen trajectory DIY
The blue-haired bombshell oft dubbed the ‘Queen of African Pop’, Moonchild Sanelly is back. Her latest outing, Full Moon, is her most exciting to date The Skinny
Lambrini Girls Who Let The Dogs Out
"Bad Apples'" Sonic Youth guitars provide a punkish response to policing following Sarah Everard's murder, while "Company Culture" breathlessly addresses workplace harassment. Print edtion only Uncut
Nu-riot grrrls who may well be doing it better than anyone since Bikini Kill. Print edtion only Mojo
Ethel Cain Perverts
While this is a deeply experimental record, it is also subtly stunning in parts. Print edtion only Uncut
Having struggled with the obsessive fandom drawn to her widescreen pop-Americana, Cain returns with 90 minutes of collapsing songs and confrontational power electronics The Guardian
Championed by Iggy Pop and riot grrrl royalty, the Brighton duo pile on the jagged riffs, scabrous humour and swearing for their politically charged debut The Guardian
Franz Ferdinand The Human Fear
Franz Ferdinand are still more than capable of writing great records, but they need to remind themselves that maturing as a group doesn’t have to mean sacrificing their vitality Far Out
Lambrini Girls are the heralds of a new age, and they’ve started with a debut album that’s practically perfect in every way. One thing’s for sure: punk’s definitely not dead Dork
Dragging out its bleak moodiness, Perverts requires a lot of perseverance and patience. It’s not an easy listen, in both an emotional and sonic sense Kerrang!
The EP ruminates on distorted desires, but it’s also an exploration of drone and noise, a treatise on what it’s like to watch and be watched, and an aural Rorschach test Paste Magazine
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"Truly beautiful and moving ambient pop mini-triumph that's sad, nostalgic, and elegiac" (9/10 - All Music). "Conjures images of a city just before dawn rises" (7/10 - musicOMH)
Since we've been around, that is. So, the highest-rated albums from the past twelve years or so. Rankings are calculated to two decimal places.
Kendrick Lamar To Pimp A Butterfly
Fiona Apple Fetch The Bolt Cutters
Kendrick Lamar Damn.
D'Angelo And The Vanguard Black Messiah
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Ghosteen
Self Esteem Prioritise Pleasure
Bob Dylan Rough and Rowdy Ways
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Skeleton Tree
Frank Ocean Channel Orange
Dave We’re All Alone In This Together