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29 November 2024

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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New

Father John MistyMahashmashana

"Unequivocally stunning" (10/10 -The Arts Desk). "Striking a compelling balance between the epic and the intimate" (9/10 - DIY). "One of his finest albums" (9/10 - musicOMH)

New

Kim DealNobody Loves You More

"The sometime Pixies star’s long-awaited and perfectly crafted debut solo album is full of surprises" (9/10 - musicOMH). "Oozes with elegance but still packs some punch" (8/10 - NME)

New

Michael KiwanukaSmall Changes

"A boundless effort that, while revelling in its musical referents stands tall, ceaselessly, beside them" (10/10 - The Skinny). "It's a record built to last" (8/10 - Record Collector)

Highest Recent Ratings

Albums to watch

Amyl And The SniffersCartoon Darkness

"It's a truly glorious rock’n’roll album that is forceful without being simplistic and lairy while maintaining a good sense of humour" - 10/10 - The Arts Desk).

Christopher OwensI Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair

"Potentially one of the year’s best records" (10/10 - DIY). "A must-listen for anyone who’s ever been in the type of love that doesn’t always get a light shone on it" (9/10 - Northern Transmissions)

Ezra CollectiveDance, No One's Watching

"This is truly a fresh musical experience, rather than being just another jazz record" (9/10 - Far Out). "A joyful reminder of music’s ability to bring people together, to move us, and to make us dance" (8/10 - Clash)

Jamie xxIn Waves

"Blistering return from dance’s master craftsman" (10/10 - The irish Times). "Jamie xx has delivered a masterpiece that will linger long after the last beat fades" (9/10 - Clash)

Floating PointsCascade

"Cherish it while you can, before he sets off on a completely different tangent once more" (8/10 - Far Out). "Easily the most successful work he's made as a dance producer" (8/10 - All Music)

MJ LendermanManning Fireworks

"A collection of caricatures ballooned by empathy, bruised egos, and lovable self-destruction" (9.2/10 - Paste). "It's the release he's been waiting for since the first utterances of the album" (9/10 - Exclaim)

Norman Fucking Rockwell

Lana Del Rey

Norman Fucking Rockwell

Album number six from the pop singer-songwriter produced by Jack Antonoff (Lorde, St. Vincent, Taylor Swift)

ADM rating[?]: 8.5
Label: Polydor
UK Release date: 30/08/2019
US Release date: 30/08/2019

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10.0 113211
10.0 | Evening Standard

She has never sounded so exquisite
Read Review
10.0 113267
10.0 | NME

Lana Del Rey's fifth album, 'Norman Fucking Rockwell!' contains multitudes. The way she balances and embodies them on this well-rounded record is nothing short of stunning
Read Review
10.0 113279
10.0 | NOW

Drifting through L.A. looking for love and meaning, she shifts her kitschy patriotism, dropping her flag-draped persona and making peace with a more complex, dystopian reality
Read Review
9.4 113302
9.4 | Pitchfork

On her elegant and complex fifth album, Lana Del Rey sings exquisitely of freedom and transformation and the wreckage of being alive. It establishes her as one of America’s greatest living songwriters
Read Review
9.1 113298
9.1 | Consequence Of Sound

Pop's torch singer flirts with hope on an apocalyptic beach
Read Review
9.0 113300
9.0 | Crack

Musically Norman Fucking Rockwell! feels like an album built to resist time – one of those songwriters’ records that could have been made whenever: Graceland, Blue, Tapestry
Read Review
9.0 113309
9.0 | DIY

It’s Lana Del Rey’s world, we’re just living it
Read Review
9.0 113324
9.0 | Northern Transmissions

Lyrically and musically it all gels together effortlessly, creating the ultimate impact emotionally and one that will be soundtracking all of our own unique highs and lows for years to come
Read Review
9.0 113283
9.0 | All Music

The patient flow, risky songwriting choices and mature character of the album make it the most majestic chapter of Lana Del Rey’s continuing saga of love and disillusionment under the California Sun
Read Review
9.0 113296
9.0 | Rolling Stone

On her thrilling sixth album, the singer’s darkly romantic California dreams can feel like epitaphs for the entire country
Read Review
9.0 113331
9.0 | PopMatters

Lana Del Rey's sixth studio album is a brazen, honest exercise in both studied sophistication as well as the art of not giving a fuck
Read Review
9.0 113925
9.0 | No Ripcord

Think of it as an hour-long car ride peeling down the highway with classic rock blaring out of the radio and no real destination in mind other than where your impulsive nature might take you
Read Review
8.5 113483
8.5 | Spectrum Culture

Hype or no, art or artifice, it’s nonetheless well worth the experience
Read Review
8.2 113369
8.2 | Paste Magazine

An instant folk-pop classic
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8.0 113534
8.0 | musicOMH

This is probably her finest record since Born To Die, and this new partnership with Antonoff ensures that her next move will much anticipated
Read Review
8.0 113612
8.0 | American Songwriter

Del Rey has certainly carved out her own niche in the world of singer-songwriters, much as the quasi-namesake of Norman Fucking Rockwell! did in the art world. This shows her refining that approach, adding a few new brush strokes here and there, but still providing a unique and fascinating tableau as a whole
Read Review
8.0 113266
8.0 | Clash

This album is a testament to her afresh stability and strength, and shows that hope might be a dangerous woman for a thing like her to have — but she’s finally got it
Read Review
8.0 113206
8.0 | Slant Magazine

The album doesn’t so much subvert an idealistic notion of the American dream as perform a postmortem of it
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8.0 113207
8.0 | The Independent

The album is sultry and soporific, sitting somewhere between the minimalist trip-hop of Del Rey’s early days, and the scuzzy desert rock she has toyed with over the years
Read Review
8.0 113325
8.0 | The Observer

With its classic rock references and brazen lyrics, the American’s involving fifth album proves she can do more than merely conjure up a mood
Read Review
7.5 113323
7.5 | A.V. Club

As a mood piece, Norman Fucking Rockwell does an admirable job preserving Del Rey’s mystique while moving her sound forward
Read Review
7.5 113304
7.5 | The Line Of Best Fit

Unlike Del Rey’s past work, Norman Fucking Rockwell sees the singer walk the fine line between tragedy and comedy
Read Review
6.8 113274
6.8 | Sputnik Music (staff)

This is her best album yet, and great moments abound amidst the fat
Read Review
6.0 113251
6.0 | The Guardian

Del Rey goes back to her well of swooning melodies, twanging guitars, Twin Peaks-ish Americana and cinematic ballads about women in love with ne’er-do-wells
Read Review
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