23 March 2026
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.
Browse specific styles
The ex Mazzy Star singer-songwriter, with a laid-back solo album recorded in Ireland
6.6
With Sandoval playing the archetypal femme fatale here, the album easily ranks among her best work. And if that weren’t enough, Mazzy Star has reportedly nearly completed their long-anticipated fourth album. The drought, thankfully, appears to be over Read Review
This is music to lose yourself in during the long cold winter nights Read Review
This is music for stoners, drunks, the heartbroken, romantics and anyone who's found solace in The Velvet Underground's eponymous album at 3am when the ashtrays are overflowing and the drink has run out. Read Review
The utterly spare instrumentation-lightly plucked guitars, gently brushed drums, the occasional mournful fiddle-provides just enough formless shadow to make Sandoval's resonant whisper of a voice stand out Read Review
It's quiet, dramatic and harmonically narrow Read Review
There's a dense and inky depth beneath the surface gorgeousness to keep you entranced. Read Review
There's no real standout track - no ""Fade Into You"" for this decade - but it's a good listen while it lasts, a thing of slow, sad grace. Read Review
She purrs every song in slow motion — but given lyrics like ""We're like the roses/Stoned in the backyard,"" that's probably the point. Read Review
Print edition only
Minimal musical backing, hardly-there vocals and words that might mean something, but that’s not what they’re there for. Read Review
Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions: Through The Devil Softly
Ladytron Paradises
Ladytron have produced an album that, from its inception, sought to invoke the same spirit that the band had 25 years ago Far Out
Gorillaz The Mountain
The strongest case in years that Gorillaz can still make records that matter as records Dork
Kim Gordon Play Me
'Play me' doesn’t try to comfort. It tries to provoke, energise and outlast the scroll Dork
The Orielles Only You Left
These songs come from months of demo-hoarding and forensic listening, the band archiving every practice-room spark before lovingly picking through the results Dork
James Blake Trying Times
Blake sounds energised by the room he has carved out for himself Dork
Harry Styles Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.
This isn’t an album built like a straight line from hook to hook. It moves in waves, often favouring texture and atmosphere over immediate release Dork
Underscores U
It’s technical excellence as a musical product cannot be overstated. For a pop album to be this busy yet possess a pocket as deep and rich as underscores displays here is simply amazing Sputnik Music (staff)
Indie rock icon Kim Gordon acerbically wrestles with the state of the world over hip-hop and industrial beats on Play Me PopMatters
The former electro-pop enfant terrible swings big on her latest album, compressing all her split personalities and eclectic tastes into a high-gloss, high-stakes gamble to remake pop on her own terms Pitchfork
On U, she finds a clearly-defined, rounded-out identity in her music for the first time, and she delivers the most immediate and the most robust work of her career The Line Of Best Fit
Performing, writing and producing everything herself, April Grey pares back her hyperpop electronics for an LP in thrall to 90s pop-R&B, with songs that big stars would die for The Guardian
April Harper Grey’s latest hits all the beats of a classic pop record — a choreo-primed single, a power ballad, a post-breakup closure anthem — without overstaying its welcome Paste Magazine
A tour-de-force of production chops that cements April Harper Grey as a key auteur in the future of the genre NME
Alexis Taylor Paris In The Spring
Paris in the Spring is a gem of a record which, while never over-reaching its ambition, sparkles with electronic ingenuity as it takes in all seasons of human experience Spectrum Culture
It's a beautiful collection of genre-hopping songs. Print edition only Uncut
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
Rosalía Lux
Kendrick Lamar Damn.
D'Angelo And The Vanguard Black Messiah
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Ghosteen
Spiritbox Tsunami Sea
Self Esteem Prioritise Pleasure
Hayley Williams Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party
Bob Dylan Rough and Rowdy Ways