26 September 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.
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Mark Ronson produced second album from London based indie pop soul band
6.4
The more sophisticated the music, the more boyishly excited the band sound to be playing it – a pleasure that proves infectious Read Review
Print edition only
The record feels like a sequence of movie scenes from start to finish: opener ‘The Walk Alone’ could accompany footage of Sean Connery as 007, perving on bikini-clad women outside a hotel pool. ‘London’ sounds like the merry-go-round scene from Mary Poppins – milk, cookies and vomit inducing innocence. ‘Running on Empty’ goes a bit ‘Greased Lightning’, but still makes it home in time for supper Read Review
A brilliantly crafted, hook-laden collection of songs that may be slightly too enthralled with '60s guitar pop to really make an impact in an '80s loving music scene, but deserves to be heard by a wider audience than their debut. Having Mark Ronson's name attached may seem like an obvious way of getting people to notice them Read Review
Its use of Walker Brothers baritone and Love-style brass, production courtesy of Mark Ronson and strings from Owen Pallett, sounds not dissimilar to the Last Shadow Puppets album Read Review
It wouldn’t be surprising if Mark Ronson's involvement as producer proves to be a divisive factor in people’s reaction to this record, perhaps complaining that it’s just more crass pop-up sounds hacked from musical history with his magpie ears. But that would be unfair Read Review
There is something very cheering about The Rumble Strips' adherence to the London likely lad persona at a time when all their brooding indie boy peers are re intoning gloomily about student loans Read Review
The band and Ronson have aimed for a widescreen panoramic sound, falling just short of the truly big picture Read Review
Their first album was widely regarded as being in thrall to Dexy's Midnight Runners but this second effort has moved from beneath Kevin Rowland's skirts and revealed the group as brave pioneers on the trail of wide-screen music for modern youth Read Review
A strong set of songs and an even stronger set of performances. The elements come together best on the slow-building title track and on Dem Girls, where Charlie Waller confirms that he’s a singer to be reckoned with Read Review
Mark Ronson’s uncluttered production works to his charges’ favour, most notably on the cinematically lovelorn title track Read Review
A melodramatic 21st-century Dexys Midnight Runners. This is no bad thing Read Review
The vast majority of this elegant Brit jangle feels a bit recycled. Read Review
The Rumble Strips: Welcome To The Walk Alone
Blondshell Violins
This is an artist widening her frame without losing her bite. It’s confident, a little wistful, and often loud in all the right places Northern Transmissions
On her third album, Sabrina Teitelbaum fights to strike a balance between savage beauty and jagged home truths NME
Everything great about Blondshell is present on ‘Violins’, but it feels sharper, more adventurous and more assured then ever before Clash
LA alt-rock singer Blondshell trades plain-speaking lyricism for something more abstract, while Irish rock band Gurriers cut through the noise with their ambitious second album The Independent
While trying to find and assert herself, the song has her imagining walking down the aisle to Beethoven's Für Elise, even though no one, including her, would pick it as a wedding song All Music
An often-delicate inward vision that pairs frustration with beauty DIY
It's in her ability to take the everyday experience and turn it into an epic noise that Violins finds its sweet spot The Line Of Best Fit
It would be unfair to call Violins Blondshell’s finest work to date, given the strength of her previous albums. What’s clear, though, is that it’s every bit as good as what came before Under The Radar
Protomartyr Hotel Usona
The album is more eerie in tone than its predecessors, like a distant alarm sounding, trying to amplify the sounds we cannot hear Northern Transmissions
It’s a bleak listen, sure, but Protomartyr haven’t ever been the comforting types. In fact, they’ve chosen the perfect time to double down on their righteous anger and despair, and if everything were to come to a catastrophic end right now, you’ve got the perfect soundtrack for it Far Out
For newcomers, it's a perfectly moody entry point. Hotel Usona is the sound of a band settling into their own skin, creating a space that's uniquely theirs and generously sharing the key Exclaim
From singer Joe Casey’s handmade album artwork to drummer Alex Leonard’s impish, kinetic inversions of classic post-punk rhythm, the Detroit band crafts an austere, unflinching record as bleak as it is cathartic Paste Magazine
This is not a hotel you'd want to stay at any time soon, but it's a remarkable record to spend time with. Print edition only Uncut
Under dim hotel lights, Casey’s lyricism appears foreboding and alien in a way it never has before The Line Of Best Fit
Ezra Collective Here Because of Hope
Arguably the biggest jazz band in the country return with an album that shows off both their exuberant and more reflective sides 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
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