17 May 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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Album number ten from the New York big-selling rapper, with a host of guests including Kendrick Lamar, Mariah Carey, Anderson Paak, Q-Tip, Rick Ross and Mary J. Blige
6.3
Overall, watching rap’s perennial showstopper exhibit superior studio generalship with artists of the past and present adds to the argument that E.L.E 2 may be the unparalleled hip-hop project of 2020 Read Review
The animated New York juggernaut reseats himself at hip-hop's top table with this intricate and impeccably produced sequel to his 1998 blockbuster Read Review
It’s undeniable, to some extent: Extinction Level Event 2 is just too ambitious for its own good. Yet, for all the lazy sequels and cash-ins in a genre rife with them, it’s hard to fault Busta Rhymes for striving a bit too hard to go that extra mile Read Review
The 22-track set finds Busta delivering his time-tested bombastic flows over old-school East Coast production and wrangling in a dizzying number of big-name guests to help out Read Review
Some of the individual tracks on this album are excellent, but the overall density, mish mash of styles and winding narrative contribute to a sense of conflict and confusion that leaves a sour taste Read Review
A bloated album, at times a hit but more often a miss Read Review
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Beth Gibbons Lives Outgrown
Thirty years after stepping into the spotlight, the Portishead singer reintroduces herself with her debut solo album. History weighs heavy on her songs, but she takes pains to avoid her musical past Pitchfork
Dehd Poetry
Dehd exude a youthful charm that is hard to replicate on Poetry. They are infectious and their sunny melodies and sincerity make their music compelling PopMatters
Beth Gibbons gives us the understanding of our mortality that we all need on her most revealing work The Quietus
Billie Eilish Hit Me Hard And Soft
The singer’s music is energised by her push-pull relationship with fame The FT
The Portishead singer has a powerful sense of feeling in her voice on her solo debut The FT
A.G. Cook Britpop
Tracks explore the past, present and future of the striking hyperpop style pioneered by the producer The FT
As he closes the books on PC Music, label founder A. G. Cook unspools a rangy triple album full of shiny synths, inside jokes, and gently sentimental vocal pop Pitchfork
On his third studio album, the British producer puts a reverent pin in PC Music across three discrete discs that revel in a self-referential past and outline an already-here future Paste Magazine
The album challenges assumptions about what pop is and offers an exciting glimpse of what it could be Slant Magazine
A. G. Cook’s third studio album finds the producer and PC Music label-head taking stock, and in the process making his finest solo work to date The Skinny
Cook seems to understand the power of juxtaposition, seamlessly blending diverse elements to create a rich and dynamic sonic landscape. Clash
Step back a few paces to look at it in full, and you’ll find something that celebrates freedom of opinion and individualism and is, as he said in the press, accordingly “fun without being facetious”. Somehow, it looks just fine from here The Line Of Best Fit
This whopping triple album – billed as the 'Past', 'Present' and 'Future' – from the PC Music founder simply never bores NME
On ‘Britpop’, Cook’s mastery of the esoteric is singular DIY
These rich and atmospheric arrangements fail to completely offset the creeping, crawling melodies, built from inching steps of tones and semitone The Line Of Best Fit
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