16 January 2021
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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Fourth full-length album from the Canadian singer-songwriter includes a duet with Justin Bieber
5.9
Wonder truly shows Shawn’s growth and maturity of not only him as an artist but as a young adult as well. His musical direction and his fresh new ideas are what we are here for and this album is definitely one to pay attention to Read Review
While the slower songs are fine, sometimes sincere, the growth on Wonder is all evident on the livelier tunes, all of which point toward a more adventurous twenties for Shawn Mendes Read Review
Overall, the record is ambitious as it aims to explore genres, stories and showcase Mendes artistic evolution all at once. It doesn’t always succeed, at times feeling too shallow for it to be as impactful as Mendes intended it to be. But when it succeeds, there’s no flaw to be picked out and for that it’s worth a listen Read Review
The sensitive pop heartthrob makes romance sound sweet and scary on his fourth album Read Review
The pop heartthrob’s lovestruck fourth album comes across like your friend who just got into a relationship and won’t shut up about it: You’re happy for them and also tremendously bored Read Review
Mendes has a good voice and is occasionally inventive – here’s hoping he has a future beyond soundtracking weddings Read Review
Throughout this record, Mendes’s savvy songwriting team are harking back to retro influences to suit the vintage ice cream parlour shades of the singer's shirts Read Review
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Shame Drunk Tank Pink
Shame have put together a collection of fantastically varied ragers that are bound to blow the roof off whenever we’re allowed back to live gigs The Line Of Best Fit
The London band’s second album combines themes of burnout and ennui with fast rhythms The FT
Sleaford Mods Spare Ribs
Cummings and Covid are two of the subjects touched on by the Nottingham duo as they exhibit an evolving style The FT
The Dirty Nil Fuck Art
Records like this - 35-odd minutes of fist-pumping rock songs from the very top drawer - need to be celebrated and rewarded Punk News
In spite of all that’s going on, the ground that Shame manage to cover, it all hangs together brilliantly. Drunk Tank Pink is a great album, from whatever angle you look at it musicOMH
The London post-punk band’s second album is bigger, louder, and more textured as frontman Charlie Steen anxiously details the strange gap between youth and adulthood Pitchfork
Kacy & Clayton Plastic Bouquet
For the most part, Plastic Bouquet has a much stronger country influence thanks to the involvement of Williams with tracks like ‘Old Fashioned Man’ and ‘I Wonder Why’ making you swear you heard them somewhere before, a very long time ago The Quietus
Drunk Tank Pink is an all-too-often unimaginative album from what’s still a promising group. At best, this sophomore project suggests a band pushing itself in every direction and through every crevice of the genre to see what fits them and their messaging most effectively Beats Per Minute
Viagra Boys Welfare Jazz
Behind the rough exterior is an old soul, notes of romance hiding in every grunt and wail Upset
A high-quality record with not a single mediocre song on the tracklist. Despite the intense deadlines they were under, it sounds in no way rushed, but instead, polished Upset
Yungblud Weird!
A record that knows every trick in the book Upset
The Smashing Pumpkins CYR
The band's raw ambition is back front-and-center Upset
Whether you’re aboard the train or not, Williamson and Fearn don’t seem overly bothered. You’re either with them or you’re aren’t; the wheels keep turning Evening Standard
Bristles with the pent-up aggression of men who aren’t allowed to be loud and shirtless in public any more Evening Standard
The London band went from playing a 350-show stretch to nothing at all – and while tunes and originality are lacking, their subsequent dislocation makes for some thrilling music The Guardian
Since we've been around, that is. So, the highest-rated albums from the past eight 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
Bob Dylan Rough and Rowdy Ways
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Skeleton Tree
Frank Ocean Channel Orange
Anaïs Mitchell Hadestown
Run The Jewels RTJ4