27 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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Ninth studio album and first in over seven years from the R&B artist featuring guest appearances from 21 Savage, Burna Boy, H.E.R., Jung Kook of BTS, Latto, Pheelz, The-Dream and Summer Walker
6.1
Usher’s ninth album is another impressive display of his endless charm and vocal chops. Thirty years into his career, the R&B icon still knows how to keep it light and throw a great party Read Review
The album hits its stride with a sequence of slow jams demonstrating that Usher is at the top of his game as a singer, still much more than a mere entertainer Read Review
The star’s sprawling, twenty-song LP is nostalgic and familiar as Usher leans into the past without making it feel stale Read Review
Lyrical foreplay isn’t exactly the singer’s strong suit on this throwback album full of percussive panting Read Review
‘COMING HOME’ competently portrays love as part Afrodisiac, part pulse-racing chase, part languorous and lived-in sensation Read Review
The album feels less driven by creative ingenuity or an aesthetic vision than by sheer showmanship Read Review
Vintage effects in the singer’s first album in eight years underline the degree to which he has been left behind Read Review
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Kendrick Lamar GNX
After his beef with Drake, Lamar expands his list of targets with enthralling rhymes and adventurous arrangements. At this point, he’s deferring only to God The Guardian
In a discography as impressive as Lamar's, GNX stands as a major highlight, sitting comfortably in the upper echelon of a rarefied body of work Exclaim
After a year full of scathing diss tracks and unfiltered loathing, Lamar converts that energy into the purest emotion of all – love – while carrying the West Coast on his back NME
The Compton rapper’s masterful sixth LP is a surreal, hypnotizing, danceable trip through a hip-hop prophet’s own ego death and immediate, braggadocious, finessing renewal Paste Magazine
Father John Misty Mahashmashana
Mahashmashana — taken from the Sanskrit word for "great cremation ground" — may be Josh Tillman's most confident release yet A.V. Club
Michael Kiwanuka Small Changes
Five years on from his self-titled Mercury winner, the singer-songwriter scales things down to potent effect The Observer
Kim Deal Nobody Loves You More
The Pixies and Breeders musician’s distinctive touch is ever present on a set that spans heartbreak, good times and strident guitars The Observer
While ‘Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers’ saw Kendrick retreat into himself, interrogating his relationships with religion, family, and the world over a sprawling hour and 20 minutes, ‘GNX’ instead cleaves closer to ‘DAMN.’ in its catchy, explosive hooks and trimmed down runtime of just 45 minutes Dork
Where Kiwanuka is known for his contagious and bombastic arrangements in the past, this album pushes gently in a new direction, that is, yet, lacking none of the heart of previous albums Northern Transmissions
The English-Ugandan musician yearns for enduring love on his fourth LP Paste Magazine
Haley Heynderickx Seed of a Seed
Instead of lazily rehashing what made her debut so special, Heynderickx decided to expand on it and give her songs a more panoramic space to roam in. Most importantly, the core characteristics of her style weren’t lost in the process Sputnik Music (staff)
All the evidence suggests she’s someone happy to take her sweet time The Arts Desk
Her own debut solo album may have been a long time coming, but it’s here and we should be thankful. Hopefully it’s arrived just in time to be considered for the end of year best-of lists God Is In The TV
It’s a muscular and physical record, occasionally reserving the right to be as however banal as it wants to be, right before turning around and tearing into the culture Beats Per Minute
While some songs on this album get drowned out by the grandiosity of its goals, the project – and the man behind it – are as strong as ever. GNX is the blueprint for a new rap zeitgeist, and all we can do is hope that everyone gets the cue 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