5 June 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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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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Death Cab For Cutie I Built You A Tower
Gibbard impressively sounds his age despite having gotten off the road mainlining nostalgia on consecutive anniversary tours. While everything may have been falling apart around Gibbard, Death Cab kept it together Northern Transmissions
While not every track hits that hard, this is still a worthy addition to the band’s catalogue of poignant, sorrowful songs Kerrang!
Kurt Vile Philadelphia's been good to me
As the album’s primary producer, Vile offers something close to a glimpse into his inner world. The hypnotic, euphonic, bobbing cadence of his vocals blends seamlessly with the loose drift of his guitar playing, revealing the intimacies and joys of the years in possibly his best album to date Northern Transmissions
Boards of Canada Inferno
More than anything, Inferno asks to be thought about – to be considered. It does ask for time. Which at this moment might be flat out revolutionary. A stop to the endless scrolling. An opportunity to consider the past, the present, and what might be to come. That might be what we all need Northern Transmissions
Boards of Canada are firmly rooted as documentarians of the ruinous now Beats Per Minute
Iceage For Love of Grace & the Hereafter
Boasts a jagged sophistication, the entire album pulsing with a sense of amused urgency, reckless beauty, and exuberant swagger—a worthy addition to this band’s nearly flawless discography Albumism
Paul McCartney The Boys of Dungeon Lane
This is a deeply personal album to McCartney, but one he chose to share with us, and we are the better for it. Once again, Sir Paul McCartney raises the bar Spill Magazine
Vile has neither reached new heights nor is he off the boil on Philadelphia’s Been Good To Me; he’s simply doing what he’s always successfully done over the course of his previous nine albums, which is deliver a level of consistency and a stronger sense of identity than most are capable of maintaining A.V. Club
Lizzo Bitch
The former queen of confident pop anthems delivers an anonymous record that’s full of mixed messages The Independent
After scrapping an album and starting anew, Lizzo still sounds lost amid these weak genre-hopping songs. Perhaps the zeitgeist has simply left her behind The Guardian
Bleachers Everyone For Ten Minutes
With its shout-along hooks and pop drama, Jack Antonoff’s latest isn’t so different from the others, but his myopic views on modern life and celebrity are becoming harder to bear Pitchfork
13 years after the superb Tomorrow’s Harvest, Scottish duo Boards of Canada turn their attention to religion on the apocalyptic Inferno No Ripcord
Unconcerned with convention, Iceage move confidently at their own rhythm, weaving moments of musical levity into the grim vignettes that still lie at the heart of their sound No Ripcord
A frenetic burst of sustained creativity, ‘For The Love Of Grace & The Hereafter’ is arresting from the off. Aggressive and melodic in equal measure, its dichotomy is completely thrilling – perhaps the band’s best to date, a blast of sheer adrenalin from start to finish Clash
The most moving thing about Vile’s description of his home city is that it is abundant with nuance and free of sugar-coating, delivered with a comforting sense of honesty that makes it feel real. He knows it ain’t perfect, but it’s home Clash
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