27 August 2025
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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Cass McCombs Interior Live Oak
The highlights deserve to be ranked amongst McCombs finest achievements so far The Line Of Best Fit
Nova Twins Parasites & Butterflies
Though 'Parasites & Butterflies' is still plenty full of their electro-rocking moments, it is also more inward and personal The Arts Desk
Pushing themselves even further, incorporating even more, and doing anything to see what will fit DIY
If Supernova was raw fire, Parasites & Butterflies is more sculpted — polishing edges, leaning further into electronic textures and vocal distortion, and often separating their rock and R&B/hip-hop instincts rather than fusing them outright XS Noize
A divine feminine energy that they’ll never be willing to sacrifice to make others comfortable, or to tough out the hard times. Parasites & Butterflies is another trip into the Nova world, mirroring rage, fear, swagger, and all in between Kerrang!
While there are moments where the concept of ‘Parasites and Butterflies’ is stronger than its execution, this is still a stellar outing for Nova Twins, once more establishing themselves as a vital and thrilling voice in the rock scene Clash
The Beths Straight Line Was A Lie
The band's fourth studio album offers deeper, more vulnerable insights Slant Magazine
Adds a more introspective tone to the adrenaline-packed indie rock they’ve always done well Rolling Stone
Straight Line Was a Lie is full of catchy hooks, big guitar riffs, and often introspective lyrics. The New Zealand quartet are at the top of their game PopMatters
Engaging New Zealanders The Beths masterfully marry muscle and vulnerability here. Print edition only Uncut
If the lyrics deal with wavering states of mind and quiet struggles, though, the music is sharp and direct, echoing Belly or Tsunami but also keeping pace with Lucy Dacus or Phoebe Bridgers. Print edition only Mojo
CMAT EURO-COUNTRY
A fluent thesis on national identity, fame, and womanhood DIY
Vocally, lyrically, creatively, CMAT has never sounded better. In truth, you’d be hard pushed to find another record like this one The Skinny
To a certain extent, Euro-Country distances itself from her previous releases, however, the material still remains distinctly, unmistakably CMAT The Line Of Best Fit
The Irish one-off’s third album has all the camp and charm we’ve come to expect. It places her in a world that is entirely her own 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
Spiritbox Tsunami Sea
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