25 August 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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Eighth studio album from the Sacramento experimental, noise-folk singer-songwriter working with longtime collaborator Ben Chisholm and songwriter Jennifer Decilveo
7.2
NEW Everything that makes her such a singular talent shines brighter than ever through The Dark Read Review
NEW What makes each of its songs so enchanting is that very achievement of channeling moments between life and death, through sonic softness balanced with guitar-driven melodies that build into something transcendent, and lyrics that display a deep, moving introspection from Wolfe Read Review
NEW The genre-blending Californian artist casts off past toxic influences with a powerful set of tender, brooding and emotionally charged songs that wouldn’t feel out of place as festival anthems Read Review
NEW The Dark delivers on what it’s attempted to be: it’s not just another entry in an already stacked discography, it’s one where Chelsea Wolfe stopped hiding in the shadows and let them turn into something that resembles the light Read Review
NEW The singer-songwriter returns for a prestige goth reinvention, singing dramatic anthems of self-preservation that feel grander and bolder than anything she’s ever attempted Read Review
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Brandon Flowers Thrasher
The Killers frontman does a solid job channeling his Nashville heroes on Thrasher, but the mystery train doesn’t always stay on track Rolling Stone
Julia Holter Materia
As a companion to Something, it’s a pleasant listen that still shows just how inventive Holter can be as a composer Far Out
Materia might be only 7-tracks long but it’s a transformative experience for the listener in how music doesn’t have to be completely brand new but can be recycled and reshaped God Is In The TV
This companion piece to Something In The Room She Moves epitomises the Los Angelino's duality of fluidity and restlessness musicOMH
A wonderful testament to following ideas and feelings wherever they lead All Music
Experimental composer Julia Holter returns to 2024's Something in the Room She Moves to tend to some unfinished business The Skinny
Compelling even when she isn't trying that hard. Print edition only Mojo
Holter plays with time throughout, from the electro-ambient dream "Clepsydra" (named after the ancient water clock) to the 10-minute standout "My Twin". Print edition only Uncut
The art-pop artist’s latest album, a companion piece to 2024’s Something in the Room She Moves, moves from calming chaos to stirring minimalism Paste Magazine
Rather than pushing every composition toward some big payoff, Holter enjoys the silence Slant Magazine
Lambchop Punching The Clown
Kurt Wagner reinvents his band yet again, this time slimming down to a bare-bones acoustic setup and stripping away the studio artifice. But his storytelling remains as expansive as ever Pitchfork
With Waylon Jennings’ drawl and a profound sincerity, the Killers frontman sells the blustery, Nashville-via-Utah sound of his gaudy but affecting new country album Pitchfork
L’Rain fata morgana
fata morgana never quite lets its feelings settle into one shape. A song can be funny until it isn’t, intimate until it becomes abrasive, beautiful until another layer of sound threatens to swallow it whole Northern Transmissions
Closing a quadrilogy that began with her 2017 self-titled debut, L'Rain’s latest is built almost entirely from things slippery enough to avoid efforts to define them Spectrum Culture
While her arc culminates somewhat open-endedly, Cheek’s fluid inner world is always fascinating to behold No Ripcord
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