16 September 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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Dance producer Hans-Peter Lindstrøm teams up with fellow Norwegian singer Christabelle in his latest beat-heavy project
7.1
Their unrestrained approach works with track after track, going higher and further than what has just gone before. Prepare for takeoff Read Review
The long-form disco don has made an instant-hit, Saturday night album that anyone could love. In fact, Real Life Is No Cool offers no other option Read Review
If the thought of 28-minute-long disco jams doesn’t appeal, it’s also a great place for the uninitiated to encounter this masterful producer Read Review
Real Life Is No Cool isn't just the achingly stylish and neatly accessible dance record ... it also constitutes a fresh new take on the strand of retro-futurism that Lindstrøm helped create Read Review
Print edition only
We have been blessed with an embraceable record from a contemporary dance music auteur and a partner who proves a skilful wingwoman Read Review
... his take on 1980s funk-pop is exhilaratingly woozy, psychedelic and strange, never sliding into retro pastiche. An object lesson in less being more Read Review
Real Life Is No Cool has a thoroughly modern spirit while still managing to coalesce decades of dance music into one fluid statement Read Review
A little more consistency in their focus and less pointlessly meandering distraction could see them produce something truly classic Read Review
...obviously in debt to mainstream legends such as Prince (on Keep It Up) and Michael Jackson (on Baby Can’t Stop, an unashamed pastiche of the Off the Wall sound) Read Review
...her voice is smooth, versatile and - listen up X-Factor contestants! - never needlessly showy
Moroder had the divine presence of Donna Summer, whereas Lindstrøm has Christabelle Isabelle Sandoo Read Review
An album that wildly oscillates between discordance and boredom Read Review
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Lindstrom & Christabelle : Real Life Is No Cool
The Beths Straight Line Was A Lie
They’ve made their most mature, most incisive album yet. Not reinvention. Continuance. The long way round, mapped with clarity Dork
Baxter Dury Allbarone
Allbarone is the next destination for Dury as an experimental artist; he’s successfully been able to capture something new with his twist on hyperpop. The result is an intriguing effort that catapults him into the future realms of pop Beats Per Minute
Allbarone is Baxter Dury’s most hypnotic and groovy record yet, fusing his sardonic wit with club-ready beats. Distinct, contemporary, and utterly Dury, the artist’s ninth album proves he’s far from running out of ideas Northern Transmissions
Jade That's Showbiz Baby!
Clearly learning from her time in a supergroup, JADE’s debut — her first exercising of creative control — is as clear-headed and funny as you’d expect from a veteran Northern Transmissions
The chameleonic former Little Mix member, ever-captivating as she shapeshifts through park ’n bark ballads and synthy, up-tempo dance music, goes big on her solo debut Paste Magazine
Maruja Pain To Power
The Manchester quartet’s long-awaited debut album is a feral and loving atmosphere calling attention to world crises. The songs are overwhelming but never threadbare, packed with colossal brass, elastic diatribes, and tourniquet rhythms Paste Magazine
Big Thief Double Infinity
A kaleidoscopic view on 60s-inspired psychedelic, rock/country-tinged folk music Sputnik Music (staff)
Saint Etienne International
Though hardly a crippling disappointment, Saint Etienne’s reported final album is a far-cry from their superior earlier work Spectrum Culture
Ed Sheeran Play
Sheeran’s career opened the door to a deluge of cack The Arts Desk
Shame Cutthroat
The rawness of the album, which compliments their live sound exponentially, comes from the throw away lyricism and the manner of Steen’s animated vocal delivery Clash
Gruff Rhys Dim Probs
Dim Probs engages with deeply rooted truths. Print edition only Record Collector
What may be lost slightly in translation is mitigated by the musicality of the vocal tones, with Cate Le Bon and H Hawkline H adding a plaintive backing chorus on "Pan Ddaw'r Haul I Fore". Print edition only Uncut
Even with zero knowledge of what is going on lyrically, these songs are often beautifully evocative. Print edition only Mojo
While ‘Dim Probs’, on initial listens, may not appear the most substantial addition to Rhys’ work, it is nevertheless a relaxed (and relaxing) thing of warm humanity and beauty that, in the long run, may be more durable than much of his more lavish and accessible outputs Clash
Former Super Furry Animals man celebrates the Welsh language while taking in rich influences and instrumentation from countries far and wide 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
Kendrick Lamar Damn.
D'Angelo And The Vanguard Black Messiah
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Ghosteen
Spiritbox Tsunami Sea
Self Esteem Prioritise Pleasure
Bob Dylan Rough and Rowdy Ways
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Skeleton Tree
Frank Ocean Channel Orange