26 December 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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Second release from the Canadian folk / pop singer-songwriter
6.5
Folk can be a notoriously intransigent genre, and Basia Bulat probably occupies the less user friendly end of the spectrum, but for those who like an album which grows and reveals its treasures slowly, A Heart of My Own is gold Read Review
The songs are about loneliness, love, separation, life’s ups and downs, and are mostly very good, but it is her voice that really sets them apart Read Review
At times arresting, at other moments it's let down by some odd choices in the production and mixing. There is enough to hold the attention and to draw the listener back, particularly a couple of great songs and some excellent musicianship Read Review
...when it’s good, it’s good: tracks Run and Sparrow are highlights for their deft songwriting matched with Bulat’s emotive voice and Howard Billerman’s dramatic instrumental arrangements Read Review
Expertly and diversely arranged, the songs of Heart of My Own build and hover, often in surprising ways Read Review
While Bulat's versatility's a selling point, it's her rare, extraordinary voice that makes her a fresh find in the notoriously musty folk-pop bin Read Review
Her voice has this amazing quality, it sounds live somehow, a beautiful clear tone that is somehow interfered with by a very subtle watery rasp, or a wobble akin to Antony Hegarty Read Review
Her debut was invitingly enjoyable ... but some of her ideas seemed almost half baked... On Heart Of My Own the focus is evident and it’s much more accessible and easier to enjoy as a result Read Review
Print edition only
At times it sounds a bit too polished... Yet despite her earnestness Bulat remains an intriguing prospect Read Review
...you'd like to hear what Bulat would do with another producer next time around, because working with this one has been a mixed bag on two recordings now Read Review
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Basia Bulat: Heart Of My Own
The Lemonheads Love Chant
The band’s first album of original music in 20 years is an undeniably self-conscious comeback, manifesting the existential angst of middle age in sludgier-than-usual riffs, sudden switchups, and some of Evan Dando’s most self-reflective lyrics to date A.V. Club
Dove Ellis Blizzard
Enigmatic Galway songwriter sounds like a storm-tossed mix of Thom Yorke of Radiohead and Jeff Buckley The Irish Times
This is Lorelei Holo Boy
Amos has been an expert popsmith for years; the world is finally catching up, and not a moment too soon All Music
One half of Water From Your Eyes re-records songs from the back catalogue of his other band, resulting in acoustic fare touched with regret and darkness The Guardian
Nate Amos’s latest solo album consists entirely of songs written in the years prior to 2024’s Box for Buddy, Box for Star. The music presents us with yet another robust block of material that allows his idiosyncratic songwriting to truly shine Paste Magazine
This Is Lorelei’s Holo Boy has the air of an artist taking stock, as he maps the route taken while checking which parts still line up now Spectrum Culture
Songwriter Nate Amos polishes up 10 tracks from his Bandcamp days and confronts humorous self-effacement with new confidence Pitchfork
A wonderfully enjoyable cycle of straight-down-the-line songwriting Clash
Oneohtrix Point Never Tranquilizer
It’s his best work since Replica, and the most complete realization of his long-running obsession with the imperfect persistence of time. Tranquilizer doesn’t just show you a world—it shows you how that world remembers itself Under The Radar
Melody’s Echo Chamber Unclouded
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Dove Ellis’ debut is remarkably assured, showcasing a new talent with strong potential Spectrum Culture
The Galway-born singer-songwriter takes Romantic yearning — for the pure, the mythical, the divine — and turns it gently earthward on Blizzard Paste Magazine
Despite its title, ‘Tranquilizer’ is deceptively mesmerizing, potently putting calm emotions into a frenzied state, and leaving you coming back for more Northern Transmissions
Little Simz Lotus
She’s a rapper who refuses to let up and keeps ensuring that her name is held aloft in the conversations of the best in the world Far Out
Dove Ellis breathes new life into the Irish folk-rock scene. The album is hopeful, complex and as a whole plays with the picturesque diction of a pastoral poem. Wondering what will follow this stunning debut makes the listening all the more enjoyable Hot Press
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