25 March 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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Latest collection of calypso-inflected psych-pop and electro-pop from the Auckland-based band led by Ryan McPhun
6.4
Print edition only
Fight Softly, has the airy free spirit exhibited on their two previous outings. Like a watercolour built up from layers of opaque colour stacked on top of one another to create something pastoral and beautiful, there is a lot going on Read Review
Comparisons with Animal Collective’s freewheeling vision of psychedelic pop are inevitable Read Review
It's an ambitious collection, but singer Ryan McPhun's gentle voice lends this second album by the Kiwis a beautiful tone Read Review
There is much to admire in the way The Ruby Suns have taken a different tact with this album and for its failings there are as many moments of clever, original and entrancing, quirky pop music Read Review
...a satisfyingly un-pretentious record Read Review
The endless experimentation can grate but ‘Fight Softly’ is a bold attempt to further stretch pop music Read Review
McPhun has taken an about turn away from tribal drums and tucked away mysticism into terrain that is simultaneously bigger, brighter and poppier yet somehow more inward looking Read Review
Fight Softly retains very little of the ease and abandon that, to date, had marked the Ruby Suns Read Review
There isn’t as much fun to be had here as on previous releases Read Review
Retains just enough spark and spirit to satisfy longtime fans Read Review
At this point I'm torn between wanting McPhun to settle on one style of music and enjoying the bumpy ride of each of his records Read Review
Here’s hoping that his next stop will be a little more interesting Read Review
For those who’ve experienced the thrill of Ryan McPhun in full, unbridled flow this is a crushing disappointment Read Review
A disappointing change of direction Read Review
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The Ruby Suns: Fight Softly
Ladytron Paradises
Ladytron have produced an album that, from its inception, sought to invoke the same spirit that the band had 25 years ago Far Out
Gorillaz The Mountain
The strongest case in years that Gorillaz can still make records that matter as records Dork
Kim Gordon Play Me
'Play me' doesn’t try to comfort. It tries to provoke, energise and outlast the scroll Dork
The Orielles Only You Left
These songs come from months of demo-hoarding and forensic listening, the band archiving every practice-room spark before lovingly picking through the results Dork
James Blake Trying Times
Blake sounds energised by the room he has carved out for himself Dork
Harry Styles Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.
This isn’t an album built like a straight line from hook to hook. It moves in waves, often favouring texture and atmosphere over immediate release Dork
Underscores U
It’s technical excellence as a musical product cannot be overstated. For a pop album to be this busy yet possess a pocket as deep and rich as underscores displays here is simply amazing Sputnik Music (staff)
Indie rock icon Kim Gordon acerbically wrestles with the state of the world over hip-hop and industrial beats on Play Me PopMatters
The former electro-pop enfant terrible swings big on her latest album, compressing all her split personalities and eclectic tastes into a high-gloss, high-stakes gamble to remake pop on her own terms Pitchfork
On U, she finds a clearly-defined, rounded-out identity in her music for the first time, and she delivers the most immediate and the most robust work of her career The Line Of Best Fit
Performing, writing and producing everything herself, April Grey pares back her hyperpop electronics for an LP in thrall to 90s pop-R&B, with songs that big stars would die for The Guardian
April Harper Grey’s latest hits all the beats of a classic pop record — a choreo-primed single, a power ballad, a post-breakup closure anthem — without overstaying its welcome Paste Magazine
A tour-de-force of production chops that cements April Harper Grey as a key auteur in the future of the genre NME
Alexis Taylor Paris In The Spring
Paris in the Spring is a gem of a record which, while never over-reaching its ambition, sparkles with electronic ingenuity as it takes in all seasons of human experience Spectrum Culture
It's a beautiful collection of genre-hopping songs. Print edition only Uncut
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