10 November 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
Django Django Doveland
Django Django would appear to have refreshed their approach and challenged themselves to try out previously unconsidered melodic avenues The Arts Desk
Print edition only Uncut
Gilla Band Pugnello
Somewhere amidst the anarchy of Pugnello, there are gems waiting to be found. Unearthing them is well worth your time Still Listening
Greg Freeman All Set The Bone
Existentialism has a sound (and it’s hard to ignore) with Greg Freeman’s introspective All Set The Bone Still Listening
U2 Carnaval de Luz
Carnaval De Luz finds U2 50 years after their formation with the same four members and the same desire to shake things up. The album provides a convincing answer to the question of why they keep doing what they do XS Noize
Fontaines D.C. Dopamine Chamber
Fontaines D.C. push deeper into synthetic territory on Dopamine Chamber, balancing stadium-sized melodies with restless experimentation and darker texture Record Collector
They sound ambitious and engaged in their 50th year, swinging for the fences and hitting more targets than not. There’s still some gas in the tank Record Collector
La Roux Old Flames
Print edition only Record Collector
Back with her first new music in six years, La Roux's new sound explores facets of R'n'B and Europop to varying degrees of success The Skinny
La Roux turns to 90s R&B on a fourth album shaped by the end of a 17-year relationship, finding room for new beginnings beneath its layered production Still Listening
Print edition only Rolling Stone UK
Devastating moments are dressed up with warm production and kinetic 00s R&B in the now quiff-less singer’s grownup fourth album The Guardian
Elly Jackson returns with heartfelt pop songs about breaking up, resentment, vulnerability and all that entails musicOMH
Ditching erratic experimentation for an ambient concept, the indie shapeshifters' sixth album is their most coherent in years musicOMH
Doveland sounds less like a reduction of Django Django’s musical vocabulary than a more relaxed demonstration of how much they possess PopMatters
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.
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