4 July 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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Mr Frank Black, reverting to his Pixies name, with a solo album of assorted rock stylings
6.7
Print edition only
The Pixies’ accursed preacher and his rasping abstracts on sex and death are inevitably, for originality and sheer visceral power, a cut above Read Review
There may never be another Pixies album, but thankfully Black Francis is again drawing from the same creative wel Read Review
A slightly off-centre, messed-up yet ultimately hugely moving and genuinely felt and expressed love letter of an album, it is music to bring gladness to the heart and soul as much as to any baser of the body’s regions Read Review
While it’ll probably be forgotten in the wake of the next 17 or so albums he releases this decade, chances are it’ll stand out as one of his better ones Read Review
Nobody is going to mistake this for a great album, but NonStopErotik really peaks and flows well while having enough to make it worth an additional spin or two Read Review
Reaffirms Black Francis’ place as a great songwriter in the rock pantheon Read Review
If the Pixies ever recorded a new album it would probably sound like ‘NonStopErotik’ Read Review
He may never blowtorch the listener again like he did in those early days of the Pixies, but he still has more ideas per record than most bands have in their entire careers Read Review
Frank Black has finally turned in the greatest number of memorable tunes ever amassed on a FB/BF release; NonStopErotik deserves to turn heads Read Review
NonStopErotik aims to be a fast-paced, smutty guitar-rock album, and it hits that without any trouble Read Review
While it won't make you forget the Pixies, some of it seems specifically designed to bring them to mind Read Review
Black Francis running on half a tank still sounds better than most bands gunning at full throttle Read Review
It never really goes anywhere and fails to muster any emotion or energy Read Review
A collection of songs inspired by his love of the female anatomy. As if that concept alone didn't reek of impending mid-life crisis, the actual music is even more shagged-out Read Review
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Black Francis: Nonstoperotik
Lorde Virgin
Because for all the grand ideas here, it feels like Lorde has more to say about them, and as the aesthetic and songcraft of Virgin illustrates — almost despite all of this — she is more than skilled enough to do so Beats Per Minute
Frankie Cosmos Different Talking
Different Talking feels like Frankie Cosmos finally coming into its own. By self-producing, the band articulates a broader sound palette than on 2022’s Inner World Peace Northern Transmissions
A thrilling comeback that puts Lorde’s trajectory to the stars back on track DIY
Haim I quit
It’s easy to wonder if the soft-rock trio’s fourth record would be better if it were just a few songs — or, ideally, about 10-15 minutes — shorter Spectrum Culture
Hotline TNT Raspberry Moon
By opening up the recording process to accommodate more people and more ideas, Hotline TNT embrace a different side of themselves on Raspberry Moon, one that feels warmer and more open-hearted while still retaining the fuzz and noise that made their early albums so bracing Spectrum Culture
U.S. Girls Scratch It
While Scratch It lives up to its aged influences, Remy gives these nine tracks an undeniable immediacy, both with her singing and lyricism — which are eerily left of field — along with her spot-on taste in backing musicians and homage-motif Under The Radar
Loyle Carner hopefully!
The sounds are slightly different here than on previous albums and his tentative sojourn into singing is a success because his voice connects as easily as his rapping does Albumism
Lorde trades in her secrecy and mystique for a tremendously healing, desperately relatable record that cements her mark as her generation’s defining artist Northern Transmissions
On the uncomfortable paths of the 28-year-old’s fourth album, slam-dunk bangers are substituted with reinvention and restraint surrendered through hushed, reflective, and carnal synth-pop vestiges Paste Magazine
The New Zealand pop star chips away to reveal her purest self on her fourth album NME
For Lorde, it's an opportunity to reclaim something she thought she had lost long ago, but has always been within her: her true self Exclaim
Different Talking introduces some novel elements to the Frankie Cosmos sound, but despite that, their core identity remains intact Spectrum Culture
Musically Scratch It will probably be the least memorable in U.S Girls’ discography and aside from ‘Like James Said’ and ‘Bookends‘, the relatively thrill-less album does sort of fly by unnoticeably, made worse by the weak closing track No Fruit God Is In The TV
Lorde may not break entirely new ground on fourth album Virgin, but its warmth and texture make it consistently compelling and quietly brilliant The Skinny
yeule Evangelic Girl Is A Gun
A sun-drenched pop album — perhaps the pop record of the summer Under The Radar
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
Spiritbox Tsunami Sea
Kendrick Lamar Damn.
D'Angelo And The Vanguard Black Messiah
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Ghosteen
Self Esteem Prioritise Pleasure
Bob Dylan Rough and Rowdy Ways
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Skeleton Tree
Frank Ocean Channel Orange