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1 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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New

LordeVirgin

"The pop star turns inward and redefines who she wants to be on her most introspective record yet" (9/10 - Rolling Stone). "Returns to pop’s fray to revel in the mess of late-20s angst" (8/10 - The Guardian)

New

Frankie CosmosDifferent Talking

"A tight 17-track, 38-minute album that should be welcomed by all fans" (8/10 - All Music). "A warm blanket of bedroom pop vignettes, Frankie Cosmos's sixth album is a comforting listening" (6/10 - The Skinny)

New

BC CamplightA Sober Conversation

"It’s perhaps the finest release of his career from start to finish, and that’s beating some stiff competition" (9/10 - Far Out). "An outstanding album — ambitious, honest, and unpredictable" (9/10 - XS Noize)

Highest Recent Ratings

Albums to watch

carolineCaroline 2

"Each song is gloriously cinematic, intoxicatingly unexpected and truly powerful, even in its quietest moments" (9/10 - Far Out). "UK post-rock’s preeminent sentimentalists" (8/4/10 - Pitchfork)

StereolabInstant Holograms On Metal Film

"Lætitia Sadier et al pick up where they left off yet sound more timely than ever" (8/10 - The Guardian). "This is highbrow music for lowbrow times" (9/10 - Far Out)

Tune-YardsBetter Dreaming

"May just be their most uplifting and inspiring work" (9/10 - The Line Of Best Fit). "May emerge as one of the Oakland duo’s all-time great records after a few years’ passage" (7.8/10 - Paste)

Ezra FurmanGoodbye Small Head

"A record of unflinching honesty and unparalleled vulnerability" (9/10 - DIY). "There’s an urgency coursing through this startling album’s veins that confirms its creator to be one of the most exciting songwriters around" (8/10 - musicOMH)

Jenny HvalIris Silver Mist

"A personal journey through the past and self, focused on the power of scent in evoking forgotten moments" (10/10 - The Guardian. "An immersive album of beguiling charms about memories, isolation and dislocation" (8/10 - musicOMH)

Self EsteemA Complicated Woman

"Her most concentrated and burning record" (10/10 - DIY). "takes the best parts of Prioritise Pleasure and her debut Compliments Please, and turns it all up to 10" (10/10 - musicOMH)

XXXX

You Say Party! We Say Die!

XXXX

Third album of dance-punk from the Canadian band whose drummer died on April 18, 2010, after collapsing onstage

ADM rating[?]: 6.6
Label: Republic of Music
UK Release date: 17/05/2010

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8.0 12560
8.0 | NME

XXXX is too full of life to be their memorial record. Print edition only
8.0 12563
8.0 | Uncut

Should have them gracing bigger indie dance-floors. Print edition only
7.0 12558
7.0 | Pitchfork

YSP!WSD! have made something unexpectedly tender out of darkly colored and often heavily propulsive material
Read Review
6.0 12559
6.0 | PopMatters

Too much of XXXX is spent recycling tired dance-punk moves for it to succeed as a whole
Read Review
6.0 12564
6.0 | Q

Print edition only
6.0 12557
6.0 | Clash

On their way to maturity, YSP!WSD! lost some of the punkiness that made them exciting, but they still have hooks and groovy synths, so the growth is graceful
Read Review
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You Say Party! We Say Die!: XXXX

Download full album for just £7.90
1. There Is Xxxx (Within My Heart) £0.79
2. Glory £0.79
3. Dark Days £0.79
4. Cosmic Wanship Avengers £0.79
5. Lonely's Lunch £0.79
6. Make Xxxx £0.79
7. Laura Palmer's Prom £0.79
8. She's Spoken For £0.79
9. XXXX/Loyalty £0.79
10. Heart Of Gold £0.79

Latest Reviews

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 Virgin

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

Lorde Virgin

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

All-time top 10

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.