23 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.
Browse specific styles
Debut album of lo-fi, summery, reverb-soaked indie pop from the Brooklyn band led by Dustin Payseur
6.9
Each song is built around ... joyous riffs, which are soon joined by rapidly picked basslines and some of the driest drums this side of The Cure’s A Forest. It’s simple, and for the most part devastatingly effective Read Review
The sound of life being enjoyed for the simpler things and getting over the rest. It makes for a languidly pleasing bout of escapism at the very least Read Review
Even if you think you've mentally checked out of anything summery and lo-fi, this is a wonderful record Read Review
For the sake of your summer, this is one record that you absolutely must try get into. It’s certainly not the most intelligent thing that’s been released this year, but it’s certainly amongst the sunniest Read Review
Eleven evenly balanced tracks which drift and dissolve into each other amidst a confident blurring of heat and light Read Review
There are stripped down Velvet Underground references colliding with The Cure, Flying Nun lo-fi strumming filtered through New Order’s bass and guitar riffery Read Review
Beach Fossils are not about to win any originality awards. This is a sound you’ve heard before, but not always with such carefree charm Read Review
There’s appeal in listening to sharp, jaunty rhythm-sections and Payseur’s guitar delivering one memorable riff after another. But the appeal stops there Read Review
These melodies are all pretty and pleasant and would serve great as a soundtrack to early-evening summer barbecues Read Review
It does peak and then glide, resting perhaps too much on the laid-back beach-bum vibe Read Review
As a whole, Beach Fossils’ wandering spirit is felt on occasion, but devoid of any pertinent connection Read Review
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Beach Fossils: Beach Fossils
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