15 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.
Browse specific styles
Experimental pop on the second album from Yorkshire-born James Mabbett
7.5
‘Christiania’ is eccentric, it’s unique and it’s wholly unpredictable Read Review
This is real music for real music fans, and this man isn’t half talented Read Review
Maximises on Napoleon IIIrd’s love for psychotic chanting and delirious moments of profanity, and creates an intense and bewildering mass of energy in its wake ... Christiania is faultless Read Review
It is hard to express just how many different genres are represented in Christiania but what is even more outstanding is Napoleon IIIrd’s ability to make it all sound so easy whilst all the time enthralling and encapsulating his listeners with its complexity Read Review
A perfect late curio of 2010 Read Review
Despite the mesh and muddle of synthesizer sounds that dominate the record, and the regular intervening of non-instruments and sounds ... it does all collate into a series of coherent and undeniably detailed songs Read Review
Channels influences as far-flung as Brian Wilson, Balearic house and space rock Read Review
It's rich, complex and beautiful. Print edition only
It may take a bit of wearing in for one to truly feel Christiania's impact, which comes from all sides, but once settled, it's hard not to revel in its constant realised ambition Read Review
Take the in-your-face electro pop of, say, Hot Chip and then, instead of singing in that wry, detached art-school way, be a bit shouty and angry and punk rock Read Review
Print edition only
A subtly entertaining little find with sprinklings of genius Read Review
It's hard to avoid the suspicion that all the layers of sonic murk are disguising a shortfall of songcraft Read Review
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Napoleon IIIrd: Christiania
U2 Carnaval de Luz
On their first album of new songs in nearly a decade, even earnest Bono-isms carry weight amid music that is impassioned and rejuvenated The Guardian
Letting loose and finding renewed purpose, U2 have delivered one of their most fun and engaging albums with Carnaval De Luz, a celebratory injection of positive vibes to both the world and this band All Music
This is not a radical reinvention of Rattle And Hum-to-Achtung Baby magnitude, or even a wilful evolution akin to that from How To Dismantle An Atom Bomb to No Line On Th Horizon. The ghosts of U2's past are summoned in numbers, though they are frequently mischievously partnered to interestingly incongruous effect. Print edition only Uncut
The Irish legends' best work in 25 years homages their eras, brings Brian Eno to bear on keys and even wheels out the late Dolly Parton musicOMH
Royal Blood Dead Company
It’s a record that sounds exactly like you would hope a new Royal Blood album would sound like, it’s little wonder that they are as big as they are, a consistently fine listen God Is In The TV
Kings Of Leon O My Beloved
With Carnaval De Luz they are not reinventing themselves or trying to be the current flavour of the month. What they do with this album is revisit their older glories and create new music and sound Spill Magazine
U2 return with a defiant and celebratory record that captures them still at the height of their powers Hot Press
This is Lorelei The Singer In My Band
Nate Amos fills his latest album with other people’s stories: some linger, others get lost in the scenery Still Listening
Out for blood! Brighton bruisers Royal Blood blast back-to-basics on fifth album Kerrang!
Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher floor the accelerator and embark on another collision course of energised and uncompromising riff-rock for album number five NME
Dead Company is arguably the best album they’ve released since their debut, but doesn’t exactly come close to topping it Sputnik Music (staff)
Royal Blood's latest album is competently made and frequently enjoyable, but almost entirely foreseeable The Skinny
There are no frills on this fifth set, once again self-produced by Kerr and Thatcher; instead, it provides a brisk hard rock assault that should please the faithful and entice newcomers to dig into their back catalog All Music
Bono and co. return to full strength with a celebration of hope over despair Mojo
Twisted Teens The Holy Cross Tigers
They revamp the work of their progenitors while at the same time transcending it. Never wandering too far from the music that inspires them, Twisted Teens occupy a space that is distinctly theirs Beats Per Minute
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