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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Third album under this pseudonym from New York singer-songwriter Meredith Godreau
6.5
Arty folk-pop where no two songs follow the same formula Read Review
Successful at balancing flavours, soaring from feather-light whimsy to more emotive territory with flair Read Review
Godreau's voice is sweet and girlish. Print edition only
A thing of ghostly magic and quietly exotic beauty. Print edition only
A strange, distantly familiar set of songs Read Review
Leche exhibits a number of parallels with Múm ... and Godreau's delicate, expressive and almost childlike voice lends itself completely to the sort of skewed melodies and sentiments paraded by both Read Review
Reveals a more adventurous songwriter, bending the song forms and lacing the lyrical matter with darker themes Read Review
The consistency of Godreau’s songwriting is stellar Read Review
You're left with the sense that Elliott Smith may be gone but there;s still some bruised poets carrying his torch. Print edition only
Sometimes mysterious, often simply pleasant, there will probably be something here for most listeners Read Review
There are two or three songs that just don’t work but there are also several that stand comparison with any spawned by the likes of Nick Drake or Robyn Hitchcock Read Review
Although it fails to produce something wholly new to the table, it does assemble a collection of quant and enjoyable songs Read Review
For all its brief swoops of beauty and quirky intrigue, there is something ultimately unsatisfying about Leche Read Review
Godreau is a huge talent who needs a polite shove out of her comfort zone Read Review
Print edition only
Leche’s rickety allure is also its downfall: a half-finished record in essence, these songs ultimately instigate more frustration than enjoyment Read Review
Her success is mindblowing and frustrating Read Review
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Gregory and the Hawk: Leche
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
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
Frankie Cosmos Different Talking
Different Talking introduces some novel elements to the Frankie Cosmos sound, but despite that, their core identity remains intact Spectrum Culture
U.S. Girls Scratch It
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
The album is a hesitant step in the right direction for the singer Slant Magazine
Virgin is Lorde at her best yet as an affective poet and, frustratingly, at her most tamed as a digital sound designer The Line Of Best Fit
The New York band’s sixth LP feels like a scaled-up team effort. The newly expansive sound suits Greta Kline’s hard-won self-knowledge Pitchfork
Lorde’s fourth album returns to the digital, physical sound of Melodrama. While rooted somewhat in her past, it’s a gritty, tender, and often transcendent ode to freedom and transformation Pitchfork
Her fourth album celebrates the messiness of being human – and is also her most compelling and revealing musicOMH
BC Camplight A Sober Conversation
It’s perhaps the finest release of his career from start to finish, and that’s beating some stiff competition Far Out
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