24 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 full-length effort of dark and strange pop from the California singer-songwriter
6.2
If 2011 doesn’t belong to Sea of Bees, something will have gone very wrong indeed Read Review
Print edition only
Possessed with a voice that squeaks incomprehensibly like a low-budget Kate Bush. Print edition only
Succeeds through Baezinger's singing and storytelling Read Review
The control of the arrangements and the withholding of her voice’s upper range that makes Sea of Bees an intriguing prospect Read Review
A heart-warming, heartbreaking introduction Read Review
Her efforts to ensure that each song is sincerely crafted culminate in an honest and likeable first album Read Review
Wears her heart on her sleeve; her lyrics are infused with romance and cover more bases than one Read Review
Country-folk with indie leanings. Print edition only
With overdubbed vocals and multiple aqueous, shifting instrumental layers, the more intricate textures of bands like Sigur Ros are brought to mind Read Review
A fine introduction to an artist who will definitely be sticking around for a while longer Read Review
Her lyrics read like a teenage diary, solipsistic and sometimes startling in their innocence Read Review
Her voice will initially turn heads, she has the Kate Bush wail and range, her intonation is quirky – and she knows when to slur and when to sing the words. Read Review
Everything here threatens to launch into the stratosphere, but fails to get as far as the tree tops Read Review
Agreeable enough and nicely produced but not nearly as involving as it ought to be Read Review
Surprisingly one dimensional Read Review
A similar mix of emotional openness and affinity for the natural world as Laura Veirs, with something of Veirs's inquistive approach to musical textures, too Read Review
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Sea of Bees: Songs for the Ravens
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