2 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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The Baltimore art rock / noise pop outfit, back after a brief break-up with their third album
6.5
[A] Beefheart-like tendency to avoid consistent rhythm and keep the audience guessing is partly what makes this music feel so alive Read Review
Paradoxical as it may seem, the more structured version of the band that Do Whatever You Want All the Time presents just may be more exciting, and offer more potential, than what Ponytail were doing before Read Review
A band with an imprint and sound all of its own, with much of joy to share around Read Review
An intense and imaginative celebration of noise, pop and noise-pop. Print edition only
The seven tracks that make up this impressive swansong are more composed, more painstakingly structured than either of its predecessors Read Review
A sound you can drink and a quick sharp hit to pep up your week Read Review
Sees them moving into more sophisticated territory with plenty of layering of sound Read Review
Ponytail fans will surely enjoy this relatively formed incarnation of the band’s energy. Non-fans can appreciate the pure joys of a band making noise free of the grip of self-doubt or other inhibitors Read Review
A candy-colored descent into madness, one which tames the wildness of the group's previous efforts in the interest of a far more mature style Read Review
The cracks are starting to show in the band’s previously impervious candy shell Read Review
A more refined take on their jerk-punk lyricism Read Review
“Experimental” and “sophisticated” are often code words for “lackluster” when they come directly from the label, and while that isn’t quite the case for Do Whatever You Want All the Time, it’s close Read Review
I doubt it will stay with any of us for very long, but with some luck these growing pains will yield a new and even more arresting Ponytail Read Review
Without Ponytail’s flair for life-affirming, Beefheart-style cut-ups, there’s little sonic intrigue here Read Review
To truly grasp the vigour of Do Whatever You Want All The Time, do it yourself. Grab four mates, pick up some instruments and go nuts. Just don’t cut an album from the sessions Read Review
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Ponytail: Do Whatever You Want All the Time
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