12 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.
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Third album from London-based Australian indie rock quartet produced by The Killers' bassist Mark Stoermer
6.0
This is their finest to date. Print edition only
May present itself as the most scattered of the band's three albums, it works its wonders patiently and an assured thread soon presents itself. Read Review
A newfound vitality and a career-best consistency. Excellent Read Review
Sees this group of musicians reverting to their debut album's style with more focus and ambition and they have successfully created a solid, polished record Read Review
They can still brood, they can still bark and now more ferociously than ever Howling Bells can bite Read Review
Adding a touch more stylistic diversity to the tried-and-true Pretenders formula would have done wonders for the unquestionably talented outfit Read Review
Honest, uncompromising, raw and restless, it’s a rock album of some distinction Read Review
Tones down the band's shoegazey stylings in favour of a meaty, riff-heavy '70s-leaning sound. Print edition only
Despite the occasional lapse into MOR sludge, this is mostly the sound of a band back on form Read Review
Although the album doesn’t drag and their quality emanates, this solid set of songs will never match up to the debut Read Review
Feels unimposing, ultimately suffering from a disjointed ebb and flow in quality before succumbing to a serviceable yet inoffensive plateau Read Review
By trying to interpret a whole new landscape and atmosphere, Howling Bells have compromised their strengths in an awkward attempt to force themselves into a new style Read Review
A band with excellent potential who are yet to raise themselves beyond being mere potential Read Review
Falls flat in a puddle of MOR Read Review
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Howling Bells: The Loudest Engine
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
Shygirl Swallow!
The UK electronica figurehead takes a sentimental turn on her tender but assured sophomore release Paste Magazine
U2 Carnaval de Luz
The Irish stadium legends’ latest is pedantic and ambiguous, rife with centrist pandering that ends up saying nothing at all Paste Magazine
On their sixteenth studio album, the Irish legends sound more playful than preachy for the first time in a long time NME
Ambitious but accessible, catchy but substantial, they've returned with a record that feels energized and alive, as though they have once again arrived at the start of something inventive and exciting Exclaim
Shygirl’s sophomore album is an idiosyncratic, heartfelt and interesting entry in the pop canon Spectrum Culture
As a burgeoning pop star, Shygirl is absolutely the real deal Slant Magazine
Lyrically, SWALLOW! is brutally romantic. Having turned 30 while writing the record, Shygirl revisits her past to write love songs with far more depth than her younger self could reach The Line Of Best Fit
In palpitating trip-hop and wind-tunnel big beat, the producer’s lovestruck second album seeks a softer, more romantic home on the dancefloor Pitchfork
Where her debut felt like the high, ‘SWALLOW!’ feels like the afters: the pulse hasn’t quite settled, and the feelings that were once easier to muffle are now impossible to ignore Clash
On album two, the London artist again shows she is able to combine genre-hopping experimentation with big pop songwriting NME
DIIV ZIRP!
ZIRP! is neither a radical reinvention nor a straightforward continuation, but an uneasy negotiation between the band's established identity and its desire for something new Spectrum Culture
What could have been a crash landing has instead pushed Twisted Teens to new heights Spectrum Culture
It’s not that 'Carnaval De Luz' is bad. It isn’t. It’s just humdrum The Arts Desk
PISS You Made Me / Skin on Linen
At once grueling, wounding, healing, intelligent, and poetic, you made me / skin on linen should also—it goes without saying—be played very, very fucking loudly Under The Radar
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