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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The 2008 European release from the new wave disco diva gets the 'deluxe' treatment with the addition of dub versions by producer Ivor Guest
6.6
Hurricane Dub makes excellent dollar-sense if you missed Hurricane the first time around Read Review
A wonderful demonstration of what you might call "state-of-the-dub" in 2011. Print edition only
The [dub] versions - while sometimes flirting with monotony - serve as atmospheric soundscapes and spacey variations on a theme. But they're no substitute for Hurricane's versions Read Review
She sounds open-hearted and comfortable across moods and genre Read Review
Jones co-wrote all the material, and it shrewdly plays to her age and experience (she’s 63), like a latter-day Marianne Faithful Read Review
An intriguing and ultimately winning companion, one that feels like the soundtrack to a trek through a futuristic jungle Read Review
These extended versions come off a bit thin in comparison to the original mix and lose the interesting, claustrophobic feeling present in many of the songs Read Review
‘This Is Dub”s reggae tendencies are coaxed out further; the slick, whiplash, dancehall two-step beat becoming more and more intoxicating with each listen Read Review
They are not radical re-workings but rather echo-laden instrumental versions in the traditional reggae sense Read Review
Instead of embellishing and reimagining the original tunes, producer Ivor Guest simply fiddles with the knobs until the results bear little or no resemblance to the originals Read Review
Its a shame producer Ivor Guest didn't employ an experienced dub scientist instead of attempting it himself. Print edition only
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Grace Jones: Hurricane / Dub
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