12 April 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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Much-anticipated debut full-length hip hop mixtape from 23-year-old Harlem rapper Rakim Mayers
7.6
By reaching every-damn-where he could, ASAP Rocky both sidesteps this pitfall and becomes one of the year’s most exciting voices Read Review
Mayers’s laid-back, off-kilter rhymes knock out a heady narrative about his main concerns in life. A dashing statement of intent Read Review
Although it can be tempting to focus on the mere sonic architecture of this tape, ASAP’s rhyming is LiveLoveA$AP’s one element that confirms he is not only bound for fast stardom, but also that he’s sharp enough to deserve it Read Review
LiveLoveA$AP is the sort of album that clocks in at nearly an hour but feels like it’s over in half that Read Review
Simply one of the best hip-hop records of the year Read Review
It's the sometime producer of Lil B, Beautiful Lou, who brings a real freshness. Working on Kissin’ Pink and Trilla, it’s over his hazy, slumbering beats where Rocky's laidback flows truly flourish Read Review
The year’s most stylish mix-tape, a melting pot of nearly every major underground rap trend of the last 16 months Read Review
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Bon Iver SABLE, fABLE
A record of rare beauty and hope that fits neatly into the catalogue of an outfit that has never failed to deliver something extraordinary Clash
Mamalarky Hex Key
Mainstream success isn’t beyond Mamalarky’s grasp, but they would have to ditch their eccentricities to achieve it. Heaven forbid they ever do The Line Of Best Fit
Djo The Crux
Throughout the twelve tracks on Crux, Joe Keery proves time and again that he’s not just a pretty face, and not even just a great actor – he’s also a very accomplished musician and songwriter with a huge future ahead of him God Is In The TV
SPELLLING Portrait Of My Heart
Portrait of My Heart is beautiful, emotionally potent, and intricate. So in other words, it’s just another Spellling album Spectrum Culture
Snapped Ankles HARD TIMES FURIOUS DANCING
Hard Times Furious Dancing needs to exist in the context of global collapse, class warfare and cascading environmental disaster in order to be more than just a solid new wave record with sharp, if not superficial, politically charged lyrics Spectrum Culture
The Los Angeles band’s third album is the clearest reconciliation between the tension of their easygoing indie pop and their meticulous musicianship yet Paste Magazine
A record that challenges as much as it charms Northern Transmissions
Hex Key wavers on infectious hooks fused with eccentric strut but it also seems afraid of the plunge necessary to ring out each cut’s real creative worth Far Out
Hex Key is compellingly weird and rhythmically and melodically catchy, with each of its fluorescent, silver-, or neon-colored tracks holding earworm potential All Music
Too much of this record sounds like it could have been made by almost anyone and that's not good, and neither in the end is SABLE, fABLE All Music
Justin Vernon’s version of ‘radiant pop music’ is to brighten his earthy, acoustic landscapes with synths and drum pads The Independent
Justin Vernon is incapable of making a ‘happy’ record. The upbeat moments here are inevitably followed by deep longueurs. But the abiding feeling is one of peace The Irish Times
Sable, Fable is an album that is felt as much as heard: the contraction of its opening tracks, the release of its love songs, the resolve of its closing numbers. Print edition only Uncut
In a world of uncertainty and chaos in 2025, there is absolutely nothing wrong with just being nice Dork
Black Country, New Road Forever Howlong
The Cambridge band’s third album rotates among three distinct lead vocalists: Tyler Hyde, May Kershaw, and Georgia Ellery. Each musician brings a separate aesthetic, vocabulary, and emotional compass to the material, allowing every track to fully inhabit its writer’s idiosyncrasies Paste Magazine
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