26 September 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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Second album from the Sheffield-based indie pop power trio
6.4
Standard Fare have become a band who’ve found themselves, or at least one that’s heading in that direction Read Review
Their relentless cheer might wear thin for some, but Standard Fare have returned with 12 songs that fans will devour. A late contender for indiepop album of the year Read Review
An accomplished set of intelligent, sparky old-school indie-pop. Print edition only
Standard Fare are young at heart, and despite their thoughtful and sometimes cynical outlook on life, their music seems to soundtrack that of a teenager with a big imagination stuck inside the confines of a big city Read Review
The album is exuberant, neatly sequenced, and over in about half an hour: a modest joy, but great indie pop is an accumulation of modest joys Read Review
Feels like a cleaner, slightly more sophisticated realization of Noyelle Beat's potential Read Review
What Standard Fare do feels more honest: they’re not trying to change the world; they are trying to make you pogo away your woes with them on the dancefloor Read Review
A bunch of surging melodies, all delivered with self-effacing charm. Print edition only
The trio’s made-in-my-bedroom sound makes listening to their music feel like your own private concert, which is great but can occasionally do them a disservice Read Review
An album that is fundamentally pretty samey - a jaunty, power-chord style that was all the rage ten years ago, but nowadays feels tired Read Review
We’re not seeing much in it, apart from an opportunity to reminisce, which probably isn’t the point of it Read Review
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Standard Fare: Out Of Sight, Out Of Town
Blondshell Violins
This is an artist widening her frame without losing her bite. It’s confident, a little wistful, and often loud in all the right places Northern Transmissions
On her third album, Sabrina Teitelbaum fights to strike a balance between savage beauty and jagged home truths NME
Everything great about Blondshell is present on ‘Violins’, but it feels sharper, more adventurous and more assured then ever before Clash
LA alt-rock singer Blondshell trades plain-speaking lyricism for something more abstract, while Irish rock band Gurriers cut through the noise with their ambitious second album The Independent
While trying to find and assert herself, the song has her imagining walking down the aisle to Beethoven's Für Elise, even though no one, including her, would pick it as a wedding song All Music
An often-delicate inward vision that pairs frustration with beauty DIY
It's in her ability to take the everyday experience and turn it into an epic noise that Violins finds its sweet spot The Line Of Best Fit
It would be unfair to call Violins Blondshell’s finest work to date, given the strength of her previous albums. What’s clear, though, is that it’s every bit as good as what came before Under The Radar
Protomartyr Hotel Usona
The album is more eerie in tone than its predecessors, like a distant alarm sounding, trying to amplify the sounds we cannot hear Northern Transmissions
It’s a bleak listen, sure, but Protomartyr haven’t ever been the comforting types. In fact, they’ve chosen the perfect time to double down on their righteous anger and despair, and if everything were to come to a catastrophic end right now, you’ve got the perfect soundtrack for it Far Out
For newcomers, it's a perfectly moody entry point. Hotel Usona is the sound of a band settling into their own skin, creating a space that's uniquely theirs and generously sharing the key Exclaim
From singer Joe Casey’s handmade album artwork to drummer Alex Leonard’s impish, kinetic inversions of classic post-punk rhythm, the Detroit band crafts an austere, unflinching record as bleak as it is cathartic Paste Magazine
This is not a hotel you'd want to stay at any time soon, but it's a remarkable record to spend time with. Print edition only Uncut
Under dim hotel lights, Casey’s lyricism appears foreboding and alien in a way it never has before The Line Of Best Fit
Ezra Collective Here Because of Hope
Arguably the biggest jazz band in the country return with an album that shows off both their exuberant and more reflective sides musicOMH
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