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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Third album from the Cardiff-based psych-rock collective
6.7
Forget power-chords and delving into guitar music’s annals; something as thoroughly modern, and bizarrely brilliant, as Illuminated People needs to be savoured as much as possible Read Review
This ambitious pitch of an album, has set our minds on fire. 2012 starts here Read Review
Islet have done a rather good job at expanding and broadening their musical landscape to something that is more considered, more precise, and in many ways, more thought provoking Read Review
Does a creditable job of replicating the sweat, volume and improvisation of their must-see live shows Read Review
There are hints of post-hardcore, post-rock and even non-awful prog, too Read Review
[It] might not be perfect but it’s never anything less than interesting Read Review
Once they’ve got all this messing around out of their system, there’s a real band of substance in there Read Review
It seems like the free spirits of art-pop (Animal Collective, Gang Gang Dance, Bear in Heaven) finally have a British brother to hang out with and he’s quite the turbulent sibling Read Review
Islet come with a mission of sorts: lots and lots of drums. Print edition only
Overflows with ideas and adventurism. Print edition only
Fun as it is, Illuminated People never quite reaches the brutal, anarchic highs of Islet's live shows, and as a result it feels restrained. But one thing's for sure - no one could call it dull Read Review
It sounds like Islet’s overreaching imagination stretches beyond the boundaries of cohesiveness, leaving an album of messy experiments rather than memorable songs Read Review
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Islet: Illuminated People
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