15 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.
Browse specific styles
Third album from the Edinburgh indie folk band fronted by singer-songwriter Neil Pennycook
7.5
Most of the tracks are slow to middling in pace, and there’s less to really get the blood up. It’s a minor gripe however for what is an exceptional follow-up to a truly singular creation Read Review
This is the strongest set of songs the band has offered up to date Read Review
Neil Pennycook sounds like a man with more than a few stories to tell Read Review
Some may find the Scottish lament thing a little full on. For me, it remains sufficiently muted to not go over the top , and while I’ll admit to being a sucker for minor piano chords over a seaweed string of banjo, the crack in the voice seals the deal Read Review
Some of Meursault's lo-fi essence might have been shed, but the sparse arrangements of songs like Hole or the quite beautiful (but heartbreaking) Mamie benefit greatly from increased clarity Read Review
It's far from an instant classic but, given time, it latches onto your world. You won't send it away Read Review
Although there is charm and panache in the relatively lo-fi first two albums, here the songs really do benefit from the studio Read Review
It’s hard not to see this as a successful sideways step for Meursault – their move towards a more ‘natural’ sound feels, well, natural for them Read Review
Neil Pennycook's folktronica outfit move folkwards. Print edition only
The album's epicentre is Dearly Distracted, seven minutes of escalating smoulder and lyrical bile with a guitar coda that would do Crazy Horse proud. Print edition only
Meursault operate where strident folk-rock meets etiolated grunge and ambient electronica, a blend perfectly measured for the melancholy broadsides of Something For The Weakened Read Review
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Meursault: Something For The Weakened
U2 Carnaval de Luz
On their first album of new songs in nearly a decade, even earnest Bono-isms carry weight amid music that is impassioned and rejuvenated The Guardian
Letting loose and finding renewed purpose, U2 have delivered one of their most fun and engaging albums with Carnaval De Luz, a celebratory injection of positive vibes to both the world and this band All Music
This is not a radical reinvention of Rattle And Hum-to-Achtung Baby magnitude, or even a wilful evolution akin to that from How To Dismantle An Atom Bomb to No Line On Th Horizon. The ghosts of U2's past are summoned in numbers, though they are frequently mischievously partnered to interestingly incongruous effect. Print edition only Uncut
The Irish legends' best work in 25 years homages their eras, brings Brian Eno to bear on keys and even wheels out the late Dolly Parton musicOMH
Royal Blood Dead Company
It’s a record that sounds exactly like you would hope a new Royal Blood album would sound like, it’s little wonder that they are as big as they are, a consistently fine listen God Is In The TV
Kings Of Leon O My Beloved
With Carnaval De Luz they are not reinventing themselves or trying to be the current flavour of the month. What they do with this album is revisit their older glories and create new music and sound Spill Magazine
U2 return with a defiant and celebratory record that captures them still at the height of their powers Hot Press
This is Lorelei The Singer In My Band
Nate Amos fills his latest album with other people’s stories: some linger, others get lost in the scenery Still Listening
Out for blood! Brighton bruisers Royal Blood blast back-to-basics on fifth album Kerrang!
Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher floor the accelerator and embark on another collision course of energised and uncompromising riff-rock for album number five NME
Dead Company is arguably the best album they’ve released since their debut, but doesn’t exactly come close to topping it Sputnik Music (staff)
Royal Blood's latest album is competently made and frequently enjoyable, but almost entirely foreseeable The Skinny
There are no frills on this fifth set, once again self-produced by Kerr and Thatcher; instead, it provides a brisk hard rock assault that should please the faithful and entice newcomers to dig into their back catalog All Music
Bono and co. return to full strength with a celebration of hope over despair Mojo
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
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