23 March 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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The Miami rapper with his fifth studio outing, featuring a heavyweight cast of guest names
6.9
There are times when God Forgives is as engrossing and surprising as rap can be Read Review
It's silly, completely gauche, and still pretty impressive, another notable touch on this massive exercise in excess Read Review
All of it works, there's plenty of ambition with little over-reaching, and the most striking bits of the album are striking for unexpected reasons Read Review
With its share of both musical indulgence and serious self-reflection, it’s an album as big and sturdy as the man behind it Read Review
Its first half contains some of the brightest mainstream hip hop of 2012 Read Review
Even if it is due to his co-stars on the album making it what it is, Ross has successfully put Maybach Music on the map – cementing his place as one of today’s hip hop greats Read Review
Doesn't feel good enough, or big enough, to be what it is: The victory lap crowning Rick Ross' four-year rise to dominance Read Review
Though it’s solid enough to maintain Ross’ reputation as one of commercial rap’s most reliable album artists, God Forgives rarely feels like an event Read Review
Ross has upped the complexity of his lyrics and the musicality of his beats with every new record Read Review
If it’s a misstep, it’s only a slight one, with plenty of pleasures to be found within Read Review
It's thrilling. It's pantomime. It's what Ross does best Read Review
It’s definitely a disappointment that Ross seems to be coasting through most of this hour-long production since a coasting Ross is generally not a Ross you’d want to be around Read Review
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Rick Ross: God Forgives, I Don't
Ladytron Paradises
Ladytron have produced an album that, from its inception, sought to invoke the same spirit that the band had 25 years ago Far Out
Gorillaz The Mountain
The strongest case in years that Gorillaz can still make records that matter as records Dork
Kim Gordon Play Me
'Play me' doesn’t try to comfort. It tries to provoke, energise and outlast the scroll Dork
The Orielles Only You Left
These songs come from months of demo-hoarding and forensic listening, the band archiving every practice-room spark before lovingly picking through the results Dork
James Blake Trying Times
Blake sounds energised by the room he has carved out for himself Dork
Harry Styles Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.
This isn’t an album built like a straight line from hook to hook. It moves in waves, often favouring texture and atmosphere over immediate release Dork
Underscores U
It’s technical excellence as a musical product cannot be overstated. For a pop album to be this busy yet possess a pocket as deep and rich as underscores displays here is simply amazing Sputnik Music (staff)
Indie rock icon Kim Gordon acerbically wrestles with the state of the world over hip-hop and industrial beats on Play Me PopMatters
The former electro-pop enfant terrible swings big on her latest album, compressing all her split personalities and eclectic tastes into a high-gloss, high-stakes gamble to remake pop on her own terms Pitchfork
On U, she finds a clearly-defined, rounded-out identity in her music for the first time, and she delivers the most immediate and the most robust work of her career The Line Of Best Fit
Performing, writing and producing everything herself, April Grey pares back her hyperpop electronics for an LP in thrall to 90s pop-R&B, with songs that big stars would die for The Guardian
April Harper Grey’s latest hits all the beats of a classic pop record — a choreo-primed single, a power ballad, a post-breakup closure anthem — without overstaying its welcome Paste Magazine
A tour-de-force of production chops that cements April Harper Grey as a key auteur in the future of the genre NME
Alexis Taylor Paris In The Spring
Paris in the Spring is a gem of a record which, while never over-reaching its ambition, sparkles with electronic ingenuity as it takes in all seasons of human experience Spectrum Culture
It's a beautiful collection of genre-hopping songs. Print edition only Uncut
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