27 January 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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Dub inflected mellow indie pop / folk on the 3rd release from Victoria Bergsman, this time written and recorded in Hawaii
7.2
An enigmatic album: idyllic, hugely pleasant and endlessly pretty, if at times a little aimless in the meanders which it takes. As fleeting bursts of escapism go, though, you’ll find few more blissful than this Read Review
Works both as a sonic experiment and as an expression of Bergsman's adventurous soul Read Review
Bergsman uses the idea of Hawaii—palm trees, sepia-tinted photos of beach sunsets, the gentle rhythms of the ocean—to provide a pervading mood of calm Read Review
A lush, shimmering and fully immersive experience. Print edition only
Other Worlds is sublime. Print edition only
It's recognisably indiepop, but sent delightfully pie-eyed on Blue Hawaiians. Print edition only
Sit with it a while, let the dub-influences, the Hawaiian timbres and the cascading, paradisiacal vibes wash over your soul and psyche. And now the songs take shape Read Review
Bergsman sounds comfy as both world citizen and globetrotter Read Review
It’s an altogether beautiful experience, if not a game-changing one Read Review
Other Worlds is such a radiantly warm, luxuriously luminous heatwave of a record it can give you a suntan just listening to it Read Review
While it sounds like her own personal sound world and collection of memories, the album lacks that relatable hook to draw the listener i Read Review
A pleasant, but modest experience and, while an effort has been made to stamp every track with distinctive hints, the end result is an interesting but arguably undemanding work Read Review
Too many tracks simply drift by without much impact, putting emphasis on sleepy, beach-y textures Read Review
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Taken By Trees: Other Worlds
FKA Twigs Eusexua
Her first album in five years feels as much like a physical sensation as a sonic one, a cohesive and transcendent artistic experience musicOMH
Mogwai The Bad Fire
‘The Bad Fire’ might not cure your January blues entirely but it’ll at least provide a glimmer of hope to get you through the bleakest of months. All in all, an utterly enthralling 11th studio effort from these avant rock stalwart Clash
Rose Gray Louder, Please
The up-and-coming British artist shines on her vibrant, hedonistic debut album musicOMH
Twigs’ third album brings club music into her sensual, supernatural world. It’s a masterful pop-star moment for the artist Pitchfork
On their 11th album, the long-running post-rockers open up disarming, uplifting new dimensions to their sound without veering too far from familiar paths Pitchfork
Saint Etienne The Night
Saint Etienne’s The Night has quite a bit going for it, but it sounds uncharacteristically forced, ultimately collapsing under the weight of its pretension PopMatters
There’s some sense of reconciliation going on between their earthier 90s sound and the synthy, spacey and sometimes poppier material that’s inhabited their last few records The Quietus
The Weather Station Humanhood
Whatever the influences at play, Humanhood works gloriously as a song cycle The Quietus
EUSEXUA is FKA twigs bizarre world-building masterclass The Line Of Best Fit
jasmine.4.t You Are The Morning
Even though the songs are painfully personal, they offer a wider hope. The world feels dark right now, but albums like this give promise that the dawn is coming The Line Of Best Fit
The experimental U.K. dance-pop artist wanted to “transcend human form” with her new album. She nails it Rolling Stone
This record boasts real emotional nuance among the unbridled passion. And to retain the power to surprise and delight when entering its fourth decade is something few bands can claim Under The Radar
Anna B Savage You And I Are Earth
Over gorgeous musical arrangements that feature contemporary Irish musicians and gentle guitar work reminiscent of Nick Drake, Savage creates an intimate, enchanted world, where footsteps are muffled by moss and magic — even the mundane sort — waits behind every tree Under The Radar
Eusexua doesn't just embrace the thrust of commercial dance, it subsumes it into the chromatic, honed prism of FKA twigs' artistry The Skinny
This is an album that seeks an otherworldly state of purity and perfection The Arts Desk
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
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
Dave We’re All Alone In This Together