3 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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Debut album of psychedelic pop from the Minneapolis three piece described by their label, Domino, as cosmic groovers
6.7
Night Moves rejuvenate well tread themes with great affection for their trade and palpable enthusiasm Read Review
A promising debut and one more considered, nuanced, and realized than most bands achieve deep into their tenures Read Review
Colored Emotions is a promising starting point for this young band who will hopefully find more ways to get the boots scootin' in the future Read Review
This record represents a bold, imaginative first step for a young band that seems poised to take their sound anywhere Read Review
Brief as it is, Night Moves' debut is full of potential Read Review
The band crafts incredibly tight arrangements of complex, space-age country rock songs that require patience, vision, and time to create Read Review
Night Moves rely on the sound that got them signed rather than pushing themselves in a new direction, and the results are not as exciting as they could've been Read Review
Night Moves is a promising band, with an ear for arrangement and good ideas. But some new moves are needed to make it to daybreak Read Review
The greatest pitfall to a record like Colored Emotions is the looming threat of it turning into record-collector rock: music whose personality gets lost under its own influences Read Review
An easy record to keep returning to. Print edition only
Overshadowed by a nagging lack of imagination. Print edition only Read Review
It lacks variety to such an extent that only hardened fan of this of this all American sound will be impressed Read Review
Musically, it's pleasant: shimmering guitars, hazy, falsetto vocals and a generally laid back pace make for a relaxing, albeit hardly riveting listen Read Review
Night Moves: Colored Emotions
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