25 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.
Browse specific styles
Album No.6 from the California indie pop band led by Zach Smith and Rob Crow, their first release in five years
6.4
A downbeat delight Read Review
Delivers plenty of the gloomy/sunny/plaintive/happy pop that has made them one of the more instantly recognizable bands in the indie landscape Read Review
Sounds confident and deliberate, a consummate release from two deft musicians who’ve made every note count Read Review
Achieves an interesting balance between showcasing Pinback’s unique take on classic indie rock and offering something that’s immediately familiar Read Review
While it may be an album with a fairly prescribed pattern, it's one that is done so well and embellished so cutely, that it leaves you feeling an enormous sense of contentment Read Review
For an album of such wide-open sounds and ideas, Information Retrieved has a true knack for living in, and succeeding on, the smallest of details Read Review
Newfound self-assurance adding warmth to their melodic nous: sweet and soulful Read Review
While Pinback's latest effort isn't particularly poor, it's nothing to suggest they're exploring uncharted, original territory Read Review
There's something inherently nostalgic about Information Retrieved delivering exactly what you'd expect Read Review
Even at its coolest, Pinback’s music has never felt cold. Information Retrieved, though, rarely rises above lukewarm Read Review
This album doesn’t do enough to sound much more than merely pleasant Read Review
It is not often that you hope a band will stop playing to their strengths, but Information Retrieved leaves Pinback needing to do something unpredictable Read Review
Even the most ardent of fans may find themselves somewhat irked to be given essentially the same album, from the same band for the fourth time Read Review
Every listen to Pinback’s latest record is so forgettable due to its insistence on treading familiar ground track after track that you may as well have never heard it at all Read Review
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Pinback: Information Retrieved
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