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.
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London indie pop / dream pop duo Greg Hughes and Tessa Murray expand into synthpop and disco territory on their 2nd album
7.2
A strikingly nostalgic and retro-futurist record Read Review
Strange Pleasures is a piece of great beauty—albeit, one that’s not for every occasion Read Review
There is nothing strange about the pleasures it offers; they are of the most immediate and rewarding variety Read Review
The London-based duo continue to bring their shadowy world into focus on their sophomore album Read Review
Hughes and Murray have pulled a stylistic U-turn and embraced pop, and the results are impressive Read Review
The feel is consistently of an eerie twilight, perched high above a near-future city Read Review
A welcome, and ultimately pleasurable return Read Review
A lush, intoxicating place to drift away in. Print edition only
There are so many musicians that take inspiration from the 80s that it’s hard to stand out. ‘Strange Pleasures’ is an album of cinematic charm Read Review
The shorthand key to their new sound is Cocteau Twins doing the soundtrack for Drive II, and if that sounds good to you, this album totally works Read Review
As luxurious as a silk nightie Read Review
A pleasant listen of selfless, opaque indie-pop that still feels indulgent Read Review
Transatlantic dreamers sleepwalk stylishly through second album. Print edition only
Consistently gentle, pretty dream-pop, but a collection of songs so equally brittle that they seem to merge into one almost amnesia-inducing haze Read Review
It’s so impossible to dodge the signposts of ‘Strange Pleasures’’s stylistic indebtedness that it comes off as forced, referential and, ultimately, empty Read Review
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Still Corners: Strange Pleasures
U2 Carnaval de Luz
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
Shygirl Swallow!
The UK electronica figurehead takes a sentimental turn on her tender but assured sophomore release Paste Magazine
The Irish stadium legends’ latest is pedantic and ambiguous, rife with centrist pandering that ends up saying nothing at all Paste Magazine
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