2 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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Second album of house, electro and funk from Dublin-born, NY-based producer Marcus Lambkin
6.5
A classy selection of tunes designed to set dancefloors in motion Read Review
His impressive mastery of sounds is now matched by the quality of the songs, and overall one would be hard-pressed to find a better, more satisfying electronic dance music album in 2014, or anytime Read Review
Ticks every old-school box in irresistible floor filling style. Print edition only
These songs progress by the process of addition and subtraction; blips, chords, and arpeggiated runs phase in and out at their own digression, adding their own melody and color to the otherwise balmy programming Read Review
Although he doesn’t offer the genre anything noticeably new, he’s more than capable to keep the momentum going over a long player Read Review
There’s a nagging sense of the need to develop things further and mesh the mechanics with the human to create a beast that is more than the sum of its parts Read Review
Even though the record is irresistible at times, it's also a feedback loop of nostalgia that's creaking as it turns Read Review
You can forgive Shit Robot the occasional malfunction in what is otherwise a highly polished performance from this music machine Read Review
Is inconsistent but offers notable high points Read Review
Rarely deviates from DFA's tried-and-tested disco-punk template. Print edition only
All elastic bass and thrusting rhythm. Print edition only
Lovingly crafted deep house, hip NY electro funk and disco-infused tracks which hit the sweet spot on the dancefloor Read Review
A somewhat mixed bag, but Lambkin still has a lot to offer Read Review
Print edition only
Lambkin is an excellent producer and few of the album’s faults can be attributed to him, but his future guest list might want to be better curated Read Review
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Shit Robot: We Got A Love
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