1 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.
Browse specific styles
Album no. 4 is a heavy one for the Atlanta, Georgia indie rockers
6.5
A band that have found their sound, are comfortable in their skin, and improving rapidly Read Review
Despite its flaws, Simple Math went Top 30 in the US. The infinitely superior Cope might expand their reach further. Print edition only
Though they’re still mining the same vein they have for a decade, they’re still churning out gems too Read Review
More than just the sound of a band getting by; it's the sound of Manchester Orchestra at their best Read Review
Cope is all about the brutal force of dirty, meaty guitars, and lots of them Read Review
The songs are fast and short; the energy throughout the album is infectious and continuous Read Review
Sustained power and little in the way of variety can make for quick fatigue, but at just 38 minutes long ‘Cope’ has hooks and energy to spare Read Review
Has the feel of a band playing it safe on their first self-recorded, self-produced album Read Review
The best part of Hull’s songwriting is still present: the razor-sharp lyrical hooks that can be sung over and over again Read Review
This album sets lyrics about shaky adulthood to meat-and-potatoes guitar rock (think MMJ via Foo Fighters Read Review
Manchester’s Orchestra’s success highlights an ability to create heavy rock moments that don’t drag their audience down Read Review
Plaintive emo vocals, grungy riffs and Pixies-style stop-start dynamics, all put together deftly and embellished by punchy, bright production Read Review
It's becoming pretty clear that the genre in which Manchester Orchestra resides has more untapped potential than the band itself Read Review
With this album and previous album Simple Math, the band has completely abandoned their delicate, softer arrangements and gone in a direction that doesn’t really set them apart anymore Read Review
Exhilarating if unrelenting. Print edition only
Roll over video for more options
Manchester Orchestra: Cope
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