3 July 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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Fifth studio album from the Washingtonian black metal band released on their own label
7.3
Whatever gear they have at their disposal, WITTR remain almost unbeatable for swelling, atmospheric excellence Read Review
It's a consuming piece of music that reminds us of the Weavers' ambition to always lead and never follow Read Review
By and large, it's contemplation they're seeking. Print edition only
Just as Deafheaven’s critical hit of 2013, ‘Sunbather’ (review), couldn’t be categorised as a black metal collection, despite that act’s past form, so ‘Celestite’ takes even greater strides away from its makers’ source Read Review
Calls to mind the moody soundtrack music of composer/director John Carpenter or Tangerine Dream rather than fellow metal dreamscapers like Altar of Plagues or Summoning Read Review
This album presents a more pronounced sense of drama from the progressive aspect of analog electronic exploration, and delivers compelling yet open-ended compositions. To that end, it is nearly sublime Read Review
What's changed here is that the Weavers are now more than just writers of music; they are now enablers of specific atmospheres, able to handhold a listener through incredibly dense forest in very low light. Read Review
An absorbing exercise in pensive synth led ambience Read Review
Celestite feels like it is more than just a simple companion piece to Celestial Lineage, and there is more than a Cascadian black metal band behind the subtle guitars and massive synths of Celestite Read Review
By completely altering their focus, Wolves in the Throne Room have both carried on the strong tradition of black metal reinvention and proved themselves as composers with a distinct, if not world-changing, voice Read Review
Every bit as dense and nuanced as their more traditional work, Celestite might end up finding itself falling between two stools, but no-one could accuse Wolves in the Throne Room of going at this half-heartedly Read Review
Wantonly skipping between sounds with a dilettante zeal, Wolves in the Throne Room seem woefully under equipped for this music Read Review
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Wolves in the Throne Room: Celestite
Madonna Confessions II
While the vignettes of influence feel like a blazing return to 1990s glory, there’s something optimistic about it Far Out
Deep Purple SPLAT!
There’s something about Splat! that does intrinsically feel like a slap across the chops, in all its blazing prog rock glory Far Out
SPLAT! is a blast from start to finish, and whatever's in the water at Purple HQ, we want some Record Collector
The band's elemental approach peaking on the likes of "Diablo" and "Guilt Trippin'", with Ian Gillian in impressively full-throated mode and Don Airey's keyboard runs often worthy of predecessor Jon Lord. Print edition only Uncut
Producer Bob Ezrin has turned up the group's Depp Purple-ness without lapsing into self-parody. Most of the songs here crack along at a furious pace. Print edition only A.V. Club
Muse The Wow! Signal
A glam odyssey, fuses metal, techno, science fiction and prog rock into an overstuffed inferno of absurdity The Irish Times
Filtering the intervening years, experiences, emotions, and life lessons through the sounds that made her – Chicago house, Detroit techno, and beyond – it’s also a timely reminder of why Madonna was crowned the Queen Of Pop in the first place, and continues to be a vital musical force Mojo
On her most vital album in over two decades, pop music’s grande dame proves she still knows how to make us move NME
After years spent chasing trends like trap and Latin pop, Madonna settles back? nicely into? old-school dance music to tell vivid vignettes of life in 80s New York The Guardian
A celebration of the dance floor that incorporates tributes to her earliest days on New York’s club scene, the queen of pop’s new music is engineered to make you move, or indeed, sweat The Independent
Beth Orton The Ground Above
As fatigued as the space created by The Ground Above may be, it never gives into despair. To the contrary, it finds comfort in both motion and solitude Beats Per Minute
Chanel Beads Your Day Will Come
This is a record that asks for a slower kind of attention, one that finds difference inside repetition instead of beyond it. In a moment when listening is increasingly shaped by acceleration and novelty, Chanel Beads makes a persuasive case for lingering a little longer Northern Transmissions
Lizzo Bitch
The singer’s return to the limelight arrives mean-spirited, out of touch, and woefully inconsistent Paste Magazine
Another immersive, collaborative collection that grounds itself in her efforts to connect with others, embrace the present, and insist on survival Paste Magazine
After a deep discography of sci-fi epics, dystopias and spiritual yearning, Muse varies the formula a little — but fails to wow Spectrum Culture
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
