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.
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The title of the masked metalheads' fifth album - their first without drummer Joey Jordison - pays tribute to deceased bassist Paul Gray
6.7
There are some huge choruses lurking within the repurposed death metal riffs and tribal clatter Read Review
One of the strongest albums of their career Read Review
They have once again achieved a sound that cannot be replicated and only continues to mature with each release Read Review
The production work is astounding and this glossy sheen is how Slipknot have made some inroads into the mainstream. Some will see that as a bonus, others will cite it as Slipknot's biggest fault Read Review
A solid platform from which Slipknot can build upon in the future Read Review
There have been more impressive metal records released during 2014 that won’t garner a modicum of the attention, but .5… indicates this new era sans Gray and Joey Jordison could yield substantial dividends Read Review
A lovely eulogy to their fallen comrade Read Review
The Slipknot of 2014 are a reinvigorated unit. Pain and angst are still worn as badges of honour, but there's considerable weight attached now Read Review
There is life left in the nine-headed beast. Print edition only
Corey Taylor has a voice that sounds like the apocalypse Read Review
At 14 tracks that play for more than an hour, it goes on too long, and the extra tracks sap momentum Read Review
The energy slowly wanes as the record progresses Read Review
Quite the heavy-duty emotional enema Read Review
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Slipknot: .5: The Gray Chapter
Underscores U
It’s a confident evolution from her 2020 EP Character Development!, with Grey producing an utterly refined sound that encapsulates the highs of the 2010 pop, bro-step and bubblegum bass eras The Quietus
Kim Gordon Play Me
She’s incorporating sounds and techniques that – and apologies for bringing age into it – most other septuagenarians would recoil from The Quietus
BTS ARIRANG
There’s a lot riding on the sensational K-pop group’s first album in four years, but its generic songs ring hollow and lack the vim and vigor of the band’s best work Pitchfork
It’s a scintillating experience, perhaps the moment where underscores fully out-strips her peers, and comes into her own Clash
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
'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
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
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