24 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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For their fifth album the Californian punk rockers take a far more post-punk approach
6.2
One of the boldest moves this California quintet has ever taken Read Review
Though it’s been trendy for punk and hardcore bands to skew toward post-punk in recent years, none have made it feel less like an affectation than Ceremony Read Review
Whether or not they're borrowing too heavily from the Ian Curtis handbook (the band's name is taken from a Joy Division song), Ceremony have a strong handle on this style Read Review
There’s a punch and a kick to their songwriting again now, and Ceremony are all the better for it Read Review
So striking in its difference from the rest of the band's catalogue that it could prove to be a turning point in their discography Read Review
A truly cathartic musical statement Read Review
This is an all too obvious hommage to the old wave Read Review
These tracks are studies in seething resentment and reluctant restraint, and the emotional effect that follows is more often than not a gut punch Read Review
Explores an internalised existential rage and embraces angsty nihilistic melancholia Read Review
This album fails where multiple modern post punk band such as Women and Iceage have succeeded: having a personality Read Review
Stifled by too much restraint Read Review
Ceremony didn’t just try to fix what wasn’t broken, they set it on fire Read Review
No matter how you cut it, there's something embarrassing about a grown man releasing a full-length record of polished Ian Curtis impressions Read Review
Does have an advantage over Zoo, in that it’s interesting in the way any true debacle is, where a band’s conviction is either impervious to any kind of outside intervention or just not subject to it Read Review
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Ceremony: The L-Shaped Man
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
Kim Gordon Play Me
'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
Underscores U
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
April Harper Grey’s latest hits all the beats of a classic pop record — a choreo-primed single, a power ballad, a post-breakup closure anthem — without overstaying its welcome Paste Magazine
A tour-de-force of production chops that cements April Harper Grey as a key auteur in the future of the genre NME
Alexis Taylor Paris In The Spring
Paris in the Spring is a gem of a record which, while never over-reaching its ambition, sparkles with electronic ingenuity as it takes in all seasons of human experience Spectrum Culture
It's a beautiful collection of genre-hopping songs. Print edition only Uncut
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