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.
Browse specific styles
Third album from the UK electro pop artist Victoria Hesketh produced by Ariel Rechtshaid and Com Truise
6.2
A dancefloor-ready celebration of British womanhood, full of melancholy rave pianos and synth twinkles, somewhere between Girls Aloud’s Biology and Chvrches’ Tether in tone Read Review
Pseudo-corporate imagery to satirise yuppie culture with sardonic understatement. Print edition only
Working Girl is an immensely self-aware and controlled effort that confirms Hesketh works best when she works for herself Read Review
It can be a little too sterile in places but for the most part, 'Working Girl' shows that Little Boots is a canny operator Read Review
Seems to have made peace with her place in the pop pantheon Read Review
The album keeps its BPM up and its personal stakes high, as Hesketh articulates the ennui of a high-powered life Read Review
Plenty of pop- little snap and crackle. Print edition only
Like its predecessors, Nocturnes (2013) and Hands (2009), it packs a selection of nagging tunes that could easily light up the mainstream Read Review
There are plenty of tracks on here that would suit the soundtrack to many a summer barbecue. It’s nice to have her back Read Review
An entertaining, if mostly chilled out affair that effectively displays both Hesketh’s versatility as an artist and a humorous side that is as surprising as it is charming Read Review
There’s something about this evolution that just works Read Review
If you're not a Little Boots fan this album isn't going to convert you, but if you don't mind looking over some average tracks to find some real electro-pop gems this album is worth picking up Read Review
From the simple-yet-memorable clubby constructs to confident themes of empowerment, Little Boots is consciously following pop music's torchbearers Read Review
She hits enough gold to not seem like an irrelevance, but her goals are murky Read Review
With few exceptions she just sounds bored. Print edition only
Roll over video for more options
Little Boots: Working Girl
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