6 August 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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Collaborative album of reworked nursery rhymes from the revered Scottish jazz musician, including appearances from Yo La Tengo, Isobel Campbell, Norman Blake and Deerhoof’s Satomi Matsuzaki
6.6
A sublime piano jazz record, mixing grownup sounds with child-like traditions Read Review
Lateral thought rules in this curious creche. Print edition only
Dark, kooky, endearing. Print edition only
It might seem hard to believe, but 'Three Blind Mice' grabs your attention from the first downbeat, and the album doesn't let up at any point Read Review
It’s the darkness at the heart of the songs that provide the album’s spark – when everything ignites, it’s all sorts of spectacular Read Review
It doesn’t all work, but some of the rhymes translate surprisingly well Read Review
Accomplished but pointless. Print edition only
Arca XXXXX
The Venezuelan artist’s latest LP harks back to her experimental mixtapes &&&&& and @@@@@, trading the KiCK series’ pop and reggaeton impulses for confrontational, uncompromising electronic sounds Pitchfork
The album may be a tad amorphous, but it’s never dull Slant Magazine
The Venezuela-born, Barcelona-based polymath is at home in distortion on her most probing project in years NME
A return to form, on par with the brilliance of her early mixtapes Clash
In the follow-up to her Kick series, Arca jumbles the building blocks of electronic music to create a beautiful, disorienting sound world The Guardian
Ariana Grande petal
Despite some minor sonic surprises, the pop superstar’s latest offering is strangely dull and muted, lacking the personality, sensuality, and energy of her previous work Paste Magazine
The Durutti Column Renascent
Renascent offers newcomers to Vini Reilly’s work the chance to experience pretty much every aspect of what he does in one relatively short album. It’s beautiful, atmospheric and accomplished, but perhaps just a little too eclectic for its own good Spectrum Culture
This return is graceful and emotionally resonant in very turbulent times The Line Of Best Fit
Shania Twain Little Miss Twain
More than anything, Little Miss Twain is a love letter to Shania Twain’s late mother, who acted as something of a manager when she first began performing PopMatters
Even the instrumentation is ghostly, soaked in reverb and with Grande’s vocals layered and echoing across each song. You desperately want something substantial to cling onto, but it’s always out of reach The Independent
Grande reaches for darker, more experimental territory, but uneven writing and restrained vocals prevent it from fulfilling its promise Consequence Of Sound
Grande withdraws inwards on uneasy, distant eighth studio album, amid intense tabloid and social media scrutiny NME
Rage is all over the pop superstar’s eighth LP, Petal — and it suits her Rolling Stone
The album shows flashes of incisiveness but can’t overcome its self-imposed limitations Slant Magazine
Casting herself as a flower trampled underfoot, the superstar’s eighth album swaps the ?glitz of her Wicked years ?f?or dark blooms of haunted electronics 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