2 July 2025
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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Ninth full-length studio album from the London-based electronic techno duo Andy Turner and Ed Handley
6.7
For a new listener or a longtime fan, this is one of the records of the year so far and a worthy addition to a quite excellent discography Read Review
On their new record The Digging Remedy Plaid provide us with one of the most satisfying examples of the Plaid sound yet recorded Read Review
A triumphantly trippy return. Print edition only
You nearly always know what you're going to get with Plaid albums Read Review
The best IDM music takes on a life of its own, presenting as a living, breathing organism that gives life to its intention. Plaid flirt with this phenomenon regularly on ‘The Digging Remedy’ Read Review
Plaid have lost none of their creative instincts even after all these years Read Review
What's evident is the duo's zeal for absorbing and processing whatever is in their field that will help expand their creative reach Read Review
They make highly listenable melodic IDM, warm and playful. Their latest album doesn't rip up the blueprint Read Review
It may be a while yet before Plaid are able to once again make a statement with one of their releases, but there’s enough here to suggest that another left-field turn may pay dividends in the future Read Review
Plaid remain enjoyable, if a little stuck in a rut Read Review
Occasionally, they do demonstrate some bite Read Review
They remain masters of electronic mood. Print edition only
The same skipping beats, slightly ghostly melodies and skewed dance music reference points that populated their work back in the ’90s Read Review
It's not enough to dislodge a sense of complacency that feels out of step with their reputation as innovators Read Review
The contents become increasingly bland as we progress further into the album Read Review
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Plaid: The Digging Remedy
Loyle Carner hopefully!
The sounds are slightly different here than on previous albums and his tentative sojourn into singing is a success because his voice connects as easily as his rapping does Albumism
Lorde Virgin
Lorde trades in her secrecy and mystique for a tremendously healing, desperately relatable record that cements her mark as her generation’s defining artist Northern Transmissions
On the uncomfortable paths of the 28-year-old’s fourth album, slam-dunk bangers are substituted with reinvention and restraint surrendered through hushed, reflective, and carnal synth-pop vestiges Paste Magazine
The New Zealand pop star chips away to reveal her purest self on her fourth album NME
For Lorde, it's an opportunity to reclaim something she thought she had lost long ago, but has always been within her: her true self Exclaim
Frankie Cosmos Different Talking
Different Talking introduces some novel elements to the Frankie Cosmos sound, but despite that, their core identity remains intact Spectrum Culture
U.S. Girls Scratch It
Musically Scratch It will probably be the least memorable in U.S Girls’ discography and aside from ‘Like James Said’ and ‘Bookends‘, the relatively thrill-less album does sort of fly by unnoticeably, made worse by the weak closing track No Fruit God Is In The TV
Lorde may not break entirely new ground on fourth album Virgin, but its warmth and texture make it consistently compelling and quietly brilliant The Skinny
yeule Evangelic Girl Is A Gun
A sun-drenched pop album — perhaps the pop record of the summer Under The Radar
The album is a hesitant step in the right direction for the singer Slant Magazine
Virgin is Lorde at her best yet as an affective poet and, frustratingly, at her most tamed as a digital sound designer The Line Of Best Fit
The New York band’s sixth LP feels like a scaled-up team effort. The newly expansive sound suits Greta Kline’s hard-won self-knowledge Pitchfork
Lorde’s fourth album returns to the digital, physical sound of Melodrama. While rooted somewhat in her past, it’s a gritty, tender, and often transcendent ode to freedom and transformation Pitchfork
Her fourth album celebrates the messiness of being human – and is also her most compelling and revealing musicOMH
BC Camplight A Sober Conversation
It’s perhaps the finest release of his career from start to finish, and that’s beating some stiff competition Far Out
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
Spiritbox Tsunami Sea
Kendrick Lamar Damn.
D'Angelo And The Vanguard Black Messiah
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Ghosteen
Self Esteem Prioritise Pleasure
Bob Dylan Rough and Rowdy Ways
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Skeleton Tree
Frank Ocean Channel Orange