4 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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Fourth album of experimental electronic hip-hop from the Black Moth Super Rainbow frontman, made mostly with pre-digital synths
6.1
Though the album isn’t an entreaty for mass acceptance, Tobacco’s music does sound increasingly comfortable in its stitched-up skin Read Review
As much as Sweatbox Dynasty shoots for decaying, warped synth rhythms, Tobacco can't hide his penchant for sleek melodies Read Review
The Tobacco bug is a harmless .exe file, triggered remotely every few years by an anonymous prank hacker in Pittsburg. First codenamed as Black Moth Super Rainbow, the program would mash together corrupted MIDI files – such as flutes, synthesizers, acoustic guitars, and vocoders - into a 40-minute collection of MP3s Read Review
Tries for a slightly less confrontational, still-unconventional take on synthpop Read Review
Dynasty may be unsettling to casual listeners, but deep in the heart of this record is a clandestine passion for melody and soulful grooves Read Review
Because it hovers in an uncommitted middle ground, it never becomes clear what Fec’s trying to do Read Review
The whole endeavour feels destined for the bargain bin Read Review
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Tobacco: Sweatbox Dynasty
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