4 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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Debut album from Australian surf-rock duo Zach Stephenson and Billy Fleming
6.7
A ripping album, boasting songwriting chops and production know-how usually found in bands with far more experience Read Review
Boronia isn't going to change the course of music history, but it could just make a night of yours a little sweeter Read Review
These are tall-can songs, cuts for open window driving down the highway, music that never tries to be anything more than two guys providing the soundtrack to their own small-town story Read Review
No matter the lack of experimentation, there are few people that could soundtrack summer better than two Aussie beach-punks, and Hockey Dad fulfills the position entirely Read Review
Sporting a slightly more robust sound than on their EP, Boronia is high on rowdy beach-punk fuzz, rhythmic thump, and some tuneful songwriting Read Review
Producer Tom Iansek captures Hockey Dad’s energy well, highlighting their electric jangle, occasional rushes of frothy distortion and lots of bubblegum-popping claps Read Review
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Hockey Dad: Boronia
Kae Tempest Self Titled
Despair runs through the Londoner’s fifth album but, in what is essentially a love letter to the trans community, his home town and partner, a hard-won beauty breaks through The Guardian
Five albums into an already sterling career, Tempest has made no real missteps, keeping his catalog consistently interesting, emotionally engaging, and, above all, incisive All Music
It's often raw, venerable, painful stuff, as on the impassioned charge of "Breathe", but it's also peppered with moments of joy. Print edition only Uncut
‘Self-Titled’ makes up for its musical instability with Tempest’s sharp penmanship, and it is difficult not to be raptured on their next word Clash
The award-winning poet and rapper's fifth studio album is a beefy, self-assured celebration of newfound identity NME
Instinctive and raw, yet tender to the touch, his most powerful statement yet demands to be heard musicOMH
Kesha . [Period]
Achieves a post-Brat sound that’s lathered in quirky personality The Arts Desk
Spectacular serves sit alongside catharsis and contemplation on the pop star’s first release on her own label, Kesha Records NME
Loyle Carner hopefully!
Though vastly different from its predecessors, in a way, ‘hopefully !’ feels like a celebration of an intrinsically Loyle Carner quality Dork
Pulp More
It’s classic Pulp: gloriously awkward, sharply observed, and still dancing proudly to its own weird rhythm. We’ve missed them. They’re back. More, please Dork
Addison Rae Addison
She’s not here to reinvent the wheel, just to spin it in diamanté heels while lip-syncing into a Hello Kitty mirror Dork
Haim I quit
‘I quit’ is a record that’s fallen straight out of 1977, bringing in whispers of Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young and Gloria Gaynor: one or two more daring decisions and it would be truly great Dork
. isn't just a good album, it's a decisively great one, full stop All Music
Following an experimental phase and a long-gestating split from RCA and Kemosabe Records, Kesha resumes her interest in party pop with a spirited sixth album that’s unfortunately littered with lazy, obnoxious, and dated songs Paste Magazine
The singer seems torn between unruliness and introspection Slant Magazine
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