1 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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Fifth album from Philadelphia-based folk rock singer-songwriter Timothy Showalter
6.6
The album illustrates the hazy decadence of years on the road balanced with a craving to return home to a life close to resembling normalcy Read Review
Showalter again has a reflective eye on himself, and Hard Love is an expose of his life's pursuits, sometimes self-destructive, and sometimes life-giving, albeit in a roundabout way Read Review
Is it fun to be a rock star? It certainly sounds that way. But is it worth it? That’s open for you to decide Read Review
An aptly named salute to the myriad complexities of intimacy, the nature of comeuppance, and the difficulties of navigating forward in the cruel wake of youth Read Review
Overstuffed and perhaps a bit overambitious, but repeated listening will reap ample rewards Read Review
A conflicted yet summarily good record that breathes new life into good ol' rock'n'roll Read Review
Anchoring him firmly in groove-laden rock realms after an early career flecked with folk Read Review
An odd mix, maybe, but a believable one. Print edition only
The autobiographical songwriter remains as raw and forthcoming as ever Read Review
The latest Strand of Oaks album has a sunnier outlook and a hedonistic streak, evoking Creation Records bands like Primal Scream and Oasis. But it never really adds up to a bold statement Read Review
Timothy Showalter writes from the heart Read Review
While his good intentions to smarten up his drug-sozzled, road-weary life may be commendable, they don’t necessarily make “Quit It” any more agreeable Read Review
A quick-fire shift of styles that never quite feel connected Read Review
There's little to distinguish it from the material of any of thousands of competent bar bands. Print edition only
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Strand Of Oaks: Hard Love
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