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 the London electronic artist, protégé of fellow London producer Daniel Avery
7.8
Warm, emotive and well-produced, the work of a natural talent that will only get better with time Read Review
Her rise to success is owed to her own creative mind and assuring that taking time to create a solid product can be a virtue Read Review
There are clear parallels with Factory Floor, Mica Levi and early Grimes, but Owens has clearly found her calling. Print edition only
It’s standout track ‘Bird’ that really hooks you as it seamlessly switches from shadowy ambience to a delicious sub-bass beat that sounds as good in headphones as it will when cranked out at dangerously high decibels from some techno dungeon speakers Read Review
Dark synth-pop if the haunting, affecting kind. Print edition only
Welsh singer and producer leaves her indie rock past behind and mixes dream pop and ambient techno on her immensely varied and fully-formed debut Read Review
A debut that is full of depth and one that exposes the scope of electronic music beyond just the club Read Review
Both danceable and meditative music with genuine heart Read Review
Feels like the opening chapter of a thrilling career Read Review
She can create an environment so specific that, after listening, you may find yourself longing to immerse yourself in it again Read Review
Only once it’s over do you feel its spell release you. That is, until the next Kelly Lee Owens album Read Review
Give Owens time to figure out her strengths and weaknesses and she might make something truly formidable Read Review
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Kelly Lee Owens: Kelly Lee Owens
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
The record pleasantly showcases Kesha’s impressive vocal range, emotive delivery and riff performance, but the final song is a spark that serves to highlight the unevenness of the album Beats Per Minute
The American singer re-introduces herself to the world on her sixth studio album musicOMH
After a long legal battle, the pop star’s sixth album harks back to her 2010s era, with a buffet of pop styles and only rare hints of her highly-publicised trauma The Guardian
The pop rebel’s first album as an independent artist, (Period.), has a wild try-anything spirit Rolling Stone
Lorde Virgin
Because for all the grand ideas here, it feels like Lorde has more to say about them, and as the aesthetic and songcraft of Virgin illustrates — almost despite all of this — she is more than skilled enough to do so Beats Per Minute
Frankie Cosmos Different Talking
Different Talking feels like Frankie Cosmos finally coming into its own. By self-producing, the band articulates a broader sound palette than on 2022’s Inner World Peace Northern Transmissions
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