14 April 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 album from the Richmond, Virgina rock singer-songwriter
7.9
Silky earworms of the highest order, with Mann admirably making solitude and sadness entities that should be inhabited instead of spurned Read Review
Mental Illness lays its hurt and sadness out so effectively that it’s hard to completely accept it as pure fiction Read Review
As elegantly dark as a wrought iron gate. Print edition only
As in good short stories, every element in her songs works to support a single theme Read Review
This is not a flash album, there are no virtuoso flourishes by any of the players. Every note has been carefully positioned to frame her voice in a sympathetic and supportive way and recorded simply and elegantly Read Review
It's no maudlin affair, because of its insistent melodies and deft lyrics. Print edition only
Becomes something of a balm for troubled times; it's an album that finds reassurance within the darkest corners Read Review
One of Mann's most ravishing and affecting hymns to solitude Read Review
A compelling consistency of mood makes Metal Illness easy to get lost in Read Review
The music adds a gentle beauty to the proceedings, sometimes in contrast to the heaviness of what Mann sings about Read Review
Mental Illness is Aimee Mann’s quintessential statement, tempering the discord of life with elegant chamber folk. Mann fills her songs with ordinary people struggling against operatic levels of pain Read Review
Mann embraces the sadness of her music Read Review
If there’s ever been any doubt as to Mann’s poetic sensibilities, let them be laid to rest Read Review
Eminently listenable and proves that there is always room for downbeat folk in your collection Read Review
Remains more of the same, never quite hitting any peaks, and never missing a step either Read Review
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Aimee Mann: Mental Illness
Djo The Crux
Recording as Djo, the star’s third album is catchy and melodic, with echoes of The Beatles and west coast psychedelia The FT
Bon Iver SABLE, fABLE
The band’s fifth release harks back to their acclaimed 2008 debut For Emma, Forever Ago The FT
This companion album to last year’s Sable EP gives those sorrowful songs a soulful lift, with Vernon’s beautiful falsetto vocals to the fore The Observer
A record of rare beauty and hope that fits neatly into the catalogue of an outfit that has never failed to deliver something extraordinary Clash
Mamalarky Hex Key
Mainstream success isn’t beyond Mamalarky’s grasp, but they would have to ditch their eccentricities to achieve it. Heaven forbid they ever do The Line Of Best Fit
Throughout the twelve tracks on Crux, Joe Keery proves time and again that he’s not just a pretty face, and not even just a great actor – he’s also a very accomplished musician and songwriter with a huge future ahead of him God Is In The TV
SPELLLING Portrait Of My Heart
Portrait of My Heart is beautiful, emotionally potent, and intricate. So in other words, it’s just another Spellling album Spectrum Culture
Snapped Ankles HARD TIMES FURIOUS DANCING
Hard Times Furious Dancing needs to exist in the context of global collapse, class warfare and cascading environmental disaster in order to be more than just a solid new wave record with sharp, if not superficial, politically charged lyrics Spectrum Culture
The Los Angeles band’s third album is the clearest reconciliation between the tension of their easygoing indie pop and their meticulous musicianship yet Paste Magazine
A record that challenges as much as it charms Northern Transmissions
Hex Key wavers on infectious hooks fused with eccentric strut but it also seems afraid of the plunge necessary to ring out each cut’s real creative worth Far Out
Hex Key is compellingly weird and rhythmically and melodically catchy, with each of its fluorescent, silver-, or neon-colored tracks holding earworm potential All Music
Too much of this record sounds like it could have been made by almost anyone and that's not good, and neither in the end is SABLE, fABLE All Music
Justin Vernon’s version of ‘radiant pop music’ is to brighten his earthy, acoustic landscapes with synths and drum pads The Independent
Justin Vernon is incapable of making a ‘happy’ record. The upbeat moments here are inevitably followed by deep longueurs. But the abiding feeling is one of peace The Irish Times
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