24 June 2018
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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Third album from the Portland experimental duo and first with a chamber ensemble
7.2
Nestled between beauty, sadness, confusion, and grace, these six pieces share a common ground and grow from it, which is integral to how Rotations makes such an impression Read Review
Overall, while the album is varied, it's consistently absorbing as it reveals itself with a sense of suspense through its melancholy ambience Read Review
The chamber ensemble expanded the possibilities for them immensely, but it’s unnecessarily timid at times. Overall, though, Rotations is a successful venture from a duo who have carved a niche but refuse to just whittle mindlessly Read Review
Golden Retriever has proven that a basic combination of bass clarinet and modular synthesizer can take you more places than you might think Read Review
There’s a meditative cadence to Rotations that gains potency as it progresses, given that we witness an unraveling of thought Read Review
Kamasi Washington Heaven & Earth
As bold and maximalist, as rhythmic and righteous, as one might expect from the reedsman who helped kickstart the global jazz renaissance. A must-have Evening Standard
Nine Inch Nails Bad Witch
He’s headed back to the dark seam he tapped for still horrifying 1990s albums like The Downward Spiral and The Fragile Evening Standard
Gang Gang Dance Kazuashita
Kazuashita is impeccably made, but it could stand a little more chaos A.V. Club
Earth is loaded with mentally and emotionally draining songs A.V. Club
It establishes Washington as a composer and arranger of dizzying potential and still underscores his twin rep as a soloist and jazz conceptualist All Music
ARP Zebra
As unconventional as it is relaxing, Zebra is perhaps Arp's most inviting sound-world yet All Music
Protomartyr Consolation E.P.
This dose of bruising revolt results in a strong antidote to our collective liberal disgust Punk News
Engaging and magical throughout DIY
Johnny Marr Call the Comet
Thirty-five years on from breaking into the industry, Marr’s still got plenty of tricks up his sleeve and certainly proves it on his best and most interesting solo album yet Gig Soup
Kids See Ghosts Kids See Ghosts
No one may be more responsible for introducing a dark mood to mainstream hip-hop than Kanye West and Kid Cudi Spectrum Culture
It's easy to get overawed by the sheer magnitude of such a work, but it lives up to the audacious premise grandly Under The Radar
The Carters Everything Is Love
Beyoncé and Jay-Z collaborative album Everything Is Love stands as a monumental testament to keeping it real Slant Magazine
Acclaimed saxophonist Kamasi Washington drops another ambitious, multi-disc album that swings, grooves, and inspires PopMatters
Trent Reznor’s third EP-length NIN release in the last two years is the best of the lot, with a raw and rough sound that feels both unfinished and alive Pitchfork
Gruff Rhys Babelsberg
The Super Furry Animals frontman has always been political, but he’s never sounded as spiteful as he does on this satirical portrait of the United States in 2018 Pitchfork
Since we've been around, that is. So, the highest-rated albums from the past eight years or so. Rankings are calculated to two decimal places.
Kendrick Lamar To Pimp A Butterfly
Kendrick Lamar Damn.
D'Angelo And The Vanguard Black Messiah
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Skeleton Tree
Frank Ocean Channel Orange
Anaïs Mitchell Hadestown
Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Leonard Cohen You Want It Darker
Sufjan Stevens Carrie & Lowell
Mount Eerie A Crow Looked at Me