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.
Browse specific styles
The sixth album of psychedelic tinged folk-rock from the Glasgow-based band led by Alex Neilson
7.6
The bleak landscape around Dungeness can provoke contrasting responses, and both the sense of malevolence (it’s the site of a nuclear power station) and stark beauty are well reflected on this masterly recording Read Review
Medieval, experimental, freakish, sexy and spiritual: Trembling Bells’ new album is a folk-rock triumph Read Review
Wild and rebellious British folk band enter adolescence with a howl of song and a glint in the eye Read Review
Another star turn for soprano Lavinia Blackwall. Print edition only
A beautiful ambition record that calls on a whole beautifully broad spectrum of musical vocabulary to create something coherent, engrossing and consistently brilliant Read Review
The mix of atonal improvisation and medievalism is scrumped from the same orchard as 1970s prog-folk Read Review
Here is a band drunk on music, with the desire to play it all at once and the talent to actually pull it off Read Review
The strongest songs on Dungeness have Trembling Bells playing at a fierce peak. Print edition only
Ultimately Dungeness is a fun psych rock record, but it could've benefited from being reined in a little Read Review
Roll over video for more options
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