24 March 2026
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
Second album of classic pop from Lebanese/American singer Michael Holbrook Penniman
6.1
Mika goes in joyful pursuit of big melodies and towering choruses. Read Review
He’s created the consummate pop album for 2009, seemingly on his own terms and devoid of tired formulas. Read Review
Print edition only
His songwriting craft and vocal dazzle may be flagrantly uncool, but they're also refreshingly unencumbered Read Review
Smart, thoughtful pop, flying in the face of his songs where pseudo-classical collides with West End musical foppery. Read Review
Contains far too much sugar to consume in one sitting Read Review
Unlikely to seduce the sceptical, and too equivocal for the evangelists, The Boy Who Knew Too Much is ultimately nowhere near as smart as it'd like to be. Read Review
At the core of these songs are gleaming melodies that rarely fail to hit the mark Read Review
He can’t rely on mere quirkiness to keep our attention. But he can still call on his sharp pop sensibility. Read Review
Even if people eventually grow tired of the jazz hands, he’ll be firing hits into the ether for as long as he cares to do so. Read Review
The Boy Who Knew Too Much's consistent hookiness means it can only be considered a success. Read Review
Mika is every bit as contrary and infuriating as he was two years ago. That lack of compromise could turn out to be one of his greatest strengths. Read Review
You only wish his maturing process would gather more speed. Read Review
Mika's faith in the campy excess of Freddie Mercury/Elton John-style pomp pop is bracing. But over the course of an album, the shtick's charm erodes. Read Review
There are enough irritations alongside the hooks to grate on even the most sainted of listeners Read Review
There's no denying Mika's technical prowess, but there's an increasing sense of it being frittered away on slim ideas tricked out with layers of interlocking vocals: froth and irritation in equal measure. Read Review
Mika: The Boy Who Knew Too Much
Ladytron Paradises
Ladytron have produced an album that, from its inception, sought to invoke the same spirit that the band had 25 years ago Far Out
Gorillaz The Mountain
The strongest case in years that Gorillaz can still make records that matter as records Dork
Kim Gordon Play Me
'Play me' doesn’t try to comfort. It tries to provoke, energise and outlast the scroll Dork
The Orielles Only You Left
These songs come from months of demo-hoarding and forensic listening, the band archiving every practice-room spark before lovingly picking through the results Dork
James Blake Trying Times
Blake sounds energised by the room he has carved out for himself Dork
Harry Styles Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.
This isn’t an album built like a straight line from hook to hook. It moves in waves, often favouring texture and atmosphere over immediate release Dork
Underscores U
It’s technical excellence as a musical product cannot be overstated. For a pop album to be this busy yet possess a pocket as deep and rich as underscores displays here is simply amazing Sputnik Music (staff)
Indie rock icon Kim Gordon acerbically wrestles with the state of the world over hip-hop and industrial beats on Play Me PopMatters
The former electro-pop enfant terrible swings big on her latest album, compressing all her split personalities and eclectic tastes into a high-gloss, high-stakes gamble to remake pop on her own terms Pitchfork
On U, she finds a clearly-defined, rounded-out identity in her music for the first time, and she delivers the most immediate and the most robust work of her career The Line Of Best Fit
Performing, writing and producing everything herself, April Grey pares back her hyperpop electronics for an LP in thrall to 90s pop-R&B, with songs that big stars would die for The Guardian
April Harper Grey’s latest hits all the beats of a classic pop record — a choreo-primed single, a power ballad, a post-breakup closure anthem — without overstaying its welcome Paste Magazine
A tour-de-force of production chops that cements April Harper Grey as a key auteur in the future of the genre NME
Alexis Taylor Paris In The Spring
Paris in the Spring is a gem of a record which, while never over-reaching its ambition, sparkles with electronic ingenuity as it takes in all seasons of human experience Spectrum Culture
It's a beautiful collection of genre-hopping songs. Print edition only Uncut
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
Rosalía Lux
Kendrick Lamar Damn.
D'Angelo And The Vanguard Black Messiah
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Ghosteen
Spiritbox Tsunami Sea
Self Esteem Prioritise Pleasure
Hayley Williams Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party
Bob Dylan Rough and Rowdy Ways