23 February 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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Third studio album from the New York rapper with guest appearances from FKA twigs, French Montana, Juicy J, Kid Cudi, Kodak Black, Moby, Frank Ocean, Skepta
6.4
The Harlem rapper's latest is loud, frenetic, and about as vibrant as hip-hop gets Read Review
Sonically, Testing is an experimental project. A shedding of the 29-year-old artist's old skin and a rebirth of something more profound and slightly more complicated Read Review
On his third studio album, Rocky is more experimental and personal. But for music that relies on the New York rapper’s artful intuitions, it’s unfortunate his intuitions are often very basic Read Review
An intriguing mix of garbled white noise and amp interference interspersed with splashes of instrumentals and a smattering of A-list features Read Review
ASAP Rocky takes to more experimentation in his music to match up with his style of fashion Read Review
Testing is what it says it is, though this far into his career, he should be doing better than merely a passing grade Read Review
The rapper’s aversion to the mainstream takes his third album to some glorious heights, with the help of Skepta and Frank Ocean. But is his swaggering decadence wearing thin? Read Review
Testing’s title might suggest experimentation, but it delivers more on tentativeness, with a smattering of solid songs mixed into aesthetically interesting but unresolved experiments Read Review
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Sam Fender People Watching
Fender stands taller than ever, retaining his ascension to that oft-compared throne The Line Of Best Fit
On his third album, the UK’s own heartland rocker casts an empathetic eye on modern British life. Even as he shouts at max volume, he sometimes gets lost in the wall of sound Pitchfork
The Murder Capital Blindness
A band continuing to prove why they are so much more than the post-punk tag delivered to them all those years earlier Clash
This album is a quintessential Sam Fender experience – a heartfelt, homegrown immersion of the mundane and extraordinary people and places this dweller was lucky enough to know Clash
Youth Lagoon Rarely Do I Dream
Incorporates elements of all prior iterations of Powers, restoring a lusher, full-band palette bedded in synthesizers and fuzz, but also incorporating svelter moments and plenty of tape audio from those home movies All Music
Where his previous album revealed Fender to be a songwriter of depth, People Watching explores life’s ugliness and finds excellence The Observer
Mandrake Handshake Earth-Sized Worlds
This is a debut that is hard to describe and that works in its favour, it is a fascinating listen that defies categorisation but never derails Clash
The Wombats Oh! The Ocean
An album that across its 12 tracks serves as an ambitious and complete evolution of what The Wombats are. Direct and electric, that status isn’t just secure – it’s getting bigger Dork
Oh! The Ocean is one of the best albums of the year so far God Is In The TV
The Wombats’ Oh! The Ocean struggles with authenticity, balancing earnestness and self-critique, yet hints at untapped artistic potential PopMatters
What may be The Wombats' most plain fun album to date. Print edition only Uncut
The Liverpool trio prove there’s (some) life after indie obscurity musicOMH
Their sound is coated in a new varnish which leaves the listener feeling as rejuvenated as the band Clash
Rarely Do I Dream is vital and exciting, and shows its audience, maybe for the first time, a Trevor Powers with a solid foundation and lots of gas in the tank Under The Radar
Trevor Powers’ new album under his beloved moniker is a collection of music filled with kind self-reflection and hopeful imagination where the Boise singer-songwriter approaches the totality of life’s small, digitized and grainy moments by showcasing and scattering them across irresistible melodies and buttery piano leads Paste Magazine
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
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
Dave We’re All Alone In This Together