16 August 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
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
Roll over video for more options
Nicki Minaj Queen
There are enough good songs to give Queen a pass, but if it’s going to be 19 tracks, it needs to be more consistently awesome. Quality over quantity, please – life is short! NOW
Death Cab For Cutie Thank You for Today
Hopefully, there's more energy moving forward but all in all, Thank You for Today is a record we should be thankful has blossomed into existence, especially on the heels of how relatable it can be Punk News
Felicita Hej!
By turns beguiling and unnerving, at times it feels like an exercise in disorientation. Print edition only Q
felicita's hej! demonstrates harmony through cultural hybridity, asserting a necessary post-Brexit statement PopMatters
It's vulnerable and melancholic, but doesn't neglect the anarchic fun that the label has been built around. hej! is one of PC Music's most well-rounded records yet Resident Advisor
Hej! marks an evolution for felicita and, by extension, PC Music. It is a big twist away from tongue in cheek nature for which they are at times dismissed. The Line Of Best Fit
It is a hodgepodge of tracks, seemingly made with little thought to how they will all sound in sequence, and because of this it doesn’t have much more consistency than an eclectic music collection on shuffle. Which is a shame, because there are good ideas here music OMH
It’s an album that shows the past and the future of this artist, and it’s one that seems to have boundaries well beyond the usual fare that we hear from PC Music The 405
Whether Nicki Minaj is the rightful queen of rap is up for debate, but the album, despite having several songs that were more filler than functional ("Sir," "Majesty," "Chun Swae"), highlights her ability to adapt to an ever-changing sonic landscape Exclaim
Oh Sees Smote Reverser
Don't let that cover art fool you, Oh Sees aren't going metal, but they are jamming out Earbuddy
Foxing Nearer My God
Foxing continue to stand above many of their contemporaries, never shying away from using exactly the instrument needed to make the moment memorable The 405
YG Stay Dangerous
YG’s third full-length mainly concerns itself on displaying the rapper’s pop instincts in both sound and technique Spectrum Culture
Oh Sees are a well-oiled machine, but that machine looks more like a conveyor belt with each release Loud And Quiet
There’s enough going on in the grooves of Smote Reverser to satisfy your psych and/or prog urges for the foreseeable future, let alone in the few months it’ll take Dwyer to follow it up Record Collector
When Dwyer steeps the prog in garage frenzy, the pot boils. Print edition only Mojo
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