21 January 2019
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 by the Leeds-based duo Liza Violet and Ryan Needham featuring a guest appearance from Brix Smith
7.1
Motorik beats, distorted guitars, electro-clash synths and complementary vocal interplay Read Review
A communicable joy in weird noise. Print edition only
Overall, there are more steps sideways than great leaps forward. Print edition only
Menace Beach’s Black Rainbow Sound is one of the most accessible and thrilling noise rock albums out there at the moment, and it's not even close Read Review
With Black Rainbow Sound, Menace Beach continue to explore indie rock with a slight experimental twist and a direct, pop-influenced approach. Read Review
Menace Beach are using a larger musical palate and it mostly works, swapping the messy surf guitars and charming slacker vibes while allowing the songs to speak for themselves Read Review
A collection of fun, interesting moments fail to add up to a must-hear album Read Review
Black Rainbow Sound demonstrates a massive shift for Menace Beach; exuding the same visceral power and anthemic pop tunes we've come to expect but with a funky new twist Read Review
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Steve Mason About The Light
The fourth solo album from the former Beta Band member is his first to use a live band in the studio The FT
James Blake Assume Form
Rich music and guest appearances celebrate a new-found sense of companionship The FT
A love letter to his partner brimming with guest spots and west-coast vibes, James Blake’s fourth LP is a long way from his ‘blubstep’ roots The Observer
Sharon Van Etten Remind Me Tomorrow
A consummate surgeon of relationships The Observer
Maggie Rogers Heard It In A Past Life
Past Life, the overportentous, dragged-out ballad at the album’s heart, reminds you that viral doesn’t always mean catchy The Observer
Uplifting treatise on love and its fragility. Print edition only Mojo
Earl Sweatshirt Some Rap Songs
A work of fractured excellence. Print edition only Mojo
It sticks in the mind for a good while after and just keeps bringing you back in with fantastic production, brilliant pop songwriting and a central personality as easy to like and support as any on the current music scene Clash
Remind Me Tomorrow isn’t as consistently captivating as Tramp or Are We There, but it’s nonetheless a delightful return, one that gives us a new (pleasingly less traumatic) window into Van Etten’s world Drowned In Sound
It is the peak of her songwriting and her most atmospheric, emotionally piercing album to date Pitchfork
These are songs that suggest that this is how Steve Mason has always wanted Steve Mason to sound PopMatters
His most direct, sincere LP yet The Line Of Best Fit
The singer-songwriter balances darkness and dreams on a fantastic new album Rolling Stone
Her most confident effort to date, elevating her palette through something that can best be described as a confessional purge Consequence Of Sound
Steve Gunn The Unseen Inbetween
It is a record that demands attention and close listening God Is In The TV
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