18 May 2012
Here's how it works: The Recent Releases chart brings together critical reaction to new albums from more than 50 publications. It's updated daily. Albums qualify with 5 reviews, and drop out after 6 weeks into the longer timespan charts.
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Tracks the critics are loving: hear them now
" Highlights include DJ Ease My Mind which is sure to become a club anthem" The Line Of Best Fit
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" When they hit full, throat-ripping, riff-driven throttle, such as on Gebbie Street, they sound superbly riotous" The Fly
" The finest jangle pop this side of the Rockies" The Digital Fix
" Simply put, it’s one of the singles of the year" music OMH
" Metamorphoses commence in unison on the mighty creepiness of the album’s near-seven-minute centerpiece, Simmer. And does it ever" Pop Matters
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A reclusive dubstep producer, a bunch of hardcore punks, a little-known DJ, an avant-garde sound artist, an experimental doom drone band, a 71-year-old blues veteran ... and so on. Has there ever been ...
Now everyone's had their fun with the Best Albums of 2011 roundups, it's time to take stock of the cold hard facts of what really were the most critically-acclaimed albums over the ...
The Guardian and Bowlegs have now been added to our Best Albums of 2011 critical roundup and both agree on the No1
8.7 reasons why Polly Jean had to win
Just add a sizzling barbie and a chilled beer
Nominations for this year's gong have been announced. Who will win? We think we have the answer
We're six months through the year: Time to take stock of the most critically acclaimed albums to date
We're three months into the year: time for the first look back at the most critically-acclaimed music so far
All the top 20s from the ADM sources (or those that bothered, anyway)
Forget perverse opinions and personal foibles. When it comes to the most acclaimed albums of the year, here's the facts and figures ...
The ADM roundup of the critics' Best Of 2010 lists
The nominations have been announced but how did the shortlisted albums rate with ADM?
We're six months through 2010. What better time to take stock of the most critically acclaimed albums of the first half of the year.
Spring's here. And so is the first look back at the most critically-acclaimed music of the year so far
Not THAT Prince. The Pantha Du one ...
A tastefully festive compilation for your delectation
Saved & stored, by popular demand
The AnyDecentMusic Top 10 of 2009, not based on illogical personal preferences, idiosyncratic judgments or peer pressure, but on hard, cold mathematical facts
The AnyDecentMusic roundup of the critics' Best of 2009 album choices
NME and Clash Magazine's Best of 2009 have now been added to our year-end reckoning. So what's the 'Best Of' the 'Best Ofs'? Here's the updated ultimate, definitive and absolute ...
Malian "blues rock" band win album of the year
The one time of the year when we get a chance to say what we like
Squarepusher Ufabulum
In the form of his life. Print edition only Uncut
The Magnetic North Orkney: Symphony of the Magnetic North
Majestic yet frustratingly aloof. Print edition only Uncut
The windswept islands captured in music. Print edition only Mojo
No, Squarepusher doesn’t seem to give a damn, but he does want to smoosh eardrums with whacky stuff. More power to him The Arts Desk
Some of the tracks are over-arranged which gives the album, overall, a bit of an identity crisis Bowlegs
An evocative, indelible, and utterly majestic ode to Orkney AU Magazine
Ultimately Ufabulum’s jarring stylistic schism may make the album tough to digest for many people, but the quality of Jenkinson’s craftsmanship remains constant throughout The Skinny
These are timeless songs which rather than being of any genre - not even the hard-to-define 'folk' - seem to spring from the bare open horizons, low-lying islands and sea of Orkney, creating a unique bleak and windswept aesthetic The Quietus
Funky as he wants to be — EPCOT-rocking splatterjazz, rainbow-tasting ravewave, Inspector Gadget ringtone funk Spin
Each track is rich with strings and woodwind, but all with an unavoidable folky edge. It’s a formula that works, and works to the extent that sets it aside in terms of originality music OMH
A truly beguiling record Drowned In Sound
A bit cold, clinical and repetitive NME
Hugely impressive, technically, but too cold and forbidding for many tastes BBC
Public Image Ltd This Is PiL
It may not be of the calibre of Metal Box, but it finds its maker firmly in 2012, not 1979, and with plenty still to grouse about Uncut
Saint Etienne Words And Music By Saint Etienne
These songs are their sharpest in over a decade. Print edition only NME
What's finding favour with bloggers & other review sites
The Mars Volta Noctourniquet
Bruce Springsteen Wrecking Ball
Andrew Bird Break It Yourself
Following up the highly-acclaimed Teen Dream album was never going to be an easy feat but Beach House appear to have succeeded with Bloom. It has 10s from two sources and a 9.1 from Pitchfork, while FasterLouder see it as a "transportive journey"
Since we've been around, that is. So, the highest-rated albums from the past three and a half years or so
Anaïs Mitchell Hadestown
Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
PJ Harvey Let England Shake
Ry Cooder Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down
Arcade Fire The Suburbs
Tom Waits Bad As Me
Janelle Monáe The ArchAndroid
Joanna Newsom Have One On Me
Gillian Welch The Harrow & The Harvest
Burial Kindred