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25 April 2024

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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New

Still House PlantsIf I don't make it, I love u

"A truly brilliant piece of work" (10/10 - The Skinny). "One of the best rock records of the year" (9/10 - Exclaim. "Eschews typical song forms in favor of a kind of collective flickering" (8.5/10 - Pitchfork)

New

Taylor SwiftThe Tortured Poets Department

"A terrific reminder of the intense, personal connection Swift can conjure in song" (10/10 - The Independent). "Surprisingly flat and, at times, cringeworthy" (6/10 - NME)

New

Pearl JamDark Matter

"It’s thrilling. It’s moving. It’s surprising. It’s a band still operating at the peaks of their powers" (10/10 - Kerrang!) "Experiment with new sonic avenues after years of playing it safe" (8/10 - NME)

Highest Recent Ratings

Albums to watch

RideInterplay

"When they delve into the big guitar histrionics of yesteryear, as on “Light in a Quiet Room,” the results are breathtaking" (9/10 - Under The Radar). "One of the most intriguing albums of their career to date" (8/10 - Clash)

ElbowAudio Vertigo

"This is phenomenal stuff" (10/10 - The Arts Desk). "An album that further cements their legacy" (9-10 - Clash). "It’s nice to see Elbow stepping outside their comfort zone" (8/10 - Under The Radar)

Kacey MusgravesDeeper Well

"Revels in Laurel Canyon folk and psychedelic pop on her fantastic sixth album" (10/10 - The Independent). "Ring it up as another jewel in the crown" (8/10 - The Irish Times)

Kim GordonThe Collective

"An astonishing work that’s at least as good (if not better) than some of the albums with which she made her fame and fortune" (10/10 musicOMH)

Yard ActWheres My Utopia?

"Wry, riveting, chaotic, and infectious throughout, Where's My Utopia? easily upstages what was an impressive debut" (All Music). "A resounding, charismatic and dance-heavy sophomore LP" (Paste)

Liam Gallagher & John SquireLiam Gallagher John Squire

"This is too much fun to be a one-off" (Mojo). "The half-inched tunes come and go rather forgettably but they’re charged with an electric vigour" (The Independent). OR "An excruciating exercise in bluster and swagger" (The Irish Times)

IdlesTangk

"The sound of a band who’ve finally arrived" (Northern Transmissions). "A raucous expression of love, TANGK is raw, vulnerable and inimitably IDLES" (The Skinny). "Their best yet" (The Irish Times)

Norman Fucking Rockwell

Lana Del Rey

Norman Fucking Rockwell

Album number six from the pop singer-songwriter produced by Jack Antonoff (Lorde, St. Vincent, Taylor Swift)

ADM rating[?]: 8.5
Label: Polydor
UK Release date: 30/08/2019
US Release date: 30/08/2019

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10.0 113211
10.0 | Evening Standard

She has never sounded so exquisite
Read Review
10.0 113267
10.0 | NME

Lana Del Rey's fifth album, 'Norman Fucking Rockwell!' contains multitudes. The way she balances and embodies them on this well-rounded record is nothing short of stunning
Read Review
10.0 113279
10.0 | NOW

Drifting through L.A. looking for love and meaning, she shifts her kitschy patriotism, dropping her flag-draped persona and making peace with a more complex, dystopian reality
Read Review
9.4 113302
9.4 | Pitchfork

On her elegant and complex fifth album, Lana Del Rey sings exquisitely of freedom and transformation and the wreckage of being alive. It establishes her as one of America’s greatest living songwriters
Read Review
9.1 113298
9.1 | Consequence Of Sound

Pop's torch singer flirts with hope on an apocalyptic beach
Read Review
9.0 113300
9.0 | Crack

Musically Norman Fucking Rockwell! feels like an album built to resist time – one of those songwriters’ records that could have been made whenever: Graceland, Blue, Tapestry
Read Review
9.0 113309
9.0 | DIY

It’s Lana Del Rey’s world, we’re just living it
Read Review
9.0 113324
9.0 | Northern Transmissions

Lyrically and musically it all gels together effortlessly, creating the ultimate impact emotionally and one that will be soundtracking all of our own unique highs and lows for years to come
Read Review
9.0 113283
9.0 | All Music

The patient flow, risky songwriting choices and mature character of the album make it the most majestic chapter of Lana Del Rey’s continuing saga of love and disillusionment under the California Sun
Read Review
9.0 113296
9.0 | Rolling Stone

On her thrilling sixth album, the singer’s darkly romantic California dreams can feel like epitaphs for the entire country
Read Review
9.0 113331
9.0 | PopMatters

Lana Del Rey's sixth studio album is a brazen, honest exercise in both studied sophistication as well as the art of not giving a fuck
Read Review
9.0 113925
9.0 | No Ripcord

Think of it as an hour-long car ride peeling down the highway with classic rock blaring out of the radio and no real destination in mind other than where your impulsive nature might take you
Read Review
8.5 113483
8.5 | Spectrum Culture

Hype or no, art or artifice, it’s nonetheless well worth the experience
Read Review
8.2 113369
8.2 | Paste Magazine

An instant folk-pop classic
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8.0 113534
8.0 | musicOMH

This is probably her finest record since Born To Die, and this new partnership with Antonoff ensures that her next move will much anticipated
Read Review
8.0 113612
8.0 | American Songwriter

Del Rey has certainly carved out her own niche in the world of singer-songwriters, much as the quasi-namesake of Norman Fucking Rockwell! did in the art world. This shows her refining that approach, adding a few new brush strokes here and there, but still providing a unique and fascinating tableau as a whole
Read Review
8.0 113266
8.0 | Clash

This album is a testament to her afresh stability and strength, and shows that hope might be a dangerous woman for a thing like her to have — but she’s finally got it
Read Review
8.0 113206
8.0 | Slant Magazine

The album doesn’t so much subvert an idealistic notion of the American dream as perform a postmortem of it
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8.0 113207
8.0 | The Independent

The album is sultry and soporific, sitting somewhere between the minimalist trip-hop of Del Rey’s early days, and the scuzzy desert rock she has toyed with over the years
Read Review
8.0 113325
8.0 | The Observer

With its classic rock references and brazen lyrics, the American’s involving fifth album proves she can do more than merely conjure up a mood
Read Review
7.5 113323
7.5 | A.V. Club

As a mood piece, Norman Fucking Rockwell does an admirable job preserving Del Rey’s mystique while moving her sound forward
Read Review
7.5 113304
7.5 | The Line Of Best Fit

Unlike Del Rey’s past work, Norman Fucking Rockwell sees the singer walk the fine line between tragedy and comedy
Read Review
6.8 113274
6.8 | Sputnik Music (staff)

This is her best album yet, and great moments abound amidst the fat
Read Review
6.0 113251
6.0 | The Guardian

Del Rey goes back to her well of swooning melodies, twanging guitars, Twin Peaks-ish Americana and cinematic ballads about women in love with ne’er-do-wells
Read Review
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