12 August 2020
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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Second album from the actor/jazz pianist with his band features contributions from Sharon Van Etten and Fiona Apple
7.6
It’s jazz for enjoyment by people with an encyclopedic knowledge of players right alongside someone who might have gone through life until now believing that jazz was something you only heard in elevators Read Review
I was hooked from the first notes of the deliciously insistent left-hand piano motif from Goldblum that ushers in 'Let’s Face the Music And Dance' Read Review
One of 2019’s most surprising releases: one that feels destined to help quash the doldrums of winter, perfectly executed by one of the most unlikely sources you could imagine Read Review
As you might except and hope, each artist brings their own personality to the table, but it's an album that also knits together beautifully as a cohesive whole Read Review
I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This is imbued with the charisma of its creator; it’s a playful and inviting album whose first half zips through the mostly vocal-led numbers with ease and sprightly energy Read Review
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Creeper Sex, Death and The Infinite Void
Like its predecessor, Sex, Death, & the Infinite Void treats naval-gazing like a spectator sport, with each death-obsessed narrative resolving into a gang-vocal crescendo ("God can't save us, so let's live like sinners") of stale cigarette smoke and beer-can-crushing outsider solidarity All Music
Another Sky I Slept On The Floor
Another Sky have finally found their voice with a debut album that’s fully realised and utterly engrossing Beats Per Minute
Biffy Clyro A Celebration Of Endings
Endings is ripe with evidence of meticulous mixing and production; everything from the across-the-board crispness of every instrument and vocal to the painstaking effort exercised to ensure the smallest of musical details remains noticeable American Songwriter
Jason Molina Eight Gates
The late songwriter recorded the unreleased Eight Gates in the ’00s. The posthumous version sounds by turns haunting and unfinished Pitchfork
The Microphones Microphones in 2020
Building to an almost apathetically-made point about existence, ephemeral and enduring as it is, The Microphones in 2020 unspools like a western novel Crack
A strong and varied offering Gigwise
Moses Sumney græ
Moses Sumney’s sophomore album is an expansive and sweeping meditation on liminality and the process of defining oneself Under The Radar
Jaga Jazzist Pyramid
This is not music for the faint of heart, but it seems the Jaga Jazzist’s move to Brainfeeder has opened up for them yet more frontiers of space rock and jazz to conquer Under The Radar
Aminé Limbo
Limbo feels like the emergence of a new artist: one whose growth has taught him exactly how to use his voice Crack
'Limbo' is certainly not a representation of his best work, but rather an example of a talented artist not pushing his boundaries Clash
The album proves that the rapper can keep pace with his contemporaries while drawing on the history of hip-hop Slant Magazine
The Portland rapper is more existential than ever on his sophomore record Paste Magazine
On his new album, the Portland rapper rediscovers the appealing lightness that made him famous Pitchfork
‘A Celebration of Endings’ finds Biffy Clyro in rich, untouchable form – a band at the peak of their powers Northern Transmission
Washed Out Purple Noon
Inspired by another place in another time, Purple Noon is a transformative piece of work Northern Transmission
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
Fiona Apple Fetch The Bolt Cutters
Kendrick Lamar Damn.
D'Angelo And The Vanguard Black Messiah
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Ghosteen
Bob Dylan Rough and Rowdy Ways
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Skeleton Tree
Frank Ocean Channel Orange
Anaïs Mitchell Hadestown
Run The Jewels RTJ4