24 March 2026
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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Mark Ronson produced second album from London based indie pop soul band
6.4
The more sophisticated the music, the more boyishly excited the band sound to be playing it – a pleasure that proves infectious Read Review
Print edition only
The record feels like a sequence of movie scenes from start to finish: opener ‘The Walk Alone’ could accompany footage of Sean Connery as 007, perving on bikini-clad women outside a hotel pool. ‘London’ sounds like the merry-go-round scene from Mary Poppins – milk, cookies and vomit inducing innocence. ‘Running on Empty’ goes a bit ‘Greased Lightning’, but still makes it home in time for supper Read Review
A brilliantly crafted, hook-laden collection of songs that may be slightly too enthralled with '60s guitar pop to really make an impact in an '80s loving music scene, but deserves to be heard by a wider audience than their debut. Having Mark Ronson's name attached may seem like an obvious way of getting people to notice them Read Review
Its use of Walker Brothers baritone and Love-style brass, production courtesy of Mark Ronson and strings from Owen Pallett, sounds not dissimilar to the Last Shadow Puppets album Read Review
It wouldn’t be surprising if Mark Ronson's involvement as producer proves to be a divisive factor in people’s reaction to this record, perhaps complaining that it’s just more crass pop-up sounds hacked from musical history with his magpie ears. But that would be unfair Read Review
There is something very cheering about The Rumble Strips' adherence to the London likely lad persona at a time when all their brooding indie boy peers are re intoning gloomily about student loans Read Review
The band and Ronson have aimed for a widescreen panoramic sound, falling just short of the truly big picture Read Review
Their first album was widely regarded as being in thrall to Dexy's Midnight Runners but this second effort has moved from beneath Kevin Rowland's skirts and revealed the group as brave pioneers on the trail of wide-screen music for modern youth Read Review
A strong set of songs and an even stronger set of performances. The elements come together best on the slow-building title track and on Dem Girls, where Charlie Waller confirms that he’s a singer to be reckoned with Read Review
Mark Ronson’s uncluttered production works to his charges’ favour, most notably on the cinematically lovelorn title track Read Review
A melodramatic 21st-century Dexys Midnight Runners. This is no bad thing Read Review
The vast majority of this elegant Brit jangle feels a bit recycled. Read Review
The Rumble Strips: Welcome To The Walk Alone
Ladytron Paradises
Ladytron have produced an album that, from its inception, sought to invoke the same spirit that the band had 25 years ago Far Out
Gorillaz The Mountain
The strongest case in years that Gorillaz can still make records that matter as records Dork
Kim Gordon Play Me
'Play me' doesn’t try to comfort. It tries to provoke, energise and outlast the scroll Dork
The Orielles Only You Left
These songs come from months of demo-hoarding and forensic listening, the band archiving every practice-room spark before lovingly picking through the results Dork
James Blake Trying Times
Blake sounds energised by the room he has carved out for himself Dork
Harry Styles Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.
This isn’t an album built like a straight line from hook to hook. It moves in waves, often favouring texture and atmosphere over immediate release Dork
Underscores U
It’s technical excellence as a musical product cannot be overstated. For a pop album to be this busy yet possess a pocket as deep and rich as underscores displays here is simply amazing Sputnik Music (staff)
Indie rock icon Kim Gordon acerbically wrestles with the state of the world over hip-hop and industrial beats on Play Me PopMatters
The former electro-pop enfant terrible swings big on her latest album, compressing all her split personalities and eclectic tastes into a high-gloss, high-stakes gamble to remake pop on her own terms Pitchfork
On U, she finds a clearly-defined, rounded-out identity in her music for the first time, and she delivers the most immediate and the most robust work of her career The Line Of Best Fit
Performing, writing and producing everything herself, April Grey pares back her hyperpop electronics for an LP in thrall to 90s pop-R&B, with songs that big stars would die for The Guardian
April Harper Grey’s latest hits all the beats of a classic pop record — a choreo-primed single, a power ballad, a post-breakup closure anthem — without overstaying its welcome Paste Magazine
A tour-de-force of production chops that cements April Harper Grey as a key auteur in the future of the genre NME
Alexis Taylor Paris In The Spring
Paris in the Spring is a gem of a record which, while never over-reaching its ambition, sparkles with electronic ingenuity as it takes in all seasons of human experience Spectrum Culture
It's a beautiful collection of genre-hopping songs. Print edition only Uncut
Since we've been around, that is. So, the highest-rated albums from the past twelve years or so. Rankings are calculated to two decimal places.
Kendrick Lamar To Pimp A Butterfly
Fiona Apple Fetch The Bolt Cutters
Rosalía Lux
Kendrick Lamar Damn.
D'Angelo And The Vanguard Black Messiah
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Ghosteen
Spiritbox Tsunami Sea
Self Esteem Prioritise Pleasure
Hayley Williams Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party
Bob Dylan Rough and Rowdy Ways