2 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.
Browse specific styles
Second posthumous album from the rapper following his death in February 2020 includes guest appearances from Kanye West, Pusha T, Rick Ross, 21 Savage, Future, Chris Brown, Dua Lipa and Pharrell
5.6
Faith is the ultimate affirmation of Pop Smoke’s musical transcendence Read Review
‘Faith’ succeeds by offering not ony an elegiac portrait of Pop Smoke, but also a vision of what he could have become Read Review
The rapper’s second posthumous album has some dazzling moments, but ultimately feels like business as usual for an audience whose attention may be elsewhere Read Review
Despite poor production choices and lazy song structures, Pop Smoke's energy and solo spurts of brilliance won't allow for this stale posthumous release to tarnish his legacy Read Review
The Canarsie don's raw talent is overshadowed by superfluous guest spots on the second album to be released since his tragic death in 2020 Read Review
Pop Smoke’s second posthumous album sounds like it’s solely designed to generate clicks as a new generation of rap fans continues to be exploited for their streams Read Review
Roll over video for more options
Bill Callahan My Days of 58
Idle fans will likely lean on ‘Too Many Birds’ for their fix of Callahan’s ramshackle folk rather than this patchwork of passing thoughts Far Out
Mitski Nothing's About to Happen to Me
In a cultural moment obsessed with constant transformation, Nothing’s About to Happen to Me quietly insists that perfection, once reached, is worth inhabiting, even if it means circling the same aesthetics again and again Beats Per Minute
Bruno Mars The Romantic
The soul-pop horndog crooner doubles down on his retro-fetishistic shtick with a treacly and uninspired solo return Paste Magazine
Those willing to wander alongside Callahan will find the artist as poignant and enigmatic as ever while considering a life with more sunsets behind him than ahead Paste Magazine
Gorillaz The Mountain
It's an album that finds comfort in knowing that all things — all beings — end, but they return, in one way or another. Gorillaz did Exclaim
Robbie Williams Britpop
The erstwhile Take That star chases the urgency of his 1997 debut, and while he doesn’t entirely match it, he certainly gives it an admirable shot Spectrum Culture
Congratulations Join Hands
Congratulations’ Join Hands might not be groundbreaking, but it is a hell of a lot of fun Spectrum Culture
After a string of albums that ranged from slapdash to merely good, Albarn returns refreshed and hungry to do something big. Spectrum Culture
Mitski weaves together anxious, wiry guitar and melancholic strings into sublime orchestral pop bruised by loneliness The Skinny
The Mountain might be a bit of a hard listen at first, but if you give it time, you’ll appreciate it as one of the finest things Albarn has ever made Under The Radar
On his first solo album in a decade, the superstar nods to Seventies R&B and his Latin roots, while making the case that his precision-tuned throwback-pop vision is endearing in any moment Rolling Stone
Singer-songwriter’s eighth album, Nothing’s About to Happen to Me, is about a lonely woman looking for freedom Rolling Stone
Bruno's latest effort is packed with gorgeous instrumentation but has very, very little to say Consequence Of Sound
Harking back to Oye Como Va, Move On Up and other 20th-century classics, Mars’s homages are beautifully performed but bereft of new ideas The Guardian
That album is a song cycle about love that practically writes itself Slant Magazine
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