18 July 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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Ninth studio album and first in over seven years from the R&B artist featuring guest appearances from 21 Savage, Burna Boy, H.E.R., Jung Kook of BTS, Latto, Pheelz, The-Dream and Summer Walker
6.1
Usher’s ninth album is another impressive display of his endless charm and vocal chops. Thirty years into his career, the R&B icon still knows how to keep it light and throw a great party Read Review
The album hits its stride with a sequence of slow jams demonstrating that Usher is at the top of his game as a singer, still much more than a mere entertainer Read Review
The star’s sprawling, twenty-song LP is nostalgic and familiar as Usher leans into the past without making it feel stale Read Review
Lyrical foreplay isn’t exactly the singer’s strong suit on this throwback album full of percussive panting Read Review
‘COMING HOME’ competently portrays love as part Afrodisiac, part pulse-racing chase, part languorous and lived-in sensation Read Review
The album feels less driven by creative ingenuity or an aesthetic vision than by sheer showmanship Read Review
Vintage effects in the singer’s first album in eight years underline the degree to which he has been left behind Read Review
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Yard Act You're Gonna Need A Little Music
At its peak, the album is great, their best work, but at its weaker spots it still sounds lost. Print edition only Uncut
The results show in the record's textured details and fizzing chemistry, the sound of a band thrilled to be playing together. Print edition only Record Collector
Sure, ‘Cherophobe Rock’ slaps, and ‘Thrill Of The Chase’ is a belter, and ‘Janey Said’ is Yard Act at its sarky, solipsistic best. But all too often here, the band loses sight of what makes them special. The Act is wearing thin Clash
The Leeds four-piece go gnarly-abrasive on an album where you're never sure what's round the corner. And they haven't forgotten how to write pop hooks musicOMH
Jack White Frozen Charlotte
Combines high-quality rock and roll songwriting with contemplative, in places borderline ominous lyrics, creating a febrile atmosphere throughout thirteen tracks that are rewarded by repeat listens; a fine entry to the canon of one of analogue music’s flag bearers No Ripcord
Kelela new avatar
Weaving psych rock and shoegaze textures into her mellifluous R&B ethos, Kelela’s new album turns to guitars at a moment fraught with social and emotional tension Pitchfork
Panda Bear & Sonic Boom ? of When
The duo’s latest collaborative album is spacious and open-hearted and surprising: a set of patiently constructed terrariums you have to walk around in to fully experience Rolling Stone
What feels missing from Panda Bear’s new LP is a greater willingness to let carefully chosen timbres lead to equally adventurous harmonic or structural destinations PopMatters
The Rolling Stones Foreign Tongues
Foreign Tongues may please some Rolling Stones fans, as the individual members share inspired moments. One can hear their earnestness and desire to please PopMatters
Madonna Confessions II
In creating a sequel to a revival album, Madonna’s Confessions II reinforces the notion that the best we can hope for from our pop matriarchs is nostalgia PopMatters
Beth Orton The Ground Above
Making The Ground Above may have been therapeutic for the folktronica artist, but it is not redemptive, and Beth Orton knows it PopMatters
White’s eighth solo album documents perpetual disorder, challenged connections, and idealism under siege. It’s also a kickass rock record Rolling Stone
The legends of rock'n'roll balance politics and playfulness on their best record in decades The Skinny
Along with their last album, 2023’s Hackney Diamonds, it’s proof that the Stones intend to keep rocking until the end. Reportedly, they’re still working on new music and planning live dates…we shall see God Is In The TV
Kelela shifts her focus to the emotional labour of exhausting romantic relationships Hot Press
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