16 October 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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The Avalanches No Bad Memories
Mad, joyous and utterly absorbing, ‘No Bad Memories’ proves that more than two decades on, The Avalanches can still surprise, and still make a concept this heady feel like pure play Clash
Fontaines D.C. Dopamine Chamber
Balances profound cynicism and genuine beauty as its ice-hearted stadium rock grows to darkly apocalyptic proportions Pitchfork
The Irish band's fifth album is a synth-heavy reinvention, jagged and unnerving at multiple turns Consequence Of Sound
The album transforms obsolete technology and jingles into a euphoric exploration of nostalgia Slant Magazine
If Romance was the first time Fontaines D.C. raised their head over the parapet, Dopamine Chamber is the storming of the Winter Palace. It is the absolute victory we always dream of, when the outsiders take over Under The Radar
Teenage Fanclub Do Not Dare To Dream
There are times when I think that Teenage Fanclub are one of the best bands to ever do it. Look at their back catalogue. Not a duffer in the bunch. Never a wrong foot taken and Do Not Dare to Dream joins that pantheon happily Under The Radar
Dopamine Chamber in three words, then. Should do better God Is In The TV
Incredibly, the intensity and complexity of Grian Chatten’s voice has deepened since the much-lauded 'Romance' The Arts Desk
Dopamine Chamber is no different; while not too far removed from the sonic sensibilities of Romance, the darker tone and existential themes keep the band's meditations on the modern world as potent as ever Exclaim
Troye Sivan She's The Best
She's the Best isn't chasing a tectonic shift in the pop culture zeitgeist. What Sivan offers instead is an honest and effective collection of songs about sexual freedom and the women whose creative influence has helped him grow into the man he's become Exclaim
Both in terms of indie rock writ large and the band’s own artistic development, the Dubliners’ latest isn’t nearly as revolutionary as 2024’s Romance Paste Magazine
As they fine-tune their stylistic evolution, the perfect balance is yet to be discovered Northern Transmissions
Even with just one spin, it becomes evident that the album seems more like three distinct EPs, and one single, that have been collected. This might seem a weird way of assessing music, but the album clearly shifts gears after every three songs Beats Per Minute
Continues Sivan’s trajectory toward a more mature sound with some genuinely ambitious moves Beats Per Minute
The band incorporates a great many influences, but they make everything their own distinct sound. It is an album of discovery and gets better with each spin on the turntable Spill 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