Any decent music? We review the reviews. You get the final word

Hello

16 December 2025

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.

Just in

New albums just added

Unlisted recent releases

Follow us on

Source list

Specialist Genres

Browse specific styles

Highest Recent Ratings

Albums to watch

SnocapsSnocaps

"They are back playing pop that is pretty darn unmatched" (8.6/10 - Northern Transmissions). "A hailstorm of warm, exceptionally-written country-rock bangers backed by MJ Lenderman and Brad Cook" (8.5/10 - Paste)

Florence + The MachineEverybody Scream

"Florence Welch enlists horror and magic to harness hope" (10/10 - NME). "An urgent and vital testimony to survival and rebirth, Florence Welch’s sixth album is a defiant middle finger to doubters" (9/10 - musicOMH)

Lily AllenWest End Girl

"Her best album in 16 years, an incisive diary of a marriage in freefall" (10/10 - The Independent). "A hard-hitting pop exposition, while also providing an endless supply of hooks" (8/10 - Clash)

The Last Dinner PartyFrom The Pyre

"Insanely rich with ideas, hooks, smart artifice and real emotion, From The Pyre is a feast of giddy raptures" (10/10 - Record Collector). "Both thematically and sonically richer" (10/10 - DIY)

BrògealTuesday Paper Club

"2026 is there for Brogeal’s taking, they’re gonna be a lot of people’s new favourite band" (8/10 - God Is In The TV). "This is what it sounds like when a band get it right the first time" (10/10 - Dork)

Jay SomBelong

"With ‘Belong’ serving notice of Jay Som’s continued abilities" (8/10 - Clash). "Will undoubtedly solidify her reputation as your favourite pop singer's favourite pop singer" (8/10 - Exclaim"

IdlewildIdlewild

"The fact they are producing some of their best work seems almost absurd, and yet here we are" (9/10 - The Line Of Best Fit). "Idlewild is no nostalgic LP—it’s the sound of a band rejuvenated" (10/10 - XS Noize)

The Courtesy Group

Tradesman’s Entrance

Band fronted by poet Al Hutchins and including his brother Fyfe Dangerfield from The Guillemots

Label: Ma Doocey
UK Release date: 23/11/2009

Related Links

Share: Share |

Sort by most recent review

8.0 7286
8.0 | The Sunday Times

...precipitous and sluggardly guitars fabricate a kind of psychedelic drizzle, a dying sun glimpsed through an industrial smog
Read Review
8.0 8222
8.0 | Mojo

Print edition only
8.0 8563
8.0 | Mojo

Print edition only
6.0 7284
6.0 | Drowned In Sound

The real strength of The Courtesy Group lies with its musicians. Operating in a tight, sometimes psychedelic, sometimes ferocious post-punk pocket, they tread somewhere between The Fall and Captain Beefheart
Read Review
Back to main chart