18 May 2012
Here's how it works: The Recent Releases chart brings together critical reaction to new albums from more than 50 publications. It's updated daily. Albums qualify with 5 reviews, and drop out after 6 weeks into the longer timespan charts.
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Tracks the critics are loving: hear them now
" Simply put, it’s one of the singles of the year" music OMH
Listen on SpotifyListen on grooveshark
" Metamorphoses commence in unison on the mighty creepiness of the album’s near-seven-minute centerpiece, Simmer. And does it ever" Pop Matters
" Highlights include DJ Ease My Mind which is sure to become a club anthem" The Line Of Best Fit
" The finest jangle pop this side of the Rockies" The Digital Fix
" When they hit full, throat-ripping, riff-driven throttle, such as on Gebbie Street, they sound superbly riotous" The Fly
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Final posthumous release of the acclaimed guitarist teamed with his fellow Malian kora player
8.3
Print edition only
...the chiming of the kora over Ali’s potent guitar with Cuban veteran Orlando Cachaíto López on bass creates a final statement of some perfection Read Review
There is a sense of both immense space and telepathic closeness on this beautiful album, with the superb recording putting the listener right in the middle of the action Read Review
This is a magnificent and poignant farewell Read Review
...this album and its predecessor are worthy and awe-inspiring tributes to the man and the Malian musical traditions for which he and Diabaté were - and continue to be - the strongest and most compelling of standard-bearers Read Review
...this music stands outside genre. It is music of a higher order Read Review
This is a deep, darkly beautiful work. The interplay between these two men is exceedingly rare in any type of music. Ali and Toumani is profound and powerful, with a soft accumulating force, like the individual drips of ice that form a river Read Review
You get the feel of two of the world's greatest musicians in a room together, having a conversation and creating a document that will carry their legacy into the future Read Review
Ali and Toumani doesn't pick up quite where In the Heart of the Moon left off...a more polished affair, with retakes and overdubs Read Review
A lovely monument Read Review
Whereas that first disc seemed improvised and spontaneous, this is carefully worked out to show the range of Ali's style Read Review
Some reviews have argued that Diabaté, the younger partner, has here stepped out of the shadow of (and reduced his deference to) the guitarist, but to these ears this is the older man’s album Read Review
What's truly remarkable about the interplay is the way the two seamlessly bridge the gulf between their cultures. Print edition only
The 11 tracks weave a blinding spell that feels just as familiar to Western ears as African. Print edition only
Aside from being an album of spellbinding beauty ... is also a posthumous valediction to Touré and an affirmation that from Mali there is surely much more to come Read Review
A mix of Touré’s northern traditions and the southern Mandé music of Diabaté Read Review
A fitting tribute to Touré’s and Diabaté’s genius and friendship, and is a beautiful farewel Read Review
Although most tunes follow traditional lines, "Sabu Yerkoy" has a subtle Cuban flavour, while "Be Mankan" is a gorgeous waltz Read Review
...a sequence of ruminative and, to be frank, sometimes repetitive instrumentals, recorded in 2005 and leavened with a vocal or two Read Review
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Squarepusher Ufabulum
In the form of his life. Print edition only Uncut
The Magnetic North Orkney: Symphony of the Magnetic North
Majestic yet frustratingly aloof. Print edition only Uncut
The windswept islands captured in music. Print edition only Mojo
No, Squarepusher doesn’t seem to give a damn, but he does want to smoosh eardrums with whacky stuff. More power to him The Arts Desk
Some of the tracks are over-arranged which gives the album, overall, a bit of an identity crisis Bowlegs
An evocative, indelible, and utterly majestic ode to Orkney AU Magazine
Ultimately Ufabulum’s jarring stylistic schism may make the album tough to digest for many people, but the quality of Jenkinson’s craftsmanship remains constant throughout The Skinny
These are timeless songs which rather than being of any genre - not even the hard-to-define 'folk' - seem to spring from the bare open horizons, low-lying islands and sea of Orkney, creating a unique bleak and windswept aesthetic The Quietus
Funky as he wants to be — EPCOT-rocking splatterjazz, rainbow-tasting ravewave, Inspector Gadget ringtone funk Spin
Each track is rich with strings and woodwind, but all with an unavoidable folky edge. It’s a formula that works, and works to the extent that sets it aside in terms of originality music OMH
A truly beguiling record Drowned In Sound
A bit cold, clinical and repetitive NME
Hugely impressive, technically, but too cold and forbidding for many tastes BBC
Public Image Ltd This Is PiL
It may not be of the calibre of Metal Box, but it finds its maker firmly in 2012, not 1979, and with plenty still to grouse about Uncut
Saint Etienne Words And Music By Saint Etienne
These songs are their sharpest in over a decade. Print edition only NME
What's finding favour with bloggers & other review sites
The Mars Volta Noctourniquet
Bruce Springsteen Wrecking Ball
Andrew Bird Break It Yourself
Following up the highly-acclaimed Teen Dream album was never going to be an easy feat but Beach House appear to have succeeded with Bloom. It has 10s from two sources and a 9.1 from Pitchfork, while FasterLouder see it as a "transportive journey"
Since we've been around, that is. So, the highest-rated albums from the past three and a half years or so
Anaïs Mitchell Hadestown
Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
PJ Harvey Let England Shake
Ry Cooder Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down
Arcade Fire The Suburbs
Tom Waits Bad As Me
Janelle Monáe The ArchAndroid
Joanna Newsom Have One On Me
Gillian Welch The Harrow & The Harvest
Burial Kindred