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
" The finest jangle pop this side of the Rockies" The Digital Fix
Listen on SpotifyListen on grooveshark
" When they hit full, throat-ripping, riff-driven throttle, such as on Gebbie Street, they sound superbly riotous" The Fly
" Highlights include DJ Ease My Mind which is sure to become a club anthem" The Line Of Best Fit
" Metamorphoses commence in unison on the mighty creepiness of the album’s near-seven-minute centerpiece, Simmer. And does it ever" Pop Matters
" Simply put, it’s one of the singles of the year" music OMH
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Debut album from LA-based post-hip hop rapper, singer and yoga teacher Sumach Ecks, working with producer Gaslamp Killer
7.5
It could just be that this remarkably confusing but expertly conceived record will be right up there come December as one of the year’s best. It is utterly spell-binding Read Review
Go listen to it on repeat for three days. Absorb it. Listen to what he has to say, relate to it in your own way. Enjoy one of the best albums of what’s looking to be a pretty great year Read Review
Distinguishes itself as an album of rare ambition and scope Read Review
One of the most fascinating slabs of hallucinogenic head-nod music to arise from Southern California's post-hip hop vanguard Read Review
It's all over the place, but thrillingly so Read Review
Print edition only
Gonjasufi raps, mutters, exclaims and croons, a 21st-century mystic in the wilderness. Compelling Read Review
...some tracks are awash with a distorted psychedelia that harks back to The Doors, Tom Waits and a smidgen of Lee 'Scratch' Perry Read Review
Although the album’s sample-heavy analogue fuzz sounds more appealing than most contemporary hip hop, what’s really distinctive is Gonjasufi’s voice Read Review
It will suck you in, this truly out-there, unique, psychedelic slice of Mojave desert blues Read Review
This is quality stuff spanning an array of genres and going by this album Gonjasufi is guaranteed to pop up all over the place in the near future Read Review
His drawled, out of focus mumblings drawing you in unavoidably to the patchwork sonics, and though the album can be a little overwhelming on first listen, repeated plays reveal an irresistible talent Read Review
Hard but rewarding work – the more you put in, the more you get out Read Review
He brings a diversity of arrangements and ideas that make A Sufi and a Killer a unique brand, one that bears the trademarks of the artists involved, normally for the better Read Review
Instead of an exciting collection of experiments from a talented singer, the finished product comes off like an often unconsidered melding of various elements Read Review
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Gonjasufi: A Sufi And A Killer
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